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.
At first I tried to piece together the comments of the spectators that I overheard, but except for a lot of excited chatter about nothing in particular nobody was volunteering real information. Finally I moved in beside a man at the edge of the crowd.
“What happened, buddy?” I inquired, smiling my sweetest. “Raid a disorderly house?”
The man smiled at my sally. Then he became very blase.
“Maybe that’s what it is,” he answered. “There’s nothing to see here. I’m going home and get some sleep.”
I was all set to crack wise at him when suddenly I felt a hand close over my left arm. Turning my head, I looked into the pale eyes of Simon Grundish. So I didn’t say a word, just responded to the pressure on my arm and followed him down the street, away from the crowd.
When we were alone he took his hand from my arm. Grundish wasn’t much of a night owl, and at his age when he was on the street at that hour I knew it was serious. But I waited for him to open the conversation.
“I just heard about it, Queen,” he said a moment later, “and came right down to see what I could do. Lucky I found you.”
“Yes, it is lucky,” I admitted, “but I don’t know what it’s all about. What do the cops want me for now?”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t. I just arrived before you found me.”
“Well, Queen, this is pretty serious. The men who raided your place were Federal narcot agents.”
“What!” I stopped and looked hard at Grundish.
“That’s right, Queen,” he continued. “They found a large quantity of dope — cocaine, I think it was — in your apartment. We’re going to have a devil of a time beating the rap on that charge. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t promise—”
“Jeeze, what a lousy break that is!” I interrupted. “Snowbound, and no way of explaining that dope in my apartment!”
“No way at all that I know of. Looks like Suds Garland has played his ace.”
“Yeah, but I’ll beat the rap.” I said that impulsively, not having the faintest idea of how I was going to do it. Then I got an idea. “Let’s walk.”
We walked, and I did some hard thinking. Presently I thought I had things doped out enough to give Grundish my idea.
“Listen,” I began, speaking slowly in a low voice, “remember Sid Lang, the big detective who used to work for the district attorney? You know, the guy who smashed my liquor mob.”
“Yes, I know who you mean. I don’t think I ever met him, but—”
“Well, you’re going to meet him. He’s in the Mercy Hospital with a cracked head. That blast at the club caught him — killed my checkroom girl at the same time. He’s a private dick now and has been working quietly on breaking Suds Garland’s racket.”
“Did he put the Federal agents on you?”
I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. Suds thinks he’s clever, but he isn’t. He planted that dope in my place — not Lang — and then passed along the tip for the raid. Remember the girl who was killed several days ago shortly after leaving my place?”
Grundish nodded.
“Well,” I continued, “she was Sid Lang’s sweetheart. That’s something he’s got to settle with Suds himself. So I want you to see Lang as early as you can. Explain the situation to him. Tell him I’m going to do him a favor and expect one in return.”
“But what can he do that I can’t, Queen?”
“Just this. He’s been on the prod against this dope racket. He knows who’s at the head of it and probably was all set to make the pinch when he got smacked by that blast. I could use his testimony if the Feds get me and bring me to trial. See?”
“Bright idea, Queen,” said Grundish admiringly. “I could probably fix the case, but it would take time and might cause a lot of questions to be asked. It isn’t as though it were merely a liquor charge.”
“Okay, then. You do that for me. Also see my lawyer and send him around to the hotel later today. You might drop around yourself and tell me what Sid Lang says. I think he’ll come through. He’s a pretty white guy for a dick. And thanks a lot for showing up when I needed you most. See you later.”
“Where are you going now?”
“Me?” I put on a good act of being surprised. Then I smiled slightly and added, “I’m getting under cover where it’s safe.”
“Do that,” said Grundish in parting.
My smile became bigger while I turned and watched Grundish walk off down the street, his short, thin body looking very frail in the darkness. And I had good reason to smile.
I wasn’t going under cover just yet. I was going to settle the score with Suds Garland in the only way he seemed to be able to understand — with guns.
It was still more than an hour before daylight, and I figured I had time enough to call upon Garland in person that night. The weight of the gun on my leg gave me added confidence as I hailed a cab a few minutes after Grundish left me.
Giving the driver an address that would bring me within a block of Suds Garland’s place, I lighted a butt and settled back to enjoy the ride. Fifteen minutes later I left the cab and waited until the car moved away again, getting down to the business at hand.
The apartment house where Garland was living was a six-story structure, situated on a corner. Along one side ran an alley that showed the faint outline of fire escapes up the side of the building in the darkness. The other side of the building was adjoined by a small brownstone front.
I didn’t waste any time trying to climb up the fire escape. Suds lived on the fourth floor and that was too much of a climb for the time I had to spare. I went right to the main entrance and looked over the array of bell buttons and name cards, among which was one plainly labeled Garland.
But I didn’t push the bell under that card. I selected two apartments on the sixth floor and held down the buttons for a full minute of steady ringing.
The street door was one of those safety latch things that can be opened from any apartment in the building. Somebody in one of the two apartments I was ringing would almost certainly release the latch, late though it was. And they did.
With the first click of the latch I was in the building. The main corridor was dimly lighted by widely spaced bulbs. I found the stairs and climbed fast, ignoring the automatic electric elevator opposite the steps. Too much noise might warn Suds of my visit.
At the fourth floor landing I paused. Not a sound came to me. As yet the people at the top floor didn’t suspect they were receiving no visitors and had not opened their doors to investigate.
Silently I moved along the corridor until I stopped at the door of Suds Garland’s apartment. Then after a final glance along the hall I got my gun in my right hand and pressed the doorbell with my left forefinger.
I was taking a big chance, and I knew it. I wasn’t certain that Garland was home, and if he was I wanted to be ready for anything. I was.
After a couple of minutes there was the sound of a key turning in the lock. Then several bolts were shot back. Keeping off to one side of the door, my back flattened against the wall so that I was out of sight, I waited.
I felt rather than saw the door swing open on silent hinges. For a long breathless moment I thought my plan wasn’t going to work. Then, curiosity aroused, Suds Garland himself put one foot over the threshold and looked out along the corridor.
My gun hit his belly and stayed there.
“Inside!” I breathed, increasing the pressure of the gun as Garland recoiled from its touch. “Keep your hands high!”
His eyes went wide with sudden terror, but he raised his hands without a murmur. The next moment I was on the other side of the door and had kicked it shut and locked it.