"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

"Take it easy, John. We're all under a lot of stress. Imagine
how he feels—he arrives at the cabin late at night and finds…
well, literally, a bloody mess. His wife hacked to pieces.
Naturally, he's going to be a little distraught and unreasonable."

"Did he have any suggestions as to who he thought did it?"
Maschen realized that that was the type of question he should
more properly be asking Stoneham, but the DA seemed to be
acting as a Stoneham-surrogate anyway.

"Yes, as a matter of fact he did. He mentioned those hippies
who have been living out in Totido Canyon. You know, that
commune group."

Maschen did indeed know about "that commune group". His
office received an average of a dozen calls a week about them,
and had ever since they moved into an otherwise deserted area
three months ago. San Marcos was a very conservative
community, consisting of a lot of older, retired couples who had
little or no tolerance for the markedly different life style affected
by the young members of the Totido commune. Whenever
anything turned up missing, suspicion was always laid first on
the commune members.

A man named Carl Polaski was in charge of the group.
Maschen knew him only vaguely, but he seemed to be an
intelligent and reasonable man. A bit old to be carrying on in
this manner, in the sheriff's opinion, but on the other hand he
lent maturity to the youths of the commune. He kept them in
line. To date, none of the charges brought against any of the
hippy members had ever been substantiated. Maschen had
developed a grudging respect for Polaski. even if the man's
chosen life style was counter to the sheriff's own.

"What makes him think they had anything to do with it?"

"Do you think normal people would have chopped up the body
that way? These hippies live only a mile away from the Stoneham
cabin. One or a group of them could have gotten together and
gone over there…"

"Is this your theory, or Stoneham's?"

"What does it matter?" Willsey asked, his tone becoming very
defensive. "The point is, these people are weird. They think the
standards of the normal world don't apply to them. Who knows
what they're capable of? We've been trying to get rid of them
ever since they moved in; nothing but troublemakers, that
crowd."