Halloweenland Read Online Free PDF

.
    He tentatively reached up and felt the engine block, swinging slightly on its chain cradle, above him.
    “Jesus, I’m blind!”
    “And dumb, and deaf as well, Bud. I’ve watched you for a long time, but never been much interested in you until now.”
    “I can’t see!”
    “You’ll see again. Don’t worry about that.”
    Now there was something in front of him in the darkness, where the engine block should be—a swirling black thing that came closer and then hovered above his face. He saw something rise out of the folds of black—a pasty face with no eyes and a smiling red mouth.
    “Let’s talk, Bud.”
    “Who the hell—”
    “I’m someone who wants to talk.”
    “What do you
want
?” Ganley said in a panic.
    “I want to know if you planned on seeing Marianne Carlin again.” The thin red mouth added with emphasis, “And I want you to tell me the truth.”
    “Yeah, sure, why not? I mean, her old man’s gone now, right? Why shouldn’t I see her? Who knows, she may fall for me yet, right?”
    “Didn’t you try to . . . hurt her once?”
    “What are you, some sort of cop trick machine? Is Grant in there behind the costume?”
    The thing looked for a moment as if it were going to laugh, then the red lips became straight and grim.
    “How would you feel about leaving Orangefield, Bud?”
    “What! Eff you! I’ve lived here all my life! No way!”
    “What if I asked you to leave, and never come back and never think about Marianne Carlin again?”
    “Christ! Now I
know
Grant’s in that costume! Eff you, Detective! You can’t tell me what to do and I don’t listen to anybody but me!”
    “That’s what I thought. You’ve always been that way, and I’m sure you always will be. Thank you for talking, Bud, and thank you for your honesty.”
    “Eff you!”
    The black thing with the white face was gone. Now the blackness dissolved around Ganley, as if someone pulled a blindfold away. He saw the engine above him at the exact moment it slipped its chains and fell toward him.
    He got out one puppylike squeal before it hit.

C HAPTER T WELVE
     
    “Thanks for seeing me, Doc.”
    Williams smiled his crusty old doctor’s smile. “Country doctors always like seeing their old patients, Bill. I miss Rose a lot. I remember all those bridge games years ago—”
    Grant cut the doctor off before he could go into one of his ten-minute reminiscence sessions.
    “Doc, I’m here to talk about Marianne Carlin.”
    Williams’ long, hound dog face formed a frown. He rubbed his chin. “Well, gee, Bill, we might be getting into doctor-patient confidentiality areas there—”
    “I already know she’s pregnant,” Grant said. He wanted to reach for a cigarette but thought better of it here in Williams’ office. Out in the hallway a nurse stopped at a doorway directly opposite and slid a form into a plastic holder mounted on the wall. A moment later she ushered a woman and a young, sniffling child into the room and closed the door after them. She gave a quick glance into the office and nodded at Williams.
    “I’ll be there in a minute, Martha.”
    The nurse nodded again and walked briskly away.
    Williams leaned back in his desk chair and put his hands behind his head. “If you know she’s pregnant, then why are we having this conversation?”
    Grant said, “I need to know if she’s
really
pregnant.”
    Williams frowned again, then nodded. “You mean an hysterical pregnancy, something like that?”
    “Right.”
    The doctor scratched his cheek, rubbed his chin, looked at the ceiling. “Well, then, once more we enter that gray area, Bill . . .”
    “It’s important. I think she may have been raped the night her husband was killed. I thought it was Bud Ganley, but a DNA test cleared him.”
    “Bud Ganley.” Williams frowned. “I just got off the phone with the coroner not twenty minutes ago about Bud Ganley.”
    “What about him?” Grant asked. The hair on the back of his neck began to