JК
The Colorado Kid :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 26 из 81‘This litter basket and all the others are planted well above the hightide line, as anyone with half a brain would know, and there was no rain last night. Sand’s dry as a bone. Also, look.’
“He picked up the dead man’s left hand. We all observed that he was wearing a wedding ring, and also that there was no sand on his fingers or palm. Doc put that hand back down and picked up the other one again. He tipped it a little so the light shone better on the inside. ‘There,’ he says. ‘Do you see?’
“ ‘What is that?’ I ask. ‘Grease? A little bit of grease?’
“He smiled and said, ‘I think you win the teddy bear, Vincent. And see how his hand is curled?’
“ ‘Yuh—like he was playin spyglass,’ George says. By then we was all three on our knees, as if that litter basket was an altar and we were tryin to pray the dead guy back to life.
“ ‘No, I don’t think he was playing spyglass,’ Doc says, and I realized somethin, Steffi—he was excited in the way people only are when they’ve figured something out they know the likes of them have nobusiness figuring out in the ordinary course of things. He looked into the dead man’s face (at least I thought it was his face Doc was lookin at, but it turned out to be a little lower than that), then back at the curled right hand. ‘I don’t think so at all,’ he says.
“ ‘Then what?’ George says. ‘I want to get this reported to the State Police and the Attorney General’s Office, Chris. What Idon’t want is to spend the mornin on my knees while you play Ellery Queen.’
“ ‘See the way his thumb is almost touching his first finger and middle finger?’ Doc asks us, and of course we did. ‘If this guy had died looking through his rolledup hand, his thumb would have beenover his fingers, touching his middle finger and his third finger. Try it yourself, if you don’t believe me.’
“I tried it, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right.
“ ‘This isn’t a tube,’ Doc says, once again touching the dead man’s stiff right hand with his own finger. ‘This is apincers. Combine that with the grease and those little bits of sand on the palm and the insides of the fingers, and what do you get?’
“I knew, but since George was the law, I let him say it. ‘If he was eatin somethin when he died,’ he says, ‘where the hell is it?’
“Doc pointed to the dead man’s neck—which even Nancy Arnault had noticed, and thought of as puffy—and he says, ‘I’ve got an idea that most of it’s still right in there where he choked on it.
“He picked up the dead man’s left hand. We all observed that he was wearing a wedding ring, and also that there was no sand on his fingers or palm. Doc put that hand back down and picked up the other one again. He tipped it a little so the light shone better on the inside. ‘There,’ he says. ‘Do you see?’
“ ‘What is that?’ I ask. ‘Grease? A little bit of grease?’
“He smiled and said, ‘I think you win the teddy bear, Vincent. And see how his hand is curled?’
“ ‘Yuh—like he was playin spyglass,’ George says. By then we was all three on our knees, as if that litter basket was an altar and we were tryin to pray the dead guy back to life.
“ ‘No, I don’t think he was playing spyglass,’ Doc says, and I realized somethin, Steffi—he was excited in the way people only are when they’ve figured something out they know the likes of them have nobusiness figuring out in the ordinary course of things. He looked into the dead man’s face (at least I thought it was his face Doc was lookin at, but it turned out to be a little lower than that), then back at the curled right hand. ‘I don’t think so at all,’ he says.
“ ‘Then what?’ George says. ‘I want to get this reported to the State Police and the Attorney General’s Office, Chris. What Idon’t want is to spend the mornin on my knees while you play Ellery Queen.’
“ ‘See the way his thumb is almost touching his first finger and middle finger?’ Doc asks us, and of course we did. ‘If this guy had died looking through his rolledup hand, his thumb would have beenover his fingers, touching his middle finger and his third finger. Try it yourself, if you don’t believe me.’
“I tried it, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right.
“ ‘This isn’t a tube,’ Doc says, once again touching the dead man’s stiff right hand with his own finger. ‘This is apincers. Combine that with the grease and those little bits of sand on the palm and the insides of the fingers, and what do you get?’
“I knew, but since George was the law, I let him say it. ‘If he was eatin somethin when he died,’ he says, ‘where the hell is it?’
“Doc pointed to the dead man’s neck—which even Nancy Arnault had noticed, and thought of as puffy—and he says, ‘I’ve got an idea that most of it’s still right in there where he choked on it.