"Simon Hawke - Wizard 4 - The Wizard of Rue Morgue" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

"No, but then he could have easily disposed of it. We are still searching the
vicinity ofтАФ"
"What sort of weapon was used?"
"Apparently a knife of some sort," said Renaud.
"Apparently? You mean you don't know for sure? Did you find the murder
weapon?"
"No, but as I said, we are still searchingтАФ"
"So then you have no evidence tying Max in with the crime other than the purely
circumstantial fact that the victim modeled for him on the night that she was killed and
he destroyed the painting?"
Renaud patiently took a deep breath. "There is the sheer violence of the assault,"
he said, "and your friend's well-known propensity for violence. There is the fact that he
was drunk and cannot account for his whereabouts on that night. He says that he was
home alone, but there is no one who can corroborate that supposed fact. There is the
fact that he destroyed the painting in an obvious fit of rage, the fact that he had once
studied thaumaturgy at the SorbonneтАФ"
"Wait a moment," said Jacqueline, frowning. "What does thaumaturgy have to do
with it?"
"Well, the symbols that had been carved into the body of the victim wereтАФ"
Jacqueline suddenly leaned forward and grabbed his hand across the table. "What
symbols!" she said. "You said nothing about any symbols carved into the body!"
Renaud was a bit taken aback by her intense reaction. "I mentioned that the corpse
was badly mutilated," he said. "The condition of the victim's body left little doubt but
that the assault was perversely sexual in nature. She was slashed repeatedly and she had
certain markings carved into her breasts and abdomen that were identified as runes, the
sort of symbols that might be used in some sort of thaumaturgic ritual."
"Give me a pen," Jacqueline said, her voice tense.
Puzzled, Renaud reached into his pocket and handed her a pen. She started to
draw on one of the napkins.
"Did they look anything like this?" she said.
Renaud watched as she drew several obscene-looking symbols on the napkin: He
frowned. "Yes, as a matter of fact, they looked exactly like . . ." His voice trailed off
and he glanced up at her with new interest. "How did you know this? There was
nothing about that in the papers."
"Listen to me, Renaud," she said urgently. "Max Siegal didn't kill that girl. He
once studied thaumaturgy, that's true, but he never got very far in his studies. He had no
talent for it. You can verify that for yourself if you contact the College of Thaumaturgy
at the Sorbonne. These symbols are runes used in a very advanced thaumaturgic ritual,
the kind that isn't taught in thaumaturgy schools. The killer was no ordinary adept and
this was no ordinary murder. This girl was a victim of necromancy."
"Necromancy! How do you know this?" said Renaud. "And how did you know
about the runes?"


17
 "There was a series of murders in California about a year ago in which the same
pattern of runes appeared," she said. "Call the Los Angeles police department. Ask for
Captain Rebecca Farrell and tell her how the girl was killed. Then call Scotland Yard
and ask for Chief Inspector Michael Blood. Ask him about the so-called Ripper
murders that occurred in Whitechapel about two years ago. And tell him about the