"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 041 - The Black Spot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

night’s bloody orgy. For the scene in the highway had not been on the program.

"We’ll have every last man and woman in the house come through this room," announced Graves. "I want no
word passed out as to what they will see, until they are in here to see it."

Among all of the gasping socially elect conducted through the death room were two distinctive figures.
Perhaps it was because their hair was of somewhat the same flaming color.

"Red" Mahoney, a movie news cameraman, had been grinding out some "shots" of the gangster party. It
would go to the screen under the heading, "Oddities in the News."

Red was now seething with enthusiasm for his calling. The big six-foot cameraman with the blazing red hair
was now on the trail of real news. It is a real picture when a playboy of the prominence of Happy Joe
Carpenter and a couple of State coppers lie dead together on a highway in Westchester.

It was even bigger news for Red when he learned the millionaire who had sponsored the party was himself
murdered. Mahoney welcomed that visit in the library. His picture-minded ambition was all set on getting a
news-reel shot of Andrew Podrey Vandersleeve as he sat at his desk, dead.

To that end, Red was spotting every possible nook of concealment for a camera.

The other person with bizarre hope was a young woman. No amount of badly placed cosmetics could conceal
her beauty. Even the unusual redness of her painted lips only brought out the golden intelligence of her eyes.

This young woman’s hair was not red. It was more like each separate hair had been rubbed with glistening
golden powder.

For this outstanding guest at the Vandersleeve gangster party was none other than Patricia Savage. She was
a cousin of the noted Doc Savage. At times, she had shared a small part of the adventures of the great
scientist, humanitarian and man of action.

The body of the dead millionaire had been placed to cause the black spot over his heart to show to each
person entering. It was a gruesome experiment. Policemen stood handy.

When a woman screamed and fainted, she was promptly removed. Captain Graves was not usually a hard
man. But two of his best men had been killed.

Graves was convinced the confederate of the outside holdup men was still among the guests. With his men
well stationed, he was studying the reactions of each person coming into the room.
An assistant with Red Mahoney slipped a movie camera and a magazine on which the film is run, into the
library. Intent on his psychological experiment, Captain Graves did not note the failure of two visitors to leave
the library with the others.

Patricia Savage slipped behind the velvet drapery in an alcove.

As the last line of guests moved out, Patricia learned about the black blood, the black spot and the curious
circumstance of the missing money.

Captain Graves closed the library door. The guests had passed out of the room.