The Deep
- Автор: Спиллейн Микки
- Год: 1961
- Язык: английский
- Год: E. P. Dutton & Company
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Deep». Краткое содержание книги:
Deep was back in town after a twenty-five year exile — to inherit an empire and avenge a death. He and Bennett had made the inheritance pact when they were kids — blood brothers in crime. They had known then that even New York was too small for them both to share, and so they had tossed a coin to determine who would stay and who would build his organization in another town. Deep had lost and gone.
But now Bennett has lost — been murdered in his own home — and Deep is ready to prove lie is strong enough to take over. Deep wants Bennett’s killer; the others want Bennett’s job. And all too many of them — including the beautiful Irish — want Deep dead.
The Deep is the mastermind in one of the most exciting stories Spillane has ever written — a breathtaking tale of violence in action.
“Oh?”
“That’s right. You know why? Because nobody ever knew Bennett like I knew him. For me only he left a clue someplace... somewhere he’d be certain I’d come across it and could take up where he left off just like we said we’d do twenty-five years ago. Pretty soon now I’m going to remember what that vital piece of information was and then I’ll have it and you guys’ll be sweating your piles out. Meanwhile every one of you are going to stand pat. You’re going to be hurting like crazy and the first one out of line gets shot a little bit. You heard what happened in Bimmy’s so if you think I won’t throw a slug into somebody you’re nuts, pal, plain nuts.”
Hugh’s voice had gone hoarse. “What do you want from me?”
I stood up and pulled Helen’s chair back. “Bennett’s killer,” I said. “Maybe you can help find him. You’re the big political wheel with a finger in every pie. Thanks for the coffee.”
When we walked away I could feel their eyes follow me. As we neared the door I saw Hugh’s two gunbearers. They were watching me too, so I nodded politely and since we were more or less all in the same game and this wasn’t the time or place for their special services, they nodded back knowing we both understood the situation like old pros and there were no hard feelings.
Before we left I called Augie. Cat had phoned in a few minutes earlier and said Dixie was in his room at the Merced and he’d stick with him until I got there. So far Augie hadn’t come up with anything but was still looking. I told him to keep at it until we were sure the place was clean and stay there until I got in.
It was difficult to know what Helen was thinking. The disapproval of anything I did was well hidden; the concern I knew she felt didn’t show at all. It was as if she were lost in the middle of some remote problem, studying it for a way out. She took my arm, held herself close to me and when I glanced at her, smiled. I squeezed her arm under mine, waved a taxi over and told him to take us to the Merced.
Dixie was a pale lump stretched out on the couch. His mouth was still a swollen mass and all that seemed alive were his eyes. He was in slacks and a T-shirt, his eyes red-rimmed and wild-looking, yet showing the wily cunning of a mainliner with a fresh hole. He lay there, his fingers working as if they were caressing the haft of a shiv and he divided each moment between Cat and me, thinking who he wanted to kill first.
I said, “You want to talk, Dixie?”
“Hop it.”
“How would you like for me to throw a gag in your mouth and shackle you to a water pipe up here for three-four days? You think I won’t, then button up. Whatever I want to know you’ll tell me, maybe even tomorrow.”
The sweat started on his lip and his mouth seemed to quiver with the thought.
“How often you shooting up now, kiddo? Every three hours?” I picked his arm up and looked at it. He was pin-cushioned all the way up on both arms to actual scarification and probably popped in his legs now. “Think you can take a twenty-four hour dry run?”
His head rolled on the cushion and he stared at me. “I don’t know nothin’.” His words came out almost muffled by his swollen mouth.
“Let’s find out.”
Dixie moved his bony shoulders in a shrug. “So go ahead, big man,” he said. “Take over.”
“Bennett,” I said.
“What about him? You think I bumped him, you’re nuts. The cops already worked me over good. They tried to nail me. Batten got me clear.”
“Not with me he didn’t.”
Something in my voice got to Dixie. He jerked upright and swung his feet to the floor and glared at me. “You lookit, Deep, I...”
“Shut up, Dixie. You just answer me.”
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and nodded.
“The night Bennett was killed you were down at the liquor store picking up a case of booze, right?”
“Scotch,” he nodded.
“Why? Bennett wasn’t a big drinker.”
“He had a party coming on, that’s why!”
“When?”
“How would I know? He didn’t tell me that. He was all hopped up about something, that’s all I know.”
“Okay, so you went down and got the Scotch. Keep going.”
Dixie glanced nervously from Cat to me and shook his head. He shrugged again and wiped at his mouth. “What’s to tell? So he calls up and says to bring up a case of rye too.”
“Which you did,” I reminded him, “in time to find his body.”
He coughed, then croaked, “I didn’t bump him. I was there all the time! The guy in the store, he...”
“I know what he said. He covered it okay. Good alibi. He’s a good citizen with nothing down on him. Votes regular, sits jury duty, attends P.T.A. So you’re clean.”
“Well what do ya want with me? Jeez, I didn’t...”
“Buddy,” I told him, “if it were you who hit Bennett I would’ve read the signs. So would everybody else.”
His eyes were scared stiff now. He didn’t see what I was driving at but knew something was coming and all he wanted was out.
I said, “How long were you in the liquor store, Dixie?”
He got it out without thinking first. “Hell, two hours. Sure, all that time! The guy can tell ya that. Hell, we watched TV and chewed it that long. I’m clean. Deep, you can’t...”
“That’s a long time to pick up two cases of liquor, kid. Ten minutes to the store either way, two hours there... that makes almost two and a half hours away from the house. A pretty long time to run an errand. Bennett didn’t go for that kind of crap. When he said to do something he meant like now.”
Dixie’s lips were too dry to lick. “What you gettin’ at?”
“Easy, kid. You could have been part of a setup. The word goes out to stay clear of Bennett’s place during a certain time... or if you get clear to make a call to let somebody know... and then blooie, Bennett catches it and you’re clean. Almost.”
He didn’t like that last word.
“The cops figure like that and tie it in and you’ll be doing the turkey act downtown. Cold turkey. Think you could take it?”
“Deep... jeez! Look, you know I wouldn’t... hell, Bennett and me, we was friends. You know, friends!” He was perched on the very edge of the bed shaking like a scared bird.
“Why’d you stay away so long, Dixie?”
He didn’t try to lie out of it. He knew it wouldn’t have gone over so he simply made a gesture with his shoulders and looked back up at me.
“I needed a blast, that’s why! You know Bennett. He wouldn’t let nobody near him if they was carrying a package. I couldn’t stash nothing in his place either. I tried it once and that damned dummy housekeeper found it and Bennett beat hell outa me for figuring I could pull it off. He kept me up there so long I was going nuts. I hadda blast, so when he told me to get down for the booze I took off. I didn’t have no stuff up here and called in for it from the liquor store. That punky stiff who brought the stuff took all that time to get over there. I damned near died. That’s why I had to sit and watch TV. The guy in the store thought I just had a cold and fed me hot lemonade and aspirin and wouldn’t let me go outside until I felt better. Hell, I was all over sweat and running off and when that stiff waltzes in with the junk I could hardly hold it. I let off in the men’s room, gave the hype and the other stuff back to the stiff and he took off. So I felt better and that jerk thought it was the lemonade and the aspirins. He closed up shop and even helped me back to the apartment.”
Dixie’s face twisted in a grimace, not knowing what I’d make of it. “That all?”
“Sure. The cops come, they shook me down, but by then I called Batten and we got squared away.”
“With your record it’s a wonder they didn’t hold you over.”