The Bone Puzzle

by Clayton E. Spriggs

  PART SEVEN:

  RESURRECTION

  Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection,

  Send my credentials to the House of Detention,

  I got some friends inside.

  The Doors

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

  Garland Vaughan absorbed the news about Jeremiah’s redemption with skepticism. He’d heard the same thing in regard to Joe Bob, only to watch him recant everything on the stand. Since then, Buck McEwen and Earl Barber had gotten lawyers and were now renouncing their testimonies. Vaughan knew it had all been secretly arranged courtesy of Douglas Lee, but there was no evidence that he’d be able to present to the bar association that would warrant a reprimand, and none that would sway the Honorable Judge Samuel Foley.

  What troubled Vaughan the most was the lack of physical evidence he had. His case hinged on the testimony of a pack of self-proclaimed liars whose reputations were as depraved as that of the accused. Although Dr. Hall had held his own when questioned by Lee, Vaughan wasn’t convinced that the jury would understand the implications. Detective Stallworth, on the other hand, had eviscerated the defense when testifying, but Vaughan understood that when it came time for deliberation the state would need more than an over-eager policeman to send the preacher to death row.

  As Jeremiah Winchester was escorted to the stand, Vaughan took a deep breath. He had to play his cards just right, or all would be lost. Brother Eustice’s conviction could be jeopardized by a single question phrased incorrectly as well as any he failed to ask. When the guard removed Jeremiah’s shackles and Bailiff Tyndale swore the witness in, Vaughan exhaled and counted to ten, then approached the witness stand.

  “Mr. Winchester, how are you related to the defendant?” he asked.

  “He’s my paw,” Jeremiah answered.

  “Is he more than that?”

  “I ain’t sure what you mean. How can he be more than that?”

  “Indeed,” said Vaughan. “What I mean is, does the defendant hold any other position of authority in your life in addition to being your father?”

  “Not any more. He was once my pastor, my spiritual guide, but all that changed.”

  “When did that change?”

  “After the girls. After Junior. After everythin’,” said Jeremiah. “It weren’t all at once. I wanted to hold on, to believe, but—”

  “But?”

  “I just can’t no more. He was everything to me. I believed in him. I loved him, but he don’t believe in me. He don’t love me. He don’t care ‘bout nobody but himself.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “It’s the truth. We was all there, doin’ what he wanted, doin’ what he told us to do. He had us all convinced that the Lord talked through him, that he was a prophet. It was a lie.”

  “Heathen!” someone shouted from the back row. “Devil!” yelled another. Judge Foley banged his gavel for order. Bailiff Tyndale puffed out his chest as his eyes scanned the audience, pretending that his intimidating stance would be enough to dissuade further outbursts from the locals.

  “Jeremiah, did you travel with Eustice and your fellow deacons to Memphis last April?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And what was the purpose of that trip?”

  “Officially, we were not to question the motives of the prophet, but we was to tell our wives and such that we were goin’ on a spiritual retreat. We weren’t supposed to tell them that we were leavin’ the area, or anythin’ specific. We was told it was the Lord’s will.”

  “And unofficially?”

  “When we headed to Tennessee, there was some complainin’, so Paw pulled out a poster. It had an evil lookin’ foreigner on it. Hell, it looked like Satan. The poster was ‘bout some magician. As soon as I saw that, I had a feelin’ what we was goin’ up there for.”

  “And why was that?” asked Vaughan.

  “’Cuz I remembered when CW came ‘round a few months before that, tellin’ us about the time he’d seen the show in Nashville. He had Paw all up in arms ‘bout the devilish things goin’ on. Once he got to tellin’ of the poor fate of the gypsy girl, I knew the old man wouldn’t let it go.”

  “CW?”

  “I don’t know his name,” explained Jeremiah. “He’s some distant kin or somethin’. We call him CW ‘cause he thinks he’s a singer. He plays the steel guitar and is always braggin’ ‘bout the Grand Ole Opry, as if he were a star. CW stands for Country and Western, or so he says.”

