"HEINLEIN, Robert A. - The Cat Who Walked Through Walls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

the shoulder... but in the meantime I enjoyed good food, good wine, good
company. Life is filled with tragedy;
if you let it overwhelm you, you cannot enjoy life's innocent pleasures.
Gwen knows that my leg won't take much dancing; at the first break in the
music she led us back to our table. I signaled Morris for the check. He produced
it out of midair; I dialed my credit code into it, set it for standard gratuity
plus half, added my thumbprint.
Morris thanked me. "A nightcap, sir? Or a brandy? Perhaps the lady would
enjoy a liqueur? Compliments of Rainbow's End." The owner of the restaurant, an
ancient Egyptian, believed in good measure-at least to his regulars; I'm not
sure how tourists from dirtside were treated.
"Gwen?" I queried, expecting her to refuse-Gwen's drinking is limited to
one glass of wine at meals. One.
"A Cointreau would be pleasant. I would like to stay and listen to the
music a while."
"Cointreau for the lady," Morris noted. "Doctor?"
"Mary's Tears and a glass of water, please. Moms."
When Morris left, Gwen said quietly, "I needed time to speak with you,
Richard. Do you want to sleep at my place tonight? Don't be skittish; you can
sleep alone."
"I am not all that fond of sleeping alone." I clicked over the
possibilities in my mind. She had ordered a drink she did not want in order to
make me an offer that did not fit. Gwen is a forthright person; I felt that had
she wished to sleep with me she would have said so-she would not have played
getaway-closer about it.
Therefore she had invited me to sleep in her compartment because she
thought it to be unwise or unsafe for me to sleep in my own bed. Therefore-
"You saw it."
"From a distance. So I waited until things quieted down before returning to
the table. Richard, I'm not sure what happened. But if you need a place to lie
doggo-be my guest!"
"Why, thank you, my dear!" A friend who offers help without asking for
explanations is a treasure beyond price. "Whether I accept or not, I am in your
debt. Mmm, Gwen, I too am unsure what happened. The total stranger who gets
himself killed while he's trying to tell you something- A clich6, a tired
cliche. If I plotted a story that way today, my guild would disown me." I smiled
at her. "In its classic form you would turn out to be the killer... a fact that
would develop slowly while you pretended to help me search. The sophisticated
reader would know from chapter one that you did it, but I, as the detective,
would never guess what was as plain as the nose on your face. Correction: on my
face."
"Oh, my nose is plain enough; it's my mouth that men remember. Richard, I
am not going to help you hang this on me; I simply offered you a hideout. Was he
really killed? I couldn't be sure."
"Eh?" I was saved from answering too quickly by Morris's arrival with our
liqueurs. When he left, I answered, "I had not thought about any other
possibility. Gwen, he was not wounded. Either he was killed almost instantly...
or it was faked. Could it be faked? Certainly. If shown on holo, it could be
done in real time with only minor props." I mulled it over. Why had the
restaurant staff been so quick, so precise, in covering it up? Why had I not