"Folsom, Allan - The Day After Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Folsom Allan)

And then always, the rage would turn to the killer and the life he had
left her. And then to the police, who were inept and impotent, and
finally to herself, whom she despised most of all, for not being the
kind of mother she should have been, for not being prepared or equipped
to deal with the aftermath of such a tragedy.

At forty, Paul's aunt Dorothy was eight years older than her sister.
Unmarried and overweight, she was a simple, pleasant woman who went to
church every Sunday and was active in community projects. In bringing
Paul and Becky into her home, she did everything possible to encourage
Becky to pick up her life again. to join the church and go back to
nursing school and to one day make nursing a career she could be proud
of.

"Dorothy is a clerk who works in the county administration building,"
his mother would rail halfway through her third Canadian Club and ginger
ale. "What does she know of the horrors of raising a child without a
father? How can she possibly understand that the mother of a
ten-year-old boy has to be available every single day -when he comes
home from school?"

Who would help with his homework? Make his supper? Make certain he
didn't fall in with the wrong crowd? Dorothy didn't understand that.
Couldn't understand it. And kept on about the church, a career and a
normal life. Becky swore she was prepared to move out. There was quite
enough life insurance for them to live alone, if frugally, until Paul
graduated from high school.

What Becky couldn't understand was that church, a career and a new life
weren't what Dorothy was talking about. It was her drinking. Dorothy
wanted her to stop. But Becky had no intention of doing so.

Eight months and three days later Becky Osborn drove her car into
Barnstable Harbor and sat there until she drowned. She had just turned
thirty-three. The funeral was held at First Presbyterian Church in
Yarmouth, December 15, 1966. The day was gray, with a forecast of snow.
TWenty-eight people, including Paul and Dorothy, attended the service.
Mostly they were Dorothy's friends.

On January 4, 1967, at age eleven, Aunt Dorothy became Paul Osborn's
legal guardian. On January 12 of that same year, he entered Hartwick, a
publicly funded private school for boys in Trenton, New Jersey. He
would live there, ten months out of the year, for the next seven years.

-,THE POLICE artist's sketch of the severed head made the LUndon
tabloids on Tuesday morning. It was presented as the face of a missing
man, and the caption asked anyone with any information to please inform
the Metropolitan Police immediately. A phone number was given along
with a notation saying all callers could remain anonymous if they so
chose. All the police were interested in was information on his