"TUROW, SCOTT - THE BURDEN OF PROOF" - читать интересную книгу автора (Turrow Scott)

so long what it was his son expected him to do.

"It is routine, Peter. The coroner must determine the cause of death."

"'The cause of death'? Do they think it was an accident?

Are they going to do a brain scan and figure out what she was thinking?
For God sake, we won't have a body left to bury. It's obvious. She
killed herself." No one yet had said that aloud. Stern registered
Peter's directness as a kind of discourtesy--too coarse, too blunt. But
no part of him riled up in shock.

This was not, he said, the moment to cross swords with the police. They
were, as usual, being idiotic, conducting some kind of homicide
investigation. They might wish to speak next to him.

"Me? About what?"

"Your last conversations with your mother, I assume. I told them you
were too distressed at the moment."

In his great misery, Peter broke forth with a brief, childish smile.
"Good," he said. Such a remarkably strange man. A peculiar moment
passed between Stern and his son, a legion of things not understood.
Then he reminded Peter that they needed to call his sisters.

"Right," said Peter. A more sober cast came into his eye.

Whatever his differences with his father, he was.a faithful older
brother.

Down the hall, Stern heard someone say, "The lieutenant's here." A large
man ducked into the corridor, peering toward them. He was somewhere
near Stern's age, but time seemed to have had a different effect on him.
He was large and broad, and like a farmer or someone who worked
outdoors, he appeared to have maintained most of the physical strength
of youth. He wore a light brown suit, a rumpled, synthetic garment, and
a rayon shirt that hung loosely; when he turned around for a second,
Stern could see an edge of shirttail trailing out beneath his jacket. He
had a large rosy face and very little hair, a few thick gray clumps
drawn across his scalp.

He dropped his chin toward Stern in a knowing fashion.

"Sandy," he said.

"Lieutenant," Stern answered. He had no memory of this man, except
having seen him before. Some case. Some time. He was not thinking
well at the moment.