The Copper Frame Read Online Free PDF Page A

Saturday, February 7.
    On Tuesday, December 30, Saxon entered police headquarters at his usual hour of 9 A.M . to find Vic Burns working the desk. The daytime shift consisted of three beat cops and a single one-man car, and Bums was supposed to be working the car.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Saxon asked. “Where’s Lennox?”
    â€œHe’s sick,” Burns said a little uneasily. “I pulled one of the beat cops and stuck him in the car so I could take over the desk.”
    â€œSick with what?”
    â€œI don’t know. Just sick.”
    â€œDid he call in?”
    Burns looked embarrassed. “I guess Hanson phoned his house when Sam didn’t show up to relieve him. His wife said he was sick.”
    â€œHe’s drunk again, huh?”
    Burns made a helpless gesture. “Aw, give him a break, Chief. Your dad’s death shook him up pretty bad.”
    â€œIt shook up the whole force,” Saxon said grimly. “But nobody else stays out drunk. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
    Going back out to his car, he drove southeast to the small frame house where Sam Lennox lived. Lennox had two sons and a daughter, but they were grown and married, and he and his wife now lived in the house alone.
    Nora Lennox was a thin, sad-faced woman of about her husband’s age. When she opened the door and saw Saxon, she began to cry. It was a silent, hopeless sort of crying.
    â€œCut it out, Nora,” Saxon said gruffly. “I’m not here to eat anybody. May I come in?”
    Silently she stepped aside to let him enter. Carefully wiping his feet, he moved into a small entry hall, took off his galoshes, and laid his hat on a little table against the wall.
    â€œWhere is he?”
    â€œIn the kitchen,” she said in a barely audible voice.
    Saxon moved on into a tiny front room, through it into a central hall, and into the kitchen. Sam Lennox sat at the table in his police uniform, except for the jacket, an empty quart bottle and another just opened before him. He badly needed a shave. He made an attempt to rise when he saw Saxon but couldn’t quite make it and sank back into his chair again. He was as drunk as Saxon had ever seen anyone.
    â€œâ€™Lo, Chief,” he muttered.
    There was no point in attempting to talk to Lennox. Saxon turned to face Nora, who had paused in the doorway. Tears were no longer running down her face, but her expression was one of hopelessness.
    â€œHow’d he manage this so early in the day?”
    Nora Lennox worked her hands together. “He got up at four in the morning. Said he couldn’t sleep. He hasn’t been sleeping at all well since your father died. I thought he was just getting a glass of warm milk, like he does sometimes, so I went back to sleep. I didn’t know he had any whisky. I know there wasn’t any in the house, so it must have been hidden in the garage. When the alarm went off at seven, he wasn’t in bed. I came out and found him like this. He’d dressed himself, as you can see, but I couldn’t let him go to work. It’s grief over your father, Ted. You’ve got to consider that.”
    â€œHow do you mean, consider it?”
    â€œIt’s been months since it happened. I know your father warned him if it happened once more he’d have to board him off the force. But please give him one more chance. If he loses a third of his pension, what would we do? We’re going to be barely able to live on a full pension.”
    â€œI’m not going to have him boarded,” Saxon said gruffly. “At least not this time. But he’s a police officer with definite duties, and it louses up the whole schedule when he pulls things like this. I may as well tell you bluntly that I won’t put up with it again.”
    â€œIt won’t happen again,” she said eagerly. “I promise. Next time I’ll get up with him.”
    Lennox said in a maudlin voice,