Read Have a Nice Night for Free Online

brains. When I tell the boys back at headquarters, they'll split their sides. No other girl lost her G-string?'
    'I'll have you know, Tom, my girls are respectable,' Harry said, looking serious. 'The last thing they are going to lose is their G-strings.'
    Lepski laughed. 'For God's sake, Harry, what else have they to lose?' He finished his drink, looked at his watch, saw it was now after 20.00, and remembered he had to buy dinner. 'Do me a favor, Harry. Carroll has burned the pie we were going to have. How about one of your pizzas?'
    'Wouldn't think of it. For you, Tom, I'll fix a real meal. How about chicken in mushroom and white wine sauce? All your good lady will have to do is to put it in the oven for twenty minutes.'
    Lepski's eyes glistened. 'Sounds great.'
    'Okay. Help yourself to another drink. I'll fix it with Charlie.'
    As Harry hurried off, Lepski reached for the bottle of Cutty Sark. There were times when police work paid off, he thought.
    A cool hand took him by the wrist. 'Let me do that for you, Mr. Lepski.' Looking up, Lepski was confronted by a pair of small breasts with shell-pink nipples and found a girl, wearing only a G-string and black, high-heeled shoes, smiling at him.
    'I'm Marian,' the girl said, fluttering long eye lashes. 'You heard about Lu-Lu? Wasn't that terrible?'
    Lepski opened and shut his mouth, but no words came. His eyes feasted on this gorgeous little body right by his side.
    Smiling, Marian poured the drink, added ice and placed the glass in his hand.
    'Mr. Lepski,' she said, sitting on a high stool by his side. 'I think, and so do all the girls, you are the most handsome cop in the city. You know?'
    Lepski beamed. Police work! he thought. Who wouldn't want to be a cop?
    *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
    Across the narrow street, opposite the G-String Club was a high rise of one or two room apartments, strictly for the workers. Abe Levi hated Fridays. This rent collecting drag was slowly killing him. There was always some whining excuse not to pay, and he always had to turn tough, which was against his nature. The Syndicate who owned the high rise had told him there was to be no credit. If the jerks couldn't find the rent, out they went. It hurt Abe to deliver the message. He wanted to be on good terms with the tenants, but threatening them made this impossible.
    'Look,' he would say, 'don't blame me. Pay or you're out. That's what the boss says. It's nothing to do with me.'
    Squeezing the rent from so many tenants took time, and when he had visited the last apartment, collecting the rent with a struggle, it was well after 20.00. He was anxious to return to his ground floor two room apartment and have supper.
    Abe Levi was a thickset Jew with a mop of grey hair and a bushy beard. Life hadn't been easy for him. When young, he had helped his father sell fruit from a barrow. Later, he had married a girl who had slaved in a clothing factory. When his parents died, he had given up the fruit barrow. A friend had got him this rent collecting job. It was a lot better than tramping the streets, pushing a heavy barrow. His wife had died two years ago. There were no children. Abe spent his lonely nights watching television, and once a week, he went to the Jewish club where he was always welcomed.
    As he got into the elevator, he thought sadly of his wife, Hannah. She always had a hot meal waiting for him. This night he would eat a bit of soused fish, but there would be a good serial on TV which he was following.
    Carrying the heavy rent bag, now stuffed with bills and coins, he left the elevator and walked down the long dark passage to his front door. Two of the passage lights were out. This he would have to fix, he thought wearily before he ate. It was his responsibility to keep the high rise in order.
    Reaching his apartment door, he fumbled with his key, unlocked the door and entered his living room. His hand groped for the light switch, pressed it, but he remained in