TCJ

When Alfred Shoenherr and Earl Warner approached the Temple of- fice the door was opened by Ruman an instant before they pounded on it.

EARL: [How did you do that, son?]

RUMAN: [The Seer foresaw that you were about to knock]

In the office Alfred and Earl saw no one except Ruman, Dory, and Kim. It soon became apparent the men knew only  Kim  by  name. Quelle surprise the former Elder and Deacon never  troubled  to get to know anyone outside of the White Wing of the Church.

EARL: [I came to speak to the Seer]

DORY (pointing to Kimberly): [She's right there]

EARL: [I see three kids who broke into the Temple and are  run- ning loose. Where's Jashen?]

RUMAN: [He's in a better place]

EARL: [He's dead?]

KIM: [No, but he blamed himself for the schism and stepped down]

EARL: [He  was  right to blame himself but if he  left  you  in charge he must have gone demented in the end]

ALFRED: [It is written, 'I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over men']

KIM: [You're going to have to show me a little respect, fellas, as I am indeed the Seer of the Church of Green  Dome,  notwith- standing whatever  Paul may have written in the  First  Century about womenfolk]

ALFRED: [May have written?]

KIM: [The pastoral epistles are not part of the undisputed Pau- line corpus. Did you even go to the Academy? No? And you want to be officers of the Church?]

Kim reached  into a desk drawer and  withdrew  a  leather-bound green book.

KIM: [I  know you've seen this before, Mr. Warner. It's Josef Lange's handwritten copy of the Book of Green Dome. He called it the Printer's  Manuscript. The first few sheets on the  inside cover are an official Church document]

The first entry on the inside cover said APOSTLE  JOSEF  LANGE, SEER, SEP 1, 1866, followed by Lange's signature.

This entry  was followed by the First Decree, which  read,  THE SEER OF THE CHURCH SHALL CHOOSE, FROM THE WING OF THE CHURCH OF WHICH HE IS NOT A PART, ONE WHO SHALL HOLD THE OFFICE OF  ELDER. It was dated Sep. 1, 1866 and signed by Josef Lange.

This was followed by the Second Decree, which read, IN THE EVENT OF THE DEATH OR RESIGNATION OF THE SEER, THE ELDER SHALL ATTAIN TO THAT OFFICE, dated and certified Sep. 1, 1866.

The next entry, in the same handwriting, read, JASHEN  SHYBEAR, ELDER, SEP.  1, 1866, followed by Jashen's mark  and  again  by Lange's initials.

Kim: [We hold September first to be the day of the founding  of the Church of Green Dome, seventy-six years ago]

The next entry was written in a different hand. It said,  SEER JOSEF LANGE, RESIGNED, MAR. 6, 1930, and this was initialed  by Jashen. A diagonal line was drawn through the remaining  blank space to the bottom of the inside cover and this, too, was ini- tialed by Jashen.

The facing page read, ELDER JASHEN SHYBEAR, SEER, MAR. 6,  1930 and this was signed and initialed by Jashen.

The second line on that page read, MR. EARL WARNER, ELDER,  OCT 9, 1931, signed by Jashen and Earl.

Kim rotated the book to show Warner the entry.

KIM: [Until I read this myself I wasn't even aware  the  Church had gone a year and a half without an Elder. I suppose  Jashen found the choice to be such a difficult one he was  willing  to risk breaking the clear order of succession with his own death]

EARL: [At  the time you were probably too young to  care  about Church politics. We forced Jashen's hand and made him create the office of Deacon to prevent it from ever happening again]

RUMAN: [Almighty Earl. You forced him]

KIM: [Ruman, please. Anyway, that does explain the next line]

Jashen had written the text of the Third Decree, dated the same day as the appointment of Warner. It stated, THE SEER SHALL AP- POINT, FROM ALTERNATING WINGS OF THE CHURCH, A DEACON TO  SERVE THE SPIRITUAL  AND MATERIAL NEEDS OF THE WHOLE CHURCH. IN THE EVENT OF THE DEATH OR RESIGNATION OF THE ELDER, THE DEACON SHALL ATTAIN TO THAT OFFICE.

The next line read MR. ALFRED SHOENHERR, DEACON, Oct. 9,  1931. This was signed by Alfred, and initialed by Jashen.

KIM: [Does everything appear to be in order, gentlemen?]

Alfred nodded agreement, and Earl said it appeared to be so.

