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

ghost-hunters' racks."
Character names were stuck to the racks. An invisible fist thumped against Richard's chest.
ROGET MASTERMAN. DR. CANBERRA LAURINZ.
"Sound familiar?" asked Mama-Lou.
While Richard was calming, Mama-Lou placed something soft on his head. She looked at him sideways.
"Not your style, but you'll need it."
He took off the headwear and looked at it. It was an old flat cap.
Mama-Lou stroked his coat again, more wistful than flirtatious.
"Now you go think what has to be done. Then come back to Mama-Lou, give blessings to Erzulie Freda, and
we make a conjuring. Dig?"
"The most."
┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖
XI
"Did Mama-Lou dispense any useful wisdom?" Vanessa asked him.
"Yes, dear. You're being written out."
She swore, elegantly. "You got this from the wardrobe mistress?"
"No more dresses for Lovely Legs, ergo тАж no more Lovely Legs."
Richard was holding council of war in the boarding-house sitting room. Fred had used his best "intimidating
skinhead" glower to scare off a commercial traveller who had been settling down to ogle Vanessa and
Barbara through slits cut in the Evening Mail. Now, they had privacy.
"Have they tumbled that she's a plant?" asked Fred.
Richard wondered about that.
"I think not," he concluded. "They want shot of Lovely Legs to make room for new developments."
"The poltergeist plot?" prompted Barbara, who had sat in with the writing pack all day. "It's come out of
nowhere and isn't really the Barstows style. No matter how unlikely things have got before, with plastic
surgery or unknown twins coming back from Australia, they've stayed within the bounds of possibility. No
ghosts or UFOs."
Realising the others were giving her hard looks, Barbara wondered what she had said wrong, then caught up
with herself.
"Sorry," she said. "It's not easy to get used to. This is new ground for me. Of course, there are ghosts and
UFOs. That's what you're here for."
"No UFOs," said Fred. "That's rubbish. There aren't any little green men from outer space."
"Yet," said Richard.
"There are ghosts," said Vanessa. "And other things."
"Vampires?"
"Yes," said Richard and Vanessa.
"Werewolves?"
"More than you'd think," said Richard. "And all manner of shapeshifters. There are were-amoebae, which
need to be strictly regulated."
"Possession, like in The Exorcist?"
"God, yes," shuddered Vanessa. "Not a favourite."
Barbara shook her head and sighed.
"Welcome to the club, Prof," said Fred. "I know how you feel. This isn't natural for me either."
"The poltergeist plot?" prompted Richard.
"Yes, that," said Barbara, drawn back to her original thought train. "For most normal people,
whichтАФstrangelyтАФincludes the O'Dell-Squiers writing staff, there's a line between barely plausible and
outright unbelievable. With the Bleeds BogeyтАФthat's what they're calling the poltergeistтАФthe line has been
crossed. At today's conference, the girl with the big glasses was summarily sacked for questioning whether
the programme should go down that street."
Richard wasn't surprised by that. It suggested their quarry knew how close they were to catching up.