"De Noux, O'Neil -Lucien Caye - Friscoville" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Noux O'Neil)

Thrilling New Detective Fiction: Friscoville
.
Friscoville
A Lucien Caye Story
by O'Neil De Noux
This story is for Dana...



.
.......I had my feet up on my beat-up mahogany desk, the small
revolving desk fan flapping the front page of The New Orleans
Morning Chronicle as I read about how public enemy No. 1, Lou Jacoby
himself, had eluded an FBI dragnet on Bourbon Street last night.
.......I laughed just as the smoked-glass door of my office opened
and a little girl walked in. She wore a blue, flowered cotton dress
with white socks and black patent-leather shoes, the strap of a
small black patent-leather purse draped over left shoulder. She
batted her wide brown eyes at me and said, "Are you the detective?"
......."Yeah," I said, pulling my feet off the desk.
.......She closed the door and walked up to the front of my desk and
stuck her hand out for me to shake. I reached over and shook it.
......."I'm Vivian Hartley."
......."Lucien Caye." I let go of her hand and sat back down.
......."Do you find missing people?" She looked about seven or
eight. Her light brown hair was cut in a pageboy.
......."Sometimes."
.......Her lower lip quivered and she looked away. "I want you to
find Amy."
.......She opened the purse and pulled out a picture and passed it
to me.
.......It was a cat.
.......A tear rolled down her round cheek and fell on the collar of
her dress.
.......I put the picture down and nodded to one of the chairs next
to my desk. She moved over and sat, carefully crossing her ankles
like a little lady.
......."Amy's a calico. Two years old. She's been missing for two
days and I can't find her anywhere." She had a deep voice, the kind
that would drive me crazy if she was about fifteen years older.
......."I prayed to St. Anthony all last night, but I still can't
find her." She pronounced Anthony the old New Orleans way,
"Ant-nee."
.......The old Catholic school rhyme echoed in my memory -
St. Anthony. St. Anthony.
Please come around.
Something I've lost.
Cannot be found.
.......The patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony's reputation was
overrated. I didn't tell her that.