"Timothy Zahn - The Green and the Gray" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Island. He ducked through the openingтАФ
And nearly ran full into Kern's back.
"What is it?" he demanded, skidding to a halt. Both cops were just standing there, looking around.
At the empty balcony.
Roger looked again. Aside from himself, the two cops, and the two heavy ceramic pots with
Caroline's orange trees sticking out of them, the balcony was completely empty.


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The Green and the Gray

The outside lights suddenly came on, making him jump, and the living room door slid open. "Where
is she?" Caroline asked anxiously, poking her head through.
"Good question," Kern said, his voice suddenly darkly suspicious. "You got a good answer to go
with it?"
"But she can't be gone," Caroline objected, looking around. "She was right there in the bedroom.
Where else could she be?"
"Not here, anyway," Kern said, holstering his gun as he looked along the sheer wall. "And it's too far
to jump to the next balcony."
"Couldn't have gone down, either," Hernandez added, leaning over the solid balcony wall and gazing
down. He twisted his head and looked up along the wall of the balcony above theirs. "Or up, either.
Railings you could climb, but not solid walls like these."
"But she was here," Caroline insisted. "She has to still be here."
"Okay, fine," Kern rumbled. "Come on, Hernandez. By the book."
They spent the next fifteen minutes going systematically through the apartment, looking everywhere
anything bigger than a Chihuahua could be hiding. In the end, they found nothing.
"Well, it's been fun, folks," Kern said as they headed for the front door. "Next time you feel like
pulling someone's chain, leave the NYPD out of it, okay?"
"Sure," Roger growled. "Thanks for your time."
He let them out, deadbolting and chaining the door after them. Caroline had gone back to the
balcony, looking around as if she still expected to see the girl hiding in a corner. With a tired sigh, he
crossed the room and went out to join her.
"I don't understand," she said as he stepped to her side. "She was here, wasn't she? We didn't just
dream it."
"If we did, we dreamed this, too," Roger told her, pulling the gun from his pocket.
"The gun!" Caroline gasped, all but pouncing on it. "QuickтАФcall them back. This proves it!"
"This proves what?" Roger countered disgustedly. "A toy gun? It doesn't prove a thing."
"ButтАФ" Caroline seemed to sink back into herself again. "You're right," she said, her voice quiet
again. "But then where did she go?"
"I don't know," Roger admitted, looking around the balcony. "I just hope... never mind."
"That whoever tried to strangle her didn't come back and finish the job?" Caroline said, her voice
almost lost in the whistling of the wind.
"Yeah." Roger took a deep breath of the cold northern air. Winter was indeed coming early this year.

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The Green and the Gray

"Come on," he said, not knowing what else to say. "Let's go to bed."