The Library Policeman: Three Past Midnight by Stephen King & Ken Howard

Author:Stephen King & Ken Howard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781598877496
Publisher: Penguin-HighBridge
Published: 1991-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

By Air to Des Moines

1

Sam looked at his wristwatch and was astounded to see it was almost 3:00 P.M.

Midnight was only nine hours away, and then the tall man with the silver eyes would be back. Or Ardelia Lortz would be back. Or maybe both of them together.

'What do you think I should do, Dave? Go out to the local graveyard and find Ardelia's body and pound a stake through her heart?'

'A good trick if you could do it,' he replied, 'since the lady was cremated.'

'Oh,' Sam said. He settled back into his chair with a little helpless sigh.

Naomi took his hand again. 'In any case, you won't be doing anything alone,' she said firmly. 'Dave says she means to do us as well as you, but that's almost beside the point. Friends stand by when there's trouble. That's the point. What else are they for?'

Sam lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. 'Thank you - but I don't know what you can do. Or me, either. There doesn't seem to be anything to do. Unless

. . .' He looked at Dave hopefully. 'Unless I ran?'

Dave shook his head. 'She - or it - sees. I told you that. I guess you could drive most of the way to Denver before midnight if you really put your foot down and the cops didn't catch you, but Ardelia Lortz would be right there to greet you when you got out of your car. Or you'd look over in some dark mile and see the Library Policeman sittin next to you on the seat.'

The thought of that - the white face and silver eyes, illuminated only by the green glow of the dashboard lights - made Sam shiver.

'What, then?'

'I think you both know what has to be done first,' Dave said. He drank the last of his iced tea and then set the glass on the porch. 'Just think a minute, and you'll see.'

Then they all looked out toward the grain elevator for awhile. Sam's mind was a roaring confusion; all he could catch hold of were isolated snatches of Dave Duncan's story and the voice of the Library Policeman, with his strange little lisp, saying I don't want to hear your thick ecthcuses ... You have until midnight ... then I come again.

It was on Naomi's face that light suddenly dawned.

'Of course!' she said. 'How stupid! But . . .'

She asked Dave a question, and Sam's own eying that sealed his fate. But I think there was a real Ardelia Lortz at one time . . . in Pass Christian, Mississippi

... or Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ... or Portland, Maine ... and the it took her over and put her on. Now she wants to do it again. If we let that happen, I think that later this year, in some other town, in San Francisco, California ...

or Butte, Montana ... or Kingston, Rhode Island ... a man named Sam Peebles will show u knows her new identity?'

'But -'

'But nothing,' Dave said.

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