The problem was that every time they met she slipped. On his first trip to New York they had lunch and in the cab she'd rubbed his crotch and directed the driver to a hotel in Manhattan. Rick went with the flow. In the months that followed they indulged in each other whenever the chance arose, but things never went further. She remained his agent, she handled his publishing affairs and everything was hunky dory. The more time pa.s.sed, the less he was nervous about it. Maybe it was unprofessional to be engaging in an affair with her client, but their s.e.x life was unrelated to their business life. That was all the justification he needed.

"I got in town late this morning," Rick said, trying to sound casual. He gave her a quick summary of his trip, the accident, and his meeting of a few of the locals. He could tell she was frowning as she conveyed her concern. "Are you okay?" She asked. "You weren't hurt that bad, were you?" Rick a.s.sured her that everything was fine, that he'd already made at least one new friend, possibly two others. He quickly told her about Melissa Peterson and at the mention of another woman, he heard a sharp intake of breath on the other line. He quickly changed the subject to what the weather was like in town and she seemed to forget about the blunder. She's jealous.

"So you think you'll be able to start working on the book soon?"

"I'm gonna try to get to work on the book tomorrow morning."

"You know, you could have moved to New York for a new locale," she said. She sounded coaxing. "You didn't need to move all the way to the boondocks. How am I supposed to see you?"

"I came up here to get away from the normal, day-today surroundings I had in Philly," Rick said. "I needed a change of pace."

"Like I said, you could have come to New York." It sounded like she was smiling on the other end. "You could have stayed with me."

Rick cringed at the thought. Since the bigger deal had gone through, words that had been absent in her vocabulary began to make their presence with alarming regularity. Words that hinted at marriage entrapment. The last time they spoke she'd ended the conversation with a love you. Rick managed a smile. "I wouldn't have gotten any work done."

"Hmm, you're probably right," Cynthia breathed. G.o.d, but she had a s.e.xy voice. Too bad she was so G.o.dd.a.m.n possessive and smothering. It made him not want to have anything to do with her. He hadn't been involved with her s.e.xually for three months, and she was still pursuing him. Business calls always included some attempt at coercion. The vibe he was getting now echoed that their personal life was now crossing over into his publishing deals. Especially since the bigger deal had come through. The minute that happened she began steering him toward a more commercial novel. "Something like what Dean Koontz writes," she'd said. Maybe now was the time to switch agents.

"Listen, I'm gonna start the new book tomorrow." Rick began, trying to get the conversation back onto business. "I'll call you." He looked at his watch calendar. "I'll call you Friday afternoon and let you know how far I've gotten."

"Do you think you'll have twenty pages down?" An abrupt switch in tone to business.

"I don't see why not, if I can get ten pages a day done, including rewrites."

"If you do by the time we talk, you might want to send them over."

"Okay."

"And maybe if you get a quarter of the way done by say, the end of the month, you can come down to New York for the weekend. We'll spend it together." Her tone had changed back to that seductive purr again.

Six months ago, Rick would have jumped at the chance. But now that he was seriously thinking about changing agents he knew that wasn't going to be the case. Still, he had to provide an illusion of slight interest until he figured out a way to talk to her about the direction she was trying to take him in. The world didn't need another Dean Koontz. "Sounds good," he said. "We'll see how it goes."

"Okay." Her voice was a throaty purr. "Bye, Rick. Talk to you soon."

"You, too," Rick said, and they hung up.

Rick sighed as he sat at the desk, the caress of her voice ma.s.saging his brain. Yep, he definitely needed to have a little talk with her. p.r.o.nto. He shouldn't have slept with her in the first place. That had been a mistake. On both their parts.

With that bit of business out of the way, he rose and strode into the kitchen to see what he was going to do for dinner.

Starting work the next morning was tougher than he thought it would be.

He stared blankly at the screen of his laptop. About the most he had done thus far was boot his system and go into Microsoft Word. He'd written the words PROLOGUE in the middle of the page, center s.p.a.ce. Now the cursor was sitting at the left of the screen, waiting for the words. But none came. At least not yet.

