Blackmailer E-Book

George Axelrod

• Herausgeber: Hard Case Crime
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

From the Academy Award-Nominated Screenwriter of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE comes a breathtaking story of murder and mischief...

Leseprobe

The Reviews Are In For the Work of GEORGE AXELROD—and They’re Raves!

“Tricky and ingeniously devised.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“A smash hit...original and funny.”

—The New York Times

“Axelrod...is the kind of man who can’t open his mouth—or his typewriter—without making an audience either think or laugh.”

—L.A. Herald Examiner

“Witty [and] quite a lot of fun.”

—New York Daily News

“Amiable lunacy...delightful.”

—Herald Tribune

“Always sophisticated...very amusing.”

—Screen Reviews

“[One of] the most impressive new talents to emerge [this] year...first-rate.”

—Boston Post

Jean Dahl was lying very still. I didn’t like the way she looked at all.

I shook her, but she was completely limp. “Hey, come on,” I said, “Snap out of it, lady.”

I picked her up and carried her into the bathroom. Supporting her body against the wall with one hand, I turned the cold water in the shower all the way on.

Her dress zipped down the back from neck to waist. I was able to work her arms and shoulders out of it, and it dropped to the floor as I lifted her to her feet. Holding her from behind, I eased her under the shower.

She coughed as the cold water hit her. I stood holding her under the shower. We were both gasping and once I lost my footing and fell heavily, pulling her down on top of me on the wet tile floor.

When I let her out of the shower, her knees buckled and I let her sink to the floor.

In the bedroom I went through her purse. I couldn’t help noticing that she had acquired a new automatic. I took the gun and the cigarettes and matches out of her purse. I put the gun in my pocket and lit two cigarettes. Then I went back into the bathroom.

She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub drying herself with a towel. She had taken off her wet underwear.

“My God,” she said hoarsely, “they tried to kill me.”

The telephone began to ring.

I froze.

I lifted the receiver very gently and held it to my ear. I didn’t say anything. I just lifted the phone and waited.

The man’s voice on the other end of the phone was cold, harsh, and derisive.

“Eagle Scout,” it said. “Hero. Why don’t you mind your own business?”

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS

YOU WILL ENJOY:

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain

NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin

BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell

LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange

THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block

ROBBIE’S WIFE by Russell Hill

THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN by Gil Brewer

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis

BLACKMAILER

byGeorge Axelrod

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-032)

First Hard Case Crime edition: June 2007

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

Copyright © 1952 by George Axelrod

Cover painting copyright © 2006 by Glen Orbik

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-307-6

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-388-5

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab

Design direction by Max Phillips

www.maxphillips.net

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

The name “Hard Case Crime” and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Printed in the United States of America

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter One

The girl’s name was Jean Dahl. That was all the information Miss Dennison had been able to pry out of her. Miss Dennison had finally come back to my office and advised me to talk to her. “She’s very determined,” my secretary said. “I just can’t seem to get rid of her.”

Then Miss Dennison winked. It was a dry, spinsterish, somewhat evil wink.

“Anyway, Mr. Sherman, she’s your type.”

By that time I had decided Jean Dahl was most probably an author’s wife and, as such, fell under my jurisdiction. At Conrad, Sherman, Inc., Publishers, Pat Conrad deals with the authors and I deal with the authors’ wives.

I have far and away the tougher job.

Part of my job is to come up with spontaneous, unrehearsed answers to such irate questions as: Will you please explain to me why, when my Aunt Sarah tried to buy a copy of my husband’s book at Macy’s, they told her it was out of stock? Or: Are you deliberately trying to sabotage my husband’s book, or do you actually think you can sell it by running those measly little ads?