John said, “Ted, you need to just calm down.”
“You keep your enormous cock out of this, John. This is between me and him.”
Dave shrugged out of Ted’s grip. His eyes narrowed in the way that they did when Dave was feeling that rage fire inside him. It was like he was trying to keep the blaze from flying out of his eye sockets and obliterating everything, Cyclops-style.
Dave gritted his teeth and said, “You’ve had a trauma, Mr. Knoll. You’re not thinking clearly. Trust me, an additional trauma won’t make it better. I don’t want to fight you, but if you want a fight, I’ll give you one.” Dave pulled his shirt over his head, exposing the torso of a badly shaved bear. “Look. You see this scar on my chest? That’s a bullet wound. You see this scar on my shoulder? That’s a knife wound—I did that one myself. See the one on my cheek? I can’t even explain that one in a way that you’d believe. I got a half dozen more I can’t show you unless we go somewhere private. I’ve been cut, I’ve been burned, I’ve been chewed on, I’ve been Tasered. So yeah, you want to fight, I’ll give you a fight. I won’t win, you’re a trained soldier and I’m a sack of guts designed to convert beer into piss and depression. But I’ll say this—nobody who’s ever fought me has ever come back for seconds.”
Lightning flashed. Ted sneered and said, “Oh yeah? Well, maybe you don’t survive this one.”
John said, “Mr. Knoll, think about what you’re accusing him of, and all you’ve seen today. You’re not accusing him of stealing your child. You’re accusing him of stealing your child using dark magic. You want to fight a kiddy diddler in a dildo store parking lot, I understand that completely, I’ve done that myself. But are you sure you want to fight a sexual deviant who is also a wizard? That’s how you wind up with a cursed asshole.”
Dave said, “Look. We just talked to the cops. Your Maggie wasn’t the only kid to go missing last night. There was at least one more and John and I are the best chance at finding them and whoever’s doing this. You want to think we’re behind it, behind all of this, that’s fine, you keep thinking it. Follow us around town if you want. But what’s happening here, it’s bigger than us. And if you think you’re going to stand in our way, then I’ve just got one thing to say to you…”
Me
“… I’m very sorry for everything you’ve been through, and all I can do is beg for your patience. Give us twenty-four hours to solve this. After that if you want to kill me, go right ahead. Not like the flags are going to fly at half-mast the next day.”
Ted worked his jaw, grunted, then turned and headed back toward his Impala, shaking his head. He stabbed his finger back toward me and said, “I’ll be watching. You can guaran-fucking-tee it.”
As he pulled away, John stepped back under the awning of the Venus Flytrap to get out of the rain. He lit a cigarette and asked, “If it comes down to you and that guy, like if he forces the issue, what will you do? I know you don’t want to kill anybody, but…”
“I don’t know, man. You’ve killed him once already, how was it?”
“Let me ask you something else. When you walked in and saw what looked like me on the couch having committed suicide, did you believe it?”
“Well, yeah. It looked completely real.”
“But in that moment, did you believe I had done it? That it was something I would do? Do you think I’m suicidal?”
“Well, no. I don’t know…”
“Why didn’t you assume that I was murdered, and it was just staged as a suicide?”
“I don’t know, I only had a few minutes to think about it. I don’t understand what you’re asking.”
“If Nymph creates these doppelgangers out of your own mind, if he picks through and pulls out the things you’re most afraid of … why did you have that on the brain?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t.”
“Because you know I would never do that, right? I would never leave the job unfinished. I would never leave you guys behind. It wouldn’t even cross my mind. It wouldn’t cross Amy’s, either.”
“Great, John, good to hear. Let’s go.”
“Aren’t we waiting for Amy?”
“She’s asleep. She has work.”
“Did you ask her if she wanted to go?”
“No, she was asleep when you called.”
“Go wake her up and ask her.”
“I am not going to do that, because she’s going to be pissed off that I woke her up to go do this bullshit when she has to work a night shift. You want to do it, go right up there. But let her know it was your idea when she tells you to fuck off.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, John, Amy, and I pulled into Camelot Terrace. Not the best trailer park in town, but not the shittiest, either. Maybe the fourth shittiest.
“The detective said she was nuts,” said John. “But who knows what that even means, in this town. I asked her how to find the trailer and she said look for the one with the sandbags.”
Amy said, “She’s a single mom?”
“Yeah, don’t know if there’s a dad in the picture somewhere.”
“That’s interesting. The Knolls were separated. Could be a pattern.”
John said, “I don’t think that’s a pattern in these crimes so much as it’s just a pattern in America in general. Also got a similar-sounding name to the other kid—Mikey.”
Amy said, “Up there.”
Chastity’s trailer was, in fact, the only one in the park with a waist-high wall of white sandbags around it. We climbed over the barrier and knocked. The door was opened by a black woman who was built like an NFL defensive lineman.
As a greeting, she said, “Oh, shit!”
John said, “Ms. Payton, my name is—”
“I know who you are, I got the Internet. Isn’t there supposed to be a third one? Little redheaded girl with glasses? Oh, there she is. Didn’t see her standin’ off to the side.”
I said, “Yeah, uh, did John explain why we’re here?”
“Come in, you look like a bunch of pissed-on toilet rats out there.”
The furniture and floor of Chastity’s living room were covered in clear plastic drop cloths, like she was expecting a bloodbath. There was a huge stuffed fish mounted on the wall.
I said, “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get sandbags?”
She shrugged. “I paid a couple of guys to put down sandbags. Did it two weeks ago, only took ’em one day. Couple of rednecks, worked like horses. Neighbors thought I was crazy. Now who’s crazy? Got a gas generator, too. Enough to keep the fridge and lights on if the grid goes down. Got bighead carp in the Deepfreeze, caught with these two hands. Well, I used a pole, you know. If you can’t do the basics for yourself, you’re a slave to the system. You want something to drink? Got milk, juice, and water, that’s it. No booze, no coffee, no soft drinks. Can’t afford addictions in my life. You gonna ask me about Mikey?”
I said, “Uh, yeah, before he went missing, did a creepy guy come around? A stranger, I mean?”
“Not that I saw. Is he a ghost?”
John said, “Why do you ask that?”
“Whoever took Mikey, he was a ghost or a ninja, and I think I would’ve still heard a ninja. I was sleeping right there on that sofa at the time, guy would’ve had to go right past me. Twice. And I’m a light sleeper. And even if this freak’s a master of stealth, even if he can float across the floor like a hummingbird, you’d think Mikey would have made a fuss all the way out the door. This is a boy who kicked a hole in the paneling by the bed because he was having a bad dream. You found that little blond girl out by the spooky old mine, right? You check around there real good to make sure no other kids were stashed nearby?”