| 17 | |
| A moon half gone from the full glowed through a ring of mist among the high branches of the eucalyptus trees on Laverne Terrace. A radio sounded loudly from a house low down the hill. The boy swung the car over to the box hedge in front of Geiger’s house, killed the motor and sat looking straight before him with both hands on the wheel. No light showed through Geiger’s hedge. | Mjesec na pol puta od uštapa krijesio se kroz kolut magle između najviših grana eukaliptusa na Laverne Ter-raceu. Iz neke kuće nizbrdo bučno se glasao radio. Dečko je zavinuo kolima do zatvorene živice ispred Geigerove kuće, isključio motor i nastavio sjediti s pogledom uperenim ravno pred sebe i s objema rukama na volanu. Nikakvo se svjetlo nije pokazalo kroz Geigerovu živicu. |
| I said: “Anybody home, son?” | Rekoh: — Ikoga kod kuće, sine? |
| “You ought to know.” | — Ti bi trebao znati. |
| “How would I know.” | — Kako bih znao? |
| “Go——yourself.” | — Idi,... se. |
| “That’s how people get false teeth.” | — Eto kako ljudi dobivaju umjetna zubala. |
| He showed me his in a tight grin. Then he kicked the door open and got out. I scuttled out after him. He stood with his fists on his hips, looking silently at the house above the top of the hedge. | Pokazao mi je svoje u škrtom smiješku. Tada je šupio vrata i izišao. Iskobeljao sam se za njim. Stajao je sa šakama na bokovima, šutke gledajući u kuću iznad vrha živice. |
| “All right,” I said. “You have a key. Let’s go on in.” | — U redu — rekoh. Imaš ključ. Produžimo unutra. |
| “Who said I had a key?” | — Tko reče da imam ključ? |
| “Don’t kid me, son. The fag gave you one. You’ve got a nice clean manly little room in there. He shooed you out and locked it up when he had lady visitors. He was like Caesar, a husband to women and a wife to men. Think I can’t figure people like him and you out?” | — Sine, nemoj me zezati. Peško ti je dao jedan. Imaš tamo krasnu čistu mušku sobicu. Šicnuo bi te van i zaključao gore kad bi imao dame u gostima. Bio je kao Cezar, muž ženama i žena muževima. Misliš da ne znam prokljuviti ljude poput tebe i njega? |
| I still held his automatic more or less pointed at him, but he swung on me just the same. It caught me flush on the chin. I back-stepped fast enough to keep from falling, but I took plenty of the punch. It was meant to be a hard one, but a pansy has no iron in his bones, whatever he looks like. | Još sam držao automatski pištolj manje-više uperen u njega, no on je svjedno zamahnuo na mene. Zahvatio me izdašno po bradi. Odstupio sam dovoljno brzo da se sačuvam od pada, no pokupio sam priličan komad udarca. Trebao je biti gadan, no dudloje nije imao željeza u kostima, pa ma na što bio nalik. |
| I threw the gun down at the kid’s feet and said: “Maybe you need this.” | Bacio sam pištolj klincu pod noge i rekao: — Možda ti treba ovo. |
| He stooped for it like a flash. There was nothing slow about his movements. I sank a fist in the side of his neck. He toppled over sideways, clawing for the gun and not reaching it. I picked it up again and threw it in the car. The boy came up on all fours, leering with his eyes too wide open. He coughed and shook his head. | Sagnuo se za njim brzinom munje. Nije bilo ničeg sporog u njegovim pokretima. Uvalio sam mu šaku sa strane u vrat. Prekobicnuo se u stranu, pokušavajući ščepati pištolj ali ne uspjevši ga dosegnuti. Ponovno sam ga pokupio i u-bacio u automobil. Dečko se uspravio na sve četiri, opako me gledeći svojim preširoko otvorenim očima. Nakašljao se i zatresao glavom. |
| “You don’t want to fight,” I told him. “You’re giving away too much weight.” | — Nije tebi do borbe — kazao sam mu. — Previše rasipaš snagu. |
| He wanted to fight. He shot at me like a plane from a catapult, reaching for my knees in a diving tackle. I sidestepped and reached for his neck and took it into chancery. He scraped the dirt hard and got his feet under him enough to use his hands on me where it hurt. I twisted him around and heaved him a little higher. I took hold of my right wrist with my left hand and turned my right hipbone into him and for a moment it was a balance of weights. We seemed to hang there in the misty moonlight, two grotesque creatures whose feet scraped on the road and whose breath panted with effort. | Želio se tući. Ispalio se na mene poput aviona iz katapulta i pokušao me srušiti obuhvaćanjem koljena, u dobroj ragbijaškoj maniri. Iskoračio sam u stranu, posegnuo mu za vratom i uhvatio ga u kravatu. Žestoko je zagrebao po blatu i postavio se na noge dovljno čvrsto da bi mogao upotrijebiti ruke, i to tamo gdje boli. Zavrnuo sam ga i pri-digao ga malo više. Uhvatio sam ljevicom desni zglavak i okrenuo prema njemu desnu zdjeličnu kost, i na trenutak je došlo do ravnoteže. Činilo se da visimo u maglovitoj mjesečini, dvije groteskne figure kojima su noge greble po cesti a pluća dahtala od napora. |
