The Links Box: A Serial Killer's Trophy Room
Title: A Good Marriage Author: Stephen King ISBN: 9781439192597
Darcy went back to the garage. She got down on her knees and crawled under the workbench. She expected to find mice or maybe more magazines.
Instead, she found a hidey-hole.
A piece of the baseboard was designed to pivot. She had struck it with the box of catalogs just hard enough to jar it open. Inside was a small wooden box. Darcy recognized it immediately. It was an oak box she had given to Bob years ago.
The box had the word LINKS carved into the top. It was meant for his cufflinks.
What was in the box
She opened the box, praying it would be empty. It wasn’t.
Inside were three plastic cards bound with a rubber band. They weren’t credit cards.
- A Red Cross blood donor’s card.
- A library card from North Conway, New Hampshire.
- A New Hampshire driver’s license.
They all belonged to a woman named Marjorie Duvall.
The name that rings a bell
Darcy looked at the face on the driver’s license. Marjorie Duvall was a normal-looking woman in her thirties. But here is why the name mattered: Darcy had seen it in the news.
Marjorie Duvall was the 11th victim of a serial killer named “Beadie.”
She was found in a ravine. She had been strangled. The news had been full of her face for days.
The reality sinks in
Darcy was making a “desolate mewing sound” and her stomach felt like it had been replaced by a ball of lead. She tried to tell herself it was a mistake. She tried to tell herself she didn’t know everything about Bob, but she couldn’t have missed this.
She had been married to this man for 27 years. She had raised children with him. And all that time, he was a monster who collected IDs from the women he murdered.
She put the cards back in the box and hid the box back in the hole. She tried to put everything back exactly as she found it. She was sweating and shaking.
The phone in the house started to ring again. It was Bob. He was calling from Vermont to say goodnight.
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