Rick drummed his fingers on the desk. He'd called out for a pizza last night and chowed down in the den. There was a big screen TV, along with a big, comfy sofa. He'd popped in one of the Friday the Thirteenth movies that he found lying around and settled down for a couple hour's worth of mindless, splattering entertainment. Once the pizza was consumed, he raided the refrigerator. Not much to be had, so he hiked to the local mini-market down the road and came back with a case of Black Label beer, two liters of c.o.ke, a loaf of bread, lunch meats, ground beef, and some fruit. He also nabbed some microwave popcorn. He spent the rest of the evening watching VH1, drinking c.o.ke and eating popcorn. He wanted to drink beer, but he'd taken the first of the prescribed painkillers Dr. Jorgensen had given him last night and he couldn't drink alcohol while on them. Tanking up on ma.s.sive quant.i.ties of carbonated beverages was the next best thing.

He fell asleep on the sofa in front of the big screen TV.

After a quick breakfast, a pot of coffee and a shower, he headed straight for his office. Got his files together. Read over some notes he'd made for the next novel. Fired up the computer. And promptly proceeded to stare at the screen for the next thirty minutes.

It just wasn't happening. He had a stunning idea for a ghost story, one that involved past life regression and New Ageism. Cynthia had suggested doing something along those lines. He'd balked at first, but an idea sparked in his head not too long afterward. He'd tried plotting it out, but it wouldn't come together no matter how hard he tried. Great idea, but no meat.

His thoughts started wandering and he fired up the CD player, which he'd set up in the office. Rush's Hemispheres filled the room with its intricate melodies and progressive chord changes. Still, nothing.

He decided to call the garage about his car. He should have heard from them by now. He turned the stereo down and hunted in his wallet for the phone number Rusty had given him for Carl's Garage before he had left the drugstore yesterday. He found it, and punched in the number.

A rough voice answered. "Carl's."

"Hi, I'm calling about my car." Rick gave him the vital stats, and the guy told him he'd be right with him. Rick waited.

"Sorry for the wait," the guy said a few minutes later. "But I'm afraid I've got some bad news. Your car's shot to s.h.i.t. I'm not only going to have to replace the entire radiator and fan as well as all the belts, but you're gonna need some extensive body work on it. The whole front grill is crushed and the side paneling is smashed. The body work alone is gonna run over two grand, and I'll tell ya right now that your insurance company will probably just write the car off as a complete loss. You call them yet?"

"No, I haven't." He had forgotten all about it in all the excitement.

"Well, I'd check with them before you authorize me to do anything else."

"Okay. I'll do that right now."

"Talk to you later."

Rick replaced the receiver with a sinking feeling in his chest. Great! No car, and he was miles from home. It would be at least two weeks before he could get a new set of wheels after the insurance people started their machine. What a great day this was starting out to be.

Rick rose and went into the kitchen. The mid-day sun brought streaks of light through the curtains. It bathed the kitchen in warmth. No hint at all of the rainstorm that had hit last night. It was too nice to sit in the house all day and work. He had a severe bout of writer's block and he didn't have a car. The depression he felt over that pretty much took the wind out of the writing sails for today. And it really was too nice to stay cooped up inside. He hadn't really seen Phillipsport yet, and he was dying to see what kind of burg he'd settled into for the winter. Besides, a walk might be just the thing to get the creative wheels grinding.

He grabbed his wallet and keys from the desk and stepped outside. He put his black leather jacket on and zipped it up. He looked up at the clear blue sky, blinking as he put his sungla.s.ses on. My, but it was a fine, fine day.

He set off down the road toward town with a contented smile on his face. He didn't even notice the tall, dark storm clouds ama.s.sing behind him from the north.

Chapter Eight.

Rick decided to head to the beach.

He made the decision after a quick lunch at a cozy little delicatessen near the center of town. He had stopped in for a quick bite to eat and discovered they made the best submarine sandwiches north of New York City. By the time he left the deli, it was a quarter after twelve. The weather was overcast but warm, heavy with humidity. When Rick turned up Highway 1 upon leaving the house, he noticed the big, black storm clouds ama.s.sing from the north. Gonna be a huge storm, he thought as he reached the crest of town. Hopefully he'd get home before the worst of the downpour hit. The cloud ma.s.s looked like it was still a good few hours away.

