Death House Doll Read Online Free PDF

Joe,” Hymie warned him. “Don’t get us in no deeper. This guy ain’t a punk. If he doesn’t show on schedule, the whole goddamn United States Army is going to be looking for him.”
    LaFanti continued to lick at his lips. “Yeah, I know. That’s why I tried to buy him off. But we can arrange the other if we have to. There are always accidents. Maybe he could go swimming or something. Maybe dive off the breakwater and maybe hit his head on one of the rocks.” He walked across the room away from me. When he turned back he was holding a long-barreled .38. I could tell by the way he held it that he knew how to use it.
    “Okay. Let’s have it, Duval,” he said. “What lies did the dame tell you about me? And where did she stash the diamonds?”
    I was truthful with him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    LaFanti nodded at the lad wearing the baby-blue tie. “Soften him up a bit, Norm.”
    Norm came in fast, swinging the sap. I brought my knees up to my chest and gave him both feet in the belly so hard he went through the fireplace screen into the big stone fireplace.
    LaFanti’s admiration was begrudged. “You’re tough, all right,” he admitted.
    Norm came out of the fireplace tugging at a gun in a shoulder holster. “Let me shoot the son.”
    LaFanti waved him back. “Start talking, Duval, or I might let him do just that. What lies did she tell you about me?”
    I stood up in front of my chair. “She never even mentioned your name.”
    “You expect me to believe that?”
    “It’s the truth.”
    “I get it now,” he said. “No wonder you didn’t tell Corson. You’re figuring on keeping the ice for yourself and holding the other over my head.” He pointed his gun at the button on my tunic, second from the bottom. “Okay. Take him, boys.”
    While he and Norm covered me with their guns, Hymie and Tommy took a couple of slow steps toward me. I got out from in front of the chair and backed away, wishing I knew what LaFanti wanted me to tell him. As I backed, I knocked over a little end table and a silver-framed picture clattered to the parquet flooring.
    Still in motion, I glanced down at it. It was a picture of Mona. It looked like her and it didn’t. In the picture she could be a pin-up girl by Varga. She was all lines and glitter and flame. Her evening gown just bordered on being immodest. I’d never seen a better filled bodice nor a deeper cleft. It was no wonder Johnny had been crazy about her. He’d have been crazy if he hadn’t fallen for her. But the death house had done things to Mona. She wasn’t glittering now. She was a meek, scared kid, mostly eyes. Somehow I liked her better than I did her picture.
    When I’d backed as far as I could, I told LaFanti, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to know or what Mona is supposed to have told me. But if you’re figuring on taking me, let’s get it over with. Come on.”
    He said, “Don’t mark him any more than you can help.”
    Tommy and Hymie came first. I cow-kicked one and broke the other’s arm. Gordon was tougher and smarter. He danced in, swiped the side of my face with a gun barrel and danced back before I could get my hands on him.
    I picked up the end table I’d knocked over and threw it in his face. Before he could get it out of his eyes, I stepped in fast and gave him the side of my hand just above his kidneys. He dropped his gun and screamed he was maimed for life. I brought my knee up to his crotch to try to make certain he was and he stopped screaming and held himself with both hands.
    “You’re good,” LaFanti admitted.
    So was he. He looked soft but he wasn’t. I tried every trick I’d learned in dirty fighting and he blocked them with barroom counters. Guys who drive Club DeVilles and live in penthouse apartments usually know their trades and he knew his.
    He could have shot me. He didn’t. He handed his gun to the lad in the baby-blue tie and beat me back to the wall with a flurry of hard lefts