Page 129 of Whistle

Forty-Six

“Your little trick didn’t work,” Nabler said. “I drove out of the alley, parked down the street for a bit, and then came back. That was very naughty of you. And very naughty of Susie. How stupid did you two think I am?”

Harry had not yet been able to find any words. He hadn’t fully reconciled what he’d found in here. The horror of it.

Nabler smiled. “And, while I’m annoyed with you, I’m still inclined to do you a favor. I’m going to give you the opportunity to be part of something larger than yourself. Not very many people get that kind of chance.”

Harry managed to part his lips, to speak, as a passenger train sped past him.

“Whatareyou?”

“I am Mr. Choo. I bring joy and delight to young and old.”

“The fuck you do.” Harry shot a quick glance at the miniature town, not wanting to take his eyes off Edwin for long. “Who’s in there?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Gavin? Are parts of him in that? And Walter Hillman? The bones you took out of Angus Tanner. Are they what hold up the mountain? Those his teeth in the garden? That’s my son’s goddamn skateboard, isn’t it? How many personal trinkets have you lifted off people and folded into this shit? And a fucking goat?”

“So many questions,” Edwin said, raising his voice to be heard over the din. A steam engine pulling a dozen cars barreled past his shoulder on a ribbon of suspended track. “I have one for you.”

Harry waited.

“Who knows you’re here? Other than that dyke at the community center, who I’ll deal with later.”

“Plenty of people.”

“You’re lying.”

Harry shook his head. “You’re the focus of a large investigation. I’ve been talking to state and federal officials. The net’s closing in on you, Nabler.”

“I see. And that’s why you recruited Susie to help you. Because of her extensive background in Homeland Security.” His grin grew broader, almost unnaturally so, exposing a mouthful of gleaming teeth. “You’re on your own.”

Harry began to think there was little point in denying it.

“And I’ll tell you why. Because even you couldn’t believe what you thought I was up to. If you weren’t sure, how would you be able to convince anyone else?”

“But I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I don’t know. What is it, exactly, you suspect me of? Beyond killing a few people and pets for my project here.” He tossed that last part off as if he were confessing to speeding in a school zone.

“The sets you sell,” Harry said, starting off slowly. “They... make people do things. Make things happen. I don’t know how, but I think this is where you prep them. Running them through this monstrosity, filled with personal items and body parts. But it’s more than that. It’syou. There something aboutyou. Some power you possess. You’re the secret ingredient. And you’re not... a real person. You’re something else.”

“Close enough,” Nabler said, nodding while another train circled around both of them.

“What I don’t get is why.”

Nabler sighed. “I get tired of explaining myself. I went through all of this with your friend Gavin. Suffice it to say that I’m one of those working in the sliver who restores things to a natural order, creating balance in a world where the frequency with which bad things happen is dropping.”

Sliver?Harry thought. But what he said was, “I guess you don’t get CNN.”

Nabler waved a dismissive hand. “Three thousand dead here, three thousand there, they seem like major events, but they are but a drop in the ocean. The population continues to soar. Resources are dwindling. It can’t go on like this forever. My kind are buying you some time. Spreading out, doing our work in countless locations in a multitude of ways, working, as you might say, under the radar.”

“So you’re, what, some sick force of nature, like a pandemic? Keeping the population in check?”

Nabler sighed. “I’ve been at this a long time, in different places, and you’ve figured it out as well as anybody. Not bad, for a two-bit cop in a two-bit town.” He paused, reflecting. “And now I may have to move on. It’s always a pain, and I was hoping this was a place where I could settle down.”

The trains continued to swirl and race around them.

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