"Child Of The Stones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

UNKNOWN MAN: The trap has fired.

MIRANDA: I told you IТd get him to go there. So heТs out of
the picture, right?

UNKNOWN MAN: Unfortunately, he has escaped from the
house. However, I imagine that he is seriously weakened, and I
will deal with him later, when we have concluded our business.

MIRANDA: It doesnТt change what we agreed about the book.

UNKNOWN MAN: It would be unwise to anger me, young
woman.

MIRANDA: Well, donТt you piss me off, either, or I might find
someone else interested in what I took. (A pause.) You still
there?

UNKNOWN MAN: We will meet as agreed.

MIRANDA: The usual place I meet everyone, out in the open,
no tricks. IТll give you what you want, and youТll pay me what
you promised.

UNKNOWN MAN: As agreed, yes.

MIRANDA: And youТll show me things.

UNKNOWN MAN: Of course. I am a man of honour.
* * * *
I had Rainer Sue park a little way from Camden Passage, and told him that he was free to go.

УCanТt I stay? This is kind of exciting.Ф He wriggled in his seat and looked at me with shining eyes, like a puppy eager to play.

I wrote the name and address of a psychologist on a slip of paper, a good man with an open mind who had sought my help once or twice, and folded it into the hand of the former pop star. УThis man will help you, if you let him. Go home, Mr Sue, and get on with the rest of your life. And if the man who calls himself Cagliostro comes back to your house, donТt let him in,Ф I said, and climbed out of the Mini and walked away, towards Camden Passage.

It was Thursday, the day that antique traders set up their stalls in the spaces amongst the small shops that line the lane. It was late in the afternoon and most of them were packing up now, wrapping unsold goods in newspaper, carrying laden cardboard boxes and plastic bakery trays to Volvos and people carriers double-parked on Essex Road. I saw Miranda on the wall of the terrace outside the public house in the middle of the market, swigging from a bottle of beer, idly kicking her legs while she talked with one of the blanket traders who make their pitches on the pavement outside. Her baseball cap was perched on her head. A briefcase was set on the wall beside her.

I waited and watched for more than an hour. At last, she went inside the public house to use its lavatory. I caught her in the corridor when she came out, and pushed her into a cupboard full of cleaning materials. At first she denied that she had anything to do with the theft of my book, but after I drew my blade and put it to her throat and convinced her that I meant business, she said that Donny Halliwell had made her do it.

УMr Halliwell is merely a stooge for the man who wants my copy of the Stenographia. The man with whom you conversed on your mobile phone a few hours ago. The man who calls himself Cagliostro. Who is he, Miranda?Ф

The girl tried to twist away but stilled when I pricked her throat with the point of my blade. We were jammed together in the close dark of the cupboard. She smelt of fear and alcohol; fear oozed out of her in a discrete package that clung inside her hood, and she tried and failed to use this newborn imp against me.

УIt will not obey you as long as I am here,Ф I said. УDid you really think you were more powerful than me?Ф

УI fooled you, didnТt I?Ф

УFor a little while, but no longer. When did you start to work for Cagliostro?Ф