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.
I’d just lifted the receiver when the door-bell rang. I got up, moved across the room, opened the door and got a real surprise.
Standing in the doorway, his soft felt hat pushed back off his brow, was Sid Lang, the big detective from the District Attorney’s office who had broken me as a mob leader. I hadn’t seen him since that night in Cincinnati when I had trapped him in my room and had purchased my freedom by sparing his life.
Since then the indictments against me had been quashed. So I put a big smile on my face, knowing full well there was nothing to fear.
“Come in, Sid,” I said, not stopping to wonder why he was calling on me. “Certainly is nice to see you again. How’s the D.A. and all your flat-footed playmates?”
The broad face of Sid Lang didn’t relax in a smile. His cold eyes held mine steadily as he stepped into the room. He kept his hands in plain sight so I didn’t make any moves toward the gun on my right leg.
“’Lo, Queen,” he said laconically when the door was closed. “Heard the news?”
“The D.A. after me again?” I laughed.
“No. I’m not with the District Attorney’s office any more. I’m working for an agency now — private dick.”
“Trying to drum up business with me?”
“Cut it, Queen!” he said sharply. “I just heard something I thought you ought to know.”
“Nice of you, Sid,” I nodded, wiping the smile from my face. “When did you start playing on my side of the fence?”
“Don’t be funny,” he continued. “A kid by the name of Kate Travers was gunned out a while ago, a half dozen blocks from here.”
My heart stopped.
“I got it straight,” Sid Lang went on slowly, his voice sounding strangely hollow, “that she left you a few minutes before she got it. She was running with Suds Garland’s mob. I happen to know that he wants you to join up with him.”
Lang paused. I wasn’t telling him anything, so I merely said, “Yes?” and waited. A moment later Lang added:
“The cops found fifteen thousand in marked bills in her purse. I’m interested because Kate Travers was — my girl friend!”
Chapter II
Clever — But Not Enough
Red rage gripped me as I heard Sid Lang’s words. For a moment I didn’t think about him or his feelings. I saw only the clever plot that Suds Garland had tried to trap me with.
It was all plain enough now. Perhaps Garland had really wanted me to join his mob at first, but my refusal had angered him. So when I wouldn’t change my mind he wanted me out of the way. Perhaps it wasn’t just business that was on his mind, and in turning down his business proposition I had unconsciously insulted his amorous intentions.
Well, it was too late to worry about what had brought on all the trouble. Kate Travers was dead. But I saw his whole plan.
Not for a minute had Garland expected me to refuse the money that Kate had offered. He had taken it for granted that I had taken the money. Then he had the girl killed so I would get into a pile of trouble.
And trouble it would have been. The cops would have swarmed all over me, for Suds Garland would have tipped them quietly that I’d taken money from the kid and then had had her killed so it wouldn’t become known that Queen Sue could be bought.
Yes, it might have worked out that way. Suds Garland had planned carefully. The only hitch in his plans had been the fact that Queen Sue is her own boss. I never sell out to the side with the most money.
In the midst of my thoughts I was suddenly brought back to the present. Sid Lang stepped in close to me and gripped me hard with a big hand on either shoulder.
“What d’you know about the kill, Queen?” he demanded, icy points of cold rage appearing in his blue eyes. “Better talk fast because I’m going—”
“You’re going to do — nothing!” I snapped.
“I’m going to kill you just as sure as I’m standing here! You put Kate on the spot and—”
My harsh laugh brought back his common sense. Looking him in the eye, every muscle in my small body steeled against the pain of that iron grip on my shoulders, I gave him glare for glare. Physically I didn’t have a chance against him, but I won that silent clash of wills.
“Sorry, Queen,” he muttered brokenly a moment later, taking his hands from my shoulders and flopping into a chair. “I guess I — lost my head.”
“Forget it, Sid,” I said quietly. “We all think we’re pretty tough until something comes along that hits right at our hearts.”
He nodded slowly. “Kate meant a lot to me. You wouldn’t know how much.”
A bitter smile curled my lips. In a low voice I said:
“I know exactly how you feel. Remember Chick Wilson and Dan Reilly? Well, you can’t tell me a thing about sorrow. I’ve been there myself. You’re just getting a dose of what I felt when you helped gun out Dan and Blimp and—”
“But I had to do—”
“Sure,” I broke in quickly. “There was nothing personal in it. I know that. You just happened to be on the side of the law. I wasn’t. If it would have done me any good I’d have killed you long before this. But that wouldn’t bring Dan or Chick back. Neither will killing me give Kate a new lease on life. How did she happen to tie up with Suds?”
“Don’t know — unless it was the money in it. We were going to be married as soon as I got enough money saved. But you don’t put aside much in my work and—”
“Yes, she was just the type that would try to help her man. I’d have done the same myself. She probably thought she could step out of it after she’d made a couple of thousand. What did you let her do it for?”
“I couldn’t stop her, Queen. She was in with Suds before I knew it. Then when I found out about it I didn’t know how to go about telling her that she was making a mistake. You see—”
“Of course I see,” I answered in a tired voice. “You men are all the same; great big stone brutes who can lick their weight in wildcats, but you’re afraid of a little woman who might get angry with you. Kate didn’t know what it was all about — didn’t realize what she was doing. Listen.”
I told Sid Lang how the kid had tried to buy me. That part of it I told quickly so he wouldn’t get another idea that I’d had anything to do with the killing. Then I explained what had been behind her murder.
When I finished, Sid Lang took off his hat, ran broad fingers through his thin blonde hair, and looked at me with bleak eyes.
“God only knows why, Queen, but I believe you. See you later.”
He got up and moved quickly toward the door. But I was quicker. “Calm down, bright guy,” I ordered, turning the key in the lock and slipping the piece of metal down the neck of my dress. “You’re not leaving here until you cool off.”
“Give me that key before—”
He never finished that sentence. As his big hands reached for me again I sidestepped away from in front of the door. At the same instant my right hand shot under the hem of my dress and came out with my gun in my fingers.
“Back up, Sid!” I snapped. “You’re not such a bad guy for being a dick, and you’re not going to make a damned fool of yourself. Sit down — before I send you to the hospital with a slug in your leg. You’ll be safe there.”
For a moment I thought my argument wasn’t going to work. I’ve never seen a guy with more nerve than Sid Lang has, but he knew I meant every word I said. He’d learned by experience that Queen Sue doesn’t bluff.
When he was seated in the chair again I gave him some advice.