"Carl Hiaasen - Hoot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hiaasen Carl)

didn't expect any help from the others. The "cowgirl" remark was so lame, it
wasn't worth getting mad about. Dana was a well-known idiot, on top of which he
outweighed Roy by at least fifty pounds. Fighting back would have been a
complete waste of energy.
"Had enough yet? We can't hear you, Tex." Dana's breath smelled like stale
cigarettes. Smoking and beating up smaller kids were his two main hobbies.
"Yeah, okay," Roy said impatiently. "I've had enough."
As soon as he was freed, Roy lowered the window and stuck out his head. The
strange boy was gone.
Who was he? What was he running from?
Roy wondered if any of the other kids on the bus had seen what he'd seen. For a
moment he wondered if he'd really seen it himself.

That same morning, a police officer named David Delinko was sent to the future
site of another Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House. It was a vacant lot
at the corner of East Oriole and Woodbury, on the eastern edge of town.
Officer Delinko was met by a man in a dark blue pickup truck. The man, who was
as bald as a beach ball, introduced himself as Curly. Officer Delinko thought
the bald man must have a good sense of humor to go by such a nickname, but he
was wrong. Curly was cranky and unsmiling.
"You should see what they done," he said to the policeman.
"Who?"
"Follow me," the man called Curly said.
Officer Delinko got in step behind him. "The dispatcher said you wanted to
report some vandalism."
"That's right," Curly grunted over his shoulder.
The policeman couldn't see what there was to be vandalized on the property,
which was basically a few acres of scraggly weeds. Curly stopped walking and
pointed at a short piece of lumber on the ground. A ribbon of bright pink
plastic was tied to one end of the stick. The other end was sharpened and caked
with gray dirt.
Curly said, "They pulled 'em out."
"That's a survey stake?" asked Officer Delinko.
"Yep. They yanked 'em out of the ground, every damn one."
"Probably just kids."
"And then they threw 'em every which way," Curly said, waving a beefy arm, "and
then they filled in the holes."
"That's a little weird," the policeman remarked. "When did this happen?"
"Last night or early this morning," Curly said. "Maybe it don't look like a big
deal, but it's gonna take a while to get the site marked out again. Meantime, we
can't start clearin' or gradin' or nuthin'. We got backhoes and dozers already
leased, and now they gotta sit. I know it don't look like the crime of the
century, but stillЧ"
"I understand," said Officer Delinko. "What's your estimate of the monetary
damage?"
"Damage?"
"Yes. So I can put it in my report." The policeman picked up the survey stake
and examined it. "It's not really broken, is it?"
"Well, noЧ"
"Were any of them destroyed?" asked Officer Delinko. "How much does one of these