Read The Streetbird for Free Online

even cross the street against the light without being admonished."
    "By the authorities?"
    "By a black toddler." The sergeant looked about. "Was the previous occupant convicted on a charge of bad taste?"
    Grijpstra spilled more tea. Cardozo set to work again. Grijpstra pushed the sponge away. "You're staining my trousers. The sergeant has been goofing off while we worked, and now the sergeant is tired. Why don't you take the sergeant to his nice clean room?"
    De Gier joined Grijpstra on the creaking couch. "The sergeant was doing his job. He now knows something."
    "Share it," Grijpstra said. "I will draw the correct conclusion and go out to make a proper arrest, so that we can get out of here. I have a pleasant place of my own now and want to make a painting, of an exotic bird. What does the sergeant know?"
    "That the killer was wearing size thirteen shoes."
    "No," Grijpstra said. "I don't want to fight giants."
    "Rubber soles?" Cardozo asked.
    "New?" Grijpstra asked.
    De Gier nodded.
    "Galoshes," Cardozo said. "Now in one of the city's garbage boats, under ten tons of goopy glop."
    "What else does the sergeant know?" Grijpstra asked.
    De Gier looked at his watch. "That lunch time has come and gone. Are we eating?"
    "We'll go to a Chinese."
    "Lennie," de Gier said, "one of the two other superpimps, has had a trying time since Obrian got busy here. I have admired Lennie's photograph and read his file. He's an ordinary-looking man, which probably helped him toward his success. Forty-three years old and a native of the city, like his father, and his father was no good either. Another pimp, making out on a few whores placed here and there. The father had little brains but he sent his son to school and Lennie was studying mathematics when his father was arrested on a charge of buying stolen property and had a heart attack in jail."
    "Mathematics? University? And he still became a pimp?"
    "Why not, Cardozo? Numbers go both ways. Some numbers are lucky. Lennie inherited seven whores. He relocated them to the most popular alley and extended his operation from there, moving his headquarters to a floating brothel for the select on the Catburgh Canal."
    "Outside the quarter," Cardozo said. "A quiet area."
    "The select don't want to be seen, but they know the way."
    "Dope?" Grijpstra asked.
    "A lot of dope, more and more, especially since Obrian pushed him out of the alleys."
    "And where was Lennie supposed to be last night?"
    "On his boat. The bouncer, the ladies in residence, and the barman will confirm his alibi. This morning, at twenty past three, when machine-gun fire hit Obrian in the Olofs-alley, Lennie had just stepped into bed. His Mazda sports car was on the quay—this much is true, because a local cop saw the car there at the fatal time. But Lennie could have used another car, or walked. Catburgh Canal is close by."
    "And was he pleased that Obrian is now under refrigeration?"
    "Delighted," said De Gier.
    "Did he say so? Not to you, I hope."
    "He told one of the detectives of the station."
    De Gier placed his mug on the floor. Drops of tea danced across its edge. Cardozo jumped up.
    "Stay here," Grijpstra said. "You worked from this station for years, as a uniformed constable. How can it be that a floating brothel is tolerated outside the quarter?"
    "Just a minute, adjutant. I take pride in my work." Cardozo brought the sponge and rubbed the floor clean. "How can it be? Indolence, adjutant."
    "No more than that?"
    "Well," Cardozo said, "Lennie wholesales heroin. Heroin is costly material. It comes in small parcels. Money comes in small parcels too. The parcels are easily opened and the top bills may float away." He checked the floor, holding his sponge ready. "Or so I have been told."
    "And Jurriaans?"
    "An incorruptible official." Cardozo looked into Grijpstra's eyes. "King of the quarter. Jurriaans has long arms but I don't know whether they reach as far as Catburgh."
    "The local station employs a few hundred able men," de