MIKE Andy? Can I borrow you a minute?
ANDY looks questioningly at JILL, who nods. She's busy comforting JOANNA.
164 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN OFFICE AREA.
MIKE, MOLLY, and ANDY come in. URSULA and SANDRA stand nearby, looking the expected question at MIKE.
MIKE
She's dead, all right. Sandra, can you get me a couple of blankets to wrap her in?
T
STORM OF THE CENTURY 211
SANDRA
(making a big effort) Yes. I can do that. Two shakes of a lamb's tail.
MIKE is struggling hard to stay calm and do as many of the right things as he can. There's a sense of him making up the procedure as he goes along, but why not? What kind of procedure is 170
there for a situation like this?
SONNY BRAUTIGAN and UPTON BELL come up the stairs, curious about what's going on now.
MIKE spies them.
MIKE Billy Soames you're sure he's dead?
SONNY
Yeah. Now what?
MIKE Old Mrs. Stanhope is dead, too. In the ladies' room.
UPTON BELL Holy God! She have a heart attack? Stroke?
MOLLY
Suicide.
MIKE Is Billy still out there in the supply shed?
SONNY
Yeah. Seemed like the best place. We covered him up. What the hell SANDRA comes up the stairs with an armload of blankets. Someone else needs covering up now.
MIKE
Andy, you and Sonny cover Mrs. Stanhope. Take her out and put her with Billy. Use the back door of the meeting hall. I don't want folks to see a corpse going through, if I can help it.
212 STEPHEN KING
SONNY
What about Jonas? Her son? I seen him downstairs, gettin' ready to turn in MIKE
Let's hope he does. His wife can tell him in the morning. Upton Bell?
UPTON
Yessir.
MIKE
Go downstairs and pick out five or six men from those that are still up. Guys who can walk through half a mile of deep snow without having a heart attack, if it comes to that. Don't tell 'em anything except that I want to see 'em. Okay?
UPTON
Okay!
Hugely exited, UPTON heads back downstairs.
165 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND MARKET NIGHT.
HATCH, JACK CARVER, and KIRK FREEMAN are sitting at a card table they've set up in the canned goods aisle and are playing gin rummy. HATCH looks up at: 166 INTERIOR: THE SECURITY MIRROR, FROM HATCH'S POINT OF VIEW.
171
The mirror is now positioned in such a way that HATCH can see into the constable's office. HENRY
is behind MIKE'S desk, leaning back in the chair, chin down on his chest, arms crossed, dozing.
ROBBIE sits off to one side, watching LINOGE, who is back in his same old position heels up, knees apart, head down.
167 INTERIOR: RESUME CARD PLAYERS.
Satisfied, HATCH draws a card, smiles, and spreads them out faceup.
HATCH Gin!
r
STORM OF THE CENTURY 213 KIRK
Aw, boogersnot!
168 INTERIOR: THE CONVEX ANTITHEFT MIRROR, CLOSE-UP.
ROBBIE looks up into the mirror, trying to ascertain if he is being watched. He decides he isn't.
Now he reaches over to the corner of the desk, picks up the pistol that's still lying there, and GETS
UP.
169 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE.
HENRY is dozing. The men in the market are playing cards. ROBBIE approaches the cell with the gun. LINOGE sits where he is, watching him come. When LINOGE speaks, he does so in the voice of an OLD WOMAN ROBBIE'S MOTHER.
LINOGE
Where's Robbie? I want to see my Robbie before I go. He said he'd be here. Where are you, Robbie? I don't want to die without someone to hold my hand.
HENRY stirs a bit in his doze, then sinks deeper. ROBBIE reacts with surprise, horror, shame . . .
and then his face hardens.
ROBBIE I think this town's had enough of you.
He raises the gun and points it through the bars.
170 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
A side door opens, and a number of MEN come out, ready to augment the crew already at the store. As promised, they're wide-bodies: UPTON, SONNY, JOHNNY HARRIMAN, ALEX HABER, and STAN HOPE-WELL, DAVEY'S father. STAN is a lobsterman we saw briefly in Part One, battening down for the storm on the now nonexistent town dock. They head for the Island Services vehicle, fighting their way through the snow. Two more figures linger in the doorway: MIKE and MOLLY.
MOLLY'S wearing a shawl and hugging it to her against the cold.
MOLLY
Is it that man? The one who grabbed Ralphie in the market? It is isn't it?
214 STEPHEN KING He doesn't answer.
