HATCH (staticky radio voice) Ursula, do you read me? Come on back.
URSULA I'm here! I read you! You gettin' me, Alton Hatcher?
HATCH (radio voice)
You're breaking up some, but it's better than it was. What's your problem?
URSULA
Ferd Andrews says Lloyd Wishman has killed himself over at the firehouse HATCH (radio voice) What?
URSULA
only it doesn't sound like any suicide I ever heard of ... Ferd says Lloyd cut his own head open with an axe. And now Robbie Beals and Henry Bright have gone over there. To investigate, Robbie said!
HATCH (staticky radio voice) And you let 'em go?
i
STORM OF THE CENTURY 141 CARLA takes the mike from URSULA.
CARLA
127
There was no way to stop Robbie. He practically shanghaied my husband. And there could be somebody there! Where's Mike? I want to talk to Mike!
18 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND SERVICES VEHICLE, WITH HATCH.
He sits behind the wheel, holding the mike and thinking this over. Events are spinning out of control here, and HATCH knows it. At last he raises the mike to his lips again.
HATCH
I'm calling from the truck Mike's inside. With the man who . . . you know, the prisoner.
CARLA (very staticky voice) You have to send him down there!
HATCH
Well . . . we got us a little bit of a situation right here, you see, and . . .
19 INTERIOR: THE TOWN OFFICE NIGHT. MOLLY grabs the microphone from CARLA.
MOLLY
afe, Is Mike all right, Hatch? You come on back and tell me.
20 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND SERVICES VEHICLE, WITH HATCH.
Poor guy actually looks relieved. Here, finally, is a question for which he can provide a satisfactory answer.
MOLLY
He's fine, Moll. That's a big 10-4. Listen, I have to go. I'll pass on the message. This is Island Services.
He lowers the mike, looking simultaneously perplexed and relieved, then racks it. He opens the door and gets out into the HOWLING STORM. MIKE has parked the vehicle next to GODSOE'S truck.
Now, as HATCH looks up, he sees LINOGE'S ghastly, grinning face peering 142 STEPHEN KING
out at him from the snow-caked driver's side window of the pickup truck. LINOGE'S eyes are DEAD BLACK.
HATCH GASPS and staggers backward. He looks at the window of the truck again. Nothing there.
Must have been his imagination. He starts toward the porch steps, then turns and looks back, like
"it" trying to catch one of the other children moving in a game of Red Light. Sees nothing. Goes on.
21 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.
Grinning. He knows perfectly well what HATCH saw in GODSOE'S truck.
22 EXTERIOR: THE FIRE STATION NIGHT.
The side door is open FERD didn't bother to close it when he fled the sight of his partner's corpse and the emergency lights inside the garage are throwing their glow out onto the snow.
A HEADLIGHT appears; the WASPY WHINE of a Sno-Cat accompanies it. The Sno-Cat pulls up.
ROBBIE gets out from one side (the driver's side, naturally) and HENRY BRIGHT from the other.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 143
HENRY I don't know about this, Robbie
128
ROBBIE
You think we can wait for Anderson? On a night like this? Someone's got to take charge, and we happen to be the ones on the scene. Now come on!
ROBBIE strides in through the open side door, and after a moment, HENRY BRIGHT follows.
23 INTERIOR: THE FIREHOUSE GARAGE.
ROBBIE is standing to one side of the nearest pumper. His hood is pushed back, and he has once again lost most of his pompous authority. In one hand he holds his little gun, and now he waggles the barrel at the floor. HENRY looks, and the two men exchange an uneasy glance. FERD left BLOODY TRACKS when he fled.
ROBBIE and HENRY are both reluctant now, but as ROBBIE pointed out, they're on the scene.
They walk around the back of the pumper.
24 INTERIOR: ROBBIE AND HENRY.
As they come around the pumper, their eyes widen and their faces KNOT WITH REVULSION.
HENRY claps both hands over his mouth, but that isn't going to keep it in. He bends out of the frame, and we hear the SOUND OF VOMITING. (Sort of like the SOUND OF MUSIC, only louder.) ROBBIE looks at:
25 INTERIOR: THE BLOODY AXE, FROM ROBBIE'S POINT OF VIEW.
It lies on the floor, beside one of LLOYD WISHMAN'S boots. THE CAMERA TRAVELS UP the side of the pumper to the words printed there in paint as red as blood: "GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I'LL
GO AWAY."
26 INTERIOR: ROBBIE BEALS, CLOSE-UP.
Wide-eyed. Beginning to pass fear and perplexity and into the land where panic dwells and really bad decisions are made.
144 STEPHEN KING
27 EXTERIOR: ANGLE ON ATLANTIC STREET NIGHT.
The STORM IS HOWLING. We hear a LOUD, RENDING CRACK, and a tree branch falls into the street, crushing the snow-covered roof of a parked car. Conditions are still getting worse.
28 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE.
JACK CARVER and KIRK FREEMAN are looking at LINOGE, fascinated. MIKE is still standing by the desk, looking at the weird crossword puzzle on the PowerBook. He's still got the Polaroids in his hand. When JACK takes a step toward the cell, MIKE speaks without looking up.
MIKE
Don't go over there.
JACK stops moving at once, looking guilty. HATCH comes in through the market, shedding snow at every step.
HATCH Ursula says Lloyd Wishman's dead over at the firehouse.
KIRK FREEMAN
Dead! What about Ferd?
STORM OF THE CENTURY 145
129
HATCH
Ferd's the one who found him. He says it's suicide. I think Ursula's afraid it might be murder.
Mike . . . Robbie Beals took Henry Bright over there. To investigate, I guess.
JACK CARVER claps his hand to his face. MIKE, however, hardly reacts. He's holding on to his cool, and thinking furiously.
MIKE
Streets still passable? What do you think?
HATCH
In a four-wheel drive? Yeah. Probably until midnight. After that HATCH shrugs, indicating "Who knows."
MIKE
You take Kirk and go on over to the fire station. Find Robbie and Henry. Keep your eyes open and be careful. Lock the place up, then bring them back here.
(long look at LINOGE)
We can keep an eye on our new pal while you do that. Can't we, Jack?
JACK
I dunno as that's such a good idea
MIKE
Maybe not, but right now it's the only idea. I'm sorry, but it is.
None of them look really happy, but MIKE is the boss. HATCH and KIRK FREEMAN head out, zipping up their coats. JACK has gone back to looking at LINOGE.
When the door is closed, MIKE starts shuffling through the Polaroids again. Suddenly he stops, looking at:
29 INTERIOR: THE POLAROID OF MARTHA'S CHAIR, CLOSE-UP.
Bloody and spooky as an old electric chair, but empty. MIKE'S HANDS shuffle to the next photo of the chair. In this one, the chair is also empty.
146 STEPHEN KING
30 INTERIOR: MIKE, CLOSE-UP. Surprised and puzzled. Remembering.
31 INTERIOR: MARTHA'S LIVING ROOM, WITH MIKE (flashback).
He has just pulled the drapes across the broken window and anchored them with the table. He turns back to MARTHA'S chair, raises the Polaroid, and TRIGGERS IT.
32 INTERIOR: THE WOLF'S HEAD CANE, CLOSE-UP (flashback).
It stares at us with its bloody teeth and eyes like a ghost wolf in a stroke of lightning, then FADES.
33 INTERIOR: RESUME CONSTABLE'S OFFICE, FEATURES MIKE. He's got three two pictures of MARTHA'S chair, side by side.