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

Squiers another dupe, which he's been wearing without noticing. Are you following this, Frederick?"
"The Barstards have got your clothes and you've got his cap."
"Very good, Fred."
"But what help is that to us?" asked Barbara.
"Level playing field, Prof," said Fred.
"Two can do voodoo," said Vanessa.
"Ah," said Barbara, catching up.
Richard was thrilled. He recognised this was the most dangerous phase of the case. When he became
excited by the problem and had a solution in mind, he was tempted to be let down his guard and take silly
risks. With a volunteer along for the ride, he needed to remember that when black magic got out of hand,
people tended to get horribly hurt.
"I will not let you be harmed," he told Barbara.
She smiled, showing grit. He was pleased with her.
"We'll need to call in favours," he told them, "and work fast. Squiers is ahead on points and is setting us up
for a knockout before the end of the round."
Fred shivered. "It gives me chills when you talk like Frank Bough. It only happens when we're on a sticky
wicket, up against the ropes, down to the last man, and facing a penalty in injury time."
"How many episodes does a hit take?" asked Vanessa.
"I defer to Barbara's expertise," said Richard.
"Typically," she began, "it's been done over six to ten weeks, twelve to twenty shows. To get the audience
involved, I suspect. You said emotional investment in the characters was a key ingredient. I imagine it's
important to get all fifteen million viewers on the hook. Of course, Squiers can usually afford to take the time
to build slowly, work the relevant plot into the other things going on. None of the earlier, ah, commissions
have taken over the programme completely. There've always been other stories running, about Mavis, Ben,
and the rest. Now, since we're close to exposing him, there's urgency. The ghost-huntersтАФus!тАФwere set up
on last night's episode and will be introduced at the end of next Tuesday's show. They're due to turn up for
the cliffhanger, as all hell breaks loose in the lounge. In the programme, by the way, the Bleeds Bogey is Da
Barstow's angry ghost. He reckons Mavis killed him all those years ago. I estimate next Thursday's Barstows
will be the crucial episode, when 'Roget' and 'Canberra' are established as characters тАж"
"That's when the voodoo is done," said Richard. "When our 'dolls' are fixed in the public mind."
Barbara shivered. "The way things are going," she said, "I suspect we'll be horribly killed the week after. Does
that sound right?"
"Just about," said Richard.
"They really are Barstards," spat Barbara. Good. She had progressed from fear to anger.
"We've a week and a half to defy the Saturday Man," said Richard. "A challenge. I enjoy a challenge."
"And I enjoy breathing," said Barbara, "so rise to it, Richard."
┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖┬╖
XII
First thing Monday morning, after a weekend spent mostly on the phone, Richard and Barbara turned up at
Haslemere Studios to meet their newly costumed doppelgangers outside the soundstage. Lionel had
arranged for publicity photographs. Marcus Squiers, wearing what he fondly thought was his producer's hat,
beetled around sweatily in the background, presumably to keep an eye on the doll-making spell.
Actors named Leslie Veneer and Gaye Brough were freshly cast as "Roget Masterman" and "Canberra
Laurinz." Veneer had not been in any films or done any television Richard had ever heard of. Having all but
given up on acting in favour of work as an insurance adjuster, he no longer had an agent. His head-shot was
still in Spotlight just so he could say he was an actor rather than an insurance man when talking to girls at
keys-in-a-bowl parties. Gaye's curriculum vitae was more impressive, listing page after page of seemingly
everything made in the United Kingdom from A Man for All Seasons to Devil Bride of DraculaтАФthough she
admitted you'd need to run prints frame by frame through a Steenbeck to catch her face. In twenty-five years
in the profession, Gaye Brough had never played a part with a character name. Essentially, she was an