by Ed McBain
Then he fired.
Click.
“I didn’t think you was going through with it,” Tigo said.
“I didn’t neither.”
“You got heart, Dave,” Tigo said. He looked at the gun. He picked it up and broke it open.
“What are you doing?” Dave asked.
“Another cartridge,” Tigo said. “Six chambers, three cartridges. That makes it even money. You game?”
“You?”
“The boys said . . .” Tigo stopped talking. “Yeah, I’m game,” he added, his voice curiously low.
“It’s your turn, you know.”
“I know.”
Dave watched as Tigo picked up the gun.
“You ever been rowboating on the lake?”
Tigo looked across the table at him, his eyes wide. “Once,” he said. “I went with Juana.”
“Is it . . . is it any kicks?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s grand kicks. You mean you never been?”
“No,” Dave said.
“Hey, you got to try it, man,” Tigo said excitedly. “You’ll like it. Hey, you try it.”
“Yeah, I was thinking maybe this Sunday I’d . . .” He did not complete the sentence.
“My spin,” Tigo said wearily. He twirled the cylinder. “Here goes a good man,” he said, and he put the revolver to his head and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
Dave smiled nervously. “No rest for the weary,” he said. “But, Jesus, you got heart. I don’t know if I can go through with it.”
“Sure, you can,” Tigo assured him. “Listen, what’s there to be afraid of?” He slid the gun across the table.
“We keep this up all night?” Dave asked.
“They said . . . you know . . .”
“Well, it ain’t so bad. I mean, hell, we didn’t have this operation, we wouldn’ta got a chance to talk, huh?” He grinned feebly.
“Yeah,” Tigo said, his face splitting in a wide grin. “It ain’t been so bad, huh?”
“No, it’s been . . . well, you know, these guys on the club, who can talk to them?”
He picked up the gun.
“We could . . .” Tigo started.
“What?”
“We could say . . . well . . . like we kept shootin’ an’ nothing happened, so . . .” Tigo shrugged. “What the hell! We can’t do this all night, can we?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s make this the last spin. Listen, they don’t like it, they can take a flying leap, you know?”
“I don’t think they’ll like it. We supposed to settle this for the clubs.”
“Screw the clubs!” Tigo said vehemently. “Can’t we pick our own . . .” The word was hard coming. When it came, he said it softly, and his eyes did not leave Dave’s face.” . . . friends?”
“Sure we can,” Dave said fervently. “Sure we can! Why not?”
“The last spin,” Tigo said. “Come on, the last spin.”
“Gone,” Dave said. “Hey, you know, I’m glad they got this idea. You know that? I’m actually glad!” He twirled the cylinder. “Look you want to go on the lake this Sunday? I mean, with your girl and mine? We could get two boats. Or even one if you want.”
“Yeah, one boat,” Tigo said. “Hey, your girl’ll like Juana, I mean it. She’s a swell chick.”
The cylinder stopped. Dave put the gun to his head quickly.
“Here’s to Sunday,” he said. He grinned at Tigo, and Tigo grinned back, and then Dave fired.
The explosion rocked the small basement room, ripping away half of Dave’s head, shattering his face. A small sharp cry escaped Tigo’s throat, and a look of incredulous shock knifed his eyes. Then he put his head on the table and began weeping.
About the Author
ED McBAIN was one of several pen names for Evan Hunter, whose writing career spanned more than five decades, from his first novel, The Blackboard Jungle, in 1954, to the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, to Candyland, to his last novel, Fiddlers. He was the first American ever to receive the Diamond Dagger, the British Crime Writers Association’s highest award. He also held the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Grand Master Award. The author of more than 130 novels and story collections, he died in 2005.
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Also by Ed McBain
THE 87TH PRECINCT NOVELS
Cop Hater
The Mugger
The Pusher
The Con Man
Killer’s Choice
Killer’s Payoff
Lady Killer
Killer’s Wedge
’Til Death
King’s Ransom
Give the Boys a Great Big Hand
The Heckler
See Them Die
Lady, Lady, I Did It
The Empty Hours
Like Love
Ten Plus One
Ax
He Who Hesitates
Doll
Eighty Million Eyes
Fuzz
Shotgun
Jigsaw
Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here!
Sadie When She Died
Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man
Hail to the Chief
Bread
Blood Relatives
So Long As You Both Shall Live
Long Time No See
Calypso
Ghosts
Heat
Ice
Lightning
Eight Black Horses
Poison
Tricks
Lullaby
Vespers
Widows
Kiss
Mischief
And All Through the House
Romance
Nocturne
The Big Bad City
The Last Dance
Money, Money, Money
Fat Ollie’s Book
The Frumious Bandersnatch
Hark!
Fiddlers
MATTHEW HOPE NOVELS
Goldilocks
Rumpelstiltskin
Beauty and the Beast
Jack and the Beanstalk
Snow White and Rose Red
Cinderella
Puss in Boots
The House That Jack Built
Three Blind Mice
Mary, Mary
There Was a Little Girl
Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear
The Last Best Hope
ED MCBAIN—OTHER NOVELS
The April Robin Murders (with Craig Rice)
The Sentries
Death of a Nurse
Where There’s Smoke
Guns
Another Part of the City
Downtown
Driving Lessons
Learning to Kill
Women in Jeopardy
Alice in Jeopardy
EVAN HUNTER NOVELS
The Evil Sleep!
Don’t Crowd Me
The Blackboard Jungle
Second Ending
Strangers When We Meet
A Matter of Conviction
Mothers and Daughters
Buddwing
The Paper Dragon
A Horse’s Head
Last Summer
Sons
Nobody Knew They Were There
Every Little Crook and Nanny
Come Winter
Streets of Gold
The Chisholms: A Novel of the Journey West
Walk Proud
Love, Dad
Far From the Sea
Lizzie
Criminal Conversation
Privileged Conversation
Candyland
The Moment She Was Gone
MEMOIR
Me and Hitch
Let’s Talk
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Find the Feathered Serpent
The Remarkable Harry
The Wonderful Button
Me and Mr.
Stenner
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
The Jungle Kids
The Last Spin & Other Stories
Happy New Year, Herbie
The Easter Man (a Play) and Six Stories
The McBain Brief
McBain’s Ladies: The Women of the 87th
McBain’s Ladies, Too
Running From Legs
Barking at Butterflies
WRITTEN AS EZRA HANNON
Doors
WRITTEN AS RICHARD MARSTEN
Rocket to Luna
Danger: Dinosaurs!
Runaway Black
Vanishing Ladies
The Spiked Heel
Even the Wicked
Big Man
WRITTEN AS CURT CANNON
I Like ’Em Tough
I’m Cannon—For Hire
WRITTEN AS HUNT COLLINS
Cut Me In
Tomorrow and Tomorrow
WRITTEN AS JOHN ABBOTT
Scimitar
Credits
Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photograph © Gabriel Ortiz / EyeEm / Getty Images
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE McBAIN BRIEF. Copyright © 1982 by Hui Corporation. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1982 by Arbor House Publishing Company.
FIRST ARBOR HOUSE PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED 1984.
FIRST WILLIAM MORROW PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED 2016.
EPub Edition September 2016 ISBN 9780062668936
ISBN 978-0-06-264401-5
16 17 18 19 20 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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