  “And you say his story got Eustice all wound up?”

  “Oh yeah,” said Jeremiah. “Paw was convinced the magic guy had hypnotized some unfortunate gypsy refugee and forced her to do all kinds of unspeakable things, like worship the Devil and who-knows-what-all. He said it was our moral duty to rescue the poor girl and bring her into the fold. He wanted to personally see to it that she was instructed in the ways of the Lord so she could follow the righteous path. All that kind of crap.”

  “Sinner! Repent!” a few enraged shouts came from the gallery, but they dissipated before Foley could reach for his gavel.

  “Crap?” asked Vaughan.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” said Jeremiah. “I meant ‘cause that weren’t what Paw was really after.”

  “No? What was he after?”

  “He just wanted the girl.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “After we got back, he told us she was to be his wife. It weren’t right. She was just a child.”

  “How did she end up in Alabama?”

  “We took her,” said Jeremiah.

  “We?”

  “Me and Junior. We was in the magician’s dressin’ room when she come in. Paw told Junior and me to grab her and put her in the truck. The rest of ‘em come out in a bit, and we high-tailed it back to Alabama. I drove, and Junior rode in the back with the girl, which I weren’t real keen on. We already had her tied up, but if you knew Junior, you’d know better than to argue with him. I drove kinda reckless so he’d get knocked ‘round a bit. Teach him a lesson, and maybe he’d keep his hands to himself.”

  “You thought he was going to rape her?”

  “I wouldn’t have put it past him, but I don’t think he went that far. She was to be Daddy’s, and he knew better than touch one of Daddy’s girls.”

  “One of?”

  “Figure of speech, but it were well known that Paw would counsel a young sweet member of the congregation when he saw the opportunity. They’d be rumors every once in awhile, but Buck would put an end to that, and you’d never hear them again.”

  “Objection!” shouted Lee. “Hearsay!”

  “Sustained,” said the judge. “The witness will refrain from repeating unsubstantiated rumors not pertinent to these proceedings.”

  Jeremiah didn’t understand a word the judge had said, but he nodded his head anyway. All he knew was the truth.

  “What happened when you got back to Alabama?” asked Vaughan.

  “We went to Cooter’s place, out in the sticks. When we opened up the back of the truck, the girl was in there with Junior. Paw wasn’t happy about her state, and he whacked Junior with his cane. But he did that all the time anyway.”

  “Her state?”

  “Her skirt was hiked up a bit. I’m sure Junior took some liberties, but I don’t think he debased her, thanks to my reckless drivin’.”

  “What happened then?”

  “Paw sent us off to keep a look out. Buck hung back with his gun, which we took as more of a threat to us. But that’s what he always did. Paw got into the truck with the girl and shut the door.”

  “Liar!” “Judas!” came shouts from the back of the room.

  “Order!” yelled Foley, banging his gavel.

  “All you men just stood by and let him do that?” asked Vaughan.

  “I told you, Buck had a gun.”

  “So did most of you.”

  “It weren’t up to us. The prophet had spoken. We didn’t argue with commands that came from
God.”

  “He’s not God.”

  “He might as well have been to us. Now, don’t get me wrong. Some of the men were grumblin’. They weren’t happy about the way things were going. I think they were shell-shocked after what had happened with the magician.”

  “What happened with the magician?”

  “Paw forced them to kill him because he refused to confess his sins and give his soul over to Jesus. It was over before they knew it, and it was just settlin’ in. Then we get back and find out Paw just wanted the girl for himself. We was pissed, but what could we do? We was all involved by that point.”

  “You could’ve rescued the girl, like you should have done in the first place.”

  “She was dead by the time we got back.”

  “Dead? Who killed her?”

  “Paw said it were the Devil. Buck said when Paw came out of the truck, she was dead. She was alive when he went in there with her and shut the door. You tell me.”

