"Nayler, Ray - The Honor System" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nayler Ray)

There was a pay-phone near the office. The man was on it, one hand clamped around Jenny's arm, screaming into the receiver.

"Well, you get a car. After all the times I had to bail you out, you get a car. I can't wait around here -- even in this dump, people are liable to . . ." he saw Ellie coming and the decibels dropped out of his voice. The look in his eyes was hateful, slicing down her body. Jenny did not look at her. The man's eye followed Ellie as she passed them. Jenny's face had a long bruise on it.

Ellie stopped. "Jenny, are you . . ." She reached out to the girl.

The man pulled Jenny out of reach.

"Mind your own god-damned business. And tell that bastard you're with to mind his. This is a free country -- as the two of you obviously know." With a final grind of his eyes across Ellie's face, he slammed the receiver on its cradle and stalked off, pulling Jenny along behind him like a little blond dog. Jenny watched Ellie with blue eyes like blank drops of sky. The bruise on her face was more expressive.

The office was open, manned by a youngish hippie with a burnt-tan face half-hidden by sandy beard. Dreadlocks fell to his shoulders.

"Hey there." His voice had easy familiarity in it. "Sam already paid for you. He's in the pool."

"Sam already . . ." She was dazed. Everything was made of cut glass, sharp, glittering. Her heart was in her throat. Jenny was in danger. She had to do something. "Yeah. He described you to me. Go on in . . ."

Wordless, she went down the hall. She changed in the locker room, her hands shaking. She nearly fell, getting into her swimsuit.

Sam was sunning himself by the deep end. His skin was wet and glossy in the sun, his eyes closed. He opened them at the sound of her padding feet.

"Morning, baby."

"Sam -- did you talk to that man? To Jenny's . . . to that man with Jenny?"

Sam sat up and stretched. "Yeah. The guy's a creep. I visited him early this morning. He's not friendly, but the girl is his daughter. She called him Daddy, anyway. They seem all right . . . besides the fact that the guy didn't like me too much."

"Sam, you didn't have to . . ."

"I know, but I felt bad, snapping at you last night. And besides -- after I got to thinking about it, I decided you might be right. Thank god you weren't"

Ellie wanted to ask him a hundred other things. What about the bruise on Jenny's face, or the way the man wouldn't let her talk to anyone, or . . . but she didn't. They slid into the pool together and floated in the deep end, entwined. The pool still reeked of sulfur, but at least they were alone. The contrast between the warm water and cool, bright air was pleasant. Sam seemed especially happy, splashing and acting like a little kid, the way he did when he was comfortable and content.

The day passed like that, with long hours in the pool and breakfast on napkins at the picnic table. They rented an hour in a reeking hot tub and spent it making out, the way they had when they had fist met. Ellie tried to lose herself in him. But Jenny's empty eyes nagged her. If she could just know. If she could just be sure that the little girl was all right, then everything else would be perfect. But how could she know?

"You're distracted."

They lay on the grass in front of their tent, watching the sky go from pink to indigo.

"I'm not."

Sam stood up, brushing off broken bits of grass. "I'm taking a walk. It'll give you a chance to work out what's bothering you. And when I come back . . . well . . ."

"Sam, I'm all right . . ."

He stopped her with a look and stalked off.

She got up to go after him, stopped herself. He was right. Until she could get the idea out of her head, she would remain distracted. And if she never knew? She would take the thought with her when she left this place -- find herself haunted by the little girl at the hot springs and what might have been happening to her. She would just take a walk past their campsite, and if everything seemed all right, she decided, then everything was all right. That would decide it in Sam's favor. She would feel silly, and that would be the end of it.

She marched up the gravel path.