MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Silliness The Case of the Rock and the Red, Decision at Dawn

Rock Lobster · 12-07-2010, 01:59 PM

I drove down to Alameda, taking as many back roads as I could find. I vowed that, from now on, I would only deal with cases in my own time frame. You ever try to get a '29 Model T up to speed on a freeway? And don't get me started on semis. After what I'd heard, I figured that some sort of fix was on, or Vivaldi would never be making book. Not that he doesn't have a larcenous heart, but his style was more the talk you out of your supper and while you're at it, could you lend me a couple grand? I knew that if they had stashed him in Riverside, that Alameda was the best bet, so to speak, for scoping out the action going down around Mr Harry the Horse.

I pulled up to the main gate and walked in just as the Third was getting the bell. Walking around, I didn't see anything more unusual than what you get at a race track in the middle of the night. There had to be something going on, so I just kept sauntering through the galleries. Too bad there isn't an Olympic event for sauntering, because with all the practice I was getting, I bet I could have made the team.

I passed a handsome couple who seemed to have problems of their own. "I swear to God, Vera! These hunches of yours are going to be the death of us! What made you think that he'd be here in this forsaken excuse of a time frame?" said the handsome man, who was wearing a slouch flight cap and a brown leather jacket.

"Have my hunches ever been wrong?" asked the pretty blonde wearing a large and garish ring with a yellow and red spiral in the cabuchet.

"No, but what would he be doing here? There aren't any Nazis or Imperial spies left around here! He'd be bored."

I walked on, hoping that the couple could patch up their differences. And find whoever it was they were looking for.

I was just about to give it up as a bad guess, when I saw what I'd been looking for. I hadn't known exactly what it would be, but I knew it would stick out like a talking chicken at a fox convention. They had tried hard to disguise themselves, what with one wearing a false handlebar moustache and the other a yellow trench coat, I'll give them that. But a sock in a disguise is till just a sock wearing something to make himself look silly.

"Hello, Hugo, Lefty. Trying out the ponies for your latest little scam?"

I'd run into these characters before. Hard cases, the both of them. There wasn't a swindle on the West Coast that didn't have their foot prints, so to speak on it. The situation with Vivaldi and book making was, all of a sudden, quite clear.

The socks jumped up in surprise and tried to make a run for it. They didn't get more than five feet away from the betting window they'd been pantomiming in front of before I put my foot down. Literally. Both of them tried fruitlessly to get away, but my size twelves were firmly planted on their cuffs and they were going nowhere.

12-07-2010, 01:59 PM	#108
Rock Lobster PI for hire. Posts: 94 Karma: 511896 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: I keep a notebook handy, just in case.	I drove down to Alameda, taking as many back roads as I could find. I vowed that, from now on, I would only deal with cases in my own time frame. You ever try to get a '29 Model T up to speed on a freeway? And don't get me started on semis. After what I'd heard, I figured that some sort of fix was on, or Vivaldi would never be making book. Not that he doesn't have a larcenous heart, but his style was more the talk you out of your supper and while you're at it, could you lend me a couple grand? I knew that if they had stashed him in Riverside, that Alameda was the best bet, so to speak, for scoping out the action going down around Mr Harry the Horse. I pulled up to the main gate and walked in just as the Third was getting the bell. Walking around, I didn't see anything more unusual than what you get at a race track in the middle of the night. There had to be something going on, so I just kept sauntering through the galleries. Too bad there isn't an Olympic event for sauntering, because with all the practice I was getting, I bet I could have made the team. I passed a handsome couple who seemed to have problems of their own. "I swear to God, Vera! These hunches of yours are going to be the death of us! What made you think that he'd be here in this forsaken excuse of a time frame?" said the handsome man, who was wearing a slouch flight cap and a brown leather jacket. "Have my hunches ever been wrong?" asked the pretty blonde wearing a large and garish ring with a yellow and red spiral in the cabuchet. "No, but what would he be doing here? There aren't any Nazis or Imperial spies left around here! He'd be bored." I walked on, hoping that the couple could patch up their differences. And find whoever it was they were looking for. I was just about to give it up as a bad guess, when I saw what I'd been looking for. I hadn't known exactly what it would be, but I knew it would stick out like a talking chicken at a fox convention. They had tried hard to disguise themselves, what with one wearing a false handlebar moustache and the other a yellow trench coat, I'll give them that. But a sock in a disguise is till just a sock wearing something to make himself look silly. "Hello, Hugo, Lefty. Trying out the ponies for your latest little scam?" I'd run into these characters before. Hard cases, the both of them. There wasn't a swindle on the West Coast that didn't have their foot prints, so to speak on it. The situation with Vivaldi and book making was, all of a sudden, quite clear. The socks jumped up in surprise and tried to make a run for it. They didn't get more than five feet away from the betting window they'd been pantomiming in front of before I put my foot down. Literally. Both of them tried fruitlessly to get away, but my size twelves were firmly planted on their cuffs and they were going nowhere.