  “Why did he kill her?”

  “She resisted, I suppose.”

  “Objection! Hearsay!”

  “Sustained.”

  “I’ll re-word the question,” said Vaughan. “How did she die?”

  “She looked like she’d been strangled. Her clothes were all messed up, and we could see she’d tried to fight him off.”

  “What happened then?”

  “He told us we’d have to get rid of her or the Devil would come for us all. So he told us to cut her body up into small pieces. After that, we scattered them in the Dead River Swamp.”

  “You did that, too?”

  “We all did. The prophet commanded us.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “It was dark, and we went to sleep. The next morning, Earl came by. He had the same girl with him, only she weren’t dead. We were scared. She run off into the woods, but we found her and dragged her back. Junior wanted a turn with her. He said Paw already had his, and she was his now because he was the prophet’s heir. Buck wasn’t goin’ to let that happen, so he shot her dead.”

  “Buck killed her?”

  “He was doin’ her a favor,” said Jeremiah. “She was dead anyway. After that, we cut her up again and dumped her into the swamp like we had the night before.”

  “Why?”

  “The prophet commanded us to.”

  “I have to say, Jeremiah, that’s a lot to ask of people. You’d think that, at a certain point, some of you would’ve resisted.”

  “We was starting to, but we was already in too deep. Besides, we had cut up the dead girl the night before, and there she was again. Whatever doubts we had ‘bout the Devil playin’ tricks on us were long forgotten. Only the Devil could do such a thing. The prophet had warned us, and we couldn’t explain it any other way. You had to be there to understand.”

  “I’m glad I wasn’t,” said Vaughan.

  “I wish I hadn’t been,” said Jeremiah, “but I was.”

  “Do you still believe the girl had been resurrected by the Devil?”

  “No, that was all a lie, too. They were twins. The other one must’ve been hidin’ in the truck. It was loaded with the magician’s props and whatnots. She must’ve sneaked out and got lost in the woods. The lawmen found two sets of bones, so there had to be two of them.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “Some ol’ coon found a foot. When we found out ‘bout it, we all got together to help in the search, hopin’ to keep them from findin’ the other bones. But Jasper brought them damn dogs, and they found some more. We thought we was doomed, but nothin’ ever came of it. That is, until that detective came ‘round. He started diggin’ them bones up like he put them there himself. He took one look at us and had us pegged from the beginnin’. He knew we weren’t goin’ to tell him nothin’, so he tricked us.”

  “Tricked you?”

  “He staged some Klan rally and arrested the sheriff and a few of his men. Then he came to us, beggin’ for help. We thought he was dumber than a stump, and we took the bait. It took us about two minutes to figure we was in some kind of trap, but he weren’t done. He sprayed perfume on me, kept me out all night, and turned my wife against me.”

  Laughter erupted from the gallery. Even Judge Foley chuckled as he tapped the bench for order.

  “It weren’t funny at the time,” said Jeremiah. “Like I said, he’s a real assh—. I mean, he’s full of tricks. Pretty soon, he had us turnin’ on each other.”

  “How did he do that?”

  “I don’t know, but he did. Junior took it upon himself to be the avengin’ angel. He was itchin’ to show Paw he was worthy, so he started investigatin’ on his own. He was convinced someone was sellin’ us out. That's when he showed up out of the blue and took me out to his special hidin’ spot in the woods in back of his place. I knew what he was goin’ to do, so I had no choice.”

  “What did you do?”

  Jeremiah paused to compose himself. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he reached up and brushed it off. Vaughan saw Lee lean forward, ready to pounce, waiting for yet another witness to invoke the Fifth.

  “I shot him,” said Jeremiah.

  Seemingly shocked by the incriminating statement, Vaughan turned back to the witness. “You killed him?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You do know that you don’t have to make statements like that. You have the right not to admit criminal guilt.”

