Too Old a Cat (Trace 6) by Warren Murphy Read Free Book Online Page A

myself.”
    Sarge whistled softly. “That’s a lot to try to handle,” he said, no trace of humor in his voice.
    “You’re not very encouraging.”
    “When I was bringing you up, I never told you life was going to be easy,” Sarge said. “Now you have to pay your dues. Most of the time, all of us, we just drift through life and we don’t have to do anything, and everything works out all right anyway. But once in a while, you have to punch the clock. This is one of those times, son.”
    “So you think I ought to change too?”
    “I think you better not let Chico get away, is what I think. What you’ve got to do to do that is your business, not mine. She didn’t ask you to stop drinking, did she?”
    “No. Actually, she didn’t ask me to do anything. In her mind, it’s all over. She talks about us as if we were past tense. Like some old high-school sweetheart, you know, you think about once in a dozen years and you smile a little but you don’t even ask yourself, I wonder what happened to old Glenda, ’cause you don’t even care. It’s just a nice memory but it doesn’t have anything to do with your life anymore. That’s the way she’s treating us. Something dead and gone and once in a while remember it with a smile.”
    “You’re in real trouble,” Sarge said.
    “I know. Aren’t you glad you called looking for sympathy?”
    “Let’s think for a minute,” Sarge said. He hesitated, then asked, “If Chico could have anything, what would she want?”
    “To be six feet nine inches tall.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she’d like to kick the shit out of all the people who were rude or pushed her around because she was small or a woman or a half-breed or whatever.”
    “Shit, that’s a tough one,” Sarge said. “I don’t know how we can make her six-foot-nine.”
    “Not without an operation,” Trace said. “Maybe we can graft her and Mother together.”
    “Six feet nine tall, not wide,” Sarge said.
    “Then I guess we’re lost,” Trace said. “That’s one of the reasons she’s hung around with me so long, ’cause I’m big and people don’t push hard against somebody as big as me.”
    “Wait. I got it,” Sarge said.
    “Quick, man. What is it? This is important.”
    “The great equalizer. I know how to make her six-feet-nine and make her stay with you.”
    “How’s that?” Trace asked.
    “Get her a gun.”
    “That’s the dumbest idea I ever heard. The way she’s feeling now, I give her a gun and she’ll plug me between the eyes. Anyway, we’ve got a gun in the bedroom closet. I think it’s there anyway. I don’t take it out a lot.”
    “Not like give her a gun for a present,” Sarge said, disgusted. “Sometimes you’re as thick as shit.”
    “I’m all ears.”
    “Detective. You get your license here and work with the agency. Then we’ll get her her license, and before you know it, she’ll have a gun. That’s what she wants, Dev. She wants power. Guns make everybody six-foot-nine. Why else do you think all those midget muggers carry them? If they were any bigger than four-foot-two, they’d carry chains and sticks.”
    “You think this’d work?” Trace said.
    “I know it would.”
    There was a long pause before Trace said, “You’re up to something, Sarge. When is that cruise anyway?”
    “We leave Monday. For a week.”
    “Right. And you just happen to have a job that you would like me to keep an eye on while you’re gone.”
    “I am hurt by your suspicious nature,” Sarge said. “As I mentioned, yes, I do happen to have a case right now, but I’ll have it done before I leave. You misjudge me totally.”
    “Sorry, Sarge. I want to think about this thing with Chico.”
    “Don’t think too long. My idea will work. I guarantee it.”
    “I’ll think about it. There’s something else I want to try first. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. And cheer up. You’ll love the cruise.”
    “Not unless it goes down and only selected lifeboats sink,” Sarge