Ed McBain by Learning to Kill: Stories Read Free Book Online Page B

thousand pounds in his bare feet. He don't talk English so good because he just come over from the old country, and he ain't yet learned the ropes. But he's a big one, and a good man to have in the bunch, especially when there's times you can't use hardware, like when the bulls is on a purity drive or something. We get those every now and then, but they don't mean nothing, especially if you know how to sit them out, and we got lots of patience on our street.
    "What took you guys so long?" I said.
    "A only just reached us," Ferdy said.
    "A's turnin' into a real slowball," I said. "Look at them goddamn rooftops. How we gonna watch this now?"
    The boys looked up and seen the crowd.
    "We shove in," Beef said.
    "Shove this," I told him. "There's grown-ups up there. You start shoving with all them bulls in the street, and they'll shove you into the Tombs."
    "What about Tessie?" Ferdy said.
    "What about her?"
    "Her pad's right across the way. We stomp in there, dad, and we got ringside seats."
    "Her folks," I said sourly.
    "They both out earning bread," Ferdy said.
    "You sure?"
    "Dad, Tessie and me's like
that,
" Ferdy said, crossing two fingers.
    So we lit out for Tessie's pad.

    She didn't answer the door till we told her who we was.
    Even then, she wasn't too keen on the idea. She played cat and mouse with Ferdy, and he's honeying her up, come on doll, open the door, and all that kind of crap until I tell her to open it or I'll bust the goddamn thing right off the hinges. She begins to whimper she ain't dressed then, so I told her to throw something on because if that door ain't open in three flat I'm going to bust it open.
    She opened thé door then, and she was wearing a sweater and skirt, and I said, "You're a fast dresser, huh?" and she nodded, and I wanted to paste her in the mouth for lying to me in the first place. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's anybody who lies.
    We go over to the windows and throw them open, and Tessie says, "What's all the noise about?" and Ferdy tells her Harry's in the apartment across the way and maybe we'll see some lead soon. Tessie gets the jitters. She's a pretty enough broad, only I don't go for her because Marie and I are that way, but you can bet Marie wouldn't get all excited and shaking because there might be some gunplay. Tessie wants to clear out, but Ferdy throws her down on the couch and she sits there shaking as if she's got pneumonia or something. Beef goes over and locks the door, and then we all pile onto the windowsills.
    It's pretty good because we can see the apartment where Harry's holed up, right across the alleyway and only one floor down. And we can also see the street on the other side where the bulls are mulling around. I can make out Donlevy's strut from up there, and I feel like dropping a flowerpot on his head, but I figure I'll bide my time because maybe Harry's got something better for that lousy bull.
    It's pretty quiet in the street now. The bulls are just about decided on their strategy, and the crowd is hushed up, waiting for something to happen. We don't see any life coming from the apartment where Harry's cooped, but that don't mean nothing.
    "What they doing?" Beef says, and I shrug.
    Then, all of a sudden, we hear the loudspeaker down below.
    "All right, Manzetti. Are you coming out?"
    A big silence fell on the street. It was quiet before, but this is something you can almost reach out and touch.
    "Manzetti?" the loudspeaker called. "Can you hear us? We want you to come out. We're giving you thirty seconds to come out."
    "They kidding?" I said. "Thirty seconds? Who they think he is? Jesse Owens?"
    "He ain't going out anyway, and they know it," Ferdy said.
    Then, just as if Harry was trying to prove Ferdy's point, he opens up from the window below us. It looks like he's got a carbine, but it's hard to tell because all we can see is the barrel. We can't see his head or nothing, just the barrel, and just these shots that come spilling like orange paint