9. The Phone

Christmas tree in the corner, and a red light from a smoke detector on the ceiling. It was getting too crowded in here, too many voices that wouldn't let me sleep. The big heater unit under the windows shut off, and there was a disturbing silence that was immediately broken by the phone.

My first instinct was to put it up and slam it right back down.

I didn't, though. It could've been something important. Hello?

“I can bring some prior to your room, there's a secret in the pie.”

And then I did slam it down. Now I was the butt of some kid's prank. Hang there, staring at the red light, I argued with myself about whether I should change rooms. Now that everybody seemed to know where I was, the thought of moving all my things felt

like too much of a weight.

I drifted off, but woke up almost right away with a start, and I was cold.

I knew I had no choice, I was going to have to get up and turn the heater back on. It was the beginning of one of those nights with no rest. When you can hardly tell if you're awake or asleep, I kept dreaming about phones and pies, and I'm pretty sure someone knocked in my door somewhere in the early morning. It was 9.30 in the morning when I walked into Chris Kringles, and stopped dead in my tracks,

mostly because everyone else had stopped dead in theirs.

“A cacophony of secret whispers let me know they'd been waiting here for me.”

The place was more crowded than usual, and not just with tourists from the looks of it. If I'd been more awake in the alert, I might have turned around and laughed, but I spotted Katy May and her part of coffee, and I had no choice but to stumble over to the only open stool at the counter. Before my savior could get to me, some guy walked a bit too close and brushed up against

my coat. We don't need no fence around here. Katy May pardon me some coffee. Without even looking around, I could tell half the men in here were like high school boys trying to work up the nerve to ask the hot girl to the prom.

Itching to air some generations old grievance or other against the federal government. All of them hungry from the gossip that any word from me would provide. The casino had a breakfast room for guests. Breakfast was included in my room rate, but I didn't like the extra chewy muffins and the greasy do-it-yourself waffle maker in there, and I figured that is a special agent.

I could afford a decent breakfast now and then. But I had a feeling it was going to be the breakfast room from now on. A heavy set, heavy bearded, young dude approached me, with the share of talking about me on the news, the whole town knew the feds were involved and they didn't like it. "Excuse me, you found Pewdie last night?

I was at the scene. "I'm going to be the best producer. "It was, I'm sure it's how I want to help catch whoever did this. "Don't worry about those assholes who don't like the feds. "At least one had something useful to offer.

"Let's go talk. "I got a good work. "But a few of us are going to be at the Meridian Bar out of the edge of town, Saturday night. "That's tomorrow. "If you can buy 'em, sure everyone will want to talk about Pewdie.

"I'll be there. "But that wasn't the end of it. "I hadn't even touched my pie yet. "And I could see two middle-aged knuckleheads eyeballing me, working up the nerve to come over. "Sure enough, they got up and started walking towards me.

"When they got up to my table, Katie may appear out of nowhere with a pot of coffee." "Please don't be bothering the customers."

"And the knuckleheads looked embarrassed and kept walking is if they never meant to talk to me in the first place."

“"I think my kitchen is like hell's breakfast, just sleep last night."”

"You heard what happened to Petty?" "Yeah, his mother works at the casino. "I know her a little bit. "And I'll go see her later. "We all got up, pull together in this thing."

"The thought of Petty's mother hearing the news bit me." "You want me to pack up that pie for you?" "Oh no thanks. I'll get through it." "Why don't I pack it up and get you some coffee to go. "You can take it to your room and have your breakfast in peace."

"There's something wrong with my room. "I can't go back there for a while. "She thought about that a second, but she didn't ask any questions." "You know Agent Coots, I'm not going to be back home until later this afternoon. "You didn't get to look around Jordan's room all that carefully the other day.

"I know they always do that in the movies.

“"If you want to go over there and have a look around, that's fine.”

"And you can just have your breakfast there. "And if you need to flake out on the couch for a minute, that's fine with me." "I don't know if." "I'll bring a box in a cup." "She fished around in her pocket and put her house key in my hand."

"Go ahead Harvey. "No one around here is sleeping properly. "Take what you can get." "Back at the casino, the big Santa told me that Bruno, the other mechanic, "had dropped off my car.

"Santa offered to bring it around, but I just took the keys

"and walked around the big parking lot to the back. "There still weren't many cars around.

“"The smoke must have been killing the business here.”

"And probably after the excitement about my arrival died down. "Cat-y-maze tips would drop off. "My car was right beside a Dodge Van early '70s. "It was pretty beat up." Stickers all over it, rusty exposed rims.

Like a priest classic was just as crumpled as Bruno said it would be. But it started up just fine.

The heater was blowing hot already and I could have fallen asleep right there in the

upholstery. I drove out though and made my way through the town to Rosland Road. The headlights pointed in different directions. It was darker outside than it was yesterday and everyone had taken to having their lights on all the time.

