The Case of the One-Penny Orange: A Masao Masuto Mystery (Book Two) by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online

it’s a lousy job but it’s mine and it’s all I got. If I’m late, I get my ass burned.”
    â€œI think you saw them. I think you opened your door and saw them.”
    â€œI think I didn’t.”
    â€œIf you saw them,” Masuto said kindly, “then you may be the only one who did. That would be very important.”
    â€œSure. You want to know what’s important? Cindy’s important, because if I don’t take care of her, there ain’t nobody else going to. You know where you are? You’re in West Hollywood — not in Beverly Hills. This place is lousy with kinky creeps. Who’s going to call the cops if they decide to beat up on me?”
    â€œWe can arrange with the sheriff …” Wainwright began, but she interrupted.
    â€œDon’t sell me those lousy deputies. I was coming home the other night and one of them stops me and tries to shake me down for twenty bucks and tells me my car stinks of pot, and I never touched a stick for two months, and then he pulls me in on suspicion of being a hooker, and I got to get my girl friend out in the middle of the night to swear I don’t solicit, so don’t tell me about deputies. They stink.” She held the door open. “Now I got to go to work.”
    â€œI like her,” Masuto said as they walked down the stairs to the street.
    â€œI’d like her more if she talked.”
    â€œShe talked. She told us there were three of them. Where do you want to eat?”
    â€œBen Frank’s — up the Strip.”
    Masuto had ordered eggs, hot cakes, and sausage. From behind his two boiled eggs, Wainwright regarded him gloomily and asked how he ate that way and remained thin.
    â€œGenes, metabolism.”
    â€œI don’t like this, Masao — I don’t like this whole rotten business. We got two murders. That stinks.”
    â€œOne is the sheriff’s.”
    â€œLike hell it is! The newspapers and the goddamn TV will tell the world that a Beverly Hills stamp dealer and his assistant were murdered. They always got us harboring a war criminal. I swear I don’t want to go back to my office, because the city manager will be there, and the mayor, who’s got nothing else to do but nitpick the cops, and what have you got besides that smug Oriental look on your face?”
    â€œNothing.” Masuto was hungry. He kept eating.
    â€œBoiled eggs. Why the hell don’t you level with me?”
    â€œBecause my guesses would only show me off as a smartass Oriental, as you like to put it, and last night I learned that I’m about as Oriental as Jimmy Carter, and anyway, fifty percent of the time I’m wrong.”
    â€œAnd fifty percent of the time you’re right.” Wainwright looked at his watch. “It’s seven forty-five, and the guy from the safe company will be on North Canon at eight o’clock. I want to be there when he opens the safe.”
    â€œIt’s open,” Masuto said between bites.
    â€œWhat’s open?”
    â€œThe safe.”
    â€œWhat! What in hell are you trying to tell me, Masao?”
    â€œYou were pushing me for brilliant Oriental guesses. I made one.”
    â€œYou’re guessing?”
    â€œI’m guessing.”
    â€œYou’re telling me that someone opened the safe and cleaned it out?”
    â€œOnly the first part. I’m guessing that last night someone opened the safe. If you want another guess, I would guess that it was empty, that Haber opened it and cleaned out whatever was worth cleaning out before he called the police. The second guess is easy, because no one will ever be able to prove whether I’m right or wrong.”
    â€œThen why in hell didn’t you tell me that and tell me to put a man on the store?”
    â€œBecause I didn’t know until I found the stamp in Haber’s jacket, and then it was too late.”
    Wainwright rose.
    â€œWhere are you going?”