[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
added Mary, who remembered seeing Lola performingAnthrax! live when she was a
little girl.
Hah! Lola spat contemptuously. Being waited on by an army of cosmetic
surgeons? No thanks. What you see is what I am. I ve not had my boobs done or
my arse lifted, no nips, no tucks. No ribs removed, nothing. Those little
strumpets we see on the silver screen today are mostly bathroom sealant. They
buy their breasts over the counter. What would you like, honey, small, medium
or large? They give us stick insects and tell us it s beauty. If someone of
their size went for an audition in my day, she d have been shown a square meal
and told to come back when she was a stone heavier. What s wrong with curves?
Anyone over a ten these days is regarded not as an average-sized woman but a
marketing opportunity. Cream for this, pills for that, superfluous hair,
collagen injection, quick-weight-loss diets. Where s it going to end? We re
pressured to expend so much money and effort to be the perfect shape, when
that shape is physically attainable by only one woman in a million. It s the
cold face of capitalism, boys and girls, preying on misguided expectations.
Besides, I always found perfection an overrated commodity.
Her voice had risen as she spoke, topping her tirade on a high C. She paused
and collected herself, then continued in a normal voice.
Sometime I ll make a comeback, and when I do&
Jack and Baker just stared. Lola looked from Baker to Mary and then back to
Jack again. She tapped her heel against the doorframe and lit another
cigarette.
So. You re the police. I heard about Humpty. I was sorry, I thought he was a
nice guy. A bit short for my taste, but there you have it.
When did you last see him? asked Jack, trying to gather his senses.
She flicked the ash off her cigarette. About this time last year. I saw Hump
come lumbering out; he never could move very fast with those short little legs
of his. He looked a bit agitated, and I asked if he was all right. He was a
bit startled when he saw me and said everything was fine, then went
downstairs. I went back indoors, but I could still hear the shower running.
Humpty never came back, and I called the maintenance engineer the following
week. He didn t turn up, and it s still running. My guess is that they re
trying to make the building unsafe so we all have to move out.
She looked around the shabby corridor and pulled at a piece of curling
wallpaper disdainfully. It tore off easily in her hand, and she crushed the
fragment to little pieces.
She suddenly looked bored. Can I go? If you want me, you know where to find
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me. I don t go out a lot.
Lola didn t wait for a reply. She just looked at them all, smiled at Baker,
went back inside her room and closed the door noiselessly behind her.
Jack sighed and put an ear to one of the glass panes of Humpty s front door.
We ve just met British cinema history, he commented.
She was rather a cracker in her time, sir, declared Baker.
I think she still is.
Well, announced Mary, if I look that good in my fifties, I ll be a happy
girl.
Jack raised a finger to his lips. Quiet a second, guys.
They all stood in silence for a moment.
She s right. The showeris still running.
He stepped back and gestured to Baker to force the lock. They pushed the door
open against a mound of junk mail that had collected in the hall and then went
on to the second door that separated the hall from the rest of the apartment.
Jack paused and looked at Mary and Baker, seeing his own feelings of
foreboding reflected on their faces.
As Jack grasped the door handle, it came away in his hand, and the door
itself fell away into a rotten, soggy heap. A wave of damp air blew over them
all. The moisture in the air had exacted a terrible toll on the apartment.
Everything they could see was in an advanced state of rot. The carpets and
furnishings were thickly mildewed, and the paper had peeled off the walls and
lay in heaps next to the moldy skirting. The books in the bookcase had rotted
down to a dark mulch, and everything in the flat was covered with a thin layer
of moisture. There was a heavy smell of damp, and Jack noticed that several
varieties of fungi had started to grow on the walls and floors. He felt the
floorboards collapse gently under his weight, the patterned carpet keeping him
from falling through entirely. He trod gently into the bedroom and saw that
the sheets had rotted off the bed and the contents of the wardrobe had fallen
off their hangers into a soggy mass. As he called to Baker to turn off the
shower, his eyes settled on a badly corroded cartridge that lay on the wet
carpet. He looked closer and found another, then two more. He bent down and
prodded one with a pen, but it had stuck fast to the carpet.
Jack heard the shower stop. There was a short pause, and then Baker spoke,
his voice solemn and quavering slightly.
Sir, I think you d better come and have a look at this.
The SOCO team was there in under an hour. They looked around curiously at the
decayed room and walked carefully on a floor that now undulated where the
floorboards had partially collapsed. One officer busied himself cutting out
the squares of carpet that had the cartridges corroded to them, but the
fingerprint boys were sent away almost immediately.
Shenstone scratched the back of his head when he saw the mess. How long has
the shower been going?
Page 154
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
A year.
It posed severe problems. The photographer was still busy as Mrs. Singh
arrived, breathless after hurrying up the stairs. Jack was sorting through the
heap of junk mail and private letters, most of which seemed to be either bank
correspondence, invitations to functions or pleas for charitable donations.