“One beam of light from my car pointed crazily up into the sky.”

The other pointed slightly off to the side. It only took me a few minutes to get to Cady-Maze House. Getting out of the car, it already felt calmer and more peaceful. Nobody was standing outside Jilly's brothel and waffles up the road. The yellow lights outside the establishment even seemed somehow soothing.

A single carpenter was hammering away at the house that so far was just a wooden frame. I let myself into Cady-Maze House. The bats and skeletons in which is all over the living room stared blankly at me. But the quiet was nice. Walking into that house, being alone there, coming face to face with a smell of a kid's home, the cheap indoor outdoor brown carpet.

The whole place had the peace and solemnity of a budget church. I got to play and fork and I ate my pie in silence. Turning on the tap to wash the dishes felt like an intrusion on the stillness. I was supposed to be here to look through Jordan's room and possibly find some reason he may have interrogated, but I didn't really want to go back into that room.

I told myself I'd look a little later and took off my shoes. Could I really? I was all alone here exhausted. Cady may told me I could flake out for a bit and no one but the two of us would know about it. I felt like I might have been crossing a line by taking a nap in a victim's house. The curtains were down though and it was warm in here. No one would know.

I loosened my tie and slowly, daringly, put my feet up on the plush couch and laid my head in the big cushion at the end. I closed my eyes and it was dreaming before I fell asleep and it was a sweet, deep sleep. We were driving through fields with big trees. Then I was on the lane with the rows of giant pines on both sides. Then I was looking for an apple tree where I'd planted a seed when I was three or four. I was looking frantically for the tree in the yard.

That's my apple tree, planted it right here. I yelled again about the tree, but the god damn

sea. It slowly dawned on me that I was dreaming. The phone kept ringing.

The phone stopped and all it was left in the house was the crushing silence. I'd slept just enough to feel even more tired than I'd been before. I stumbled into Jordan's room. It was neat and tidy. There was a dresser with a few Halloween masks. Two were just cheap plastic vampires and Frankenstions with elastic around the back. One was a nicer latex mask of some kind of demonic goblin with green skin and pointed ears.

“I opened the blinds and looked at the backyard. The only thing I noticed was a tree in some”

shrubs. Jordan was probably targeted because there was somewhere in the backyard for someone to hide

and observe. On my way out of the room, I noticed a big jar on the little table beside Jordan's bed. Thick, dark brown, maybe black glass. Lifting the lid and jumped back, it was full of big yellow teeth too big to be human. Cows teeth most likely. There was a straw in there too. Some colored beads or bits of glass. A few bone fragments that weren't teeth. It was revolting. I jammed the lid back on. The jar spooked me a bit. I suppose it was normal for kids to collect

strange objects like that. The skeleton just sat there as I passed it.

Outside, I saw again the bones of elk or whatever they were intertwined with ribbons and the wire fence.

I locked the door behind me.

“After leaving Katie Mays, I drove over to Sarah Sue's house. I still need a number for that woman”

and provo who's daughter had seen gay being taken. No one answered the door. There was no one at the welding shack where Jarvis worked either. I decided to go find a guy named Canon who was upon post to be squatting on some property just north of the onion field. He had the kind of record that invited a lifetime of police scrutiny so I had to check him out. The desert got darker as I got closer to the lake. The beams of the headlights bounced in

their crazy directions. The headlight, the pointed up to the sky, clearly defined the particles with a smoky air like some feeble search light. The other bounced off the sage Russian rocks on the left. I couldn't really see the road in front of me anymore but it didn't matter. I knew where I was going. Just inside the oasis, there was a new gate and a sign from the Elco fire department saying something about an emergency and not to enter. There weren't any fire

fighters around. I left the engine running and got out to open the gate. It was cold and quiet and sickening out here. I got back in and hit the gas. Just two or three telephone poles down. Verse blue pickup was on the side of the road. What the hell is that idiot doing out there? For a few seconds I kept driving. Then I remembered clay and pulled over. I didn't want

for a falling into that lake.

“Why weren't there any fire fighters out here keeping an eye on the fire?”

They just put up some tape and left. I was walking fast down the path until a jackrabbit bolted across in front of me. I was mad at Verho for pulling me away from the case and possibly being in danger. But every step closer to the pond brought more of that dark black feeling into me. My steps slowed. It's like there wasn't as much gravity around the pond. It got hotter as the flames came into view. Blue and red and slow. It was still daytime and the light from the

pinpric sun was enough for me to make my way without tripping. I couldn't find Verho anywhere. The shoreline was just slowly crumbling dirt and sand and smoldering under brush. There was no sign of anyone. No Verho. It was just me and the lake with its incomprehensibly slow, blue and red flames. It was impossible to look at anyone flame. You just couldn't focus. The whole atmosphere was thin. Like you were suddenly at high altitude without being used to it. I felt almost like a wispy ghost.

