"Shaun Hutson - Compulsion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hutson Shaun)

She heard his heavy footfalls on the stairs, heard him blundering
around in the kitchen.

In the next room, the baby was still crying.

The banging on the wall continued.

Donna swung herself off the bed and crossed to the wardrobe. One of
the panels was cracked. The wood looked rotten.

The lock was new.

She had put it there herself.

She retrieved the key from her bedside table and unlocked it, rummaging
among the boots, shoes and trainers there.

She finally took out a small box wrapped in a piece of velvet.
Oblivious to the noises all around, she opened it and reached inside.

Her hand was steady as she held the hypodermic needle up for
inspection.

The rest of the stuff was inside the box. The blackened, twisted
spoon. The length of rubber tubing.

And the gear itself.

She put down the needle for a moment and fastened the tubing tightly
around the top of her arm.

As she extended the limb she saw the heavy bruising inside its crook.
Several track marks had already scabbed over.

There were two or three more between the toes of her left foot.

She pulled hard on the rubber tubing, simultaneously slapping at her
arm to raise the veins.

They pulsed like tumescent worms beneath her pale flesh.
"Fucking shut it!" screamed her mother from the next room.

The banging on the wall came again.

The baby continued to cry.

Donna reached for the needle.

CARL THOMPSON DIDN'T recognise the woman; then again, there had been so