The Bubble Gum Thief Read Online Free

off the barrel of his gun, and she grabbed it. When she spun around, the Mouse was limping through the woods.
    With her legs and a gun, it would be too easy. She fired a shot to his left to get his attention. “I don’t want to kill you,” she shouted.
    “You’ll have to,” came the reply.
    She chased him through the trees, ducking under branches, jumping over rocks. With every obstacle, she gained ground. He tumbled over a drooping poultry-wire fence; she hurdled it in one stride. He stepped over fallen tree trunks; she bounced off them.Dagny spied the park’s great grassy meadow through the thicket. Once he left the cover of the forest, she’d have a clear enough shot to bring him down alive.
    At the end of the forest, he burst into the meadow with surprising speed. She pounded her feet harder, stretching each stride. Three steps out of the forest, her left foot landed on the paved pathway and she slipped, tumbling forward onto the frozen grass.
    All at once, her entire body ached. She tried to move, but couldn’t. The blood on her forehead froze and pulled at her skin. Her grip loosened on the gun, and it slipped out of her fingers. The beat of the Mouse’s footsteps grew fainter, then disappeared. Dagny lay there, tired and confused—defeated.
    She sat in a small white room at the Bureau’s Brooklyn-Queens office, waiting for the door to open. An hour passed before it did.
    “You had your phone on?” Frank Cooper, the assistant director in charge of Dagny’s DC office. Dagny liked Cooper—he was two of her favorite things: smart and quiet. But he wasn’t being quiet now.
    “I made a dumb mistake.”
    “I’ll say. You’re lucky.” Cooper put his briefcase down on the table between them and took a seat opposite Dagny. He pulled a Glock from his coat pocket and slid it across to her. “They found it.”
    Dagny took the gun and holstered it under her arm. “Thanks.”
    “I’m not going to make a crack about you losing your gun.”
    “Thanks again.” She paused. “I got
his
gun at least.”
    “Yeah. Even trade.” Cooper tilted his head and sighed.
    “I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure if she was apologizing for losing her gun or losing the Mouse.
    “You came close.”
    “I had him. I had him, and he just—”
    “Was faster?”
    “No.”
    “I heard you fell.”
    “I did.”
    Cooper pushed his chair back from the table a few inches, then scooted it forward again. “I think we need to talk.”
    Dagny didn’t like the sound of that. “About what?”
    “You know I like you. I mean that, Dagny.”
    “I don’t like the start of this.”
    “Well, you need to know that. You’re one of the best agents I’ve got. Which makes this—”
    “Am I in trouble?”
    He took a deep breath. “Did you eat anything today?”
    So it was this. “I just slipped, Frank. Maybe there was a patch of ice on the pavement.”
    “Answer the question.” He waited, and then repeated, “Did you eat anything today?”
    “I can’t remember.”
    “That means no.”
    “I might have. I can’t remember.”
    “Welpers said you didn’t eat anything.”
    “Okay,” she said. “I may have skipped a day.”
    “Or two. Or three.”
    “I ate something yesterday.”
    Cooper laughed. “Do you really think you’re going to win this argument?”
    Dagny shook her head. “What do I need to do?”
    “You need to eat. Isn’t that clear?”
    “Frank, I run every day. What I eat isn’t affecting my work. I didn’t fall down because of that.”
    “This isn’t about the Mouse. This is about you. You’re starting to look sick. And I’m worried. I think you need to see someone.”
    “If I do, it goes into my file.”
    “I knew you’d say that.”
    “I can get right without it. I’ve let things slide a bit, but I can fix it. Seriously, I can.”
    “I knew you’d say that, too.”
    “A couple years ago, the same thing happened, and I fixed it myself.”
    “It’s not fixed when it happens again.” He