The Streetbird Read Online Free PDF Page B

his neck. De Gier slept and dreamed that nothing mattered while he engaged himself in racing a Mercedes sports car through empty Amsterdam alleys, caressed Adjutant Adèle's milk-white limbs, and turned into a condor, flying above the English Channel. He woke up because Tabriz hooked a claw into his lower lip.
    "Easy, now." He pushed the claw out of his mouth. Tabriz jumped off his lap and began to butt her dish.
    De Gier got into his uniform and stood at attention in front of the mirror. Tabriz left her dish and stood next to him.
    "What's on display here," de Gier said, "is a madman, in the queen's coat, about to be released to wreak havoc amongst the perverted." He tightened his belt and rested his hand on the butt of his pistol. "A lunatic, armed to the teeth, who will slay the insane." He put on his cap and saluted. "A nut who sees roller-skating gentlemen in the small hours of the night, and a vulture on a TV antenna."
    Tabriz pushed herself against his leg. "Keep your multicolored hairs to yourself," de Gier said. "Sit on the balcony and catch insects until I come back." He pushed the cat with a polished boot. "To report on how I worsened a situation that was already hopeless to begin with."

\\\\ 4 ////
    G R IJPSTRA SAT DOWN SUSPICIOUSLY ON A COUCH UPHOL - steredin red vinyl and tried to rest his eyes on fading wallpaper printed with a design of dead flowers. Cardozo ran into the small room holding an imitation bamboo tray on which two chipped mugs wobbled. "Tea, adjutant. Do you think we're about ready now, or do you want to clean out the loft too?"
    "As ready as we'll ever be," Grijpstra said, "thank you." He stirred the pale fluid. "Is that real milk?"
    "Powder, adjutant. Just as good. Tastes the same."
    "Plastic milk," Grijpstra said. "Why do I bother walking around in a real body? Can't I have one molded, and swallow a tape recorder?"
    Cardozo sat on the windowsill next to a bowl filled with paper flowers. Grijpstra pointed. "Throw those out."
    "But I dusted them."
    "Away with the rags."
    Cardozo carried the torn bouquet out and came back with a sponge. He knelt and wiped tea drops off the cracked linoleum floor. "Please, adjutant. It took us eight hours to get this place clean."
    Grijpstra nodded. "Criminals are dirty buggers. We've got six bags of debris in the corridor; if that chap ever gets back here, he won't recognize his hole. What was it again that we have him for?"
    Cardozo arranged a set of polystyrene elephants on a shelf, ranging from the size of a large rabbit to the measurements of a small mouse. "Burglary."
    "Simple or complicated?"
    "Complicated. He crapped on the carpet too. Same suburb where de Gier lives. Hardly a professional, this Kavel. They've got new cars out there and he arrived in a junker. But he had telephoned first, to make sure that his mark wasn't home. Lugged all his tools into the elevator and was seen by a neighbor who was good enough to phone us. Kavel forced the door, filled his bag with plated silverware and the owner's worthless collection of Nigerian stamps and didn't forget the child's piggy bank. A curtain moved in the draft, and he took fright and crapped on the rug, just as the cops came in. A habitual offender, he'll get a few years this time."
    "Crapped, eh?"
    "That's what they do, adjutant. Part of the pattern. Always in the best room and always on the Persian rug."
    "Disgusting." Grijpstra bit into his cigar and spat. Cardozo glared. The adjutant groaned, bent down, and picked up the shreds of tobacco. "Now what?"
    Cardozo held out a paper. "Put it here, adjutant. Don't do it again." The bell rang and Cardozo pulled a rope. He greeted de Gier, who ran up the stairs.
    "In time for tea but much too late to help out," Grijpstra said. "Why aren't you in uniform?"
    Cardozo stood in the open door. "Sugar, sergeant? Milk, sergeant?"
    "Please," de Gier said. "I'm not in uniform because I left it in Adjutant Adèle's cupboard. A uniform draws unwanted attention. You can't