Salem's Lot

6

They were sitting in the car again. They had watched Pauline drive off to work without speaking.

‘Now what?’ Ben asked finally.

‘It’s a balls-up,’ Jimmy said. ‘The Jewish fellow is Maury Green. I think maybe we ought to drive over to Cumberland. Nine years ago Maury’s boy almost drowned at Sebago Lake. I happened to be there with a girl friend, and I gave the kid artificial respiration. Got his motor going again. Maybe this is one time I ought to trade on somebody’s good will.’

‘What good will it do? The ME will have taken her body for autopsy or postmortem or whatever they call it.’

‘I doubt it. It’s Sunday, remember? The ME will be out in the woods someplace with a rock hammer-he’s an amateur geologist. Norbert-do you remember Norbert?’

Ben nodded.

‘Norbert is supposed to be on call, but he’s erratic. He’s probably got the phone off the hook so he can watch the Packers and the Patriots. If we go up to Maury Green’s funeral parlor now, there’s a pretty fair chance the body will be there unclaimed until after dark.’

‘All right,’ Ben said. ‘Let’s go.’

He remembered the call he was to have made on Father Callahan, but it would have to wait. Things were going very fast now. Too fast to suit him. Fantasy and reality had merged.