"Whitley Strieber - Cat Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strieber Whitley)

The gun had come up swiftly. It hung between the two men, its potential silencing them both. They
looked down at it. Mandy could hear them breathing, could see sweat on George's brow.

тАЬYou take your hands off me, mister, and I'll put my piece away.тАЭ

Mandy closed her eyes in the iong moment before the two men separated. She saw the deputy to the
door. He was about to say something to her, but she closed it too quickly to give him the chance.

тАЬUseless! Utterly fucking useless! I'm telling you, Mandy, I hate this godforsaken little town. These
people get someone like me, do they care? Hell, no! I'm going to immortalize this place. That lab of mine
will be a museum someday. People will come here to see where the mystery of death was solved at last!
And this rotten little town spits in my face.тАЭ

Mandy listened to her uncle rave. Outside the deputy's car started up, its lights flaring briefly against the
front window. Then its sound dwindled into the night. тАЬIt's late. George. We'd better get some sleep.тАЭ

тАЬSleep? I'm going to the lab. I've got work to do.тАЭ
Her impulse was to try to stop him, but she realized that her efforts would only put him under greater
pressure. She let him go.

In ten minutes his Volvo was cranking up, then rattling off down the street. She heard its tires squeal at
the comer, then silence fell about her.

She returned to her bedroom. Too bad the door didn't lock. The idea of staying alone in a house that had
been entered as easily and recently as this one did not appeal to her at all. She hadn't been in bed five
minutes before she thought she heard a noise.

It was a scraping sound, and it came from the sun porch. She sat up in bed, looking into the dark and
listening. The night settled close around her. The moon had set, the crickets stopped. The world had
entered predawn thrall.

Again it came. Definitely from the sun porch. Carefully she pushed back the blanket and sheets and
swung to the floor. Her first thought was to go to the kitchen and get a knife. But she'd have to cross the
sun porch to do that. She went instead down the hallway, feeling her way in the dense shadows, until she
had reached the entrance to the porch. While the stars rode and dry leaves whispered past the windows
she waited. There was a feeling of sickness building in her stomach; her skin sang with the tickle of dread.
She could not endure the suspense of staying here; she had to act. She would turn on the porch lights.
They would surely scare away whoever was lurking beyond the door.

The switch clicked loudly. And she clapped her fist to her mouth to stifle a scream. What she saw made
her back away on shaky legs. Then she realized that those glowing eyes were an animal.

Only an animal!

She laughed around her knuckles. Her heart slowed its awful pounding. The cat meowed.

тАЬYou poor cold baby,тАЭ she said, coming into the light. тАЬLet me get you some milk.тАЭ

A stray cat at the door. What a joke. She had been terrified. As she went across the sun porch, through
the dining room, and into me kitchen, she turned on more lights. She opened the huge yellow refrigerator