"Chalker, Jack L - G.O.D. Inc 1 - Labyrinth of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

I shook my head. "No, something big wouldn't even find the address. I got a call
from Joe Wilkins down in Cape May County the other day." Joe was one of the
salt-and-pepper brotherhood; he was black, his wife was white. The difference
was that Joe was an accountant and had a real-estate license. "He knows what
shape we're in, and he remembered us. They're opening one of those fancy
beachfront condo developments down on the Delaware shore, and they're looking
for a resident security supervisor. It only pays about fifteen grand a year, but
it comes with a furnished two-bedroom apartment, medical plan, all that. It was
designed with an older couple in mind, but he thought of us. It isn't bad. On
the water, and the only expenses would be food and clothing."
She thought about it. "Where'd you say it was?"
"Just north of Rehoboth Beach. South Delaware shore."
"I never been down there, but I guess it's like Wildwood or something. Pretty
seasonal."
"Yeah, five months of intensive activity and seven months of presiding over a
pretty morgue, although there'll be a few permanent residents -- well-heeled
retirees and the like -- and some sailor nuts will be there on the weekends even in
lousy weather."
She sighed. "Not much for me down there, though. Funny -- I never thought of myself
as a housewife. Not 'til recently, anyway. Still, I been doin' a lot of thinkin'
lately, and maybe it ain't so bad, I look around that old neighborhood and this
dump and I ask what I been clinging to all this time and what do I got to show
for it? I shoulda dropped it all six years ago, when we first moved in together.
We'd have a nice apartment, maybe a couple of kids, and you'd still be a steady
cop. Who am I kiddin'? You ain't my daddy, and I ain't, neither. His dream was
worse than dead before he was. It was worse than that. It was out of date, like
Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and the Continental Op. Like Shaft and Magnum and
all them others. All I did was drag you down here with me."
I hugged and kissed her. "You didn't drag anybody. I came because I met the
prettiest, sexiest, smartest lady I ever knew who had the same crazy dreams I
did and I fell in love with her. I still am." I kissed her, and we got real
passionate for a while.
We took the clothes back up to the apartment and flopped down on the bed.
"You're taking this better than I thought you would," I noted.
"I -- I been doin' a lot of thinking lately. I saw the bills, I saw the bank
account, and I know what business we don't have. I been tryin' to sort things
out in my mind, you know. There's some that can be Supergirl, but maybe I'm just
not one of 'em. Just goin' through Philadelphia suburbia, I got to lookin' at
nice houses and apartments, seein' families in the stores, like that. I got a
great husband I'm in love with, and I never really saw how important that was to
me. You gave it up for me, now I'll give it up for you. Ain't no big sacrifice
anymore, anyway. This don't sound like much work. We'll be together most of the
time, nice apartment near the ocean."
I looked her in her big brown eyes. "What do you really want me to do, babe?
I'll do whatever you say."
"I want to be with you. I want to be your wife and have a whole passel of black
Horowitzes that'll confuse the living shit out of people. I think I always
really knew that. I just wanted to make a go of it, just for a while, to see if
I could really do it. Ever since I nailed Daddy's killers, I been really scared
to be anything else. I -- I never told you this, but I got that hooker outfit one