[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.This was fear, she knew, so intense that it left hermind floating in a strange, precise world of its own, looking from a distance at her body.Her hand moved across the bed and began shaking her husband s shoulder.She heardher voice saying his name again and again with urgent, whispered intensity. What  Don t make a sound.Something s outside.He slipped his service revolver out of his night-table drawer.Only then did it occur toher to do the same.Her own gun felt good in her hand. On the terrace, she said.Very quietly he got up and went to the door.He moved fast then, pulling back thecurtains and stepping outside.The terrace was empty.He turned toward her, his shadowshrugging. Nothing s here. There was something. The conviction grew in her when she said it.A few momentsago she had seen the shadow, heard the growl and they were certainly real. What? I don t know.Some kind of an animal. A cat? I don t think so.He came back to bed, crawling in beside her. You re really wound up in this case,aren t you, honey? The gentleness in his voice cut into her, making her feel more lonelythan ever.Despite the urge she felt to embrace him, she stayed on her side of the bed. It s a strange case, Dick. Don t get overinvolved, honey.It s just another case.That statement caused anger to replace fear. Don t criticize me, Dick.If you wereworking on murders like these you d feel exactly the same way if you were honest withyourself. I wouldn t get worked up. I m not worked up!He laughed, a condescending chuckle.The great stone policeman with his tender bride. You take it easy kid, he said, pulling the quilt up over his head. Take a Valium if you reupset.The man was infuriating. I m telling you, George, I know what the hell I saw!He stared across the room toward the bleary window.They had been given an officebelonging to the Manhattan South Detective Division despite the fact that they were stillnot officially assigned to it. It s pretty hard to believe, Wilson said. Sixteen stories is along way up. His eyes were pleading when he looked at her she had to be wrong or elsethey would be dealing with a force of completely unmanageable proportions. All I can say is, it happened.And even if you don t believe me it wouldn t hurt to takeprecautions. Maybe and maybe not.We ll know better what we re up against when we talk to theguy we re supposed to see. What guy? A guy that Tom Rilker gave some of those pawprint casts to.You remember TomRilker? Sure, the kook with the dogs. Well, he gave the prints we left behind in his office to another kook who wants us to gointerview him.So maybe he ll tell us what you saw. Goddamn it, you have the sneakiest way of slipping things in.When do we see thisgenius? Ten-thirty, up at the Museum of Natural History.He s an animal stuffer orsomething.They drove up in silence.The fact that they were even trying this angle testified totheir increasing desperation.But at least it meant doing something on the case instead ofletting more time slip by.And time seemed to be terribly important. At least they aren t throwing other assignments at us these days, Becky said tobreak the silence.Since this case has been  closed she and Wilson hadn t exactly beengetting more big jobs.Sooner or later they would be transferred somewhere definiteinstead of remaining in the limbo of reporting directly to the Chief of Detectives.Probablygo back to Brooklyn for all the difference it made.At least out there they wouldn t bevictimized by high-level departmental politics. Underwood knows what we re doing. You think so? Of course.Why do you think we re not getting other cases? Underwood s playing it byear.If we turn up something he can use, OK.If we foul things up, we can always bereprimanded for insubordination. He laughed. He knows exactly what we re doing. Evans told him, I suppose.Wilson smiled. Sure.He probably called up and told Underwood he d better leave usalone if he knew what was good for him.Underwood might not like it since he closed theDiFalco case himself but he s afraid of Evans, so the result is we end up in a vacuum.Damned if we do and et cetera. Here s the Goddamn museum.They went up the wide stone steps past the statue of Teddy Roosevelt and into theimmense dim hall that formed the lobby. We re here to see a Doctor Ferguson, Wilson said to the woman sitting behind theinformation counter.She picked up a telephone and spoke into it for a moment, thensmiled up at them.The workrooms of the museum were a shock.There were stacks of bones, boxes offeathers, beaks, skulls, animals and birds in various states of reconstruction on tables andin cases.The chaos was total, a welter of glue and paint and equipment and bones.A tallyoung man in a dirty gray smock appeared from behind a box of stuffed owls. I m CarlFerguson, he said in a powerful, cheery voice. We re preparing the Birds of NorthAmerica, but that s obviously not why I called you. For an instant Becky saw somethingchill cross his face, then it was replaced again by the smile [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]