Now the entire sky was becoming cloudy as the cloud ma.s.s moved in. As he hit the boardwalk he pa.s.sed a few weathered locals and smiled at them. They gave glancing nods or ignored him altogether. They didn't recognize him as being local. They probably never would even if he decided to settle down and live here.

He walked along the boardwalk, noting the storefronts of fish and chips eateries, tourist traps, fish and tackle stores. Halloween decorations adorned the window-fronts of all of them. The wind picked up slightly and the sky turned a sudden gray. Rick's shadow, which had been keeping abreast of him, suddenly vanished in the sepia of the afternoon. Rick looked up at the sky to check the progress of the clouds and noted that the entire horizon seemed to have clouded up faster than he would have imagined. He stopped in mid-stride, gazing up at the sky in wonder as a raindrop hit his eyeball. Smack!

He started, both eyes shut tight. He rubbed the offending moisture out of his eye as bigger raindrops began to pitter-patter the boardwalk.

A loud cackle to his immediate right caused him to steer toward the sound. It sounded like a gorilla trying to cough up a furball. He blinked. It was just an old man sitting on a rickety rocking chair on the porch of the Fish and Tackle store. The man had skin like leather and looked like he was eight hundred years old.

For a moment, time seemed frozen. Rick stared at the old man. The old man cackled again, his mouth resembling a cesspool; his handful of remaining teeth were the color of lacquered oak. The man's leathery skin, his moldy-hued gray hair, his weathered face, all looked like it had been chipped from the bark of a pine tree. His sinewy arms and legs were twisted branches that snaked at crazy angles. Stick him out in the woods and he'd be the haunted tree of the forest.

Rick almost expected to see dead leaves dropping off the man as he shifted his weight in the rocker. "Y'know...only turkeys is dumb enough to look up in a storm." It took a moment for Rick to realize the old geezer was talking to him. The old man cackled again. "Ya look up too long, an' yew'll drown!"

This seemed to tickle grandpa's funny bone something fierce. He laughed until he began coughing violently. The force of the coughs sounded like his lungs were going to be wrenched up his esophagus. He hit himself in the chest with the palm of his hand and raised the cigarette he was holding between two twig-like fingers to his lips. It was the first time Rick noticed the cigarette. A long trail of ash hung from it, defying gravity. The old man took a long drag that seemed to give the ash a new life of glowing orange. A moment later his coughing subsided. Just the right medicine.

Rick managed a weak smile and nodded awkwardly at the man. He continued down the boardwalk taking in every sight, smell, and sound. The rain was coming down harder, not a downpour yet, but a steady spattering of large fat drops. The promise of bigger things to come.

The boardwalk ended at a small, quaint pier that jutted out over the ocean. It was jam-packed with small shops and restaurants. None of the big, corporate plastic and hype like the shopping center had displayed. All the buildings along the beachfront shared similar, weathered-wood exteriors. This was the real thing. When the rain hit them they gave off a nice, earthy aroma that mixed with the salt of the sea and the slight fish smell that seemed to be everywhere. Now this was small town, New England living!

He decided to check out the pier and its shops. A few tourists meandered about, not paying mind to the raindrops that were still spattering leisurely. Some were trying to avoid it like they were rat-poison droppings from the clouds. Rick grinned at the thought and looked up at the sky again. He shielded his eyes to avoid any more kamikaze raindrops and the subsequent ridicule he might suffer from any other billygoat locals. He scanned the sky and the horizon, admiring the beauty of it all.

Then he saw something strange across the beach itself, just over the ocean. Something slightly out of kilter.

Something was upsetting the seagulls.

They were flying in tight circles above the beach, screeching their beaks off. No big deal, seagulls screech all the time. But something about this was different. He didn't know much about birds, but all his life he'd noticed that most birds don't fly around when it's raining and cold. By now the rain was coming down harder, pelting his skin into shivering wetness. He sought the refuge of the covered boardwalk as he gazed out at the ocean. Some of the tourists scuttled off to the safety of their cars or stores. But the seagulls remained, circling overhead and cackling.

