Best Friends Read Online Free PDF Page B

what’s this one, Mr. Courtright? A Doozy?”
    â€œCan you get me out of these things, Hal?” Roy asked impatiently. “Mr. Grandy owns this house. He’s my closest friend, as you may know.” He explained about the coffee machine, even as Hal stepped forward and opened the cuffs with his own key.
    â€œMr. Courtright,” Hal told the other two officers, “is also a friend of the chief’s. Isn’t that so, Mr. Courtright?”
    It was not much of a question. In a town this size most local business owners were on good terms with the police, who were of course dependent on them and homeowning taxpayers for their modest salaries. Not only was Roy, though a habitual exceeder of the speed limits, innocent of that dislike or even dread of the cops which some people found normal, he if anything felt sorry for them. This was another area in which he and Sam were not at one. Sam had a distaste for policemen that seemed more instinctive than generated by experience. But then he was also by nature an inattentive driver, failing to notice stop signs and posted limits for school zones, where going a few miles faster than permitted might be considered worse, near children, than driving 120 on a deserted late-night highway.
    Roy held no grudge against Howie, to whom he said, “You can verify it by giving Mrs. Grandy a call at First United Bank.” He rubbed his wrists. It was uncomfortable to wear manacles if your forearms were thickly muscled.
    Howie tried to look proud. “That won’t be necessary, sir. We got the call from that security service. I had to do my job.”
    It was Sam’s fault for not providing the inside disarm code. To the cops Roy made light of the matter, and they all soon turned with relief to the subject of the Alvis, the chunky officer, whose nametag read velikovsky, showing some technical interest.
    â€œWhat’s the horsepower on this baby, Mr. Courtright?” And when he got the answer, 115, asked further, “Would you happen to know the compression ratio?”
    â€œEight point five to one.” Roy had to be prepared for such questions from clients.
    â€œNice,” said Velikovsky.
    Howie nodded his capped head. “Damn nice.”
    â€œWhat’s something like that go for, Mr. Courtright?” asked Hal.
    Roy never answered such a question unless it was put by a potential buyer. So what he said now was, “I hope enough to pay for the reupholstery and the detailing.”
    The officers all had a knowing chuckle, and after a walk-around, they drove away in their respective Ford Crown Victorias.
    Roy prepared to leave the Grandy property at last, but got only as far as behind the steering wheel of the Alvis when a dirty beige Corolla rolled into view in his rear-view mirror. Who should get out of it but Kristin.
    Roy scrambled forth onto the crunching gravel. “You caught me red-handed.”
    Kristin’s car did not do her justice. He assumed it was an example of what Sam called her parsimoniousness. She wore an elegant pin-striped suit in banker’s gray.
    â€œDoing what?” She extended her hand, perhaps being still in the business mode, and he shook it for the first time ever, letting it go as quickly.
    Sam’s confidence had already been betrayed by events, so Roy did not hesitate to reveal all. He loyally concluded with, “I’m afraid I botched it. By his original plan, I would have been long gone by now.”
    Kristin frowned for a moment and then glowed with a smile. “Let’s not tell him you were caught! That would solve everybody’s problem. That is, yours and his. I don’t really have a role in this situation. I didn’t hate that machine, as he seems to think. I just thought seven hundred dollars was an awful lot to pay for the use we’d get out of it.” Her fine nostrils flared and then contracted. “You know how he is, once the novelty has worn off?…But