"P. N. Elrod - Vampire Files 09 - Lady Crymsyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

"Oh." A whole different kind of worry for me. I hurried to snag up the earpiece. "Yeah? Fleming here,
what is it?"

"Mr. Fleming, we gotta problem." The voice belonged to Leon Kell, the foreman I'd hired to take care
of the renovations of the property I'd leased. He sounded tense. "I donno how you wanna handle it, so I
told the boys to back off until you got here."

"What's the problem?"

"I don't wanna say over the phone."

I kept my cursing to myself. He'd apparently seen one too many gangster films. "C'mon, Leon, the
G-men don't wire phones of honest citizens," I lied. "What's wrong?"

"The boys found something when they started knocking through that last cellar wall you wanted cleared.
It happened just before quittin', an' I told them to hang around until you got here to tell us what to do."

Which meant a crew of half a dozen able-bodied men were all standing about with their picks and
shovels in hand getting paid extra by me to smoke cigarettes. "Okay, then let them go for the night
andтАФ"

"That might not be such a good idea, considerin'."

"Considering what?"

"I don't wanna say, Mr. Fleming, an' if you come down here you'll knowwhy I don't wanna say it."

Shit and Shinola. This was a whole new side to Leon's otherwise sensible character that I could have
done without. "Okay, I'll be right there." I slammed the earpiece back on its hook with more force than
was really required.

"He strikes me as being a cautious soul," Charles Escott commented from his seat at the kitchen table,
where he'd heard my end of the conversation. Before him was his modest evening meal, purchased on
the way back from his office. A sandwich and spuds tonight, making a change from his usual white
cartons packed full of Chinese food. "He gave you no clue to the problem?"

"Leon's crew found something in the cellar. He wouldn't say what."

Escott looked up, his gray eyes and lean face suddenly bright with interest and grim concern. "It must be
a body, then."

"Now where the hell do you get that?"

"If they'd ruptured a gas or water main, Mr. Kell would have been much more forthcoming with
information. If it had been buried treasure, he'd not have called, period."

It was too early in the evening for me to deal with this kind of thing, I thought.

"I'll accompany you, if you don't mind."