Kim then indicated the next line, which was so recent  none  of the men had ever seen it:

ANY OFFICE OF THE CHURCH SHALL NOT BE TERMINATED EXCEPT IN  THE CASE OF THE DEATH OR RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICEHOLDER. This was signed by Jashen and dated January 10, 1943.

KIM: [Jashen told us the Fourth Decree became necessary follow- ing the events of Wednesday the 5th of January instant, when you went out from us. But let us go on]

The next line read ELDER EARL WARNER, RESIGNED, JAN. 10,  1943, and this was signed by Jashen.

Warner grew angry and objected to that.

EARL: [No! I never resigned!]

KIM: [I was there in that barn you call your temple. I'm White Wing, remember? You introduced yourself as the Prophet of  the Reformed Church of Green Dome."

EARL: [What of it?]

KIM: [When your words reached the ears of our previous Seer  he took  them  to  be your official resignation  as  Elder  of  our Church. How did he put it, Dory?]

DORY: [My father said, 'No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will  hold to the one, and despise the other.']

RUMAN: [In fine, if you're an officer in the Reformed Green Dome Church you cannot be an officer in the actual Green Dome Church]

KIM (nodding): [That led to the next line]

It read  MRS. KIMBERLY SHYBEAR, ELDER, JAN. 10, 1943. Kim had signed it, and Jashen had initialed.

KIM: [The upshot of all this is that in the view of Seer Jashen Shybear you quit, and he chose me to replace you."

Kim proceeded to the next line, which read DEACON ALFRED SHOEN- HERR, RESIGNED, JAN. 10, 1943. This was also signed by Jashen.

KIM: [Do we need to go over the same argument for the  resigna- tion of the Deacon as it was for the Elder? No? Then let us go on]

The next line read, MR. RUMAN SHYBEAR, DEACON, JAN. 10, 1943. This was signed by Ruman and initialed by Jashen.

KIM: [All perfectly legal, of course. Jashen's decree said the Deacon must be of alternating race. As you can see, last Sunday was quite the busy day, but now we're in the homestretch]

She advanced to the next item written on the page. It read SEER JASHEN SHYBEAR, RESIGNED, JAN. 10, 1943 and it carried his sig- nature.

That finally seemed to grab the attention of Shoenherr and Warn- er.

KIM: [Now I will show you gentlemen how we closed out that rath- er eventful Sunday]

Kim flipped the page over and showed everyone the  next  entry: ELDER KIMBERLY SHYBEAR, SEER, JAN. 10, 1943. This was signed and initialed by Kim, exercising her authority as Elder  under  the Second Decree established by Prophet Jashen.

Underneath that  was the final entry in the  manuscript,  which read MISS DORIEL SHYBEAR, ELDER, JAN. 10, 1943. This was signed by Kim and affirmed by Deacon Ruman.

KIM: [Now that we have established our credentials as  officers of the Church, what have you and Mr. Bergin come to say?]

Earl was silent while he gnawed through his options. At length he realized he had to go along with these foolish kids  playing clergy.

EARL: [We pray for the reunion of the Church. Were the Killing Relic to alternate in possession between members of the red and white wings, as the office of Deacon presently does, that would go a long way towards sealing the breach]

KIM: [So link the office of Deacon to the sacred artifact? That is easily enough done]

She took up her pen and wrote in the leaves of the Green  Book, THE SACRED RELIC SHALL REMAIN IN THE POSSESSION OF THE DEACON OF THE CHURCH AS MINISTER OF THE LAST RITE. And she dated it Janu- ary 15, 1943.

This was not entirely to the liking of Warner, who imagined the sacred relic somehow caused the one who possessed it to age very slowly, but he could think of no way to object to it.

EARL: [That is acceptable, if and only if you enter a Fifth De- cree that enshrines God's eternal and immutable law  forbidding non-consanguineous marriage."

KIM: [Again, that is easily done]

She inked  the following into the manuscript: MARRIAGE  IN  THE CHURCH OF GREEN DOME SHALL BE SOLELY BETWEEN PERSONS WHO  SHARE AT LEAST  ONE GRANDPARENT, OR AT LEAST  ONE  GREAT-GRANDPARENT, UPON PAIN OF EXCOMMUNICATION. She dated it January 15, 1943 and signed it.

EARL: [Good. Now, when do you announce the end of your engage- ment to Ruman?]

