"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Beautiful Damned" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

corralled me as I left the office, claiming he wanted to play pool and that he
knew a place, but as we walked in, it became clear that we were not there for
a
game, but for an alibi.

The woman he met was the antithesis of Ari. She was tall, big-chested, with
thick ankles, more a child of my aunt than Ari ever could be. The woman --
Rita-- wore her clothes like an ill-fitting bathrobe, slipping to one side to
reveal a mound of flesh and a bit of nipple. Lipstick stained the side of her
mouth and the edges of her teeth. She laughed loud and hard, like a man, and
her
eyes were bright with too much drink. She and Tom disappeared into the back,
and
I remained, forgotten, in the smoky haze.

I stuck my tie in my pocket, pulled off my suitjacket and draped it over a
chair, rolling up my sleeves before I challenged one of the large men in a
ripped T-shirt to a game of eight-ball. I lost fifty dollars to him before he
decided there was no challenge in it; by then Tom and Rita had reappeared, her
clothing straight and her lipstick neatly applied.

Tom clapped my back before I could step away, and the odors of sweat, musk and
newly applied cologne swept over me. "Thanks, man," he said, as if my
accompanying him on this trip had deepened our friendship.
I could not let the moment slide without exacting my price. "My neighbor asked
that Ari come to one of his parties this week."

Rita slunk back as if Ari's name lessened Rita's power. Tom stepped away from
me.

"Fitzgerald's a ghoul," he said. "They say people go ta his house and never
come
back."

"I was there on Sunday."

"You're lucky ta get out alive."

"Hundreds of people go each night." I unrolled my sleeves, buttoned them, and
then slipped into my suitcoat. "I plan to take Ari."

Tom stared at me for a moment, the male camaraderie gone. Finally he nodded,
the
acknowledgment of a price paid.

"Next time you go," Rita said, addressing the only words she would ever say to
me, "take a good look at his guests."

I drove Ari up in my car. Even though I spent the afternoon washing and
polishing it, the cat's age showed against the sleek new models, something in