Suffer the children by John Saul

Author:John Saul [John Saul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SF
ISBN: 9780440182931
Published: 1989-07-01T17:47:39+00:00

16

Port Arbello sat up late that night.

At ten o’clock, when she was usually in bed, Marilyn Burton found herself getting into her car and driving out the Conger’s Point Road to spend however long it took with Norma Norton. The two women sat drinking coffee and talking quietly about anything except their children, each of them mentioning several times that the coffee would surely keep them awake all night. They carefully avoided mentioning that they expected to be awake all night anyway. Instead, they simply went ahead and drank the coffee.

Shortly after eleven, Martin Forager appeared at the police station, his breath reeking of whiskey and his manner truculent.

“Well,” he demanded. “Now what have you got to say for yourself?”

Ray Norton glanced up at Forager, and his finger stopped dialing the telephone on his desk. He was in the last stages of organizing a search party, and Marty Forager’s interruption was annoying. But he put his annoyance aside and spoke mildly. “About what, Marty?”

Forager sat heavily in the chair opposite the police chief, a surly expression darkening his face. “She hasn’t showed up yet, has she?”

“No,” Norton agreed, “she hasn’t. But I still don’t see what you’re getting at.”

“I know what this town thinks,” Forager challenged. “I hear the rumors too. They think my Annie lied. That nothing happened to her.”

“By now Anne was home, wasn’t she?” Norton replied quietly. He glanced at his watch. “Unless I’m wrong, Anne came in at eleven. It’s nearly eleven thirty now.”

Forager glared at him. “You wait,” he said. “You just wait, and you’ll see. Shell turn up, and she’ll turn up with the same story.”

“I don’t care what story she has,” Norton said. “I just hope she turns up.”

“She will,” Marty Forager repeated. “You just wait.”

“I will, Marty,” Ray Norton said as the man opposite him got to his feet “Where you heading?”

“Saw Conger’s lights on,” Martin Forager said thickly. “I thought I’d go over there and see what he’s up to.”

Ray Norton put on his best policeman manner. “I think I’d go on home if I were you,” he said, his voice turning it from a suggestion into an order. Forager swung slowly around to stare at the police chief.

“You telling me what to do?”

“Not really,” Norton said affably. “But it’s a busy night around here, and I think it’s a busy night at the Courier, too. And it doesn’t concern you, Marty. Go on home, and talk to Jack Conger in the morning if you still think you want to.”

“You and he are pretty buddy-buddy, aren’t you?” Forager said suspiciously. “And you both live out on the Point Road, where all the trouble seems to be, don’t you?” He leered drunkenly at the policeman, who considered the advantages of putting him in the one cell Port Arbello possessed to sleep it off. He decided against it. Instead, he smiled agreeably.

“That’s right, Marty. I thought you knew. Ever since I got to be chief of police and Jack Conger took over as editor of the Courier, we’ve been entertaining ourselves by kidnapping little girls.

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