and some kid was standing in the middle of the street, water up to his knees almost. Mitch looked at him and then craned his neck and looked at him again.
“Stop the truck,” he told Tommy. “That kid back there.”
“One of the things?”
“No, just…I think I know him.”
Tommy pulled to a stop and then just reversed since there was no traffic around anyway. He pulled the truck to a stop and Mitch hopped out, going over to the boy standing there. The boy did not even look at him. He just watched the water moving past his legs.
“Chuck?” Mitch said. “Chuck Bittner?”
The boy looked up, his face wringing wet. He blinked a couple times.
“Don’t you remember me?” Mitch said.
The kid just stared. “No,” he said.
“It’s me, it’s Mitch Barron. Uncle Mitch.”
The kid cocked his head a bit, starting to remember Mitch’s face. Mitch understood. Christ, the kid hadn’t seen him in years. He was Lily’s sister’s kid, Marlene’s kid. Mitch had not seen him since Marlene had gotten her divorce and taken a walk on the wild side. He could not honestly remember if the kid had even been at Marlene’s funeral.
“Uncle Mitch?” the kid said, his voice breaking up.
“Yeah, Chuck. C’mere.”
The kid needed no prompting. He splashed forward and fell right against his uncle. Mitch felt his arms going around him, something in his heart tugging because he could feel the kid’s pain thrumming through him. They held onto each other in the street, impervious to the rain that fell.
“Where’s Aunt Lily?” Chuck wanted to know.
“Ah…shit, Chuck, she’s gone, you know? I don’t think she’ll be back”
The kid seemed to understand.
“What brings you way over to Crandon?”
The kid just looked up at him. “I was just walking. Last night…last night something happened.”
“You can tell me?”
So Chuck did. He was in a state of mind where he did not really care if he was believed or not. “I went home…my mom was there. She was one of them.”
Mitch felt himself stiffen. Lily had been right then, Marlene had returned. Jesus. Standing there in the rain, Chuck told him everything.
“I killed her with salt,” he finally said. “I killed her with salt.”
The kid started to sob and there was little Mitch could do but hold him tight. Tears came from his eyes, too. And he was glad for the rain that washed them away. When it had passed, he took the kid back to the truck and got him inside. With Tommy and Harry in there, Chuck had to sit on Mitch’s lap. But that was okay. That was just fine.
“We’re going to get you out of here, Chuck,” Mitch told him. “Out of the city before night. Don’t worry.”
“I don’t want to leave.”
“Why the hell not?” Tommy said.
“Because I want to kill them,” Chuck told them. “I want to kill all the dead ones.”
18
After they got back to Wanda’s and Mitch took the old woman aside and gave her the lowdown on Chuck, Harry led Tommy away from Deke and the Zirblanski twins. They went out into the garage and lit cigarettes.
“None of my business at all,” Harry said. “But what’s the scoop on Mitch’s wife and kid?”
“You’re right: none of your goddamn business. But I’ll tell you. You’re into this damn mess as deep as any of us now, I suppose.” He went over and sat on a crate. The garage smelled of machine oil and potting soil which was infinitely preferable to the gassy odors of the city. “Mitch’s wife…Lily…she sort of lost it, man. She had a twin sister named Marlene who was pretty much a piece of work, you come right down to it. Marlene killed herself awhile back and Lily was never the same after that.”
Harry nodded. “Twins…there’s a funny connection between them.”
“Yeah. That kid out there? Chuck? That’s Marlene’s kid, Mitch’s nephew.”
“Oh boy.”
“Yeah. Anyway, Lily. She was a real tough, independent sort of woman. Really something. But when Marlene died, I think part of Lily died with her. She got real depressed, was on medications and shit. She just wasn’t right anymore.” Tommy’s mouth tensed a bit at this part. “Last night, when we were over here talking to Wanda…well, Lily was watching Rita and Rhonda and she just acted weird, walked out into the water in the streets. She was just gone. We looked and looked, but we couldn’t find her. Now his kid is missing, too.”
“Shit, that’s a tough break.”
“Tell me about it. Anyway, that’s about it. That’s why we haven’t left the city. We can’t until we know the kid’s okay.”
“I hope she is.”
Tommy pulled off his cigarette. “Me, too. Wanda…you know how she is, visions and shit, she says the kid’s still here in town. That she’s alive. And Mitch has been having these feelings that she’s nearby or something. That’s how we ended up at the mannequin factory. He had one of those feelings. Anyway, he won’t leave until he finds her and, shit, he’s my best friend. My only friend, really. I’ll stay long as he does. We won’t stop looking.”
“Sure, I understand. I’ll stay, too. Where the hell else am I going to go? I’ll stick with you guys until they put me back inside again.”
“Mitch wants me to take the kids and Wanda outside the city to the National Guard camp out there. He doesn’t want them here tonight.”
“That’s a good idea. But we’re staying, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll bring ‘em out there in a little while. Mitch is telling them about that now. But I’m coming back.”
Harry pulled off his cigarette. “Mitch has a girl, eh? How old?”
Tommy looked skyward. “Let’s see…Chrissy would be fifteen, I’m thinking.”
Harry just stared at him. “Chrissy?” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Chrissy?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
Harry was breathing real hard now. “At the University…I told you I was there with that asshole Jacky…there were two girls there. Chrissy and Lisa. Chrissy was a tall brunette and Lisa was a blonde, short.”
“Shit,” Tommy said, finding his feet. “What happened? You fuckers didn’t do anything…tell me you didn’t.”
Harry shook his head. “No, no, no. They were all right. I saw to that. Then that clown came and?”
But Harry didn’t finish that because there was a huge, violent rumbling in the distance and the entire house began to shake like it was falling apart.
19
At approximately 3:45 p.m., exactly one week after the torrential rains began falling, the Black River South Fork Dam failed completely. It was some six miles from Witcham and held the Black Lake Reservoir in check…which had been near to cresting for days, its intricate system of nearby spillways completely flooded. The Dam was 300 feet in height and two days previously, a leak was sighted near the northeast abutment, nearly a hundred feet
