The Simple Art of Murder (Vintage Crime) by Chandler Raymond
Author:Chandler Raymond [Raymond, Chandler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2019-11-12T05:00:00+00:00
YRS.as ever,
HENRYEICHELBERGER(Alias)
P. S. What do you know, that punk that did the phone work on
you tried to take me for a fifty cut on that C note you tucked in my
vest. I had to twist the sucker plenty.
Yrs.H. E.(Alias)
PICKUP ON NOON STREET
ONE
The man and the girl walked slowly, close together, past a dim stencil sign that
said: Surprise Hotel. The man wore a purple suit, a Panama hat over his shiny,
slicked-down hair. He walked splay-footed, soundlessly.
The girl wore a green hat and a short skirt and sheer stockings, four-and-a-half
inch French heels. She smelled of Midnight Narcissus.
At the corner the man leaned close, said something in the girlâs ear. She jerked
away from him, giggled.
âYou gotta buy liquor if you take me home, Smiler.â
âNext time, baby. Iâm fresh outa dough.â
The girlâs voice got hard. âThen I tells you goodbye in the next block,
handsome.â
âLike hell, baby,â the man answered.
The arc at the intersection threw light on them. They walked across the street far
apart. At the other side the man caught the girlâs arm. She twisted away from him.
âListen, you cheap grifter!â she shrilled. âKeep your paws down, see! Tinhorns
are dust to me. Dangle!â
âHow much liquor you gotta have, baby?â
âPlenty.â
âMe beinâ on the nut, where do I collect it?â
âYou got hands, ainât you?â the girl sneered. Her voice dropped the shrillness.
She leaned close to him again. âMaybe you got a gun, big boy. Got a gun?â
âYeah. And no shells for it.â
âThe goldbricks over on Central donât know that.â
âDonât be that way,â the man in the purple suit snarled. Then he snapped his
fingers and stiffened. âWait a minute. I got me a idea.â
He stopped and looked back along the street toward the dim stencil hotel sign.
The girl slapped a glove across his chin caressingly. The glove smelled to him of the
perfume, Midnight Narcissus.
The man snapped his fingers again, grinned widely in the dim light. âIf that drunk
is still holed up in Docâs placeâI collect. Wait for me, huh?â
âMaybe, at home. If you ainât gone too long.â
âWhereâs home, baby?â
The girl stared at him. A half-smile moved along her full lips, died at the corners
of them. The breeze picked a sheet of newspaper out of the gutter and tossed it
against the manâs leg. He kicked at it savagely.
âCalliope Apartments. Four-B, Two-Forty-Six East Forty-Eight. How soon you
be there?â
The man stepped very close to her, reached back and tapped his hip. His voice
was low, chilling.
âYou wait for me, baby.â
She caught her breath, nodded. âOkey, handsome. Iâll wait.â
The man went back along the cracked sidewalk, across the intersection, along to
where the stencil sign hung out over the street. He went through a glass door into a
narrow lobby with a row of brown wooden chairs pushed against the plaster wall.
There was just space to walk past them to the desk. A bald-headed colored man
lounged behind the desk, fingering a large green pin in his tie.
The Negro in the purple suit leaned across the counter and his teeth flashed in a
quick, hard smile. He was very young, with a thin, sharp jaw, a narrow bony
forehead, the flat brilliant eyes of the gangster.
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