Читать книгу Battle of the Beasts - Ned Vizzini - Страница 15

It was a man’s voice, thick and gruff, like the voice of someone with two raw slabs of bacon wrapped around his vocal cords.

“Doc? You there? Whadda you got? Niners are three over this week, Warriors are—”

“Who is this, a sports bookie?” Mrs Walker asked.

Click. The call was over.

“Who was that?” Eleanor said.

“Some coward,” her mom said, calling the same number again.

This time, the man answered on the first ring. “Listen up—”

“No, you listen! I’m Jacob Walker’s wife, Bellamy Walker, and I demand to know—”

“I’m guessing you ain’t got picks for the doc?”

“No! And what you’re doing is completely illegal—”

“Hey. Mrs Walker. Don’t judge. I just do business with your husband. You got a problem with that, you take it up with him. And tell the doc if he wants in on this week’s games, he better call back. And one final thing—”

The man spat a very nasty curse word at Mrs Walker.

Click.

Mrs Walker looked stunned. Eleanor looked at the floor. “Are we in trouble?”

“Not at all,” her mom said. “Mommy’s going to handle everything.”

“We should go, I think I hear Bren.”

Mrs Walker stuffed the secret phone back in the bureau, and the two of them climbed out of the attic. Eleanor placed the rope back into the same position that Brendan had left it in. On the back stairs, Eleanor stopped and turned to her mom. “See, I was telling the truth!”

“You were.”

“And this will help our family, right?”

“Yes. Sure. Of course.”

“And do you realise, Mom? We just went on a little adventure?”

“Sure, honey. An adventure. Dad is spending all our money on sports bets. Big adventure.” Suddenly Mrs Walker had tears in her eyes.

“I don’t understand when I lost this family,” she said. “Do you? Did you see when it happened?”

Eleanor shook her head sadly. All she could do was hug her mother.