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.
There was hatred showing in the small, colorless eyes of the thin-faced one. He stood almost ten feet away from Jo Gar, facing him.
“But you came, knowing all this.”
Jo Gar smiled a little. “When you made that movement and held that gun on me — my fingers were on the trigger of my own gun. I could have shot you down — I did not.”
There was a flicker of expression in the standing one’s eyes. He said:
“You are very kind, Señor Gar.”
Mockery and hatred were in his tone. Jo Gar said slowly:
“No — not kind. I have six diamonds that you would like. I think that you have four I would like. You wanted me here to bargain with me. You wanted me here so that you could trap me, then offer me my life for the six diamonds. You have worked that way, with your accomplices, since the robbery was effected.”
The thin-faced one smiled and showed white, even teeth.
“You would risk your life and six diamonds — for the four you say I have?”
Jo Gar smiled gently. “My life is not too important,” he said. “I have never regarded it that way. I came here because I knew the one responsible for many deaths would be here.”
The thin-faced one said mockingly: “And you were not trapped? You simply wanted to see that person who you hated because of Arragon’s death, and because of things done to you?”
The Island detective kept his hands motionless on the table surface. He shook his head.
“No,” he replied. “Not exactly. I wanted to see that one taken by the police. And that is practically assured, now.”
He watched the facial muscles of the thin-faced one jerk, saw his colorless eyes shift towards the blinds of the windows. His gun hand moved a little, in towards his body. Rage twisted his face, and then he smiled. It was a grotesque, mask-like smile. The brown skin was drawn tightly over the face bones and the lips were pressed together. Jo Gar said:
“I remember you, Raaker. You were in the insurance business in Manila until a few years ago. There was about to be a prosecution, and you left the Islands.”
The thin-faced one said with hoarseness in his voice:
“And I have never forgotten you, Señor Gar. You tell me you have come here, not caring about your life — and that the police are outside. Well — I didn’t bring you here to get your six diamonds, Gar — Von Loffler’s diamonds. I brought you here because I hate you. I want to watch your body squirm on the floor, beside that stool.”
Jo Gar said quietly: “That was how you knew about the Von Loffler diamonds — that Dutch Insurance Company. You stayed out of Manila, Raaker — you couldn’t risk coming back. You hired men. Some of them tricked you — and each other. The robbery was successful, but you lost slowly. All the way back from Manila, Raaker, you lost. You used men and women, and they tried to kill me — too many times. They were killed — there were many deaths. Those were diamonds of death, Raaker — and you only got four of them. The woman in black brought them to you — I think she was the only one who was faithful.”
Raaker was breathing heavily. He made a sudden movement with his left hand, plunging it into a pocket. When it came out four stones spilled to the surface of the small table. Three of them only rolled a few inches, but one struck against a finger of the Island detective’s left hand. Raaker said fiercely:
“I hate you, Gar. You drove me from the Islands, with your evidence. I hated Von Loffler, too. He took all his properties away from me, because he learned that I was gambling, because he was afraid of the insurance. So I learned about the stones, where they were. And I planned the robbery. I stayed here — and got reports. I tried to direct. But you were on that boat—”
He broke off, shrugged. “You are going to die, Gar. So I can talk. The woman came to me with the diamonds. Four of them. And by the time she brought them to me here — she hated me. She had seen too much death. She’s gone away, with her child — and you’ll never find her, Gar. She killed a man on the Cheyo Maru, and that made her hate me all the more. She had to kill him, before he could talk — to you!”
Jo Gar said steadily: “I don’t think — I want to find her, Raaker. I know now who planned the crime, who caused the deaths. And you are caught, Raaker—”
There was the sound of brakes beyond the room, the low beat of an idling engine. Two sharp blasts from a horn came into the room. Raaker jerked his head sharply, then turned his eyes towards Jo Gar again. The Island detective made no movement. He smiled with his lips pressed together. Raaker said:
“What’s — that?”
His voice was hoarse. Jo Gar parted his lips. He said:
“A signal from the police — that the house is properly covered.”
Raaker sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll get more than one of them — as they come in!” he muttered.
Jo Gar shook his head. “I do not think you will, Raaker. They will not come in. It is easier to wait for you — to go out.”
Raaker smiled twistedly, but there was fear in his eyes.
“They’ll come in, all right,” he breathed. “I’ll get you first — when they come. You won’t see them come in, Gar.”
Jo Gar smiled. “They will not come in,” he said softly. “If I do not go out, within the next ten minutes, they will unload the sub-machine-guns and the smoke bombs. They will know I am dead — and that there is a killer in the house. The smoke bombs — and the tear gas bombs — they will come in.”
Raaker said hoarsely. “—! How I hate you, you little half-breed—”
He jerked the gun slightly. The Island detective looked him in the eyes, still smiling.
“That is true,” he said. “You do hate me — and there is the blood of the Spanish and the Filipino in my veins. But I am not a criminal — a thief and a killer.”
Raaker turned his head slightly and listened to the steady beat of the cab engine. Then his eyes came back to the small figure of Gar, went to the four glittering diamonds on the table. He said thickly:
“With the others — over two hundred thousand dollars — I would have been fixed—”
His voice broke. Jo Gar said quietly: “Yes, you could have had things easy, Raaker. If I had not taken the same boat that your accomplices took — if things had turned out differently in Honolulu—”
Raaker stared at him, his little eyes growing larger. He said slowly:
“Where are — the other six stones?”
Jo Gar smiled. “In the vaults of the customs office,” he replied. “You did not think I would bring them here?”
Raaker’s body swayed a little. The wind made noise in the trees beyond the house, and he stiffened. Jo Gar said in a voice that was hardly more than a whisper:
“If you had had even the courage of a certain type of criminal — and had gone to the Islands yourself, you might have had the diamonds now. If you had not used others—”
Raaker said fiercely: “Damn the diamonds — I’ve got you! They brought you here—”
Jo Gar half closed his almond-shaped eyes. “And they’ve brought the San Francisco police here,” he said steadily. “They’ve brought tear gas and sub-machine-guns — and they’re bringing death here, Raaker.”