"Hennessey, Mike - Dan Healey - The Screwdriver Solution" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hennessey Mike)

= The Screwdriver Solution
A Dan Healey story
by Mike Hennessey


It was eight at night, and Mac caught me just as I was packing up to go home. I'd spent the day sitting here thinking, which some might say constituted a hard day's work for me. I wouldn't have minded a harder day, actually; it had been so slack this week that I was beginning to think that the services of a private investigator were about as much in demand as those of a crocodile wrestler.

"Yeah, Mac?" I said into the phone.

"We need you, kid. Like right now."

"I don't know. I'm pretty busy."

"Well, drop it. We got a kidnapping and that may be the least of it. He's also a child molester."

"Oh, no."

"Yeah. We got him cornered over here in Alphabet City."

"A little off your turf, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but we're coordinating with the Ninth. They've left me in charge since we caught the squeal."

"How'd you make him so quickly?"

"A parent saw the kid grabbed after school and had the good sense to get his number and description. Called in on her mobile. We got lucky--had a car in the neighborhood, and we were on him in ten minutes. We've been toing and froing on the phone for the last four hours."

"How's the kid?"

"I think he may be okay. Guess who the kidnapper is."

"Tell me."

"The well-known Shorty Lester."

"Geez, Mac, when did he get out?"

"Just finished a ten-year stretch a month ago. Didn't take him long to get back in action."

"Any progress at all?" These situations were never easy, especially when a hostage--and a child at that--was involved.

"Not much. Looks like he had this place picked out well in advance. The family who live here is up in Maine on a two-week vacation."

"And?"

"He wants to bargain. Says the boy's not been touched, and he knows he's better off bargaining for kidnapping than child molesting."

"What do you want me for?" I asked.

"We're about to have a power shortage over here. We think he'll let in an electrician."