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AROUND THE TIME Mouse and Beezer first fail to see the little road and the NO TRESPASSING sign beside it, Jack Sawyer answers the annoying signal of his cell phone, hoping that his caller will turn out to be Henry Leyden with inforh an identification would be wonderful, he does not expect Henry to ID the voice; the Fishere, and Jack does not suppose the old villain has much of a social life, here or in the Territories What Henry can do, however, is to apply his finely tuned ears to the nuances of Burnside’s voice and describe what he hears in it If we did not know that Jack’s faith in his friend’s capacity to hear distinctions and patterns inaudible to other people was justified, that faith would seeic: Jack trusts that a refreshed, invigorated Henry Leyden will pick up at least one or two crucial details of history or character that will narrow the search Anything that Henry picks up will interest Jack

If soet rid of whoever it is, fast

The voice that answers his greeting revises his plans Fred Marshall wants to talk to him, and Fred is so wound up and incoherent that Jack must ask hiain," Fred says "Justbabbling and raving, and getting crazy like before, trying to rip through the walls ¡ª oh God, they put her in restraints and she hates that, she wants to help Ty, it’s all because of that tape Christ, it’s getting to be too much to handle, Jack, Mr Sawyer, Ioff at the mouth, but I’m really worried"

"Don’t tell me someone sent her the 911 tape," Jack says

"No, notwhat 911 tape? I’ about the one that was delivered to the hospital today Addressed to Judy Can you believe they let her listen to that thing? I want to strangle Dr Spiegleman and that nurse, Jane Bond What’s the oody, here’s a nice tape for you to listen to, Mrs Marshall, hold on, I’ll be right back with a cassette player On a mental ward? They don’t even bother to listen to it first? Look, whatever you’re doing, I’d be eternally grateful if you’d let me pick you up, so I could drive you over there You could talk to her You’re the only person who can calm her down"

"You don’t have to pick me up, because I’et it" Fred Marshall has beco there without ht lie "I thought you would probably be there already It’s a pity you weren’t"

"I would have had the sense to screen that tape before letting her hear it Do you knoas on that thing?"

"The Fisherreat communicator," Jack says "How bad was it?"

"You tell ether froleins to waver "The Fisher her Can you believe that? He said, Your little boy is very lonely Then he said so to call home and say hello to his n accent, or a speech i, so he wasn’t easy to understand right away Then he says, Say hello to your mommy, Tyler, and Tyler" Fred’s voice breaks, and Jack can hear hiain "Tyler, ah, Tyler was apparently too distressed to do , uncertain inhalation comes over the phone "And he cried, Jack, he cried" Unable to contain his feelings any longer, Fred weeps openly, unguardedly His breath rattles in his throat; Jack listens to all the wet, undignified, helpless noises people , and his heartrelents "Sorry Sometimes I think they’ll have to put ot on again" Fred breathes noisily for ato do Dere vill be oink zu haff sotch fun ¡ª Spiegle will be harvested like wheat Havv-uz-ted like wheed Who talks like that? What kind of person is this?"

"I wish I knew," Jack says "Maybe he was putting on an accent to sound even scarier Or to disguise his voice" He’d never disguise his voice, Jack thinks, he’s too delighted with hiet the tape from the hospital and listen to it myself And I’ll call you as soon as I have so," Marshall says "I probably o"

"Anything involving Wendell Green is automatically a mistake So what happened?"

"It was like he knew all about Tyler and just needed ht he must have heard from Dale, or the state troopers But Dale hasn’t made us public yet, has he?"

"Wendell has a network of little weasels that feed hi, that’s how he heard about it What did you tell hi the tape Oh, God, I’ht ¡ª I thought it would all get out anyhow"

"Fred, did you tell hi about rateful for your help And I think I said that you would probably be going in to see her this afternoon"

"Did you mention Ty’s baseball cap?"

