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.
“Got company?” I asked.
Suds shook his head. I didn’t believe him.
“You lead the way. I want to talk to you, but if you’re lying I’ll give you the business pronto. Move!”
He walked steadily enough into the living room. There I found a couple of softly shaded lights burning. Garland was in his shirt sleeves, and had apparently come in only a few minutes before I arrived. His hat and coat were lying on a chair as though he had just taken them off.
So far as I could see he hadn’t been lying after all about not having company. From the living room I could see into a small dining room. Beyond that I knew was a bedroom, and both rooms were in darkness.
But I didn’t take any chances with Garland. The boy was tricky, and before I faced him again I relieved him of a snub-nosed .38 revolver that bulged plainly in his hip pocket. Then with a gun in each hand I backed around in front of him and made him sit down on a divan. I remained standing.
“Suppose we cut the talk short,” I opened, noticing that Suds had regained his composure. If I hadn’t been so mad I might have known that his confidence spelled trouble.
“Just as you say, Queen,” he answered evenly. “You didn’t have to come busting in here like that. I’d have let you in.”
“Yes, you would!” I jeered. “I’m finished with playing nice with you, Suds. I’m going to show you how tough a lady can be.”
“You and who else?”
“We won’t argue the point,” I went on. “I want a signed confession from you that you planted that snow in my apartment.”
“What snow?”
His pose of innocence was funny. But I didn’t laugh.
“You’ve got a pencil in your vest pocket,” I continued. “Get that newspaper off the floor in front of you. Write the confession on the margin. I’ll dictate it.”
“I’m a hard man to deal with, Queen,” he stated with a great show of nerve. “A hard man. You just think I’m soft because I’ve been easy with you. Now I’m going to show you just how tough I am.”
“Can the chatter!” I snapped. “Get that pencil in your hand!”
I gestured with the gun in my left hand. Suds Garland laughed softly, derisively.
“You little fool!” he blazed, leaning forward while he looked up at me with flashing black eyes. “You’ve been covered ever since I sat down. Give it to her, Gus, if she moves a muscle!”
For a moment I didn’t know whether he was merely bluffing or really meant that speech. The business of getting you to look behind you for an attack from the rear was old stuff. So I hefted the guns in my hands and watched Garland closely.
Suddenly I froze.
“Right,” drawled a voice behind me.
Suds Garland had not been bluffing. The single word told me that a gunman was concealed in the darkness of the dining room. Just when I thought I had Garland in the bag I had been trapped myself!
Chapter VII
Not So Tough
For a full minute I remained perfectly motionless. Not a sound could be heard, save the hoarse breathing of Suds Garland and the man behind me.
The strain was terrific, but I’ve been in a lot of tight places and my nerves can stand plenty. This time was no exception. If I could prolong the suspense either Garland or the fellow called Gus would break under the nervous torture. But I wasn’t doing nothing while I waited.
I was thinking — hard!
Finally as Suds moistened his lips with the darting point of his tongue I raised my left thumb and slowly pulled back the hammer of the .38. There was a sharp click as the hammer settled into the full cock position.
That slight sound only served to increase the tension. Garland’s black eyes narrowed to slits. The muscles of his lean face became rigid as he sought to control his features. I might be in a tight place, but he certainly wasn’t having a picnic.
“Well?” I said softly, and in that intense silence it sounded as though I had shouted at the top of my voice.
I wasn’t making a grandstand play. Pulling back the hammer of the .38 had been straight business. I figured that if it came to a showdown with the man behind me I could get in at least one shot that would keep Garland with me when I went down under a bullet.
But I really didn’t want to kill Suds Garland — yet. I wanted him to live long enough to write that confession and sign it. After that I would kill him with his own gun and make it look like suicide. That would give him the best out he could get.
When there was no answer to my single question I knew Garland and the guy behind me were uncertain about their next move. They had expected me to drop my guns and be a good girl, but they didn’t know Queen Sue.
After another minute or so of silence I got tired of waiting. It was evident enough that both men knew what would happen if the guy in the dark took a shot at me. But waiting was getting me nothing. I wanted action.
“Take plenty of time to think it over, Suds,” I advised in a sneering voice. “If you’re the hard mug you think you are, tell your buddy to squeeze lead or drop the gun.”
“You — you don’t have a chance, Queen,” he stammered after a moment. Little beads of sweat oozed from his face and formed bigger drops that ran down his cheeks and the sides of his nose unheeded. “You can’t get out of here alive.”
“Speaking for yourself?” I threw back coolly.
But I wasn’t as cool as I sounded. I’m only human after all and with a guy like Garland I couldn’t tell how this battle of wills was going to turn out.
My last crack floored Garland for a moment. Then he looked past me and did things with his eyes.
I guessed what he meant, and raised the gun in my right hand slightly. Then I shifted the .38 slightly to the left where it would be handier for a quick shot without interfering with the movement of my right arm.
Suds’ work with his eyes had meant only one thing. The man behind me was to close in and overpower me without risking the chance of Garland getting shot.
The next moment soft-soled shoes slithered over the floor behind me. But I didn’t turn immediately. I waited until I figured the man behind me was almost within reach. Then I went into action.
Raising my right hand swiftly, I brought the nose of my automatic down hard on Suds Garland’s mouth. Simultaneously I whirled towards the left, brought the .38 in the open away from my body, and squeezed the trigger once.
I hadn’t been a moment too soon. The guy behind me had raised the gun in his right hand to club me down. The bullet from Garland’s gun caught him in the center of the throat under the chin, passed upward through his head, and knocked plaster from the ceiling.
The impact of the bullet lifted him up on his toes. Then while the roar of the shot still seemed to fill the room he started to fall.
I shot a quick glance at Garland. The guy who claimed he was so tough was grovelling on the divan from the blow on the mouth that had brought blood spurting to his smashed lips. I started to talk fast, but something that wasn’t on the schedule took the words out of my mouth.
The guy who’d tried to slug me hit the floor with his face. At the same instant his gun exploded as his right hand thumped the rug, throwing the muzzle of the gun upward.
He wasn’t six feet from the divan when he fell. The bullet plucked at the skirt of my dress and slammed into Suds Garland’s chest. The guy called Gus must have used hollow-nosed slugs, for that hunk of lead made a gaping hole as it tore through flesh and bone.
I didn’t wait to see more.