The lake was higher and the trees and shrubs all around the shore were withered and blackened.

Getting closer to the flames, I felt whether to like my soul had become wispy and like something was tugging at it. It sank of sulfur. Getting closer to the flames, I felt whether to like my soul was just a strand of thin smoke. Like something was tugging at it. It sank of sulfur. Was this another mind trick? Another hallucination fueled by toxic fumes. Anyone might got that wasn't the case. And then I smelled it. That rotten dead dog pie smell.

Out of the corner of my eye, he was there. It was there. Like a ghost. But when I looked right at it,

it stayed. He had a child's face. He had on a filthy light blue suit. And he was just standing there

holding a festering leafy pie. The pie was twitching and I couldn't stop looking at it. The pie isn't for you. It's for someone else. So don't even ask. I open my mouth to speak. You're the one. Hey, your bob. If you want a pie, like I said earlier,

“I can make you your pie. Special secret filling, right? He winked.”

Hey, you're Harvey! I turned just in time to see Verv burst out of the smoldering underbrush, running as best he could. He was trying to run towards me. Then, like it was slow motion, before I could get to him, I watched Verv slip on the crumbling shoreline. His boots slipped in touch the edge of the water. This time I could move, I ran to Verv and hold him out before he got any further. He was a big man and I didn't think I had it in me, but I got him out. His boot was

smoking. I pulled off my jacket and smothered it. I looked up and down the shore. The pie man was gone. Come on. I hoisted Verv up and helped him limp along the path away from the lake. He was whimpering, almost crying. We lumbered along. There was ringing in my ears, but it was really a telephone. Now and again. I looked over. I still couldn't see the pie man. We made it out to the road. Then I stopped. As soon as I could see my car, I also saw a Jeep. JP's straws Jeep. It was

parked nose to nose with the Caprice classic, not two inches away. I looked around. I didn't

“see JP anywhere. No one was in the Jeep as far as I could tell. I turned the key to unlock the passenger”

door for Verv, but it was already unlocked. I really thought I'd locked it. I couldn't worry

about that now. I bundled Verv onto the seat and got the little first aid kit out of the truck.

I wrapped his foot as best I could, but it was a bad burn. We have to get you to a hospital. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. Take Agent Harvey. You're a liar, Savor. Oh yeah. Oh thank you so much, Agent Harvey. I backed up to get away from JP's straws Jeep and turned the car around. I did the same routine opening and closing the gate. It wasn't locked so I didn't even know why I bothered. Then I floored it and we raced away from the pond.

The seconding feeling receded slowly, leaving me feeling exhausted and empty. Oh. What the hell was that, Kooch? You saw what I saw, didn't you? Please tell me you saw it. Oh my god. I can't get your breath. I saw something out there. I can't really say what though. What do you mean? You can't say what? I could have sworn I saw a person trying to come up out of the damp ground. Maybe you hit your head. There might be gases from the fumes.

I looked over and his terrified face and couldn't blame him. I've heard it could be gases from the fire that make people see things and smoke inhalation. That can make people hallucinate. You don't believe a word you just said to me, do you? We kept driving in silence for a while.

“Let me ask you something. Did you feel something strange when you were out there?”

I could tell he was shaking in the seat next to me. The way you shake after a fight, feel what?

Verve gave me directions to the hospital. I got him to the ER. The hospital was all painted

“a pale yellow inside. I tried my best to avoid hospitals. It wasn't very busy though and I decided”

to wait while he went in. Depending on what the doctor said, maybe I could drive him back home tonight.

He had no way of getting back out to his trailer. Also, I didn't want to talk to him about

what we'd seen, but somehow I wanted to be near someone who'd been through the same thing.

“Sitting there in the waiting room, a phone started ringing.”

And it wouldn't stop. I tried to block out the ringing and close my eyes. Sitting there, the exhaustion caught up with me and all at once I thought I might pass out right there in the yellow vinyl chair. But the phone kept ringing and ringing until my uncle Jerry answered. We were at my house and Jerry had come over to watch me and I was a kid. He spoke to my mother a bit on the phone. He looked asian and bleak. He kept looking over at me. He held up the phone.

It's your mom. She's not doing too well. She'd been in the hospital overnight after the car hit her. I took the receiver. We spoke a bit. I want to talk to you Harvey. I have something I want to tell you. When I hung up Jerry was putting on his coat, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't face her in the hospital. I thought about the sharp green eyes. Have you looked at

“me when the car hit her and how they must look now in the hospital. Are you coming?”

I was going to stay here. My uncle Jerry left for the hospital and I stayed home watching TV. Jerry was going a long time and I heated up a TV dinner. The salsbury steak was still a bit cold, but I ate it anyways. The phone rang again. I couldn't answer.

I never spoke to my mother again.

(phone ringing)