"Альфред Бестер. The Flowered Thundermug (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"The professor has said it is one man's taste."

"It's impossible. Forty daring robberies in fifteen months?
I won't believe it."

"The rare objects on that list," De Sica continued to Muni,
were stolen over a period of fifteen months from collectors,
museums, dealers and importers, all in the Hollywood East area.
If, as you say, the objects represent one man's taste-"

"I do."

"Then it is obvious we have on our hands a rara
avis, a clever criminal who is also a connoisseur, or, what
is perhaps even more dangerous, a connoisseur who has turned
criminal."

"But why particularize?" Muni asked. "Why must he be a
connoisseur? Any average art dealer could tell a crook the
value of antique objets d'art. The information could
even be obtained from a library."

"I say connoisseur," De Sica answered, "because none of the
stolen objects has ever been seen again. None has been offered
for sale anywhere in the four orbits of the world, despite the
fact that any one of them would be worth a king's ransom. Ergo,
we are dealing with a man who steals to add to his own
collection."

"Enough, Vittorio," Miss Garbo growled. "Ask him the next
qvestion."

"Professor, we now assume we are dealing with a man of
taste. You have seen the list of what he has stolen thus far. I
ask you, as a historian: can you suggest any object of virtu
that obviously belongs in his collection? If a rare item were
to come to his attention, something that would fit in
beautifully with that hypothetical room you visualized-what
might it be? What would tempt the connoisseur in the criminal?"

"Or the criminal in the connoisseur," Muni added. Again he
squinted at the ceiling while the others watched breathlessly.
At last he muttered, "Yes . . . Yes, . . That's it. It must be.
It would be the focal point of the entire collection."

"What?" Horton cried. "What are you talking about?"

"The Flowered Thundermug," Muni answered solemnly.