Needful Things - Stephen King [148]
At last the bodies themselves were taken care of-except, that was, for one final matter. Payton gave Alan a pair of disposable surgical gloves and a Ziploc Baggie. "The cleaver or the knife?"
"I'll take the cleaver," Alan said. It would be the messier of the two implements, still clotted with Wilma jerzyck's brains, but he didn't want to touch Nettle. He had liked her.
With the murder weapons removed, tagged, bagged, and on their way to Augusta, the two CID teams moved in and began to search the area around the bodies, which still lay in their terminal embrace with the blood pooled between them now hardening to a substance like enamel.
When Ray Van Allen was finally allowed to load them into the Medical Assistance van, the scene was lit with police cruiser high beams and the orderlies first had to peel Wilma and Nettle apart.
During most of this, Castle Rock's Finest stood around feeling like bumps on a log.
Henry Payton joined Alan on the sidelines during the conclusion of the oddly delicate ballet known as On-Scene Investigation.
"Lousy damned way to spend a Sunday afternoon," he said.
Alan nodded.
"I'm sorry the head moved on you. That was bad luck."
Alan nodded again.
"I don't think anyone's going to bother you about it, though.
You've got at least one good pic of the original position." He looked toward Norris, who was talking with Clut and the newly arrived John LaPointe. "You're just lucky that old boy there didn't put his finger over the lens."
"Aw, Norris is all right."
"So's K-Y jelly in its place. Anyway, the whole thing looks pretty simple."
Alan agreed. That was the trouble; he had known that long before he and Norris finished their Sunday tour of duty in an alley behind Kennebec Valley Hospital. The whole thing was too pretty simple, maybe.
"You planning to attend the cutting party?" Henry asked.
"Yes. Is Ryan going to do it?"
"That's what I understand."
"I thought I might take Norris with me. The bodies will go to Oxford first, won't they?"
"Uh-huh. That's where we log them in."
"If Norris and I left now, we could be in Augusta before they get there."
Henry Payton nodded. "Why not? I think it's buttoned up here."
"I'd like to send one of my men with each of your CID teams.
As observers. Do you have a problem with that?"
Payton thought it over. "Nope-but who's going to keep the peace?
Ole Scat Thomas?"
Alan felt a sudden flash of something which was a little too hot to be dismissed as mere annoyance. It had been a long day, he'd listened to Henry rag on his deputies about as much as he wanted to yet he needed to stay on Henry's good side in order to hitch a ride on what was technically a State Police case, and so he held his tongue.
"Come on, Henry. It's Sunday night. Even The Mellow Tiger's closed."
"Why are you so hot to stick with this, Alan? Is there something hinky about it? I understand there was bad feeling between the two women, and that the one on top already offed someone. Her husband, no less."
Alan thought about it. "No-nothing hinky. Nothing that I know about, anyway. It's just that "
"It doesn't quite jell in your head yet?"
"Something like that."
"Okay. just as long as your men understand they're there to listen and no more."
Alan smiled a little. He thought of telling Payton that if he instructed Clut and John LaPointe to ask questions, they would probably run the other way, and decided not to. "They'll keep their lips zipped," he said. "You can count on it."
3
And so here they were, he and Norris Ridgewick, after the longest Sunday in living memory. But the day had one thing in common with the lives of Nettle and Wilma: it was over.
"Were you thinking about checking into a motel room for the night?" Norris asked hesitantly. Alan didn't have to be a mindreader to know what he was thinking about: the fishing he would miss tomorrow.
"Hell, no." Alan bent and picked up the gown he had used to prop the door open. "Let's beat feet."
"Great