"Kim Newman - The Serial Murders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Newman Kim)

Two girls with beehive hairdos, whose general look was ten years out of date rather than the
normal-round-here five, took shorthand dictation on big pads, like courtroom stenographers. Squiers was
assembling a script by taking suggestions from the circle, rejecting a dozen for every one he took. Whenever
he let a line or a bit of business through, the originator glowed with momentary pride and the rest of the pack
looked at him or her with undisguised hatred even as they agreed that the contribution was a work of genius.
The genius in question belonged to Marcus Squiers for making the selection, not to any of the acolytes for
chattering forth stream of consciousness material, tossing out notions to burn and die in the sunlight, in the
hope that one or two might grow up to be concepts, then get a thick enough carapace to become actual
ideas.
"Next, after the ad-break тАж?" asked Squiers.
"We've not seen Cousin Dodgy Morrie for two weeks," put in a girl with glasses that covered four-fifths of her
face. "His plots are still dangling."
"Uh-uh, Mavis won't have it. She's in a sulk with Morrie since he got that good notice in the Financial Times."
"He could have an 'accident,'" pressed someone, seeing an opportunity.
Squiers shook his head. "We still need CDM. It's poor bloody Sydney who got the review."
"Sydney Liddle plays Cousin Dodgy Morrie," whispered Barbara.
"Could we 'Darrin'?" asked a smart-suited Pakistani man.
Squiers blotted droplets from his temples. "We've used up our 'Darrin' this year, with the Bogus Brenda."
"To 'Darrin' is the practice of replacing an actor in a continuing role with another," said Barbara. "It comes
from the American sitcom Bewitched."
"The BB wasn't a full 'Darrin'," said the girl with the glasses. "That was a 'Who.'"
"A 'Who' is a modified 'Darrin,'" said Barbara, "from тАж"
"Doctor Who?"
Barbara patted him on the shoulder. "You're learning to speak TV, good. A 'Who' is when you do a 'Darrin' but
have an excuse, like the Doctor regenerating from one star to another, or plastic surgery, which is what they
did with the Bogus Brenda, who тАж"
"тАж returned, having had the face-change she had previously only claimed to have had, intent on getting
revenge on Mavis Barstow for cutting her inside man, Mavis' nephew Ben, out of the family business."
"You're a fan!"
"No, I just paid attention in the last two weeks."
Squiers looked up and fixed them with watery eyes.
"Who are these people, Lionel, and do we pay them to mutter during script time?"
"This is the тАж um, plumber."
Lionel made all sorts of eye-rolls and contortions. Squiers squinted blankly.
"He's come about the тАж you know тАж thing we do not mention тАж the c-word?"
The penny dropped. At least with Squiers, who took another look at Richard. The writer-producer was in the
loop on the investigation, but the rest of the pack were best kept in the dark. If this was where the ideas
came from, this was the likely source of the problem.
"Fair enough," said Squiers. "Sit comfortably at the back and don't speak up unless you've got a better idea
than any of these serfs. Which, on their recent record, isn't unlikely."
There were only large scatter-cushions available. Richard settled on one, achieving perfect lotus. Barbara
managed sidesaddle. Lionel leant against a wrought-iron lamppost that happened to have sprouted in the
middle of the office, and cocked his hip as if the fleet were in.
"Now, CDM is out until the Moo cools down тАж"
Barbara mouthed the words, so Richard could lip-read. "M.U. Mavis Upstairs. The Moo."
"Besides, we've got other patches to water."
"D-Delia D-Delyght is about to go to t-trial," stuttered a fat fellow who wore a school cap with a prefect's
tassel.
"Last month's story, Porko," sneered Squiers. "You lose the cap."
He snatched it away.