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

The tent was closed, the fire out but still smoking.

There was a whimper from inside the tent.

"No. I don't want to . . ."

Ellie ran up the path. She tripped and sprawled, scraping her hands on the gravel, pain-stars streaking across her vision. She picked herself up and ran the rest of the way to the phone booth, grabbed the receiver and jabbed the buttons in.

"Yes, hello . . . there's an emergency. A little girl is in trouble, and . . ."

She panted it all out to the soothing voice at the other end. They would send a Sheriff's car right out. No, they would come to her first. Yes, they knew where she was. Could she show them where the site was? Of course she wasn't crazy. Just keep calm.

Her hands throbbed. They were cut. She wiped them painfully across her shirt.

The sheriff's car pulled up. The deputy was a tall, blond-bland man with the closed face of every cop she'd known. His nametag said M. Richards. Michael? Matt? She would never know. It didn't matter. She wrapped her arms around herself and told her story, and he nodded and wrote in his notebook.

"My boyfriend talked to them too."

Richards nodded. "I'd like to see him, if I can. It's important to get all the information that we can . . ."

"But she may be in trouble! Right now!"

Richards nodded again. It was the same nod. He followed behind her as she led him to the little girl's camp-site. The cop shined his flashlight at the side of the tent.

A voice came from inside. The man's voice.

"Who the hell is it?"

"Sheriffs"

There was a curse, and in a moment the tent unzipped and the man flung himself, disheveled, out of the tent. He was in a torn T-shirt and a cut-off pair of jeans.

"What's the idea?"

Richards's expression did not change. "Do you have a young girl camping with you, sir?"

The man's eyes whipped across Ellie's face, then back to the cop's.

"Wh-what is this?"

"Do you have a young girl camping . . ."

"Yes, of course. My daughter. We're just . . ."

"Could she come out? Could I speak with her?"

The man glared at Ellie. "What the hell is this? You called the fucking cops? For what?"

Richards stepped forward. "I'll ask you to lower your voice, sir. People are sleeping. And bring the girl out. I just want a word with her."