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
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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.
“Well,” she went on, her thin voice shaking slightly from excitement and nervousness, “I’ll give you fifteen thousand. Suds will go that high just to get you—”
“Make it fifty grand,” I told her sharply.
A little gasp escaped her. I knew she didn’t have fifty grand with her, and in all probability Suds wouldn’t consider that price. It made no difference to me. So when she got over the shock of the figure I’d named I gave it to her straight.
“Listen, kid,” I explained quietly. “I was just kidding about that fifty grand limit. No matter what—”
“Then you’ll take fifteen grand?” she interrupted.
“No. Now listen closely. No matter what Suds Garland offers I’m not accepting it. See? Not even fifty grand in cash could tempt me to tie up with him in the dope racket. And that’s final. What’s your name?”
The girl looked at me with troubled eyes. She had come to my apartment that afternoon to try to get me to change my mind. I’d already told Suds that I wasn’t interested in dope, wouldn’t be interested, and couldn’t be interested. He had sent the girl over to my place to see if money talked louder than words.
That had been a smart move on his part, but not smart enough. Had he known the real Queen Sue he wouldn’t have wasted his time. Sure, I could probably supply much needed brains in his racket, but dope is one thing I don’t touch, not even the racket angle of it.
Apparently the girl hadn’t heard much about me, either. The kid figured I needed cash and would take anything she offered, gladly. Now when I asked for her name she snapped her purse shut and started to get up.
“Sit still,” I told her gently. “There’s nothing to get excited about. You’ve done your part, and you can’t help it if I refuse the offer you’ve made. So now, just as one woman to another, let’s have a little talk. Smoke?”
When we had cigarettes going she seemed to forget her nervousness. But she still watched me with sort of a sidewise glance as though she expected a couple of guns to appear around the corners of the rug and begin shooting. Perhaps she had heard something about me.
“Tell me your name,” I went on presently.
“Kate Travers,” she said softly.
“All right, Kate,” I continued. “You know who I am, and now that we’re acquainted I’m going to tell you something. You look like a nice sort of girl to be mixed up in this dope business. Just how—”
“Oh, I don’t use it myself,” she broke in quickly.
“I didn’t think so,” I responded, smiling faintly. “You’re just playing along with Suds for what you can get out of it. That right?”
Kate Travers nodded and dragged at her cigarette. I framed my next speech carefully.
“I’m going to tell you something, Kate. Maybe you know it already, and maybe you don’t. It doesn’t matter much. I just want you to know that I’m not the least bit interested in Suds Garland, personally or financially. Feel better now?”
“But you—”
“Sure,” I broke in swiftly. “Suds and I teamed up against Buzz Mallon. That was business, but I didn’t take a cent from Suds. Partners in a business arrangement aren’t necessarily friends. Suds and I worked together to protect ourselves. But that’s all over now.”
“Then you won’t consider my proposition at all?”
I pitied the kid. She asked that question out of sheer ignorance. She was in the middle of something she didn’t know a thing about, just acting as a cat’s paw for Garland.
“No,” I answered, moving my head slowly from left to right. “The proposition doesn’t interest me. We’re talking as friends now.”
“But what will I tell—”
She stopped suddenly and stared at the cigarette in her hand with frightened eyes. She knew she had said too much, but it was too late to take back her words.
“You’ve got an out, Kate,” I explained. “A good out. Suds can’t blame you if I won’t agree to throw in with him. I’ll put it in writing if you want me to. I don’t want to get you into trouble.”
“Kind of you,” she murmured.
I paused a moment and during the brief silence I wondered why I was being so lenient with the kid. I should have tossed her out the minute she tried to bribe me to join Suds Garland’s mob. But I didn’t.
Perhaps I saw in her a vision of myself a few years ago — young, slightly innocent of certain phases of gang life, and a little fearful of everybody and everything. Well, I was still young, but no longer innocent. And I was entirely without fear of physical forces. I’d managed to take care of myself, had fought my way up to the top of a big mob, and had seen it crumble under me.
Now I was lone-wolfing it, freelancing in crime for what I could get out of it. But I wasn’t taking part in a dope racket, and anything Suds Garland had to offer was connected with dope. I had the Club Bijou, and was making money. For the moment that was all I wanted.
Later, perhaps, I would start building another mob. If I could find the right men to work with I’d do that. But it was all in the future. The loss of Dan Reilly, Biff Brons and Blimp Sampson, who had died in my fight with the cops, was still too recent to raise my hopes of ever finding men who could take their places.
So while I looked at the pathetic, frightened figure of Kate Travers I felt sorry for her. I did the best I could, but it wasn’t much. Her troubles were not mine. She was sitting in with Suds Garland and there was nothing I could do about it. But I told her something I thought she should know.
“I’ll be frank with you, Kate,” I said finally. “You’ve probably heard that Queen Sue, Sue Carlton, was the toughest mob leader that ever pulled a rod. Well, I am hard sometimes. You’ve got to be in this life. But there’s a time and place for everything. So you’ve got nothing to worry about now. How long have you been with Suds?”
“Two weeks, but I’ve known him—”
“No matter about that, Kate,” I interrupted. I didn’t want her life history. “He expecting you back right away?”
“I’m seeing him tonight to give him your answer.”
“Fine. Now, I’ll tell you what you do. Got a boy friend?”
Kate looked up, then nodded slowly. I went on.
“Well, run around and see him for a while. I’ll get in touch with Suds myself and deliver my message in person. Then when you see him tonight there won’t be a chance for him to get sore at you. Okay?”
“That’s awfully kind of you, Queen,” the girl said tremulously, “but Suds said I’d have to arrange things with you or—”
“Don’t worry about that. Suds won’t have anything to say, won’t do anything to you.” I smiled my assurance and she brightened. I honestly believed at that moment I was telling the truth. “So just run along now. It’s not quite three o’clock. Have dinner with the boy friend and I’ll fix everything with Suds.”
After again thanking me, the kid moved to the door. I saw her to the elevator and then went back to my apartment and watched her leave the front entrance of the building a few minutes later. Suds should have known better than to pick a kid like her to talk to me about joining a racket.
When the kid passed out of sight along the street I turned away from the window, went over to the telephone, and called Suds Garland’s number. There was no answer, so I made a mental note to call him later and dismissed the frightened little Kate Travers from my mind.
I had other work to do, what with managing a night club, arranging for liquor deliveries, entertainment, and a lot of other details, and it wasn’t until almost an hour later that I remembered I had to call Garland and arrange for a meeting with him.