KIM: [Never. The decrees of the Church don't work ex post fucto]

EARL: [The decree governs marriage. You haven't married him yet]

KIM: [Ah, but there you are wrong, Mr. Warner]

She displayed her wedding ring and Ruman flashed his own. They did not mention they were wed in Kemen and they'd been  married for a  year already, because he would never believe it  and  he would just be confused anyway, as confused as he would be should Kimberly reveal she was the daughter of Josef and Hadiya Lange.

For her own part Kim could hardly believe she needed to  remind Warner of the contents of sacred scripture.

KIM: [Yeshua himself said if a woman puts aside her husband  to marry  another she commits adultery against him. That's one  of the Lord's non-negotiables. I wonder why you look so surprised, Mr. Warner. You must not have been paying  attention  when  I signed  my  entries in the Green Book as Mrs.  Kimberly  Shybear rather than Miss Kimberly Zinter]

Warner and Shoenherr stood up as though they were about to  de- part in a huff.

KIM: [I agreed to see you fellows today, but if you act like  a couple  of  Academy high school students and storm out  for  not getting your own way, it will be the last time I ever agree  to meet with you]

That was a serious threat. Dory with her talent could  easily tell her to avoid such-an-such a place at such-and-such a  time and they would never bump into each other again.

EARL: [It is you, rather, who have one slim chance  to  reunite the Church. Alfred is Deacon again and I'm the Elder again  or the  reunion will never come to be. Those terms are nonnegotia- ble]

Kim sighed and turned to her husband.

KIM: [Will you, Ruman, resign the office of deacon?]

RUMAN: [I will not]

EARL: [You can't push a rope]

He resumed his preparations to leave the office with Shoenherr, muttering a string of curses that completely obscured what Dory quietly said. Kim asked Dory to repeat herself.

DORY: [I said, I will resign as Elder of the Church]

The foul language coming from Warner trailed off to silence.

Kim opened the Printer's Manuscript of the Green Book once more and penned the following entry: ELDER DORIEL SHYBEAR, RESIGNED, JAN. 15, 1943. Dory signed it. Kim entered her initials.

KIM: [It's done. The office of Elder is vacant. Will you,  Mr. Warner, or Mr Shoenherr, take her place, or is not getting  Dea- con still a sticking point?]

Earl turned to Alfred.

EARL [A  temporary  setback. One that will  be  remedied  soon enough]

Alfred nodded his assent.

EARL: [Very well, Mrs. Shybear, I will take the office of Elder. Make the appropriate entry]

She did notice that he declined to call her Prophet Shybear. So petty. She could think of no one less qualified for the job he so desperately wanted back. Sighing, she wrote MR. EARL WARNER, ELDER, JAN. 15, 1943 and turned the book for his inspection and signature. When he was done, Kim applied her initials.

Dory caught her eye.

DORY: [I just had a vivid daydream of someone in Seattle in 2043 reading this  and wondering what it must have been  like,  this whole sudden flurry]

ALFRED: [The Reformed Church is gathering this morning to  meet down at our own temple. Will you meet with them, Mrs. Shybear, and affirm our schism has reached an end?]

KIM: [I will]

EARL: [And I would also have them meet the deacon. One of  our parishioners passed  away. The deacon should perform the  Last Rites today]

Dory was incredulous.

DORY: [You want to have the Last Rites in that barn?]

ALFRED: [It would do much to bring healing between the Red  and White Wings of the Church]

KIM: [It should wait until Wednesday. That's when Ruman can per- form the Last Rites properly here in the actual Temple]

EARL: [It has already been a week. The poor lady is beginning to grow. . .unpresentable]

KIM (sighing): [You should do it, Ruman. It's of a piece  with the other thing your father told me about]

RUMAN: [Are  you ready to do that other thing? Back at  Hell's Half Acre you were dead set against it]

KIM: [That was a moment of weakness. I trust Binah to take care of me]

DORY: [I'm glad I don't have to watch it]

Shoenherr completely misunderstood what any of them were talking about.

ALFRED: [You wouldn't be welcome down there anyway]

Dory caught Kim's eye.

DORY: [I don't recognize my own church anymore]

Kim saw  how utterly sad her friend was and moved in  close  to comfort her.