| I had my right forearm against his windpipe now and all the strength of both arms in it. His feet began a frenetic shuffle and he wasn’t panting any more. He was ironbound. His left foot sprawled off to one side and the knee went slack. I held on half a minute longer. He sagged on my arm, an enormous weight I could hardly hold up. Then I let go. He sprawled at my feet, out cold. I went to the car and got a pair of handcuffs out of the glove compartment and twisted his wrists behind him and snapped them on. I lifted him by the armpits and managed to drag him in behind the hedge, out of sight from the street. I went back to the car and moved it a hundred feet up the hill and locked it. | Imao sam mu sada desnu podlakticu na dušniku, a iza nje je stajala snaga obih ruku. Stopala su mu počela mahnito strugati; nije više soptao. Bio je kao željezom okovan. Lijevo mu je stopalo otpuzilo na jednu stranu, a koljeno mu se omlitavilo. Nastavio sam ga držati još pola minute. Ovjesio mi se na ruku čitavom svojom golemom težinom koju sam jedva mogao držati. Tad sam ga pustio. Prostro mi se pred nogama, na izgled već hladan. Otišao sam do automobila, pokupio par lisičina iz pretinca za rukavice, zavr-nuo mu zglavke za leđa i škljocnuo mu okove. Uhvatio sam ga ispod pazuha i uspio ga odvući iza živice, izvan pogleda s ulice. Ušao sam u kola, pomaknuo ih tridesetak metara uzbrdo i zaključao ih. |
| He was still out when I got back. I unlocked the door, dragged him into the house, shut the door. He was beginning to gasp now. I switched a lamp on. His eyes fluttered open and focused on me slowly. | Još je bio izvan terena kad sam se vratio. Otključao sam vrata, uvukao ga u kuću, zatvorio vrata za sobom. Sad je već počeo hvatati zrak. Upalio sam svjetiljku. Oči su mu zatreptale otvarajući se, a zatim se polako izoštrile na mene. |
| I bent down, keeping out of the way of his knees and said: “Keep quiet or you’ll get the same and more of it. Just lie quiet and hold your breath. Hold it until you can’t hold it any longer and then tell yourself that you have to breathe, that you’re black in the face, that your eyeballs are popping out, and that you’re going to breathe right now, but that you’re sitting strapped in the chair in the clean little gas chamber up in San Quentin and when you take that breath you’re fighting with all your soul not to take it, it won’t be air you’ll get, it will be cyanide fumes. And that’s what they call humane execution in our state now.” | Pognuo sam se ostajući izvan dohvata njegovih koljena i rekao: — Budi tiho, jer ćeš dobiti što si dobio, samo malo više. Samo leži tiho i prestani disati. Prestani disati dok ne budeš više mogao izdržati, i tada reci sam sebi da moraš disati, da si već pocrnio u licu, da ti oči već iskaču, i da ćeš baš sada udahnuti, no da sjediš zavezan za stolicu u čistoj maloj plinskoj komorici gore u San Ouentinu, i kad udahneš taj udisaj za koji se svom dušom boriš da ga ne udahneš, da neće biti zrak to što ćeš udahnuti, nego cija-nidne pare. A to je ono što sada u našoj državi nazivaju humanim pogubljenjem. |
| “Go——yourself,” he said with a soft stricken sigh. | — Idi, ... se — rekao je s tihim, slomljenim uzdahom. |
| “You’re going to cop a plea, brother, don’t ever think you’re not. And you’re going to say just what we want you to say and nothing we don’t want you to say.” | — Podastrijet ćeš im molbicu za pomilovanje, brajko, nemoj ni pomisliti da nećeš. I reći ćeš upravo ono što želimo da kažeš, i ništa od onog što ne želimo. |
| “Say that again and I’ll put a pillow under your head.” His mouth twitched. I left him lying on the floor with his wrists shackled behind him and his cheek pressed into the rug and an animal brightness in his visible eye. I put on another lamp and stepped into the hallway at the back of the living room. Geiger’s bedroom didn’t seem to have been touched. I opened the door, not locked now, of the bedroom across the hall from it. There was a dim flickering light in the room and a smell of sandalwood. Two cones of incense ash stood side by side on a small brass tray on the bureau. The light came from the two tall black candles in the foot-high candlesticks. They were standing on straight-backed