End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3) - Stephen King Page 0,100

that her game is broken, but what about the others who got the consoles?’

‘With the badconcert website down, is there any way of finding out how many others did?’

Holly and Jerome look at each other, then give identical head shakes.

‘Shit,’ Hodges says. ‘I mean I’m not all that surprised, but still … shit.’

‘Does this one give out blue flashes?’ Jerome still hasn’t turned the Zappit on, just keeps playing hot potato with it.

‘Nope, and the pink fish don’t turn into numbers. Try it for yourself.’

Instead of doing that, Jerome turns it over and opens the battery compartment. ‘Plain old double As,’ he says. ‘The rechargeable kind. No magic there. But the Fishin’ Hole demo really makes you sleepy?’

‘It did me,’ Hodges says. He does not add that he was medicated up the wazoo at the time. ‘Right now I’m more interested in Babineau. He’s part of this. I don’t understand how that partnership came about, but if he’s still alive, he’s going to tell us. And there’s someone else involved, too.’

‘The man the housekeeper saw,’ Holly says. ‘The one who drives an old car with the primer spots. Do you want to know what I think?’

‘Hit me.’

‘One of them, either Dr Babineau or the man with the old car, paid a visit to the nurse, Ruth Scapelli. Hartsfield must have had something against her.’

‘How could he send anyone anywhere?’ Jerome asks, sliding the battery cover back into place with a click. ‘Mind control? According to you, Bill, the most he could do with his telekiwhatzis was turn on the water in his bathroom, and it’s hard for me to accept even that. It could be just so much talk. A hospital legend instead of an urban one.’

‘It has to be the games,’ Hodges muses. ‘He did something to the games. Amped them up, somehow.’

‘From his hospital room?’ Jerome gives him a look that says be serious.

‘I know, it doesn’t make sense, not even if you add in the telekinesis. But it has to be the games. Has to be.’

‘Babineau will know,’ Holly says.

‘She’s a poet and don’t know it,’ Jerome says moodily. He’s still tossing the console back and forth. Hodges has a feeling that he’s resisting an impulse to throw it on the floor and stomp on it, and that’s sort of reasonable. After all, one just like it almost got his sister killed.

No, Hodges thinks. Not just like it. The Fishin’ Hole demo on Dinah’s Zappit generates a mild hypnotic effect, but nothing else. And it’s probably …

He straightens suddenly, provoking a twinge of pain in his side. ‘Holly, have you searched for Fishin’ Hole info on the Net?’

‘No,’ she says. ‘I never thought of it.’

‘Would you do it now? What I want to know—’

‘If there’s chatter about the demo screen. I should have thought of that myself. I’ll do it now.’ She hurries into the outer office.

‘What I don’t understand,’ Hodges says, ‘is why Brady would kill himself before seeing how it all came out.’

‘You mean before seeing how many kids he could get to off themselves,’ Jerome says. ‘Kids who were at that fucking concert. Because that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah,’ Hodges says. ‘There are too many blank spots, Jerome. Far too many. I don’t even know how he killed himself. If he actually did.’

Jerome presses the heels of his hands to his temples as if to keep his brain from swelling. ‘Please don’t tell me you think he’s still alive.’

‘No, he’s dead, all right. Pete wouldn’t make a mistake about that. What I’m saying is maybe somebody murdered him. Based on what we know, Babineau would be the prime suspect.’

‘Holy poop!’ Holly cries from the other room.

Hodges and Jerome happen to be looking at each other when she says it, and there is a moment of divine harmony as they both struggle against laughter.

‘What?’ Hodges calls. It’s all he can manage without bursting into mad brays of hilarity, which would hurt his side as well as Holly’s feelings.

‘I found a site called Fishin’ Hole Hypnosis! The start-page warns parents not to let their kids look at the demo screen too long! It was first noticed in the arcade game version back in 2005! The Game Boy fixed it, but the Zappit … wait a sec … they said they did, but they didn’t! There’s a whole big long thread!’

Hodges looks at Jerome.

‘She means an online conversation,’ Jerome says.

‘A kid in Des Moines passed out, hit his head on the edge of his desk,