Dead Man Talking

by TM Simmons

  Chapter 36

  We gathered in a circle that included the ghosts. Jack gently helped Granny down, and nearly sat on Bucky. Granny jerked his arm and scooted over to give him more room. As unintentional designated guardian of the cooler, I placed it inside the circle before I sat down beside Granny. Trucker and Miss Molly stretched out behind me, Trucker with his nose on his paws and the cat cuddled against him.

  “Before we start,” Jack reminded me, “you said you were going to ask Bucky something.”

  “Well, we intended to wait until the end of the ritual, but...what do you think, Twila?”

  She was still on her feet, waiting to seal the circle, and she said, “I think he’s cognizant enough with the doll head. Bucky, was it Tildy who murdered you?”

  We waited breathlessly, but Bucky only shrugged. “Could’ve been, I s’pose. She’d’ve done it, iffen she got a chance. She was that pissed at me. But I donno who it was. Last I ‘member, like my buddy here, was bein’ in the water. Well, not exactly. I was layin’ on the concrete, lookin’ at the rest of me in that there water. Guess my head was, anyways.”

  “Shit,” Jack grumbled. “All this and you didn’t see who killed you?”

  “Nope,” Bucky said, unconcerned. “Guess whoever done it snuck up on me. I was gonna go in there and jerk Miss Goody Two-Shoes Katy outta bed and make her promise to talk to my daddy. But I never got the chance. Somebody got me on the way to the back door.”

  Frustrated, I glanced at Twila, but she shook her head. “I can’t read what happened either. We’ll do a séance later, after they cross over. Maybe Bucky will know more then.”

  “Whatever y’all want,” Bucky said, glancing at the cooler. “Right now, you made me a promise, an’ I think I’ve waited long enuf.”

  “One more thing,” I insisted. “Well, two. Someone poisoned the sugar in the kitchen.”

  “Weren’t me,” Bucky denied. “I weren’t in no shape to plan somethin’ like that.”

  “What about the stuff you buried in the Rose Garden? What was the purpose of your blackmailing Katy?”

  “It was for the kids,” Bucky insisted, that whine in his voice. “Kids change a man. I didn’t know Tildy was pregnant when we split up, but them twin boys are mine, no doubt. Tildy’s momma got them now." He wobbled his head back and forth. “Truth be known, neither me or Tildy was worth a flip as a mama or daddy. But I figgered if I could get back in Daddy’s good graces, the boys would have a decent life. He’s got all that there money.”

  “Ever think of gettin’ a job and takin’ care of them boys yourself?” Granny fumed.

  “I was gonna do that,” Bucky insisted. “If the other didn’t work out.”

  Twila glanced skyward at a barely perceptible lightening in the darkness.

  “Can we get on with it?” Bucky demanded.

  “We need to,” Twila agreed.

  Jack started to rise, but Twila inclined her head in a command to stay where he was. For a second I thought he might ignore her, but finally he relaxed.

  “Seems we don’t have my rope I normally use to enclose a circle, so we’ll have to make do with just a ritual closing." She turned and paced clockwise around us, past Sir Gary and Bucky, Jack and Granny, murmuring softly as she went. “Earth, air, water, and fire. We call upon the forces of the Universe to aid our quest this night.”

  She returned to her place beside me and sat down. “The circle is now sealed. I ask that no one break it until I open it again." She took a deep breath. And opened the cooler. Laid the lid aside and said, “Join hands.”

  Around the circle, our hands joined. Twila with Sir Gary and me, me with her and Granny, Granny with me and Jack. Sir Gary and Bucky joined hands, but Jack had his right hand on his leg. An awestruck look crossed his face when his hand lifted. We could see Bucky holding it, but Jack only shivered as though chilled, his gaze frozen on his suspended hand.

  “Relax, Jack,” I said. “We need peace and calm here.”

  Jack shut his eyes and sat unmoving. Twila asked us to clear our minds, her soothing voice an aid to the cleansing of unrelated matters from our thoughts. We drew in deep breaths and blew them out, three times. The world around me receded and my concentration focused on the circle and the task at hand.

  “We’re here to put one soul to rights,” Twila said. “And to ask the help of the powers of the Universe, whoever, whatever, and whichever they may be, to open a pathway through the lights for both these souls to journey home. I ask that all of you in our circle concentrate your thoughts on our quest.”

  She allowed the silence to linger for several moments. Jack kept his eyes closed, but I glanced around to see everyone else focused on Twila’s face. She sat there serenely composed, eyes with that inward look I probably had on my own face whenever I led a ritual. But this one was all Twila’s. The powers needed were beyond my scope as a relative amateur compared to her years of experience.

  She glanced at Bucky. “You need to remove the temporary head you’ve been using.”