chairs, one on either side of the bed. | — Reci to još jednom pa ću ti staviti jastuk pod glavu. Usta su mu se zatrzala. Ostavio sam ga na podu s rukama okovanim za leđima, obrazom utisnutim u sag i životinjskim bljeskom u vidljivom oku. Upalio sam još jednu svjetiljku i zakoračio u hodnik u dnu dnevne sobe. Činilo se kao da Geigerova spavaonica nije bila ni dodirnuta. Otvorio sam, ovaj put ne zaključana, vrata spavaonice što se otvarala u hodnik preko puta njegovoj. U sobi je vladalo sumračno treperavo svjetlo pomiješano s mirisom sanda-lovine. Dvije su hrpice pepela stvorene izgaranjem kada le- žale jedna kraj druge na malom bakrenom pladnju na komodi. Svjetlo je dolazilo od dvije visoke crne svijeće u trideset centimetara visokim svijećnjacima. Stajale su stolicama s ravnim naslonom, jedna sa svake strane veta. |
| Geiger lay on the bed. The two missing strips of Chinese tapestry made a St. Andrew’s Cross over the middle of his body, hiding the blood-smeared front of his Chinese coat. Below the cross his black-pajama’d legs lay stiff and straight. His feet were in the slippers with thick white felt soles. Above the cross his arms were crossed at the wrists and his hands lay flat against his shoulders, palms down, fingers close together and stretched out evenly. His mouth was closed and his Charlie Chan moustache was as unreal as a toupee. His broad nose was pinched and white. His eyes were almost closed, but not entirely. The faint glitter of his glass eye caught the light and winked at me. | Na krevetu je ležao Geiger. Dvije nestale vrpce kineske tapiserije tvorile su sada križ svetog Andrije po sredini njegova tijela, skrivajući krvlju umazanu prednjicu kineskog haljetka. Ispod križa, u crnu pidžamu odjevene noge bile su ukočene i ravne. Stopala su mu bila u papučama s debelim bijelim pustenim potplatima. Ruke su mu bile prekrižene iznad križa tako da su mu prema dolje iskrenuti dlanovi počivali na ramenima, s prstima blizu primaknutim i jednoliko ispruženim. Usta su mu bila zatvorena, a kineski je brčić djelovao nestvarno kao perika. Široki mu je nos bio stisnut i bijel. Oči su mu bile gotovo zatvorene, ali ne sasvim. Slabašno je svjetlucanje njegovog staklenog oka zahvatilo malo svjetla i namignulo mi. |
| I didn’t touch him. I didn’t go very near him. He would be as cold as ice and as stiff as a board. | Nisam ga dodirnuo. Nisam mu čak ni prišao jako blizu. Trebao je već biti hladan kao led i ukrućen kao daska. |
| The black candles guttered in the draft from the open door. Drops of black wax crawled down their sides. The air of the room was poisonous and unreal. I went out and shut the door again and went back to the living room. The boy hadn’t moved. I stood still, listening for sirens. It was all a question of how soon Agnes talked and what she said. If she talked about Geiger, the police would be there any minute. But she might not talk for hours. She might even have got away. | Crne su svijeće prokapavale u propuhu iz otvorenih vrata. Kapi crnog voska puzale su im niz stranice. Zrak je u sobi djelovao zatrovano i nerealno. Izišao sam, ponovno zatvorio vrata i vratio se u dnevnu sobu. Momak se nije pomakao. Stajao sam nepomično, osluškujući kad će se pojaviti sirene. Ovisilo je to samo o tome kako je brzo Agnes progovorila i što je rekla. Ako je progovorila o Geigeru, policija bi morala svakog časa biti ovdje. Ali mogla je i ne progovoriti satima. Mogla je čak i zbrisati. |
| I looked down at the boy. “Want to sit up, son?” | Pogledao sam dečka odozgo. — Hoćeš sjesti, sinko? |
| He closed his eye and pretended to go to sleep. I went over to the desk and scooped up the mulberry-colored phone and dialed Bernie Ohls’ office. He had left to go home at six o’clock. I dialed the number of his home. He was there. | Zatvorio je oči pretvarajući se da se sprema na spavanje. Prešao sam do pisaćeg stola, zgrabio slušalicu crvenkastog telefona i zavrtio broj ureda Bernija Ohlsa. Otišao je i pošao kući u šest sati. Zavrtio sam kućni broj. Bio je tamo. |
| “This is Marlowe,” I said. “Did your boys find a revolver on Owen Taylor this morning?” | — Ovdje Marlowe — rekoh. — Jesu li ti momci jutros našli revolver kod Owena Tavlora? |
| I could hear him clearing his throat and then I could hear him trying to keep the surprise out of his voice. “That would come under the heading of police business,” he said. | Mogao sam ga čuti kako pročišćava grlo a zatim pokušava ne dopustiti iznenađenosti da mu ovlada glasom.— To bi se moglo klasificirati kao nešto što se tiče samo policije — rekao je. |
