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

Then she closed her eyes and took several deliberate breaths and finally
stood up, ready to go on with the day.

By three on Friday afternoon of that week she had her desk as cleared as
it was ever likely to be, and she was ready for her vacation.

First, haircut, she was ticking off as she walked to her car. the lot
was broiling, the concrete sent heat through the soles of her shoes,
made her toes want to curl up. Then, dry cleaning. A little laundry ...
"Hey, Sarah!"

She turned to see Dirk Walters hurrying toward her.

He was a long thin man, with what seemed to be too many angles, although
it was hard to say just where the extra ones came from.

Blaine used to say Dirk was a pol's pol-a politician's politician. In
his mid-sixties, he had been in politics long enough to have met
everyone, and he remembered every name, knew everyone's histories, their
triumphs and tragedies, never forgot a face or a vote. He never had run
for any office, and it was said that no one ever won a major office in
Oregon without his help. He was grinning broadly as he approached her,
both hands outstretched exactly as if they were friends of long
standing.

"Hi, Dirk. What are you doing out here in the wilderness ?" With some
amusement she submitted to having both hands held warmly for a moment.

"just passing through," he said, as she had known he would. That was his
stock answer. "Buy you a nice cold drink?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. Things to do, vacation coming up, you know."

"Yeah. Down to good old C.A. How's the old man?

What's he now, eighty, eighty-one? You're going to the birthday party?"

"How do you know all that?" she asked, laughing.

"You're just showing off." Actually he was wrong. Her father's birthday
had come and gone back in April; now the family was having a reunion.

She did not correct Dirk; she felt that catching him in even a simple
little mistake like this gave her a certain edge.

"True," he admitted cheerfully. "Look, I really want a word with you
before you take off. Later today?

Lunch tomorrow? When are you leaving?"