The Hinky Bearskin Rug by Jennifer Stevenson Read Free Book Online

beckoned, and flirted at Randy with girl-next-door
blue eyes.
    Slowly he shut
the door on her. “We must keep people out of here for now.”
    “That’s a big
yes,” Jewel said. “Did you feel anything?”
    Randy frowned.
“Hard to say.”
    “Where the
hell did Clay go?”
    “Here,” Clay
said, coming back into the locker room with a roll of gray duct tape. “Will
this do?” He tore off a strip.
    Randy sealed
the gaping steel edges shut. “Temporarily.”
    “Let’s get
upstairs,” Jewel said. “See what else Ed knows.”
    o0o
    Ed was sitting
behind his desk when they came into his office, but he jumped up, looking
relieved. “Shut the door. You’re okay?”
    “Peachy,”
Jewel said. Her skin prickled. “I don’t think it can get any worse.”
    “It’s already
worse. That douchebag Bing Neebly called today. OED is interested in the Kraft.”
Ed looked at Clay. “Office for Economic Development. You know how we got this
building?”
    “Sure,” Clay said. “It got
torn down and then it came back like magic.”
    “Don’t say
that word,” Ed said automatically. “And after all the legal shit settled, the
city gave it back to Consumer Services, because everybody else was scared to
move in. If you’d a seen the old quarters in River North, you’d understand why
the Commissioner said yes. Like a sardine can.”
    “Shit,” Jewel
said, comprehension flashing on her. She turned to Clay and Randy. “This land
is worth a lot of money, developed. But like this? It’s just home to dopey old
Consumer Services. OED must be slavering to get their hands on it.”
    Clay said, “So
I don’t get it. What’s the scam? We have use of the building because
everybody’s scared because it, like, magically reappeared after demolition.”
    Jewel winced. “Don’t
say that word.”
    “But now that
it seems to be safe, this OED wants to take it over and sell it,” Clay said.
    “Right,” Ed
said.
    “But it isn’t
safe.” Clay pointed at the floor and made a va-va-voom shape in the air with
his hands. “So we won’t lose the building after all.”
    “Not
necessarily,” Jewel said. “OED could call in the feds and have them condemn the
building, thinking maybe they can nip in and cash in.”
    “Only with a
poppet in the basement, that would backfire,” Ed said. “If it’s too hinky, the
feds don’t let you reuse the property. Could end up a bajillion-dollar hole in
the ground.”
    Jewel scowled.
“I can’t believe they would do that. You can’t get taxes out of a hole in the
ground. Da mayor wouldn’t thank OED for taking a property that rich permanently
off the tax rolls.”
    “You don’t
know Bing Neebly,” Ed said gloomily. “He used to work here, eight-ten years
ago. Mumped freebies and peddled influence and sold favors all day. Everybody
hated him. Then Taylor comes in and reforms the department. Neebly cried woof
to da mayor and moved over to OED just in time to avoid indictment. He’d put us
out for a bent nickel.”
    “Everybody
would lose,” Clay mused, with an all-too-familiar, there’s-money-in-here-somewhere-for-me
look that Jewel dreaded. “The situation has possibilities.”
    Jewel shook
herself. “Let’s get over to O’Connor’s place.”
    “And bring
your hinky radar,” Ed said, pointing at Randy.
    Randy looked
eager. She began to think he might earn his keep after all.

Chapter Seven

    Merntice gave
them the address of O’Connor’s apartment, and Jewel phoned ahead to the
landlady, who sounded hysterical. The address was a yellow brick two-flat on
north Kedzie in a formerly Bohemian neighborhood. The landlady and her husband
met them on the front steps.
    “Thank God you
haff came. My husband had heart attack,” she said. “I don’t know vot to do!”
    “I did not
have a heart attack. You had a heart attack when you saw that thing. ’Cause
you’re a prude,” her husband said.
    “We’re not
paramedics, ma’am,” Jewel said. “Do you want us to call you an