Introducing The Toff by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Introducing the Toff
ISBN: 9780755125517
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2013-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

11: DRAGOLI IS ANNOYED

Garrotty stood in the french windows of Colliss’s Winchester house. His automatic was smoking in his hand. There was blood on Colliss’s fingers, and the man on the floor looked unconscious. Garrotty moved quickly across the room, while footsteps and cries of alarm came from the other side.

His lips twisted, he flung the door open.

Two women and two men stood in the passage. They had been running and each one stopped at the sight of Garrotty and the gun. Fear beyond all reason showed on their faces, as the gangster, forbidding and menacing, lifted the automatic a little. A red-faced maid screeched.

Garrotty’s thick voice flung a question. Over his mouth and chin he was wearing a handkerchief, over his eyes the brim of a wide-brimmed hat was pulled well down.

‘How many more in de house; – you?’

He stabbed his gun towards the first man, plump, middle-aged, and dressed in black – Colliss’s butler for twenty-five years. The man gasped the words out: ‘None, we’re all here, we –’

‘Turn around,’ snapped Garrotty.

The butler was the only one to hesitate, and Garrotty loosed a shot towards the man’s feet. It worked, and the butler swung round. Another swarthy-faced man joined Garrotty, masked as he was, and Garrotty nodded. The second gangster used a black-jack with equal force on men and women. Four bodies dropped, quite unconscious, to the floor of the passage.

‘Find a room wit’ a small window and push dem in,’ snapped Garrotty. ‘Move fast, Red, we ain’t losin’ no time.’

The man named Red said nothing, but hurried along the passage, while Garrotty turned back to the room where Colliss was lying. A third gangster was standing by the window, watching the grounds, although there was little chance of an interruption.

Colliss’s house was built well away from the main road. The archaeologist had always had a passion for the country, and he had buried himself on this little five acre patch of grass and woodland, with a ten-roomed house that was amply large enough for his bachelor requirements. The nearest building, according to Dragoli’s report when he had given the gangster particulars of the place, was a mile and a half away. Anyone who might have heard the shooting at a mile and a half would have taken it for granted that it came from an ordinary morning shoot for birds or rabbits

‘Fassen his legs,’ Garrotty snapped.

The third gangster obeyed, using thin tough cord, while Garrotty started to go through the contents of the study. Bureaux drawers and cupboards were smashed open and the papers taken out. In five minutes Garrotty had every available paper on the desk by a wall, and at the same moment Colliss stirred, groaning a little. Garrotty swung towards him, and fear showed in the special agent’s eyes as the gun moved close to his head.

‘Talk fast,’ snarled Garrotty; he had learned almost from childhood how to strike fear in others and it came as a habit. ‘Where’s de dope on de Black Circle racket, Colliss?’

Colliss hesitated.

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