"Stultz, Thomas - A Gift Of Murder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stultz Thomas)

"She's in the trunk." Kevin pointed toward the garage. His eyes asked, what should we do?

Mr. Naile switched the prop gun from the front to the back of his waistband. Now, no words of comfort were needed to put things right for his son. No need to call a lawyer, Mr. Naile was a part of it now. His son made a mistake, panicked and made another. He was a bright boy, a future ahead. All that was about to be erased by rash, young actions. Mr. Naile laid out the facts of the plot so far. Was Kevin a villain? Certainly not - The Victim? Only of his foolishness. Mr. Naile liked this character, his son. He wanted to help him.

He forced the plot ahead several chapters, after the police get involved. Kevin charged, 20 years away for manslaughter. It wasn't where he wanted the story to go. But now, a twist - Mr. Naile. He would see a much different outcome.

"Kevin, get up." Mr. Naile nudged Kevin's knee as he talked. "Did anyone see you, either go up on the roof, come down, or with the body?"

"No, and I'm sure of it. I thought all about it on the way down. It was dark before she fell. The theater building is far away from the dorms. There's a footpath that winds through hedges you have to take to get there. From the ground you can barely see more than the shape of the building."

"Good."

"At the time I was trying to stay hidden from people ten feet away, and they never spotted me, so I'm sure no one else saw me follow them." Kevin explained.

"How'd you get the body into the car?"

"When I found her, I knew right away she was dead. Her neck was twisted. She looked so - wrong." Kevin slowly filled his lungs, and continued. "I was parked in the theater lot at the time. I picked her up, and headed for the car. There's no production on right now, and the lot was empty on a Saturday night. I was going to take her to the hospital, but I got scared. I knew I had a tarp in the trunk, so I wrapped her up and placed her inside. I don't know why I didn't call the police dad. I just -"

"You didn't do the right thing, but let's make damn sure from now on it's not the wrong thing."

Mr. Naile went through his plan. He ran through the details, looking for holes. He walked through it from Kevin's entrance on - took the point-of-view of all the characters involved; Kevin, Beth, himself, the eventual police, and even the wildcard, Peter. It all checked out, but Mr. Naile would have to ride it through with Kevin the rest of the way. Final chapter, a secret between father and son - and it would end there.

"First thing ," Mr. Naile grabbed Kevin by the shirt and steered him towards the back door as he spoke. "We've got to get the body."

* * *

Beth awoke to total darkness, wrapped in a musty fabric. She could feel the hard metal of the trunk squeezing around her body, curling it uncomfortably. She must have dozed off at some point, and in the complete darkness the dream she just left was hard to shake off. For a moment she wasn't sure where she was, then she heard voices, talking low outside. She recognized one of them, and everything began to snap back.

She was in the trunk of Kevin's car, that voice was his. Her ear caught the jingle of keys being fished out of a pocket, felt them scratch around the lock. Her coffin was about to be opened, and they expected to find her dead. The events leading up to her confinement rushed through her mind. Kevin wanted her dead, and now she mustn't let them know she wasn't. Not yet. Concentrate, like you've been taught to do by your acting coaches. Start a mantra. Beth closed her eyes, and began to relax control over all her muscles with a chant. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

Kevin levered up the trunk and let his dad have a look at Beth. There she was, and Mr. Naile stared at her, rapt with the image of the first corpse he'd ever seen outside of a funeral parlor. Kevin watched him bend closer, taking it all in. Her hair was matted and sticky with blood. The face unnaturally pale. Beth could feel Mr. Naile's breath as he examined her. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

"Alright son. We've got to get her out of your car and into mine." Mr. Naile indicated his Buick that sat next to Kevin's Escort in the garage. "Then you have to drive like hell back to the university and go out and get drunk." Kevin nodded, listening.

"Don't get caught speeding on the way, and when you get back, hit a few taverns. Try to lose your head for a while, and make sure you've been seen." A thousand plots ticked through Mr. Naile's mind. He selected the best themes, applied them to the situation. "Get angry, then go find this Peter and give him all you've got.Ф

Mr. Naile unlocked the trunk of his car, selected a shovel from the garage wall and placed it inside. "When you find Peter, start a fight. Demand to know where Beth is." Mr. Naile paused, thinking out the scene. "And if the cops arrive, even better."

For the first time he was taking part in something that he thought would only happen on the page. It felt good. He followed the story's actions, and when he was brought to certain points, he tested the directions it could go. He followed them all, then selected the best. If there was one thing Mr. Naile knew, it was this - Murder. Mystery. He had been a student of it for years.

"Why fight Peter?" Kevin asked.

"You're throwing suspicion off you to Peter. Remember, he was up on the roof same as you. He doesn't have an alibi. Hopefully they were seen leaving together."

"But what about the body?"

"You let me take care of that. Our office has an investment in three acres of land on what used to be a machinery plant in the forties. The soil tested so high with lead and mercury it'll be another fifty years before it'll be usable again. I do the books, trust me. If that ever changes I'll know in plenty of time to make sure she's not found."

"What if Peter knows anything? What if he saw?"