Rick watched the birds for a moment, then studied the pier and the beach. There were no seagulls on either. Fifty yards up the beach a family of three was walking along the surf, huddled against the sudden cold and rain. A little girl of six or seven was tossing large chunks of sandwich bread into the air, trying to hit the birds. The food fell back onto the sand, uneaten. None of the seagulls swooped down for a free meal, and Rick noticed for the first time that even the pigeons and the sparrows were absent. He looked behind him, above the storefronts. The pigeons were sitting on the power line, watching the scene with seeming disinterest. It looked like they were stoned.

Back on the beach, the little girl looked at her mother questioningly. The woman shrugged her shoulders and the three continued walking.

A sudden cold shiver unrelated to the weather rippled through Rick's body. This was just too strange.

Seagulls and pigeons were scavengers. They wouldn't pa.s.s on a free meal for anything. He looked out at the sea for any sign of distress and saw none. The waves rolled rough in the growing storm, crashing onto the sh.o.r.e with a bit more force than usual. Everything looked normal.

He began slowly walking down the boardwalk toward the pier, keeping a watchful eye on the seagulls' behavior. A faint pulse of music slowly eased the seagulls' weird mannerisms out of his mind and snapped him out of his daze.

He stopped again. Familiar tune, one that had often comforted him in times of stress and confusion. The sound of music. Sweet, wonderful, thoughtful...thrash metal!

The metallic crunch was so alien at first that he didn't believe his ears. It just didn't fit in with this small, coastal sea town. It was probably from the head injury he had suffered in his vehicular mishap yesterday causing him to hear things. But no, he shook his head and listened. Sure enough, it was thrash metal all right. The grinding crunch of the guitar was familiar and he immediately identified the tune as Speak English Or Die by the wonderful band Storm Troopers Of Death. He grinned. He was beginning to like this place even more.

His eyes scanned the little sea-front shops as he walked along the boardwalk. The music was getting closer. It sounded like it was emanating from one of the shops at the end of the boardwalk.

He stood in front of the shop, a pleasant surge of surprise running through him. The shop's marquee: RIP IT UP COMICS was the only evidence that the Phillipsport pier was in the twentieth century. The tiny, box-like store appeared like all the other shops on the outside; worn down, dilapidated, peeling paint. A Superman Poster, a Spiderman poster, and a cardboard advertis.e.m.e.nt of the latest Sisters of Mercy comics were the only things that set this shop apart from the others.

But once inside...

Rick could barely feel his feet as they propelled him inside the store like a moth to the flame. His eyes widened in surprise as they took in the ma.s.sive rows of comics set in cardboard structures in the middle of the store. The left of the store was filled with used paperbacks and hardcover books, the rest of the wall devoted to specialty-press graphic novels. The right side held the stands, the latest issues of every comic from every publisher, large or small. They were bagged in mylar sleeves, carefully arranged to maximize the display. Science Fiction and Horror magazines sat on the stands with the comics. It was weird to think that such a cool store existed in a town of less than six hundred, complete with goofy deputies and chain-smoking tree-people. He liked this place already.

S.O.D.'s "f.u.c.k the Middle East" was ending and a live version of "Douche Crew" was beginning. Rick started, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. S.O.D. only recorded one alb.u.m and it wasn't a live one. He stepped farther inside the store to get a further listen to the tape.

A pair of twelve-year old boys stepped past him, stuffing bags of comics under their coats to protect them from the rain. They both carried beaten-up skateboards with colorful stickers on their undersides. The kids dropped their boards and stepped onto them effortlessly, skating away.

As he stepped farther in the store, Rick saw that more jewels lay within. A display ran along the gla.s.s counter where the cash register sat, filled with the rarer comics. Behind the counter itself was an elevated section with even more shelves, and to Rick's practiced eye it looked like the shelves held rare pulps. Cool. Standing behind the register was the tallest, skinniest man Rick had ever seen. He was sitting on a stool, perusing the latest issue of Cinefantastique.

A young boy of ten was standing at the counter bombarding the man with inane questions. The man rolled his eyes, answering questions as best as he could. "So what's going to be more valuable, Superman #298 or the first issue of Nightshade?" From the expression on his face it was obvious the little s.h.i.t didn't give a d.a.m.n about reading whatever he bought.

The thin man sighed. "Listen, kid...I'm not a fortune-teller. If you want that, go down the pier to Madame Zondra. Maybe she can divine next year's price guide for you and you can speculate to your little heart's content. Meanwhile, why don't you buy ten of everything just to be certain."

