For Love of Mother-Not Read Online Free PDF Page B

sorry, sir,” Cheneth, the candy man, said as he gestured with his pistol, “but we’re going to have to ask you to wait until the authorities arrive.”
    “And then what? Are they going to haul a free citizen to the magistrate because a child demands it?”
    “A simple body scan should be sufficient,” Mother Mastiff said as the three re-entered the shop. “Surely you’ve no reason to object to that?”
    “Of course I’d object to it!” the visitor responded. “They have no reason or right to—”
    “My, but you’re suddenly arguing a lot for someone with nothing to worry about,” Aljean, the clothier, observed. She was forty-two years old and had run her way through four husbands. She was very adept at spotting lies, and she was suddenly less convinced of this visitor’s innocence. “Of course, if perhaps you realize now that you’ve somehow made a bit of mistake and that we quaint locals aren’t quite the simpletons you believe us to be, and if you’d rather avoid the inconvenience of a scan, not to mention official attention, you’ll learn that we’re agreeably forgiving here if you’ll just return to Mother Mastiff what you’ve taken.”
    “I haven’t taken a damn—” the bald man started to say.
    “The jails of Drallar are very, very uncomfortable,” Aljean continued briskly. “Our government resents spending money on public needs. They especially scrimp when it comes to the comfort of wrongdoers. You being an offworlder now, I don’t think you’d take well to half a year of unfiltered underground dampness. Mold will sprout in your lungs, and your eyelids will mildew.”
    All of a sudden, the man seemed to slump in on himself. He glared down at Flinx, who stared quietly back at him.
    “I don’t know how the hell you saw me, boy. I swear, no one saw me! No one!”
    “I’ll be blessed over,” Cheneth murmured, his jaw droppingas he looked from the thief to the boy who had caught him. “Then you did take the rings!”
    “Ay. Call off the authorities,” he said to Aljean “You’ve said it would be enough if I gave back the rings. I agree.”
    Mother Mastiff nodded slowly. “I agree, also, provided that ye promise never to show your reflective crown in this part of this marketplace ever again.”
    “My word on it, as a professional,” the man promised quickly. “I did not lie when I said that I was on holiday.” He gave them a twisted smile. “I like to make my holidays self-supporting.”
    Mother Mastiff did not smile back. She held out a hand. “My kill rings, if ye please.”
    The man’s smile twisted even further. “Soon enough. But first I will need certain edibles. There are several fruits which will suffice, or certain standard medications. I will also need clean cloths and disinfectant. The boy is right, you see. I did swallow them. Provide what I need and in an hour or so you will have your cursed rings back.”
    And forty minutes later she did.
    After the thief and the little group of admiring shopkeepers had gone their respective ways, Mother Mastiff took her charge aside and confronted him with the question no one else had thought to ask.
    “Now, boy, ye say ye didn’t see him swallow the rings?”
    “No, I didn’t, Mother.” Now that the crowd had dispersed and he had been vindicated, his shyness returned.
    “Then how the ringap did ye know?”
    Flinx hesitated.
    “Come now, boy, out with it. Ye can tell me,” she said in a coaxing tone. “I’m your mother now, remember. The only one you’ve got. I’ve been fair and straightforward with ye. Now ’tis your turn to do the same with me.”
    “You’re sure?” He was fighting with himself, she saw. “You’re sure you’re not just being nice to me to fool me? You’re not one of the bad people?”
    That was a funny thing for him to bring up, she thought.“Of course I’m not one of them. Do I look like a bad people?”
    “N-n-no,” he admitted. “But it’s hard to tell,