by Kay Jennings
“Why do you say you hated her?” Fern continued, and Matt let her.
“Always touching things. Touched my jacket. Touched my book.”
“Emily didn’t mean any harm—she just wanted to see your things and be like you.”
“Too much touching. We don’t touch. Eat! Had to be taught a lesson. Bite!”
“So, did you teach Emily a lesson?” Fern continued to draw him out.
“Deserved to die!”
“You or Emily?”
Marjorie stepped in and, inches from his face, said loudly to her son, “Don’t say anything more, Jack. Be quiet!”
Jack, eyes wide, turned his head slowly in his mother’s direction. “Who are you?” he said to her.
“That’s your mother, Jack,” Fern quickly inserted. “Your parents love you and want you to be safe.”
“Sit down, Marjorie,” said Matt, his voice assertive. She did as she was told.
“Who deserved to die, Jack, you or Emily?” Fern asked again. “You can tell me. I’m your friend.”
Jack looked directly at Fern, but said nothing. His eyes rolled up in his head for a minute, and then returned to a glassy stare.
“Jack, can you hear me?” Fern asked urgently, getting right up in his face.
Matt moved quickly to her side, taking her arm, and moving her back a couple of steps.
“Shhh,” Jack said quietly. “Can’t hear.”
“Can you hear the voices, Jack?” asked Matt.
“Voices. Voices. Shark in tree!”
“What are the voices saying?”
Jack suddenly moved away from Fern and Matt toward the foyer. Ed moved quicker, and blocked his path.
“Can I have some food?” Jack asked the wall next to him, his face three inches from it. “I’m going now. Time to go.”
The storm, now blowing hard outside, rattled the house, and the sky suddenly darkened. Heavy rain slammed against the living room window. Jack turned away from the wall and stared out the window. His eyes opened wide. His body started to shake all over, and he shivered violently.
“How do you feel, Jack?” Matt asked, taking a step toward the youngster.
Jack smiled and looked down at the floor. “Powerful,” he whispered.
Gently, Matt waved off Fern and said to Jack: “Do you remember what you did Friday night, Jack?”
“I killed my sister while I was floating.”
“Floating on what, Jack?”
“Floating on death.”
“Why did you kill Emily, Jack?”
“So we both could live. I died when my sister was born. Drink blood in order to live! Eat shit! Eat dirt! Take over the world!”
“Your sister had bite marks on her, Jack. Did you bite her?”
Jack swung his head around quickly, looking at Matt again. “Yes. I bite.”
“Did you try to eat Emily, Jack?” He heard Marjorie moan behind him, and Fred let out a yelp, but Matt ignored them and didn’t take his eyes off Jack.
“I tried to, but the dead were watching. They are always watching. I see them all the time! They don’t like me. I am them!”
“Did you get the knife from your kitchen?”
“Maybe,” Jack smiled, and violently rocked back and forth on his heels, looking at his hands.
“Did you crawl out Emily’s window, Jack?”
“I told her the truth!”
“I’m sure you did, son. Was it foggy and cold on the beach?”
“I am God! Steps all the way down to the beach. Can I have a cup of blood?”
“Not right now, Jack. Can you see the tunnel?”
“I’m walking on the water. What? Are you here?”
“Try to focus, Jack. Do you remember the tunnel on the beach?”
“Tunnel.”
“Yes, that’s right, Jack. We found Emily in the tunnel.”
“Is she dead?”
“Yes, you stabbed her with the knife, remember?”
“Oh. Yes. Blood! Dying! Shark! Deserved to die!
“That’s right. Emily is dead.”
“Shark in that tree! Eating shit! Brain tumor! Knife in its eye!”
“Can you come with me now, Jack?” Matt said, moving toward the hallucinating boy. “We need to go for a drive, OK?”
“OK. Are we going to play golf? Can I bring my friend? Pizza! Eat!”
Matt took one arm and Sonders took the other, and they escorted a docile Jack out to the car and placed him in the back seat. Ed sat on one side of him, and Sheriff Johnson sat on the other. Ed placed one arm around the boy’s shoulders.
Inside the house, Fern attended to Marjorie, who had crumpled to the floor and was on her hands and knees, finally wailing. Jay got Fred to the sofa and quickly brought both parents a glass of water. Susan and Gary were bawling uncontrollably and holding on to each other for dear life.
Matt came running back into the living room. “Please stay here with the family for now,” Matt instructed Fern and Jay. “We’ll take Jack to the Buck Bay Hospital for an examination,” he said to Fred.
Fred said, rising: “I’m coming with you. I need to take care of
my son.”
Matt eyed Fred and said, “OK, let’s go.”
Jack was disoriented and rambled incoherently on the drive to the hospital. His movements were agitated, and he seemed to be having trouble talking. Attempts by his father and by Ed Sonders to bring him back to reality went unheeded. Jack was in his own world, and it was a terrible, terrifying place.
EPILOGUE
Jack was examined by Dr. Joseph Mallory, an emergency room physician at the hospital, and by Dr. Candace Bernstein, a psychiatrist from Buck Bay. Together, they determined that Jack was suffering from mental illness, and was in the throes of an acute schizophrenic episode.
Dr. Lawrence Bush, the dentist who had been called in by Bernice on Saturday night to look at the bite marks on Emily, came to take photographs and plaster casts of Jack’s teeth.
After Matt processed Jack’s statement—as best he could—Jack was taken to the Chinook County Jail where he was booked for the murder of Emily Anne Bushnell. Jack remained compliant and obedient, with a flat expression on his face throughout the booking process. He did not speak.
