The Murder of Miranda
- Автор: Миллар Маргарет
- Серия: Tom Aragon #2
- Год: 1979
- Язык: английский
- Год: Random House
- ISBN: 978-0-394-50509-1
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Murder of Miranda». Краткое содержание книги:
Tom Aragon, the engaging lawyer who solved the bizarre mystery in Ask for Me Tomorrow, has to undertake an even stranger case in Margaret Millar’s new tragicomedy. Aragon has the dubious assistance of nine-year-old Frederic Quinn, who boasts of his Mafia connections at private school. Adding to the confusion is Mr. Van Eyck, who, under cover of age and convenient spells of deafness, eavesdrops on his fellow members and commits his findings to paper in the form of anonymous letters.
Margaret Millar’s new novel is one of her best, and certainly her funniest. Its structure is as dazzling as its prose is witty. The author contrives to postpone the full solution until the last words of the final sentence, when the elements of the plot come together and the characters who sustain it, living and dead, are shown in tragic relation to each other.
Aragon said, “That cart could use some oil.”
The boy shrugged. “It’s old. My mother used to push me around in it when I was little.”
“How old are you now?”
“Thirteen. Next year me and my brother are going to the U.S. to get a job, make lots of money.” He glanced back at Aragon’s Chevy. “You don’t make lots of money like Mr. Shaw does.”
“Not like Mr. Shaw does, no.”
“He’s pretty important, I bet. He can’t waste time taking people for rides. Racing the wind, that’s a crazy idea. Nobody can race something they can’t see.”
“I’m sorry you missed your ride, Pedro.”
“I don’t care,” the boy said. “I never expected nothing anyway.”
Aragon knocked on the door of the cottage, softly at first, then more loudly when there was no response. The windows were closed and the blinds shut as if the people inside were trying to avoid the light and noise of morning.
He knocked again. “Mrs. Shaw?”
Another two or three minutes elapsed before Miranda’s voice answered, hoarse and sleepy. “Who is it?”
“Tom Aragon.”
“Go away.”
“I went away. Now I’m back.”
She opened the door. She wore a large loose pink-and-orange-striped robe that made her look as though she’d taken shelter in a tent that wasn’t quite tall enough and she’d had to cut a hole in the top for her head.
Her eyelids were swollen and blistered by the heat of her tears. She said, almost literally, “I’m not seeing anyone.”
“Are you feeling all right, Mrs. Shaw?”
“Close the door. I’m cold.”
“Let me order you some breakfast.”
“No, thank you. I know you’re trying to be kind but it’s quite unnecessary. I’m quite — quite fine.”
“Where is Grady?”
“Grady is fine, too, thank you.”
“I asked where.”
“Where? Well, I’m not really sure. He took one of the boys from the café for a ride in the Porsche. I wish he wouldn’t get so friendly with the hired help, it’s not dignified. He must learn to—”
“The boy is still waiting for him, Mrs. Shaw.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed, her tent collapsing around her. “So am I,” she said in a whisper. “But he won’t be back. He left in the middle of the night. I’d been very upset by the news you brought me, so Dr. Ortiz gave me a capsule and I went to sleep. When I woke up Grady was gone. There was a note on the desk.”
The note was still there. Though it had been crumpled and partly torn and marked by tears, it remained legible. The letters were large and uneven, the lines slanted downward:
Miranda
Things are beginning to close in on me and I need to get away fast and figure it all out how to do something and be somebody. I thought it was funny at first being called Mr. Shaw but then suddenly it wasn’t. Maybe I’ll see you in the U.S. after I get established and no more of that Mr. Shaw crap.
Please don’t go to pieces over my leaving so sudden. We both agreed it wasn’t going to be permanent, nothing is, how can we beat odds like that.
Take care Miranda and maybe I’ll see you in the U.S. and we can have fun like we use to.
Your friend