"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Remodeling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

blood-covered carpet.

“Ada?”

He seemed hesitant, and she suddenly realized that he thought she had done this in some fit of anger, a psychotic br
that hadn't surprised him at all.

“It was the Muff ler Man,” she said, and slowly sank to the f loor.

***

The police arrived less than five minutes later. It seemed that a 911 operator was supposed to scan all phone numbe
that came into the center, even if no one was on the other line. Then the operator tried to call back. If she got no answe
dispatched a squad car.

Muff ler Man had broken Ada's phone. She couldn't have answered, even if she'd wanted to.

Rick insisted that Ada press charges, and the police officers agreed. Ada had protested weakly that pressing charge
might make the situation worse, but no one listened to her.

The officers arrested Muff ler Man.

Ada felt no safer.

***

Rick wanted Ada to stay home, but she had to get out. She didn't want to rehash the morning's events. She wanted
alone.

The shop was quiet. She kept the Closed sign up and the door locked. Instead of working out front as she usually d
she worked in the tiny supply room.

She hated the supply room. The f luorescents washed out color and made everything seem slightly dirty. When she
examined fabric and paint swatches, she did so in the front, by the large windows that let in a great deal of natural light.

But she felt like hiding after that morning. Her hands were still shaking—and her mind wouldn't quit racing.

She didn't want to believe Muff ler Man; she hated him for what he had done that morning, for the fear he'd made h
feel. But hatred was such an easy emotion. She'd seen Rick succumb to it over and over again, and his hatred prevented
from seeing the complexities around him.

She'd been able to see those complexities. She could see them now.

Like Muff ler Man's kindness to his children, the way he would hug them when he came home from work, the fact t
never raised his voice to them or to his wife. He never even lost his temper—until he had come to Ada's door just a few
ago.

Ada went out front, dug through her desk, and found the bottle of Tums. It was nearly empty.

She made herself chew two—the chalky cherry taste uncomfortably familiar—and then grabbed the disk she had la