"Christopher Moore - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Christopher)

"You can't go around saying crazy shit like that."
"I don't normally. It's been a tough day so far." He turned into the Fly
Rod Trailer Court: twenty run-down trailers perched on the bank of Santa Rosa
Creek, which carried only a trickle of water after the long, dry summer. A
grove of cypress trees hid the trailer park from the main street and the view
of passing tourists. The chamber of commerce had made the owner of the park
take down the sign at the entrance. The Fly Rod was a dirty little secret for
Pine Cove, and they kept it well.
Theo stopped in front of Molly's trailer, a vintage fifties single-wide
with small louvered windows and streaks of rust running from the roof. He got
Molly out of the car and took off the handcuffs.
Theo said, "I'm going to see Val Riordan. You want me to have her call
something in to the pharmacy for you?"
"No, I've got my meds. I don't like 'em, but I got 'em." She rubbed her
wrists. "Why you going to see Val? You going nuts?"
"Probably, but this is business. You going to be okay now?"
"I have to study my lines."
"Right." Theo started to go, then turned. "Molly, what were you doing at
the Slug at eight in the morning?"
"How should I know?"
"If the guy at the Slug had been a local, I'd be taking you to County
right now, you know that?"
"I wasn't having a fit. He wanted a piece of me."
"Stay out of the Slug for a while. Stay home. Just groceries, okay?"
"You won't talk to the tabloids?"
He handed her a business card. "Next time someone tries to take a piece
of you, call me. I always have the cell phone with me."
She pulled up her sweater and tucked the card into the waistband of her
tights, then, still holding up her sweater, she turned and walked to her
trailer with a slow sway. Thirty or fifty, under the sweater she still had a
figure. Theo watched her walk, forgetting for a minute who she was. Without
looking back, she said, "What if it's you, Theo? Who do I call then?"
Theo shook his head like a dog trying to clear water from its ears, then
crawled into the Volvo and drove away. I've been alone too long, he thought.


two

The Sea Beast

The cooling pipes at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant were all
fashioned from the finest stainless steel. Before they were installed, they
were x-rayed, ultrasounded, and pressure-tested to be sure that they could
never break, and after being welded into place, the welds were also x-rayed
and tested. The radioactive steam from the core left its heat in the pipes,
which leached it off into a seawater cooling pond, where it was safely vented
to the Pacific. But Diablo had been built on a breakneck schedule during the
energy scare of the seventies. The welders worked double and triple shifts,
driven by greed and cocaine, and the inspectors who ran the X-ray machines
were on the same schedule. And they missed one. Not a major mistake. Just a