"Kilby, Joan - Temporary Wife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kilby Joan)

"I know he would want you to have it," Catherine said, her voice
warming.

"You were only nine when he taught you how to play. The pair of you
used to sit under that horse chestnut tree in the side yard, brooding
over the game for hours."

Burton remembered it well--the old man's quiet chuckle as he applauded
Burton's first unassisted checkmate, his own bursting pride at his
grandfather's approval. The silence on the line stretched. Burton
felt the sting of tears. He reached into his pocket for a
handkerchief.

"He was a great guy," he said at last.

"I have to go," he added, tucking the handkerchief back in his
pocket.

"Call me if you need anything."

"I will. And don't forget--eight o'clock at Mr. Bing-ham's house."

Burton wrote down the address of his grandfather's lawyer and said
goodbye. Then he strode back down the hall to the elevator, and jabbed
the button for the fifth floor. There had to be a way to keep the
project going, The elevator inched upward, past Research and Public
Relations, past the cafeteria and whole floors of offices. Burton shut
his eyes and tried to visualize Murphy waving aside the objections and
difficulties inherent in continuing a show whose main character had
died.

The elevator jolted to a stop, the doors opened with a ping, and the
image of a benevolent and risk-taking Murphy disappeared in a puff of
mental smoke.

At the outer desk, Sylvia murmured into the telephone receiver cradled
between her neck and shoulder while her

long lacquered nails tap-danced across the computer keyboard. She
glanced up, her cinnamon-colored mouth a star-fled "O" as Burton walked
past her, knocked once on the double oak doors and pushed his way into
the plush-carpeted corner office.

Odd. The air, usually so full of cigar smoke that breathing was a
health hazard, smelled conspicuously fresh this morning.

"Excuse me, Murph, can I have a word?"

Ponderous and bulky, Ed Murphy leaned back in his leather swivel chair
and grunted acquiescence.