RUMAN: [Last Rites on short notice. I need to go fetch the Staff of Melchizedek]

EARL: [Then go fetch it]

RUMAN: [It's not here in the Temple]

ALFRED: [I got a truck]

RUMAN: [The location of the Staff of Melchizedek is classified. You're not an officer of the Church]

WARNER: [No problem. Alfred can drive the girl down to our own temple and I'll take you in my own truck to fetch  the  Killing Relic]

Kim and  Ruman agreed to this arrangement. They shared a  long kiss before they parted, one more thing to throw in the face of their tormentors.

Ruman's talent as a B'nei Eloah was such that the Staff of Mel- chizedek was always near at hand. He could have pulled it out of the next mailbox down the road if he so desired. Since this Earl bozo and his buddy were killing his wife, no matter how  tempo- rary that would be, Ruman thought he would have a little fun.

RUMAN: [We need to go to Lake 13]

EARL: [The Killing Relic is at Lake 13?]

RUMAN: [Not at Lake 13, sir. In Lake 13]

EARL: [That lake is frozen]

RUMAN: [I'll make a hole]

Earl muttered various oaths, then made the appropriate turns.

EARL: [The sight of you kissing that girl was disgusting, do you know that? You're not cousins. Hell, you're not even the  same species!]

Ruman found it difficult to conceal his own disgust with the way Warner looked at the world, but it was something that  infected half the Church. And he was wrong in any event. Kim actually was his first cousin.

RUMAN: [Sir, the Bible and the Book of Green  Dome  acknowledge only ethnic  differences. We read of peoples and kindreds  and tongues, but no whites and blacks and yellow men and  red  men. Races are artificial things]

EARL: [What the hell do you mean races are artificial? Are you asking me  to doubt what I can see with my  own  two  God-given eyes?]

RUMAN: [Sir, consider the aborigine people in  Australia. They have Caucasian and Mongoloid genes, but they are as dark as Ne- groids. It only has to do with where you live and  how  you've adapted to the sun. Even the Lord Yeshua was a handsome coffee- with-cream brown]

Warner grew angry at that last remark and pulled his truck over to the side of the road.

EARL: [Get out. I can't stand to be anywhere near a blasphemer, let alone  one who entices white women to  become  traitors  to their own race]

RUMAN: [And the Last Rites, sir? Don't you have a barn  of  the faithful waiting for me?]

EARL: [What would be the point of sanctifying a body if the min- ister of the Rite is a blasphemer? The Lord is brown like cof- fee? Get out!]

Ruman did  as he was commanded. Earl Warner peeled out in  the snow, leaving Ruman stranded on the side of the road.

RUMAN (muttering to hymself): [That's what I thought. Services on Friday? Everybody waiting at the barn in the off chance some kid decides to just quit?]

Outside of Headwater the borders of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming came together in a little fenced-off corral. When Warner arrived he  saw that only Alfred Shoenherr's truck  was  parked there, and only Shoenherr could be seen standing in the lot. A bloody lump of dead and naked girlflesh lay at his feet. She was covered with blood that was almost cool enough to freeze. Alfred stood there staring at Kimberly's body, not quite believing that he actually did it.

ALFRED: [I'm going to hell!]

EARL: [Shut up, Alfred. You'd only go to hell if you didn't do it. Did she put up much of a fight?]

Alfred shook his head.

ALFRED: [No. That's the damndest part of all this. She didn't put up a fight at all]

E

EARL: [Is that the knife?]

Alfred nodded. He had entirely forgotten about the murder weap- on, even while it was still grasped in his gloved  hand. That tiny fact disturbed Earl most of all. Alfred's invincible stu- pidity could be their undoing.

EARL: [We can't afford to be caught anywhere near  that  thing. Throw it away right now. Anywhere. But throw it as far as  you can]

Alfred hurled  the blade off to the snowy waste in one  of  the neighboring states. He didn't even know which one. It flashed in the morning sunlight and disappeared from view.

EARL: [Good. Now help me lift her on this]

There was a short post and a sign about chest high that  marked the exact place where the three states came together. This sign was canted at a forty-five degree angle. They draped Kimberly's body  across the sign, letting her head and arms bend  backwards and her legs droop down. It looked positively New Testament.

Warner circled  the area a few times to make damn  sure  Alfred hadn't dropped anything.The snow was covered with  their  foot- prints and the girl's blood but there was no debris.

