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

Wouldn't he?

She clicked open URCredithist, and found credit reports. She glanced at one, felt as she would peeping into someo
bedroom, and was about to close the file when the top line caught her eye:

Charles Urbanick
1325 SW Oak

Her breath caught. Her address was 1323 SW Oak. Urbanick must have been Muff ler Man's real name. What wa
Rick doing, investigating the neighbor's personal history? Looking for a way to get them to move?

She clicked back to the original window, saw that Rick had, indeed, downloaded these files the day before, along w
the rest of the financial files.

The phone rang, and she looked guiltily at the clock on the computer's desktop. She wasn't late for her appointmen
but she would be if she continued to explore these files.

She picked up the phone and found herself talking to a potential new client. While she went through the familiar spie
found a f loppy, downloaded the strange files, and then closed them. She labeled the disk 1996, knowing that Rick wou
have no reason to investigate something that old, and then slipped it into the pile of backups they kept in the shop's supp
room.

By the time she had finished with the call, she had tidied up her desk, printed the invoice, and grabbed her purse. Sh
was ready for her consultation.

But her enthusiasm for the new job was gone. Instead, she found herself worrying about the mystery files, her stoma
acidic that she had to take five Tums before it settled down.

***

For the third night in less than a week, Rick asked her to bring home pizza. Lately, she'd been doing a lot of the coo
after she got in, or she brought home takeout.

She had understood it when he was cramming, preparing the financials for the accountant. But that meeting was pas
Rick should have had more than enough time to make something quick and healthy.

She'd meant to say something when she came in, but Rick hadn't been anywhere around. She had had to put the piz
the oven, and then she'd had to track him down when it was warm.

He had hidden himself in their office, huddled over the computer's keyboard as if it held the secrets of the universe.
came into the room just far enough to see what he was doing and started. He was manipulating numbers in the Quicken
program, using its mortgage calculator.

Her stomachache returned. “Are we going to move again?” she blurted before she had a chance to stop herself.

Rick whirled to face her. “Ada. I didn't realize you were home.”

“I called for you. I put in the pizza. It's done. Can't you smell it?”