"WILHELM, KATE - JUSTICE FOR SOME" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

Winnie moved into the shade of the veranda where she could still
overlook the pool; she leaned against a post, trying to think of a way
to get her grandfather alone for ten or fifteen minutes. Then,
surprised, she heard his voice.

The house was not air-conditioned; he did not like air-conditioning, and
usually there was enough of a breeze up here that no matter how hot it
was in the sun, the house stayed cool and airy. But now she could hear
him, apparently on the telephone in the living room, a dozen or so feet
away from where Winnie was standing.

"For God's sake, make sure!" he said in a harsh, unfamiliar voice.

"No innuendos, no suggestions, no suspicions. Make sure!" There was a
pause, and then he said more quietly, "When can you come out here?"
Another pause. "Sun day it is, then. And bring everything you have. All
of it.,, There was another silence that extended so long that Winnie
thought he had hung up. She wanted to leave, but now she was afraid he
might see her and think she had purposely eavesdropped.

She had decided to back away, approach the house again and this time go
straight into the kitchen around the other side, when he spoke once
more.

"I know. I know, by God! But this isn't a court of law. Whatever it
takes to convince you, that's probably enough. Sunday, late in the
afternoon, then. We'll give you some supper."

The harsh note was gone; he sounded choked, as if he was fighting tears
not too successfully. Winnie felt a clutch of fear at the sound of his,
voice. He was old, she thought suddenly, eighty, an old man.

And something was desperately wrong.

She ran from the veranda to a clump of pine trees near the driveway, and
sat down on a bench to think. At first she had believed it was a medical
problem, something about the harshness of his voice had suggested that,
but he had said a court of law. Something to do with Winnie's mother?

She almost laughed at the idea of anything about Sarah causing that pain
in her grandfather. Not Sarah. And almost as certainly not anything to
do with Virgil; her grandfather was blind where Virgil was concerned.

Winnie couldn't even imagine what it would take to make him turn against
his only grandson. Not Sarah, his daughter; not Virgil, his grandson.

Not his brother Peter, what could there possibly be about Uncle Peter to
cause grieve Not any of Uncle Peter's family; her grandfather was not
close enough to any of them to sound that upset. She came finally to the