"Kate Wilhelm - Dark Door" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

building. Suddenly she stopped, blinded by a stabbing headache; she groped for
the doorway to steady herself. An overwhelming feeling of disorientation, of
dizziness, swept her, made her catch her breath and hold onto the door frame;
her eyes closed hard. The moment passed and she could feel a vein throbbing in
her temple, a knife blade of pain behind her right eye. Not now, she moaned to
herself, not a migraine now. She opened her eyes cautiously; when the pain did
not increase, she began to move again, through a corridor to the rear of the
inn. She unlocked another door and threw it wide open, went out to another
porch to lean against a railing. She took one very deep breath after another,
forcing relaxation on her neck muscles, which had become like iron. Gradually
the headache eased, and by the time Carson and John Loesser moved into sight,
it was a steady throb, no longer all-demanding. Carson saw her leaning on the
rail and felt a familiar twinge of pleasure. Standing like that, in profile,
as trim and as slender as she had been twenty years ago, she looked posed. She
looked lovely. "Are you married?" he asked John Loesser. "My wife died five
years ago," Loesser said without expression. "Oh, sorry." Loesser was already
moving on. Carson caught up again. "Here's the back entrance. We'll have a
terrace down there, and tables on the porch overlooking the river. The
property extends to the bank of the river. I want it to be like a garden,
invite strolling, relaxing." They went through the open back door, on to the
kitchen, which would need a complete remodeling, walls to come out, a dumb
waiter to go in. Carson was indicating his plans when John Loesser suddenly
grunted and seemed about to fall. He reached out and caught a cabinet,
steadied himself, stood swaying with his eyes shut. By the time Carson got to
him, he was pushing himself away from the cabinet. A film of perspiration
covered his face; he looked waxy and pale. Carson's first thought was heart
attack, and with that thought came the fear men his age, mid-forties, always
suffered. Loesser was that age, too, he knew. He took Loesser's arm. "Let's go
outside, get some air. Are you okay?" "I'm all right," John Loesser said,
pulling free. His voice was faint; he sounded puzzled, not afraid. "A dizzy
spell. Could there be some gas in here? Bad air?"

Carson looked at him doubtfully. "How? I've been all over this building three
times already Elinor, Gary, we've been in every room, and that was with the
boards on the windows, before we were allowed to open it up at all."

Loesser drew in a deep breath, his color back to normal, a look of irritation
the only expression Carson could read. "Whatever it was, it gone now. I have a
bit of a headache, maybe that's to blame. You understand any figure I come up
with is a ball park figure, contingent on many other reports. A termite
inspection, for example."

Carson nodded and they wandered slowly throughout the other rooms on the main
floor. Something was different, he thought suddenly It was true that he and
Elinor and Gary had prowled through the building three times, but now
something was changed. He felt almost as if sbmething or someone lurked just
out of sight, that if he could swivel his head fast enough, without warning,
he might catch a glimpse of an intruder. He had had a violent headache ever
since their arrival. Pain throbbed behind his eyes. It was the damn heat, he
decided; maybe a storm was building, the air pressure was low. Or high; it