Read The Amulet for Free Online

the vibrating instruments overhead.
    "What's so funny?" Jimmy called back at me.
    "This," I said, waving my arms around. "Your cavern of delights. It's like something from a fairy tale."
    "Grimm or Anderson?" he asked.
    "Oh, Grimm," I said. "Definitely Grimm."
    He laughed this time.
    "Rumpelstiltskin?" he said.
    "Yep. Where's all the spun gold?"
    "Wouldn't you like to know," he said, and laughed again. I don't think I've ever known a man who laughed quite so much.
    "Are you coming or not?" he called out at me. "Or will we just stand here and shout at each other a bit?"
    As I walked towards his office I noticed that he had come into possession of some new items. A French bedroom set-three-door wardrobe and two huge tallboys-dominated the left side of the aisle. They looked expensive.
    Jimmy saw me looking.
    "Got it from a City councilor. On his uppers. Needed some quick cash. Something to do with his wife, a prostitute, and a newspaper. I gave him a couple of grand." He cackled that high, almost girl-like giggle that I had come to know so well.
    "Anybody I know?" I asked.
    "No," he said. "But you will...you will."
    "If you get any more stuff you're going to have to get a bigger place," I said.
    "No, they'll only take me out of here in a coffin," he said, and laughed. But this time the echo sounded flat and hollow.
    "I've got someone coming to take away all the washing machines," he said, "Some kind of artist-he says he's going to make a giant model of a housewife out of them. Says it'll win him the Turner prize."
    "The council will probably buy it, and put it on a hill somewhere," I said. "I can see it now-'The cleaner of the north' or some such shit."
    The old man cackled again.
    "I've bought some Fifties furniture to replace them. And I've managed to get something for you as well," he said. "Something special."
    I followed him through the furniture to a cleared square in the center of the warehouse. There were two armchairs, a desk, a fridge, an early Twentieth Century shop till, and a series of large ledgers alongside a pile of other books on the desk. This was Jimmy's 'office'. High-tech, it wasn't, but I'd never known the old man to forget a deal, or, more importantly, the price of one.
    "Before you tell me why you've come," he said. "Have a look at this and I'll get you a beer."
    He handed me a book and went to the fridge.
    It was a first edition Chandler, a first American edition, of The Little Sister . It was in near perfect condition, even the dust-wrapper, and my heart started pounding faster even before I opened it.
    "You wee bastard," I said to him as he came back and handed me a very cold can. "You know I'll never afford it. Just showing it to me should be a criminal offence."
    He cackled again.
    "It's only three grand," he said. "Working for Artie Dunlop, you should be getting that much a day."
    I dropped the book in my lap, and I think my jaw fell as well. Jimmy saw my surprise.
    "You didn't know who she was?" he asked, and there was genuine astonishment in his eyes. "I spotted her right off, and gave her a body-swerve. I don't want to be getting involved with the likes of him."
    I had been blinded, by her, by the money, by the case. Now I'd somehow got embroiled with one of the shadiest, most feared, members of the Glasgow underworld. I took a long gulp of the beer, wishing it were something stronger, and shakily lit a cigarette.
    "Aye," Jimmy said, shaking his head. "That Dunlop. Dodgy Art and Antiques a specialty, along with disappearing enemies whose bodies are never found. I hope she's worth it-you always did think more with your balls than your brain."
    Artie Dunlop was something of a legend in Glasgow. The police had never pinned anything on him; he had no other known associates, no 'gang'. But somehow, anybody who ever crossed him disappeared, permanently. Artwork and antique thefts of very high value were attributed to him, but there were never any clues linking him to crime scenes. He was feared by even