"Night Warriors - 01 - Night Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Masterton Graham)

'Go on in,' said Susan's grandmother. 'She probably can't hear you because of the water.'

Daffy opened the door and peered into the bathroom. The shower was clattering loudly and the room was clouded with steam.

'Susan?' she called again, and stepped inside. For some reason, she began to feel frightened, and she suddenly thought about the story that Susan had told her. The dead girl, eaten by eels. The policeman, whose face had been half bitten off. The glass door of the shower-stall was obscured with steam, although Daffy thought that she could make out a pink shape on the other side of it, which must be Susan.

Her throat was constricted with alarm. She slowly approached the shower, and knocked tentatively at the glass. 'Susan? Suze? Are you okay?'

At that moment, there was a hair-raising moan, and Daffy jumped away from the shower and whispered, 'Oh, Jesus.' But then the moan was followed by an anguished, suppressed sobbing, and Daffy tugged open the shower door to find Susan crouched on the tiled floor, her legs drawn up, her hands clutched over her head, shivering and weeping with delayed shock.

Daffy turned off the faucet, and then reached over to the rail and dragged a large bath-towel off it, which she wrapped around Susan's shoulders.

'Susan, come on; you're upset, that's all. Susan, it's Daffy. Come on, baby, let's get you out of here.'

Susan numbly and shakily allowed Daffy to lift her up, and half carry her out of the bathroom. They encountered her grandmother as they came down the hallway, and for one split-second the old lady was going to protest about Susan's wet feet on the carpet, until she saw how white and distressed Susan was, and how determined the challenge was on Daffy's face.

'What on earth's the matter?'

'She fainted, that's all. Her period.' For some reason Daffy was reluctant to tell Susan's grandmother about the body on the beach. Between them, they helped Susan into her bedroom, and quickly dried her off. Susan's grandmother searched through the untidy heaps of clothes in her closet drawers, until she found a striped nightshirt, which Daffy pulled over Susan's head.

'Maybe I ought to call Dr Emanuel,' said Susan's grandmother, anxiously.

Susan opened her eyes. Her fragmented thoughts were beginning to slide back into place again, like the film of a car-bomb explosion being played slowly in reverse. She found that she could focus again, and that sounds coagulated into words. She recognised Daffy, sitting on the end of the bed smiling at her. She recognised her grandmother, peering at her from a safe distance through her gold-framed spectacles, as if she were worried that whatever she was suffering from might be contagious.

'Did I faint?' she asked, with a dry mouth. 'I thought I was someplace else.'

Daffy squeezed her hand. 'You're okay now. You'll live. But you gave me a scare, I can tell you. Would you like some coffee?'

Susan nodded. 'That would be great.'

Her grandmother said, 'I'll fix it,' pleased to have something to do that didn't actually involve nursing. She fretted endlessly about her own ailments, but she was totally squeamish when other people were sick. She wobbled off to the kitchen in her bright pink tracksuit, leaving the door open.

Daffy told Susan, 'Get under the blanket. You need to keep warm.'

Susan said, 'I'm okay now. Really.'

'It must have been shock, you know, from seeing that body.'

Susan shook her head. Her hair was tangled and wet. 'It was kind of like shock, but there was something else too. I don't know how to describe it. I thought I could hear somebody's voice, very loud and echoing. Then I was travelling very fast; it was like I was in a helicopter or something, speeding over the surface of the sea. It went so fast that I couldn't keep my balance, and I fell down. The next thing I knew, I was back here with you.'

'Shock,' Daffy pronounced. 'Now, will you keep warm? The Pink Panther's going to be bringing you some coffee in a second.'

It took Susan a little over a half-hour to stop shivering. Then she dressed slowly, in a green tee-shirt and white pedal-pushers, and combed out her hair.

'You're sure you're going to be okay?' Daffy kept asking her. 'I mean, you don't have to come to the barbecue if you don't want to. I won't be offended.'

'Daffy, I want to come. I'm not an invalid.'

'You just take good care of yourself,' her grandmother instructed her.