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Файл:J.M. Redmann - Micky Knight 1 - Death by the Ri...docx
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- •I took the case. Somebody had to do it and I’m too poor to keep my hands clean.
- •Chapter 2
- •I also let that pass. Danny has an exaggerated opinion of my decadence.
- •I started to put my sweater back on.
- •I didn’t wait long, fortunately, because money does not guarantee taste, as this sitting room proved.
- •I decided the walk would do me good. Besides, I didn’t think I had the exact change for a bus or the patience for Quarter parking.
- •I handed her my private investigator’s license. She looked at it for a minute.
- •It was too much. I had to burst out laughing. I was remembering why he had left me. It was back in sixth grade. This only caused Barbara to look more concerned. Maybe I had gone crazy.
- •I didn’t see her again until after lunch. We ran into each other in the bathroom.
- •I handed him over. He let out a breathy mew at being moved, but he didn’t seem to mind too much. Cordelia pulled her jacket around him. He was a little marmalade cat with big green eyes.
- •I shrugged to show that it wasn’t important. I turned back down the way we came.
- •It was Danny.
- •It was Monday morning again. But this was the last Monday morning that I would have to deal with bright and early, at least for a while.
- •I walked out of the door and into one of the guards.
- •I dialed Sergeant Ranson’s number. Some bored clerk answered.
- •I tripped instead, doing what I hoped they wouldn’t notice was a shoulder roll. I used my landing as an excuse to make some noise.
- •I was sitting there feeling very dirty, not to mention sorry for myself, when Danny Clayton walked by. Without recognizing me, I might add.
- •I told them my story with only a slight interruption for dinner. It took me over two hours, between my fatigue and Ranson’s questions.
- •I started to protest, but was interrupted by the phone. Danny picked it up, then handed it to me. It was Ranson.
- •Visiting hours wouldn’t start for a while, so my first destination was Sergeant Ranson’s office to see if she had arrested Milo and cohorts yet.
- •I had to say something or I’d start sniffling.
- •I started laughing. It wasn’t that funny, but it was too absurd for my present state of mind.
- •I shuddered. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.
- •I looked up. Miss Clavish was standing there, in her prim navy blue dress, wearing white gloves and holding a large shotgun. That was the thunderclap—she had fired over our heads and into the wall.
- •I started to protest, to say that as long as Barbara Selby was in this hospital, I wasn’t dropping out, but Ranson waved me silent.
- •I slowly sat up, then slid off the examining table and assumed a standing position.
- •I picked up my canvas bag, found the keys that Ms. (it had to be Ms., not Miss, after that shotgun trick) Clavish had removed from my door. I locked up and we left.
- •I finished in the bathroom in time to hear the tail end of her last message. It was a male voice saying he’d see her real soon and that he loved her and so on.
- •I stuck my head in.
- •I went back into the living room and put on the Brandenburg Concertos to lend a cultured air to this affair. Danny nodded approval at my choice.
- •I knew that by “in time” she meant Barbara more than she meant me. I was glad that Barbara hadn’t been forgotten.
- •I picked up the heavy platter and carried it out to the table.
- •I heard my answering machine being played back.
- •I made introductions. Torbin explained his plans for the next few days. Good food, great movies, and perhaps a few lessons on makeup. I didn’t ask whether he meant Frankie or me.
- •I got in, leaving my door open, and turned the ignition. The engine hummed smoothly, all the usual clanking sounds gone.
- •I quickly put the tools away. Ben was staring at the unchanging marsh when I came back.
- •I spotted Ranson.
- •I noticed a patch of yellow under one of the rags. I picked it up. A half-empty tube of horse liniment. Equus Ben-Gay. No, I couldn’t do that. Not even to Karen Holloway.
- •I saw Frankie at the far edge of the light. He was standing by himself, waiting, it seemed.
- •I nodded. She opened the door. The hallway was empty.
- •I kissed her on the mouth. Then I put my arms around her and held her. She returned the embrace and the kiss for a moment, then she broke off.
- •It wasn’t a disaster, it was delicious. Fortunately, neither Ranson nor I had bet on it being inedible.
- •I looked at her like she was crazy.
- •I was close enough to see Cordelia’s face. The barrel of Ben’s gun was pressed against her neck. Her eyes were a blazing blue against the stark paleness of her skin.
- •I remembered Alma, small, pale blond, and eight months pregnant. David, their son, pale like his mother, was three.
- •I refused to bow my head. I had nothing to pray for.
- •I jerked. Other hunters with other guns aiming at other people.
- •I nodded, knowing I was asking too much.
- •I nodded. “Eight months.”
- •I puzzled for a minute.
- •I was hungry. All I’d had to eat so far today were the crawfish on the pier.
- •I put my hand on her arm to stop her.
- •I shrugged.
- •I led the way and lit some candles and a hurricane lantern to light the kitchen. I started the wood stove. It was chilly in here.
- •I turned back to her, but she stood there, no words coming forth.
- •I washed my face, but I still looked like shit.
- •I shook my head. Ranson had to be right, it couldn’t mean anything.
- •I pretended to think for a minute.
- •I shrugged. I didn’t want Cordelia to be hit, but I couldn’t write Danny’s death warrant to save her. The thug lifted his hand again.
- •I stood beside her, next to the door, not wanting to let her go. I started to give her directions.
- •Voices carried from the lawn. I stopped, afraid that, if I could hear them, they could hear me.
- •I’m still alive. Oh, shit, how am I going to pay for this, was my last thought.
- •I was. Even the goulash that Barbara was eating looked appetizing. The nurse did the usual nurse things to me, then went off to see about getting me some food.
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