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

"Don't tell me," Grave Digger said in an unrelenting voice, and handcuffed Sonny. "Save it for the judge."
"Boss, listen, I beg you, I swear 'fore God--"
"Shut up, you're under arrest," Coffin Ed said.


3

A police car siren sounded from the distance. It was coming from the east; it started like the wail of an anguished banshee and grew into a scream. Another sounded from the west; it was joined by other from the north and south, one sounding after another like jets taking off from an aircraft carrier.
"Let's see what these real cool Moslems are carrying," Grave Digger said.
"Count off, you sheiks," Coffin Ed said.
They had the case wrapped up before the prowl cars arrived. The pressure was off. They felt cocky.
"Praise Allah," the tallest of the Arabs said.
As though performing a ritual, the others said, "Mecca," and all bowed low with outstretched arms.
"Cut the comedy and straighten up," Grave Digger said. "We're holding you as wimesses."
"Who's got the prayer?" the leader asked with bowed head.
"I've got the prayer," another replied.
"Pray to the great monster," the leader commanded.
The one who had the prayer turned slowly and presented his white-robed backside to Coffin Ed. A sound like a hound dog baying issued from his rear end.
"Allah be praised," the leader said, and the loose white sleeves of their robes fluttered in response.
Coffin Ed didn't get it until Sonny and his friends laughed in amazement. Then his face contorted in black rage.
"Punks!" he grated harshly, somersaulted the bowed Arab with one kick, and leveled on him with his pistol as if to shoot him.
"Easy man, easy," Grave Digger said, trying to keep a straight face. "You can't shoot a man for aiming a fart at you."
"Hold it, monster," a third Arab cried, and flung liquid from a glass bottle toward Coffin Ed's face. "Sweeten thyself."
Coffin Ed saw the flash of the bottle and the liquid flying and ducked as he swung his pistol barrel.
"It's just perfume," the Arab cried in alarm.
But Coffin Ed didn't hear him through the roar of blood in his head. All he could think of was a con man called Hank throwing a glass of acid into his face. And this looked like another acid thrower. Quick scalding rage turned his acidburnt face into a hideous mask and his scarred lips drew back from his clenched teeth.
He fired two shots together and the Arab holding the half-filled perfume bottle said, "Oh," softly and folded slowly to the pavement. Behind, in the crowd, a woman screamed as her leg gave beneath her.
The other Arabs broke into wild flight. Sonny broke with them. A split second later his friends took off in his wake.
"God damn it, Ed!" Grave Digger shouted and lunged for the gun.
He made a grab for the barrel, deflecting the aim as it went off again. The bullet cut a telephone cable in two overhead. It fell into the crowd, setting off a cacophony of screams.
Everybody ran.
The panic-stricken crowd stampeded for the nearest doorways, trampling the woman who was shot and two others who fell.
Grave Digger grappled with Coffin Ed and they crashed down on top of the dead white man. Grave Digger had Coffin Ed's pistol by the barrel and was trying to wrest it from his grip.
"It's me, Digger, Ed," he kept saying. "Let go the gun."
"Turn me loose, Digger, turn me loose. Let me kill 'im," Coffin Ed mouthed insanely, tears streaming from his hideous face. "They tried it again, Digger."
They rolled over the corpse and rolled back.
"That wasn't acid, that was perfume," Grave Digger said, gasping for breath.
"Turn me loose, Digger, I'm warning you," Coffin Ed mumbled.
While they threshed back and forth over the corpse, two of the Arabs followed Sonny into the doorway of a tenement. The other people crowding into the doorway stepped aside and let them pass. Sonny saw the stairs were crowded and kept on going through, looking for a back exit. He came out onto a small back courtyard, enclosed with stone walls. The Arabs followed him. One put a noose over his head, knocking off his hat, and drew it tight. The other pulled a switchblade knife and pressed the point against his side.
"If you holler you're dead," the first one said.
The Arab leader joined them.
"Let's get him away from here," he said.
At that moment the patrol cars began to unload. Two harness cops and Detective Haggerty hit the deck and were the first on the murder scene.
"Holy mother!" Haggerty exclaimed.
The cops stared aghast.
It looked to them as though the two colored detectives had the big white man locked in a death struggle.
"Don't just stand there," Grave Digger panted. "Give me a hand."
"They'll kill him," Haggerty said, wrapping his arms about Grave Digger and trying to pull him away. "You grab the other one," he said to the cops.
"To hell with that," the cop said, swinging his black-jack across Coffin Ed's head, knocking him unconscious.
The other cop drew his pistol and took aim at the corpse. "One move out of you and I'll shoot," he said.