"Timothy Zahn - A Coming of Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

introductory schools or even the university; someone who could break these unspoken rulesтАФ

Or someone who could get around them.

"Hey, we're going faster!" Jessy said. "Whee!"

"YesтАФwe have to get back before your parents start to worry about you," Lisa told her. She didn't
add that she was suddenly in a hurry to get back herself, to start asking some careful questions.
MaybeтАФjust maybeтАФshe had the answer.




Chapter 5
"Thank you very much for your time, Mrs. Livorno," Tirrell said, making one last note on his pad. "I
appreciate your help."

"My pleasure," the older lady said, her thin lips pulling together in a frown that silently proclaimed
her distaste for the whole business. "I hope you catch this scum, DetectiveтАФI wouldn't want anyone
to get the impression this neighborhood is easy pickings."

"Neither would I," Tirrell agreed. "Don't worry, we'll get him."

And if we're lucky, it'll be before Colin Brimmer reaches puberty, the detective added to himself as
he walked down the path and headed for his car. At the moment, though, he wouldn't have placed
any bets on that.

Tonio had been faster with his part of the afternoon's work, Tirrell saw; the preteen was seated on
the curb beside their car, leaning against a red-and-white-checked "stop ahead" post and gazing
skyward. At first Tirrell assumed his righthand was simply daydreaming, but a movement in the tree
branches above the car caught his eye. It took another dozen steps for him to realize what was
happening: Tonio was amusing himself by plucking dead leaves from one of the branches and
teeking them over to another limb. "I hope you're not fastening those permanently somehow," he
commented as he reached the car. "The city's going to have to cut off that dead branch pretty soon,
and I wouldn't want them to take a healthy one, too."

"No problem," Tonio said, his eyes still on his handiwork. "You finished?"

"For the moment, yeah. Let's get back to the office and see if we can dredge anything out of this
mess."

"Okay." Tonio stood up, and as he did so there was a sudden rustle overhead and forty or fifty brown
leaves drifted down on them. "See?" the preteen said, holding his hands out as if checking for rain.
"Instant autumn."


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A Coming of Age