"C M Kornbluth - Kazam Collects" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

Fitzgerald did not go mad for he was a man with ideals. He believed in clean government and total
extirpation of what he fondly believed was a criminal class which could be detected by the ear lobes and
other distinguishing physical characteristics.



He did not go to a doctor because he knew that the word would get back to headquarters that
Fitzgerald heard things and would probably begin to see things pretty soon and that it wasn't good policy
to have a man like mat on the force.



The detective read up on the later Freudians, trying to interpret the recurrent dream. The book said that
it meant he had been secretly in love with a third cousin on his mother's side and that he was ashamed of
it now and wanted to die, but that he was afraid of heavenly judgment. He knew that wasn't so; his
mother had had no relations and detective Fitzgerald wasn't afraid of anything under the sun.
 After two weeks of increasing horror he was walking around like a corpse, moving by instinct and
wearily doing his best to dodge the accidents that seemed to trail him. It was then that he was assigned to
check on the Cult of Hagar. The records showed that they had registered at City Hall, but records don't
show everything.



He walked in on the cult during a service and dully noted that its members were more prosperous in
appearance than they had been, and that there were more women present Joseph Kazam was going
through precisely the same ritual that, the detective had last seen.



When the last bill had fallen into the pot covered with gilded wood and the last dowager had left Kazam
emerged and greeted the detective.



"Fitzgerald," he said, "you damned fool, why didn't you come to me in the first place?"



"For what?" asked the detective, loosening the waxed cotton plugs in his ears.



The stringy, brown man chuckled. "Your friend Rooney's been at work on you. You hear things. You
can't sleep and when you doтАФ"



"That's plenty," interjected Fitzgerald. "Can you help me out of this mess I'm in?"