“Voices?”
“I’ll just get a little rest now,” Jessie said, letting her head fall back to the pillow.
“Okay, I’ll be right nearby if you need me,” Tracy said, rising. She fixed Jessie’s blanket and left her.
A little while later Jessie was awakened by the excited voices of Patrolmen Peters and Daniels in the hallway just outside her door. After Bob had taken them and shown them Father Rush’s body, they had gone upstairs to speak to old man Carter.
“The door was open,” Jessie heard Peters telling Tracy, “so we went in.”
“You wouldn’t believe the stench,” Bob said.
“It’s like he kept dead bodies up there or something,” Daniels said.
“But the old man isn’t there,” Bob added.
“His car is here, so we’ll start looking for him in the cemetery, but we’d like to talk to Jessie first,” Peters said. “How is she?”
“She’s very, very tired,” Tracy replied. “I’m sure she’s sleeping.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Jessie cried. “Tell them to come in, please.”
The policemen entered and stood just inside the doorway. She beckoned them closer.
“What happened here, ma’am?” Burt began. “Where’s Mr. Carter? Do you know?”
“He’s been turned to dust,” she said. “Dust to dust…”
“Dust?”
“Father Rush hit him with the holy water before he was struck with the pickax. Now it’s over; it’s all over,” she said softly.
“Over?” Peters asked. “What’s over?”
The telephone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Tracy said, and lifted the receiver. “Hello.” She listened for a moment. “No, this is a friend.”
“What is it?” Jessie asked fearfully, and turned toward the phone and Tracy.
“Oh, thank God, thank God,” Tracy said. “Yes, I’ll tell her immediately. Thank you.”
“What?” Jessie said before Tracy hung up the receiver.
“It’s Lee. He’s come out of his coma. He’s going to be all right, Jessie.”
Jessie pressed her small closed fist into her mouth and began to sob. Tracy sat on the bed to embrace her.
“There, there,” she said. “It’s all right now, Jessie. It’s all right.”
“I know,” Jessie muttered, and smiled. “I know.”
“Ma’am?” Greg Daniels said. “I’m afraid we still don’t understand what happened here.”
Jessie widened her smile. “I sent him back to hell.”
Epilogue
Tracy Baker and Jessie, both wearing flannel shirts and jeans and both with bandannas tied around their hair, came out to the porch of the DeGroot house into the bright morning sunlight, their arms filled with clothes on hangers. It was a great day to move, everyone thought, blue skies, cool and dry.
“Watch your—” Tracy began, and then stopped her warning as Jessie accurately began to descend the small stairway. Bob and Lee paused in their loading of the U-Haul and looked back, smiling as Jessie sauntered up the walk toward them without hesitation.
“I can’t keep up with her,” Tracy cried, rushing down the steps.
“You don’t have the same motivation to get out of here,” Jessie said. She turned toward the cemetery.
“You’re not hearing the voices again, are you?” Bob asked, and glanced at Lee.
“No,” Jessie said.
For a long moment no one spoke.
“Let me take that,” Lee said, scooping the clothing out of Jessie’s hands. Bob took the clothing Tracy held.
“We’re almost finished,” Tracy said, and the two women started back into the house.
“I must say, Jessie looks radiantly happy these days,” Bob commented. Lee nodded.
“She is. Funny thing was, I didn’t think she could be as long as we remained in Gardner Town. I thought she would want us to move more than ever, but she believes in her story so much…she’s so confident.” Lee turned to Bob. “She’s got me believing it.” He had to confess to himself that part of the reason for that concerned his act of adultery and how Jessie’s story of evil and possession helped justify it. It made sense. Hadn’t Monica London resigned from her position at the school and left Gardner Town?
“And when Henry and Marjorie Young came by to visit and brought along their son,” Lee continued, “Jessie didn’t seem at all surprised. She said she knew they would all make up and Henry would accept what the boy was doing. He’s a fine young man, with a true love for spiritual things. Henry’s changed, too, hasn’t he? He’s firmer, more supportive, and as a result you can see and feel a difference in the school. There’s an air of control, discipline. It’s the sort of school I originally thought I was coming to,” Lee said.
