I was starting to see the light.
“… That is, if it gets to trial. More than likely there’ll
be some plea bargaining, and they’ll plead guilty to a lesser
charge, which means a smaller sentence with an earlier
parole—if the sentence isn’t suspended as soon as it’s handed
down …”
“Whoa! Stop! I think I’ll just pass on pressing charges.”
“Thought you would,” the captain nodded. “It’s prob-
ably the easiest way for everybody. After all, you weren’t
hurt, and you’ve still got your money.”
“Of course, the next person they jump may not be quite
so lucky” I said drily.
“I didn’t say it was the best way to handle it, just the
easiest.”
Robert Asprin
126
Before I could think of a witty answer to that one, a
uniformed policeman rapped at the doorframe, entered the
room, and passed a sheet of paper to the captain. Something
about the way the latter* s lips tightened as he scanned the
sheet made me nervous.
“Well, well, Mis-tet Skeeve,” he said at last, dropping
the paper onto the desk in front of him. “It seems this isn’t
the first time you’ve dealt with the police since arriving in
this dimension.”
“Uh-oh,” Kalvin-exclaimed, rolling his eyes, “here it
comes!”
“What makes you say that, Captain?”
I had a hunch it wouldn’t do any good to act innocent.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other ideas about how to act.
“What makes me say that is the report I just received. I
thought I should check with the other precincts to see if
they had heard of you, and it seems they have.”
“That’s why they’ve been stalling,” J.R. put in. “To