Newspaper-vending machines stood in front of the restaurant, and Dan dashed into the rain to buy a Journal for its film listings. The irony of using Palmer Boothe’s own publication for the purpose of finding a place to hide from him was not lost on any of them. They settled on a Steven Spielberg adventure fantasy and a theater in Westwood. It was a multiplex that was showing a second film suitable for Melanie, so after the Spielberg picture they could take in another feature and pass the rest of the afternoon and the early evening there if necessary. Their intention was to remain at the theater until Dan had either found Boothe or had given up searching for him, at which time he would return for them and relieve Earl.
When they went outside to Earl’s car, Dan got in with them for a moment. While the rain fell from a roiling gray sky, he said to Laura, ‘There’s something you’ve got to do for me. When you’re in the theater, I want you to keep an even closer watch on Melanie than you’ve done so far. Whatever happens, don’t let her go to sleep. If she closes her eyes for any length of time longer than a blink, shake her, pinch her, do whatever you have to do to make sure she’s awake.’
Laura frowned. ‘Why?’
Not answering the question, he said, ‘And even if she remains awake but just seems to be slipping into an even deeper catatonic state, do what you can to pull her back. Talk to her, touch her, demand more of her attention. I know what I’m asking isn’t easy. The poor kid’s already extremely detached, so it’s not going to be easy to tell that she’s drifting off a little further, especially not in a dark theater, but do the best you can.’
Earl said, ‘You know something, don’t you?’
‘Maybe,’ Dan admitted.
‘You know what was going on in that gray room.’
‘I don’t know. But I have some … vague suspicions.’
‘What?’ Laura leaned forward from the backseat with pathetic eagerness, so desperate to understand what was happening, so frantic for any knowledge that would shed light on Melanie’s ordeal, that she gave no thought to the possibility that knowing might be even worse than not knowing, that knowledge might be a far greater horror than mystery. ‘What do you suspect? Why is it so important for her to stay awake, alert?’
‘It would take too long to explain right now,’ he lied. He wasn’t certain that he knew what was happening, and he didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. And there was no doubt, if he were to tell her what he suspected, she would be considerably more distraught than she was now. ‘I’ve got to get moving, find out if Boothe is still in the city. You just keep Melanie as awake and as alert as you can.
‘When she’s asleep or deeply catatonic,’ Laura said, ‘she’s more vulnerable, isn’t she? Somehow, she’s more vulnerable. Maybe … maybe It even senses when she’s asleep and comes for her then. I mean, last night, in the motel, when she slept, the room got cold and something came, didn’t it? And yesterday evening, at the house, when the radio became … possessed … and when that whirlwind full of flowers burst through the door, she had her eyes closed and she was … not asleep but more catatonic than she is most of the time. You remember, Earl? She had her eyes closed, and she seemed unaware of the uproar around her. And somehow It knew she was the least alert, and It came then because she was vulnerable. Is that it? Is that why I have to keep her awake?’
‘Yes,’ Dan lied. ‘That’s part of it. And now I’ve really got to go, Laura.’ He wanted to put his hand to her face. He wanted to kiss the corners of her mouth and say good-bye with more feeling than he had any right to express. Instead, he looked at Earl. ‘You take good care of them.’
‘Like they were my own,’ Earl said.
Dan got out of the car, slammed the door, and sprinted across the storm-lashed parking lot to the unmarked sedan that he had left on the other side of the restaurant. By the time Dan started the engine and switched on the windshield wipers, Earl had already pulled out of the lot and was moving off through the hesitant traffic on the rainy street.