The Great West Detective Agency Read Online Free PDF Page B

past, it was time to press his advantage for a lengthier encounter with a woman who didn’t sleep with her dog.
    â€œPlease don’t mention the way I look,” Lucas said, moving behind her and holding the chair as a hint for her to leave. “I sometimes adopt a disguise for the purpose of a case.”
    â€œThere won’t be any need to do so when you go to find the men who stole Tovarich.”
    She preceded him to the door. “Will this be enough for a retainer?” She held out a wad of greenbacks large enough to choke a cow. “It’s only a hundred dollars. I can give you that much more when you recover Tovarich and return him to me.”
    Startled by the large sum, Lucas instinctively held out his hand. Amanda dropped the greenbacks into it.
    â€œI’m so happy you will take the case, Lucas. You must begin the search as soon as possible. I don’t want those thieves to take Tovarich to some faraway place where I will never see him again.”
    â€œThe case I intended to work on is quite pressing,” he said. He closed the door behind him and considered locking it. To do so without a key required him to use his lock picks. Amanda might believe he did this to show off. Instead he decided to leave the door open. There wasn’t much to steal in the office.
    â€œI feel you are a dependable man, Lucas. You will do your best.” She cast a quick look at the door. “You and the Great West Detective Agency.”
    She reached out shyly and put her hand on his arm, then turned away and hurried off. All he could see was the sway of her bustle. He took a couple steps, then stopped to look around the business district for any laundry where he might get his coat cleaned. Something about the man and woman coming toward him made him step to one side. His instinct was vindicated when they stopped in front of the agency door.
    They were plainly dressed, nothing too expensive. But clean and neat. Lucas thought they might be wearing their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, but not knowing them better kept him from making this assumption. The man’s brown suit had been tailored to fit, though his shirt cuff peeking out was worn. He wore a string tie that did not match his coat, though the color difference was subtle. He might not even have noticed, but Lucas did. The man wore no jewelry other than a gold wedding band. He didn’t even sport a gold watch chain or fob.
    The woman’s gray dress was similarly unembellished with even a broach or locket. Her hand moved restlessly, but Lucas caught the golden flash of a wedding ring that matched the man’s. Both were of a height a few inches shorter than Lucas’s own five foot ten. The man was beginning to sport a beer gut, but the woman was thin as a rail and likely as tough. She had that look about her.
    The exact opposite attitude showed in her husband. Lucas had seen men bossed about by women before. There was no question who wore the pants in this family.
    He touched the slip of paper with Amanda’s address and then the hundred dollars she had given him. He had no reason to look for a lost dog and one likely to have become a meal for a hungry predator, but honor required him to do something about her plight. Hiring the detectives from the agency satisfied his honor and possibly returned the dog to its owner. He started for the couple, then turned and pretended to watch a fight across the street.
    â€œNot here yet. Where can he be, dear?”
    â€œHow should I know?”
    The woman scowled. If a smile had ever graced her lips, she might have been attractive. Lucas would never classify her as more, not even pretty. Her angular features reminded him of a schoolteacher he had hated. Even the chopping motion made with her left hand was similar. But this was not Miss Draper. That harridan would be sixty now, and this woman wasn’t a day past thirty.
    â€œIt makes no sense, putting an ad in the newspaper for