"Brooks, Terry - Landover 01 - Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

condition. Could he come right over . . . ?

He shook his head. He could still hear the voice of the
doctor telling him what had happened. The voice had
sounded so calm and rational. He had known at once that
Annie was dying. He had known instantly. By the time he
had gotten to the hospital, she was dead. The baby was dead,
too. Annie had been only three months pregnant.

"Mr. Holiday?"

He looked about sharply, startled by the voice. George,
the security guard, was looking over at him from behind the
lobby desk.

"Everything all right, sir?"

He nodded and forced a quick smile. "YesЧjust thinking
about something."

He closed the mailbox door, shoved everything he had
taken from it save the catalogue into one coat pocket and,
still gripping the Wishbook in both hands, moved to the
ground-floor elevators. He didn't care for being caught off
balance like that. Maybe it was the lawyer in him.

"Cold day out there," George offered, glancing out into
the gray. "Going to be a tough winter. Lot of snow, they
say. Like it was a couple of years ago."

"Looks that way." Ben barely heard him as he glanced

Terry Brooks 3

down again at the catalogue. Annie always enjoyed the
Christmas Wishbook. She used to read him promos from
some of its more bizarre items. She used to make up stories
about the kind of people who might purchase such things.

He pushed the elevator call button and the doors opened
immediately.

"Have a nice evening, sir," George called after him.

He rode the elevator to his penthouse suite, shucked off
his topcoat, and walked into the front room, still clutching
the catalogue. Shadows draped the furnishings and dappled
the carpeting and walls, but he left the lights off and stood
motionless before the bank of windows that looked out over
the sunroof and the buildings of the city beyond. Lights glim-