Four Past Midnight - Stephen King [277]
' "You don't want to make a mistake with Deputy Power," I said. "I don't think he's afraid of anything."
' "Yes, he is - he's afraid of me. He just doesn't know it yet," she said, but I caught the gleam of fear in her eyes again. He had picked the worst possible time to start askin questions, you see - she was gettin ready for her time of sleeping and change, and it weakened her somehow.'
'Did Ardelia tell you how he caught on?' Naomi asked.
'It's obvious,' Sam said. 'His daughter told him.'
'No,' Dave said. 'I didn't ask - I didn't dare, not with her in the mood she was in -but I don't think Tansy told her dad. I don't think she could have - not in so many words, at least. When they left the Children's Room, you see, they'd forget all about what she'd told them ... and done to them in there. And it wasn't just forgetting, either - she put other memories, false memories into their heads, so they'd go home just as jolly as could be. Most of their parents thought Ardelia was just about the greatest thing that ever happened to the Junction City Library.
'I think it was what she took from Tansy that put her father's wind up, and I think Deputy Power must have done a good deal of investigating before he ever went to see Ardelia at the Library. I don't know what difference he noticed in Tansy, because the kids weren't all pale and listless, like the people who get their blood sucked in the vampire movies, and there weren't any marks on their necks. But she was takin something from them, just the same, and John Power saw it or sensed it.'
'Even if he did see something, why did it make him suspicious of Ardelia?' Sam asked.
'I told you his nose was keen. I think he must have asked Tansy some questions - nothing direct, all on the slant, if you see what I mean - and the answers he got must have been just enough to point him in the right direction. When he came to the Library that day he didn't know anything ... but he suspected something. Enough to put Ardelia on her mettle. I remember what made her the maddest - and scared her the most - was how he looked at her. "I'll teach you how to look at me," she said. Over and over again. I've wondered since how long it had been since anyone looked at her with real suspicion ... how long since anyone got into sniffin distance of what she was. I bet it scared her in more ways than one. I bet it made her wonder if she wasn't finally losin her touch.'
'He might have talked to some of the other children, too,' Naomi said hesitantly. 'Compared stories and got answers that didn't quite jibe. Maybe they even saw her in different ways. The way you and Sam saw her in different ways.'
'It could be - any of those things could be. Whatever it was, he scared her into speedin up her plans.
' "I'll be at the Library all day tomorrow," she told me. "I'll make sure plenty of people see me there, too. But you - you're going to pay a visit to Deputy Power's house, Davey. You're going to watch and wait until you see that child alone - I don't think you'll have to wait long - and then you're going to snatch her and take her into the woods. Do whatever you want to her, but you make sure that the last thing you do is cut her throat. Cut her throat and leave her where she'll be found. I want that bastard to know before I see him."
'I couldn't say nothing. It was probably just as well for me that I was tongue-tied, because anything I said she would have taken wrong, and she probably would have ripped my head off. But I only sat at her kitchen table with my drink in my hand, starin at her, and she must have taken my silence for agreement.
'After that we went into the bedroom. It was the last time. I remember thinkin I wouldn't be able to have it off with her; that a scared man can't get it up. But it was fine, God help me. Ardelia had that kind of magic, too. We went and went