EARL: [Walk with me to my truck]

In the bed of his truck were two sets of coats and clothing laid out beside a cardboard box. New boots were up front in the cab. Warner took off the boots he was wearing and threw them in  the box, along with his blood-stained coat, shirt and trousers. In the cold of high plains January Earl quickly put on  new  outer garments, then stood there in the snow with his  socks  getting wet.

EARL: [Throw your gloves in the box, Alfred. Then hurry up and get changed]

Alfred did what he was told but he didn't look nearly as  giddy as Warner.

ALFRED: [How are you going to get rid of the box?]

EARL: [Trust me. Absolutely nothing will remain to tie this back to us. But just to make doubly sure, you need to get rid of the set that knife came from when you get back home]

Earl scampered over the snow to the cab of his truck where a new pair of boots were waiting for him. Shoenherr had a pair in his own truck. He still looked miserable.

EARL: [Cheer up, Alfred! I'm the Seer now. You're going to  be the Elder. We just saved the Church, you and I. If that girl had any children it would have meant the end of both the White Wing and the Red Wing. There wouldn't be anymore wings, just an unho- ly hodge-podge of mud people growing like a cancer on the Curch until it ate everything]

The town of Headwater, true to its name, sat at the  source  of the  Squaw River. Paved road ended there, as did the  railroad. There were  no hotels. West, north, and south of the town  was nothing but empty grasslands. No one from outside of town ever spent the night in Headwater because no one ever passed through. The Bureau had to crane off a trailer just to have a place  for its agents to sleep.

The Church of Green Dome had steadily lost adherents since peak- ing in 1917 but there were still many  congregations  scattered across America and even a few in Europe. When families of  the deceased came  to Headwater for the Last Rite  often  the  only place for them to stay was the Temple itself.

The C Wing had six modest rooms which were offered to  visiting families for their brief stay of a day or two. Earl Warner had never given them much thought. As far as he knew or cared  the beds made themselves, so when he arrived at the temple with Al- fred Shoenherr  in tow he was startled to find Dory  and  Ruman cleaning the rooms.

EARL: [What is this?]

RUMAN: It went with the position of Extraordinary Lay  Minister of the Last Rite. Somebody has to get the rooms ready, and now I guess the Deacon does it]

EARL: [Then what's she doing here?]

RUMAN: [My sister is pitching in]

EARL: [I'm  reserving six days of the week just for  the  White Wing. I only want Red Wingers to be here on Wednesdays, if they really must."

RUMAN: [That's a pretty big change, sir, you should run that by the Seer]

EARL: [The Seer has no objection. It's already a decree of the Church, it only remains to be written down black and white]

The grin on his face was so disgusting it almost turned Ruman's stomach. Dory and Ruman knew perfectly well why Warner was the Seer now. But the decree was made. Being Red Wingers both, they made as though to leave.

EARL: [Not you, boy]

DORY: [I'll pick you up at five, Rue]

EARL (when Dory was out of earshot): [Where's the Killing Relic? It better not be in Lake 13]

RUMAN: [It's right here in the Temple, sir]

EARL: [How do I know that's true?]

RUMAN: [This  is the Temple of Green Dome, sir. Liars  have  no part in the life to come]

EARL: [You need to show it to me]

Ruman unlocked a supply room similar to the one  downstairs  in the temple basement. A red butter cookie tin sat on a shelf. It was empty  but  Ruman needed the can for  hyz  trick. When hy reached  outside of the universe it always looked like  somebody chopped hyz hand off with an ax, which would  need  explaining. Ruman produced  the relic. To Warner's eyes it looked like  hy pulled it out of the tin. Ruman extended it to full length.

EARL: [How do I know that's not just something you whipped up in metal shop and painted gold? Make this box disappear for me]

Alfred Shoenherr set down a cardboard box he was carrying.

RUMAN: [What's in the box, sir?]

EARL: [Old clothes and shoes. Never mind what's in the box, just make it disappear with your alleged relic]

Ruman lit off the Artifact. His ponytail tossed in the  sudden bursts of  wind as he lapped up the box  into  nothingness. Hy tried not to damage the floor but it was unavoidable. Earl Warn- er and Alfred Shoenherr had never been so close to the Staff of Melchizedek in operation. They were entranced by the sheer oth- erworldliness of it.

Ruman was amazed at his own self-restraint for not slicing  the men in half where they stood.

EARL: [Alright, boy, put it back in the can and lock this  room back up. That way if something untoward happens to you, I know where to find it]

The look on Warner's face seemed to dare Ruman to show  even  a twinge of insubordination but he got nothing.

