"Destroyer - 011 - Kill Or Cure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Warren)

‘Let me see it.’

‘No,’ said Bullingsworth.

‘You don’t want me to take it, do you?’

‘Just notes. Notes I have.’

‘Bring it here.’

‘They’re nothing, really. I mean, nothing. Look, my friends are going to pick me up here any minute. I’ll be seeing you. Tomorrow is fine,’ said Bullingsworth. ‘I’m really sorry to have bothered an important man like you tonight anyway.’

‘Bring the notebook over here, James,’ came the voice, soft and ominous and tinged, Bullingsworth realized for the first time, with a touch of Europe. ‘You’ll be sorry if I have to go over there and get it.’

The voice was so threatening that Bullingsworth, like a little boy, meekly entered the darkness.

‘Just notes,’ he said.

‘Tell me about them.’

Bullingsworth smelled the lilac cologne very heavy. The man was shorter than he, by about an inch, but broader, and there was something in his tone – something in the way he spoke—that was commanding. He was, of course, not the politician that Bullingsworth had expected to meet.

‘They’re just notes,’ Bullingsworth said. ‘From a computer printout in the Betterment League.’

‘Who else knows you made the notes?’

‘No one,’ said Bullingsworth, knowing he was saving his secretary’s life, just as he knew his own life would be soon over. It was as if he were a spectator to the event. He knew what would happen, there was nothing he could do, and now he was watching himself about to be killed. It didn’t seem horrible at all. There was something beyond horror, like the acceptance of it.

‘Not even your secretary, Miss Carbonal?’

‘Miss Carbonal is a hear-no-evil-see-no-evil, nine-to-five, pick-up-your-check-and-go-home type. You know, Cuban.’

‘Yes, I know. These printouts. What do they say?’

‘They show that the National Betterment League is a fake. A secret government organization that’s investigating and infiltrating local governments in cities all across the country.’

‘And what about Miami Beach?’

‘The Greater Florida Betterment League is a cover, too. It’s been digging into political crime in Miami Beach. Shakedowns, gambling, extortion. It’s been setting up a case against all the city officials, getting evidence ready for indictments.’

‘I see. Anything else?’

‘No. No. That’s about it.’

‘Would you like to work for us?’

‘Sure,’ said Bullingsworth, as sober as he had ever drawn a sober breath.

‘Would you like your money now?’