Part 3 (1/2)
”He's dead,” Reverend Short said suddenly in his new croaking voice
Maave a start She hadn't seen Reverend Short
He sat slouched on the end of his spine in an overstuffed ar with a fixed expression toward the opposite wall
”What the hell do you think,” she said roughly All her social affections had left since the discovery of Val's body ”You think I'd bury him if he was alive?”
”I saw it happen,” Reverend Short continued as though she hadn't spoken
She stared at him in perplexity ”Oh, you mean Val”
”A woman filled with the sin of lust and adultery came from the pit of hell and stabbed higed thoughts
”A woave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not_”
”You saw her do it?”
”_For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities_”
Mamie saw the room tilt
”May the Lord have rand piano and the console radio-television set begin a slow ascent toward heaven Then the dark maroon carpet rose slowly until it spread out before her eyes like a sea of dark, congealed blood into which she buried her face
”Sin and lust and aboht of the Lord,” Reverend Short croaked, then added in a s but a whore, 0 Lord”
5
The autoround floor, and most of the curious mourners chose to run down the stairs rather than wait for it But they were not the first to arrive
Dulcy and chink stood facing each other across the basket of bread containing the body He was a big yellow e summer suit He leaned over tensely
The first to approach heard Dulcy exclai, ”Jesus Christ, you didn't have to kill hi in a voice choked with sudden passion, ”Not even for you--” Then he broke off and cautioned in a tense whisper, speaking between set lips, ”Shut up and play it duain until all the athered and had their look and said their say
”It's Val, and he's dead all right”
”If he ain't, Saint Peter's going to be et a clear view of the body She heard a dining-car waiter say, ”You reckon he was stabbed where he's at?”
A voice behind her replied, ”Must have been--there ain't no blood nowhere else”
The body lay at full length on the h the basket had been fitted to its old ring, lay palm upward across a heavy, black silk knitted tie knotted about the collar of a soft sandcolored linen silk shi+rt; the right hand lay palm doard across the center button of the jacket of an olive drab sheen gabardine suit The feet pointed straight up, exposing the slightly worn crepe-rubber soles of lightweight Cordovan English-made shoes
The knife protruded from the jacket just beneath the breast pocket, which was adorned with a quarter-inch stripe of white handkerchief It was a stag-handle knife with a push-button opener and handguard, such as used by hunters to skin gaular patterns over the jacket, shi+rt and tie Splotches were on the waxed-paper wrappings of the loaves of bread, and on one side of the woven rattan basket There was none on the sidewalk
The face was set in a fixed expression of utter disbelief; the eyes, widened into protruding white-rimmed balls, stared fixedly at some point above and beyond the feet
It was a handso a close rese curly black hair, thickly plastered with pomade
An odd moment of silence followed the last speaker's statement as the fact sunk in that the murder had been committed on the spot
Dulcy said into the silence, ”He looks so surprised”
”You'd look surprised, too, if sori abruptness, Dulcy becaet hiar, oh God--”
She would have thrown herself atop Val's body, but Alamena quickly wrenched her away, and several of the led furiously and screamed, ”Turn me loose, youto pay--”
”For Jesus sake, shut up!” Ala yellow face distorted with rage She shut up and got herself under control
A colored patrol When he saw the crowd he drew hi his uniform
”What's happened here?” he asked in a loud selfconscious voice ”Soet hurt?”
”You can call it that,” some one replied
The patrolman pushed in close and looked down at the body The collar of his blue uniform was open, and he smelled like sweat
”Who stabbed hih falsetto voice, ”Don't you wish you knew”
The patrol rows of big yellow teeth
”What minstrel you with, sonny-o?”
Everyone stared at hi to see what he would do Their faces took dark shape in the graying light of dawn
He stood there grinning, doing nothing He didn't knohat to do, but he wasn't perturbed by it
The distant sound of a siren floated in the huan to scatter