"Himes, Chester - The Heat's On" - читать интересную книгу автора (Himes Chester)

Two prowl car cops on the alert for trouble rushed forward and seized the sexton.
"All right, buddy, get back," one of them ordered.
"I am trying to tell you," the sexton said through gritted teeth. "That big man there put in the fire alarm."
The cops released the sexton and turned toward the giant.
"What's going on here? Why are you choking that shrimp?" the vocal one asked in a hard voice.
"He's my friend," the giant whined.
The cop reddened with anger.
The dwarf gurgled as though choking and his eyes popped.
The cop looked from one to the other, trying to decide which one to slug. They both looked guilty, he had no choice.
"Which one of you guys put in the alarm?" he asked.
"He did," the sexton said, pointing at the giant.
The cop looked at the giant and decided to call the fire captain. "We got the man who put in the alarm, sir."
The fire captain called back, "Ask him where the fire is?"
"Fire?" the giant said as though he didn't know what it was.
"Fire!" the sexton echoed in outrage. "There isn't any fire! That's what I been trying to tell you."
The two cops looked at one another. All these fire engines and no fire, they thought. Suddenly one was reminded of that song by Louis Armstrong, "All that meat and no potatoes. . .
But the fire captain purpled with rage. He moved toward the giant with balled fists.
"Did you put in the alarm?" he asked dangerously, his chin jutting forward.
The giant released his grip on the dwarf and said, "You tell him, Jake."
The dwarf tried to run but one of the cops caught him by the neck of his coat collar.
"I saw him when he did it," the sexton said.
The captain wheeled on him. "Why didn't you stop him? Do you know what it costs the city to put all these engines into operation?"
"Hell, look at him," the sexton replied. "Would you have stopped him?"
They all looked at him. They understood what the sexton meant. One of the cops flashed his light into the giant's face to see him better. He saw the white face with the Negroid features and white hair. He had never seen an albino Negro. He was astonished.
"What the hell are you?" he asked.
"I'm his friend," the giant said, pointing at the dwarf struggling in the other cop's grip.
The captain's eyes stretched. "By God, he's a nigger!" he exclaimed.
"Well, kiss my foot!" the first cop said. "I thought there was something damn funny about him to be a white man."
The dwarf took advantage of the distraction and broke from the other cop's grip. He ran around the rear of the fire captain's car and started across the street.
Brakes squealed and a fast-moving car slewed sidewise to keep from running him down.
Two big loose-jointed colored men wearing dark battered felt hats and wrinkled black alpaca suits emerged in unison from opposite sides of the front seat and hit the pavement in identical flat-footed lopes.
They came around the front of their little black sedan and converged on the running dwarf. Coffin Ed reached out a hand and caught hold of a thin, bony arm. It felt as though it might break off in his hand. He spun the hunchback around.
"It's Jake," Grave Digger said.
"Look at his face," Coffin Ed said.
"He's been eating it," Grave Digger observed.
"But he ain't digested it yet," Coffin Ed concluded, gripping the dwarf from behind by both arms.
Grave Digger hit the dwarf in the stomach.
The dwarf doubled over and began to vomit.
Grave Digger took out a handkerchief and spread it on the ground so that the dwarf vomited into it.
Half-chewed packets of paper came out with bits of boiled tongue and dill pickle.
Suddenly the dwarf fainted. Coffin Ed carried him over to the edge of the street and laid him on the grass border.
Grave Digger carefully folded the vomit-filled handkerchief and inserted it into a heavy manila envelope which he stuck into his leather-lined side coat pocket.
They left the dwarf lying on the ground and moved over to see what the commotion was about.
The giant was saying to the fire captain, "Jake can tell you, boss. He's my friend."
"Jake ain't talking," Grave Digger said.
The giant looked stunned.
"He's a halfwit," one of the white cops said.
By now the giant was encircled by several cops and a number of firemen.
"Halfwit or not, he's going to answer my question," the captain said, pinning his bloodshot gaze onto the giant's pink eyes. "Why did you ring the fire alarm, boy?"
Sweat flowed down the giant's cheeks like tears.