"S. A. Gorden - The Duce of Pentacles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gorden S A)

 Jim's "fine, thank you" barely made it out of his mouth when Henry
interrupted him with, "This is Al Gallea. He's new. He's riding with me
tonight."
"Come in. Sit there." James pointed to two mismatched chairs leaning
against the walls of the trailer. James went behind a counter and started to
make coffee. The TV set blasted a late night news show from its location
between their seats and the kitchen. Al started to get up but Henry touched
his shoulder and shook his head.
Soon the smell of fresh coffee drifted in from the kitchen. James came
out and handed each a chipped coffee cup on a saucer. He left and came back
with his own. He leaned against the wall a few feet away. Sipping the scalding
hot coffee he said, "Okay, Henry. What's up? You've never stopped by my place
before on your own."
Henry had poured some coffee from his cup and into the saucer. He
slurped a sip of the now bearable hot coffee from the rim of the saucer before
he answered, "Well, Jim, we got a complaint. I've got to ask you some
questions."
"You know better."
"It's my job."
To Gallea's amazement, nothing else was said. The men just sipped their
coffee. Henry refilled his saucer from the cup he now had resting on the floor
by his chair. Gallea's impatience grew, as the two men seem to only
contemplate the slowly cooling coffee they were drinking.
Gallea interrupted the drinking. "We would like to know where you were
and what you were doing at 4:30 on Tuesday?" Nobody said anything. "You can
answer these questions here or at the station."
Henry said, "Sorry, Jim, but this is his first time on an
investigation."
"It's all right, Henry. We all have our crosses to bear." Makinen and
Henry then got up and went to the door. James opened the door and they both
stared at Gallea until he got up and left.
After the door closed, Al yelled, "What the hell was that all about?
Aren't we going to do anything?"
"I told you not to say anything. Now we won't get anything out of him."
"What are you talking about? You didn't even try."
"Sorry, son. I guess I should've explained. James Makinen is an old
school Finlander. You're new here, so you don't know what that means. Finns
don't give a damn about the government's authority and people from the
government, even if they are very active in politics. They're not intimidated.
A Finn was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, thumbing his
nose at the King of England. Through the years, they have played the Swedes
and Germans against the Russians, the Russians against the Swedes, and the
world against them all. They didn't stop with using governments against other
governments. As individuals, they would take on a government. All through the
Cold War and the McCarthy Era, the center of the U.S. Communist party was a
few miles from here in a small Finnish farming community. Nothing J. Edgar
Hoover, Senator McCarthy, or any other anticommunist group tried even slowed
them down. They just quietly voted communist while sending some of their sons
to Korea and Vietnam. I remember my father's story about one of Hoover's
G-men's surprise when a Korean Vet with more decorations on his shirt than