Apt Pupil читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги

27

Ed French was eating a Danish when he unfolded the paper. He coughed, made a strange gagging sound, and spat dismembered pastry all over the table.

‘Eddie!’ Sondra French said with some alarm. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Daddy’s chokin’, daddy’s chokin’,’ little Norma proclaimed with nervous good humour, and then happily joined her mother in slamming Ed on the back. Ed barely felt the blows. He was still goggling down at the newspaper.

‘What’s wrong, Eddie?’ Sondra asked again.

‘Him! Him!’ Ed shouted, stabbing his finger down at the paper so hard that his fingernail tore all the way through the A section. That man! Lord Peter!’

‘What in God’s name are you t—’

"That’s Todd Bowden’s grandfatherf ‘What? That war criminal? Eddie, that’s crazy!’

‘But it’s him,’ Ed almost moaned. ‘Jesus Christ Almighty, that’s him!’

Sondra French looked at the picture long and fixedly.

‘He doesn’t look like Peter Wimsey at all,’ she said finally.