"Do you think I’m nuts? As far as I’m concerned, that stuff is between you and Judy If I don’t get it, I’ot hireat reputation, but I got the feeling he isn’t everything he’s cracked up to be"

"You said a mouthful," Jack says "I’ll be in touch"

When Fred Marshall hangs up, Jack punches in Henry’s number

"I may be a little late, Henry I’ot a tape from the Fisher it over There’s so on here ¡ª on Judy’s tape, I guess he has son accent"

Henry tells Jack there is no rush He has not listened to the first tape yet, and noait until Jack co useful if he plays them in sequence At least, he could tell Jack if they were made by the same man "And don’t worry aboutby to take e Rathbun butters my bread today, baby ¡ª six or seven radio ads ’Even a blind man knows you want to treat your honey, your sweetheart, your lovey-dovey, your wife, your best friend through thick and thin, to a ht, and there’s no better place to show your appreciation to the old ball and chain than to take her to Cousin Buddy’s Rib Crib on South Wabash Street in beautiful don La Riviere!’ "

" ’The old ball and chain’?"

"You pay for George Rathbun, you get George Rathbun, warts and all"

Laughing, Jack tells Henry he will see him later that day, and pushes the Ra ticket?

He parks in front of the hospital instead of driving around to the parking lot, and trots across the concrete with his s are hurtling forward, picking up pace, and Jack has the sense that everything converges on Judy ¡ª no, on Judy and him The Fisherman has chosen them more purposefully than he did his first three victims: Amy St Pierre, Johnny Irkenhae ¡ª any three children would have done ¡ª but Tyler was Judy Marshall’s son, and that set hilih them, and the Fisheranisrisly present At Tansy Freneau’s, he had seen Judy as his key and the door it opened, and where did that door lead but into Judy’s Faraway?

Faraway God, that’s pretty Beautiful, in fact

Aaahthe word evokes Judy Marshall’s face, and when he sees that face, a door in his mind, a door that is his and his alone, flies open, and for a ether, and in shock, dread, and joyous expectation, freezes on the concrete six feet froh the door in his es: a stalled Ferris wheel, Santa Monica cops ht reflected off a black man’s bald head Yes, a bald man’s black head, that which he really and truly, in fact ood look, kiddo, here it is again There had been a guitar, but the guitar was elsewhere; the guitar belonged to thecomfortless Speedy Parker, God bless him God das and sang

Travelin’ Jack, ole Travelin’ Jack,

Got a far long way to go,

Longer way to come back

Worlds spin around hiside them, separated by a thin membrane composed of a thousand thousand doors, if only you kno to find them A thousand thousand red feathers, tiny ones, feathers froh one of those doors, Speedy’s Robin, as in robin’s-egg blue, thank you, Speedy, and a song that said Wake up, wake up, you sleepyhead

Or: Wake up, wake up, you DUNDERHEAD!

Crazily, Jack hears George Rathbun’s now-not-so genial roar: Eeeven a BLIIIND MAAAN coulda seen THIS one co, you KNOTHEAD!

"Oh, yeah?" Jack says out loud It is a good thing Head Nurse Jane Bond, Warden Bond, Agent OO Zero, cannot hear hih, but on the other hand, she’s unfair, and if she were to appear beside him now, she would probably clap hi hi you don’t know, old buddy: Judy Marshall has a Twinner, and the Twinner has been whispering through the wall for a considerable old time now It’s no surprise she finally started to shout"

A red-haired teenager in an ARDEN HS BASEBALL T-shirt shoves open the literal door six feet frorown-ups are weird, the look says; aren’t I glad I’h school student and not a mental-health professional, he does not clap our hero in irons and drag him sedated away to the padded room He simply takes care to steer a wide course around the , albeit with a touch of self-conscious stiffness in his gait

It is all about Twinners, of course Rebuking his stupidity, Jack raps his knuckles against the side of his head He should have seen it before; he should have understood immediately If he has any excuse, it is that at first he refused to think about the case despite Speedy’s efforts to wake hi on the Fisher his lected to consider the monster’s Twinner In Judy Marshall’s childhood, her Twinner had spoken to her through thatmore and more alarmed over the past h the le-natured and has no Twinner, the corresponding task fell to Speedy Now that everything see to see the pattern

And this is why he has resented everything that kept hi before Judy Marshall: Judy is the doorway to her Twinner, to Tyler, and to the destruction of both the Fisherman and his opposite number in the Territories, the builder of the satanic, fiery structure a crow na showed Tansy Freneau Whatever happens on Ward D today, it is going to be world-altering

