"Nancy Springer - Silent End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

"S-f-o-r-z-a-t-o."
"Um, good for her," Judith told Dick. "I guess. Uh, like I was saying,
somebody -- " But Dick headed away, still nattering about his trophy. Judith
turned to one of the women, a retired librarian named Phyllis, and started
over. "You know my shop, Personal Pottery?" Dumb question. Judith talked
up her business wherever she went. Everybody here knew all about it.
"The most horrible thing has happened. Somebody, probably my
ex-husband, burned a dead body in my kiln, and the police -- "
"Kill," said an unexpected voice in quite a peremptory tone. Judith
looked down to find Doug staring up from under his forelock, his vague,
pallid eyes actually focused on her. "Kill," he repeated. "It's pronounced
'kill.' The 'n' is silent."
"Whatever." Judith just wanted to talk about what had happened. She
needed to talk the way she had needed to recite It's infidelities and It's
emotional cruelties after It had left her. She babbled at Phyllis, "A woman, it
had to be a woman, the ashes, I mean, because there was a lot of gold in
there, and a diamond, and how many men wear that kind of jewelry?
Besides, the coroner thinks the bones probably belonged to a woman.
Girlfriend, maybe. It had to be -- "
But Dick was calling the club to order. Judith sat opposite Phyllis and
played, but quite badly. She kept forgetting to tap the timer, she kept
forgetting to mark down letters used so she would know what her opponent
was holding during the end game; she even forgot to keep score. Instead,
she kept talking, while Phyllis and several eavesdroppers listened with
varying degrees of incredulity, discomfort, and fascination. Eventually,
stopping the timer, Phyllis asked, "You really think the police suspect you of
murder?"
"Yes! They're treating it as a homicide. They told me not to leave town."
"But they don't know who the victim is?"
"How could they? There's not even teeth left."
"But you think your ex-husband did it just to implicate you?"
"I wouldn't put it beyond him!" Though honestly, Judith thought, she
had never believed It could murder anyone -- other than herself. The
bastard, if he had gone and murdered some other woman, it was infidelity
all over again. Judith bleated, "If it wasn't him, then who? Who else would
want to break in and cremate somebody in my kiln?" Seeing Doug glance
at her from a neighboring table, she added lamely, "Or kill, whatever."
Phyllis murmured, "I think it's correct either way." Starting the timer, she
said, "Your turn." But presumably she was not speaking of Scrabble when
she added, "Poor thing, what are you going to do?"
Judith had no idea. She attempted "cadaver," misspelled it, missed a
turn, and lost. During the evening she lost all three of her games, the third
one to Dick, whose post-trophy gratification only increased when he scored
above 400.
"Eloise beat me 478 to 290 on Saturday," he said. "I wonder where she
is? She said she would be here."
Judith didn't care where the hell Eloise was. These people gave her
the creeps. Without even saying goodnight she went home.
***
"We've been over this a thousand times," Judith complained to the