"Westlake, Donald E as Stark, Richard - Parker 01 - The Hunter (Point Blank) 1.2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)"Yeah," he said. He sounded mad again. He flipped his cigarette across the room into the sink. It sputtered, and he lit another one.
She said, "I'm glad you aren't dead. Isn't that stupid?" "Yes." She nodded. "You hate me. You got a right." "I ought to slash you," he told her. "I ought to slash your nostrils. I ought to make you look like a witch, like the witch you are." "You ought to kill me," she said hopelessly. "Maybe I will." Her head sagged down toward her chest. Her voice was almost inaudible. "I keep taking pills," she murmured. "Every night. If I don't take the pills, I don't sleep. I think about you." "And how I'm coming for you?" "No, and how you're dead. And I wish it was me." "Take too many pills," he suggested. "I can't. I'm a coward." She raised her head and looked at him again. "That's why I did it, Parker," she said. "I'm a coward. It was you dead, or me dead." "And Mal pays the rent." "I'm a coward," she said. "Yeah. I know about that." "I never gave him satisfaction, Parker. I never responded, no matter what he did." "That why he moved out?" "I think so." He grinned, mirthlessly. "You can turn it on and off," he said bitterly. "A bed machine. None of it means a thing." "Only with you, Parker." He spat out a word like a slap. She recoiled from it, shaking her head. "It's the truth, Parker," she said. "That's why I need the pills. That's why I didn't quit this place and find some other guy. Mal keeps me going and he doesn't ask anything I can't give." The coffee was replacing the vodka. He laughed, slapping the table, and said, "Good thing the bastard wasn't here, huh? I come barging in, he'd have two, three guys in the living room, huh? All the time, just in case." She nodded. "He never stayed here alone." "He's worried, the bastard." He nodded. He beat out a drum-roll on the table edge with the first two fingers of each hand. "He thinks maybe I'll come back from the grave," he said. He laughed, and finished the drumroll with a rhythmic double crash of both hands on the table. "He's right, huh? Yeah. Back from the grave." "What are you going to do, Parker?" she asked, and the quaver of fear had finally reached her voice. |
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