49.
“The State Capital”The four of them walked down the halls of power. Pappy walked in the middle, with Evan on one side and Archie on the other, and Tooley a couple of steps behind the old man.
No one said anything. What was there to say.
They reached the receptionist and were given entrée to the Congressman’s office. His assistant, Jeff Barsimmon, was also there.
Porter Gates stood and offered his hand. No one took it.
Porter walked around his desk and said, “Well, Pappy, it’s great to have you hear. I thanked you in my acceptance speech, did you read that?”
Pappy was fighting back the tears again, but also had his fists clenched in rage.
“Pappy,” Porter took another step forward, looking totally as though concerned, “what’s wrong?”
“We know,” escaped from Han’s lips, “We know.”
Gates was apprehensive. Barsimmon was edging towards the double doors.
“You know what, Pappy?” The smile forced itself on the Congressman’s face.
Barsimmon was gone from the room.
“We know about ‘The Brotherhood.’ ‘The Brotherhood of the Unspeakable.’” Pappy choked the words out of his throat.
Porter Gates turned his back on them, and put both hands on his desk.
He only turned when the gunshot rang out.
The four men turned to the area they had just walked through to get here. Archie hit one door with his shoulder as Evan opened the other one.
There on the floor was Jeff Barsimmon.
Blood was oozing from the half of his face that had been shot away by the revolver in his hand.
The receptionist was screaming.
Pappy turned to see Porter Gates at the door, falling to his knees and wailing like a mother who had lost her only son.
The capitol police filled the room, but there wasn’t much for them to do.
50.
“Answers”Han watched though the two way mirrored glass, as the lady with the little machine and the policeman with the tape recorder took down the final confession of Porter Gates.
“The first killing was by Wiley Earl. He had just killed Rory Elkins, we didn’t know why, but Jeff and I happened upon them at the camp.
“Wiley didn’t threaten us, he was out of his mind on some kind of drug, but he was in the part of his ‘trip’ that made him depressed and nearly paralyzed. Jeff was worried that he might kill us, so he created the ‘Brotherhood of the Unspeakable’ as a way for Wiley to trust us. We were all in on it, he insisted.
“Wiley let us go, but we didn’t know what to do. What if he told the police we were involved? We were kids, we didn’t know. But that wasn’t what was going on in Jeff’s head.
“He came back with that damned poem and said we could terrorize anyone who we didn’t like. We could control life or death for them.
“I had never seen him like that. He was the ultimate salesman. He talked me into it. We wouldn’t talk about the killing and we’d have something over Wiley. Maybe we’d get him to scare our enemies.
“Then, we didn’t think of it again. Until the first killing. I forget the boy’s name.
“Wiley brought us to see the body. We were stunned as he took us through the rituals of our little ‘Brotherhood.’ He pointed out that next time, to make the Gods smile on us, one of us would have to do something in the ritual.
“We were terrified. But Jeff was also intrigued.
“When Wiley came to get us the next time, the boy was unconscious, but alive. Wiley had tattooed the letters into the boy’s cheeks. He then tattooed us on our arms.
“We were really in it now. But we looked at the power of life and death. Wiley had us burn the letters off the boy with bleach. Then we watched as he cut the boy’s throat.
“This had all become unreal. It was some sort of nightmarish reality. And we were every inch involved in it.
“Now, any boy who wanted to become a member was the next sacrifice. They didn’t know that, but it was the bait that brought in new victims.
“I knew this was insane, but week to week Jeff and Wiley kept me in.
There were times I believe Jeff was beginning to buy into the whole thing. One night he even took the knife when Wiley offered it, which he always did. He always believed we should do the killing, but that was the only time one of us really took the knife. But when the blood came, Jeff couldn’t do it, and Wiley had to finish it.
That was the boy who almost lived.
Jeff and I even talked about finding a way to kill Wiley to make the whole thing stop, but neither of us had the guts.
Then that damn letter showed up. We had thrown it away, but Wiley had found it in the trash and delivered it weeks later as part of our plan to destroy society and take over.
“After the last boy Jeff and I were going different places and talked Wiley into a rehab program over in Centerville. When he got out we supported him and made sure he had everything he needed and promised not to sacrifice anyone else.
“That worked for years, and then the camp closed. His world fell apart and Jeff and I held our breath.
“The two of us had pledged our lives to public service, as a small way of paying back for the evil we had done. I know nothing could have done that, but internal justification is sometimes all you have to go on.
“When Wiley began the killings again, it was without us. We both worked our way back to try and stop him, but we were afraid for our lives and being exposed by the madman.
When his drug use exceeded any time in the past, his paranoia drove him to shoot anyone who seemed to be a threat. That was when he shot Deputy Tooley and Pappy. He killed Miss Custer, I think, but I don’t know what he did with the body.
Jeff had been worried about the cabin, and that was why he bought ‘Atlantis’ from Mayor Freemont. He was sure he could go out, move the stakes and then change the documents to look like
Wiley had been hiding on the Mayor’s land all along. Then Jeff thought Wiley might have disposed of Miss Custer’s in ‘Atlantis,’ and that’s why stopped trying to do anything with it. He didn’t want to draw attention to the land.
“It was all quickly unraveling, and no matter what we tried to do it didn’t slow down. It was a nightmare inside a nightmare.
“We had known all this would fall apart eventually, even after I killed Wiley. I guess it was just more than Jeff could take.
“If I were not such a coward, I should have done the same thing as he.”
51.
“Home” “It’s all over,” He said, standing in the living room.
She didn’t say a single word. She just continued sewing curtains for the kitchen windows.
“Got a nice check from the FBI for ‘consulting’ on their case,” He said as he handed the sizable note to his wife.
She looked at it, huffed, and set it on a cushion beside her.
“Evan and Archie are on their way back to Washington,” Pappy said as he sat in his chair, “But they did ask if I would do some consulting with them now and then.”
Bel stopped what she was doing.
“I said, ‘As long as it doesn’t take me from the woman I love. She deserves a lot of making up for the last few months.’”
“Damn right,” She said.
“I love you baby,” He said.
“Ribs and sauerkraut for dinner tonight,” She told him.
“She loves me right back,” He thought.
It might take a while, but life would get back to normal. He just knew it.
The quiet that was Setonville finally returned.
THE END
"The Long Summers of the Setonville
Murders"
A Hannibal Agamemnon Mystery
by C. Wayne Owens
© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens
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