"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 02" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

'What was it you wanted me to do for you?'
She looked at him, then looked away. 'Nothing. It
doesn't matter.'
She didn't move, however, and he didn't let go of her
arm. With his free hand he gestured towards the stairs.
Whoever had designed the Ministry of the Interior had
been a firm believer in the idea that an institution's pres-
tige is directly proportional to the dimensions of its main
staircase, which was built on a scale that seemed to
demand heroic gestures and sumptuous costumes.
'Perhaps it would work better if we sang,' Zen sug-
gested with a slightly hysterical smile.
'Sang?' Tania repeated blankly.
He knew he should never have opened his mouth, but
he was feeling light-headed because of her presence there
beside him.
'This place reminds me of an opera. I mean, talking
doesn't seem quite enough. You know what I mean?'
He released her, stretched out one arm, laid his other
hand on his chest and intoned, 'What was it you wanted
me to do for you?'
Tania's face softened into a smile.
'And what would I say?'
'You'd have an aria where you told me. About twenty
times over.'
They looked at each other for a moment. Then Tania
ribbfed something on a piece of paper.
'Ring this number at seven o'clock this evening. Say
you're phoning from here and that because of the murder
of that judge there's an emergency on and I'm needed till
midnight.'
Zen took the paper from her.
'That's all?'
'That's all.'
He nodded slowly, as though he understood, and
turned away.






Blood everywhere, my blood. I'm collapsing like a sack of grai>~
the rats have gnawed a hole in. No one will ever pnd me. No on..-
but me knows about this place. I will have disappeared.
I made things disappear. People too, but that came later, an '
caused less stir. People drop dead all the time anyway. Things ar
more durable. A bowl or chair, a spade, a knife, can hang aroun '
a house so long that no one remembers where it came from..'-
seems that it's always been there. When it suddenly disappearec;