The Alternative Detective (Hob Draconian) Read Online Free Page B

Hob; it would be a shame not to straighten out her teeth now, when it’s relatively easy.”
    “Sure, I’ll be able to help.”
    “Thanks. Where are you going?”
    “Paris.”
    “Not Ibiza?”
    “Not if I can help it.”
    “Even going to Paris. Is that such a great idea?”
    “All that trouble is in the past,” I said, hoping it was true. “I’ll call you when I get back. How’s that drunken Irish husband of yours?”
    “Kevin is fine. He asked me to ask you why you don’t come up to Woodstock any more.”
    “Tell him it’s because I can’t stand seeing you with another man.”
    “Kevin will be so pleased to hear that. He thought you didn’t care.”
    “Katie, why don’t you get rid of that guy and come back to me?”
    “You just say that to be gallant. For one thing, you’re still with Mylar.”
    “That’s only temporary,” I told her, “until Sheldon makes the big decision and takes her away. Kate, you know it’s always been you.”
    Katie laughed. “Hobart, when are you going to take life seriously? You know very well that if I showed the slightest inclination to come back to you, you’d run like a thief in the night.”
    “You might have something there. Tell you what, why don’t you and I have one last mad fling at this little hotel I know in Miami?”
    “Sure, if I can bring Kevin.”
    “I didn’t know he’s a pervert.”
    “He’s not. He just likes to talk. He’d probably have a lot to say about something like that.”
    “Kate, I don’t think you’re taking me seriously.”
    “My dear, you forget that I lived with you for ten years. I ought to know by now when not to take you seriously.”
    “And when not to take me at all.”
    “I learned that, too, yes,” Katie said. “You’re really going to Paris?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Hob, take care of yourself. Don’t try to prove anything. And for your own sake, try to stay out of Ibiza.”
    “All I’m doing is trying to earn a living,” I told her. “I pay you support, you’ll remember, despite the rapidly increasing wealth of your shyster lawyer husband.”
    “Stop that,” Katie said. “Supporting the kids has nothing to do with Kevin. It doesn’t matter how much he makes. They’re yours and mine.”
    “I know that. Only kidding. I’ll call you when I’m back.”
    “Hob,” she said, “how are things with you and Mylar?”
    “The same,” I said.
    “Is Sheldon still living with you?”
    “Yep.”
    “Really, Hob, that’s tacky; you shouldn’t put up with it.”
    “What can I do? They’re in love.”
    “Then they should move out of your house and find their own place.”
    “The trouble is, neither of them is sure exactly what he or she wants to do. I don’t know if Mylar’s quite ready to set up housekeeping with Sheldon, and he’s not going to leave until she says she will.”
    “It’s a hopeless mess,” Katie said. “Why on earth did you ever get involved with a woman named Mylar?”
    “It seemed a good idea at the time,” I said.
    These are the words that I expect to have carved on my tombstone.
     
     

 
    SHELDON
    7
     
     
    My apartment on State Street is one half of a frame house painted a color you can’t quite identify and forget as soon as you turn away from it. I went in and stood a moment in the dark, narrow hallway. “Mylar?” I called.
    “She’s not here,” a voice said from the parlor.
    It’s one of those houses with a parlor and a bay window. Mylar and I rent out the attic room. Sheldon was sitting in the parlor. Sheldon is short and intense, a stocky, vaguely Assyrian-looking man with tightly waved black hair. Features a trifle heavy. Mouth a little droopy. Fixed smile frequently on face. Not the sort of person I’d go for, personally, but of course I’m not the one who picked him.
    “Where’d she go?” I asked.
    “She said she’d be right back.” There was something fishy about the way he said it.
    “All right, but where’d she go to?”
    “Nowhere in