The Blue Knight Read Online Free PDF

you?”
    “How’s Sissy?” I said, to change the subject.
    Glenda answered by taking a package of snapshots out of her purse and handing them to me. I’m farsighted now and in the dimness I couldn’t really see anything but the outline of a little girl holding a dog. I couldn’t even say if the dog was real or stuffed.
    “She’s beautiful,” I said, knowing she was. I’d last seen her several months ago when I drove Glenda home from work one night.
    “Every dollar you ever gave me went into a bank account for her just like we agreed at first,” said Glenda.
    “I know that.”
    “I added to it on my own too.”
    “She’ll have something someday.”
    “Bet your ass she will,” said Glenda, lighting a cigarette.
    I wondered how much I’d given Glenda over the past ten years. And I wondered how many really good arrests I’d made on information she gave me. She was one of my big secrets. The detectives had informants who they paid but the bluesuits weren’t supposed to be involved in that kind of police work. Well, I had my paid informants too. But I didn’t pay them from any Department money. I paid them from my pocket, and when I made the bust on the scam they gave me, I made it look like I lucked onto the arrest. Or I made up some other fanciful story for the arrest report. That way Glenda was protected and nobody could say Bumper Morgan was completely nuts for paying informants out of his own pocket. The first time, Glenda turned me a federal fugitive who was dating her and who carried a gun and pulled stickups. I tried to give her twenty bucks and she refused it, saying he was a no-good asshole and belonged in the joint and she was no snitch. I made her take it for Sissy who was a baby then, and who had no dad. Since then over the years I’ve probably laid a thousand on Glenda for Sissy. And I’ve probably made the best pinches of any cop in Central Division.
    “She gonna be a blondie like momma?” I asked.
    “Yeah,” she smiled. “More blond than me though. And about ten times as smart. I think she’s smarter already. I’m reading books like mad to keep up with her.”
    “Those private schools are tough,” I nodded. “They teach them something.”
    “You notice this one, Bumper?” she smiled, coming over to me and sitting on the arm of the chair. She was smiling big and thinking about Sissy now. “The dog’s pulling her hair. Look at the expression.”
    “Oh yeah,” I said, seeing only a blur and feeling one of those heavy chi-chis resting on my shoulder. Hers were big and natural, not pumped full of plastic like so many these days.
    “She’s peeved in this one,” said Glenda, leaning closer, and it was pressed against my cheek, and finally one tender doorbell went right in my ear.
    “Damn it, Glenda!” I said, looking up.
    “What?” she answered, moving back. She got it, and laughed her hard hoarse laugh. Then her laugh softened and she smiled and her big eyes went soft and I noticed the lashes were dark beneath the eyes and not from mascara. I thought Glenda was more attractive now than she ever was.
    “I have a big feeling for you, Bumper,” she said, and kissed me right on the mouth. “You and Sissy are the only ones. You’re what’s happening, baby.”
    Glenda was like Ruthie. She was one of the people who belonged to the beat. There were laws that I made for myself, but she was almost naked and to me she was still so beautiful.
    “Now,” she said, knowing I was about to explode. “Why not? You never have and I always wanted you to.”
    “Gotta get back to my car,” I said, jumping up and crossing the room in three big steps. Then I mumbled something else about missing my radio calls, and Glenda told me to wait.
    “You forgot your hat,” she said, handing it to me.
    “Thanks,” I said, putting the lid on with one shaky hand. She held the other one and kissed my palm with a warm wet mouth.
    “Don’t think of leaving us, Bumper,” she said and stared me in the