Regina's Song by David Eddings Read Free Book Online Page A

the room.
    “The fellow who lived here before prohibition came into effect was a drunken slob,” James told me, “and he was hard on furniture. He wanted to get physical when Trish kicked him out after the third time she caught him sneaking whiskey in here, but I reasoned with him and persuaded him not to.”
    “Persuaded?”
    “I threw him down the stairs, then tossed all his stuff out the window.”
    “That gets right to the point, doesn’t it?”
    “I’ve had a fair amount of success with it—one of the advantages of being bigger than a freight truck. The rest of the party boys who lived here got the point, and they were all very polite to Trish after that. What do you think about the place, Mark? Would you like to take a stab at it?”
    “I think I might give it a try. A quiet place to study sort of lights my fire. When are the girls likely to come home?”
    “Tomorrow—or so they told me. I’ll give you the phone number, and you can check before you come by. I’ll put in a good word for you with the ladies. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble getting admitted.”
    “Thanks, James. I’ll keep in touch.” We shook hands, and then I went out to my car. James had a “Big Daddy” quality that I liked. I was sure he and I could get along. The girls, of course, might sour the deal, but I decided to keep an open mind until I met them. The overall arrangement seemed almost too good to be true, but I wasn’t about to buy into some kind of absolute dictatorship where I’d be low man on the totem pole. I was going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out exactly which way the wind blew.

CHAPTER TWO
    Mary Greenleaf met me at the front door when I got there, touching a finger to her lips. “She’s sleeping,” she said softly. “All this scampering around has her worn down to a frazzle.” She stepped out onto the porch, quietly closing the door behind her.
    “She
is
all right, isn’t she?”
    “Sure, it’s just the moving and settling in.”
    “I’ve got some things to take care of here tomorrow,” I told her, “so I’ll grab a motel room for a couple of nights. If Twink’s feeling unsettled, I’d better stay close.”
    She nodded. “I wonder why it is that you were the only one she could recognize when she finally came to her senses.”
    “I got this here dazzlin’ personality,” I kidded her. “Hadn’t you noticed that?”
    “Sure, kid,” she said dryly. “You want a beer?”
    “Not right now, thanks all the same.”
    “Did you find a room?”
    “I think so. The landladies are away today, but I’ll talk with them tomorrow. I think it’s going to work out. The house rules should keep things quiet.”
    “Sounds good, Mark,” she noted.
    “The place is sort of shabby,” I told her, “but quiet’s a rare commodity in student housing.”
    “We’ve noticed that at the cop shop. The riot squad’s on permanent standby alert at the north precinct. When the parties start spilling out into the street, we get
lots
of nine-one-one calls.”
    “I can imagine. Oh, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you—you’re a dispatcher, right?”
    “That’s what they tell me.”
    “Do you have to wear a gun to work?” I already knew the answer, of course, but I wanted to pinpoint the location of that gun. Twink
was
a recent graduate of Fallon’s sanitarium, after all, and you don’t really want a gun lying around unattended in a situation like that.
    Mary smiled faintly and pushed up the bottom of her sweater to show me the neat little holster on her left side. “She has to be with me all the time,” she told me. “I thought everybody knew that. If you’re a cop, you wear a gun—whether you’re on duty or off.”
    “That could be a pain in the neck sometimes.”
    “You bet it is.” Then she frowned slightly. “Do you happen to know if Ren ever took driving lessons?” she asked.
    “Of course she did. Why?”
    “It must be one of the things she blotted out,