"P. N. Elrod - Vampire Files 08 - The Dark Sleep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

just inside.

The front room was small and plain, with durable furniture and blank white walls. He had his operator's
license framed and standing on one of the file cabinets, more as a declaration of his legal right to work
than as decor. He claimed that clutter was a distraction to clear thinking, both for himself and the
customers. If they had nothing interesting to look at, then they could better concentrate on their business
with him.

The place had been tossed over by some mob goons a couple of months back, but you couldn't tell it
now. Escott was ferociously neat about his person and surroundings. His desktop was bare except for a
receipt book and an ashtray. He put the book away in a drawer and hauled out some paper from
another, then pulled out a fat-bodied fountain pen.

"Jeez, you still carrying that?" I asked, gesturing at the pen.

"War booty," he said.

It gave me the heebies just looking at the thing. Though it could write same as a regular pen, it also had a
trick reservoir inside that had once held cyanide, not ink. Push a catch on it and out came the hypodermic
needle that delivered the poison. Not too long ago the damned contraption had caused yours truly a
whole lot of grief that still made me shudder whenever I thought of it.

"Jack, you look as though you've bitten a bad lemon, and we both know the impossibility of that," he
said, scribbling the date at the top of the first page.

"Only because we both know I could have handled this without the fun and games. If you hadn't stepped
in like that, I could have fixed a whammy on McCallen and had him purring like a kitten."

He shrugged, quite unconcerned. "When he so grossly insulted Miss Sommerfeld I just couldn't help
myself. I do apologize for your bang on the head, though. Most unfortunate."

"It's part of the game, but about me taking the lead on some of theseтАж"

He paused in his writing and lifted his chin, one eyebrow going up and the rest of his face like Fort
Knox.

I sighed in disgust and turned away to look out the window. The blinds were down, so I didn't see very
damn much. "Cripes, Charles, I thought the idea was to deliver what the client wants, not get ourselves
killed."

"Too late for thatтАФat least in your case."

I ignored that one. "You know that in a deal like this I should have been the one talking to McCallen."

"First come, first served."

"Huh?"

"I was the one to set up the meeting with him in the first place. He would deal with me because he'd
know my voice. Having another man to reckon with might have scared him off."