Read Online 1973 - Have a Change of Scene by James Hadley Chase - Free Book Online

picked up the receiver.
    ‘Mr. Carr there’s a police officer asking for you,’ the reception clerk said, reproach in his voice.
    ‘I’ll be down,’ I said. ‘Ask him to wait.’
    I didn’t hurry. I shaved and showered and put on one of my expensive sports shirts and a pair of whipcord slacks, then I went down in the creaky elevator.
    Sergeant O’Halloran, massive, in shirt sleeves with his cap at the back of his head, filled one of the bamboo chairs. He was smoking a cigar and reading the local newspaper.
    I went over and sat by his side.
    ‘Morning, Sergeant,’ I said. ‘Have a coffee with me?’
    He put down his newspaper and, folding it carefully, placed it on the floors ‘I’m on duty in half an hour,’ he said in his husky worn-out voice, ‘but I thought I’d drop by. Never mind the coffee.’ He stared at me with his pig eyes that were ice cold and diamond hard. ‘There was a hell of a fire on 10th Street last night.’
    ‘Is that right?’ I stared back at him. ‘I haven’t seen the papers yet.’
    ‘Seven valuable motorbikes were destroyed.’
    ‘Someone put in a complaint?’
    He crossed one thick leg over the other.
    ‘Not yet, but they could.’
    ‘Then of course you will have to investigate.’
    He leaned forward and there was a touch of red in his pig eyes.
    ‘I’m getting worried about you, Carr. You are the coldest, most ruthless sonofabitch that has arrived in this town. Off the record, I’m telling you something: you pull one more trick like this and you’re in trouble. You nearly set the whole goddamn street on fire. It’s got to stop.’
    I wasn’t intimidated.
    ‘Produce your witnesses, Sergeant, and I will then accept trouble, but not before. I’m not admitting anything, but it seems to me the police in this town can’t cope with bastards like Spooky Jinx and his kind, so I don’t see why you should set up a bleat when someone does.’ I got to my feet. ‘If you want a cup of coffee, join me. I do.’
    He sat there, turning his half-smoked cigar around in his thick fingers as he stared at me.
    ‘I’m telling you lay off. Just one more trick from you and you’re in the tank. You’re lucky I dig for Miss Baxter. She’s doing a swell job in this town. Maybe you think you’re levelling the score, but enough’s enough. I went along with what you did with Spooky. He had it coming, but this job last night I don’t dig for.’ He heaved himself to his feet and faced me. ‘I’m getting a feeling about you. I’m getting the idea you could be more tricky than this gang of stupid bastard kids. If I’m right, then you could be heading for trouble.’
    ‘You said that before,’ I said politely. ‘Did you say this was off the record?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Then still off the record, Sergeant, go get screwed.’
    I walked across the dreary lobby into the even more dreary breakfast room. I drank a cup of bad coffee, smoked and read the local rag. The picture of the seven moronic looking youths, wet-eyed and mourning their vanished Hondas, gave me a feeling of intense satisfaction.
    Around 10.00 I left the hotel and walked to the only florist in the town. I bought a bunch of red roses, then walked to the city hospital. On the way, I met people who smiled at me and I smiled back.
    Eventually, after a long wait, I arrived at Jenny’s bedside. She was looking pale and her long hair was done in plaits and lay either side of her shoulders.
    A nurse fussed around with a vase for the flowers and then went away. While she was fussing I looked down at Jenny, feeling ten feet tall. She wasn’t to know that I had evened the score. I had not only fixed Spooky but I had now dismounted his seven moronic buddies: dismounting them, destroying their Hondas was, to them, having their genitals cut off.
    ‘Hi, Jenny, how goes it?’ I asked.
    She smiled ruefully.
    ‘I didn’t expect to see you. After the way I talked to you I thought we were through.’
    I pulled up a chair and sat