The Interstellar Police Force, Book One: The Historic Mission by Raymond Klein (ebook reader 7 inch txt) 📕

Jennifer thanked Jeff and got out of the Thunderbird. She told him not to worry, that she should be home by eleven and that she was fine walking home. But, if she did need to be picked up she would call. Five days earlier she had helped Jeff set up phone service at the apartment with the local phone company.

Jeff was worrying about her movie plans and asked if she was going to “work” tonight instead. She hadn’t since she started living with Jeff and Genghis. She said no, she wasn’t planning on working anytime soon, which was a silent relief for Jeff. She thanked him again and walked over to Trisha and Pimples. Then the three of them crossed Seventh Avenue to Main Street and as they crossed in front of the cruiser Jennifer waved goodbye to Jeff. He returned her wave. Jeff watched them as they walked down Main Street, Jennifer seemingly doing all the talking. He continued watching the three of them until they turned up Third Avenue, disappearing behind a building, heading toward the theater.

“Yes,” Jeff said to Genghis, “Trisha and Pimples were there waiting on her.”

Without looking up from his computer, Genghis replied, “I’d like to know their stories. They're a couple of odd ducks.”

“Yes, most likely they both had a family life similar to Twinkie's. Sad when you really think about it. Say!” Jeff said as he walked toward the kitchen, “I’m going to put some coffee on. Would you like some?”

“Ah! Hello.” Genghis said, while rolling his eyes. “Do the twin planets of Lykins have an elliptical orbit around their sun?”

“Well, yes,” Jeff said. “Of course they do. You know that as well as . . . Oh! Yes! I get it. Very clever, Mister Khan.”

Genghis made a phfff sound through his mouth and said, “Of course, it was clever, Mister Trent. I’m a highly intelligent human canine.”

“Yes, but still just a human canine, Mister Khan.” Jeff said, while getting the coffee from the cupboard.

“Oh,” Genghis turned from the computer to look at Trent. “Are we really going there, Mister Trent? The human biped who can’t run twenty paces without stopping to catch his breath.”

“Mister Khan, you know as well as I that I’m still working on my human endurance and lung capacity. Give me another month and I’ll be able to keep up and then surpass you.”

“And again, Mister Trent, I say, phfff !”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Genghis was not having any luck getting Bollar’s description into the FBS system. He tried several different programs, but he still was not able to get the images into the system.

“This isn’t working.” The Doberman said while taking a big swig of coffee. “We’ll have to go about this in a different way. If we just had an actual photo it would make our lives much easier.”

“You know,” Jeff said, “if this is not going to work, the next time we go out patrolling, we should think about bringing Twinkie along with us. She has seen him.”

“Jeff, I don’t know. That could put Twinkie in danger.”

“Well, yes, I understand that,” Jeff said, “but she can help us by pointing him out. Then we follow him and locate his dwelling. But we don’t engage until we have a good apprehension plan and make the arrest on a later date. Without Twinkie being with us.”

Genghis thought for a moment. “Okay, that sounds to be the only option we’ve got right now.”

The computer made an alert tone and automatically switched from the Full Body Scanning system program to one of the surveillance cameras.

“There’s our fat boy,” Genghis remarked.

Colus Valda was walking down one of the more quiet streets of Old Town. What he didn’t realize was that, although he took precautions, there was a surveillance camera high on the corner of a building that he didn’t see, and walked right by it.

Jeff and Genghis were quickly descending the backstairs of their apartment, their footsteps chattering loudly on the wooden steps. “Third Avenue heading toward Seventh Street,” Genghis was rapidly saying. “No more cameras in that area, so we gotta move.” Genghis jumped onto the hood of the Thunderbird and over the windshield into his seat. Jeff got the garage door opened, then quickly slid behind the wheel and started the cruiser.

Jennifer, Trisha and Pimples were in the middle of a small crowd leaving the two-screen movie theater that was first built in 1921 and then renovated in the mid 1970's. “That was pretty good,” Jennifer was saying. She finished the last of her drink and threw the cup in a trash can, then wiped her hands on her jeans, “I think Anne Hathaway is so pretty and I liked the way the movie ended.”

“It was okay, I didn’t get it,” Pimples said with a shrug.

“What do you mean you didn’t get it?” Jennifer asked, not understanding.

“What do you mean ‘What do I mean?’” Pimples asked.

Jennifer looked at him and crinkled her face. “What do I . . . Huh?”

“I just don’t like chick flicks.” Pimples said, while looking at the ground.

“That wasn’t a chick flick. Are you kidding? It had a dragon in it! Trisha?” Jennifer turned to her for a little support. Trisha just shrugged her shoulders and said nothing.

Jeff Trent and Genghis Khan were slowly driving up Third Avenue. There were no more surveillance cameras in this particular area of Old Town, so they were hoping Colus was close. Trent slowed even more and almost came to a complete stop when they crossed over the intersection of Seventh Street. They both looked right, then left. There were pedestrians on both sides of the street, but no one resembled Colus Valda. They continued up Third Avenue and made a left on Sixth Street.

Colus Valda loved ice cream. On his way back to Chloe’s, he stopped in at Scoop’s Ice Cream Parlor. He thought to himself how this planet has the best stuff to eat. He got two scoops of Moose Tracks ice cream in a