"Dave Hutchinson - Discreet Phenomena" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hutchinson Dave)

She sniggered.
"How about Domino?"
"No."
I gave up. "How do you know Derek's having a fight this morning?" I asked Harvey.
"Ned Watkins."
"It's not like Ned to have moral scruples," I said. Ned Watkins was the county's most industrious poacher,
the bane of about a dozen landowners.
Harvey shrugged. "Don't ask me what goes on in that guy's head. He just turned up about seven and said
a bunch of the local petty criminal class were gathering at Derek's farm."
"Did you call Nigel?"
He nodded. "He's on his way with a whole posse of policemen. He wants to slap Derek as much as I do."
"Wow," I said. "I don't think I can handle this much excitement at this time of the morning."
He reached into his pocket and took out a Cafe Creme. "Have a cigar," he said.
"It'd probably make me throw up," I told him. But I took the cigar anyway and put it in my pocket.

The Wood farm sat in a little dip, an untidy cluster of run-down buildings and rusting tractors almost lost in a
jungle of weeds. There were a couple of dozen vehicles of varying decrepitude parked in the farmyard when
we arrived.
"Right," Harvey said, stopping the Range Rover and undoing his seatbelt.
"Shouldn't we wait for Nigel?" I asked.
He paused with his hand on the door-handle and looked at me. "This guy offends me, Geoffrey. He's one
of the stupidest, most amoral human beings I've ever met. He thinks two pit-bulls tearing each other to bits is
the most exciting spectacle since Holiday on Ice and he's a bully to boot. He's one of my tenants and he's
my responsibility."
"Don't you think you're taking your responsibilities a little bit too seriously?" I asked, but he was already
out of the door and striding across the farmyard towards one of the ramshackle buildings. Pauline hurried
after him, festooned with cameras. I watched them go, the Lord of the Manor and his Official Photographer. I
shook my head. Then I got out the car and followed them, the Lord of the Manor's Fool.
Harvey reached the building, and at that point everything began to go wrong. Instead of just sneaking in
unobtrusively, he wrenched open the door and shouted, "Derek Wood! Your worst nightmare is here!" And
then he disappeared into a tidal wave of beefy bodies that erupted from the doorway. I started to run.
People jostled me as they tried to get past to their cars. I dashed into the barn and saw more of them
milling around, shouting and swearing, illuminated by the flash of Pauline's camera. A deep pit had been dug
in the middle of the floor, and I caught a glimpse of two stocky, massively-muscled bodies down in the
bottom. It was chaos. On the other side of the pit, I saw Harvey for a moment, hand raised above his head,
yelling at the top of his voice at someone.
The press of bodies parted and I found myself on the edge of the pit. Whatever Derek had in there, they
weren't dogs. For a moment, I had the surreal impression that they were bald chimpanzees. They had the
round, short-snouted heads and small ears of bull-terriers, smooth grey-brown hide and short muscular arms
that ended in great sharp-clawed hands.
One was obviously dead, lying on the floor of the pit with its throat torn out with such force that it had
almost been decapitated. The other one was standing pawing its fallen adversary's body as if confused that it
had stopped fighting. Then it looked up and saw me.
All the noise seemed to go away. All of a sudden the creature was in motion. It reached the side and
jumped. Its clawed fingers dug into the soil of the pit wall, and it started to haul itself hand over hand up
towards me, snarling. Its mouth seemed crammed with tiny razor-sharp brown teeth. Its little yellow eyes
were locked on me and it looked completely insane. It was close enough to spray spittle on the toes of my
trainers.
Pauline walked unhurriedly up beside me, swung her foot back, and kicked the creature in the face. It
tumbled back into the pit and lay in the dirt looking dazed. Pauline got a couple of quick photographs of it.