"Nayler, Ray - Man In The Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nayler Ray)

That was how he felt. Smaller.

"Coffee?"

"No, thanks. When exactly did your phone go out?"

"Two hours ago."

"How did you know? Were you on the phone at the time?" It would have been one A.M.

"No." The tendons in her wrist stood out hard as she lifted the coffee to her mouth, brought the cup to her compact lips.

"Then...."

"The calls stopped." She snapped mug to table. "I've been getting these calls."

"What kind?"

"Threats."

"And you reported them?"

"What good would it do?"

"How long has this gone on?"

"A month. Maybe more."

"Recognize the voice?"

The lines around her eyes sharpened, bird-stamps in sand. "He talks through a handkerchief. But yes. It's Glen. My husband's--my dead husband's brother. He used to help me with the horses."

"You breed?"

"I keep studs. I sell their services."

He liked the scrubbed, burned circle of her face, the freckles across her cheekbones, like Rachel's. Rachel's darkest freckles were the exact color of his skin.

"He wanted to take my husband's place, and I didn't want him to. He was forward about it. Too forward. I had to fight him off. So I let him go. Fired him. And then, the phone calls started. And...."

"And he's been out here, hasn't he." The truck on the road, forcing him into the ditch.

"Tonight."

"Yes."

"Besides the horses, he took care of other things, didn't he? Fences. The roof of the barn, wiring...."

"Yes." He'd cut the phone lines himself. She knew it.