"I can't remember," Larry said. "Pop music came and went so fast."
"Yes, but it was something familiar," she said, wringing the dishcloth out at the sink. "It's funny how you get something like that on the tip of your tongue, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Larry said.
Stu closed the ledger with a soft snap, and Larry was relieved to see her look at him as he came into the kitchen. Her eyes went first to the gun on his hip. He had been wearing it since his election as marshal, and he made a lot of jokes about shooting himself in the foot. Fran didn't think the jokes were all that funny.
"Well?" Larry asked.
Stu's face was deeply troubled. He put the ledger on the table and sat down. Fran started to get him a cup of coffee and he shook his head and put a hand on her forearm. "No thanks, honey." He looked at Larry in an absent, distracted sort of way. "I read it all, and now I've got a damn headache. Not used to reading so much. Last book I just sat down and read all the way through like that was this rabbit story. Watership Down. I got it for a nephew of mine and just started to read it..."
He trailed off for a moment, thinking.
"I read that one," Larry said. "Great book."
"There was this one bunch of rabbits," Stu said, "and they had it soft. They were big and well fed and they always lived in one place. There was something wrong there, but none of the rabbits knew what it was. Seemed like they didn't want to know. Only... only, see, there was this farmer..."
Larry said, "He left the warren alone so he could take a rabbit for the stewpot whenever he wanted one. Or maybe he sold them. Either way, he had his own little rabbit farm."
"Yeah. And there was this one rabbit, Silverweed, and he made up poems about the shining wire - the snare the farmer caught the rabbits in, I guess. The snare the farmer used to catch them and strangle them. Silverweed made up poems about that." He shook his head in slow, tired incredulity. "And that's what Harold reminds me of. Silverweed the rabbit."
"Harold's ill," Fran said.
"Yeah." Stu lit a cigarette. "And dangerous."
"What should we do? Arrest him?"
Stu tapped the ledger. "He and the Cross woman are planning to do something so they'll be made to feel welcome when they go west. But this book doesn't say what."
"It mentions a lot of people he's not too crazy about," Larry said.
"Are we going to arrest him?" Fran asked again.
"I just don't know. I want to talk it over with the rest of the committee first. What's on for tomorrow night, Larry?"
"Well, the meeting's going to be in two halves, public business and then private business. Brad wants to talk about his Turning-Off Crew. Al Bundell wants to present a preliminary report from the Law Committee. Let's see... George Richardson on clinic hours at Dakota Ridge, then Chad Norris. After that, they leave and it's just us."
"If we get Al Bundell to stay after and fill him in on this Harold business, can we be sure he'll keep his lip zipped?"
"I'm sure we can," Fran said.
Stu said fretfully, "I wish the Judge was here. I cottoned to that man."
They were quiet for a moment, thinking about the Judge, wondering where he might be tonight. From below came the sound of Leo playing "Sister Kate" like Tom Rush.
"But if it's got to be Al, it's got to be. I only see two choices anyway. We have to take the pair of them out of circulation. But I don't want to put them in jail, goddammit."
"What does that leave?" Larry asked.
It was Fran who answered. "Exile."
Larry turned to her. Stu was nodding slowly, looking at his cigarette.
"Just drive him out?" Larry asked.
"Him and her both," Stu said.
"But will Flagg take them like that?" Frannie asked.
Stu looked up at her then. "Honey, that ain't our problem."
She nodded and thought: Oh, Harold, I didn't want it to come out like this. Never in a million years did I want it to come out this way.
"Any idea what they might be planning?" Stu asked.
Larry shrugged. "You'd have to get the whole committee's thoughts on that, Stu. But I can think of some things."
"Such as?"
"The power plant. Sabotage. An assassination attempt on you and Frannie. Those are just the first two things that occur to me."
Fran looked pale and dismayed.
Larry went on: "Although he doesn't come right out and say it, I think he went hunting for Mother Abagail with you and Ralph that time in hopes of getting you alone and killing you."
Stu said, "He had his chance."
"Maybe he chickened."
"Stop it, can't you?" Fran asked dully. "Please."
Stu got up and went back into the living room. There was a CB in there hooked up to a Die-Hard battery. After some tinkering, he got Brad Kitchner.
"Brad, you dog! Stu Redman. Listen. Can you round up some guys to stand watch at the power station tonight?"
"Sure," Brad's voice came, "but what in God's name for?"
"Well, this is kind of delicate, Bradley. I heard one way and another that somebody might try doing some mischief up there."