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

For a moment, she debated lying to him, but she didn't know what that would gain her. He would know soon enoug
Rick wasn't here.

“He'll be back soon,” she said. “You want me to let him know you called?”

Muff ler Man stared at her as if she had spoken Swahili. His gaze moved up and down her face, then his eyes narro
“You give him a message for me.”
 “Sure,” she said.

“You tell him I know what he's doing. He's not going to drive me outta here. You tell him I seen the pattern, and I k
the truth.”

Her heart hadn't stopped pounding. “The truth about what?”

“You just tell him,” he said, and stalked off her porch.

She stood at the door and watched him cross the yard, his boots leaving deep prints in the moist spring grass. His
shoulders were broad, his arms thick and muscular.

Ada debated going after him, but she didn't. She didn't like confronting angry men. Fortunately, she didn't have to d
often. Most of her interior design work was for female clients, and Rick rarely lost his temper. He just complained a lot.

Muff ler Man didn't sound like a complainer. He seemed like more trouble than that.

Ada closed the door, then locked it. After a moment, she went to the back door and locked it, too. Then she sat do
the kitchen table—butcher-block, bought for their fourth house, where it had looked lovely in the dining area—and sho

Those were threats. Vague threats. The kind you couldn't call the police over because you couldn't exactly say wha
menacing about the conversation.

She picked up the phone, started to dial Rick's cell, then hung up. She didn't need to interrupt his meeting with the
accountant. Rick would find out soon enough.

And he wouldn't be happy. He already hated these neighbors for their children and their pets and their refusal to buy
muff ler. He didn't need another reason to watch their house from the spare bedroom, to make a log of all their
transgressions, to complain about the muff ler every morning when he woke up.

Maybe she wouldn't tell him. Maybe she would just let it slide, as she'd let so many other things slide for so many ye
Maybe she'd pretend that it hadn't happened at all.

***

The meeting with the accountant went well. The business was finally turning a profit, even with their salaries taken ou
every two weeks. Rick took Ada out to celebrate, and in the excitement she forgot about Muff ler Man.

She didn't think about him at all until the following morning, at seven-fifteen sharp. She could count the varoom-var
s, then almost predict the moment of squealing brakes as he backed to the edge of his driveway. Such a ritual, followed
the crank of heavy-metal music—Metallica this time—and the final varooming “screw you” as the car drove away.