There were hundreds of love letters, too obviously brief amours hastily cast [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
added Mary, who remembered seeing Lola performingAnthrax! live when she was a
little girl.
Hah! Lola spat contemptuously. Being waited on by an army of cosmetic
surgeons? No thanks. What you see is what I am. I ve not had my boobs done or
my arse lifted, no nips, no tucks. No ribs removed, nothing. Those little
strumpets we see on the silver screen today are mostly bathroom sealant. They
buy their breasts over the counter. What would you like, honey, small, medium
or large? They give us stick insects and tell us it s beauty. If someone of
their size went for an audition in my day, she d have been shown a square meal
and told to come back when she was a stone heavier. What s wrong with curves?
Anyone over a ten these days is regarded not as an average-sized woman but a
marketing opportunity. Cream for this, pills for that, superfluous hair,
collagen injection, quick-weight-loss diets. Where s it going to end? We re
pressured to expend so much money and effort to be the perfect shape, when
that shape is physically attainable by only one woman in a million. It s the
cold face of capitalism, boys and girls, preying on misguided expectations.
Besides, I always found perfection an overrated commodity.
Her voice had risen as she spoke, topping her tirade on a high C. She paused
and collected herself, then continued in a normal voice.
Sometime I ll make a comeback, and when I do&
Jack and Baker just stared. Lola looked from Baker to Mary and then back to
Jack again. She tapped her heel against the doorframe and lit another
cigarette.
So. You re the police. I heard about Humpty. I was sorry, I thought he was a
nice guy. A bit short for my taste, but there you have it.
When did you last see him? asked Jack, trying to gather his senses.
She flicked the ash off her cigarette. About this time last year. I saw Hump
come lumbering out; he never could move very fast with those short little legs
of his. He looked a bit agitated, and I asked if he was all right. He was a
bit startled when he saw me and said everything was fine, then went
downstairs. I went back indoors, but I could still hear the shower running.
Humpty never came back, and I called the maintenance engineer the following
week. He didn t turn up, and it s still running. My guess is that they re
trying to make the building unsafe so we all have to move out.
She looked around the shabby corridor and pulled at a piece of curling
wallpaper disdainfully. It tore off easily in her hand, and she crushed the
fragment to little pieces.
She suddenly looked bored. Can I go? If you want me, you know where to find
Page 153
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
me. I don t go out a lot.
Lola didn t wait for a reply. She just looked at them all, smiled at Baker,
went back inside her room and closed the door noiselessly behind her.
Jack sighed and put an ear to one of the glass panes of Humpty s front door.
We ve just met British cinema history, he commented.
She was rather a cracker in her time, sir, declared Baker.
I think she still is.
Well, announced Mary, if I look that good in my fifties, I ll be a happy
girl.
Jack raised a finger to his lips. Quiet a second, guys.
They all stood in silence for a moment.
She s right. The showeris still running.
He stepped back and gestured to Baker to force the lock. They pushed the door
open against a mound of junk mail that had collected in the hall and then went
on to the second door that separated the hall from the rest of the apartment.
Jack paused and looked at Mary and Baker, seeing his own feelings of
foreboding reflected on their faces.
As Jack grasped the door handle, it came away in his hand, and the door
itself fell away into a rotten, soggy heap. A wave of damp air blew over them
all. The moisture in the air had exacted a terrible toll on the apartment.
Everything they could see was in an advanced state of rot. The carpets and
furnishings were thickly mildewed, and the paper had peeled off the walls and
lay in heaps next to the moldy skirting. The books in the bookcase had rotted
down to a dark mulch, and everything in the flat was covered with a thin layer
of moisture. There was a heavy smell of damp, and Jack noticed that several
varieties of fungi had started to grow on the walls and floors. He felt the
floorboards collapse gently under his weight, the patterned carpet keeping him
from falling through entirely. He trod gently into the bedroom and saw that
the sheets had rotted off the bed and the contents of the wardrobe had fallen
off their hangers into a soggy mass. As he called to Baker to turn off the
shower, his eyes settled on a badly corroded cartridge that lay on the wet
carpet. He looked closer and found another, then two more. He bent down and
prodded one with a pen, but it had stuck fast to the carpet.
Jack heard the shower stop. There was a short pause, and then Baker spoke,
his voice solemn and quavering slightly.
Sir, I think you d better come and have a look at this.
The SOCO team was there in under an hour. They looked around curiously at the
decayed room and walked carefully on a floor that now undulated where the
floorboards had partially collapsed. One officer busied himself cutting out
the squares of carpet that had the cartridges corroded to them, but the
fingerprint boys were sent away almost immediately.
Shenstone scratched the back of his head when he saw the mess. How long has
the shower been going?
Page 154
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
A year.
It posed severe problems. The photographer was still busy as Mrs. Singh
arrived, breathless after hurrying up the stairs. Jack was sorting through the
heap of junk mail and private letters, most of which seemed to be either bank
correspondence, invitations to functions or pleas for charitable donations.
There were hundreds of love letters, too obviously brief amours hastily cast [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]