Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 52, No. 7 & 8, July/August 2007
- Автор: Baldwin Barry, Campbell Melodie
- Год: 2007
- Язык: английский
- Год: Dell Magazines
- ISBN: ISSN:0002-5224
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 52, No. 7 & 8, July/August 2007». Краткое содержание книги:
“They’re dead, Lieutenant.” Perkins said it flatly, just a simple bit of information. Then his voice turned cruel. “While you were enjoying yourself playing cards and flirting with the lady, my men were planning to murder yours. Should I send you to join them? Would you like to lead them in hell?”
He pointed his pistol at the lieutenant’s head but laughed and did not pull the trigger.
He’s probably only got six shots, Corey realized, and he has to be worried that some of the men in this car are armed. This wasn’t the East, after all. A lot of men in the West carried guns.
Corey slid his feet beneath him and prepared to stand up.
“I wouldn’t do that, Callaghan.” Perkins waved the gun toward him. “I prefer you on the ground.”
The door opened behind him, and Sully and a second man pushed past Perkins. “We’re coasting uphill,” Sully announced, as if it was news.
Perkins cursed.
“Can’t be helped,” Sully said. “It’s all hills out here. We’ll roll back downhill aways, but I don’t think it’s steep enough to make us jump the tracks.”
Perkins cursed again and Sully grinned. He started down the length of the car but stopped almost immediately and tipped his hat toward Miss Parson. She glowered at him, making his grin grow broader.
Sully and his man crossed the length of the car and disappeared through the back entrance.
Silence filled the car as its passengers listened to the engineless train grind to a halt as it coasted up the hill.
The silence was broken by Father Murphy’s female adversary. In the wake of Sully and his man passing to the rear of the car, the old woman had made her way up to the front until she stood, quivering with anger, in front of Ted Perkins. She pointed a finger at the large man. “You scoundrel!” she spat at him. “I warned you that you were about the devil’s work!”
Perkins mockingly doffed his hat. “And you were correct, madam. Now why don’t you return to your seat before I add another case of assault to my sins.”
The old woman stood her ground, and Corey finished getting to his feet. Perkins immediately pointed the gun directly at him. “I told you, Callaghan, I prefer you on the floor. Now take a dive!”
Patrick lurched forward, sudden fury written plainly across his face. “My lad never takes a dive!”
Perkins started bringing the gun to bear on Patrick, but the old woman shoved hard at his gun arm. The result almost got Corey killed, but the prematurely fired bullet passed somewhere between him and Father Murphy and through a window of the car.
Corey surged forward before Perkins could fire again, but in the small, confined space Patrick’s lead was sufficient to let the old man get there ahead of him. In his prime Patrick o’sullivan must have been a force to be reckoned with. He was shorter than Perkins, smaller of build and easily twenty years older, but the man who had taught Corey how to fight proved that he could still handle himself in a brawl. He slipped in next to the old woman, and his right fist shot out twice into Perkins’s chin. The gambler’s head was flung up, and he took a heavy step backward.
Patrick turned his attention to Perkins’s stomach, hammering blows against it with impressive speed and form. Corey arrived beside him, scrambling to grab hold of Perkins’s gun hand and shove the muzzle of the weapon up toward the ceiling while also striving not to knock the old woman down.
Perkins roared with anger. His meaty left hand swung around and knocked Patrick into Corey’s bruised ribs. In the narrow confines of the bouncing railcar, Corey lost his balance, and while he did not fall, he lost his grip on Perkins’s weapon. The gambler started to bring the weapon to bear on the two boxers, but Lieutenant Ridgewood surged to his feet beside Perkins, forcing him to reassess the odds against him. Evidently, three angry men in close quarters were more than he wanted to face, even with the pistol to balance the odds. Perkins took a quick step back, fumbled with the latch on the railcar door, and was out of the interior and crossing to the baggage car before his opponents could react to his retreat.
Patrick was still quivering with rage. “Imagine that! Thinking you would take a dive!”
“He was pointing a gun at me, Patrick! And we’re not in the ring! It’s hardly the same thing.”
Corey shot out a hand and grabbed hold of the lieutenant’s arm as the officer started to follow Perkins into the space between the cars. The lieutenant rounded furiously on Corey, and the boxer held his hands up in surrender. “I guess I don’t really care what you do, Lieutenant,” he said, “but do you really want to charge after him? He’s still armed.”
The train ground to a halt on the slope and then slowly began to roll back downhill.
Miss Parson stepped over to join them. “It’s quite the mess we find ourselves in, gentlemen.”
“Aye, that it is,” Father Murphy agreed. “It appears our poker game was nothing more than a distraction for the good lieutenant.”
“I told you no good would come of it,” the old woman reminded them.
“Aye, that you did,” the priest agreed. “And might I add that I am quite embarrassed by my earlier utterances. You have proved yourself a woman of remarkable courage, but with your permission we need to turn our attention away from past sins and toward the solution to the lieutenant’s problems.”
“I have to secure that payroll and rescue my men,” the lieutenant said. He had ceased to try and exit the car but had not taken his attention from the door. His service revolver was out of its holster and in his hand.
“To accomplish that,” Miss Parson suggested, “you are going to need help and a plan.”
Corey didn’t think there was much chance that the lieutenant’s men were still alive after all of that gunfire and was about to volunteer that information, when he realized that Miss Parson would have thought of that as well and obviously had decided not to mention it.
Patrick was not so discreet. “It don’t look good for your soldiers, Lieutenant. All of those gunshots.”
The lieutenant gritted his teeth as if firming his resolve, then began to open the door toward the baggage car.
Corey hauled him back again. “Now that’s not going to do no good. You heard Miss Parson. We need a plan.”
“I’m sure,” Miss Davis observed, “that a trained military officer like Lieutenant Ridgewood does not need the help or the advice of a down-on-his-luck boxer and a professional lady gambler.”
Patrick bristled at the comment, but Miss Parson responded before either of the two men could speak. “If you are correct, Miss Davis, then the lieutenant should not listen to you either. Really, pretending this was your first time playing while all the while you and Mr. Perkins were dealing off the bottom of the deck to set up Lieutenant Ridgewood. What else is your role in this? You’ve already helped to distract the lieutenant from his duties. Are you also supposed to encourage him to get himself killed?”
Silence blanketed the railcar while every passenger strained their ears to hear Miss Davis’s response. Her face grown flushed and stern, she waited an unnatural moment too long while she struggled to formulate a reply. “Why, I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Miss Parson. I’ve never even heard of — what did you call it? Dealing under the deck?”
“You’ve heard of it,” Father Murphy corrected her. His face was drawn and sad. “I didn’t notice Perkins doing it, but I surely saw you feed cards to the lieutenant half a dozen times.” He shrugged and smiled wanly at Miss Parson. “I didn’t see anything sinister in it. I just thought she was trying to keep her sweet in the game.”
Miss Davis turned to Lieutenant Ridgewood. “This just isn’t true, Thomas. I have no idea what these people are talking about.” She turned on Miss Parson, anger flashing in her eyes. “You’ve made all of this up! If you really thought I was cheating, why didn’t you expose me during the game?”