Crockett molests his daughter Ruthie and fires Dud, a crippled employee she likes. Soon, the town's various secrets bubble up. However, owner Larry Crockett had sold it to Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow. Ben wants to rent the house and examine it for his novel and conscience. Ben claims to have heard Hughie begging to live before killing himself and also thinks he heard Hughie's last victim, but was too scared to do anything. He tells his friend, Susan Norton, that as a child, he was dared to enter Hughie Marsden's house.
Ben was a successful writer who'd returned to Jerusalem's Lot (aka Salem's Lot), inspired to write while confronting his past. Salem's Lot consists of flashbacks by Ben Mears.
