The Prone Gunman: City Lights Noir by Jean-Patrick Manchette

Author:Jean-Patrick Manchette
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780872864023
Publisher: City Lights Books
Published: 2002-05-31T18:30:00+00:00

to the pair. Its bark was worried and threatening. Terrier took the dog's leash from Cecile's pocket and allowed the unconscious girl to slip to the ground. The dog stopped barking and attacked very fast. Terrier coolly buried his left fist in its open muzzle; with his right hand he seized the animal by its collar. As he immobilized the dog, which was trying to fight back as it noisily strangled, the man worked the clasp of the leash. Then he pulled his fist out of the muzzle, the dog's fangs scraping his hand as he did so.

Three minutes later, the unconscious Cecile was seated against the trunk of an isolated Norwegian fir, whose lower branches hung down and hid her from hypothetical pass-ersby. She would regain consciousness in a few minutes. She risked catching a bad cold, even though Terrier had scrupulously put her hands in her pockets after wrapping her head in her scarf. Attached to a branch by its leash, the setter was now calm, licking the girl's face and whining now and then.

Meanwhile, Terrier was running powerfully and steadily down a line in the direction that had always been forbidden on his walks. And almost immediately he reached the edge of the forest and came out on a secondary road. A hundred meters farther on was a village with six or seven stoplights, a bus stop, and a bar and general store that had a news rack. The man went into the shop, mechanically rubbing his left hand, which still had the setter's dried saliva on it, against his thigh. He ordered a muscadet and asked for the telephone. There was a telephone booth. Once more Terrier told Stanley what he thought it judicious to tell him—and asked him for what it seemed possible to ask.

''No problem," said Stanley.

"Forgive me for not telling you everything," said Terrier.

''It's less dangerous for you if I don't explain everything."

"Okay/' said Stanley, rather primly.

''Stanley/' Terrier said abruptly, "my name isn't Christian. Did you know that?"

"What's this all about?"

"Did you know that?"

"No."

"See you soon," Terrier said as he hung up.

He paid and left the store. He went back into the forest and, at a run, cut straight through the woods to the house. He soundlessly entered the deserted common room, soundlessly ascended the steep staircase, and soundlessly edged his way into the interior of the converted attic, where he saw that Anne was straddling Maubert, who was stretched out on his back, and fucking him.

Terrier's face turned pink, except for the edges of his lips, which turned pale. Unfaithful once more, his companion had her back to him. Terrier could see Maubert's legs, his trousers still on. The copulating couple had not heard the man come into the converted attic because a record player was loudly playing Verdi. The monks of // Trovatore were chanting:

Miserere d'un'alma gia vicina

alia partenza che non ha ritomo.

Miserere di lei, bonta divina,

preda non sia delVinfemal soggiomo.

.. . And simultaneously, Leonora (Leontyne Price, a magnificent black beauty)

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