Huge swaths of the high plains still lay under snow that  first fell in November of  '42, but it was  a dry cold  and the roads were clear. From the air Headwater looked like an abstract map drawn in   fine black  ink  on paper   bleached  an   unearthly white.

The victim was found by a man in his eighties named Tashunka. He was older than the town of Headwater itself, a mere  boy of the People when the Staff of Melchizedek first came to Chief Wanica.

The biggest   animal Tashunka ever killed was a  coyote  baited with a live hare.

Tashunka  almost  didn't  see the  girl. Her body   was  dan- gling  at a  so-called  roadside attraction  that  had   always bored him. On a United  States  map  one line  terminated  on another. Three Great Plains states came together at this place, but even when there  was no  snow Tashunka  had never  seen any lines.

What  caught his eye was  not so much that  the dead  girl  was naked  but  how her head  and arms drooped back,  and  how  her feet didn't touch the ground, as  though she were nailed  to an invisible cross.

He backed  up  his  truck and  parked  at the  tri-state  monu- ment. It looked  like a corral. There were two other  set  of tire tracks in the snow and  two sets of footprints which became a tangled net near the body. Tashunka tried to be careful in his approach to leave the site clean for the sheriff.

He could see no movement of the  girl's chest and  no condensa- tion  from her mouth. The dead girl was too pale to be one  of the  People. Of a certainty she had been part of the White Wing of the Church.

Old Tashunka wept with frustration when he found that he  could not do the simple  kindness of closing the  girl's frozen  eyes staring out   upon eternity. But now he  recognized  the  dead girl. It was Erik  Zinter's  kid. Then he  wept more  deeply, because he knew why she had been murdered and he guessed who the killers must be. The long and unhappy union of the Red Wing and the White Wing of  the Church  of Green  Dome was  finished for good. Tashunka carefully retraced his steps to the truck.

An hour later Tashunka returned with  Sheriff Roy Sternbach  to the little  fenced-off area. The tri-state marker was a beam of treated  wood  embedded in the ground, one foot  square  with  a sloping top,  and Kimberly's back  rested on this, held  fast by frozen blood.

The sheriff told Deputy Bill  to start snapping  pictures while Deputy Bob  followed Sternbach around with a notepad  and  took down a running commentary.

BILL: [I need to steal your sole with my camera, Chief, so  lay it out there]

Tashunka smiled weakly at the joke and lifted one foot as  best he could. Bill got a photo of the bottom of  both the old  In- dian's  boots  to  make  sure  they  could  differentiate   his footprints from that of the perps. Then Tashunka was left behind as Bill methodically photographed his way to the girl's body.

When the  sheriff  and  his deputies  completely  surveyed  and documented the murder scene they all pitched in to lift Kimberly free of the survey marker and set her on a foldaway stretcher.

Sternbach shouted  an oath when he read the plaque  that  Kim's body was covering. He realized they were at the exact place some surveyor decided the corners of two states ran flush against the border of a third. At a stroke that made the case Federal.

They walked the  body out  of there,  but paused  a moment  for Tashunka to get another close look at it.

TASHUNKA: [This was Kimberly Zinter]

He put his fingers on her  face just long  enough to melt   the eyelids so he could close them, and dared the sheriff to rebuke him for tampering with evidence.

BILL: [It's Kim. I've seen her at Temple]

The sheriff opened the glove box of his truck and came back with a manila envelope containing a photo, which he  compared to the dead girl's blood-streaked face.

ROY: [The gentleman is right, boys. This was the  local  girl the Bureau was looking for. One of the two, anyway]

After the  deputies loaded the body in the  canopy of  the  de- partment's green 1940 Dodge half-ton truck.

BOB: [So  this was never  going to be our  case,  even  if  she wasn't lying dead spread out over three states]

TASHUNKA: [I remember when  you left the Church, Sheriff. Your men  are Greendomites in good standing but they  might not   be up   on Church  politics from  the Kuwapi perspective. I  don't know   who did this  terrible thing  to the girl but I can  tell you why]

Inactivity had   cooled the sweat under  Sternbach's  coat. He shivered in the face of  a stiff  wind from the  frozen plains.

