"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 09" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

round, as though caught in some guilty act.
'Who are you?'
Zen advanced a step or two into the hut.
'Stay there!'
The man walked towards him with swift, light stridei.
He was short and stocky, with wiry black hair and the fac~:
of a pugnacious gnome.
'What are you doing?'
'Looking over the house.'
'This is not the house.'
Zen switched on his fatuous Swiss smile. 'Looking over
the property, I should have said.'
The man was staring at him with an air of deep sus-
picion.
'Who are you?' he repeated.
Zen held out his hand, which was ignored.
'Reto Gurtner.'
'You're Italian?'
'Swiss.'
The low growl sounded out again. Inside the hut, its
weight of emotion seemed even greater, an expression of
grief and loss that was almost unbearable.
'What was that noise?' Zen asked.
The man continued to eye him with open hostility, as
though trying to stare him out.
'A lion,' he said at last.
'Ah, a lion.'
Zen's tone remained politely conversational, as though
lions were an amenity without which no home was
complete.
'Where in Switzerland?' the man demanded.
He was wearing jeans and a blue tee-shirt. A large
hunting knife in a leather sheath was attached to his belt.
His bare arms were hairy and muscular. A long white scar
ran in a straight line from just below his right elbow to the
wrist.
'From Zurich,' Zen replied.
'You want to buy the house?'
'Not personally. I am here on behalf of a client.'
The words of the young man at Palazzo Sisti echoed in
his mind. 'You will visit the scene of the crime, interview
witnesses, interrogate suspects. In the course of your investiga-
tions you will discover concrete evidence demolishing Furio
Padedda's alibi and linking him to the murder of Oscar Burolo.
All this will take no more than a few days at the most.'
Something inconceivably huge and fast passed over-
head, blocking out the light for an instant like a rapid
eclipse of the sun. An instant later there was an earth-
shattering noise, as if a tall stone column had collapsed on
top of the hut. Even after the moment had passed, the