Needful Things - Stephen King [173]
"Hey!" Ace yelled. "What are you doing?"
"I just remembered that book is already promised to another customer, Mr. Merrill. I'm sorry. And I really am closed-it's Columbus Day, you know."
"Wait a minute!"
"Of course, if you had seen fit to take the job, I'm sure something could have been worked out. But I can see that you're very busy; you undoubtedly want to make sure your affairs are in order before the Corson Brothers turn you into coldcuts."
Ace's mouth had begun to open and close again. He was trying to remember where the little crosses had been and was discovering that he couldn't do it. All of them seemed to blend together into one big cross in his jazzed-up, flying mind the sort of cross you saw in cemeteries.
"All right!" he cried. "All right, I'll take the fucking job!"
"In that case, I believe this book is for sale after all," Mr.
Gaunt said. He drew it out of the drawer and checked the flyleaf.
"It goes for a dollar and a half." His jostling teeth appeared in a wide, sharky smile. "That's a dollar thirty-five, with the employee discount."
Ace drew his wallet from his back pocket, dropped it, and almost clouted his head on the edge of the glass case bending over to pick it up.
"But I've got to have some time off," he told Mr. Gaunt. :,Indeed." 'Because I really do have some digging to do."
"Of course."
"Time is short."
"How wise of you to know it."
"How about when I get back from Boston?"
"Won't you be tired?"
"Mr. Gaunt, I can't afford to be tired."
"I might be able to help you there," Mr. Gaunt said. His smile widened and his teeth bulged from it like the teeth of a skull. "I might have a little pick-me-up for you, is what I mean to say." :,What?" Ace asked, his eyes widening. "What did you say?" 'I beg your pardon?"
"Nothing," Ace said. "Never mind."
"All right-do you still have the keys I gave you?"
Ace was surprised to discover that he had stuffed the envelope containing the keys into his back pocket.
"Good." Mr. Gaunt rang up $1.35 on the old register, took the five-dollar bill Ace had laid on the counter, and rendered three dollars and sixty-five cents change. Ace took it like a man in a dream.
"Now," Mr. Gaunt said. "Let me give you a few directions, Ace.
And remember what I said: I want you back by midnight. If you're not back by midnight, I will be unhappy. When I'm unhappy, I sometimes lose my temper. You wouldn't want to be around when that happens."
"Do you Hulk out?" Ace asked jestingly.
Mr. Gaunt looked up with a grinning ferocity that caused Ace to retreat a step. "Yes," he said. "That's just what I do, Ace. I Hulk out. Indeed I do. Now pay attention."
Ace paid attention.
It was quarter of eleven and Alan was just getting ready to go down to Nan's and catch a quick cup of coffee when Sheila Brigham buzzed him. It was Sonny jackett on line one, she said. He insisted on talking to Alan and nobody else.
Alan picked up the phone. "Hello, Sonny-what can I do for you?"
"Well," Sonny said in his drawling downeast accent, "I hate to put more trouble on your plate after the double helpin you got yesterday, Sheriff, but I think an old friend of yours is back in town."
"Who's that?"
"Ace Merrill. I seen his car parked upstreet from here."
Oh shit, what next? Alan thought. "Did you see him?"
"Nope, but you can't miss the car. Puke-green Dodge Challenger-what the kids call a ramrod. I seen it up to the Plains."
"Well, thanks, Sonny."
"Don't mention it-what do you suppose that booger's doin back in Castle Rock, Alan?"
"I don't know," Alan said, and thought as he hung up: But I guess I betterfind out.
12
There was a space empty next to the green Challenger. Alan swung Unit I in next to it and got out. He saw Bill Fullerton and Henry Gendron looking out the barber-shop window at him with brighteyed interest and raised a hand to them. Henry pointed across the street.
Alan nodded and crossed. Wilma jerzyck and Nettle Cobb kill each other on a street-corner one day and Ace Merrill turns up