"Charles L. Grant - Raven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Charles L)

The man in black was gone.




For the longest rime nothing moved, not the snow, not the wind, not even Neil's hand as it pressed against the back of
Brandt's neck.
A cloud of smoke over the road.
Mandy back on her feet in the doorway, hands pressed to her mouth, and someone behind her trying to see what
had happened.
Nothing moved.
 When sound and sense returned, Neil realized his teeth were chattering and an impulse to leap the fence and chase
the murderer into the woods was aborted; he ran-slid back to the door, and Mandy grabbed his arm and pulled him in.
People asked questions.
"Call the police," he ordered, and snatched his coat from the floor. "Ken, come with me."




For the longest time, nothing moved.




He grabbed Havvick's arm and thrust him away. "Get your goddamn coat and come with me." One word at a time.
"Will someone for Christ's sake call the damn police? Nester's dead."
He left the rifle and ran out again, heard Havvick fol-lowing and waited for him by the body. .. The young man
skidded to a halt against the fence, looked, and doubled over. His coat was short, not a real topcoat at all and buttoned
hastily to the neck, his suit jacket poking out below it.
"We have to get him inside," Neil said.
Havvick shook his head; he couldn't do it; he couldn't touch it.
"He's gone, Ken, it's okay. The guy's gone, he's not going to shoot us."
Havvick moaned, stared at the trees.
Neil leaned down and slipped his hands under Nester's arms. "Take his feet."
The young man spat and wiped his mouth, several times with the back of a rigid hand.
"Take. His. Feet."
Havvick obeyed.
They struggled down the slope and around the building. In the storeroom, Neil decided; put him in the storeroom
until the ambulance comes. Not exactly procedure, what-ever the hell that passed for around here, but he couldn't
leave his friend out in the cold. Not with him out there. He'd shot Nester in the back, shot him when he was down. No
question of the cause of death; the frozen blood would mark the place.
"Why?"
Neil glanced up at Havvick's bloodless face, understood that the question had already been asked several times.
"I don't know. Don't drop him."
Jesus, Nester, how the hell'd you get so heavy?
Havvick was trying desperately not to look at what he held. "Why?"
It didn't occur to Neil to check the creek until they were already around the corner and into the light. The
store-room door was already open.
Mandy skipped aside when they stumbled in, at her feet a crumpled length of tarp. She didn't look; she waited by
the staircase as they laid the body against the side wall and covered it. Ken started back outside; Neil took his arm