Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [120]
“The men from the FBI were respectable and respecting, which is probably why the sheriff and his men would hardly acknowledge their existence. I gave my full statement to anyone who asked, and that included the technicians from Mayfair Medical, both of whom were tremendously curious about the task at hand, i.e., the collection of the data.
“Nobody fingerprinted the mysterious marble desk and Roman chair, but just about everybody sooner or later touched it.
“Everybody—even the sheriff—was impressed with the gold mausoleum, if that was what it was, and repeated efforts by various parties failed to discover any way to open it. The gold plates (the sheriff insisted they were brass), I repeat, the gold plates were so securely fitted into the granite framework that only a very destructive crowbar might have managed to loosen them, which we, the proud owners of the mausoleum, refused to allow.
“Finally, at midafternoon it was decided to call off the search for remains and the sheriff and his men made their way out, cursing their little pirogues and their poles and the cypress trees with their outrageous roots and knees, the wisteria and the blackberries and the heat and the mosquitoes. The FBI gentlemen went the same route, behaving altogether in a more reserved manner, as our local handyman, Jackson, was steering their boat and it did not seem to be the FBI style to curse at things.
“Aunt Queen, Jasmine and I, along with our Shed Men, Clem and Felix (both Jasmine’s brothers, and one Aunt Queen’s oftentimes chauffeur), not wishing to remain on the island alone—Jasmine had seen the letter—hurried behind the FBI right back to the landing.
“Once safe within the orbit of Blackwood Manor I told Clem and Felix that I wanted to wire the Hermitage for electricity in the near future, and to please not forget where they had just been. Aunt Queen gave her consent and so they paid attention to me.
“Also they were too kind to snicker. Also they were tired, and I gave them both a cash bonus, of which Jasmine expressed a certain refined jealousy. So I gave her a cash bonus too, which I was positive she wouldn’t accept but she did, conspicuously stuffing it into her brassiere and winking at me.
“On that account I grabbed her and bent her way back and kissed her hard, to which she said in a whisper: ‘Once you go black, you never go back.’ And I nearly died laughing.
“ ‘Where did you hear that?’ I asked.
“ ‘Forever and a long time ago,’ she said. ‘I’m surprised you never heard it. Watch your step, Little Boss.’ Off she went, helping Aunt Queen up the slope, the two of them whispering suspiciously together.
“I don’t know why I was so afraid. Everybody knew I’d told the truth about the existence of the island. Everybody had seen the marble desk and the golden chair. Everybody had seen the strange inscription on the mausoleum.
“Had I not gloried in those first few moments this morning when the chain of little pirogues came within sight of the island? Yes, I had! And had I not gloried in the moment of shock when everyone crowded onto the second floor of the Hermitage to see the evil rusted chains and the blackened morass on the floor? Yes, I had.
“But what did it mean now?
“It was four o’clock. The sun was lowering. The property, for all its vain magnificence, looked forlorn.
“I went low, very low.
“I stood out front, beyond Pops’ close and beautiful flower beds, staring at the big columns of the house until Aunt Queen came out on the front porch and told me she’d been looking for me everywhere. I knew I ought to answer her but it seemed difficult for me to break the silence that surrounded me.
“I knew on some level that her genial, sweet face was just what I needed in my selfish little soul, but I couldn’t speak. I thought of the mysterious stranger, I thought of the bodies slipping into the muck. I saw the moonlight as if it were shining on me now. I saw the dim figure who had stood at my bedroom fireplace. Glint of light on