JК
Bag of Bones :: Кинг Стивен
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“Then what was? Get to know his granddaughter? Mend his fences?”
“God, no. You still don’t understand what he was.”
“Tell me, then.”
“A human monster. He came back to buy her, but Mattie wouldn’t sell. Then, when Sara got hold of him, he began to plan Ki’s death. I suspect that Sara never found a more willing tool.”
“How many did she kill in all?” Frank asked. “I don’t know for sure. Idon’t think I want to. Based on Jo’s notes and clippings, I’d say that there were perhaps four other… directed murders, shall we call them?
… in the years between 1901 and 1998. All children, all K-names, all closely related to the men who killed her.”
“My God.”
“I don’t think God had much to do with it. . but she made them pay, all right.”
“You’re sorry for her, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I would have torn her apart before I let her put so much as a finger on Ki, but of course I am. She was raped and murdered. Her child was drowned while she herself lay dying. My God, aren’t you sorry for her?”
“I suppose I am. Mike, do you know who the other boy was? The crying boy? Was he the one who died of blood-poisoning?”
“Most of Jo’s notes concerned that part of it—it’s where she got started. Royce Merrill knew the story well. The crying boy was Reg Tid-well, Junior. You have to understand that by September of 1901, when the Red-Tops played their last show in Castle County, almost everyone on the TR knew that Sara and her boy had been murdered, and almost everyone had a good idea ofwho’d done it. “Reg Tidwell spent a lot of that August hounding the County Sheriff, Nehemiah Bannerman. At first it was to find them alive Tidwell wanted a search mounted—and then it was to find their bodies, and then it was to find their killers… because once he accepted that they were dead, he never doubted that they’d been murdered. “Bannerman was sympathetic at first.
Everyone seemed sympathetic at first. The Red-Top crowd had been treated wonderfully during their time on the TR—that was what infuriated Jared the most—and I think you can forgive Son Tidwell for making a crucial mistake.”
“What mistake was that?” Why, he got the idea that Mars was heaven, I thought. The TR must have seemed like heaven to them, right up until Sara and Kito went jr a stroll, the boy carrying his berry-bucket, and never came back. It must have seemed that they’d finally jund a place where they could be black people and still be allowed to breathe.
“Then what was? Get to know his granddaughter? Mend his fences?”
“God, no. You still don’t understand what he was.”
“Tell me, then.”
“A human monster. He came back to buy her, but Mattie wouldn’t sell. Then, when Sara got hold of him, he began to plan Ki’s death. I suspect that Sara never found a more willing tool.”
“How many did she kill in all?” Frank asked. “I don’t know for sure. Idon’t think I want to. Based on Jo’s notes and clippings, I’d say that there were perhaps four other… directed murders, shall we call them?
… in the years between 1901 and 1998. All children, all K-names, all closely related to the men who killed her.”
“My God.”
“I don’t think God had much to do with it. . but she made them pay, all right.”
“You’re sorry for her, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I would have torn her apart before I let her put so much as a finger on Ki, but of course I am. She was raped and murdered. Her child was drowned while she herself lay dying. My God, aren’t you sorry for her?”
“I suppose I am. Mike, do you know who the other boy was? The crying boy? Was he the one who died of blood-poisoning?”
“Most of Jo’s notes concerned that part of it—it’s where she got started. Royce Merrill knew the story well. The crying boy was Reg Tid-well, Junior. You have to understand that by September of 1901, when the Red-Tops played their last show in Castle County, almost everyone on the TR knew that Sara and her boy had been murdered, and almost everyone had a good idea ofwho’d done it. “Reg Tidwell spent a lot of that August hounding the County Sheriff, Nehemiah Bannerman. At first it was to find them alive Tidwell wanted a search mounted—and then it was to find their bodies, and then it was to find their killers… because once he accepted that they were dead, he never doubted that they’d been murdered. “Bannerman was sympathetic at first.
Everyone seemed sympathetic at first. The Red-Top crowd had been treated wonderfully during their time on the TR—that was what infuriated Jared the most—and I think you can forgive Son Tidwell for making a crucial mistake.”
“What mistake was that?” Why, he got the idea that Mars was heaven, I thought. The TR must have seemed like heaven to them, right up until Sara and Kito went jr a stroll, the boy carrying his berry-bucket, and never came back. It must have seemed that they’d finally jund a place where they could be black people and still be allowed to breathe.