Mele Kalikimaka Mr Walker by Robert G. Barrett Read Free Book Online Page B

collared him he pulled a fuckin’ switchblade on me.’
    â€˜All he probably needed was a bit of counselling?’ suggested Les dryly.
    â€˜Yeah, I gave him counselling. I broke his arm, four of his ribs and got him three years in the slam. Then pinched his fuckin’ mates, whose fathers are local big shots too, and got them a year each.’
    â€˜Good on you.’
    â€˜Yeah.’ Mick gritted his teeth. ‘Doing the right fuckin’ thing. So anyway, the powers that be decided Bondi’s answer to Wyatt Earp needed cooling off. So they gave me a new beat and a new assignment. Around Diamond Head.’
    Les pointed to the mountain in front of them. ‘You don’t have to climb the bloody thing every day, do you?’
    â€˜I wouldn’t want to. They also gave me a partner who should be in a nursing home. In fact, he’s off right now with his prostate and heart trouble. Now I’ve got this beat and right in the middle of it is a sheila making a squillion running high-class hookers through travelling brothels and I can’t bloody pinch her.’
    â€˜Why fuckin’ bother? Christ! Just do what any self-respecting cop back in Australia would do. Put a gun to her head and say, “Give me my whack, you fuckin’ moll, or you’re off.” And get her to put it straight in a bank account under a bodgie name. That’s a bonus, Mick. You’ve killed ’em.’
    Mick gave Les a thin smile. ‘It doesn’t quite work like that over here, Les.’
    â€˜It doesn’t?’ Norton was genuinely surprised.
    â€˜No!’
    They walked past the old shutdown swimming pool, and then under some metal scaffolding that had been formed into a canopy of thick vines by several trees growing along the side of the promenade. They pausedfor a moment to let a group of Japanese joggers sweat and pant their way past.
    â€˜You see, not only is this rotten bloody sheila nicknamed “the Madam to the Stars”, she’s also a fuckin’ Australian.’
    â€˜An Aussie?’ Norton felt like cheering. ‘Unreal.’
    â€˜Yeah. She tries to kid everyone she’s a pommy, but she’s as Australian as Four’n Twenty pies. Plus she’s a real cheeky bastard and I’d give me left nut to nick her.’
    â€˜An Aussie tart running a trap in Hawaii?’ Norton grinned. ‘This is great, Mick. Tell me more.’
    â€˜Hah! That’s not even half of it.’
    Norton didn’t know whether to feel sorry for Mick or what. What he’d just told him didn’t exactly sound like the end of the world and the thought of a true-blue Aussie woman running brothels in Hawaii appealed to the big Queenslander’s sense of humour. For the sake of diplomacy, however, he decided to sympathise with Mick a little. Plus, all up, Mick was just a good cop trying to do his job.
    â€˜So what do you mean when you say you can’t pinch her?’
    â€˜When I said she was called the Madam to the Stars, nearly all her clientele are film directors, producers, movie stars, politicians, publishers. The odd senator and governor.’
    â€˜Any judges, or the “odd” high-ranking police officer?’
    Mick gave another thin smile. ‘What do you think? And the bitch has got a little black book with all their names in it. And a big box full of photos.’
    â€˜Ooohh.’
    â€˜Yeah. So if I do nick her all this shit’s gonna come down on me. They’d literally have me shot. And when I do make an attempt just to get a case going or bring her in for questioning, I get fucked over all along the line. And she knows it too. Which shits me, Les, because I’m straight up. I just want to do my job.’
    â€˜That little black book isn’t helping things though.’
    â€˜Then if I do say, “Ahh, fuck it” and don’t bother, and the FBI stick their head in — which is looming up on the horizon