Read Dirty Harry 01 - Duel For Cannons for Free Online Page B

rape-murders cropped up in the North Beach area, but there was no solid connection between them other than the fact that each of the victims should have known better.
    That is, either the murdered girls were experienced or on a date. According to all the reports, every single victim wouldn’t have accepted a dance with another guy, let alone a ride. There seemed to be no way the murderer could get his target alone.
    “Man! You really know how to pick the restaurants!” DiGeorgio shouted to him, taking his mind off the murder musing. Harry smiled in a preoccupied sort of way and followed his partner’s gaze. Undulating under a strobe was an attractive auburn-haired girl. She was wearing a silky blue maillot bathing suit with a matching slit skirt and, of all things, a pair of sneakers.
    Harry shook his head in wonder. All you need to get into a dance club nowadays, he thought, was a bathing suit and a towel. The girl seemed refreshingly unaffected, so Harry kept a pleased eye on her. The strobe turned off and a multicolored spot turned on, bathing the girl in a rainbow. The girl smiled in appreciation and leaned over to say something to the girl next to her.
    The female companion was dressed in a strapless top that had a half-purple, half-blue band across her small breasts and a red torso which was tucked into red latex pants. Her hair was cut short in the shaggy punk style, her eyes were narrow, and her chin was strong and wide. DiGeorgio noticed her, too.
    “Dyke city for sure,” he commented. Harry just stared at the two girls while blowing on his left hand. The music stopped just as Tanya came back with their sandwiches. She bent down for Harry’s benefit, but he was looking over her shoulder at the other girls. He saw the short-hair say something and point to the rest room door. The auburn nodded and said something to her collegiate-looking date. He answered and she turned. Harry saw what she didn’t. Just before short-hair followed her, she locked eyes with collegiate. He smiled.
    Harry heard a buzzing in his ears. “What?” he said.
    “I said,” Tanya repeated, “you must have a bad case of dance fever. You’re not appreciating the sandwich or me.”
    Harry kissed her quickly. “Sorry. Got to go to the bathroom. Too much beer.” He slid out of his chair and moved toward the back door.
    “Is he kidding?” Tanya asked DiGeorgio. DiGeorgio shrugged.
    Harry stuck his head around the rest room door. He saw a stairway leading down. He took it to a short hallway going off in two directions, left and right. Down to the left was the ladies’ room. To the right was the men’s. Harry walked silently to the left and took up a position next to the lavatory door. He looked and listened.
    There was no other door in the left part of the hallway, but he heard a strange creaking, as if someone was having trouble with a particularly rusty pipe. Harry put the flat of his hand on the ladies’ room door. He leaned in. The door opened a crack. He was about to look when something slapped into the small of his back.
    He turned to face a muscle-bound guy with a mustache. “Hey, creep,” the guy said, “get your jollies somewhere else.”
    “I’m a police officer,” Harry said with a scowl.
    “Yeah, I’m Fran Tarkenton and That’s Incredible. Hit the road, Tom.” The guy jerked a thumb at the stairway, then folded his arms to show off his biceps.
    Harry looked at the guy for a second, figured “forget it,” then brushed around, and went back upstairs. He remembered what an old partner had said to him after he had been beaten up as a Peeping Tom during the “Scorpio” case. “Maybe that’s why they call you Dirty Harry,” Chico had said, or something to that effect. Good old college-educated Chico. Harry hoped he was having more luck on his new teaching job than Harry was having on this case.
    When Harry got back to the main floor, he noticed two things missing; most of DiGeorgio’s sandwich and the collegiate