Salem's Lot - Stephen King [78]
‘Oh yes. A good many of the older residents do, too. I wasn’t in the Lot then, but Mabel Werts and Glynis Mayberry and Milt Crossen were. Some of them have made the connection already.’
‘What connection?’
‘Come now, Ben. The connection is pretty obvious, isn’t it?’
I suppose so. The last time the house was occupied, four kids disappeared over a period of ten years. Now it’s occupied again after a thirty-six-year period, and Ralphie Glick disappears right off the bat.’
‘Do you think it’s a coincidence?’
‘I suppose so,’ Ben said cautiously. Susan’s words of caution were very much in his ears. ‘But it’s funny. I checked through the copies of the Ledger from 1939 to 1970 just to get a comparison. Three kids disappeared. One ran off and was later found working in Boston-he was sixteen and looked older. Another one was fished out of the Androscoggin a month later. And one was found buried off Route 116 in Gates, apparently the victim of a hit-and-run. All explained.’
‘Perhaps the Glick boy’s disappearance will be explained, too.’
‘Maybe.’
‘But you don’t think so. What do you know about this man Straker?’
‘Nothing at all,’ Ben said. ‘I’m not even sure I want to meet him. I’ve got a viable book working right now, and it’s bound up in a certain concept of the Marsten House and inhabitants of that house. Discovering Straker to be a perfectly ordinary businessman, as I’m sure he is, might knock me off kilter.’
‘I don’t think that would be the case. He opened the store today, you know. Susie Norton and her mother dropped by, I understand… hell, most of the women in town got in long enough to get a peek. According to Dell Markey, an unimpeachable source, even Mabel Werts hobbled down. The man is supposed to be quite striking. A dandy dresser, extremely graceful, totally bald, and charming. I’m told he actually sold some pieces.’
Ben grinned. ‘Wonderful. Has anyone seen the other half of the team?’
‘He’s on a buying trip, supposedly.’
‘Why supposedly?’
Matt shrugged restlessly. ‘I don’t know. The whole thing is probably perfectly on the level, but the house makes me nervous. Almost as if the two of them had sought it out. As you said, it’s like an idol, squatting there on top of its hill.’
Ben nodded.
‘And on top of everything else, we have another child disappearance. And Ralphie’s brother, Danny. Dead at twelve. Cause of death pernicious anemia.’
‘What’s odd about that? It’s unfortunate, of course-’
‘My doctor is a young fellow named Jimmy Cody, Ben. I had him in school. He was a little heller then, a good doctor now. This is gossip, mind you. Hearsay.’
‘Okay.’
‘I was in for a check-up, and happened to mention that it was a shame about the Glick boy, dreadful for his parents on top of the other one’s vanishing act. Jimmy said he had consulted with George Gorby on the case. The boy was anemic, all right. He said that a red cell count on a boy Danny’s age should run anywhere from eighty-five to ninety-eight per cent. Danny’s was down to forty-five per cent.’
‘Wow,’ Ben said.
‘They were giving him B12 injections and calf liver and it seemed to be working fine. They were going to release him the next day. And boom, he dropped dead.’
‘You don’t want to let Mabel Werts get that,’ Ben said. ‘She’ll be seeing natives with poison blowguns in the park.’
‘I haven’t mentioned it to anyone but you. And I don’t intend to. And by the way, Ben, I believe I’d keep the subject matter of your book quiet, if I were you. If Loretta Starcher asks what you’re writing about, tell her it’s architecture.’
‘I’ve already been given that advice.’
‘By Susan Norton, no doubt.’
Ben looked at his watch and stood up. ‘Speaking of Susan-’
‘The courting male in full plumage,’ Matt said. ‘As it happens, I have to go up to the school. We are reblocking the third act of the school play, a comedy of great social significance called Charley’s Problem.’
‘What is his problem?’
‘Pimples,’ Matt said, and grinned.
They walked to the door together, Matt pausing to pull on a faded school letter jacket. Ben thought