"Kuttner, Henry - Red Gem of Mercury" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

Vane. "
"Wait a minute."
The chief stopped.
Vane looked at Pasqual. The squat gangster still kept his right hand out of
sight under his flashy sport coat. His little eyes were fixed on the lawyer. He
snarled. "For God's sake, put those cuffs on him!"
"I just wanted to tell you something, Pasqual," Vane said, very softly.
"Remember Tony Apollo? Remember how he used to lick the tar out of you when we
were kids? Remember how much you hated and feared him? Tony swore to get you,
Pasqual, and he never broke his word."
"Apollo's dead," the gang chief lashed out.
"He told me nothing could kill him till he'd kept his last promise."
Pasqual started to reply, but no sound came from the thick lips. The tiny eyes
turned toward the door. It was opening, very slowly.
Tony Apollo stood on the threshold.
PASQUAL sucked in his breath sharply. A sound came from his throat. It wasn't
intelligible.
Lankershim whispered, "Apollo!" He reached for his gun.
Vane said, "Don't move, Chief." His glance took in the four patrolmen. "Or you
either. This is between Pasqual and Tony Apollo."
Pasqual glanced around frantically. His face was a sickly butter-color.
Tony Apollo walked forward.
Pasqual screamed and clawed out his gun. He fired point-blank at the other.
Blood gushed from Apollo's chest. He didn't stop. He ignored the wounds. He kept
on walking toward Big Mike Pasqual.
And Big Mike Pasqual wasn't big any more. He was just a terrified little rat,
yelling and picking up the telephone from the desk and hurling it at Apollo. The
latter's nose was crushed by the impact. The fixed, unchanging smile did not
fade.
Tony Apollo kept on walking forward.
Pasqual seized a chair, lifted it, and smashed it down on Apollo's head.
"Keep away from me!" he mouthed. "Damn you, leave me alone! I never framed you!
For God's sake, Tony--"
Pasqual picked up a heavy lamp from the desk and used it like a club. He kept
hitting again and again at his opponent's face. Apollo didn't try to resist or
protect himself. He just stood there, while his features slowly vanished in a
mangle of red, pulped flesh.
Tony Apollo came walking on .....
Horrified gasps went up from the crowd outside. Pasqual whirled suddenly and
made for the door. He forced his way through the mob, and men and women alike
shrank from the hysterical lord of the underworld--now a shaking, shrieking
wreck. Pasqual looked over his shoulder.
Tonv Apollo was following.
Vane said to Lankershim, "Come on, all of you." He nodded at the officers, and
they trailed him out on the sidewalk. Amid the seething crowd, they stared after
Pasqual.
The gangster was climbing a fire-escape, in a frantic attempt to escape from his
pursuer. Up and up he went, five stories above the ground to the roof. White
faces watched him from the tenement's windows. On the summit Pasqual vanished
for an instant, and then reappeared, holding in his hands a brick he had