On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field.
Авторы: King Stephen Edwin
She hadn’t acted since playing Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire back in junior college, but she was going onstage again this morning. The only good review she wanted was her continued freedom and that of the people out back.
She hurried through the living room, fixing what she hoped was a suitably anxious look on her face before opening the door.
Carter was standing on the WELCOME mat with his fist raised to knock. She had to look up at him; she was five-nine, but he was over half a foot taller.
‘Well, look at you,’ he said, smiling. ‘All brighteyed and bushy-tailed, and it’s not even seven-thirty.’
He did not feel that much like smiling; it hadn’t been a productive morning. The preacher lady was gone, the newspaper bitch was gone, her two pet reporters seemed to have disappeared, and so had Rose Twitchell. The restaurant was open and the Wheeler kid was minding the store, but said he had no clue as to where Rose might be. Carter believed him. Anse Wheeler looked like a dog who’s forgotten where he buried his favorite bone. Judging by the horrible smells coming from the kitchen, he had no clue when it came to cooking, either. Carter had gone around back, checking for the Sweet-briar van. It was gone. He wasn’t surprised.
After the restaurant he’d checked the department store, hammering first in front, then in back, where some careless clerk had left a bunch of roofing material rolls out for any Light-Finger Harry to steal. Except when you thought about it, who’d bother with roofing material in a town where it no longer rained?
Carter had thought Everett’s house would also be a dry hole, only went there so he could say he’d followed the boss’s instructions to the letter, but he had heard kids in the backyard as he walked up the idriveway. Also, her van was there. No doubt it was hers; one of those stick-on bubble-lights was sitting on the dash. The boss had said moderate questioning, but since Linda Everett was the only one he could find, Carter thought he might go on the hard side of moderate. Like it or not—and she wouldn’t—Everett would have to answer for the ones he hadn’t been able to find as well as herself. But before he could open his mouth, she was talking. Not only talking, but taking him by the hand, actually pulling him inside.
‘Have you found him? Please, Carter, is Rusty okay? If he’s not…’ She let go of his hand. ‘If he’s not, keep your voice down, the kids are out back and I don’t want them any more upset than they are already.’
Carter walked past her into the kitchen and peered out through the window over the sink. ‘What’s the hippie doctor doing here?’
‘He brought the kids he’s taking care of. Caro brought thern to the jmeeting last night, and… you know what happened to her.’
This speed-rap babble was the last thing Carter had expected. Maybe she didn’t know anything. The fact that she’d been at the meeting last night and was still here this morning certainly argued in favor of the idea. Or maybe she was just trying to keep him off-balance. Making a what-did-you-call-it, preemptive strike. It was possible; she was smart. You only had to look at her to see that. Also sort of pretty, for an older babe.
‘Have you found him? Did Barbara…’ She found it easy to put a catch in her voice. ‘Did Barbara hurt him? Hurt him and leave him somewhere? You can tell me the truth.’
He turned to her, smiling easily in the diluted light coming in through the window. ‘You go first.’
‘What?’
‘You go first, I said. You tell me the truth.’
‘All I know is he’s gone.’ She let her shoulders slump. ‘And you don’t know where. I can see you don’t. What if Barbara kills him? What if he’s killed him aire—’
Carter grabbed her, spun her around as he would have spun a partner at a country dance, and hoisted her arm behind her back until her shoulder creaked. It was done with such eerie, liquid speed that she had no idea he meant to do it until it was done.
He knows! He knows and he’s going to hurt me! Hurt me until I tell-
His breath was hot in her ear. She could feel his beard-stubble tickling her cheek as he spoke, and it made her break out in shivers.
‘Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Mom.’ It was little more than a whisper. ‘You and Wettington have always been tight—hip to hip and tit to tit. You want to tell me you didn’t know she was going to break your husband out? That what you’re saying?’
He jerked her arm higher and Linda had to bite her lip to stifle a scream.The kids were right out therejannie calling over her shoulder forThurse to push her higher. If they heard a scream from the house—
‘If she’d told me, I would have told Randolph,’ she panted. ‘Do you think I’d risk Rusty getting hurt when he didn’t do anything?’
‘He did plenty. Threatened
