Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe Read Online Free PDF Page A

a week or so, do you?”
    â€œNo, of course not, they’ll love it. But what’s the great rush? Norleen’s still in school, you know. Maybe we should wait till she gets out. It’s just a month away.”
    David sat in silence for a moment, apparently ordering his thoughts.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” asked Leslie with just a slight quiver of anxiety in her voice.
    â€œNothing is actually wrong, nothing at all. But—”
    â€œBut what?”
    â€œWell, it has to do with the prison. I know I sounded very smug in telling you how safe we are from that place, and I still maintain that we are. But this John Doe character I’ve told you about is very strange, as I’m sure you’ve gathered. He’s positively a child-murdering psychopath . . . and then again. I really don’t know what to say that would make any sense.”
    Leslie quizzed her husband with her eyes. “I thought you said that inmates like him just bounce off the walls, not—”
    â€œYes, much of the time he’s like that. But sometimes . . .”
    â€œWhat are you trying to say, David?” asked Leslie, who was becoming infected by the uneasiness her husband was trying to hide.
    â€œIt’s something that Doe said when I was talking with him today. Nothing really definite. But I’d feel infinitely more comfortable about the whole thing if Norleen stayed with your parents until we can organize ourselves.”
    Leslie lit another cigarette. “Tell me what he said that bothers you so much,” she said firmly. “I should know, too.”
    â€œWhen I tell you, you’ll probably just think I’m a little crazy myself. You didn’t talk to him, though, and I did. The mannerisms of his speech, or rather the many different mannerisms. The shifting expressions on that lean face. Much of the time I talked to him I had the feeling he was playing at some game that was beyond me, though I’m sure it just seemed that way. This is a common tactic of the psychopath—messing with the doctor. It gives them a sense of power.”
    â€œTell me what he said,” Leslie insisted.
    â€œAll right, I’ll tell you. I think it would be a mistake, though, to read too much into it. But toward the end of the interview today, when we were talking about those kids, he said something I didn’t like at all. He enunciated his words in one of his affected accents, Scottish this time with a little German flavor thrown in. What he said, and I’m reciting it verbatim, was this: ‘You wouldn’t be havin’ a misbehavin’ laddie nor a little colleen of your own, now would you, Professor von Munck?’ Then he grinned at me silently.
    â€œNow I’m sure he was deliberately trying to upset me. Nothing more than that.”
    â€œBut what he said, David: ‘nor a little colleen.’”
    â€œGrammatically, of course, it should have been ‘or’ not ‘nor,’ but I’m sure it wasn’t anything except a case of bad grammar.”
    â€œYou didn’t mention anything about Norleen, did you?”
    â€œOf course I didn’t. That’s not exactly the kind of thing I would talk about with these people.”
    â€œThen why did he say it like that?”
    â€œI have no idea. He possesses a very weird sort of cleverness, speaking much of the time with vague suggestions and subtle jokes. He could have heard things about me from someone on the staff, I suppose. Then again, it might be just an innocent coincidence.” He looked to his wife for comment.
    â€œYou’re probably right,” Leslie agreed with an ambivalent eagerness to believe in this conclusion. “All the same, I think I understand why you want Norleen to stay with my parents. Not that anything might happen—”
    â€œNot at all. There’s no reason to think anything would happen. No doubt this is a case of the doctor