Tenth Commandment Read Free

an assignment, exactly. It was 17
    about much more than that.
    I said nothing, just watched Mr Dollworth pour himself a paper cup of vodka from his thermos. He sipped it slowly, staring at me thoughtfully across his desk.
    He was a blobby man, with a belly that kept his swivel chair two feet from his desk. His scraggly, straw-coloured hair was thinning; patches of freckled scalp showed through. Darkish eyebrows were so snarled that I had seen him comb them. His nose had evidently been broken several times; it just didn't know which way to turn. His lips were glutinous, teeth tobacco-stained. But the eyes were hard and squinchy. Looking at those eyes made me happy I was his friend and not an enemy.
    'Look, kid,' he said finally in a deep, burpy voice, 'let me tell you what's been happening. You know, I figure to retire in a couple of years, if this miserable ulcer don't kill me first. That means they got to replace me — right? So I went to old man Teitelbaum. He likes you — you know? He hired you because you're the only guy in the joint smaller than he is. You knew that, didn't you?'
    'Yes,' I said, 'I knew.'
    'Well...' he said, sipping vodka, 'you turned out real good. I mean, you work hard, don't steal stamps, and you're polite. Always ready with a smile. Everyone here likes you. Except maybe Hamish Hooter, that prick. But he don't like anyone. Except maybe Yetta Apatoff. Hooter would like to like her — about six inches' worth.'
    I nodded dumbly.
    'So I says to Teitelbaum, how about promoting Josh Bigg to investigator? Let him work with me my last two years, I says, and I guarantee to teach him the ropes. By the time I step down, you'll have a spry young man ready to fill my shoes, a guy who knows his way around. I told Teitelbaum how good you done on those little jobs I gave you. This kid, I says, has got a good nut on his shoulders.
    Give him a chance, and you'll have an A-Number One 18
    Investigator in your organization.'
    I was excited. I slid forward to the edge of my chair. I leaned eagerly towards Dollworth.
    'And what did he say?'
    'He said no,' the Chief Investigator said regretfully. 'He said you were too young. He said you didn't have the experience. He said he wanted another ex-cop to take my place.'
    I collapsed.
    'Wait a minute,' Dollworth said, holding up a hand like a smoked ham. 'I never take a turndown without I put up a fight. I said you might look young, but by the time I retire, you'll be thirty — right? — and your brain is older than that.
    Also, I says, as far as experience goes, I can teach you most of what you'll have to know, and the rest you'll pick up as you go along. And as for hiring an ex-cop, I says, if he wants another rumdum like me, that's his business. But an investigator gets out a lot, meets the public, and he should make a good impression as a representative of the firm.
    And you dress neat, wear a jacket and pants that match, and a tie and all. Then I throw in the clincher. Also, I tell Teitelbaum, you hire an ex-cop to take my place, you'll be lucky to get away paying him twenty G's a year. You could get Bigg to do the same work for half of that.'
    'What did he say to that?' I asked breathlessly.
    'They're having a meeting this afternoon,' Roscoe Dollworth said. 'The three senior partners. I'll let you know how it comes out. Meanwhile, my jug is getting low.
    How's about you rushing the growler for me?'
    Late that afternoon I was informed that the senior partners of Tabatchnick, Orsini, Reilly, and Teitelbaum, in solemn conclave assembled, had decreed that I was to be replaced in the mailroom and, for a period of two years, be apprenticed to Chief Investigator Dollworth. At the end of that period, the senior partners would accept Dollworth's judgment on whether I was or was not qualified to assume 19
    his office upon his retirement. During my apprenticeship, I would continue to earn $150 a week.
    'Don't worry about a thing,' Roscoe Dollworth assured me, winking. 'It's in the