| 5 | |
| Back on the boulevard I went into a drugstore phone booth and looked up Mr. Arthur Gwynn Geiger’s residence. He lived on Laverne Terrace, a hillside street off Laurel Canyon Boulevard. I dropped my nickel and dialed his number just for fun. Nobody answered. I turned to the classified section and noted a couple of bookstores within blocks of where I was. | Vrativši se na bulevar ušao sam u telefonsku govornicu dragstora i potražio prebivalište mistera Arthura Gwynna Geigera. Živio je u Laverne Terraceu, ulici na brežuljkastom kraju grada, nedaleko od bulevara Laurel Canvon. Ubacio sam novčić i zavrtio njegov broj iz čistog vica. Nitko nije odgovorio. Otvorio sam klasificirani dio imenika i pribilježio nekoliko knjižara ne claljih ocTnekoliko blokova. |
| The first I came to was on the north side, a large lower floor devoted to stationery and office supplies, a mass of books on the mezzanine. It didn’t look the right place. I crossed the street and walked two blocks east to the other one. This was more like it, a narrowed cluttered little shop stacked with books from floor to ceiling and four or five browsers taking their time putting thumb marks on the new jackets. Nobody paid any attention to them. I shoved on back into the store, passed through a partition and found a small dark woman reading a law book at a desk. | Prva do koje sam došao bila je na sjevernoj strani; veliko je prizemlje bilo posvećeno papirnatoj galanteriji i uredskom priboru, dok su hrpe knjiga bile u polukatu. Nisam došao na pravo mjesto. Prešao sam ulicu i odšetao dva bloka istočno do sljedeće. Ta je bila više nalik onome što sam tražio, uski dućančić sav u darmaru, s knjigama shrpa- nim od poda do stropa i s četiri ili pet mušterija što su prekapale po njima, trošeći vrijeme da bi ostavile otiske prstiju na novim ovicima. Nitko se na njih nije osvrtao. Progurao sam se u dno trgovine, prošao kroz pregradu i zatekao sitnu crnu ženicu kako za pisaćim stolom čita nekakvu pravničku knjigu. |
| I flipped my wallet open on her desk and let her look at the buzzer pinned to the flap. She looked at it, took her glasses off and leaned back in her chair. I put the wallet away. She had the fine-drawn face of an intelligent Jewess. She stared at me and said nothing. | Pljesnuo sam otvorenom lisnicom po stolu i dao joj da vidi cajpškjj. značku prikačenu za preklopac. Pogledala ju je, skinula naočale i naslonila" se. Maknuo sam lisnicu. Imala je lijepo ocrtano lice inteligentne Židovke. Zagledala se u me i nije rekla ništa. |
| I said: “Would you do me a favor, a very small favor?” | Rekoh: — Hoćete li mi učiniti uslugu, vrlo malu uslugu? |
| “I don’t know. What is it?” She had a smoothly husky voice. | — Ne znam. A što to? — Glas joj je bio blag i mukao. |
| “You know Geiger’s store across the street, two blocks west?” | — Znate za Geigerov dućan preko ulice, dva bloka na zapad? |
| “I think I may have passed it.” | — Mislim da sam prošla pokraj njega. |
| “It’s a bookstore,” I said. “Not your kind of a bookstore. You know darn well.” | — To je knjižara — rekoh. — Ali ne vašeg tipa. I vi to znate vraški dobro. |
| She curled her lip slightly and said nothing. “You know Geiger by sight?” I asked. | Lagano je zavila usnicu ali nije ništa odgovorila. — Geigera znate iz viđenja? — upitao sam. |
| “I’m sorry. I don’t know Mr. Geiger.” | — Žao mi je. Ne poznajem ga. |
| “Then you couldn’t tell me what he looks like?” Her lip curled some more. “Why should I?” | — Dakle mi ne možete reći kako izgleda? Usnica joj se zavinula još malo. — A zašto bih? |
