"Spider Robinson - C4 - Callhan' s Lady" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

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BOOK 1 - A VERY VERY VERY FINE HOUSE


CHAPTER 1 THE LADY


It's a good idea to stake out a spot near an alley, if you can manage it without a fight.
Occasionally you get a john who's in a big hurry, or who enjoys the thought of making out in
almost-public. Either kind can be dealt with in a quarter of the usual time, with minimal effort,
and neither kind is liable to insist on a discount. Besides, if you think about it, they are
getting a discount since they don't have to pay for a room.
You have to look them over carefully before going up that alley with them. Even the
cheapest, sleaziest hotel room has an inhibiting effect on a rapist or mugger or nutcase. Whereas
an alley is a place from which he can escape in two directions in a hurry.
But it had been my experience that, while perhaps a quarter of all johns were weird in one
way or another, less than one in a hundred was dangerously weird. And I had never met one of those
that I couldn't cope with. I used to quote those statistics about how the vast majority of murder
and rape victims were assaulted by someone they knew. So when I hit the set that night, the first
thing I did was to grab a spot near a good alley. One with no overlooking windows or fire escapes,
or intrusive lights. I got there just ahead of Suzy Q, and he glared at me, but surrendered the
spot. (Suzy was a pre-op transsexual, who billed himself as the One-Stop-Shop, and he and I had an
understanding. He didn't mess with me, and I let him stay a pre-op transsexual.)
The moon was just coming up over the pool hail across the Street when a well-dressed
straight couple walked past me: a short, sad-looking man and somebody's maiden auntie, talking in
low voices.
I only noticed them because of the glance the auntie gave me. Lots of well-dressed aunties
looked at me with a mixture of pity and condescension and revulsion. This one's eyes held only
pity. Somehow that was even more irritating.
So I half watched them as they walked by me and neared the mouth of the alley. I noticed
vaguely that he had awfully big ears, and that she had a pretty fair little shape for an auntie.
And then his worried-sounding murmur rose in volume, so that I caught the last two words: "-right
now!" He thrust something into her hands, and she took it at once, began doing something to his
neck with it. The gestures she made were oddly familiar, but I couldn't place them. She stood
back, and I got it. He now wore a dog collar around his neck, and the end of the leash was in her
hand.
And they ducked into the alley.
I broke up. They were just the most unlikely couple I could imagine to grab an alley
quickie-much less to be into B&D.
I stopped laughing almost at once. When I was her age, came the thought, I'd probably have
to take the weird johns too.
Or maybe their relationship was personal rather than professional. In any case, they were
consummating it in my goddamn alley. I followed them into the alley on cat feet.
A shaft of moonlight on the alley wall provided dim illumination. I saw them about twenty
yards away, their backs to me. I moved so that I was no longer silhouetted against the mouth of
the alley for them, and settled into voyeur mode.
The show was already in progress: he was removing his clothes with considerable haste. All
of them, which I thought strange and rather rash considering the exposed location. As he removed
each garment he handed it to the auntie. In a surprisingly short time he was stark naked. Not even