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.
The voice died. Jo Gar said grimly: “All this being so, why do you call me?”
The voice said: “I do not care what becomes of the nine diamonds, or of a certain murderer. I need money. I call you to give you the chance, the big chance. You have traveled many miles, Señor Gar.”
The Island detective spoke in a low voice. “How do I know that you will direct me to the right person?”
The voice held a hard note. “I do not expect you to trust me, señor. You may pay after you are convinced.”
The Island detective was silent. The other said:
“The question is — how much will you pay?”
Jo Gar replied steadily: “There is a reward of ten thousand dollars offered by the owner of the Manila jewelry shop, whose son was killed. I imagine the insurance company would pay twenty thousand dollars for the return of the stones.”
“No — that will not do.” The other’s voice was steady. “That is all in the future. I must have payment now. If I do not have it — the murderer and the diamonds will vanish when the Cheyo Maru arrives at San Francisco. That is all.”
Jo Gar spoke gently into the French phone mouthpiece. His eyes were almost closed.
“I do not carry thousands of dollars about with me. I am a poor man.”
The voice said calmly: “You are known to the captain of the boat. I am not asking much. Five thousand dollars, and one half of your reward, when you receive it, Señor Gar. And I am not to be betrayed.”
Jo Gar widened his eyes and smiled. “You are only to betray,” he said grimly.
The other’s voice was very low and hard. “That is — quite so,” he said. “You agree?”
The Island detective stopped smiling. “I agree,” he said simply. “I will pay five thousand dollars to you, in the manner you direct, after the stones are recovered and the murderer is under arrest. I will give you half of my reward when it is paid. I am very tired. Your identity will not be known, only to me.”
“No,” the other said. “It will not be known to you. I will trust you. If you do not pay, I will kill you. That will be very simple, since you will not know against whom to guard.”
Jo Gar said tonelessly: “Yes — very simple.”
There was a short pause. The other’s voice was very flat when it reached Jo’s ear again.
“In Cabin C. 15 there was a woman named Jetmars. She has with her a little girl of about eight. She got aboard at Manila, and dresses in black most of the time. Possibly you have seen her.”
The Island detective said steadily: “Yes — I have noticed her, and the little girl.”
The voice said: “In her cabin or on her person, or on the person of the little girl — are the diamonds. When you have obtained them I will communicate again with you. I will know the time.”
Jo Gar said. “And she is also a murderess?”
The voice replied flatly: “Yes.”
There was a clicking sound, and when Jo spoke again there was no answer. He hung up the receiver, threw a light robe about him and hurried from the cabin. When he reached the small cabin that held the Cheyo Maru switchboard, he was breathing swiftly. A Chinese boy stared at him with dark, long eyes.
“I am Señor Gar,” Jo said softly. “An important call just reached me in Cabin B. 10. I would like very much to know where it came from — what part of the boat.”
The Chinese boy said easily: “I remember making the connection. It came from one of the three phones in the men’s smoking room.”
The Island detective smiled a little wearily.
“Thank you,” he said, and moved back towards his cabin. Inside, he removed his robe, lighted a brown-paper cigarette and lay flat on his back, blowing thin streams of smoke towards the cabin ceiling. There was very little motion to the boat.
“Curious,” Jo murmured. “A woman who dresses in black. A little girl. And the one who gives me the name tells me the woman is a killer and possesses the stones. He would share a large reward with me, and he will kill me if I refuse to pay his share. He is very careful—”
The Island detective sat up slowly as the phone made a buzzing sound again.
“Señor Gar,” he said.
The flat voice came clearly. “I told you it would be useless to attempt tracing the call, Señor. You have made a bargain. If you do not stick to it—”
Jo Gar said grimly: “You will kill me?”
The other replied: “Yes.”
The Island detective was silent for a few seconds. Then he said:
“In that case you will be able to collect the diamonds and the reward. You will not have to share anything.”
There was a tight-lipped smile on his face as he spoke. But the one at the other end of the wire said sharply:
“It is simpler for you to do — than for me. That is why I made an offer.”
Jo Gar inhaled smoke from his cigarette. “Look about the smoking room,” he suggested. “Is there a short man present — rather heavy? Smoking a cigar — very black?”
The man at the other end of the phone chuckled. It was a dry, rasping chuckle.
“Thinking that such a person might be present, I am not making this call from the smoking room,” he said almost pleasantly. The switchboard boy will tell you I am calling from the sun deck, port side.”
Jo Gar said: “Pardon — I shall make no further effort to learn your identity.”
The other chuckled again. “Thank you, Señor,” he mocked. “But even should you change your mind — it will be of no use. A pleasant trip — and good fortune.”
Again there was the clicking sound. Jo Gar went away from the cabin phone, frowning.
“I think the gentleman is a liar,” he muttered very softly, “but I can not afford to simply think. As for this being a pleasant trip—”
He squeezed the brown paper of the cigarette with stubby fingers, raised his narrow shoulders very slowly in a half shrug.
“He is too wise for that,” he said with finality. “It will be extremely unpleasant — for one of us.”
On the third day out the Cheyo Maru was rolling a bit; spray was breaking over the prow and there were not too many passengers on the decks. Jo Gar stood near the starboard rail, well aft, and watched the woman in black and the little girl who accompanied her. The woman was middle-aged, had a rather sharp, sunburned face. The child was not very pretty. She was stringing beads. The woman paid little attention to her, and none to the other passengers. Jo had been watching her closely for two days, and yet he had not appeared to be watching. And he had listened to many voices of men, hearing none like the one that had come over the phone. He had not expected that.
He was working under a handicap; he felt that he was being watched and he did not know the person who watched him. He had learned that the woman who wore black much of the time was named Rosa Jetmars, that she had come aboard at Manila and that the child was her daughter. The purser volunteered the information that he understood Mrs. Jetmars was Spanish, had married an American in the Islands. Her husband had died very recently. His body was not aboard the vessel, but it was thought that his widow was going to the States and his family. That was all the Island detective had learned. It had little to do with the nine missing diamonds.
Someone near the rail called attention to a school of flying fish. It was a large one; the little girl jumped from her deck chair, started towards the rail. She tripped, fell awkwardly, crying out. Beads scattered and rolled across the deck. Jo Gar started forward, but an elderly man had already lifted the girl. Something blue rolled and struck against Jo’s right shoe. The woman in black was bending over the girl. She seemed angry. She spoke in Spanish and very rapidly. Her back was turned to Jo.