Dick Tracy (32 page)

“Yeah?” she said sassily. She dipped her spoon into her bowl. “What about?”

“Well . . . about you living alone.”

She shrugged. “We both live alone. We have that in common.”

Tracy cleared his throat; he searched for the words, but they were like clues eluding him. “Well, when two people have a lot in common, they ought to do something about it.”

“Yes . . . ?”

“Well, I was thinking that you and I could . . . well, what do you think?”

She looked him right in the eye. “Dick Tracy, are you asking me to . . .”

“Do it,” Junior said, and elbowed him. “Go on and give it to her.”

Tracy smiled one-sidedly. “Maybe this isn’t the right moment.”

“What?” Tess asked.

“Aw, go on,” Junior said. “Don’t be a dumb dick.”

Tracy laughed and fished the small jewelry box out of his suitcoat pocket—the same pocket where he kept his handcuffs. He hoped the contents of the box would be at least that binding.

“It isn’t very big,” Tracy said, “and it’s taken a bite out of our nest egg, but . . .”

He handed her the box over Junior’s mostly empty bowl.

She took it, opened it and the small diamond winked at her from its little velvet bed. She slid the ring on her finger and admired the view.

“Dick Tracy,” she said, “that’s the most beautiful diamond ring I ever saw.”

“It looks better under this,” he said, and offered her a big Sherlock Holmes-style magnifying glass.

She began to laugh, and so did Tracy, and so did Junior.

Then the boy got out of the way while the detective and the beautiful girl kissed; then the detective ruffled the boy’s hair, and the beautiful girl hugged them both, and they all three ate ice cream, and lived happily ever after.

Except, of course, for the times when the detective’s two-way wrist radio interrupted and sent him off on some wild adventure.

Which was when Dick Tracy was at his happiest anyway.

M
AX
A
LLAN
C
OLLINS
has written the internationally syndicated comic strip DICK TRACY since its creator, the late Chester Gould, retired in 1977.

He is the author of some thirty novels in the suspense field, including three contemporary mystery series—Nolan, Quarry and Mallory (a thief, hitman, and mystery writer, respectively); and has written several historical thrillers about Eliot Ness, upon whom Tracy was partially patterned.

His acclaimed historical novel
True Detective
, introducing Chicago P.I. Nate Heller, won the Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” award for best novel of 1983; its sequels
True Crime, The Million-Dollar Wound,
and
Neon Mirage
were also Shamus-nominated. A fifth Heller,
The Child on Scharter Street,
exploring the Lindbergh kidnap case, is due soon from Bantam Books.

Collins is also (with artist Terry Beatty) co-creator of the comics features “Ms. Tree” and “Wild Dog,” and has scripted the “Batman” comic book and newspaper strip. He has coauthored critical studies on Mickey Spillane (with James Traylor) and TV detectives (with John Javna). A rock musician since the midsixties, he is currently performing and recording with two bands, “Crusin’ ” and “Seduction of the Innocent.”

He lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife Barbara and their seven-year-old son Nathan.