1953 - The Sucker Punch by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online

might be greedy enough to take it and calm down.
    Maybe those three whiskies had made me reckless. I was suddenly damned if I would offer her the money.
    "What did you expect me to do with it?" I asked, smiling. "Give it to some charity?"
    "So you demanded a bribe, and in return for this bribe, you were going to give Howe my authority to collect the Foundation rents, is that it?"
    "Bribe is the wrong word, Miss Shelley. I was collecting a commission to which I am entitled."
    "Are you? Why, you cheap crook!" she screamed violently. "How dare you stand there grinning at me like a goddam monkey! How dare you use my name to fill your filthy pockets!"
    I took a sudden step forward and shoved my chin at her.
    "Are you calling me a crook?"
    "Yes, I am! You're nothing better than a shyster! You're a damned racketeer!" Her voice rose until everyone in the house must have heard her. "The moment I set eyes on you in your flash suit and with your smooth smart-alec ways I knew you were a crook!"
    "You're making an exhibition of yourself! Do you have to scream at me like one of Burgess' street walkers?"
    She stepped back, her thin, spiteful little face livid.
    "What did you call me?" she said, her voice suddenly hushed.
    "I told you to stop screaming like a floosie," I said, also lowering my voice.
    "I'll make you pay for that! I'll have you thrown out of the bank! I'll have you hounded out of this town. I'll see you never get another job as long as you live!"
    "Don't be so dramatic," I said contemptuously. "Do you imagine you can scare me? You're not dealing with a spineless sob sister like Leadbeater now. Do you imagine I care a damn for your ranting and raving?" I took another step forward, my face as tough as I could make it. "Do you?"
    I imagined I saw surprise behind her rage.
    "We'll see about that!" she screamed. "Get out of my way! I'll talk to your boss and see what he has to say."
    She stormed past me into the lounge.
    This was it. If I let her talk to Sternwood I was sunk. What had I to lose?
    I was in a flaming rage myself by now, and I went after her, caught up with her as she was picking up the receiver and my hand came down on hers.
    "Just a moment!"
    She swung around and her left hand flashed up and struck me on the side of my nose; her bony little knuckles scraping the skin.
    I guess I must have flipped my lid. I don't exactly remember what happened for a few seconds. I suddenly found myself shaking her by her shoulders, jerking her carrot-coloured head backwards and forwards, glaring down at her as if I could murder her.
    She tried to scream, but she just didn't have any breath left in her body.
    Her mouth hung open, her eyes started out of her head, and she looked scared out of her wits.
    I slammed her down in a chair so violently she nearly bounced right out of it, and still keeping my hands on her shoulders, my face close to hers, I let the words pour out in a low, violent rush.
    "Listen to me! For weeks you have been hammering at Leadbeater to get that goddam mink coat of yours accepted as an expense claim, to raise your rents and to sell your house. You kept after him until he became a nervous wreck, but you didn't succeed in getting your own way. I fixed your coat, your rents and your house. I fixed them in one day! Do you hear? In one day, after you had been struggling with Leadbeater for weeks! All right, so what's happened? You clean up thirty thousand dollars on the coat! You make yourself five thousand dollars a year on the increased rents! You get rid of five tenants you hadn't the guts to get rid of, and you sell a house at a profit! Because of me!" I shook her again. "Do you hear?" I leaned forward and yelled it at her: "BECAUSE OF ME! I did it! What the hell do you imagine I did it for? Because I want to curry favour with you? Because I want to drag you into my bed? Like hell! I am in this racket for the same reason as you are! I want to make money out of it as you want to make money out of it! And what do