"Bennett, Cherie - Sunset Island 009 - Sunset Scandal" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Cherie)

It was then that she heard the first scream.
FOUR
"I want to go home!" Katie wailed, grabbing on to Emma.
"It's . . . it's okay," Emma said in as soothing a voice as she could muster. That was the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard, Emma thought. But I can't let Katie know how scared I am.
"Here's what we're going to dp," Emma said firmly to Katie. "We're going to march straight to the front door and walk out of here."
Emma took Katie by the hand and they headed for the hall. The butler was nowhere to be seen.
"Faster," Katie urged.
"See? Everything's fine now," Emma as-
sured her. She reached for the large brass doorknob on the oversized door.
"Noooooooooo!"
Emma stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the loud, moaning cry. It seemed to be coming from upstairs. For just a moment, Emma was so scared that she couldn't move at all. Then Katie began crying hysterically, and Emma came to her senses.
Just as they were halfway out the door, Emma heard someone come thundering down the long, curved stairway.
"All right! All right! I'll get some!"
Emma turned to look, half expecting to see some horrible monster. But there stood a young woman about Emma's age, wearing jeans and a New York Yankees T-shirt. The young woman stopped on the third step and stared at Emma, clearly surprised to see someone in the house.
"Hi!" she said, recovering quickly. "Can I help you?"
"Uh ... uh ..." Emma stammered.
The girl came the rest of the way down the stairs. "Where's Simon?" she asked, looking around the hall.
"Is he the butler?" Emma asked, finding her voice.
"I'm here, miss," the butler said, coming into the hall from a room to the left. "That was the delivery person at the back door. The groceries are here." He turned his huge head to Emma and Katie, then looked back at the young woman. "There are guests," he added.
"So I see," the girl said with a laugh. She walked toward Emma and Katie, who cowered behind Emma's legs. "I'm Darcy Laken," she said, stretching out her hand in a friendly fashion.
"Emma Cress well," Emma said faintly, shaking Darcy's hand.
"Is she a witch?" Katie whispered from behind Emma.
Darcy laughed. "I wish I were. Think of all the cool things I could do."
Simon gave a low laugh, nodded his head slightly, and disappeared into another room.
"He's a bad man," Katie whimpered.
No, he's a prankster, is what he is," Darcy said, shaking her head. "So, anyway, what can I do for you?*
Emma thought maybe she should just
make her excuses and leave. No matter how normal Darcy seemed, this was a seriously weird place. On the other hand, she didn't want to fuel Katie's fears, so she took a deep breath and made her pitch.
"Well," Emma began, "I'm here representing an organization called COPE, and
weЧ"
"Noooooooooo!" came the horrible moan once again. Emma looked up the stairs, as did Darcy.
"Someone's hurt!" Emma cried. "What's going on up there?"
"Oh, it's just Molly," Darcy said breezily.
"Just Molly?" Emma repeated, completely outraged. "Someone is obviously in horrible pain up there! You had better tell me what's going on, or I'll go to the police!"
"She'll probably call the police on me sooner than you will if I don't get her some ice cream, which is why she's yelling," Darcy said calmly.
Emma eyed Darcy skeptically. "You're telling me someone is making that racket because she wants ice cream?"
"You got it," Darcy said cheerfully. "Come on into the kitchen with me. You can tell me
about COPE while I dig into the chocolate ripple." She looked behind Emma and caught Katie's eye. "Would you like some, too?"
Katie nodded. "But don't let go of my hand," Katie told Emma.
Emma and Katie followed Darcy into a huge, immaculate, all-white kitchen. Darcy got the ice cream out of the freezer.
"If this Molly person just wants ice cream," Emma asked, still not convinced, "why is she moaning? It sounds like she's crying 'No!'"
"She's crying 'Now,'" Darcy explained, licking some ice cream off her finger. She looked at Emma. "Want some?"
Emma shook her head. She still wasn't certain that Darcy was telling her the truth. "Why can't Molly just get her own ice cream?"
Darcy handed a dish of ice cream to Katie, and Emma lifted her onto a high stool at the counter to eat it.
"Molly's in a wheelchair," Darcy said, getting out two spoons. "Look, let me run this upstairs to her before she starts up again, and then I'll come back and we can talk."
Darcy smiled at Katie and then walked swiftly out of the kitchen.
"Maybe she's a good witch, like in The Wizard ofOz" Katie said, her mouth full of ice cream.
"There's no such thing as witches," Emma said, even though at that moment she wasn't quite sure. She looked around the kitchen, relieved that it looked perfectly normalЧ until she noticed the fruit bowl on the table. Mixed in with the peaches and cherries was a human hand. She felt her heart jump.
"Hey, Katie," Emma said in a low voice, not wanting to alarm her charge, "why don't you finish up and we'll leave?"
*Maybe she'll give me more," Katie said, spooning some ice cream into her mouth. "I like Darcy," she added. "She has pretty hair."