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.
“Anybody in it?” asked Logan.
“No. And I went through to the hall, got one picture. But Haley saw me, caught me before I could reach the door. He and a couple of those thugs you call detectives took the plate away from me.”
“Did you come back here?”
“Yeah, but” — Casey’s thick face cracked in a scowl — “the place was closed.”
“Hah!” snapped Logan. “Then what?”
“I couldn’t figure it,” Casey went on, still scowling, “but I finally found Wade downstairs. He said that the girl was afraid Nyberg might get sore, and it was time to close up anyway, so she chased him out of the office and locked up.”
Casey shook his head. Logan waited silently.
“It sounded screwy at the time, but I had other things on my mind. Anyway she wanted Wade to take her downstairs — said she was afraid the cops might think she had been in the gambling place. So Wade took her downstairs. He was out on the street when I found him — the crazy fool. He said a car with a couple tough-looking eggs came along and the dame got in and left him standing there.”
“That’s all, huh?” Logan asked.
“That’s all that happened to me, yeah.”
“All right.” Logan pushed back his gray felt, pursed his lips, finally said: “It begins to add up. Now I’ll tell you my side.”
“You’re about the only button pusher I know that’s satisfied to take pictures and leave the police work for the cops. And that’s important this time — because there’s no pictures — no story — tonight. We’re gambling that the killers might come back for the body if they think the kill is covered.”
Logan watched Casey drop into a chair, then continued.
“Grady was working for three or four racetracks — the stewards or something. Remember that stink about the horse doping ring a couple years or so ago?” Casey nodded and Logan said: “The Feds were in on that. This is something new.
“Grady was about ready to crack this ring until Dopey Donlan got knocked off a couple days ago.”
“He was in it?” Casey asked.
“Yeah. And that’s why he was killed. Because the big shots were afraid he’d squawk under pressure. He’s a hophead and he probably would.
“But Grady had some dope on that kill. I didn’t know a thing about it till last night. Grady worked under cover until he came down to Headquarters and told me what he had. He said he thought he’d be ready for the showdown today. But you know these private dicks. Afraid we’d steal his stuff. Wouldn’t spill a thing till he was ready.”
Logan shrugged. “Well, he was ready this afternoon. He was the guy that tipped us off to this joint. He had the man he wanted. When he pulled the raid, Judson was to pinch the killer — or the big hot, or somebody.”
Logan slid off the desk and walked over to the body.
“What an idea. He’s cleaned. Nothing on him but his clothes. If he hadn’t come to see me last night, we’d have a hell of a time identifying him at all.”
“How’d you get wise he was here,” said Casey, taking out a cigarette and trying to get his mind off Wade.
“Haley found some blood in that washroom across the way. He found some — just a spot or two — on the window sill. He remembered you being there, looked around, tumbled to this office. But it was locked. I came down. We found him in the closet.”
Casey stood up, began to pace the floor. “Then somebody got him into the washroom from the race-track dive, or followed him in, put the slug on him and” — he stopped, turned to glance at the wide shelf he had used — “and slid his body across here.”
“Yeah,” said Logan. “And you and Wade busted in. The killers might’ve been in this next office. The girl had to get Wade out. That’s why she got him to go downstairs with her.” Logan’s voice got thin, thready.
“That’s why we’re waiting. If they aren’t wise they’ll come back for the body — I hope. That must’ve been their original plan — to leave it here till tonight. No word got out of this. Judson, Haley, the examiner and us are the only ones that know about it.
“We’ve got a guy that tried to get in that washroom about three or four minutes before the raid. He says the door was locked, that he watched it from then on till the raid. Nobody came out. So that must’ve been the time that Grady got it. Somebody got wise to him — but they couldn’t know about the raid. It just happened to break right after they’d killed him and—”
Logan broke off in surprise as Casey spun towards him with a thick, throaty curse.
“The picture!” Casey’s eyes got bright and glaring. “The one I took first. That’s it. I caught Handy with the camera, caught him coming out of the washroom a couple seconds after the raid. He must’ve been in there when the door was locked, and—”
“Wait a minute!” rapped Logan, and grabbed Casey. “What picture — what the hell you talking about?”
Casey told him then. Described the picture he had taken in short, clipped sentences. But he could not keep still when he talked. He had to walk, keep moving, because of the thought that festered in his brain and gave him no peace.
“It’s gotta be that way. And the girl knew Grady was dead — in that closet. She musta told Nyberg and—”
“We got word out to pick Moe up,” Logan interrupted. “We had Handy — and let him go.”
“They must’ve made that Henderson tramp get Wade out to her place,” Casey rushed on, “so they could put the pressure on him. Maybe force him to get that place. Only—”
Casey broke off and went slack-jawed.
“Only what?” rapped Logan.
“Only there ain’t any plate. Blaine—
Fessendon, the!” Casey explained what had happened. “Those hoods won’t believe the kid when he tells ’em it’s smashed.”
Logan jerked Casey around. “Take it easy. You got too much imagination. That girl might be on the level. And Wade. Hell, with his kind of dumb luck—”
He broke off as Casey jerked loose and started for the door. He leaped after the big photographer, caught him again.
“Where you goin’?”
“I’m goin’ to that girl’s place and—”
“No you’re not.” Logan’s chin jutted out and his brows drew down. “You’re goin’ down to the Globe with me and get that picture first. After that we’ll go.”
Casey put balled fists on his hips and leaned forward so that his chin was three inches from Logan’s nose.
“I am, huh?” he grunted.
“It’s a murder picture,” said Logan. “With that and this other guy’s testimony about the washroom, and the M.E.’s verdict to the time of death—”
“And Judson callin’ in, sayin’ we can’t print it,” flared Casey.
“I don’t know about Judson, but—” Logan began.
“And Blaine,” grated Casey. “If he’d had his way there wouldn’t be any picture. But there is; I held out on him. And you oughtta be damn’ glad I did. You can have it. But I’m not gonna waste time goin’ to the office now; and you’re not gonna take me down till I find that girl.”
Anger flooded Logan’s face and he started to speak. For just a moment he met Casey’s burning stare; then he backed a step and threw up his hands.
Those black eyes of Logan’s could see beneath many surfaces; and when Casey spoke like that you believed him. Logan believed him now. And strangely enough, his lips twitched in a flicker of a smile.
“If that’s the way it is,” he said caustically, “I guess I’d better go with you.” Turning to Manahan he added: “Call Judson. Get a couple more men up here. You may get action yet. But if word of this gets out I’m gonna beat the hell out of you, personally.”