Chapter 14
Dan was making his last round of the midway. The carnival appeared to be buttoned up for the night. Now he paused opposite the freak show. Something nagged at him. The banners were up, the front lights out, but there was a bright light still blazing inside that tent. He hesitated for a moment. He knew Greer didn!t want anyone watching him come out of the pit. Yet Greer should have been out a half hour or more. Then why the light inside?
Reaching a decision, he started for the tent, his step quickening. He stopped just inside, his glance jumping about. There wasn't a soul in sight. Evidently they had forgotten to turn out the lights. He turned toward the switch box on the tent pole beside the entrance. His hand touched the switch, then dropped away without throwing it. Something drew him toward the pit. Abruptly he realized what was wrong. There was no pile of dirt! He broke into a run. Greer was still in the casket. His mouth was open, his face contorted in a stricture of death. One hand was caught on the inside edge of the glass lid. The nails were splintered, the fingers smeared with blood.
Dan raced back to the tent entrance and yelled twice at the top of his voice. Then he hurried back to the freak show truck parked behind the tent. He got the three shovels from the tool box under the truck bed and sped back into the tent. Carnies were already gathering. Dan tossed two of the shovels to two men and attacked the dirt with the third shovel. After a moment he paused to shout, "Somebody find Juval. He has the key to the locks. Look under the bally!"
They had the dirt scooped off the casket in less than three minutes. Dan dashed the sweat from his eyes and looked around as Steel came up. "Here's the key, Patch. Juval's under there all right, but something must be wrong with him. He's alive but I can't wake him."
Dan snatched the key and quickly unlocked the padlocks. They got Greer out of the casket, stretched him out on the ground, and Dan began artificial respiration. He knew with a sick feeling that it was a waste of time, but he had to try. He was relieved by another carnie after five minutes. They were still at it ten minutes later when a doctor hurried into the tent. The doctor was graying, plump, disgruntled, wearing house slippers and pajama tops stuffed into his trousers.
The doctor set his bag down beside Greer and examined him. His examination was quick but thorough. Finally he snapped his bag closed and stood up. "This man is dead, has been dead for a half hour or more, in my judgment."
Dan remembered the times doctors had briefly examined Greer while the man was in a trance and had mistakenly pronounced him dead. But this was different. Those times, Greer had been serene, composed as though he'd died while sleeping peacefully. This time, there were many signs indicating how violently he had died. All his fingers were torn and bloody. And there were several places in his forehead where the skin was broken, indicating his frantic efforts to break out of the casket. No, this time there would be no miraculous revival, no Lazarus rising from the dead.
Dan sighed and said to Steel, "Go call the police, will you? And some of you see if you can bring Juval around."
The doctor left and Dan stationed himself by the casket and Greer's body, shooing everyone back beyond the chain. He lit a cigarette and smoked moodily. He noted Cotty Starke on the outer fringes of the crowd. And he knew, as he had known when Meeks tried to kill Greer, that Cotty was somehow responsible. But, again, it was all instinct and a hunch; he had no evidence to back it up.
The police was represented by three deputy sheriffs. The one in charge, Jared Lawton, was a roly-poly man of fifty. He was short, fat, with a face as round and red as an apple. Contrary to popular opinion pertaining to fat men, he had the sour disposition of a hermit. He made no effort to conceal his contempt of carnies in general and couldn't be overly concerned about the death of one carnie in particular.
Dan told Lawton as much as he knew about Greer's death. When he was finished, the deputy snorted in disbelief. "Now let's get this straight.
... This dead man, he went into a sort of trance for about eight hours every night. He stopped breathing, his heart practically stopped beating?"
"That's right, officer," Dan said slowly. He was staring at Paula who had entered the tent shortly after the arrival of the deputies. She stood looking down at Greer, her hands clasped before her. Her face was empty of expression, and there were no tears. Not that he had expected any but....
"I don't believe it!" Lawton said. "What was the trick?"
"No trick, officer."
"Then how did he do it?"
"Officer, is that important?" Dan looked at the deputy with a sigh. "The medical term is catatonia. A catatonic seizure. It happens rarely, to some people. All bodily functions cease, or close to it, until the seizure is over. The thing is, Greer hypnotized himself into this trance...."
"I still don't believe it." Lawton looked down at Greer. He muttered, "Carnies! A bunch of freaks and nuts!" He wheeled on Dan again. "How do you know he just didn't die in this trance? A man fools around with nature like that ... granting what you say is true ... no telling what may result."
"Officer, look at him! It's obvious he was conscious before he died, that he died fighting for breath, fighting to get out of the coffin!"
"Yeah." Lawton scrubbed his knuckles across the stubble of beard on his chin. "Then where's the guy who's supposed to dig him up? Seems to me he's to blame. Probably drunk...."
A voice said, "Here's Juval now."
The carnies opened a lane for Juval who was being supported by Steel on one side, Ikey, the tattooed man, on the other. Juval's face was slack, his eyes uncomprehending, and he kept slumping in their grasp.
"A dwarf? Oh, for God's sake!" Lawton said disgustedly. "What next?"
All of a sudden Juval saw Greer's body and his face came alive. He broke free of Steel and Ikey and ran to Greer. He fell to his knees beside the body. A terrible look came over his face as he tried to cry out. He touched Greer's cold cheek with just his fingertips, then looked at the shovels, the pile of dirt, the open casket, and his face crumpled with grief.
Lawton stepped forward. "All right, little man, let's hear your story."
Dan said, "Officer. ... He's deaf and dumb."
"What? He's what! Oh, that tears it! That really rips it down the middle!" For a moment the deputy looked ready to give up. Then he said, "All right, how? Does he write? Does somebody talk to him in deaf and dumb language?"
"That's going to be hard to do, I'm afraid," Dan said uncomfortably. "He doesn't read or write and doesn't understand sign language. At least none that any of us know. Greer ... the dead man ... taught him a sign language only the two of them understood."
"Oh, for...! " Lawton stumped off a few steps, then wheeled and came back. "I don't know what I'm getting all steamed up about. This guy died of natural causes as far as I'm concerned. All right, so somebody goofed. The shrimp here got drunk or something...."
"Juval doesn't drink."
"All right, all right, so he fell asleep then! Whatever happened, he didn't do what he was supposed to do. That's your problem, not mine. If you ask me, I think the dead guy's as much to blame as anyone. If I ever tried a stunt like that, the Lord forbid, I'd have everyone in sight standing by to get me out, not a deaf and dumb dwarf, for God's sake!"
Dan wanted to argue, but he knew he had no ground to stand on. And, in one respect, Lawton was correct. Greer had been largely responsible for his own death. If he had entrusted the digging up to more than one person, this wouldn't have happened. So he only shrugged and stood to one side while the deputy, after consulting with Paula, supervised the removal of Greer's body.
Dan felt a presence by his side, felt a small hand creep into his. Debra said, "I just heard, Dan. It's horrible, isn't it? Dan, did Cotty ... f
"How in the hell do I know, I'm no detective!" he said in annoyance. Then he glanced down into her upturned face. "I'm sorry, Debbie. I just don't know. I think so, for all the good that does me. But I shouldn't take it out on you."
She squeezed his hand. "It's all right, darling.
I understand," she said softly.
As Greer's body was taken out of the tent, the carnies all trailed behind, like a funeral cortege. Finally only Dan, Debra, and Juval were left in the tent. Dan would have thought the dwarf would have accompanied the body. Instead he stood gazing down into the empty coffin, his figure hunched in voiceless grief, as though he expected the nightly miracle to recur and Greer would arise once again from the dead.