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

.......We entered a living room as dingy as the outside. Stacks of boxes with Palm Pilots, pagers, and cell phones were piled next to beat-up furniture. Past that, two men were sitting at a round table in a dining room. More boxes were stacked behind them. The men were in their forties, black hair with gray starting to show. They both wore polo shirts. One wore a gold necklace. His eyes were the pale blue shade of a Husky dog. Three cups of coffee were on the table. I pushed the kid over and pointed the gun at them. They were unimpressed.
......."Thanks for bringing Bobbie home." The man with the blue dog eyes spoke with a low smooth voice. It was clear he had faced the barrel of a gun before and knew how to finesse the situation. I guessed he was the leader of this crew. "Bobbie, how many time I got to tell you to take enough car fare, huh?" Bobbie rubbed his wrists and stood off to the side, glaring at me.
......."Chill with the small talk," I said. "You wanted to see me, so here I am."
......."Did we?" Dog eyes looked at his friend. The friend had a nose that had been broken more than once and hands like steaks. A lifeless cigarette dangled from fleshy lips. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Dog eyes looked back at me and smiled. "Buddy, I think you made a mistake." His friend smirked and laughed.
.......Someone said, "Put the gun down, motherfucker." In the corner of my eye, another large man with a sawed-off stood in the kitchen doorway. He had been very quiet in his movements. The man with the misshapen nose laughed harder.
......."Don't waste him, Googie," said Dog-Eyes. "Do what he says, douche bag."
.......I put the gun on the floor and shoved it with my foot towards the table.
.......The laughing man got up and collected the gun, then pushed me over and down into an empty chair. Dog-Eyes got up and came and stood over me.
.......He held up a forefinger as fat and brown as a well-rolled cigar. "I should shoot you just for coming in here like an asshole." He lowered his arms to his sides, balled his fists and arched his shoulders forward, like he was going to launch one at me. "I hear that you're a private fucking eye. Why are you so interested in Jimmy Campbell?"
.......Instinct told me to play ball. "I was hired by a doctor who was robbed a few days ago. He suspects Campbell. I was checking him out."
.......He looked behind me at his crew. "What did that prick steal?"
......."Allegedly some drugs. One in particular that's used to get heroin addicts cleaned out. I'm not convinced Campbell stole it, but that and a buck fifty gets me on the subway."
......."So, then what? He wouldn't give it up and you wasted him?"
....... "Campbell was maggot feed before I could talk to him. You already knew that." Dog-Eyes moved his right hand quickly and struck me across the face. I started to get up, but a hand attached to a ton of cement pushed me back down.
......."Johnny D, you want me to waste the scumbag now?" Googie came around and touched the barrels of the sawed-off to my head. The gun smelled recently fired.
......."Not yet." The fat cigar fingers alternately balled up into fists and then relaxed. "If you're smart, shamus, you'll be straight up with me and get to walk out that door. If you're stupid, then I'll kill you. Campbell had something of mine and it's missing. Maybe you know where it is."
......."What are you looking for?"
.......Johnny D pushed the sawed-off away from my head and leaned in close. He was all sweat, coffee breath, and sickly-sweet aftershave. "Cash. One hundred large."
......."Have you tried the lost and found?"
.......Johnny D pulled a .45 from his waist and placed it against my throat. "You see this motherfucker here? This motherfucker doesn't have a sense of humor. I want my money. Do you have it?" He left it there for a few seconds, and cold sweat rolled down my neck.
......."I was only looking for one thing. I saw no money." Johnny D stared into my eyes. He lowered the gun.
......."What's your angle with Campbell?" I asked.
......."He owed me money. Simple as that."
......."I think it's more," I said. "I think Campbell's got his hands in other people's pockets, but it's on your turf, so you have to get a taste. But now he's dead. Convenient for you." Johnny D kept his mouth shut, but started to raise his gun again.
......."But I don't think you did it. Campbell was popped with a .45-caliber gun. I don't think that's your type of salt. Silk suits prefer finesse, like a .22 or .32-caliber, and with suppressors. Except for this Neanderthal here."
.......Googie turned the barrels back on me, but Johnny D pushed him away. He squinted and spoke through lips stretched thin by a grimace. "I was never in his office."
