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

left the room and chuckle over their scam. In the programme as broadcast, the end-of-part-one card came up
early and the network cut to adverts.
Squiers saw at once that this wasn't the show he had written, produced, directed, edited, and handed over to
ART for transmission. With VIPs in the room, he couldn't make a fuss, but he did hurry out to try to make an
urgent call. He came back ghost-faced and shaking. Fred had disabled the studio's external telephone lines.
Even the Phantom Phoner could not get out.
During the ad break, Richard looked away from the screens and was amused to notice Heather Wilding
shielding her eyes too. A wrestler known for his thick pelt plastered on the Fr?t and got a grip on a girl in a
bathing suitтАФwithout ever having seen the advert, it had seeped into Richard's consciousness, which ticked
him off. Skinner's strange face reflected the highly-coloured images sliding across the wall of screens.
Topazio was asleep and snoring gently, as Maltese tossed peanuts like George Raft spinning a coin and
caught them with his mouth.
On the way back to his seat, Squiers saw June in the audience. She bent up her hat-brim and blew him a
kiss. Her presence was a blow to his heart. He was unsteady on his feet the rest of the way. When he sat
down, he slipped off his Stetson and unconsciously began to chew the leather.
After the adverts, the new material took over. Though she had studied The Northern Barstows from the
beginning, Barbara found it surprisingly difficult to pastiche even a few scenes of script. After hours of effort,
she came up with six typewritten pages, which June scrawled all over with her magic markerтАФsome sort of
seal of approval Richard frankly didn't understand, but which the professor did. Considering she was writing on
and appearing in her specialist subject, she had crossed an academic line which might be hard to hop back
over. They had taped their alternate scene over the weekend, using technicians bound to a vow of secrecy by
Super-Golden Time wages. June, who authorised the expense in her capacity as a controlling interest in
O'Dell-Squiers, participated as if it were a regular episode, while Mama-Lou fussed over the costumes.
Richard had worried that sparks might combust between the three women, with unfortunate revelations to
followтАФbut he had defused several potential mines.
On screen, Roget and Canberra began a ritual of exorcism.
Fred laughed out loud, realising he was now watching Richard and Barbara, not Leslie and Gaye. Few others
in the room noticed the switch, which was a tribute to the casting. Some of the pack knew this wasn't what
they expected, but they were used to Squiers' "last-minute" changes and accepted what was being
broadcast as the authentic Barstows. Squiers had a chunk of leather in his mouth and was chewing steadily.
He was indeed eating his hat. His shirt was sweated through.
The ritual was nonsense, of course. If it hadn't been, the characters wouldn't have been Roget and Canberra
as established on the programme. It was important to keep consistent, not to break the audience's compact
with unlikeliness.
The pentagram crackled, and Da Barstow's urn levitated off the mantel.
Squiers clutched his chest, choking on his hat. Apart from Richard, nobody noticed.
"You тАж barstards," Squiers croaked.
The chanting rose, whipping up a supernatural wind in Mavis' lounge. Mavis blundered in, eliciting a round of
applause from the audience, and held hands with the ghost-hunters. June had insisted on being in the scene.
It was her show, after all.
"Chant after me," said Richard-as-Roget.
June-as-Mavis nodded.
"Spectre of Evil, Spectre of Pain," said Richard-as-Roget.
"Spectre of Evil, Spectre of Pain," echoed Barbara-as-Canberra and June-as-Mavis.
"Begone from this House, Begone from this Plane!"
"Begone from this House, Begone from this Plane!"
The urn wobbled a bit, but winds continued to buffet the exorcising trio, and flash-powder went off around the
lounge.
"Spirit of Darkness, Spirit of Gloom тАж"
"Spirit of Darkness, Spirit of Gloom тАж"