"Grafton, Sue - Kinsey Millhone - Q is for Quarry Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grafton Sue)

"Which is what? Sorry, but I don't know the term."

"I'm not sure myself, but I know that's right because I went back and looked it up."

"You kept notes?"

"I kept the clipping from the paper. It's in the other room."

I could hear a dim alarm bell ring. What I was getting was rehearsed. "Did you get the impression she was local or on the road?"

"Traveling, definitely. I saw her hitchhiking earlier when I was coming in to work. I'm sure she hadn't eaten in a while. She wolfed her food right down."

"She could have been stoned," I said.

"Oh. I hadn't thought about that. She probably was, come to think of it. That might explain where her money went. She spent it all on dope."

"Just a possibility. I wonder how far she managed to travel without funds. Or do you think she had the money and just didn't choose to spend it on food?"

"Hard to say. If I hadn't volunteered to pay, she'd have tennis-shoed the place so I'd"ve been stuck either way. Bet she panhandled, too. Your age, you probably don't remember those days."

"Actually, I do. I was in my late teens."

"Point is, all those hippies hung out, cadging any change you had. Smoking these big fat joints. I forget now what they called "em. Thumbs, I think. Me, I wasn't into that. Well, maybe a little grass, but never any LSD."

I murmured a response and then said, "Was she wearing jewelry?"

"Nope. Don't think so."

"No watch or bracelet? Maybe earrings?"

"Oh. I remember now. No earrings. Her left earlobe was torn through. Like somebody'd grabbed a hoop and ripped it right off."

"Was the injury recent?"

"Nope. It was all healed up, but it was definitely split."

"What about her fingernails ?"

"Bitten to the quick. Nearly made me sick. She wasn't all that clean, and she'd picked at her cuticles until they bled. You ever see that? Nails so short the fingertips look all puffy. It's enough to make you lose your lunch."

"And you're sure you'd never seen her around town before."

"Not before and not since."

"How'd you happen to get in touch with the Sheriffs Department?"

"I didn't "happen` to do anything. I read about the body in the paper and remembered she'd been in. Like I said before, the incident stuck in my mind because she tried to pull a fast one."

"What made you so sure it was the same girl?"