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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmHe drummed his fingers on his blotter, shrugged, and picked up the phone again. He dialed the EMMCand asked for the morgue.After he was connected with the pathology clerk, he identified himself and said, “You have one of ourstudents there, a Victor Pascow—”“Not anymore,” the voice at the other end said. “He’s gone.”Louis’s throat closed. At last he managed, “What?”“His body was flown back to his parents late last night. Guy from Brookings-Smith Mortuary came andtook custody. They put him on Delta, uh”—papers riffling—”Delta Flight 109. Where did you think hewent? Out dancing at the Show Ring?”“No,” Louis said. “No, of course not. It’s just . . .“ It was just what? What the Christ was he doingpursuing this, anyway? There was no sane way to deal with it. It had to be let go, marked off, forgotten.Anything else was asking for a lot of pointless trouble. “It’s just that it seemed very quick,” he finishedlamely.“Well, he was autopsied yesterday afternoon”—that faint riffle of papers again—”at around three-twentyby Dr. Rynzwyck. By then his father had made all the arrangements. I imagine the body got to Newarkby two in the morning.”“Oh. Well, in that case—”“Unless one of the carriers screwed up and sent it somewhere else,” the pathology clerk said brightly.“We’ve had that happen, you know, although never with Delta. Delta’s actually pretty good. We had aguy who died on a fishing trip way up in Aroostook County, in one of those little towns that just have acouple of map coordinates for a name. Asshole strangled on a pop-top while he was chugging a can ofbeer. Took his buddies two days to buck him out of the wilderness, and you know that by then it’s a tossupwhether or not the Forever Goop will take. But they shoved it in and hoped for the best. Sent himhome to Grand Falls, Minnesota, in the cargo compartment of some airliner. But there was a screw-up.They shipped him first to Miami, then to Des Moines, then to Fargo, North Dakota. Finally somebodywised up, but by then another three days had gone by. Nothing took. They might as well have injectedhim with Kool-Aid instead of Jaundaflo. The guy was totally black and smelled like a spoiled pork roast.That’s what I heard, anyway. Six baggage handlers got sick.”The voice on the other end of the line laughed heartily.Louis closed his eyes and said, “Well, thank you—”file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Ste...%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (70 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM