Текст книги "Blue Labyrinth"

Автор книги: Lincoln Child

Соавторы: Douglas Preston
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Текущая страница: 28 (всего у книги 28 страниц)

“I really don’t need two, you know,” he said.

“It isn’t that,” Constance replied. “You made a point of telling both Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Ogilby that you’d made arrangements for our transportation back to New Orleans. We’re not going to ride in the tow truck, are we?”

In response, Pendergast stepped toward the garage, unlocked and opened one of the bays, and approached a vehicle covered by a tarp – the only vehicle now remaining in the building. He grasped the tarp, pulled it away.

Beneath lay a red roadster, low to the ground, its top removed. It gleamed faintly in the dim interior.

“Helen bought this before our marriage,” Pendergast explained. “A 1954 Porsche 550 Spyder.”

He opened the passenger door for Constance, then slid into the driver’s seat. He put the key in the ignition, turned it. The vehicle roared to life.

They pulled out of the garage, and Pendergast got out long enough to close and lock the bay behind them.

“Interesting,” Constance said.

“What is?” Pendergast asked as he got back behind the wheel.

“You’ve divested yourself of everything purchased with Hezekiah’s money.”

“As best I can, yes.”

“But you obviously still have a lot left.”

“True. Much of it came independently from my grandfather, the one whose grave I must visit every five years. That will allow me to retain the Dakota apartment and, in general, continue living in the style to which I’ve become accustomed.”

“What about the Riverside Drive mansion?”

“I inherited that from my great-uncle Antoine. Your ‘Dr. Enoch.’ Along with his extensive investments, naturally.”

“Naturally. And yet, how curious.”

“I wonder, Constance, where this line of questioning is leading.”

Constance smiled slyly. “You’ve rejected the assets of one serial murderer – Hezekiah – while embracing the assets of another: Enoch Leng. No?”

There was a pause while Pendergast considered this. “I prefer hypocrisy to poverty.”

“Come to think of it, there is a rationale. Leng didn’t make his money from killing. He made it from speculating in railroads, oil, and precious metals.”

Pendergast raised his eyebrows. “I did not know that.”

“There is much you still don’t know about him.”

They waited in silence, the engine rumbling. Pendergast hesitated, and then turned toward her, speaking with a certain amount of awkwardness. “I’m not sure that I’ve thanked you properly – or Dr. Green – for saving my life. And at such terrible risk—”

She stopped him with a finger to his lips. “Please. You know how I feel about you. Don’t embarrass me by making me repeat myself.”

For a moment, Pendergast seemed on the brink of saying something. But then he merely added: “I shall honor your request.”

He nosed the car forward, engine grumbling, onto the white gravel drive. The great mansion slowly fell away behind them.

“It’s a beautiful machine, but not particularly comfortable,” Constance said, glancing around the cockpit. “Are we going to drive to New Orleans in this, or all the way to New York?”

“Shall we leave that for the car to decide?” And, driving down the shadow-knotted lane of graceful oaks and onto the main road, Pendergast accelerated with a roar that reverberated through the bayous and sleepy mangrove swamps of St. Charles Parish.

Acknowledgments

We’d like to thank the following for their ongoing support and assistance: Mitch Hoffman, Lindsey Rose, Jamie Raab, Kallie Shimek, Eric Simonoff, Claudia Rülke, and Nadine Waddell. And to Edmund Kwan, MD, our deepest appreciation for his expertise.

About the Authors

The thrillers of DOUGLAS PRESTON and LINCOLN CHILD “stand head and shoulders above their rivals” (Publishers Weekly). Preston and Child’s Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number-one box office hit movie. They are coauthors of the famed Pendergast series, and their recent novels include Cold Vengeance, Two Graves, White Fire, and The Lost Island. Preston’s acclaimed nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, is being made into a movie starring George Clooney. Lincoln Child is a former book editor who has published five novels of his own, including the huge bestseller Deep Storm.

Readers can sign up for The Pendergast File, a monthly “strangely entertaining note” from the authors, at their website, www.PrestonChild.com. The authors welcome visitors to their alarmingly active Facebook page, where they post regularly.