Big Mango (9786167611037) by Jake Needham Read Free Book Online Page A

facing him while he waited for something
to happen.
    Eddie could work out easily enough who was in
charge of the raiding party. The seated man wore the same kind of
costume as the Olsen twins over against the wall, but he was older
and had a look that made his authority obvious. With his short
hair, wiry build, and rimless glasses, the man made Eddie think of
an astronaut who had retired and taken up running a used-book
store.
    The woman had close-cropped blond hair and a
very fair, slightly ruddy complexion. She looked Irish, Eddie
thought. Not bad really, for a cop at least. But then he spotted
something considerably more interesting about the woman than her
complexion. She had a pair of headlights on her that would freeze a
moose.
    He remembered in college some woman telling
him that the great tragedy of her life was being born with big
breasts since men wouldn’t take a woman who had really huge ones
seriously. He had cooed and comforted her, saying how wrong she
was, but he would have said damn near anything just to get her to
shut the hell up and take off her bra. Eddie wondered for a moment
if the big headlights ever got in this woman’s way, professionally
speaking of course.
    “What can I do for you, detectives?” he
finally asked when no one seemed inclined to break the silence.
    “We’re not from the police, Mr. Dare.” The
seated man spoke slowly without any change in his bland
expression.
    Uh-oh.
    The man took a slim, black wallet out of his
coat pocket. He laid it on Eddie’s desk and flipped it open.
    “I’m Agent Reidy. United States Secret
Service.” He indicated the other two men and the woman by inclining
his head slightly toward each with an economy of movement that
Eddie found a little scary for some reason. “These are Agents
Booth, Evans and Sanchez.”
    Reidy returned his identification wallet to
the inside pocket of his coat and resumed his inspection of
Eddie.
    “You know, you remind me of somebody.”
    Oh, Christ. Not now.
    “Yeah, you look a lot like—”
    Eddie held up his right hand, palm out.
    “Sure. And that’s Julia Roberts outside doing
the typing.”
    He smiled, but no one else did.
    “We’re investigating a situation, Mr. Dare,”
Headlights said in a voice so toneless that it sounded synthesized.
“We think you can help us.”
    Eddie tried to look her in the eye,
struggling hard to avoid the obvious alternative.
    “That’s an interesting word,” he said.
    Reidy and the woman glanced at each
other.
    “What word is that, Mr. Dare?” Headlights
asked, shifting her gaze back to Eddie.
    “Situation.”
    “What do you find interesting about it?”
    Eddie saw this was going nowhere good, so he
worked his face into a blandly pleasant expression, shut his mouth,
and waited for developments.
    Another glance between the two agents, then
Reidy took over again.
    “Is it because you already know why we’re
here, Mr. Dare?”
    Teasing Headlights was one thing, Eddie
quickly decided, but Reidy was another matter entirely.
    “Maybe we could start over.” Eddie
accompanied the mea culpa with his most sincere smile. Still,
nobody smiled back.
    “No, I don’t know why you’re here,” Eddie
went on anyway. “I assume you’re going to hassle me about one of my
clients. After that I’ll probably tell you some stuff you already
know about the lawyer-client privilege, toss in a little speech
about the Constitution, and then wish you a nice day.”
    Reidy’s eyes tightened and he leaned forward
slightly.
    “You seem to be real good at talking. How are
you at listening, Mr. Dare? You listen as good as you talk?”
    “Yeah, I can listen.”
    “That’s good.” Reidy nodded seriously. “Maybe
I can hold your interest for a few minutes here then, Eddie.”
    Apparently he was no longer Mr. Dare. That
was not, in his experience, a good sign when you were talking to
cops.
    “I’m all ears.”
    “You mean as opposed to all mouth, which I
gather you usually are.”
    Reidy