The boy sneered and walked away from the counter as Rick approached. He looked up at the thin man and smiled. The man smiled back. "How ya doin'?"

"Fine," Rick said, approaching the counter. He was still stunned about the live S.O.D. song and wanted answers. "Was that S.O.D. I just heard?"

The man behind the counter smiled, his face becoming a huge set of teeth that nearly obscured his hooked nose and goatee. "You bet it is. It's their live alb.u.m."

"You mean they got back together?" There was a G.o.d.

"Yeah, for one show only. They played in New York at one of the clubs, probably the Ritz. Alb.u.m's called Live at Budakon. Pretty cool, huh?" His Adam's Apple bobbed up and down.

Rick was checking out the store as the man talked, unable to take his eyes off anything. He was in total sensory overload.

"You read comics?" The thin man's eyes were magnified by the c.o.ke-bottom lenses of his black-framed gla.s.ses.

Rick turned back to the man. "Oh, yeah. I love 'em."

The man leaned back and threw the magazine he was reading back on the counter and smiled. "That's good to hear. Most of the brats who come in here don't give a s.h.i.t about the story or the artwork of the stuff they buy. They just want to know what books they're going to be able to sell back to me a year from now at an inflated price." He laughed again, his face filling with teeth.

Rick grinned. "This store is great. I thought I was going to have to spend the whole winter without a reading supply shop." Rick wiped the rain from his forehead and grinned. "Phillipsport just doesn't seem to be the kind of place for a shop like this."

"In a way, it isn't," the thin man said. He was leaning forward over the counter, his grin wide and toothy. "At least that's what everybody has told me. But there are lots of kids in the area, and the tourists usually use my shop as a baby-sitting service while they're enjoying the rest of the pier. Thank G.o.d most of 'em slip the little runts a twenty before they dump 'em off here." He chuckled.

Rick chuckled with him. He liked this guy, and was beginning to feel much better about spending the next six months in Phillipsport.

The thin man stood and rose to his full six-and-a-half foot height. It was astonishing that someone so skinny could still be alive. He looked like a survivor from Auschwitz. The T-shirt he wore caught Rick' s attention; it displayed a field of skulls and a couple of military planes buzzing overhead. It was the Dead Kennedy's Holiday in Cambodia alb.u.m cover emblazoned in bright red and black. Rick admired the choice in clothing. A man of taste, obviously.

The thin man extended a skeletal hand. "I'm Jack Ripley. I own this place."

Rick took the hand and shook it, marveling at his strength. Looks can be deceiving. The name Jack Ripley pulsed in his mind. He'd heard that name before.

It connected. He looked up at Jack Ripley. "Jack Ripley...the Ripper?"

Jack Ripley leaned back and grinned. "You're showing your age, my friend. Most people stopped calling me Ripper ten years ago."

Rick couldn't believe it. Jack Ripley, otherwise known as Ripper in the comic world, was one of the most respected, most widely-imitated artists and writers in the world of underground comics. He had emerged in the late sixties, reached his peak in the early seventies and rode the wave of his success to the beginning of the eighties. He hadn't been heard from since. Rick felt himself glow at the thought of meeting the elusive artist. He had met other comic artists of equal reputation; Robert Crumb and Todd MacFarlane, among others, but this was different. He had become a fan of Jack *Ripper' Ripley long before he became a fan of other, more well known, comic book artists.

Rick could hardly believe it. He smoothed his wet hair back from his forehead and grinned. "Man, this is great! I love your work."

"Thanks." Jack grinned, obviously smitten with the attention. "It's nice to know people still appreciate what I did even if I didn't work on Spiderman or the X-Men."

"Are you kidding? I grew up reading stuff like Drugg Buddies and Jesus-on-a Stick Comix. They shaped my life." Rick chuckled. "They made me into what I am. And now I'm standing here with the man who created them. I can't believe it."

Ripper leaned back against the wall of pulp cartons.

His large blue eyes were enlarged and distorted by the gla.s.ses. "Yeah, those were the days. You know, I still get royalties from the All f.u.c.ked Up posters."

"Really? I had one of those in my room for three months before my Mom found out about it and made me take it down."