Dark Hero by Peter Cheyney

Author:Peter Cheyney [Cheyney, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2021-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Berg went into the telephone pay-box two blocks past Mulbery at Barrell Street. He rang Travis’s number. Whilst he waited he fished a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with his new gold and platinum striped lighter. He drew the smoke into his lungs.

Lauren’s voice came on the telephone.

Berg said: “Hallo, Mrs. Hahn. This is Rene Berg. Travis asked me to call him.”

She said: “Yeah . . . he told me . . . but he’s not here, Rene. He’s had to go out. Say, look . . . what are you doin’ to-night?”

Berg said: “I’m not doin’ anything much. I stuck around. I thought maybe Travis wanted something.”

She said: “Well, listen . . . you come over here, kid. I wanta talk to you. Get yourself a cab and come right over.”

Berg said: “Yeah? Maybe you got some sort of message for me from Travis?” Always in his heart he had been a little afraid of Lauren. Berg, who could be so ruthless, so merciless, with men, had a peculiar diffidence where women were concerned.

She laughed. When he heard the rich soft notes of her laughter he liked the sound.

She said: “Look, you wouldn’t think I was gonna eat you or something, would you? Maybe I have got a message from Travis, something I can’t shout about on the telephone.”

He said: “O.K. I’ll come over. Ill come over right away.” He hung up the receiver.

Sitting in the corner of the cab, drawing the cigarette smoke down into his lungs, Berg thought about Lauren Harm and women in general. During his period of apprenticeship as a gunman seventeen eighteen months ago, when he had walked around Chicago carrying Charlie and Harry Wells’s guns for them in a violin case, he had noticed that every big-time gangster had what seemed an attractive and beautiful woman—one at least. It seemed to Berg a part of the advantages of working in an organisation like Scansci’s that beautiful women were available, but somehow he had never got around to them. Time and time again one of the other boys’ dames had slung a hot look in his direction, but he had never done anything about it. It seemed to him that women were a lot of trouble. That’s how they seemed sometimes. Other times they seemed very necessary; very desirable.

He began to think about Clovis Scansci. There was a hell of a set-up, thought Berg. There was a thing. How the hell does a guy like Scansci—now fifty—get himself a kid like Clovis? Berg thought she must be twenty-two or twenty-three—somewhere about his age. How the hell did Scansci do a thing like that? But you never knew with women. Maybe she went for him. Maybe Scansci had some decent part in his odd nature. Berg’s lips twisted into a wry smile at the thought.

But Clovis was no gangster’s moll. She had got something. She had style, freshness, and something which none of the other women had. She seemed vaguely unattainable. Berg had only met her twice.

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.