Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘To Fetch A Thief’

Politics: From To Fetch A Thief

“No avoiding politics these days,” Admin says, “so I ran a search for the word politics or politician in all the books of the Chet and Bernie series so far. I got one hit, from To Fetch A Thief, and here’s the passage:”

“What’s a border, Chet?” Bernie said. I waited to hear. “Just a line on a map, drawn by politicians. Is that supposed to impress us?” I didn’t know. We came to a crossroads, the pavement continuing straight ahead, a dirt track leading off to the side. Bernie pulled over, shut off the engine.

It was real quiet. Bernie twisted around in his seat, gazed at Dos Jorobas. In between the humps lay a little clump of white. “San Anselmo,” Bernie said. “That was our plan. Do we cut and run, let ourselves get pushed around?” Were we getting pushed around? By who? I didn’t know, but getting pushed around was out of the question. I barked. Bernie laughed and gave me a pat. Then he opened the glove box and took out the .38 Special and a box of ammo. “Don’t know about you,” Bernie said, loading the rounds – those rounds, glittering in the sun, a sight I always liked seeing! – into the cylinder. “But I’m in the mood for pushing back.”

Me, too. That was exactly my mood, to a T, whatever that means. There were golf tees, of course, and once in a pro shop I’d gotten into a bit of a – but forget all that. How could this be about golf? Had golf come up in this case, even once? Hey! In fact, it had. I remembered Colonel Drummond on the practice tee – whoa, another T – and those yellow pants. So maybe this was about golf, after all. Fine with me. I was ready for anything, including golfers in yellow pants trying to push us around.

Contest

“The invaluable Ms. Publicist – ” Spence begins.

“You can say that again,” says Admin.

” – found a special box in the bowels of Atria last week – “

“You didn’t say it again.”

” – containing what she so nicely called a very precious cargo. In the spirit of the holidays, that cargo will be awarded to Chet’s loyal and appreciated fans: a signed copy of To Fetch A Thief will be sent to 3 randomly chosen winners from this sign up sheet.”

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFdVcmppb2dWTFNRWG14N1Yzd29US0E6MQ

Thanksgiving (3): From To Fetch A Thief

Whoa. What was going on? In no time, Bernie had stuck the gun in the console, unlocked Jocko’s cuffs, and they were climbing out of the cab.

“You stay right there, Chet,” Bernie said.

Stay right here? They’d moved out in front of the truck, seemed like they were about to throw down. How could I –

“I mean it, Chet,” Bernie said, and was still looking my way when Jocko wound up and threw a tremendous punch at Bernie’s head, on the bad eye side. Somehow Bernie saw it anyway and ducked, and not only that, but while ducking grabbed Jocko’s wrist, spun around and pulled down like he was snapping a towel – oh, we’ve had fun with towel-snapping, but no time to go into that now – and then came this CRACK, reminding me of when Bernie and Suzie did that wishbone thing on Thanksgiving, only much louder. Next was Jocko lying on the ground, yelling and moaning and twisting around.

Dan: We hope you’re doing better today.

Welcome Bear, Piper, Tallyho, the Snowdogs, Toto (possible Iggy pal).

Thanksgiving (2): From To Fetch A Thief

“This is my son Charlie. Shake hands with Sergeant Torres, Charlie.”

Rick held out his hand. Charlie gazed down at the ground.

“I won’t bite,” Rick said. Of course he wouldn’t! Hardly any humans did, their little teeth not being much of a weapon. I did remember a perp named Clancy Green chomping on some other perp’s arm, but that was on a Halloween night, the only holiday I don’t like – Halloween brings out the worst in people, Bernie says. Thanksgiving is my favorite, except for that one time with the drumstick incident, maybe a story for another day.

Charlie raised his hand, a little hand that disappeared in Rick’s big one. Rick shook it gently.

“There’s a gun on your belt,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, but I’ve never fired it,” Rick said, although I didn’t know why, since I could smell it had been fired, and not too long ago.

Welcome dinged-up dude (get well soon).

And our thoughts are with Howard and Snowhook today.