"Robert B. Parker - Poodle Springs (v1.1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Parker Robert B)

"How come you did?" I said.

"He had money in the family. Always made good before."

"And when Mr. Big that runs you audited the books one day he noticed you were 100,000 short."

"His bookkeeper," Lipshultz said. "And Mr. Black-stone came to see me."

The air-conditioned room was full of cold, but Lipshultz was sweating. He pulled the silk show handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his neck with it.

"Drove right out here himself and sat where you're sitting and told me I had thirty days to cover the loss," Lipshultz said.

"Or?"

"There ain't no 'or' with Mr. Blackstone, Marlowe."

"So you want me to find the guy who stuck you."

Lipshultz nodded.

"I find people, Lipshultz, I don't shake them down."

"That's all I'm asking you, Marlowe. I'm out a hundred grand. I don't get it back and I'm dead. You find the guy. Talk to him."

"What if he doesn't have it? Guys that lose a hundred g's at the tables don't usually have it for long," I said.

"He's got it. His wife's worth twenty, thirty million."

"So why not ask her?"

"I have, she don't believe me. She says her Lester wouldn't do that. And I say ask Lester, and she says he's away now, doing stills for some movie shooting north of L.A."

"How come you didn't shake her down?"

Lipshultz shook his head. "She's a lady," he said.

"And you're a gentleman," I said.

Lipshultz shrugged. "What the hell," he said.

I believed that like I believed you should draw to an inside straight, but there didn't seem to be anything for me in arguing about it.

"I'll pay you ten percent if you get the money," Lipshultz said.

"I get a hundred dollars a day and expenses," I said.

Lipshultz nodded. "Heard you was a boy scout."

"There's some people doing twenty to life in San Quentin thought the same thing," I said.