“I know,” Bob said. He leaned back against the car.
“What’s the matter?” Lee asked. “Aren’t you happy about all that?”
“Oh sure.”
“So?”
“Swear you won’t say anything?” Bob replied.
“Of course. What is it?”
“Every once in a while I come across something I did after my heart attack…”
“Yeah?”
“And I have no memory of doing it. Tracy swears I did, of course, and there’s evidence I did, but…”
“Like what?”
“Well, the most astounding thing is I just don’t recall how I got involved in the cemetery corporation with Dr. Beezly. I mean, I know it’s my signature on those documents, but it’s like buying a stock and forgetting it, forgetting what you originally paid for it. That sort of thing.”
“You’re still getting your dividend checks, aren’t you?”
“Well…there’s a problem. I had to turn it all over to Willy Stevens. Something with the mortgages.”
“Wasn’t Henry Young involved in that, too?”
“Yeah and Willy’s his attorney, too.” He paused and then looked up. “We’re going to have to sell the house.”
“Oh no.”
“It’s too much house for us anyway. Which is another thing,” he added.
“What?”
“I don’t feel like it’s my house…like it’s my home. Sometimes I wake up at night and wonder where the hell I am. Really. It takes me a moment or two. Now, don’t you go telling any of this to Jessie,” Bob warned.
Lee smiled.
“I think she already knows.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Bob started to put a carton into the back of the U-Haul.
“What about Dr. Beezly?” Lee asked, coming up beside him.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve heard the rumors and I’m sure you have, too, but none of us—not Henry, not you, not me—wants to talk about it.”
“You mean the stuff about the burns over his body?”
“Yeah.” Lee gazed back at the house quickly to be sure Jessie wasn’t returning yet.
“All I know is they found him dead in bed and the coroner ruled it a heart attack. You missed quite a funeral while you were still in the hospital.”
“Somehow that doesn’t upset me,” Lee said.
“I know, but you’ve got to give the devil his due.”
“Don’t say that, even in jest,” Lee warned. The girls had reemerged and were carrying additional armfuls of clothing.
“A lot of people miss him. He was a throwback to a gentler age—house calls, real involvement with his patients. I miss him myself.”
“Who do you miss?” Jessie asked, halfway down the walk.
“Sorry, I keep forgetting how keen her hearing is,” Bob said. “Nobody.”
“You don’t have to lie, Bob,” Jessie said, stepping up to hand Lee the clothing. “You were whispering about Dr. Beezly.”
“Jess…” Lee warned.
“It’s all right. The Dr. Beezly Bob, you and other people miss was the real Dr. Beezly. How the devil got possession of his soul is something between the doctor and God,” she insisted.
“Regardless of what everyone agrees and thinks and says,” Tracy said, unloading her armful of clothing into Bob’s arms, “the fact remains that this town now has only one physician.”
“Maybe not for long,” Bob said.
“What do you mean?” Lee asked.
Bob loaded in the garments and turned back.
“The real estate agent called this morning before we left to come over here. We’ve got someone biting on the house…and his name is Dr. Timons.”
“Is that so?”
“You’re selling the house?” Jessie asked, and then quickly said, “Of course.”
“Jessie Overstreet,” Tracy said, her hands on her hips, “you’re getting to sound like a regular fortune-teller.”
“Yeah, Jessie,” Bob said. “If you’re going to practice predicting the future, how’s Lee’s team going to do this Friday night?”
Jessie hesitated and then moved closer to Lee.
“His team’s going to win, and fairly,” she said.
“Spoken like a true coach’s wife,” Bob said.
“Well, why not? That’s what she is.” Lee threw his arm about her shoulders. They all laughed.
When the last of their personal possessions was loaded, they got into their cars to drive off. Jessie rolled her window down and turned toward the cemetery. Lee started the engine and began to drive off, but he saw the way she was listening.
“Hear something?” he asked softly as they drove past the stone arch.
Jessie turned and smiled at him.
“No,” she said.
He hoped and prayed she was telling the truth.
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