The Year's 25 Finest Crime & Mystery Stories 1st Annual Ed. (1992) by Mystery Scene Staff

Author:Mystery Scene Staff [Staff, Mystery Scene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

(For Jo Foshee)

LAWRENCE BLOCK

Batman’s Helpers

Lawrence Block has won all sorts of awards in the mystery field, including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe Award, and the Maltese Falcon Award. He just happens to be a very solid writer and a fine storyteller. He’s also created, in Matt Scudder, a private investigator you’d like to have on your case. He’s honest, ethical, and does do the sort of things that sometimes give PIs a bad name. The latest Scudder novel, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, looks to be another fine effort.

“Batman’s Helpers” isn’t, despite the title, one of the spate of stories that were commissioned to cash in on Batman, the motion picture. As a matter of fact, one suspects that the idea for this story might have been a response to the enormous marketing boom in spinoff merchandising that accompanied the film’s release and subsequent vast success.

You get one hint here: Batman doesn’t appear in this story. . .O.K. Hint number two: neither does Robin.

We’d like to think that if there really was a Batman, he’d be proud of this short tale. The same values espoused by the guy in the black cape come to bear on the outcome of the piece. You’ll have to sort that out for yourself.

Batman’s Helpers

LAWRENCE BLOCK

Reliable’s offices are in the Flatiron Building, at Broadway and Twenty-third. The receptionist, an elegant black girl with high cheekbones and processed hair, gave me a nod and a smile, and I went on down the hall to Wally Witt’s office.

He was at his desk, a short stocky man with a bulldog jaw and gray hair cropped close to his head. Without rising he said, “Matt, good to see you, you’re right on time. You know these guys? Matt Scudder, Jimmy diSalvo, Lee Trombauer.” We shook hands all around. “We’re waiting on Eddie Rankin. Then we can go out there and protect the integrity of the American merchandising system.”

“Can’t do that without Eddie,” Jimmy diSalvo said.

“No, we need him,” Wally said. “He’s our pit bull. He’s attack trained, Eddie is.”

He came through the door a few minutes later and I saw what they meant. Without looking alike, Jimmy and Wally and Lee all looked like ex-cops—as, I suppose, do I. Eddie Rankin looked like the kind of guy we used to have to bring in on a bad Saturday night. He was a big man, broad in the shoulders, narrow in the waist. His hair was blond, almost white, and he wore it short at the sides but long in back. It lay on his neck like a mane. He had a broad forehead and a pug nose. His complexion was very fair and his full lips were intensely red, almost artificially so. He looked like a roughneck, and you sensed that his response to any sort of stress was likely to be physical, and abrupt.

Wally Witt introduced him to me. The others already knew him. Eddie Rankin shook my hand, and his left hand fastened on my shoulder and gave me a squeeze.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.