Читать книгу Rebecca Temple Mysteries 3-Book Bundle - Sylvia Maultash Warsh - Страница 44

Rebecca once again got behind the wheel of Nesha’s rented Olds. Night had fallen and brought with it a brisk clear sky whose stars were invisible above the canopy of street lamps. Nesha stared out the windshield as she pulled out of the parking lot and drove down Bathurst Street to Wilson Avenue. She turned west. Murky fields ranged on both sides, the landing area for a military airport somewhere in the distance. Here some stars winked out of the high black sky.

One of the stars up there had Iris’ name. A ray of hope. Rebecca had reached the hospital again, this time from a pay phone at the nursing home. Martha said Iris had opened first one eye, then the other. The doctor was optimistic.

Past Dufferin Street an endless series of strip plazas lined Wilson Avenue. Metal signs loomed in shadow above Italian restaurants, dress shops, and fabric stores set back from cracked asphalt parking lots. She turned north at Keele Street where a ragtag of small family stores and houses had been erected with no obvious plan, before the building code separated commercial from residential and some Einstein realized it was cheaper to build queues of stores joined at the hip. An architecturally interesting old church stood on a corner, but in the company of frame houses the government had constructed after the war for soldiers returning from duty.

She found the street she was looking for and turned left. The neighbourhood became very suburban with hills of lawns and chain-link fences. Vogel’s house sat on a corner across from the backyards of two other houses whose fronts faced away. The third corner was an empty lot. High cedar hedges lined his driveway. Very private.

Lights were on inside though the curtains were drawn across the front window. The brick house was modest in width but deep, with a garage attached near the back. They climbed what seemed an inordinate number of concrete stairs leading up to the small porch. She knocked, Nesha standing behind her.

The door opened sooner than she expected and Vogel greeted her with an unsurprised smile. “Ah, Doctor, how nice to see you again. I hope you’ve come to look at my collection.”