Streets of Fire Read Online Free PDF

take a leak,’ McCorkindale said dully.
    Luther walked back into the office a few minutes later, still pulling casually at the zipper of his trousers.
    ‘Heard you sort of strongarmed the guy in the Coroner’s Office,’ he said as he strolled up to Ben’s desk.
    ‘A little.’
    ‘Good, good,’ Luther said happily. He took a chair from another desk and sat down. ‘Well, what’d you find out?’
    Ben took out the original report and handed it to him. ‘That’s all Patterson had from his first look at her,’ he said, ‘but he didn’t learn much more after a full autopsy.’
    Luther glanced briefly at the report. ‘The rape looks good though,’ he said. ‘If it was a race thing, some kind of KKK killing, something like that, there wouldn’t have been a rape.’ He slid the report back onto Ben’s desk. ‘Good job, Ben,’ he said. He reached over and squeezed his shoulder. ‘I think that’s about all we need.’
    Ben leaned forward slightly. ‘For what?’
    ‘To close the case,’ Luther said matter-of-factly.
    ‘I just started on it.’
    ‘And you already got as far as you’re ever going to get,’ Luther told him. He smiled. ‘It’s a Bearmatch thing, Ben. If you’d ever worked that part of town before, you’d know what I mean.’
    Ben’s eyes drifted down toward the report, then back up toward Luther.
    ‘I have a lead,’ he said.
    Luther looked at him doubtfully. ‘A lead? What kind of a lead?’
    ‘A name. Somebody who knows a lot about what goes on in Bearmatch.’
    ‘What name?’
    ‘A Mr Jolly,’ Ben said. ‘Roy Jolly.’
    Luther’s face broke into a broad grin. ‘Mr Jolly?’ he said with a chuckle, ‘You mean old Roy-Joy? That’s your contact?’
    Ben nodded slowly.
    ‘You know who Roy-Joy is, Ben?’ Luther asked. ‘He’s the biggest pimp in Bearmatch, maybe the biggest in Birmingham, maybe even the biggest in the whole goddamn world.’ He stopped, then looked at Ben coolly. ‘Who gave you his name?’
    For an instant, Ben started to identify the old attendant. Then, suddenly, something stopped him as fully and abruptly as if a hand had shot up to cover his mouth.
    ‘It was just something I heard on the street,’ he said with a slight shrug. ‘Nobody in particular.’
    Luther placed his hands palms down on Ben’s desk and leaned into them. ‘If you want to know about things in Bearmatch, you ought to ask the Langley boys. They been working it for the last two years.’
    ‘I’ll do that,’ Ben said.
    Luther straightened himself. ‘Look, Ben,’ he said quietly, ‘if you want to work this case a little more, go ahead. It just makes the department look better if you do. But you’ve still got to cover King until all this shit is over.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘He’s scheduled to make a speech at the First Pilgrim Baptist Church tonight at eight o’clock. Be there.’
    Ben nodded quickly. ‘All right.’
    ‘And as far as this little girl goes, talk to the Langley brothers,’ Luther said insistently. ‘They should be chowing down at Smith’s Cafe right about now.’
    ‘Okay,’ Ben said.
    Luther started to leave the room.
    Ben touched the sleeve of his coat to stop him. ‘That picture you took of the little girl,’ he said. ‘You got it with you?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Luther said. He patted his coat pockets. ‘Here it is,’ he said as he handed Ben the photograph.
    Ben lifted the picture slightly in order to bring it into a better light. It was a small, square Polaroid, shot in a grainy black and white, but he could see the girl’s face quite plainly as it looked up toward him from the grayish dusty ground. It had the same look the dead always had. No matter how big or how small, how much or how little had been done to them, they always looked as if they’d never had a chance.
    Black Cat 13 sat obliviously at rest in an emergency parking zone in the alleyway behind Smith’s Cafe. It was gray with black side stripes, and a large black cat, yellow-eyed