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Shit. He sounded like every fat fuck I run into every day.
Did you think... Jack began. Did you think it sounded like he was... smiling?
Yeah. A little. Sam plastered a smile on his face and mimicked some of what
Mr. Grin said. Yeah, I think it did sound like he was smiling. You know, there was this
kid we went to school with. We all called him Smiley, you know, because it looked like
he was always smiling. Maybe it was just the shape of his mouth or something.
Jack felt his hopes surge wildly out of control.
Was it possible?
So, you think it could be him? What was his name?
Oh, his name was David Lattimore. It couldn t be him though. He killed himself
shortly after graduation. Sam chuckled. Maybe I m sick but the only thing I could
picture was him swinging from that rope with a smile plastered on his face. It must have
been a fucking weird thing to see.
Jack picked the phone up from his lap and held it in his hand, not putting it away,
cradling it, trying to draw some kind of answer from it.
Soon they reached the highway and Sam slowed down. It looked like every
highway exit area on every interstate in America, lined with chain hotels, chain
restaurants and chain gas stations. Like the developers had dropped their pants and shat
out what every mid-size city in America had.
Where do you want to start? Sam said.
Jack thought about it.
He didn t know.
Didn t have any ideas.
He realized what a monumental undertaking this would be. Not to mention the
fact he had absolutely no idea what they were looking for. Could he just walk into the
motels and ask if they had seen someone fitting Gina s description come in that morning?
He didn t think that would do a lot of good. If Mr. Grin had had a morning of
torture planned for Gina then he probably wasn t going to go parading her through all of
the hotel lobbies. Most likely he would have left Gina restrained in the car while he did
the checking in. Maybe he even worked at one of these hotels. And he thought it must be
some sort of unwritten code of privacy that the hotel clerks only give information to
police. After all, at least a fourth of people checking into hotels and motels were there to
do something they probably wouldn t do in the comfort of their own home.
Sam pulled into the lot of a King s Castle.
Here? he asked.
Jack continued to look helplessly at his phone. Did he even want to begin looking
here? What was the likelihood they would actually find her? And how much time would
they waste going into each of these places?
I don t know, Jack said. Do you have any ideas at all?
I m as lost as you are, Jack. Let me listen to that conversation again.
Okay. He cued it up.
Again, Jack found himself looking at Sam while he listened to his sister being
raped. This time, Sam s brow was furrowed in concentration.
Once finished, he pulled the phone away from his ear and handed it back to Jack.
Listen to it again, he said. I was trying to see if there was any kind of sounds
that would give it away you know, like the highway in the background or something?
But I didn t hear any of that. But I think I heard something else. Towards the end, when
she s panting or something, listen, and it almost sounds like she s trying to say
something.
Jack couldn t listen to it fast enough. He started at the beginning and relistened to
everything, paying close attention when it got to the end.
There was definitely some rhythm to her panting. Why would she be seductively
panting in the first place? He figured if her mouth was uncovered, she would be
screaming her head off unless she was someplace where she knew she wasn t going to be
heard or unless she was trying to convey some sort of message without Mr. Grin s
knowledge.
Jack started over and listened to it again.
He tried to verbalize what she may or may not have been trying to say.
When... will... I... die?
Could be, Sam said.
That doesn t make any sense.
Yeah. It does seem like sort of a half-hearted musing for someone in her
situation.
When... words... ride?
That s just dumb.
Jack started from the beginning, skipped straight to Gina s part.
It hit him hard. He felt his head spin. He thought he knew what she was trying to
say.
Turn around, he told Sam. We re wasting our time up here.
Sam whipped the car around, all squealing rubber, and they tore out of the King s
Castle parking lot, bolting across their lane and into oncoming traffic.
Nineteen
Sam jerked the wheel to his right in order to avoid the oncoming traffic and ended
up back in their own lane.
So what did you hear? he asked.
I don t know if it ll make any sense to you, Jack said, his heart pounding away.
Where worlds collide.
Huh?
Where worlds collide. Does that sound familiar?
Can t say it does.
It s a place. Off of Groves Road. There s like this huge field there. But, more
importantly, there are some train tracks where it looks like two engines have collided...
Ahhh. I know the place. It s where all of the teenagers go to smoke pot and drink
and make-out. All that good stuff.
Yeah. Well, Gina took me there once but I didn t know she had a name for it
until I went to see Tim Fox this afternoon...
Her old boyfriend?
Yeah. Her old boyfriend.
You really are serious about finding her.
Anyway. He told me she called it When Two Worlds Collide .
But you didn t know she called it that?
No. I mean unless it was one of those things she just brought up that kind of...
well, maybe I wasn t paying attention. I mean, if she mentioned it while we were actually
there then there s a good chance I could have been thinking about other things...
Don t need to know any more about that. Thanks.
The sky darkened again. Lightning slashed the sky, gouging out the rain, pouring
down, icy cold, onto the car.
Piss, Sam said as the windows started fogging up. He flipped a dial to defrost
and turned on the windshield wipers. Well, windshield wiper, anyway. Apparently, only
the one on the driver s side worked. That s new, Sam said. So, you think that s where
he took her. To that rail car?
I think, so far, it s the only thing that makes any sense at all. You know how to
get there?
Definitely. You know, there s another place out there too
But he was cut off.
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