A Coffin from Hong Kong / Гроб из Гонконга. Книга для чтения на английском языке

”

“What’s your gun?”

“A .38[28 - A .38 – (разг.) пистолет 38-го калибра (используемый полицией)] police special”.

He laid his hand, palm up, on the blotter. “Give.”

“It’s in the top right-hand drawer.”

He stared for a long moment, then withdrew his hand. “It isn’t. I’ve looked through your desk.”

I resisted the temptation to wipe away the trickle of cold sweat that began to run down the back of my neck. “That’s where it should be.

He took a cigar from a pigskin case, stripped off the wrapping, pierced the cigar with a match end, then fed the cigar into his face. All the time his small hard eyes locked with mine. “She was shot with a .38,” he said. “The M.O. says she died around three o’clock this morning. Look, Ryan, why don’t you come clean[29 - why don’t you come clean – (разг.) почему бы вам не сознаться во всем]? Just what did this yellow skin have in her handbag?”

Keeping my voice calm with an effort, I said, “I may seem to you to be a dumb, stupid peeper, but you can’t really believe I would be that dumb and that stupid to knock off a client in my own office with my own gun even if she had all the gold in Fort Knox[30 - Fort Knox – Форт-Нокс, резервация в Северном Кентукки, где хранится золотой запас США] in her goddam handbag.

He lit the cigar and blew a stream of rank smoke at me.

“If I had killed her,” I went on, “I would have known the time she had died. I wouldn’t have given you an alibi for eight-thirty, I would have cooked one up for three o’clock.”

He shifted around in my chair while what he used as a brain creaked under pressure.

“What was she doing in your office at that hour in the morning?”

“Want me to guess?”

“Look, Ryan, we haven’t had a murder in this city for five years. I’ve got to have some story to give the Press. Any ideas you’ve got, I’ll listen to. You help us, I’ll help you. I could arrest you and toss you in the tank on the evidence I’ve got against you, but I’m giving you a chance to prove I’m wrong. Go ahead and guess.