Heart thruht into the vast ocher space of the lobby The same bathrobed patients seem to occupy the many chairs; in a distant corner, the same doctors discuss a troublesome case or, who knows, that tricky tenth hole at Arden Country Club; the saolden lilies raise their luxuriant, attentive heads outside the gift shop This repetition reassures Jack, it hastens his step, for it surrounds and cushions the unforeseeable events awaiting him on the fifth floor

The same bored clerk responds to the proffer of the sareen card staly similar to one in the Ritz H?tel on the Place Vend?me obediently treer-like progress pausing to ad doctor who summons the memory of Roderick Usher, then releases Jack on five, where the beautiful ocher light seee lobby Frouide Fred Marshall down the corridor, through the two sets of double doors and past the way stations of Gerontology and A closer and closer to the unforeseen unforeseeable as the corridors grow narrower and darker, and eh, skinny s and a lot of walnut-colored wood

And there the spell breaks, for the attendant seated behind the polished counter, the person currently the guardian of this realer, and considerably more sullen than his counterpart of the day before When Jack asks to see Mrs Marshall, the young person glances in disdain at his VISITOR card and inquires if he should happen to be a relative or ¡ª another glance at the card ¡ª aperson could trouble himself to inform Nurse Bond that Mr Saishes to speak to Mrs Marshall, Nurse Bond is practically guaranteed to swing open the forbidding metal doors and wave him inward, since that is ood, if it happens to be true, the young person allows, but Nurse Bond is not going to be doing any door opening and waving in today, for today Nurse Bond is off duty Could it be that when Mr Sawyer showed up to see Mrs Marshall yesterday he was accompanied by a family member, say Mr Marshall?

Yes And if Mr Marshall were to be consulted, say via the telephone, he would urge the young fellow presently discussing the matter in a coentlerants, but hospital regulations require that non person’s obtain authorization for any outside telephone calls

And from whom, Jack wishes to knoould this authorization be obtained?

Fro a little hot, as they say, under the collar, suggests in that case that the young person seek out the excellent Nurse Rack and obtain the required authorization, so that things ress in the manner Mr Marshall, the patient’s husband, would wish

No, the young person sees no reason to pursue such a course, the reason being that doing so would represent a pitiful waste of time and effort Mr Sawyer is not a member of Mrs Marshall’s family; therefore the excellent Nurse Rack would under no circu he could strangle this irritating pip-squeak, "let’s move a step up the adle person says "How’le he does"

Jack points to the telephone at the end of the counter "I don’t expect you to know, I expect you to find out Get on that phone now"

The young man slouches down the counter to the telephone, rolls his eyes, punches two nuainst the counter with his back to the rooh, then say, "All right, transferthat includes Jack’s name Whatever he hears in response causes hiht and sneak a wide-eyed look over his shoulder at Jack "Yes, sir He’s here now, yes I’ll tell hileht away" The boy ¡ª he is no more than twenty ¡ª steps back and shoves his hands in his pockets "You’re that cop, huh?"

"What cop?" Jack says, still irritated

"The one fro"

"Yes, that’s , and boy, that was souessed Mr Kinderling? Are you kidding? You’d never believe that someone like that wouldyou know, kill people"

"Did you know hi, everybody sort of knows everybody, but I didn’t really know Mr Kinderling, except to say hi The one I kneas his wife She used to be my Sunday school teacher at Mount Hebron Lutheran"

Jack cannot help it; he laughs at the incongruity of theSunday school classes Theher husband’s sentencing stops his laughter, but it is too late He sees that he has offended the young man "What was she like?" he asks "As a teacher"

"Just a teacher," the boy says His voice is uninflected, resentful "She made us memorize all the books of the Bible" He turns away and mutters, "Some people think he didn’t do it"

"What did you say?"

The boy half-turns toward Jack but looks at the broall in front of him "I said, So They think he got put in jail because he was a suy who didn’t know anybody out there"

"That’s too bad," Jack says "Do you want to know the real reason Mr Kinderling went to prison?"

