"Himes, Chester - The Real Cool Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Himes Chester)

"It could have been some other man feeling the same way," Grave Digger said. "He might have seen Pickens shooting at Galen and thought he'd get in a shot, too."
"These people!" the chief said. "Okay, Jones, you begin to work on that angle and see what you can dig up. But keep it from the press."
As Grave Digger started to walk away, Coffin Ed fell in beside him.
"Not you, Johnson," the chief said. "You go home."
Both Grave Digger and Coffin Ed turned and faced the silence.
"Am I under suspension?" Coffin Ed asked in a grating voice.
"For the rest of the night," the chief said. "I want you both to report to the commissioner's office at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Jones, you go ahead with your investigation. You know Harlem, you know where you have to go, who to see." He turned to Anderson. "Have you got a man to work with him?"
"Haggerty," Anderson offered.
"I'll work alone," Grave Digger said.
"Don't take any chances," the chief said. "If you need help, just holler. Bear down hard. I don't give a goddamn how many heads you crack; I'll back you up. Just don't kill any more juveniles."
Grave Digger turned and walked with Coffin Ed to their car.
"Drop me at the Independent Subway," Coffin Ed said.
Both of them lived in Jamaica and rode the E train when they didn't use the car.
"I saw it coming," Grave Digger said.
"If it had happened earlier I could have taken my daughter to a movie," Coffin Ed said. "I see so little of her it's getting so I hardly know her."


6

"Let her loose now," Sheik said.
Sissie let her go.
"I'll kill him!" Sugartit raved in a choked voice. "I'll kill him for that!"
"Kill who?" Sheik asked, scowling at her.
"My father. I hate him. The ugly bastard. I'll steal his pistol and shoot him."
"Don't talk like that," Sissie said. "That's no way to talk about your father."
"I hate him, the dirty cop!"
Inky looked up from the handcuffs he was filing. Sonny stared at her.
"Shut up," Sissie said.
"Let her go ahead and croak him," Sheik said.
"Stop picking on her," Sissie said.
Choo-Choo said, "They won't do nothing to her for it. All she got to say is her old man beat her all the time and they'll start crying and talking 'bout what a poor mistreated girl she is. They'll take one look at Coffin Ed and believe her."
"They'll give her a medal," Sheik said.
"Those old welfare biddies will find her a fine family to live with. She'll have everything she wants. She won't have to do nothing but eat and sleep and go to the movies and ride around in a big car," Choo-Choo elaborated.
Sugartit flung herself across the foot of the bed and burst into loud sobs.
"It'll save us the trouble," Sheik said.
Sissie's eyes widened. "You wouldn't!" she said.
"You want to bet we wouldn't?"
"If you keep talking like that I'm going to quit."
Sheik gave her a threatening look. "Quit what?"
"Quit the Moslems."
"The only way you can quit the Moslems is like Caleb quit," Sheik said.
"If I'd ever thought that poor little Caleb --"
Sheik cut her off. "I'll kill you myself."
"Aw, Sheik, she don't mean nothing," Choo-Choo said nervously. "Why don't you light up a couple of sticks and let us Islamites fly to Mecca."
"And let the cops smell it when they shake us down and take us all in. Where are your brains at?"
"We can go up on the roof."
"There're cops on the roof, too."
"On the fire escape then. We can close the window."
Sheik gave it grave consideration. "Okay, on the fire escape. I ain't got but two left and we got to get rid of them anyway."
"I'm going to look and see where the cops is at by now," Choo-Choo said, putting on his smoked glasses.