Page 28 of The Chain House

“And you know who he is?”

“Yes,” Sal said. “And I think you do too.”

Sam froze long enough for the tension in the room to grow amped.

“What do you mean?” asked Jennifer.

Sal said, “I mean Sam Harper here, as evident in his letter to me weeks ago, pitching this very interview, knows a lot about me and my so-called cult. And, therefore, knows all the players in the game. So use your noggin, son, keep digging, it’ll come to you.”

Without giving thought to whether it made sense, Sam asked his next question: “Did the Kentucky Cannibal abduct Bethany Hawthorne?”

“I truly don’t know,” Sal said. “But as I stated earlier, I hope and pray—”

Jennifer cut Sal off, and her urgency was an instant reminder to Sam that they only had a couple minutes left. “You were saying earlier … what are you afraid of, Sal?”

And it dawned on Sam then that a few minutes earlier, before he’d brought up the Kentucky Cannibal, that Sal had been about to transition to something important. Something to open the door for them and segue into what would have been an otherwise very blunt and off-the-wall question about Mallard Malone.

And then Sal said it: “I’m afraid of a class war. A class war between the haves and have-nots. Between the elite and downtrodden. Between the disenfranchised and the millionaires. Between those behind bars and the crooked society that helped put them there. Between—”

Jennifer cut him off again. “It sounds like you’re referencing a lot of the rumors circulating about a certain final book in a popular fiction series.”

And Sal smiled large, showing pearly white teeth that somehow appeared perfectly maintained.

Jennifer said, “In the Mallard Malone novels, everyone suspects that’s all what led to the earth’s undoing. A massive war between the classes. And that the character Oliver Crown rose like a phoenix from those ashes.”

Sal fidgeted, looked like he might suddenly come out of his seat, and then sat on his hands like a little kid might, grinning like a chimp, hopping slightly up and down like he had to pee, hamming it up like the actor he was.

Sam asked, “Have you read the Mallard Malone novels, Sal?”

“Yes. Cover to cover and back again. Every one of them.”

Sam scooted up to the edge of his seat. “Sal, do you know who Mallard Malone is?”

Sal nodded, smiling, and said, “Just ask Sal, right? Just ask Sal.”

Jennifer said, “Does Mallard Malone have something to do with the disappearance of Bethany Hawthorne?”

Sal pointed to his nose and then at Jennifer.

Sam said, “Are you saying Mallard Malone has Bethany Hawthorne?”

“No, Sam Harper. Listen to the details.”

Jennifer corrected Sam. “He’s saying Mallard Malone has something to do with it. Like … he’s responsible for the abduction?”

“You could say that, yes,” Sal said.

Sam said, “Tell us then, Sal. It’s obvious this is why you called this party. Tell us … Who is Mallard Malone?”

Sal started laughing, clapping.

The warden had had enough. “Answer the question.”

“Who is he, Sal?” Sam surprised himself by growing angry, louder. “Who is Mallard Malone, Sal?”

Sal laughed and clapped right in Sam’s face.

“Why is this funny?” Sam asked.