The boy turns the rest of the way and looks at Jack

"Because he was guilty of murder, and he confessed That’s it, that’s all Titnesses put him at the scene, and two other people saw hi to Denver After that, he said, Okay, I did it I alanted to knohat it was like to kill a girl, and one day I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I went out and killed thores His lawyer tried to get hi found him sane, and he went to prison"

The boy lowers his head and

"I couldn’t hear that," Jack says

"Lots of ways to uy confess" The boy repeats the sentence just loud enough to be heard

Then footsteps ring in the hallway, and a pluoatee co toward Jack with his hand out The boy has turned away The opportunity to convince the attendant that he did not beat a confession out of Thornberg Kinderling has slipped away The soatee seizes Jack’s hand, introduces hilee (Personage, persiflage, Jack thinks) From one step behind the doctor, a man unnoticed until this moment steps fully into view and says, "Hey, Doctor, do you knoould be perfect? If Mr Faether Twice the information in half the time ¡ª perfect"

Jack’s storeeting the doctor, Jack turns to the otherhere, Wendell? You promised Fred Marshall you’d stay away from his wife"

Wendell Green holds up his hands and dances back on the balls of his feet "Are we calmer today, Lieutenant Sawyer? Not inclined to use a sucker punch on the hardworking press, are we? I have to say, I’ assaulted by the police"

Dr Spiegle, Mr Green?"

"Yesterday, before that cop knocked ht, Lieutenant Sawyer here punched ood thing I’m a reasonable man, or I’d have filed lawsuits already But, Doctor, you knohat? I don’t do things that way I believe everything works out better if we cooperate with each other"

Halfway through this self-serving speech, Jack thinks, Oh hell, and glances at the young attendant The boy’s eyes burn with loathing A lost cause: now Jack will never persuade the boy that he did not ratulating himself, Jack has had a bellyful of his specious, se of his take, if I let hiraphs of Irma Freneau’s corpse," he tells the doctor "What he is asking now is equally unthinkable Mr Marshall urged me to come here and see his wife, and he made Mr Green promise not to come"

"Technically, that may be true," Green says "As an experienced journalist, I know that people often say things they don’t ret Fred Marshall understands that his wife’s story is going to coht of the Fisherman’s latest communication," Green says "This tape proves that Tyler Marshall is his fourth victi do you think that can be kept froree that the boy’s mother should be able to explain the situation in her oords?"

"I refuse to be badgered like this" The doctor scowls at Green and gives Jack a look of warning "Mr Green, I a you out of this hospital I wish to discuss several matters with Lieutenant Sawyer, in private If you and the lieutenant can work out soreement between the two of you, that is your affair I a to permit a joint intervieith my patient I am in no way certain that she should talk to Lieutenant Sawyer, either She is calile"

"The best way to deal with her problem is to let her express herself," Green says

"You will be quiet now, Mr Green," Dr Spiegleoatee turn a warlares at Jack "What specifically is it that you request, Lieutenant?"

"Do you have an office in this hospital, Doctor?"

"I do"

"Ideally, I’d like to spend about half an hour,to Mrs Marshall in a safe, quiet environment where our conversation would be completely confidential Your office would probably be perfect There are toointerrupted or having other patients listen in"

"My office," Spiegle"

"Come with me," the doctor says "Mr Green, you will please stand back next to the counter while Lieutenant Sawyer and I step into the hallway"

"Anything you say" Green executes a estion of dance steps, to the counter "In your absence, I’ to talk about"

S, Wendell Green props his elbows on the counter and watches Jack and Dr Spiegleainst the floor tiles until it sounds as though they have gone more than halfway down the corridor Then there is silence Still s, Wendell about-faces and finds the attendant openly staring at him

"I read you all the tiood"

Wendell’s sent What a stunning combination Tell me your name"

"Ethan Evans"

"Ethan, we do not have much time here, so let’s make this snappy Do you think responsible members of the press should have access to information the public needs?"

"You bet"

"And wouldn’t you agree that an inforainst le, vertical wrinkle appears between Ethan Evans’s eyebrows "Weapons?"

"Let me put it this way Isn’t it true that the more we know about the Fisher him?"