......."Not before he expired. But after, like me. Your crew checked the club and the house and found no money. I did the same thing, only I was looking for stolen medicine. Someone gave you a bum tip about me. You had me picked up on a guess. Someone is playing us. You want to go on guessing, or do you to find what belongs to you and what belongs to my client?"
.......The sound of car tires pushing against gravel came through the front window, followed by a cut motor and two car doors. Heavy, careless steps came closer. Johnny D looked behind me and nodded. Someone whacked me hard on the head. I felt the chair falling away from my body and saw Johnny D's pale eyes following me down into a dark hole.
***
.......Across the way from Rubin's house, cicadas hummed in a grove of oak trees. I could hear a lawn mower in the distance. When I had come to the day before, I was back in my motel parking lot lying down on my car front seat. I spent the night popping Tylenol and washing it down with Corona. The images in my brain eventually stopped scrolling.
.......I took a sip of coffee as the Jeep pulled out of the drive doing one hundred twenty. Draining the cup, I started the car and put the pedal to the metal. I didn't worry about Laura spotting me in the rearview. I was pretty sure she never used it.
.......Twenty minutes later, I was parked outside an aluminum sided cottage. A tall man a few inches over six feet opened a screen door and she went inside. He looked out onto the street briefly, then closed the door. I let several minutes pass, then crossed to the front door. I rang the bell, hopped over the railing and walked to the back door. To the side of the house, a flock of seagulls were having a party, tearing at some garbage. They screeched loudly. The back door was unlocked. I pulled out my .45 and went inside.
.......Inside, it was more of a large studio than a house. The back door opened into the kitchen area, which opened to a larger living room. The entire house had an cluttered, messy look to it. Laura was sitting on a sofa bed staring at the man, who was looking out the front window. An upright piano was in the corner, and sheet music was on the floor next to it. A lava lamp rested on the very top. Several more electronic pianos were in the corner. A pot of coffee was sitting on a table.
.......I raised my gun and cleared my throat. The man turned quickly. Laura looked up. She said nothing and looked like she hadn't a care in the world. The man had a vicious look cemented on his face. The outline of a gun showed through his tee shirt.
......."Put the gun on the floor with your left hand," I said. "Then push it away from you with your foot." He did this.
......."There isn't much space here and I don't see it out, so why don't you go and get it," I said.
......."I don't know what you're talking about," said the man.
......."Buprenorphine."
......."I don't know what you're talking about."
......."You're boring me, Danny. Laura, go get it." I motioned with my gun to for her to get up.
.......The tall man pointed his finger at Laura. "Don't move."
.......I raised the barrel of my gun some more. "I've gotten pretty good with this. My instructor at the gun club has me splintering coffee sticks at fifty feet. Think what I could do to your fat head."
.......Laura got up, went into a walk-in closet and came out holding the plastic jar of white powder. She placed it on the table. "Sometimes gut instinct solves a case. Sometimes its luck. In this case, it was 'Cherchez la femme'" I said to her.
......."Screw you," she said and sat back down.
.......I turned back to Danny. "Start from the beginning. You can practice your story with me, before you recite it to homicide. After they arrest you for killing Jimmy Campbell."
......."That's bullshit," yelled Danny.
.......The seagulls outside had gotten quiet, and I should have paid attention to that. The front door was suddenly kicked in and there stood two of my friends from the day before, Googie with his sawed-off and pathetic Bobbie.
.......Googie closed the screen door, while Bobbie took a few steps towards me. "Now who's the asshole? You didn't even see us following you, shithead. Drop the gun on the floor." I put it down. Bobbie walked over and picked it up and stuck it into his waistband. He glared at me for an instant, then hit me in the jaw with his gun. I dropped to one knee and he hit me on the back of the head. I fell and stayed down.
......."Move towards the girl." Googie motioned over at Danny. "Watch the scumbags." He looked around the room tossing things aside. He picked up the lava lamp and hurled it against the wall. He lifted the piano lid, smiled and put the sawed-off down. He reached in and pulled out a black bag. He looked inside and took out a few packets of cash. The bag looked big enough to hold one hundred grand.
......."You're an all-around asswipe," Googie said to Danny.