Read Online The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs: A Masao Masuto Mystery by Howard Fast - Free Book Online

bastards. I don’t want them to mark us lousy.”
    â€œWho did you talk to?”
    â€œA lieutenant, Pete Bones. He’s coming up here with a Captain Kennedy.”
    â€œPete’s an old friend.”
    â€œHe didn’t sound like a friend, old or new.”
    â€œLet’s take it easy and wait until they get here. Meanwhile, I have to call Kati, or I’ll have more trouble than the Los Angeles cops could ever give me.”
    Masuto went into his office and dialed his home number. The first thing Kati said was, “Your dinner has spoiled.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œI don’t think you are. I think it’s something you’re saying. There are other policemen in the world and they work from nine to five and they see their children and their wives.”
    â€œYou haven’t gone to that women’s consciousness-raising session yet?”
    â€œI’m going tonight. I thought you would be here. Then when I realized you would not be here, I telephoned Suzi Asata, and she will be my baby sitter. I will have to pay her five dollars. I don’t think it ought to come out of my household money. I think it ought to come out of your pocket.”
    â€œI agree with you,” he said meekly.
    â€œYou do?”
    â€œYes. Why should that surprise you?”
    â€œOh, Masao, why do you make me so angry?”
    â€œI don’t think you’re really angry.”
    â€œPlease tell me that you will not do anything dangerous tonight.”
    â€œI promise you.”
    â€œAnd what will you do?”
    â€œOnly talk to some ladies.”
    â€œStop teasing me. Why must you always tease me?”
    â€œI’m not teasing. I promise to tell you the whole story when I see you. I am not talking to these ladies for pleasure. I am talking to them because they are part of this case I am on.”
    â€œI sometimes think that it is always a pleasure for you to talk to American ladies.”
    â€œKati, I love you.”
    â€œWell—”
    â€œBelieve me. And how are the children?”
    â€œSomeday you will see them and decide for yourself.”
    He put down the phone as Polly entered. She was still small, blonde, and pretty. “I stayed an extra hour waiting for you, Masao.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œI’m not making a pass. I’m saving that until you get divorced.”
    â€œI have no intention of getting divorced,” he said severely.
    â€œBaloney. All cops get divorced. Their wives can’t put up with them. Anyway, we can save that discussion for another time. What I got for you now is a very funny phone call.”
    â€œTell me about it.”
    â€œFirst place, foreign accent but phony.”
    â€œHow do you know it was phony?”
    She shrugged. “You watch enough TV, you know. He says to me, Who’s on the poisoned candy case? Me, nobody tells me anything. I just answer the phone, and everything else I do, which is practically everything around here, it’s guess-work. So I ask for his name, and he says Horst Brandt, to go with the phony German accent.”
    â€œAddress?”
    â€œJust as phony, I’m sure.” She took a slip of paper from her purse and read him the address. It had a familiar ring, and Masuto consulted his notebook. It was Alice Greene’s address on Roxbury Drive.
    â€œDoes it mean something?” Polly asked him.
    â€œMaybe. Maybe not. You’re sure he said candy? Nothing about éclairs?”
    â€œWhat éclairs? Candy, éclairs. Nobody tells me a thing around here.”
    â€œAnd you’re sure it was a man’s voice, not a woman’s?”
    She stared at him in disgust. “What am I, Masao, a jerk, a nut? A man’s voice. I told you that.”
    â€œI’m sorry. Go on.”
    â€œSo I tell him that if it’s a homicide case, it’s Sergeant Masuto’s department. Then he says, ‘Masuto? You mean that Jap plainclothes