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.
“It’s a fair example of a star sapphire,” continued Saul, “and if it wasn’t hot you’d even be able to get up to four and a half hundred for it.”
Firpo took the brooch from Saul’s hand and walked out. This gave Jugger Callahan an even stronger motive to murder Ruth Bailey. The brooch was worth real dough — all the more reason for Jugger to be thoroughly enraged over its theft.
Firpo saw a clock over a bus depot. It was already after ten. He wasn’t at all hungry but he hadn’t eaten since the previous evening and he knew that he should have something. He found some loose change in his pockets and entered a cafeteria. With swollen lips he sipped a glass of buttermilk through a straw, and then he headed straight for the Tango Palace.
The taxi dance hall was going full blast. On the platform, Mona Leeds was giving her all to the Basin Street Blues and extra hostesses were on the floor to take care of the large, Saturday night trade.
Firpo Cole sank into the settee and his eyes automatically searched among the dancers for Ruth Bailey. Then he remembered. Some of the girls walked over to tell him that Ruth had been a good kid and that if they could do anything...
To one side, Simms was grilling the hostesses by turns. He saw Firpo and came over to him.
“I hope there’s no hard feelings, Firpo.”
“Who found the body, Simms?”
“The apartment door was left open and some tenant who came in at three thirty saw her on the floor.”
“O.K.”
“You don’t look so good, Firpo. You’re as white as a baby’s behind. Why don’t you go home?”
“Why don’t you leave me alone?”
“Now don’t take it that way, Firpo. Just regard me as a plainclothes dick who has to do his job.”
Firpo said: “I love you with an overwhelming passion.”
Simms snorted. “If you didn’t do the murder a guy would think you’d try to help me find who did. But everybody in this stinkhole thinks I’m their enemy.” He stalked off.
Mona finished her number and left the stand. Ephraim Tuttle scurried back and forth settling arguments when he found them and creating them when he didn’t. He stopped by Firpo Cole.
“I heard you were out, Firpo. I tried to tell those dopes that you couldn’t have done a thing like that to her.”
“Thanks.”
The business manager regarded Firpo’s battered face and clucked sympathetically. “That’s a hell of a way to treat you. As if you would have touched a hair of her head.”
“We won’t talk about it, Tuttle.”
“Sure. She’d want us to forget it.”
“That’s right. Shut up.”
Ephraim Tuttle muttered something under his breath and left. Firpo buried his face in his hands and sobs seemed to rack his body, but when his hands dropped away, his eyes were dry. Rocco Pace, dressed to the hilt, came by and sat beside him.
The racketeer asked: “Are you still a checking-room?”
“Sure.”
Rocco Pace slipped his gun out of the shoulder holster and handed it to Firpo. “I see that the shams gave you the lumps, pal.”
Firpo Cole nodded.
“Don’t let it worry you, Firpo. You’ll get used to it — after a while.” He patted Firpo’s back and went out on the dance floor. In a moment, he was dancing a wild waltz, to the beat of a fox trot, whirling in and out among the unmoving couples.
Firpo Cole ran fingers over the automatic in his pocket. He caressed its smoothness and put down the safety. He stood up and pushed L his way through the dancers and idlers, down the length of the hall. “∗He went through a curtained archway that led backstage to the band platform and knocked on the dressing-room off the right wings.
Mona Leeds said: “Come in.”
He entered the small dressing-room. The torch singer was buffing her nails before the mirror.
“I’m glad they let you go, Firpo.” The rich, husky voice sounded strained.
He took a cigarette from a case on a table and sat down. “They had to. They didn’t have anything on me.”
“You shouldn’t smoke cigarettes, Firpo. They’re not good for you.”
He laughed.
“I know,” she said rapidly. “You feel you don’t give a damn any more. I’d feel that way if something happened to Jugger but it’s wrong, Firpo. I don’t know how to tell you but—” She floundered for the right words. “You can’t know how sorry I am about the quarrel I had with Ruth last night. It was just a crazy fit of jealousy.”
“Don’t let it worry you, Mona. You couldn’t help it and even Ruth wasn’t mad about it.”
“Firpo, if only we could find out who did it.”
“Don’t let that worry you either, Mona. What’d you tell the cops?”
“Just what happened,” she replied. “I had that argument with Ruth and I never saw her again.”
“That’s a lie,” said Firpo Cole deliberately. “I took Ruth home about one thirty. She probably went right out again and visited you. She didn’t bring her purse along and before she left you she probably said that she looked like the wrath of God and—”
“Those were her exact words,” uttered Mona Leeds softly.
He gave a wry grin. “Don’t be surprised. I know Ruth. Anyway, you loaned her your powder and lipstick and she came home. That couldn’t have been later than three in the morning. Somebody was either waiting for her at the apartment or followed her home and killed her. What I want to know is why you keep that visit to you a secret.”
“You won’t like it, Firpo. That’s why I kept it to myself.”
“I’m not a very sensitive plant. Go on.”
“Well, she came to tell me she was sorry about our fight — and that she was a thief. She said she went back to the dance hall the night the old place burned down and found a piece of jewelry that Jugger had bought for me.”
Firpo produced the brooch and showed it to the torch singer. “Is this what Ruth was talking about?”
“Yes — but she was wearing it on her dress. How did you get it?”
“That’s a trade secret. Go on.”
“Ruth took it from Jugger’s desk,” continued the torch singer, “and she came over last night to give it to me. I wouldn’t take it.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because it wasn’t mine. Jugger might have bought it for me but he never mentioned it, so I told her to keep it — a sort of peace offering for that fight we had. I guess Jugger thinks it got lost in the fire.”
Firpo Cole shook his head. “Jugger must have seen her wearing it.”
“I guess so,” replied Mona Leeds. “That’s the way Jugger is. If he figured that she wanted it enough to steal it, he’d let her keep it.”
“It’s worth four or five hundred bucks,
Mona, so I doubt it. You know, the Easternstates Insurance thinks the fire wasn’t an accident.”
The torch singer’s hand went to her mouth in a frightened gesture. “No. Jugger wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
“How do you know?”
“But it’s crazy, Firpo. He had a lot of money in his office — the receipts of a couple of days — that burned down, too.”
“The insurance money more than made up for it. Besides, they’re not so sure the money was there in the first place. They only have Jugger’s and Tuttle’s word for it.”
“But why should he take such a chance for a few dollars, Firpo? He’s doing fine the way he is.”
“I don’t know but I’ll damned well find out.” He stood up. “You’re O.K., Mona. Don’t take it too hard if I find out that Jugger killed Ruth.”
He left her staring after him with wide-eyed apprehension.