"Stephen Goldin - The Sword Unswayed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

other detective do, or should I route you to his message area?"

"This is only for Detective Hoy. Route it through his personal code. Tell him Deborah Rabinowitz called
on a matter of life and death. Phone: off."

Dinh shook her head. "I don't know whether it's wise to bother an Interpol detective on his time off -- "

"He owes me entirely too many favors. It's time I started collecting on them, anyway."

Dinh sipped on her drink for a moment, absorbed in some thought she didn't know how to voice. Finally
she said, "There may be a scandal involved in this matter, you know."

"On Earth, on K'tolu'tan, or both?"
"K'tolu'tan. Perhaps. I don't know."

The phone chimed. It was Hoy. His broad face on the living room screen bore a look of concern, and his
hair was rumpled. "Are you all right? What's the trouble?"

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

"Your message said life and death."

"Yes, but not mine. A friend of mine seems to have stumbled across a murder on a world called
K'tolu'tan."

"Is this something contagious? Do you give it to your friends?"

"She'll need a sympathetic ear, and she's far more attractive than I am."

"Impossible, but I'll be there within an hour. Phone: off."

"What did he mean by `contagious'?" Dinh asked.

"Well, believe it or not, I know exactly how you feel. I stumbled across a murder a couple of months ago
myself, and Detective Hoy . . .well, `helped' isn't quite the right word, but he did keep me centered long
enough to solve the case. He'll at least know who to contact for you. In the meantime, until he gets here,
let's keep our minds on other things."

Dinh sipped some more of her hot chocolate thoughtfully and said nothing.

"I was having a dream when you came onto my porch," Rabinowitz said. "You weren't in it, but I think it
was about you, in a way."

"What was it?"

"It was about a production of _Richard III_ I directed in my senior year at UCLA. I'd found the notes
for it in the drama department files; it was first staged that way over a hundred years ago, but it sounded
like fun and I convinced the department to let me try it. It worked well, we got some nice reviews."

"What has that to do with me? I was not in it. I never even saw it."