| “No reason at all. If you don’t want to, I can’t make you.” | — Bez ikakva razloga. Ako ne želite, ne mogu vas natjerati. |
| She looked out through the partition door and leaned back again. “That was a sheriff’s star, wasn’t it?” | Pogledala je prema van kroz vrata pregrade i ponovno se naslonila. — To je bila šerifska zvijezda, nije li? |
| “Honorary deputy. Doesn’t mean a thing. It’s worth a dime cigar.” | — Počasni zamjenik. Ne znači mnogo. Vrijedi koliko i cigara od pet centi. |
| “I see.” She reached for a pack of cigarettes and shook one loose and reached for it with her lips. I held a match for her. She thanked me, leaned back again and regarded me through smoke. She said carefully: | — Shvaćam. — Posegnula je za kutijom cigareta, istresla jednu napola i dohvatila je usnicama. Pružio sam joj šibicu. Zahvalila se, ponovno se naslonila i stala me procjenjivati kroz dim. Zatim je oprezno rekla: |
| “You wish to know what he looks like and you don’t want to interview him?” | — Želite doznati kako izgleda a ne želite razgovarati s nj im? |
| “He’s not there,” I said. | — Ondje ga nema — rekoh. |
| “I presume he will be. After all, it’s his store.” | — Pretpostavljam da će biti. Na koncu konca, to je njegov dućan. |
| “I don’t want to interview him just yet,” I said. | — Naprosto još ne želim razgovarati s njim — rekoh. |
| She looked out through the open doorway again. I said: “Know anything about rare books?” | Ponovno je pogledala napolje kroz otvorena vrata. Upitao sam: — Znate li išta o raritetima? |
| “You could try me.” | — Možete me iskušati. |
| “Would you have a Ben Hur, 1860, Third Edition, the one with the duplicated line on page 116?” | — Biste li imali Ben Hura iz 1860, treće izdanje, ono s dupliranim retkom na stranici 116? |
| She pushed her yellow law book to one side and reached a fat volume up on the desk, leafed it through, found her page, and studied it. “Nobody would,” she said without looking up. “There isn’t one.” | Odgurnula je žutu pravnu knjigu u stranu i posegnula za debelom knjižurinom uspravljenom na stolu, prelistala kroz nju, pronašla stranicu i proučila je. — Nitko je ne bi imao — odgovorila je ne podižući pogled. — Tako nešto ne postoji. |
| “Right.” | — Ispravno. |
| “What in the world are you driving at?” | — Za ime svijeta, na što ciljate? |
| “The girl in Geiger’s store didn’t know that.” She looked up. “I see. You interest me. Rather vaguely.” | — Cura u Geigerovu dućanu to ne zna. Podigla je pogled. — Shvaćam. Postajete zanimljivi. Na prilično neodređen način. |
| “I’m a private dick on a case. Perhaps I ask too much. It didn’t seem much to me somehow.” | — Ja sam privatni dekster usred slučaja. Možda odviše pitam. Ali meni se nekako ne čini odviše. |
| She blew a soft gray smoke ring and poked her finger through. It came to pieces in frail wisps. She spoke smoothly, indifferently. “In his early forties, I should judge. Medium height, fattish. Would weigh about a hundred and sixty pounds. Fat face, Charlie Chan moustache, thick soft neck. Soft all over. Well dressed, goes without a hat, affects a knowledge of antiques and hasn’t any. Oh yes. His left eye is glass.” | Ispuhnula je paperjasti sivi kolut dima i probola ga prstom. Raspao se u lomne pramenove. Govorila je jednolično, ravnodušno. — U ranim je četrdesetim, koliko mogu ocijeniti. Srednje visine, debeljuškast. Mogao bi imati sedamdeset dvije, sedamdeset tri kile. Debelo lice, kineski brčići, debeli meki vrat. Sav je mekan. Dobro odjeven, ne nosi šešir, pretvara se da poznaje antikvitete, no ne zna ništa. O, da. Lijevo mu je oko stakleno. |