  Jack’s hand clunked to the ground as Bucky let go to reach for his head. Jack’s eyes flew open, and he stared at what he saw as an empty space at his side. But when Bucky lifted the head off his shoulders and laid it down, took his hands away, Jack’s face whitened. I knew he saw the head now, but to his credit, he didn’t disrupt the circle.

  “Sir Gary,” Twila said quietly. “Will you do the honor?”

  Sir Gary pointed at the cooler. His index finger curved, and ice slid. Ever so slowly, the plastic bag containing the head rose as Bucky’s headless body silently waited. Twila reached forward and removed the plastic, tossing it on the ground beside her. I squeezed my eyes shut, but they refused to cooperate and slit open to peruse the grisly countenance from the Hollow Room. Instead, there was a serene look on the face beneath the matted, stringy hair. The eyes opened and stared back with a gleam of anticipation.

  Sir Gary straightened his finger, curved it again, and the head floated through the air, slowly, ever so slowly, then settled on Bucky’s shoulders.

  “So mote it be,” Twila whispered.

  “So mote it be,” Granny and I replied together.

  Jack just sat there stunned. “Where...where did it go?”

  “Just wait,” Twila said.

  Complete now, Bucky grinned in delight. “Feels good.”

  “Will you both please rise?” Twila said to Sir Gary and Bucky.

  They did, but Bucky’s head didn’t rise with him. It tumbled to the ground and rolled over by Jack’s feet. Jack gazed at it, then looked to his side where Sir Gary and Bucky waited, Bucky now complete, with his own head on his shoulders.

  “Uh — ” Jack began.

  “Shhhh,” Twila said. “Shhhh. We have more to do." She removed a white candle in a crystal holder from her satchel, then a container of jasmine oil. The scent spread as she rubbed oil on the white candle. Next she removed a packet of matches and lit the candle.

  “White is for the light,” she whispered, “which leads through the veil, where our friends and ancestors wait to welcome us. I call upon the powers of the Universe to send us the light, to send us a door through the light, so these two souls can complete their journey.”

  For a moment nothing happened. Then the air stilled with silence so profound you could almost hear it. A wide beam that always reminds me of moonlight whenever I see it flowed down from the sky, and a deep peace stole through me. Sir Gary and Bucky faced the light as it settled a few feet from them. It brightened and widened, then split to above Sir Gary’s height.

  “I guess this is it,” Sir Gary said. “I want to thank you for everything.”

  “Me, too,” Bucky joined in. “We’ll see y’all sometime.”

  Sir Gary chuckled and wrapped his arm around Bucky’s shoulders. “Yes, we’ll see y’all...sometime. Tell my lady Katy goodbye for me." Trucker whuffed and Miss Molly murmured a plaintive meow. “Goodbye to you two, too,” Sir Gary said.

  The two of them
strolled forward, through the opening. “Think they got anything to drink over here?” Bucky asked.

  “I surely hope so,” Sir Gary replied. Then we could hear nothing else. The door closed, and the light faded. Rather than withdrawing, one moment it was there, the next, not.

  “So mote it be,” Twila repeated, and Granny and I echoed her words one last time.

  “Be happy,” I added.

  “I think they’re gonna have a grand old time,” Granny said. “Now, he’p me up. We got things to do.”

  “Let me release the circle first." Twila rose and turned the opposite way this time. She slowly walked around us, murmuring, “We thank you, all the powers, for your aid this night. For your help in allowing two lost souls to rest in peace." Back at my side, she nodded. “The circle’s open. We need to take care of earthly matters now.”

  I helped Granny up. Jack sat a while longer, staring at the head in front of him. Trucker stretched to his feet, his gaze trained across the circle where the ghosts had disappeared. Then he and Miss Molly padded down the path that led out of the maze.

  Finally Jack sighed and got up. He picked up the plastic bag, then squatted by the head. Gently he shoved it inside and placed it back in the cooler when Twila carried it over.

  “We don’t know a damn thing more than we did before,” Jack growled.

  “I think one of us here knows quite a bit more,” Twila said, eyes twinkling.

  “I was talkin’ about the investigation,” Jack said.

  “You’ve still got Tildy to question,” I put in. “But I doubt very much she’s gonna admit killing Bucky. Or if she could have. Someone unfamiliar with Esprit d’Chene couldn’t have gotten inside to take that sword. Or hidden the head in the passageway afterward.”

  “We needs to get that head back to Maxine." Granny toddled off down the path, her walking stick punching in with each step.

  And suddenly I was terribly afraid I might know who killed Bucky Wilson-Jones. To my distress, when my eyes flew to Jack’s and latched there like our gazes were glued, I saw realization spread over his face.