Read Online Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon - Free Book Online

unusual," McCaggers repeated. "Not just in forms of art, but forms of . . . creation?"
    Berry looked to Matthew for help, but Matthew shrugged; he had no earthly idea what McCaggers was driving at.
    "Listen," Greathouse spoke up. "In case you've forgotten, we're here about—"
    "I don't forget anything," came the reply, which carried a touch of frost. "Ever. Miss Grigsby?" His voice warmed again with her name. "May I show you my greatest treasure?"
    "Well . . . I'm not sure I'm—"
    "Of course you're worthy. Being interested in forms of art, and creation, and a teacher as well. Also, I think you might like to see . . . a mystery that has no answer. Would you?"
    "All mysteries have answers," Greathouse said. "It's just finding the one that fits."
    "So you say." With that remark, McCaggers turned away and walked past a bookcase full of ancient-looking tomes bound in scabby leather. He went to a massive old black chest-of-drawers, which stood next to a cubbyhole arrangement that held rolled-up scrolls of paper. From the bottom drawer of the chest, McCaggers removed a small red velvet box. He came back to Berry bearing the red box as if it held the finest emerald from the mines of Brazil. "This is my greatest treasure," he said quietly. "A mystery that has no answer. It was given to my grandfather, as payment for work done. My father passed it along to me. And now . . . " He paused, about to open the box. Matthew noted that even Zed had put aside his work and was watching intently. "I've never shown this to anyone else, Miss Grigsby. May I call you 'Berry'?"
    She nodded, staring at the box.
    "God creates all," McCaggers said, his spectacles reflecting red. "And all suits God's purpose. What then, is this ?"
    He raised the velvet lid, and both Berry and Matthew saw what was inside as McCaggers tilted the box toward them.
    It was an ugly piece of dark brown wood, curved and scored and about five inches long, that came to a bladelike point.
    "Hm," Matthew said, with a lift of his eyebrows that betrayed his amusement at McCaggers' folly. "Very interesting."
    "And of course, by that tone of voice, you tell me you have no idea what you're looking at. Berry, would you care to guess what this is?"
    Greathouse had put aside the pistol and come nearer. He offered his comment without being asked. "A tent stake, I'd say. Wouldn't care to stake my tent on it in a windstorm, though."
    "I'll tell you where this was found," McCaggers said, as he drew a finger along the item's length. "Are you familiar with the bell pits of Somerset?"
    "The coalfield? Yes, I know that area."
    McCaggers nodded. He picked the item up and held it before them. "This was found sixty feet underground, in the wall of a bell pit near Nettlebridge. It's a tooth."
    There was a span of silence, which after a few seconds was broken by Greathouse's rude guffaw. "A tooth ! Sixty feet under? In a coalmine ?"
    "That's correct. I know a tooth when I see one, Mr. Greathouse. This is very old. A thousand years? Five thousand? Who can say? But you're missing the larger picture, so to speak."
    "Which is?"
    Berry answered, in a quiet voice: "The size of the tooth. If—from one tooth—you speculate the size of the jaw . . . and then the head . . . "
    "Correct," the coroner said. "It must have belonged to what I can only say would have been . . . " He hesitated, and fixed his gaze on the vicious point. "A monster," he finished.
    "A monster!" Greathouse laughed again, but this time it didn't have the same force or conviction. "Where do you keep your rum barrel up here?"
    "From what I understand," McCaggers continued, "the Somerset miners occasionally bring up bones that none of the locals can identify as being from any animal anyone's ever seen. They're considered to be ill omens, and so they're disposed of however one would dispose of such things. This tooth escaped destruction. Would you care to hold it?" He offered it toward Greathouse, who in spite of his