Hess, Joan (ed.) - Crime After Crime / Хесс, Джоан (ред.) - Преступление за преступлением [1999, EPUB, ENG]

THE ESCAPE - Anne Perry CLOTHES - Ruth Rendell THE CRACKS IN THE SIDEWALK - Marcia Muller RUNNING FROM LEGS - Ed Mcbain THE CASSOULET - Walter Satterthwait TOAD CROSSING - John Lutz and David August WILD HORSES - Sam Pizzo THE NARROW HOUSE - Edward D. Hoch MARRIED TO A MURDERER - Alan Russell THE PERFECT MURDER CLUB - Reginald Hill THE GIRL WHO TALKED TO HORSES - Robert J. Randisi STALKING HORSE - Susan B. Kelly A GOOD THING - Simon Brett HOOPS - S. J. Rozan REAL LIFE - Sarah Shankman A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE - Nancy Pickard THE BURGLAR AND THE WHATSIT - Donald E. Westlake PUBLICITY STUNTS - Sara Paretsky THE MONSTER - Bill Pronzini

THE BURGLAR AND THE WHATSIT

DONALD E. WESTLAKE

“Hey, Sanity Clause,” shouted the drunk from up the hall. “Wait up. C’mere.” The man in the red Santa Claus suit, with the big white beard on his face and the big heavy red sack on his shoulder, did not wait up, and did not come here, but instead continued to plod on down the hall in this high floor of a Manhattan apartment building in the middle of a cold evening in the middle of December. “Hey, Sanity! Wait up, will ya?” The man in the Santa Claus suit did not at all want to wait up, but on the other hand he also did not at all want a lot of shouting in this hall here, because in fact he was not your normal Santa Claus but was something else entirely, which was a burglar, named Jack. This Jack was a burglar who had learned some time ago that if he were to enter apartment buildings costumed like the sort of person who in the normal course of events would carry on himself some sort of large bag or box or reticule or sack, he could probably fill that sack or whatever with any number of valuable items without much risk of his being challenged, questioned or—in the worst case—arrested. . . .