The Godless One by J. Clayton Rogers Read Free Book Online

to him that
Sphinx was running for the safety of the bedroom.
    "Stop!" the girl cried out loudly,
trying to intimidate the adult with an emotional
childburst.
    "Let him go!" Ari commanded.
    "You're killing me!"
    Ari was aghast at this exaggeration,
especially as he had not touched her. He remembered clearly Deputy
Sylvester's admonition against approaching children in this
country, where strangers (and especially strange men) were
automatically assumed to be perverts. Karen had told him this just
minutes before he grabbed her by the throat with such violence that
she was sent to the hospital.
    Ari did not back away. The girl who had
complained that he was holding the cat too tightly was now pressing
him against the floorboards with all her might. Ari doubted she was
actually injuring Sphinx. It was more likely that he would scratch
out her eyes in the tussle. Ari was reaching down to pull her hands
away—she was in his house uninvited, after all—when there was a
cough at the door.
    Ari was in a half-crouch. He was caught
dead to rights, without his gun, with an innocent girl who would
perish with him. He jumped sideways from the crouch, ready to come
up with arms raised. But he lost his balance and landed on his
seat. Diane began to laugh at the spectacle, but fell silent when
she saw the newcomers.
    Officers Jackson and Mangioni were
staring down at them.
    Ari was not entirely relieved. He did
not think the officers were in the pay of Al-Qaeda and planning to
assassinate him. Nor were they (so far as he knew) involved with
the Kayak Express, a small-time drug operation that Ari had put out
of business—although this was problematic, since their superior had
been very much involved. Former members of the former Express might
be looking for revenge against the irksome foreigner who had shamed
and robbed them. In Iraq, a similar scenario would have played out
in a bloodbath.
    Ari was well-versed in both the subtle
and extreme expressions of killers, and he could say with
reasonable certainty that neither of the policemen had murder in
mind. They might, however, be concerned about what he was doing on
the floor with a small girl.
    "He’s trying to steal my cat!" Diane
shrieked.
    The officers were instantly put at ease
by her melodramatic performance. Her overacting would not curry
favor with this particular audience. Jackson and Mangioni shared
several ‘tsks’.
    "I’m not surprised," said Mangioni.
"Mr. Ciminon here is a notorious cat burglar."
    Ari clocked his eyes in warning,
saying, "Diane is my neighbor."
    Mangioni got the message. It would be
poor public relations to allow a false rumor about a man to be
broadcasted throughout that man’s neighborhood. And a little girl
was just the type to start a ball like that rolling.
    "Actually, Diane, I’m just funning you.
As you can see, Mr. Ciminon is from a different land, and he
doesn’t quite comprehend our ways."
    That’s not much of an
improvement , Ari thought.
    But the girl nodded quickly. "That’s
it! He doesn’t understand that a cat can belong to
someone."
    "I…" Ari raised his hand, palm out, an
incredibly rude gesture in his country but one which Americans
seemed to approve of.
    Diane cut him off before he could
present his version of the dispute.
    "He can’t even speak English. He talks
like Mr. Ed."
    The policemen chuckled at the
reference, although it eluded Ari. Sensing his bemusement, Mangioni
said, "Mr. Ed is a talking horse, Mr. Ciminon.
    Which left Ari even more in the dark.
He felt he had no choice but to watch helplessly as Diane shifted
pressure off Sphinx and tumbled him deftly into her arms. For some
reason the cat declined to fight, despite Ari’s mental
urging.
    "Say ‘good-bye’, Marmaduke," the girl
said brightly as she carried the cat out the door. Ari felt his
heart go flat.
    "Good-bye, Diane and Marmaduke," said
Jackson.
    "You dodged a bullet there, Mr.
Ciminon," said Mangioni. "I wish I could get rid of my cat
infestation as