"Gene Wolfe - The Ziggurat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

It was a woman. He had not realized until then that he had been talking to a
woman. He said, "I just wanted to let you know, in case you picked somebody up."
"We'll file a report. You care come here and look at the stolen goods whenever you
want to, but I don't think there's any guns right now."
"The theft just occurred. About three or a little later." When the woman at the
sheriff's office did not speak again, he said, "Thank you," and hung up.
"You think they'll come back tonight, Dad?"
"I doubt very much that they'll come back at all." Emery sat down, unconsciously
pushing his chair a little farther from Jan's. "Since you kids went out and split that
wood, don't you think you ought to put some of it on the fire?"
"I put mine on," Aileen announced. "Didn't I, Momma?"
Brook picked up several of the large pieces he had carried and laid them on the
feeble flames.
"I founded the company years before we got married," Emery told Jan. "I lost
control when Brook's mother and I broke up. I had to give her half of my stock, and
she sold it."
"It's not--"
"The Stock you're talking about dividing now is the stock I got for mine. Most of
the money in our joint account, and my personal account, came from the company
before we were taken over. You can hang on to everything in your personal accounts.
I don't want your money."
"Well, that's kind of you! That's extremely kind of you, Emery!"
"You're worried about the snow, you say, and I think you should be. If you and the
twins want to stay here until the weather clears up, you're welcome to. Maybe we can
work out something."
Jan shook her head, and for a moment Emery allowed himself to admire her clear
skin and the clean lines of her profile. It was so easy to think of all that he wanted to
say to her, so hard to say what he had to: "In that case, you'd better go."
"I'm entitled to half our community property!"
Brook put in, "The house's worth ten times more than this place."
Boys here, Emery thought. Girls over there. "You can have the house, Jan. I'm not
disputing it -- not now. Not yet. But I may, later, if you're stubborn. I'm willing to
make a cash settlement..." Even as he said it, he realized that he was not.
"This is what we negotiated. Phil Gluckman represented you! He said so, and so
did you. It's all settled."
Emery leaned forward in his chair, holding his hands out to the rising flames. "If
everything's settled, you don't need my signature. Go back to the city."
"I -- Oh, God! I should have known it was no use to come out here."
"I'm willing to give you a cash settlement in the form of a trust fund for the twins.
A generous settlement, and you can keep the house, your car, your money, and your
personal things. That's as far as I'll go, end it's further than I ought to go. Otherwise,
we fight it out in court."
"We negotiated this!"
She shoved her paper at him, and he was tempted to throw it into the fire. Forcing
himself to speak mildly, he said, "I know you did, and I know that you negotiated in
good faith. So did we. I wanted to see what Phil Gluckman could come up with. And
to tell you the truth, I was pretty sure that it would be something I could accept. I'm
disappointed in him."
"It's snowing harder," Alayna told them.
"He didn't--" Emery stiffened. "Did you hear something?"