"Philip Jose Farmer - Traitor to the Living" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

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Carfax, after wading the article, had been swept by
fury to the phone. He had called Mr. Lincks at his
main office on Lot No. A-l of the Robert (Bob) Lincks
Easy Credit Automobile Agency, told him who he was,
and then had said, "Why didn't you talk to my wife
and ask her forgiveness for your criminal driving?"
Lincks had sputtered and then had said, "If she'd
been driving an American car instead of that German
tin can, she'd be alive today!" And he had hung up.
Carfax felt ashamed of himself, though he did not
know why.
Now, drinking the coffee and watching the birds, he
thought of Frances. Perhaps the shame had come because
he had always felt that if he had gone with her,
he would have saved her. He would have insisted on
finishing a chapter before they left and that would have
altered the timing, and the old man would have sailed
through the stop sign and struck no one.
Perhaps he opposed Western's claims because he did
not want to believe that it would be possible to talk to
Frances again. Perhaps he feared her reproaches.
He rose and took the empty cup into the kitchen,
bright with the new paint that Frances had applied only
three weeks ago. The wall clock indicated 09:05. Patri-
cia Carfax had said that she would call him back at
eleven this morning, Illinois time. She'd be phoning
from a public booth, as she had done the first time. But
she'd use one that had a viewphone so that he could see
her face and be sure that she really was his cousin. He
could compare her features with the photographs of her
in the family album. The latest showed her at the age
of twelve, but she had not changed so much that he
would not be able to recognize her.
Carfax had proposed that she use the viewphone.
For all he knew. Western had put some girl up to posing
as his cousin so that he could, in some way,
discredit him. Western was, despite all the publicity, an
essentially mysterious person. His vital statistics were
12
available, but the true nature of the man himself eluded
even the most perceptive interviewers.
Western had made a good impression on Carfax
when he had called. His voice was deep and rich and
friendly. His big deep-blue eyes and somewhat aquiline
nose and out-thrust, cleft chin gave him strength and
sincerity.
Carfax knew too well that appearances meant little.
This, plus his prejudice against Western's claims, had
made him very wary. Yet he had ended the conversation