Six Crime Stories Read Online Free Page A

good mood.
    " Now , if we were facing General Clonefire and his Multitaskers , it would be a different story , " said Starbulk. " Though , now that I think about it , I wonder if our foe might be plural in nature. You know , I battled a shape-shifter once who was able to duplicate herself. Went by the name ' Many Jenny. '"
    Dexter looked at me and shook his head. " If there ' s duplicate Johnnys out there , " he said , " I ' m glad we got an expert like you lookin ' out for us , Quinto. "
    At that moment , my cell phone beeped. The number on the display was Inside Charlie ' s.
    " Johnny came in the casino with a redhead named Corinna Crimsone , " said Charlie. " She bought his chips with her credit card. "
    " Corinna Crimsone? " I said. " Sounds familiar. "
    " One of the guys recognized her on tape , " said Charlie. " She ' s a dancer at CrocoDelilah ' s up on Bourbon Street. "
    " That ' s right , " I said , an image of the beautiful redhead popping into my mind...naked and gyrating on stage. " Thanks , Charlie. You ' re the man. "
    " Just remember , " said Charlie. " You owe me another case of Jax. "
    " I ' ll make it two an ' a bucket of crawfish , " I said , and then I hung up and headed for the strip club. Starbulk , as usual , trotted along beside me , running his mouth in such a way that I wanted to punch it shut.

    *****

    When we got to CrocoDelilah ' s , I thought about asking my buddy working the door , Coley Bassinette , if he ' d follow up on that punching I ' d been thinking about. He was big enough to smack down Starbulk , for sure , and he ' d do it in a heartbeat...but I lost my nerve and settled for asking questions about our girl Corinna .
    " She cut out early , " said Coley. "' Bout twenty minutes ago. Said somethin ' about meetin ' someone at the aquarium. Big date , I guess. "
    " The aquarium? " I said. " What kinda big date is that? "
    " Well , " said Coley , " I been tellin ' her there ' s other fish in the sea. Maybe she took me literally. "
    I slipped him a twenty and hailed a taxi. With Corinna running twenty minutes ahead , I ' d have to get to the riverfront fast.
    Or should I say we ' d have to get there fast. Even though I shut the cab ' s door in his face , Starbulk managed to fling it back open and plant his ass on the seat right beside me.

    *****

    Thanks to Vera , a friend of mine and member of the ' Sociation (she does puppet shows on Royal Street on weekends) , Starbulk and I slipped into the Audobon Aquarium without having to pay admission. The crowd was light , and we soon spotted Corinna hanging around the penguin tank upstairs.
    Unfortunately , she spotted us at about the same time. I don ' t know whether she recognized one of us or caught a vibe off us or was just plain jumpy , but she hightailed it.
    Without a word , Starbulk sprinted off after her. I was just about to follow when someone else caught my eye: Hamhock Coubillon , a low-level mob flunky , standing over by the shark tank trying not to look suspicious. He managed about as well as one of those sharks would have if it had hopped out of the tank and plopped down beside him.
    Hamhock was watching Starbulk light out after Corinna , and it didn ' t take a genius to figure out he was there because of her. I guessed he might just be the bigger fish of the two , so I left Corinna to Starbulk and meandered on over toward Hamhock.
    I got about three steps before he spotted me. It took about a second for him to recognize me , decide I had business with him , and hotfoot it in the direction Corinna and Starbulk had gone.
    I took off after him , confident I had a shot at catching up. Hamhock had a jump on me , but he weighed at least as much as I did; for once , my two-hundred-ninety-nine-and-a-half pounds weren ' t a handicap.
    Of course , though our physiques were about equal , Hamhock had an advantage in sheer nastiness. As he barreled through the seahorse exhibit and past the otter tank , he grabbed anyone who got in his way and