The Conjure-Man Dies: A Harlem Mystery. Rudolph Fisher

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СКАЧАТЬ from behind that trunk, y’see, I couldn’t use nothin’ but my ears—couldn’t see a thing. That corner had me pretty crowded. Well, instead o’ goin’ on and talkin’, they suddenly got very quiet, and natchelly I got very curious. It was my business to know what was goin’ on.

      ‘So instead o’ scronchin’ down behind the trunk like I’d been doin’, I begun to inch up little at a time till I could see over the top. Lord—what did I do that for? Don’ know jes’ how it happened, but next thing I do know is “wham!”—the trunk had left me. There it was flat on the floor, face down, like a Hindu sayin’ his prayers, and there was me in the corner, lookin’ dumb and sayin’ mine, with the biggest boogy in Harlem ’tween me and the door.

      ‘Fact is, I forgot I was a detective. Only thing I wanted to detect was the quickest way out. Was that guy evil-lookin’? One thing saved me—the man didn’t know whether to blame me or her. Before he could make up his mind, I shot out o’ that corner past him like a cannon-ball. The gal yelled, “Stop thief!” And the guy started after me. But, shuh!—he never had a chance—even in them runnin’-pants o’ his. I flowed down the stairs and popped out the front door, and who was waitin’ on the sidewalk but the cross-eyed lady. She’d done followed me same as I followed the Sheba. Musta hid when her man went by on the way in. But when he come by chasin’ me on the way out, she jumped in between us and ast him where was his pants.

      ‘Me, I didn’t stop to hear the answer. I knew it. I made Lenox Avenue in nothin’ and no fifths. That wasn’t no more than quarter past ten. I slowed up and turned down Lenox Avenue. Hadn’ gone a block before I met Jinx Jenkins. I told him ’bout it and ast him what he thought I better do next. Well, somebody’d jes’ been tellin’ him ’bout what a wonderful guy this Frimbo was for folks in need o’ advice. We agreed to come see him and walked on round here. Now, I know it didn’t take me no fifteen minutes to get from that gal’s house here. So I must ’a’ been here before half-past ten, y’see?’

      Further questioning elicited that when Jinx and Bubber arrived they had made their way, none too eagerly, up the stairs in obedience to a sign in the lower hallway and had encountered no one until they reached the reception-room in front. Here there had been three men, waiting to see Frimbo. One, Bubber had recognized as Spider Webb, a number-runner who worked for Harlem’s well-known policy-king, Si Brandon. Another, who had pestered Jinx with unwelcome conversation, was a notorious little drug-addict called Doty Hicks. The third was a genial stranger who had talked pleasantly to everybody, revealing himself to be one Easley Jones, a railroad man.

      After a short wait, Frimbo’s flunky appeared from the hallway and ushered the railroad man, who had been the first to arrive, out of the room through the wide velvet-curtained passage. While Jones was, presumably, with Frimbo, the two ladies had come in—the young one first. Then Doty Hicks had gone in to Frimbo, then Spider Webb, and finally Jinx. The usher had not himself gone through the wide doorway at any time—he had only bowed the visitors through, turned aside, and disappeared down the hallway.

      ‘This usher—what was he like?’

      ‘Tall, skinny, black, stoop-shouldered, and cock-eyed. Wore a long black silk robe like Frimbo’s, but he had a bright yellow sash and a bright yellow thing on his head—you know—what d’y’ call ’em? Look like bandages—’

      ‘Turban?’

      ‘That’s it. Turban.’

      ‘Where is he now?’

      ‘Don’t ask me, mistuh. I ain’t seen him since he showed Jinx in.’

      ‘Hm.’

      ‘Say!’ Bubber had an idea.

      ‘What?’

      ‘I bet he done it!’

      ‘Did what?’

      ‘Scrambled the man’s eggs!’

      ‘You mean you think the assistant killed Frimbo?’

      ‘Sho’!’

      ‘How do you know Frimbo was killed?’

      ‘Didn’t—didn’t you and the doc say he was when I was downstairs lookin’ at you?’

      ‘On the contrary, we said quite definitely that we didn’t know that he was killed, and that even if he was, that blow didn’t kill him.’

      ‘But—in the front room jes’ now, didn’t the doc tell that lady—’

      ‘All the doctor said was that it looked like Frimbo had an enemy. Now you say Frimbo was killed and you accuse somebody of doing it.’

      ‘All I meant—’

      ‘You were in this house when he died, weren’t you? By your own time.’

      ‘I was here when the doc says he died, but—’

      ‘Why would you accuse anybody of a crime if you didn’t know that a crime had been committed?’

      ‘Listen, mistuh, please. All I meant was, if the man was killed, the flunky might ’a’ done it and hauled hips. He could be in Egypt by now.’

      Dart’s identical remark came back to him. He said less sharply:

      ‘Yes. But on the other hand you might be calling attention to that fact to avert suspicion from yourself.’

      ‘Who—me?’ Bubber’s eyes went incredibly large. ‘Good Lord, man, I didn’t leave that room yonder—that waitin’-room—till Jinx called me in to see the man—and he was dead then. ’Deed that’s the truth—I come straight up the stairs with Jinx—we went straight in the front room—and I didn’t come out till Jinx called me—ask the others—ask them two women.’

      ‘I will. But they can only testify for your presence in that room. Who says you came up the stairs and went straight into that room? How can you prove you did that? How do I know you didn’t stop in here by way of that side hall-door there, and attack Frimbo as he sat here in this chair?’

      The utter unexpectedness of his own incrimination, and the detective’s startling insistence upon it, almost robbed Bubber of speech, a function which he rarely relinquished. For a moment he could only gape. But he managed to sputter: ‘Judas Priest, mistuh, can’t you take a man’s word for nothin’?’

      ‘I certainly can’t,’ said the detective.

      ‘Well, then,’ said Bubber, inspired, ‘ask Jinx. He seen me. He come in with me.’

      ‘I see. You alibi him and he alibis you. Is that it?’

      ‘Damn!’ exploded Bubber. ‘You is the most suspicious man I ever met!’

      ‘You’re not exactly free of suspicion yourself,’ Dart returned dryly.

      ‘Listen, mistuh. If you bumped a man off, would you run get a doctor and hang around to get pinched? Would you?’

      ‘If I thought that would make me look innocent I might—yes.’

      ‘Then you’re dumber’n I am. If I’d done it, I’d been СКАЧАТЬ