  “Maybe I do legally, but not morally. What I did was wrong. What we all did was wrong. Junior was goin’ to kill me. I had to protect myself. But we all know the truth is that, if we ain’t done what we’d done, it never would’ve come to that. I’m tired of makin’ excuses and blamin’ others. I ain’t gonna do that no more.”

  Vaughan glanced over at Robert. The detective looked surprised. Next to Stallworth sat John Turner, the expression on his face that said everything was turning out just as he’d expected.

  “What happened after that?”

  “The detective kept at it. Paw told me it was up to me to put a stop to him. So I waited for a chance. Stallworth showed up at the church one day, so I did what I was told to do and took the rifle. Before I could get a shot off, John showed up.”

  “John?”

  “John Turner,” said Jeremiah. “He’s another detective. He showed up, and I had to wait for another chance. But like I said earlier, the detective is a clever one. In the meantime, the deacons were starting to waver, so the prophet had me take precautions. When Earl showed up and started shootin’, I had to take him out. After that, we was all screwed. The only chance I had was to finish the job on Stallworth, so I lured him over to my place and waited in the brush with my rifle.”

  “You were going to shoot the detective?”

  “I was goin’ to, but he got the jump on me. I should of known better, but I was desperate. We’d have gotten away with everythin’ if he hadn’t shown up. At least that’s what I told myself at the time.”

  “And now?”

  “We was guilty. He didn’t make us do those things. We did them. He just figured it out. I don’t know how, but he did. I can hate him all I want for that, but it’s not really his fault. He was just doin’ what he gets paid to do, which is more than I can say for a lot of folks ‘round here.”

  “Boo!” “Hiss!” “Traitor!” The shouts of disapproval rose once again from the gallery. As usual, the judge tapped his gavel for order, and the bailiff pretended that he wasn’t going to put up with the interruptions, without actually doing anything about it.

  “Did, at any time, Detective Stallworth or any other police officer give you any of the details of this case and make you recall them as a confession, or in any other way compromise your testimony in this case?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Did anyone offer you special treatment or cut a deal for a reduced sentence to secure your testimony?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Is everything you are saying today the truth?”

  �
�It is.”

  “I only have one more question for you, son. Why have you come here and so plainly admitted your part in these horrendous crimes?”

  “Because it’s the right thing to do,” said Jeremiah. No longer able to keep his emotions in check, he sobbed uncontrollably. “All my life, I’ve been preached to and told to do what’s right, only to be coerced and intimidated into doin’ wrong. All my life! I convinced myself that, as long as I did what I was told, it were the right thing to do, even when I knew, in my heart, it was wrong. It’s easier than you think to be led astray. I ain’t doin’ that no more. I know what we did was wrong, and ain’t no preacher, or so called prophet, or anyone else goin’ to convince me otherwise. I don’t need no lawyer, or jury, or judge to tell me nothin’ I don’t already know. What we did was wrong, and we deserve to be punished for it. What I did was wrong. I’m going to be punished for it, and I know it. I’d be lyin’ if I said I weren’t scared ‘bout it, but enough is enough. I’m here telling you all the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. I’m doin’ it ‘cause, just once in my whole life, I want to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. The fact that no one expects that says everythin’ I need to know ‘bout this wretched world we live in. Maybe that’ll be the only comfort I have when I reach the gallows.”

  “No further questions, Your Honor.”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWELVE

  “My goodness,” said Lee, “I got a lump in my throat listening to your story; especially the part about how you weren’t going to blame others for your own sins. Just a word of advice in the future, son; the next time you give such a noble speech, you might not want to pepper it with baseless accusations, blaming other people for your own despicable acts.”

  “I ain’t blamin’ no one,” Jeremiah protested. “I admitted what I done.”

  “No. What you did was justify what you did and minimize it,” said Lee. “Let’s go over it, shall we? You said that you killed your brother in self defense.”