The following morning, Friday, at 9:00 a.m., a commitment hearing before Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Hedges was held. The defendant, his father, his defense attorney, and DA David Dalrymple were accompanied by six witnesses. At 9:12 a.m., the defendant was found to be suffering from acute mental disease, and was committed indefinitely to the Oregon State Hospital.
* * *
After the hearing, the county crime team reconvened at City Hall. Although there was a sense of tremendous relief around the table, and pride for a job well done, there was certainly no joyous celebration.
“Welcome to Port Stirling, Chief Horning,” Sonders said in an attempt to lighten up the atmosphere in the room.
“Yeah. Thanks a heap,” Matt said. “Am I up for some vacation time yet?”
Subdued laughter.
“Every single person in this room played an important role in this investigation. I want to say ‘thanks’. And, while I sincerely hope we won’t have to meet with this urgency again soon, I’ve been mulling around the idea that maybe we should have regular meetings, say once a month, just to keep in touch and to stay alert. What do y’all think?”
“Only if you promise to quit saying ‘y’all’,” said Patty.
“Shoot, I’m trying!” laughed Matt.
“It’s a good idea,” said Sheriff Johnson. “This group came together better than past efforts. Personally, I’d like to see us continue.”
“The rest of you?” Matt asked.
“How about the first Tuesday of every month, 4:00 p.m” said Sonders. “Where sha
ll we meet?”
“Well, we should meet at the county’s offices,” said DA Dalrymple. “But, you know what, it’s worked out pretty good meeting here. I vote to continue on.”
“Second that,” said Sheriff Johnson. “This shitty room with no windows makes us focus.”
Raucous laughter at that because they all knew there was truth in it.
“OK then, next meeting on Tuesday, February 2, at 4:00 p.m.,” Matt said, consulting his calendar. “Be there or be square.”
Matt stood in the door as everyone filed out, shaking hands one-by-one. Jay and Fern were last, hanging back to let the rest of the team leave the building. Jay started to shake Matt’s hand, and then changed his mind and enveloped his new boss in a crushing bear hug.
“You’re hired,” Matt said to Jay, and clapped him on the back.
As Fern approached, Matt stiffly shook her hand, while giving her a light kiss on the cheek. “You are tougher than you look,” he said, smiling.
“Told you so,” she smiled back at him.
“Is there any chance you’d like to do the same job here for less money instead of at the county?”
“Now, why would I do a crazy thing like that?”
“Because we’re a team.”
“There is that,” Fern allowed. “But I’d need more money to make a move, not less.”
“Well, then you’d have to add some education, say an ‘Introduction to Criminal Justice’ course, for instance,” Matt said. “Is that something you would consider? Can we talk about it?”
“I looked at Buck Bay Community College’s website last night,” Fern said. “They offer that exact course. It’s classroom-based, supplemented by practical exercises and scenarios. I figure after this week that I could probably teach the course, but I suppose I would need a certificate before you would hire me, yes?”
* * *
Ted Frolick pushed his grocery cart around the corner to the meat and seafood counter of the market. Patty Perkins took her one pound of Coho salmon from the clerk, and turned around, headed to checkout.
“Ms. Perkins, how nice to see you again,” said Ted, tipping the brim of his weathered cap. There was a courtliness about him. “I hear our nasty business has been resolved. What an abominable thing for the family.”
“Hello, Ted,” Patty said, friendly. “Yes, it’s always a huge relief to put away the perpetrator, but this case doesn’t make anyone happy. I’m sorry we hassled you,” she said.
“No hard feelings. You and Chief Horning were doing your job, and you did it well, may I say.”
“I appreciate that. You were a big help.” She looked down at the wrapped salmon in her hands. “I suppose the Bushnells have a long road in front of them.”
“You seem quite sad, Patty.”
“It’s rough. You hate to see families destroyed. I’ve always liked Fred, and my heart goes out to him,” she said.
“I think we need to cheer you up,” said Ted heartily. “I’ve been meaning to get over to Twisty River and treat myself to a nice cocktail and dinner at The Grill. Man can only eat deli food so often,” he said, holding up his packaged dinner. “Would you like to join me Friday night? I think you mentioned you lived in Twisty River.”
“I do, and I would enjoy that.”
Patty was astonished to realize that she meant it.
* * *
Later, in a small ceremony for city staff at Port Stirling City Hall, City Manager Bill Abbott presented Matt Horning with a shiny gold plaque for his door that read “Matthew Horning, Chief of Police”. Matt had insisted that, in addition to his department and all city employees, that Russell Throckmorton from the dump be invited, too.
As Jay Finley thanked Russell for finding Jack’s bloody Nikes, and hugged him so hard he picked him up off the ground, Throckmorton said modestly, “I just know how to look through garbage.”
* * *
Jack Bushnell is currently an inmate at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, where he is under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board. Jack was evaluated extensively by the state’s leading psychologist, Beth Dixon, who found that he was mentally competent to stand trial, but that he had been afflicted with a mental condition, and experienced an acute schizophrenic episode when he killed his sister.
Her conclusion was that Jack really believed Emily was suffering from a brain tumor, and that he was relieving her of a painful death.
Jack pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to 20 years of confinement and treatment in the State Hospital, with periodic competency evaluations to be conducted.
Jack sat on a chair in his solitary cell with his hands on his knees, staring at the corner wall. He stood up, and turned his chair around to face outward, toward his cell door. He sat back down and folded his arms across his chest.
Brain tumor, my ass, he smiled.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
CHAPTER 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
CHAPTER 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
Chapter 24
CHAPTER 25
Chapter 26
CHAPTER 27
Chapter 28
CHAPTER 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
CHAPTER 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
CHAPTER 35
Chapter 25
CHAPTER 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
EPILOGUE
