The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
- Автор: Anderson Lars, Barr Randolph
- Год: 2007
- Язык: английский
- Год: Vintage Books
- ISBN: 978-0-307-28048-0
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps». Краткое содержание книги:
Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train — a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.
Joey Deth chuckled a little. “You do the watching, Mac,” he said.
He looked at Gay. He spoke in a low, easy tone.
“You got brains, Charlie — even if you did let Barney Nasser do a squeal on you. What did you mob out Lou Rands for?”
Charlie Gay shook his head. “Take that rod off me, Kid,” he said. “I wasn’t in on the deal, an’ you know it.”
His voice was thin, rasping. When he talked he showed no fear. He kept his eyes on the white handkerchief. McLean stood close to him — both men faced the Kid.
Joey Deth said: “You got brains, Charlie — use ’em now. Talk straight to me. There isn’t too much time, for what I’ve got to do.”
Charlie Gay narrowed his eyes until they were narrow slits under his brows.
“I don’t get you, Kid,” he said. “I’ve been away a long time—”
Joey Deth nodded. “It’ll be a longer trip, this time,” he said. “And there won’t be picture shows on Saturdays, Charlie.”
McLean said: “Listen, Kid—”
Joey moved the gun slightly, and the material of the handkerchief wavered. McLean kept quiet. Joey looked at Charlie Gay.
“You got yourself a sweet alibi, Charlie — and then you got afraid—”
His voice shook a little. He stopped. Charlie Gay’s eyes flickered on the dead-gray ones of the Kid, beneath the bushy brows.
“Take the rod off me, Kid,” he said again.
Joey Deth smiled. “Why should I?” he asked. “You didn’t take the Tommy gun off Bess Grote — even when she screamed, Charlie.”
Gay’s body twitched. “You don’t think — I ran that job, Kid?” he muttered.
Joey said: “You know about it, Charlie.”
Gay’s eyes flickered towards McLean. He said harshly:
“If you sucked me into this, Mac — it’ll go tough with you! The Kid’s all hopped—”
Joey Deth interrupted. “Mac’s all right, Charlie,” he said quietly. “He’s just like the rest — tryin’ to play in between. He didn’t suck you in. Old Andy — he did the talking.”
Charlie Gay widened his eyes. “Old Andy—” he started, and checked himself. “Listen, Kid—” he muttered. “Bess — she said she was — off you. I always did — like her—”
The Kid sucked in his breath. “Yeah?” he said sharply. “And you gunned her out just the same.”
Charlie Gay swung on McLean. “You squealed — you dirty—”
Joey Deth said: “Shut up, Charlie! You’ll wake the neighbors.”
McLean showed fear in his eyes. “He got it — from Old Andy,” he said shakily. “I’m tellin’ you, Charlie — I didn’t squeal.”
Kid Deth sat up a little on the divan. He leaned forward and took the handkerchief away from the automatic. He pressed it to his lips with his right hand fingers.
“It’s no good, Charlie,” he said quietly. “You wanted Barney Nasser out — and you wanted to frame me. Your mob didn’t get Barney, but they got Lou Rands. They got him because I was close to him — and it was a deal to finish me. Maybe it did — I’m giving myself up at four.”
“They’ll give you — the hot spot, if you go down there,” Gay said softly.
The Kid shook his head. “I’ve got things they’d like to know,” he said. “I’ve got coin, Charlie. I can get Berman.”
He was mocking Charlie Gay, and he could see the rage in the other man’s eyes. McLean said slowly:
“It was just — that you were there, Kid — there with Barney.”
Joey Deth nodded. “I never framed a guy for the chair,” he said. “I never even cut in on the other guy’s territory. I’ve worked the rackets — but I worked them right.”
There was a little silence. Charlie Gay moved the fingers of his left hand.
“How much do you want, Kid?” he asked.
Joey shook his head. “You haven’t got enough to stop me, Charlie,” he said. “I’m giving you the dose right in here — and maybe Mac can squirm out of it. Maybe not.”
The waiter stared at him, fear widening his eyes. His voice was hoarse.
“Jeeze, Kid — you wouldn’t fix it like that!”
He looked at the gun. Charlie Gay stared at it, too. His hands were restless at his side.
Joey Deth nodded. “Why not?” he said softly. “Gay and the Nassers — they tried to frame me. I never hurt them. And when they started to jump me — all of you started to quit or squeal. You were tipping Charlie off, Mac — you knew he was coming here. Old Andy — he got yellow when I made him talk. Even the dicks — Sarlow is after me. You all want to see me burn — because a burned guy don’t talk. But Charlie here — he’s not too anxious for me to get inside Headquarters.”
Charlie Gay said slowly: “Listen, Kid — I ain’t lying. I sent the guns down to get Barney. He turned me up — and Lou Rands was the dirty dick that took me in. The boys knew that — and they got him, after he’d finished Barney. That’s straight.”
Kid Deth was silent for several seconds. He kept his dead-gray eyes on the flickering ones of Gay.
“How about — Bess?” he asked finally.
Charlie Gay shook his head. “It wasn’t my deal,” he breathed. “I swear to that, Kid. I used her for an alibi. I had to have someone—”
Kid Deth said with contempt in his voice:
“Maybe if I had a gun on me — like this one’s on you, I’d lie for my life, too.”
Charlie Gay said: “I ain’t lying, Kid. I heard about her getting the dose a half hour ago. I called Mac and told him I wanted to see him and was coming over. I wanted to know how she got it.”
Kid Deth leaned forward, sat on the edge of the divan.
“All right, Charlie,” he said. “That just means one thing — Gil Nasser got her. One of you did the job. I’m giving you a choice.”
Gay stared at him. There was faint eagerness in his voice, but it was the eagerness of trickery.
“What do I do, Kid?” he asked.
Joey Deth sighed. “We go and find Gil,” he said slowly. “It’ll be light pretty quick — and that’ll make it harder. We’ve got the coppers to beat. Know where Gil is, Charlie?”
Charlie Gay’s eyes were slits beneath his bushy brows.
“He might be — at that black boy’s place — drinkin’.”
The Kid smiled with his eyes half closed. He looked beyond McLean, at the cuffs of steel on the table in a corner. He nodded.
“Sure,” he said. “He might be there. Mac — you know where it is?”
McLean hesitated, then shook his head. The Kid chuckled. He stood up and held the automatic in front of his left thigh.
“Listen, Charlie—” he said slowly — “we don’t want to make any mistakes. Get those cuffs and put Mac’s arms around something. The end of that iron bed, Charlie. You still usin’ it, Mac?”
McLean nodded. He was frowning. “You don’t have to fix me like that, Kid,” he said.
Joey Deth moved his right arm towards the steel cuffs.
“Fix him — like that, Charlie,” he said slowly. His voice got hard. “It’s a lot easier than being fixed — like some other guys I know.”
5
Hank Sarlow sat in a corner of the speakeasy that “Blackie” Wade ran for Gil Nasser. There were a half dozen men in the room; two of them were standing at the bar. It was almost dawn, and Sarlow sat with his rain-soaked hat pulled low over his forehead. He was drinking beer and muttering to himself. At intervals his head rocked from side to side, across his narrow shoulders. It was the first time he had been inside the place — he had come in pretending to be drunk. A card that he had taken from the clothes of the dead Rands had been offered to Blackie — and he had been admitted.