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"So an impersonation?"

"If it was, then there’s someone out there who makes Rich Little look like an amateur"

"Did he sound as if he-"

Bryce broke off in h the archway

The girlweird is happening in the kitchen"

Before Bryce could stop her, she ran back the way she had couns as they went, and Bryce ordered them to halt "Stay here Stay on the job"

Jenny had already sprinted after the girl

Bryce hurried into the dining rooht up with Jenny, moved ahead of her, drew his revolver, and followed Lisa through the swinging doors into the hotel kitchen

The three an, Henry Wong, and Max Dunbar-had put down their can openers and cooking utensils in favor of their service revolvers, but they didn’t knohat to ai disconcerted and baffled

"Here we go ’round the mulberry bush,

the mulberry bush, the ing A little boy His voice was clear and fragile and sweet

"Here we go ’round the !"

"The sink," Lisa said, pointing

Puzzled, Bryce went to the nearest of three double sinks Jenny caed The voice was the same:

"This old man, he plays one;

he plays nicknack ona bone-"

The child’s voice was co out of the drain in the sink, as if he were trapped far down in the pipes

"-this oldhome"

For metronomic seconds, Bryce listened with spellbound intensity He was speechless

He glanced at Jenny She gave him the same astonished stare that he had seen on hisdoors

"It just started all of a sudden," Lisa said, raising her voice above the singing

"When?" Bryce asked

"A couple ofat the sink," Max Dunbar said He was a burly, hairy, rough-lookingstarted up… Jesus, I ain The sweetness was replaced by a cloying, al piety:

"Jesus loves me, this I know,

for the Bible tellssaid, "How can it be?"

"Little ones to Hi about the singing was overtly threatening; yet, like the noises Bryce and Jenny had heard on the telephone, the child’s tender voice, issuing fro Creepy

"Yes, Jesus lovesabruptly ceased

"Thank God!" Max Dunbar said with a shudder of relief, as if the child’s , off-key "That voice was drilling right through to the roots of my teeth!"

After several seconds had passed in silence, Bryce began to lean toward the drain, to peer into it-

–and Jenny saidexploded out of that dark, round hole

Everyone cried out, and Lisa screa hi his revolver up, bringing thethat cah-pressure streareasy water shot al It was a short burst, only a second or two, spraying in every direction

Some of the foul droplets struck Bryce’s face Dark blotches appeared on the front of his shirt The stuff stank

It was exactly what you would expect to gush out of a backed-up drain: dirty broater, threads of gu’s breakfast scraps which had been run through the garbage disposal

Gordy got a roll of paper towels, and they all scrubbed at their faces and blotted at the stains on their clothes

They were still wiping at theain, when Tal Whitot a call General Copperfield and his teah a couple of o"

Chapter 23 – The Crisis Team