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.
Maxie repeated the question, waited and a minute later said, “The newsie saw him flag a hack. The guy wasn’t cruising but was coming into the stand, and the newsie knows him. Says he’ll be back pretty soon to pick up some regular trade.”
“Tell him to find out where friend Peddle went to with the woman and to call back at once.”
Maxie passed it on and hung up.
“It seems as if the Councilman has followed your line of reasoning, Lenny. Things are beginning to look up.”
“That bastard!”
“But a smart one. He has ideas about taking over on both ends.”
“What are you going to do?” Lenny asked him.
“Me? Nothing. I’ll be in a respectable bar somewhere seen by a lot of people. But you, Lenny, that’s another matter. When that call comes in I want you to get Peddle. It’s your baby and you’re in charge. Chances are he took her someplace where he can squeeze it out of her.”
Holiday stopped there and said seriously, “Deep, you have a big feeling for that woman, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer, but he knew.
“You know what Peddle will do to her to get the information.”
“Damn it,” I grated, “she doesn’t know anything!”
“No, sucker?” Lenny’s face was a tight mask.
“Keep still, Lenny,” Holiday said sharply. To me, “If you know where he took her we might be able to help.”
Blankly, I shook my head. It was useless, absolutely useless.
“Then,” he added, “to get back to the original premise... if you know where this information is and reveal it, we’ll take care of Peddle but let the girl alone. Nothing can hurt us if we have that package.”
When I didn’t answer he shrugged, “Have it your own way.”
Maxie stepped forward, grinning broadly across his moon face. “Chief, you didn’t let me try. If I...”
“Don’t be silly. Deep here is in the same trap Benny Mattick was. He doesn’t know a thing. Isn’t that right, Deep? Of course it’s right. He would have spilled his guts to save that woman if he knew anything. You can see it plain as day in his face.”
And there it was. I could be destroyed at any time at no cost. They didn’t even have a choice to make now. The fact was simple. I had to die.
Holiday slipped into a raincoat and set a new Homburg on his head. He looked like a banker. He tapped Lenny’s chest for emphasis. “I want at least thirty minutes, then do what you want with him.” He waved a thumb at me. “Keep Tony and Ed here...”
“I don’t need them.”
“Do as you’re told.” He snapped. “When Peddle and the woman are located call one of our groups nearest the area and have them move in. I’ll see that they are all standing by. They’ll be informed to move only at your orders. It doesn’t make any difference what happens to either Peddle or the girl, just be sure you come back here with that information. Is that understood?”
Lenny felt surly about it, but agreed. “I’ll take care of it.”
At the door Holiday turned around and tipped his hat in my direction. “Very sorry about this, Deep. Try not to hold it against us. I know you realize there’s nothing personal about it. I really like you.”
I wanted to say something smart but there was too much going on inside me to find anything at all to say. I sat there tied up like a dummy and watched Mr. Holiday and his entourage file out the door, until only Tony, his silent partner and Lenny were left.
And Lenny was smiling. He pulled on a pair of gloves and worked them down his fingers.
Tony got up, stretched, and lit a cigarette. “I’m go-in’ down the comer for somethin’ to eat. I ain’t et all day.”
His partner spoke for the first time then. “Bring me back somethin’,” then walked into the bedroom. I heard the bed creak as he flopped down on it.
Lenny grinned wickedly and said, “I’ve been waiting for this a long time.”
I spat on the floor in front of him. “You’re too old, you pig. Your heart won’t take it.”
“We’ll see,” he said.
Then it began.
Chapter Thirteen
I knew I was on the floor. I knew there should have been pain, but the strange alchemy of the body had started and where the pain actually was I could feel only a throbbing sensation. My head pulsated with each heartbeat like a dam being attacked by floodwaters.
Vaguely, I heard Lenny call out for the other guy to come get me out of there.
He came reluctantly and tested my side with a foot. “Whatsa matter wit’ leavin’ him here?”
Lenny wasn’t the old Lenny any more at all. He could talk it and he could think it, and he could even try to live up to the old days, but time had shrunken him inside and he couldn’t take sight of the rough stuff any longer. “Just get him out of my sight and don’t ask questions. Put him in the bedroom and stay there with him.”
“Crap. I wanted to sack out. After we knock him off we gotta go alla way to that stinkin’ quarry in Jersey wit’ him. I’m pooped.”
“Sleep in a chair. Get him inside.”
To drag me he had to untie me from the chair. I could tell when he did it only by the sounds and the way he rolled me around. There was no feeling at all in my hands and feet. I kept my eyes closed, though with the way they must have been swollen knew he couldn’t have told whether they were open or shut anyway.
He got his hands under my armpits and dragged me across the room, into the bedroom, and let me flop on the rug beside the bed face down. With no more concern than if I had been dead he walked back outside, spoke to Lenny and made himself a drink.
I tried to move and managed to get halfway over. I brought my knees up and fought to get my hands under me. There was no way of feeling if I did or not; feeling had been strangled off from my shoulders down. But the sudden motion did do one thing. It brought the pain back, a great, sweeping tidal wave of pain that crashed through the barrier of numbness my body had set up and closed down on me like a monstrous pair of pincers. I let go with a terrible sound I couldn’t help and went back on my face again.
The only good part about it was that the pain reached my hands and feet as the circulation was restored and although I was powerless to move them much I knew I could move them a little and it might be enough if I played it right.
When the guy came back he carried the two strands of ropes that had held me to the chair, knelt on the floor beside me and tied my hands behind my back. He finished that, threw a few loops around my feet, knotted them and got up and laid down in bed as though nothing had happened at all.
Outside Lenny was making himself another drink. He had two more within a few minutes and between them mouthed a few curses at the world in general.
On the bed the guy began to breathe slowly, but lightly. He wasn’t quite asleep yet and I couldn’t afford to disturb him now. My hands were still tingling, and though bound, were coming back to normal. There was nothing professional in the rope job the boy did on me and the slight amount of pressure I managed against his efforts was enough to allow me the slightest bit of slack.
I had to wait. I had to lie there and wait while I wanted to explode.
To take the tension off I forced myself to think. I tried to put the whole thing together in my mind and cull out the loose ends and eliminate the mistakes.
Why did Bennett die?
Now there was a poser. Alive, he was a threat. He wielded a power that could line up forces the way he wanted them, both political and illegal. Sure, even Holiday admitted that and Peddle proved it by being in the club. There were others involved to make that much certain.
But Holiday had said a peculiar thing. The syndicate didn’t really mind Bennett. It was easier to take him than knock him over. Why?