"Rain, Anthony - Miles Beckett - Hampton Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rain Anthony Vincent)

......."Do you have to contact the police?"
......."A murder has been committed. I have to notify the local authorities, it's the law. But I can do it anonymously. I see no reason to personally involve you or me."
......."That's very good. So, now what?"
......."So now I dig a little deeper." I was maneuvering through the main drag of Southampton when I spied a black Jeep that looked like a ringer for the one the good doctor's daughter drove parked in front of The Driver's Seat on Job Lane. "I have to go, doc. I'll call you later." I hung up as Rubin started pontificating about something and parked.
.......At a pay phone I dialed 911 and reported a body at The Siren's Song. I gave the address and hung up, then entered the restaurant. Rubin's daughter was sitting in a booth with a pink tablecloth and a green lamp. I slid in across from her.
.......She was drinking a white wine, not her first. An ashtray contained two butts. A third cancer stick was smoldering on the edge. She put her glass down and said, "What are you doing?"
......."I'm hungry. You don't mind sharing a booth do you? You're Laura, right? I'm the PI working for your dad." I held out my hand. "Miles Beckett." She left me shaking air.
.......She got loud, and it wasn't the wine talking. "I want you to get up and leave my table now."
......."Keep your voice down, honey. You'll make everyone think we don't get along."
......."I mean it. Leave me alone or you'll get trouble."
.......I leaned in closer. "Trouble as in a .45 slug to the heart?"
.......Her upper lip twitched and she spoke more quietly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
.......Something had shaken her, so I gambled. "Someone saw you coming out of The Siren's Song after Campbell turned a permanent shade of blue." I put on my best poker face.
......."You're delusional," she said.
.......I grabbed her by the wrist. "This isn't a game. A man has been killed. Telling me will be a lot easier than telling the authorities. I'll at least give you leeway." I let go.
.......She flushed and pushed the hair away from her face. "Yeah, ok. I went to talk to Campbell. I'm a cabaret singer. I had auditioned at The Siren's Song last month, back before all this crap started with my father." She rolled the tip of her cigarette around in the bottom of the ashtray. "I went to see Campbell, you know, to see if he changed his mind about our gig. I'm cutting a demo CD and I need the exposure. He has two other clubs besides The Siren's Song. He has pull." She placed the cigarette on the lip of the ashtray and picked up her drink. Her nails were painted red. The knuckles were bone white. The angry flush had left her face, making her pale again. "I've never seen a dead body before."
......."What happened when you got to Campbell's?"
.......She looked to the side, out the window at a flea market in the courtyard next door. "I went in and called his name. He didn't answer, so I walked to the back room. That's when I saw him." If it was possible, her pallor increased a notch. I saw a smooth blue vein faintly appear in the upper corner of her forehead. She took up her cigarette pack and lit a fresh cigarette with the tip of the dying one.
......."When was this?"
......."About a half hour ago." That would have been when I was at Campbell's house.
......."Your dad is nearly killed and the only thing on your mind is a gig? I thought blood was supposed to be thicker than water?"
.......Every muscle in her seemed to relax at the same instant. "You have to look out for yourself in this world, and things are harder now. Everything moves faster. The music business is cutthroat. Besides, I don't believe it was Campbell. The old man is crazy."
......."You own a gun?" I asked.
......."No, I don't."
......."You mentioned 'our gig'."
......."I'm the singer. There's the piano player, Danny. He writes all our original songs. Then there's the bass player, drummer, and a guy on sax."
......."All right. Now, about the night your dad was attacked. He said you were asleep in your room."
......."Yeah. I take a sleeping pill. Ambien. I haven't been able to fall asleep on my own, since my mother died three years ago. I slept through the whole thing."
....... "Do you know anyone who fits the description of the man who attacked your dad?"
.......She smirked. "I don't know any tall men in ski masks. No."
......."So you don't believe your father's assumption that it was Campbell?"
......."Jimmy is a sleazy guy." She flushed. "Was a sleazy guy. I don't know." She tilted her head back and blew out a jet of smoke.
......."Do you know of anyone who wanted Campbell dead?"
.......The smoke lingered in front of her face. She looked like an apparition speaking from the beyond. "I have no idea."
***
.......The next morning, I walked out of my motel room and into air as heavy as wet cotton. I was wearing a tee shirt and trunks and planned to have a quick swim in the ocean, then drop by the police station. Homicide would have given Campbell's house and club the go-over by now, and all evidence would be in the lock-up. The property clerk would tell me what I needed to know, with a little maneuvering. There was also the off chance that some perp got picked up with Rubin's buprenorphine. I could find that out by scanning the daily arrest sheet. It's a matter of public record.
.......The motel parking lot was fairly empty, which made the young man leaning against the car conspicuous. He was about five eleven, early twenties and wiry. He wore black movie star sunglasses and a muscle tee showing a pair of tanned sinewy arms. "You Beckett?" He smiled wide, like a shark about to strike an exposed limb.
......."The one and the same." I unlocked the driver's side door and tossed my hotel towel in the back seat. The kid lifted his shirt and pulled out a chromed handgun. "Don't be macho," he said. "Let's get in the car and go for a drive. Someone wants to see you."
.......He put his scrawny hand on my shoulder, pushed me against the hot car and frisked me. I had left my gun in my room, wrapped in my pants and stuffed into my dresser drawer. My backup was in the trunk in its black plastic case with the required trigger lock on. Real convenient.
.......We got in the car and his voice got tighter. "Follow my directions and don't be stupid." The barrel of his gun pointed at my head. "Does the air conditioning work in this relic?"
......."Nada. You'll have to lower the window."
......."Fuck."
.......The kid's sunglasses were now resting on the top of his closely cropped blond hair, and his eyes were jumpy from nerves. I didn't like that, not with that cannon in his hand.
.......He directed me out of Southampton and onto Montauk Highway going east. Within ten minutes, he had me turn off on Woods Drive and we headed past a horse farm. Two chestnut horses were grazing on a hillside blocked off by white fencing. The road got dusty and forked up ahead, with a drop off the shoulder. I quickly jammed on the brakes and steered over the edge. The car skidded, dropped and bounced to a hard stop.
.......The kid was surprised and took his eyes off me for a second. I hit him square in the cheek, slamming his head against the window, making his gun hand jerk. I grabbed the automatic, and he squeezed the trigger, putting a bullet into the roof. Wrenching the gun free, I smacked him in the mouth with the handle, then stuck the barrel into his stomach.
......."Who the fuck sent you?"
......."Blow it out your ass." My punch had caused his sunglasses to slide down the bridge of his nose, and he looked at me over them. He put his fingertips into his mouth. They came out wet with blood.
......."If you piss me off enough, I'll leave your guts on the seat. Open the glove compartment and take out the handcuffs." He didn't move. I jabbed his ribs hard with the gun, feeling the bones give underneath the skin. He complied. "Snap one cuff onto your left wrist, push the other cuff through the door handle, and snap it onto your right wrist." After he did that, he was hunched forward and unable to reach me. I held the gun in my left hand and maneuvered the car back onto the road, steering with my right.
......."Finish giving me those directions," I said.
.......Fifteen silent minutes later, I pulled up to an isolated house next to a marsh. It was a brown shabby affair, and there were two cars in the drive. One of them was a gray Caddy. I looked at the driver's side door as I passed. There was a large, fresh scratch mark with blue paint streaks embedded. I took the cuffs off the kid and pushed him towards the house. I didn't bother to knock, just went through the unlocked front door with the kid going first.