"Charlie Chan - 7405 - The Temple Of The Golden Horde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chan Charlie)

"I never saw him, Mr. Chan, not since the day before he left for Honolulu this time. He was happy then, doing an important job always made him feel happy, useful. He must have gone directly from the airport to the Temple that night."
"No, the people at the Temple say he was late. They had expected him to return earlier. What would make him late?"
"I don't know. He didn't have any friends outside of me and at the Temple."
"He was somewhere," Chan said. "Time is missing. You are sure nothing strange happened, nothing -"
Betty Chan blinked. "Well... There was one little thing, Inspector, now that I think. I'd forgotten all about it. It didn't seem important, just very ordinary, and when Benny was found I forgot it."
"And you remember it now?"
"Well, it was just that I was out a little late that evening, didn't get home until about nine P.M. As I came in, my telephone was ringing. It stopped before I could get to it. I couldn't think of anyone it could have been except Benny!"
"He called you often?"
"Yes - especially if he had troubles. My number is unlisted, so it had to be someone I knew - or a wrong number, I guess."
"Wrong number is possible," Chan agreed thoughtfully. "Also, it is possible that your brother with a problem tried to call."
"Maybe if I'd been home -?" she trailed off, her face miserable as she thought of her dead brother trying to call her for help.
"I'm sure it could not have changed events," Chan said, and he stood up. "But events happen, and now I suggest you remain off the streets as much as possible."
"I've got to work, Mr. Chan. I can't hide."
"You work where?"
"At the Kung Fu Tze Book Store. Today is my day off."
Chan nodded. "Work and life must continue, and probably you are in no danger. But walk with care. If you see those men watching you again, seek safety and call myself or the police."
"I will," Betty Chan said. "What are you going to do?"
"Deliver a valuable scroll to the Temple of Golden Horde," Chan said, and smiled. "An opportunity, also, to pay a second visit to the Temple in the innocent guise of volunteer messenger."
"You suspect something at the Temple?"
"I'm still very curious. A sick girl at the Temple may have seen more than she has yet told about the night your brother drowned. Some shadows appear to hang over the Temple. It may be something or nothing."
The eminent detective smiled, nodded, and left the neat little apartment. On his way down the narrow stairs, he suddenly stopped. Had a door just ahead been open an inch or two? Open - and closed quietly as Chan appeared coming down? He wasn't sure.
He went on down, closed the outer door without going through, and waited. He waited five minutes but nothing happened in the silent building.
On the crowded street, as he caught a taxi to return to his hotel, he saw nothing suspicious. Only the hurrying throngs of the great city, the thousands of faces that could hide an equal number of secrets.


IX

A MESSAGE had been waiting for Charlie Chan at the hotel to call his office in Honolulu. He had done so, and as he drove once more down the peninsula in his rented Toyota, he considered the report of his staff.
Benny Chan had done absolutely nothing unusual in Honolulu. The handyman had arrived exactly as he had four times before, had gone directly to the house of C.V. Soong in one of the most exclusive sections of Hawaii, and had left again the same day carrying a box exactly like the other four he had carried previously. He had stopped nowhere, met no one, encountered nothing out of the usual.
Chan drove on to the high iron gates of the isolated Temple. In the sunlight, the eerie atmosphere that hung over the strange temple in the fog of night was gone. It was only a green, pleasant country estate where the tall Chinese pagoda was like a beautiful decoration set in its parklike grounds. Even the barred windows of the Sanctuary building had lost their ominous quality.
Li Po, and C.V. Soong rose from their cushions in the Khan's lush Oriental office. With the day, all shadows were dispelled here too, the drapes drawn open, and the sunlight streaming in through open windows. Old Soong greeted Chan with an outstretched hand.
"I was beginning to worry, Inspector," Soong beamed. "I should have known better. In the hands of Charlie Chan, all is safe."
"Some private business detained me," Chan said, "but I'm glad to say the scroll is now delivered without incident."
He handed the brass-bound chest to the Khan.
"Many thanks, Mr. Chan," the Khan said. "It will be locked up at once. Have you learned any more about the tragic death of poor Benny?"
"No, I have not."
Soong shook his head. "I'm afraid I acted somewhat irrationally, Inspector. I realize now that I'm not really sure those men were following me. The scroll made me jumpy, eh?"
"Valuable treasures are often difficult to live with," Chan said. He turned to the thin Khan. "You are sure all the other scrolls sent previously are safe?"
"Oh, yes. Quite safe."
"Could some attempt have been made to steal them without you being aware of it? Some small incident overlooked, some insignificant evidence of unexpected visitors?"
"No," the Khan shook his head. "Not that I know. We are very concerned for our privacy here, Mr. Chan; alert for anything unusual. Alas, it is necessary because the local residents do not always like us in their midst, and we must be vigilant for any intrusions."
Chan nodded. "But it is odd. The theft of a single apple from a prize tree is very rare. Thieves do not often take one jewel from a large box and leave all the others."
"I'm sure that no one tried to steal the scroll," the Khan said. "Poor Benny would not have resisted."
"You are sure Benny Chan would not resist a thief?" Chan asked.
"I'm fairly sure," the Khan said. "In many ways Benny was as intelligent as anyone - when the problem didn't confuse him. He read the newspapers, knew that it was best not to resist a theft or mugging. Then, too, Mr. Chan, he was timid, as most retarded are."
"What would make him resist, perhaps confuse him and make him unsure whether to resist or run or both?"
"Any conflict of choice, Inspector. The same thing that confuses all of us, only with Benny it was more acute. Mostly, I'd think he could only attack if he felt it threatened someone else he valued, loved."
"You mean," Chan said, "Benny would have been most likely to resist danger if something he was loyal to was in danger also?"
"Yes, that's just what I mean. Like most of his kind, he was fiercely loyal. He would have been very confused by a conflict of fear for himself and fear for someone he was loyal to."
"Such as his sister," Chan said, "or the Temple of Golden Horde?"