And 47 Miles of Rope (Trace 2) Read Online Free PDF

stones.”
    Terror? “A tiara?” Trace said.
    “Right. A diamond terror and like two big diamond necklaces like queens wear. Wait. Here’s a newspaper picture of the terror and one of the necklaces.” He shoved a clipping toward Trace, who saw Felicia Fallaci bedecked in jewels and smiling beautifully. The caption said the photo was taken at a charity ball for homeless children at which she had made a surprise appearance.
    “They took that picture just before she went to Europe,” Roberts said. “If those pieces show up, they’d be spotted right away.”
    “The thief’d just remove the stones and sell them piecemeal,” Trace said.
    “Yeah, probably.”
    “Anything else I ought to know?” Trace asked.
    “That’s all I got so far. I talked to the countess, but she don’t know nothing and she said there wasn’t anything going on at the plotzo, like people trying to stake out the joint or a lot of salesmen or surveyors showing up when they didn’t used to show up. So she wasn’t a lot of help.”
    “Basically,” Trace said, “if you don’t get a call from the thief, you don’t have anything.”
    “That’s about it,” Roberts said. “If you find out something, then you could probably be a big help to me. Listen, Tracy, I got no problems with cutting you in for a piece of my fee. You help me, I help you.”
    Trace nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Roberts. I’ll keep you posted.”
    “You got any ideas right now?” Roberts asked.
    “Not yet. I think first I’ll go to the plotzo.”

4
     
    “Hey, goombah. What brings you to these hallowed halls?”
    Lt. Daniel Rosado shook Trace’s hand in a tight grip, then nodded him to a chair in the dimly lit detective’s office in the basement of police headquarters.
    Without waiting for an answer, Rosado said, “I learned your trick. I’ve got vodka in the freezer. You want a pop?”
    “Before lunch?” Trace said, and tried to look shocked.
    “Trace, I know you. You drink before getting out of bed in the morning.”
    “Not anymore. I’m tapering off.”
    “You?” Rosado laughed, much too long for Trace’s taste. “How come?”
    “I’m getting old. I’m turning over a new leaf.”
    “You know what I found out in life?” Rosado said. “You turn over a lot of new leaves, and underneath them you still find the same old bugs.”
    “Don’t undermine my courage now,” Trace said. “The first day is the hardest.”
    “Horseshit. The first seven years are the hardest. Every day’s harder than the one before it. You know how miserable you feel now? You’re going to feel worse tomorrow and even worse the day after that. You’ll cut your wrists by the weekend.”
    “I didn’t say I was quitting, just tapering off,” Trace said.
    “Good. Then taper off later. Have a drink.” Rosado went to the small refrigerator in the office, took a pint bottle of vodka from alongside the ice-cube tray, and poured some into a plastic throw-away glass and handed it to Trace. Trace sipped at it, then set it down.
    “The things I do for a client,” he said. “Now that I’ve got you all agreeable, I know you’re going to help me. Felicia Fallaci.”
    “The countess?”
    “Right. And Early Jarvis.”
    “I thought the Inspector Clouseau of crime-fighting was working on this. Roberts, that douche bag.”
    “He is. On the jewelry theft.”
    “Forget ever seeing that jewelry again,” Rosado said with disgust.
    Trace nodded. “Jarvis had an insurance policy with Felicia as beneficiary. I’m just checking it out before my company pays.”
    “What do you need?”
    “Everything,” Trace said. “I talked to Roberts. He’s almost as dumb as he is dirty.”
    “I’d hate to have to live on the change,” Rosado said. “Okay. You stay here. Help yourself to the vodka if you want more. I’ll be right back.”
    Rosado walked out of the office. He was a handsome man with salt-and-pepper hair, almost as tall as Trace but leaner through the chest and shoulders. He