The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories
- Автор: Adams Cleve F., Babcock Dwight V.
- Год: 2010
- Язык: английский
- Год: A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
- ISBN: 978-0-307-45543-7
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories». Краткое содержание книги:
Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared. It was the slum in which such American literary titans like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start, and it was the home of stories with titles like “Murder Is Bad Luck,” “Ten Carets of Lead,” and “Drop Dead Twice.” Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America’s finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America’s underbelly. Crime writing gets no better than this.
Gus said: “All right, Kid — I’ll see that you go away. I’ve got your ticket—”
He took his gun from the pocket. The girl’s eyes were filled with fear. She cried shrilly:
“No — no! For God’s sake. Gus — I got you here to tell you — who finished — Pardo!”
The fight manager let his small eyes open a little. He held the Colt low.
“All right,” he said. “Spill it!”
The girl’s face was twisted, white. The bluish bruise stood out clearly in the white light from the unshaded bulb. Lippe was breathing heavily in the silence before she spoke. She said hoarsely:
“There he is — Connors!”
Gus Monkly turned his head slightly. Connors’s eyes were on the girl, blue pinpoints in the white light. His lips moved very little.
“You dirty liar!” he said.
The girl rose suddenly from her chair. She faced Connors. Her body was tense. She extended her right arm, pointed a finger at him. Her left arm was close against the dark cloth of her suit.
“Don’t crawl, Connors!” she said harshly. “You got Lou Berryman in the clear, when we were right on top of him. Hurry fixed it with you. And you got Giant Pardo. I saw you!”
Gus Monkly turned his body a little towards the second. He swayed a bit, from side to side. But he kept the muzzle of his gun on the girl’s figure. Connors said again:
“You dirty, yellow liar!”
The girl dropped her right arm. “You were in the ring!” she said. “Gus had to have someone with him. You weren’t in the mob in Chi. He thought you were all right, I suppose. You can play pretty white, I guess. After the kayo — you went towards Giant with a towel in your hands. You gave Pardo the works!”
Gus drew in his breath slowly. Lippe swore hoarsely, across the room. Gus said slowly:
“How about it — Connors?”
The second laughed throatily. He gestured towards the blonde in a careless manner, using his right hand. The left was still out of sight.
“She’s tryin’ to frame me,” he said grimly. “She’s a rat, Gus. We’d better let her have—”
The girl broke in. “I’m givin’ it to you straight, Gus. Connors is workin’ for Hurry. Don’t I know? Hurry was afraid you’d hide Pardo out. You had a winner. He was down the aisle, near the dressing room. He was waiting — in case Connors lost his nerve. But he didn’t lose it. He did for Pardo, I’m tellin’ you!”
Her voice had risen shrilly. Connors’s eyes had ceased to be pinpoints now. They were wider. He chuckled huskily.
“What’s her game, Gus?” he asked. “Why’s she trying to put it on me?”
Gus said in a cold tone: “Take your hand away from the rod, Connors.”
The handler stared at him. His left-hand pocket was away from the fight manager. He didn’t move. Gus spoke very quietly:
“Show me your left, Connors.”
Connors took his left hand from the pocket of his coat. He said bitterly:
“Hell, Gus — you ain’t falling for her line? It’s a frame — she’s trying to get us spilling lead at each other. She’s sitting in with Hurry — and this is a try for an easy out.”
Gus said with a faint smile in his eyes:
“All right, Connors — but it won’t work. We won’t spill lead — not at each other.”
The blonde stared at Monkly. “He did it, Gus!” she said. “I’m tellin’ you — I saw him go for Pardo, with the towel. They used the flashlight to drown the sound—”
Gus said: “Sure, I know, Kid. Now you sit down. Connors — move over and sit down next to her. Face me—”
He watched Connors go over and sit down next to the blonde. There was a sound something like a door shutting, somewhere in the hotel. Gus looked at Lippe and said quietly:
“If anyone comes in here — you’ll get it first, Lips. Remember that!”
The fat man wet his lips and started to speak. But he said nothing. Gus looked at the girl. There was terror in her eyes.
“You damn’ near got me, at Berryman’s place,” he said. “What’s the answer?”
She shook her head. “I was after Lou,” she said thickly. “I thought he came downstairs. I squeezed lead twice — and got clear in a cab. Hurry wanted Lou out of the way. He knew he was yellow — and he was afraid he’d run out, or play with you. Lou was supposed to do the job on Pardo.”
Gus said: “Yeah?”
The blonde nodded. “It was a hate kill, Gus. You quit the racket in Chi. They needed you. You ran into something nice, and wouldn’t give Hurry a piece. He’d staked you. He didn’t need the coin, but he got hating you — for not coming through. When Lou started to go yellow — he picked me to stop him.”
Gus said: “Why?”
She shrugged. “He figured I could do it with my left — and no one on the inside would be wise. I can’t move the right arm. He figured I’d be safe.”
Gus said in a low tone: “And Connors did the job on Pardo, with a Maxim-silenced gun under a towel — inside the ropes?”
The girl looked at Connors and replied in a hard voice:
“He did it, Gus.”
Connors ran the back of his left hand across his broken nose. He smiled nastily.
“She’s a lyin’ moll,” he said calmly. “Get it right, Gus.”
Gus Monkly nodded. “It’ll be that way,” he said. “Listen, Edna — if Connors was working for Hurry — why did they pull the job in the ring? Why didn’t they wait? I’d have sent Pardo with Connors—”
He stopped, smiling grimly. Edna Harms swore softly.
“You know that answer — you ain’t that dumb,” she said. “You’d know who did the job — if they waited. They wanted to work it smooth — and when it would hurt most. And they didn’t want you to know about Connors.”
Gus said in a soft tone: “With Connors workin’ for Hurry they could have fixed it so that Giant would lose the scrap.”
The girl smiled bitterly. “Hurry was betting on Giant,” she said. “At three to one he cleaned up plenty. And then he put the job over—”
“She’s lying, Gus.” Connors’s voice held a shaken note. “You know she’s lying.”
Gus looked at the girl and said in a tone that was low and smooth:
“You’re spilling the works, Edna — why?”
Her voice held a lot of hate. She looked beyond Gus, towards the dirty mirror back of the bar.
“There’s a guy named — never mind that, Gus. I wanted to slide out of the mob, three months ago. I’ve been good to Hurry — he ain’t been so damn’ good to me. I wanted to quit, like you did. This guy that made me want to quit — he ain’t so good. But he ain’t rotten, like Hurry. I couldn’t get clear — Hurry wouldn’t let me go. I kept trying. Hurry said if I helped with this deal he’d let me out. I played along. Tonight he squealed on me.”
Gus said slowly: “To this — guy — you wanted to quit for?”
The girl nodded. Lippe spoke in a husky voice.
“That’s straight, Gus. That’s straight.”
Connors’s eyes were little blue points of fire. He said sharply:
“It’s a... damn’ lie! It’s a frame.”
The girl shook her head. “You didn’t know how much I knew,” she said. “You came along to help Gus — and you came along to get me out of things. You didn’t think I’d have guts enough to tell him — the truth.”
Gus moved his right hand a little. “Hurry threw you over,” he said. “He got me fixed — and threw you over. He squealed about you — to the guy you wanted to quit the racket for.”
Edna said: “Damn him — I just wanted — to quit. It’s a rotten racket.”
Gus said slowly: “I think you — told the one truth, Kid.”