"Higgins, Jack - Prayer For The Dying" - читать интересную книгу автора (Higgins Jack)

He turned away again and Meehan moved quickly in front of him. "Heidegger?" he said. "You've read Heidegger?" There was genuine astonishment in his voice. "I'll double up on the original offer and find you regular work. Now I can't say fairer than that, can I?"

"Good night, Mr.. Meehan," Fallon said and melted into the darkness.

"What a man," Meehan said. "What a hard-nosed bastard. Why, he's beautiful, Billy, even if he is a fucking Mick." He turned. "Come on, let's get back to the Savoy. You drive and if you put as much as a scratch on this motor I'll have your balls."

Fallon had a room in a lodging-house in Hanger Street in Stepney just off the Commercial Road. A couple of miles, no more, so he walked, in spite of the rain. He hadn't the slightest idea what would happen now. Kristou had been his one, his only hope. He was finished - it was as simple as that. He could run, but how far?

As he neared his destination, he took out his wallet and checked the contents. Four pounds and a little silver and he was already two weeks behind with his rent: He went into a cheap wine shop for some cigarettes then crossed the road to Hanger Street.

The newspaperman on the corner had deserted his usual pitch to shelter in a doorway from the driving rain. He was little more than a bundle of rags, an old London-Irishman, totally blind in one eye and only partially sighted in the other.

Fallon dropped a coin in his hand and took a paper. "Good night to you, Michael," he said.

The old man rolled one milky white eye towards him, his hand fumbling for change in the bag which hung about his neck.

Is it yourself, Mr.. Fallon?"

"And who else? You can forget the change."

The old man grabbed his hand and counted out his change laboriously. "You had visitors at number thirteen about twenty minutes ago."

"The law?" Fallon asked softly.

"Something in uniform. They went in and didn't come out again. Two cars waiting at the other end of the street - another across the road."

He counted a final penny into Felon's hand. Fallon turned and crossed to the telephone-box on the other corner. He dialed the.number of the lodging-house and was answered instant% by the old woman who ran the place. He pushed in the coin and spoke.

"Mrs. Keegan Pit's Daly here. I wonder if you'd mind doing me a favour?"

He knew at once by the second's hesitation, by the strain in her voice, that old Michael's supposition had been correct.

"Oh, yes, Mr.. Daly."

"The thing is, I'm expecting a phone call at nine o'clock. Take the number and tell them I'll ring back when I get in. I haven't a hope in hell of getting there now. I ran into a couple of old friends and we're having a few drinks. You know how it is?"

There was another slight pause before she said as if in response to some invisible prompt, "Sounds nice. Where are you?"

"A pub called The Grenadier Guard in Kensington High Street I'll have to go now. See you later."

He replaced the receiver, left the phone-box and moved into a doorway from which he had a good view of No. "I3 halfway down the short street.

A moment later, the front door was flung open. There were eight of them. Special Branch from the look of it. The first one on to the pavement waved frantically and two cars moved out of the shadows at the end of the street. The whole crew climbed inside, the cars moved away at speed. A car which was parked at the kerb on the other side of the main road went after them.

Fallon crossed to the corner and paused beside the old newspaper seller. He took out his wallet, extracting the four remaining pound notes and pressed them into his hand.

"God bless you, Mr.. Fallon," Michael said, but Fallon was already on the other side of the road, walking rapidly back towards the river.

This time Kristou didn't hear a thing although he had been waiting for something like an hour, nerves taut. He sat there at the table, ledger open, the pen gripped tightly in his mittened hand. There was the softest of footfalls, wind over grass only, then the harsh, deliberate click as the hammer of the Browning was cocked.