"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 254 - Syndicate of Sin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

He stepped back, made a sneering gesture to Bobo.

"Give him his reward for wasting my time."

Bobo leaned swiftly over the bed with his .38. He jammed the muzzle of his gun against Blinky's temple
and shot him through the head.

Blood spattered over Cotswold's shrinking face. He was numb with terrorтАФ which was exactly the state
of mind Kemper wanted him to be in.

Kemper himself removed the millionaire's gag. Cotswold was barely able to talk. He whimpered
incoherently. Kemper's grin widened as he heard what Cotswold was trying to say.

"Yes. I know. You've always paid my blackmail demands without complaining. But tonight I'm after
something a hell of a lot more important than blackmail! I happen to know that you recently purchased a
famous Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece that was smuggled into America from the Louvre Museum in
Paris. You paid someone nearly a half million dollars for it. Is that true?"

"It's true," Cotswold faltered. His face was the color of wet clay. "You can have it. I'll turn it over to
you."

"I don't want the painting," Kemper said. "What I want is the name of the man you bought it from. A man
who has a secret cache of stolen art that is so valuable that one painting sells for nearly a half million!
That's a man I want to know. Tell me his name!"

"I can't," Cotswold gasped. "I met him only once. I never saw his face. He wore a mask."

"Where did you meet him?"

"I don't know. I was blindfolded. I drove somewhere in a car with a red-haired girl. She -"

"Where did you meet this girl?"

THERE was death in Kemper's harsh voice. Cotswold, with the blood of Blinky still warm on his face,
stammered eagerly to tell all he knew. It wasn't much.

He had received a telephone tip to go to the Vanderpool Art Galleries on Madison Avenue. Obeying
instructions, Cotswold had waited quietly in front of a painting called "The Bathers." He dropped his
cigarette case and spilled cigarettes on the floor. A red-haired girl helped him pick them up. When she
returned them, she added one of her own cigarettes to his.

"That was the agreed signal," Cotswold gasped. "When she left the gallery, I followed her. I got into her
car and was blindfolded. The blindfold wasn't removed until I was in a large room facing a man in a
mask. The room was filled with smuggled art. The masked man offered me the Leonardo da Vinci for
half a million. I accepted. I never saw him again. The painting was delivered a few days later. That's all I
know."

Kemper frowned.