24
" Miss Gates is a nice lady, ain't she?" Why sure," said Jem. " I liked her when I was in her room." She hates Hitler a lot . . ." What's wrong with that?" Well, she went on today about how bad it was him treating the Jews like that. Jem, it's not right to persecute anybody, is it? I mean have mean thoughts about anybody, even, is it?" Gracious no, Scout. What's eatin' you?" Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was--- she was going' down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her--- she was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themelves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home--- "
25
" The traffic warden looked up. " This your car?" " It is," said Skulduggery. The traffic warden nodded. " Very nice, very nice. But you can't park here, day or night." " I wasn't aware of that." " There's a sign right over there." " I didn't think it applied to me." " Why wouldn't it have applied to you?" Skulduggery tilted his head. " Because I'm special." " Don't care how special you think you are, you're parked in a no parking area and as such you're---" " We're here on official police business." The traffic warden narrowed his eyes. " You're Garda? I'm going to need to see some identification." " We're undercover," said Skulduggery. " This is a very important undercover operation which you are endangering just by talking to us." He opened his jacket. " Look, I have a gun. I am Detective Inspector Me. This is my partner, Detective Her." The traffic warden frowned. " Her?" " Me," said Stephanie. " Him?" " Not me," said Skulduggery. " Her." " Me," said Stephanie. " You?" said the traffic warden. " Yes," said Stephanie. " I" m sorry, who are you?" Stephanie looked at him. " I'm Her, he's Me. Got it? Good. You better get out of here before you blow our cover. They've got snipers. "