ROY: [This is  not the place,  Tashunka. The body of the  girl must go to our little hospital. But if you meet me at the sta- tion in about an  hour I will listen to what  you have  to  say about all this]

After that Sternbach  drove with  one of  his deputies   around the large hill near the crime scene named Green Dome. It loomed some eight hundred feet above the town of Headwater.

ROY: [I just can't win, Bill. Half the male population of Head- water under forty-five is off killing Japs and Krauts and  Eye- talians. Things were getting real quiet around here. Then the Bureau set up shop and stayed all summer. Now I have my first homicide]

They passed the  corner of  federally-owed National  Grasslands that crossed the gravel road. There the FBI had parked a small trailer but there were no lights on and no smoke was coming from their wood stove.

Bill nodded at  the manila  envelop on  the dash  of the truck.

BILL: [Those girls were in federal custody  somewhere for  half of last year, but apparently  they've escaped and made  the FBI look -- hell, they are incompetent. And they tasked us to help find 'em]

ROY: [But they wouldn't tell us what  it was all  about. Well, now I suppose they will]

Headwater came into view. Even with a reduced wartime population of a   thousand souls it was  bigger than anything  for   fifty miles around.

BILL: [What do you want me to do after we give the body to  Dr. Wahkan?]

ROY: Develop the film  and  file the  negatives. Then get back to the scene and  help  Bob look  for the  murder weapon. It's probably a  knife. I didn't see  any footprints  leading  away from the  marker  so  I  figure  the perpetrator either  tossed it away or  kept it. The best way to look is to walk a  steady spiral out  from  that little corral,  if  Bob  hasn't  already thought of that. Take all the time you need]

The town's best doctor was known as Wahkan to the People. The whites called him Plenty  Practice. No one had  ever died  un- der his  scalpel, but even a  local legend such as  Dr.  Wahkan could not bring the dead back to life.

WAHKAN: [Kimberly Zinter. Heartbreaking. And her father  Erik was taken from us only  last year. I can't imagine how  Clara is going to  take this]

Hearing this the sheriff winced. He knew he must be the one to break it to her.

WAHKAN: I have never had the displeasure to carry out this pro- tocol for you, Sheriff, thank God, and for your father  I  only did it on three occasions. That alone tells you Headwater real- ly is a good place]

ROY: [You identified her at a glance, Doctor. Did you know her?]

WAHKAN: [Kim was something of a big deal in the Church, Sheriff Sternbach. She was the star vocalist in  the choir, and  very recently she  was named the Seer of the Church. Did you  know that?]

ROY: [No. One of my  deputies mentioned  something  about   a family squabble in the Church. Apparently there was a big split starting at the top, but he said nothing about a new Seer]

WAHKAN: [Well, I also saw this girl last spring when her mother brought her  to the clinic with her sister,  Sophia. Naturally I'm allergic to discussing any details of any patient's medical condition but this really isn't a disease, no matter  what  the government thinks it is]

ROY: [Disease?]

Dr. Wahkan unfurled the girl's hair bun to reveal a little dome of bone at the back of her head.

ROY: [I'll be damned!]

Dr. Wahkan lifted Kim's hair so the sheriff could  see the skin of her  scalp where  the  bump  emerged. There was a   smooth transition. The skin simply hardened and merged with the  cup. It was not a simple feature of the skin, like a callus. It was rooted to  the  skull and in fact merged  seamlessly  with  her brain.

WAHKAN: [We  call  this  the   Change. Naturally both   girls and their mother were alarmed when it started to happen to them, but in  terms  of their health  they  were   quite  safe. The Change is known among  the Kuwapi people. The ponytail tradi- tion, in fact, is rooted in a choice to hide it]

ROY: [How did it happen to these two girls?]

WAHKAN: [It's inherited, or spreads through sexual contact, and it presents in early adulthood. Kim and Sophia, it turns out, are not the natural offspring of Erik and Clara Zinter. I told them the Change had been present in Headwater for  a  lifetime, and if you believe the Green  Book is  history  it  goes   back even further. But Clara didn't believe the Green Book. She took the girls somewhere for a second opinion, and now our town  has these outsiders]

ROY: [Headwater is a good place, Doctor, as you said,  but  the killers deliberately draped her body across  three states. That does not happen in good places, and it forces my hand]

WAHKAN: [I understand. you must report this crime to  the very outsiders I spoke of,  the ones who have made things less  good here over the last few months]

And with that he began to run the body of the girl through  the necessary indignity of an autopsy.