Read Online Copp In Deep, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) by Don Pendleton - Free Book Online

with origins: who were they?—why were they following me?—where and how had they gotten onto me?
    Were these the same guys who'd been staking out my house, and had they somehow tracked me over here? Or had someone been watching Cherche's place? Or had they been alerted to my presence there from inside? I had stayed and talked with Cherche for about ten minutes after "Angelique" had been excused. Time enough, yeah. Dammit . I had to get some things settled.
    So I found a coffee shop with off-street parking and watched the rearview carefully as I pulled in, saw the tail go immediately to the curb half a block to the rear. I parked where they could see me without too much strain, locked up, went inside and had some pie and coffee, then used the pay phone to call Tom Chase's home number.
    I got his wife, Miriam, very uptight and not at all friendly. "What the hell are they doing to Tom?" I asked her, merely trying to verify that he had indeed been arrested.
    "Nothing compared to what I'm going to do to him," was the angry reply. "Are you mixed up in this?"
    I said, "God, I hope not. What is he charged with?"
    She virtually spat it back at me: "Espionage."
    "That's heavy," I said. "Does he have a lawyer?"
    "I don't know about him, but I've sure got one!" she replied.
    "What does that mean?"
    "It means I'm filing for divorce, that's what it means. You should see the stuff they found in his car. Has he always been a pervert? Honestly, I've been married to a total stranger. I never knew this man! Have you known about this?"
    I told her, "I don't know what you're talking about, Miriam. I doubt that you do either. Don't be hasty about—"
    "Well what can I expect! Of course you'll defend him! You're exactly alike! All of you cops are the same! Don't call here anymore, Joe!"
    She hung up in my ear but I didn't really mind. Miriam had always been an asshole in my book. Never could understand how Tom would put up with her, let alone kowtow to that kind of bitchiness. I always sort of thought that she was the main reason why Tom and I had drifted so far apart. She'd never liked me either, probably raised hell with him every time we got together.
    So, what the hell, at least I was finding some reference in reality. It had not all been lies. Apparently Tom was indeed in custody and in deep trouble. I didn't know what to make of the "pervert" stuff but I figured it wouldn't take much to make a pervert of anyone in Miriam's eyes. I remembered how upset Tom had been over the possibility that she would learn of his involvement with another woman in the case and . . .
    And what? That he'd been led along, suckered and fatally compromised by that woman? Was that what was happening to me?
    I needed a bit more reference with reality.
    So I left some money on the counter and went out through the kitchen, circled the block on foot, came up behind the tail car. Different car, yeah, and different guys. I shattered the window on the passenger side with the butt of the S&W, pulled the guy through the opening and bounced him off the sidewalk, almost had ahold of the other one but he'd kicked the starter damn quick and was screeching away from there while I was reaching in for him. I had to disengage cleanly or get my arms ripped off so I stepped away and let him go.
    Had what I needed, anyway—someone to identify. This one was bloodied and groggy, harmless looking, total stranger. I helped him to his feet and hustled him up the street, pushed him into the van while onlookers gawked, got the hell away from there. The guy was groaning and dabbing at facial cuts with a handkerchief while I careened around the streets looking for another place to stop and interrogate. Found a deserted parking lot beside a bank several blocks over, opted for that.
    I pushed the guy hard against the door on his side, wedged his head between the dash and the windshield, invited him to tell me all about it. Didn't take him long to decide that might be the most intelligent thing