JК
Bag of Bones :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 247 из 425I’ve gone up to Philly for the weekendto see my mom and dad. I’ll be in the office on Monday; for the rest of the week, I’ll be out on business. From Tuesday to Friday you’ll probably have the most luck trying to reach me at…” The number he gave began 207–955, which meant Castle Rock. I imagined it was the hotel where he’d stayed before, the nice one up on the View. “Mike Noonan,” I said. “Call me when you can. I left a message on your apartment machine, too.” I went in the kitchen to get a beer, then only stood there in front of the refrigerator, playing with the magnets. Whoremaster, he’d called me. Say there, whoremaster, where’s your whore? A minute later he had offered to save my soul. Quite funny, really. Like an alcoholic offering to take care of your liquor cabinet. He spoke of you with what I think was genuine ajkction, Mattie had said. Your great-grandfather and his great-grandfather shit in the same pit. I left the fridge with all the beer still safe inside, went back to the phone, and called Mattie. “Hi,” said another obviously recorded voice. I was on a roll. “It’s me, but either I’m out or not able to come to the phone right this minute. Leave a message, okay?” A pause, the mike rustling, a distant whisper, and then Kyra, so loud she almost blew my ear off: “Leave a HAM’ message!”
What followed was laughter from both of them, cut off by the beep. “Hi, Mattie, it’s Mike Noonan,” I said. “I just wanted—” I don’t know how I would have finished that thought, and I didn’t have to. There was a click and then Mattie herself said, “Hello, Mike.” There was such a difference between this dreary, defeated-sounding voice and the cheerful one on the tape that for a moment I was silenced. Then I asked her what was wrong.
“Nothing,” she said, then began to cry. “Everything. I lost my job.
Lindy fired me.”
Firing wasn’t what Lindy had called it, of course. She’d called it “belt-tightening,” but it was firing, all right, and I knew that if I looked into the funding of the Four Lakes Consolidated Library, I would discover that one of the chief supporters over the years had been Mr. Max Devore. And he’d continue to be one of the chief supporters. . if, that was, Lindy Briggs played ball. “We shouldn’t have talked where she could see us doing it,” I said, knowing I could have stayed away from the library completely and Mattie would be just as gone. “And we probably should have seen this coming.”
“John Storrow did see it.” She was still crying, but making an effort to get it under control.
What followed was laughter from both of them, cut off by the beep. “Hi, Mattie, it’s Mike Noonan,” I said. “I just wanted—” I don’t know how I would have finished that thought, and I didn’t have to. There was a click and then Mattie herself said, “Hello, Mike.” There was such a difference between this dreary, defeated-sounding voice and the cheerful one on the tape that for a moment I was silenced. Then I asked her what was wrong.
“Nothing,” she said, then began to cry. “Everything. I lost my job.
Lindy fired me.”
Firing wasn’t what Lindy had called it, of course. She’d called it “belt-tightening,” but it was firing, all right, and I knew that if I looked into the funding of the Four Lakes Consolidated Library, I would discover that one of the chief supporters over the years had been Mr. Max Devore. And he’d continue to be one of the chief supporters. . if, that was, Lindy Briggs played ball. “We shouldn’t have talked where she could see us doing it,” I said, knowing I could have stayed away from the library completely and Mattie would be just as gone. “And we probably should have seen this coming.”
“John Storrow did see it.” She was still crying, but making an effort to get it under control.