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'I'm pleased to hear it', said the sheriff. ' 'Cause that makes a lot more sense than him coming over the fields over here in order to do away with himself in somebody else's baling machine. Can't be a clean way to go, can't be easy to take, I don't imagine

'No, sir, Sheriff', said Johnny Washington, 'I don't 'spect so.'

The coroner and the undertaker arrived, and began cursing that this was going to be the most unpleasant job in a hectic week. While they went about their business, the sheriff tried to calm down Mr Crane, who had come out complaining to the deputy and to Mai Homans about people committing suicide on his property without his permission, interrupting the business of the farm, destroying the machinery, giving the place a bad name and maybe even an evil spirit and so forth. He admitted without much prompting however that he had never cared for Morris Emmons much anyway.

When Morris Emmons had been gathered up in two great green-plastic trash bags, and set heavily inside the ambulance next to the body of the man that he had killed, the sheriff and the deputy drove Mai Homans back to his home.

'They find that necklace he was wearing?' asked Mai, when he could think of nothing else to say.

'They didn't say nothing about it', said the deputy. 'And I didn't see nothing like it.'

That was satisfactory to Mai, who didn't care anyway, but the sheriff considered, 'I should have asked Johnny Washington aboutthat. But I don't guess it reallymatters much. If Emmons had it on, then it probably got chewed up in that machine, and wouldn't be no good to nobody any more. And if he didn't have it on, then it must have come off him, and somebody'll find it some time. But I just wonder how something belonging to Sarah Howell come to be in the mouth of the pig that killed Merle Weaver. That don't hardly make more sense than why Morris Emmons went and killed Jim, does it?'

'Morris Emmons', said Mai Homans darkly, 'couldn't take a joke.'

That afternoon, at the very moment that the coroner and the undertaker were wondering how on earth they v/ere going to arrange the remains of Morris Emmons in a coffin, Sarah Howell was telling Becca Blair of her intention of badgering Jo Howell until she got at the truth about the amulet.

'Good luck', said Becca significantly as they parted in the driveway. 'You call me if you need any help, and I'll come a'running. You and me - we'll bolt her to the 'frigerator!'

Sarah smiled briefly, and then entered the house, determined to speak to Josephine Howell immediately about the amulet, and about the dozen deaths it had precipitated.

There was an unfamiliar noise in the house, a low-pitched, muffled hum. Sarah walked directly through, wondering what on earth it could be, and opened the closed door of Dean's bedroom. She was met with a blast of frigid air, and saw immediately that an enormous air conditioner had been set in the back window. The machine operated at its maximum, very loudly blowing a gale of icy air into the interior of the room. Jo sat placidly in the plush chair at the foot of the bed; Dean lay beneath the covers, only his bandaged head and neck stuck out from under the blankets. It was an Alabama February in that room.

'Where'd that come from?' Sarah asked immediately, forgetting the amulet and her resolve in the surprise.

'I ordered it from Sears', said Jo. 'They brought it today, and the man put it in for us.'

'Well, that's just real nice. It's freezing in here, Jo. Wno's going to pay for it?' Sarah was tight-lipped, sarcastic, and veiy angry.

'It got put on Dean's account', smiled Jo smugly.

'Who's going to pay for it?' demanded Sarah. 'Dean can't pay no monthly payments. Dean couldn't stick a nickel in a parking meter if you gave him the nickel and tore the damn thing out of the kerb and brought it in here to him!' Sarah was beside herself. There was no way in the world that they could afford an air conditioner. 'Why'd you do it?' she demanded.

' 'Cause Dean was suffering in here. Burning up all the time. Suffering. Uncomfortable. He might have died in this heat with them bandages making him suffer like they do.'

Sarah jerked back the covers on the bed. Dean's naked arms and chest were covered with goose bumps. 'Jo', she cried, 'he's freezing to death in this room."

'Well, cover him up. You shouldn't ought to let him get cold like that. He wouldn't be so cold if you hadn't pulled the covers down off him.'

Sarah rolled her eyes, put the covers back up around Dean's neck. She went to the closet and pulled down from the top shelf a large pink comforter which she tossed over her husband's body.

'Jo', she said, 'why don't you let me turn down this thing just a little bit?' She moved over towards the machine, which already had made her shiver, though she had only a minute before come in out of ninety-five-degree heat.

'No!' cried Jo. 'You leave them controls alone! Dean's got to keep himself cool!'

'Dean's gone have ice in his veins you don't let me turn this thing down a little.'

'Don't you do it, Sarah', her mother-in-law warned.

Sarah turned, and then said flatly, 'You're right. I don't care if you both freeze to death in here. It's not gone be in here that long, 'cause they're gone come back and take it away, 'cause I'm not gone make the payments on it.' She stared at Jo, and was glad to see that this had some effect on the woman.

'You
got
to pay for it', said Jo, with not so much strength as before, 'it got bought in your name.'

'The account's in Dean's name', said Sarah. 'Dean's gone have to pay for it. I'm not. I don't have the money. If I had the money, I'd buy it for him. I'd buy him anything that he needed, or that I thought he wanted - but I don't have the money, and I'm not gone pay for it.'

'Well', said Jo, 'what about when the money comes from the army? Then you can pay for it. Dean's got to have it, Sarah."

'Dean hasn't got to have it, Jo. They didn't have the hospital at Rucca air-conditioned. He got along without it all these years, and he don't have to have it now. And when the money comes from the army, then it goes to pay the doctors and for the medicine and for the therapy, whenever we can get him started on that. If there's anything left over, then we can see about the air conditioner. We're gone have to see about getting a car too, 'cause there's gone be trips to the VA hospital in Pensacola. You can't go through the Sears catalogue, picking out your heart's desire, Jo, 'cause we just don't have the money.'

Jo was silent, and Sarah knew that this once she had got the better of her mother-in-law, and she knew that she had won because she hadn't given in when Jo pricked at her about 'not taking care of Dean like he should be'. Sarah knew that she was doing all that she possibly could for Dean, that in fact, she was running herself into the ground for him. She would never allow Jo to goad her in that way again.

Sarah also realised that now was the best time to pursue her attack on the amulet. Without a pause, without even a heavy breath to betray her excitement, Sarah said, 'Becca and I went out to the Weaver place this morning, went all through the pigpen looking for that amulet. Didn't find it.'

'Why'd you think you would?' said Jo maliciously.

'Because', said Sarah, 'that's where Miz Weaver dropped it. It fell out of her pocket. Mr Weaver says that's why she got killed, went in the pen after it and the hogs attacked her. That's why he blames it on the amulet. He saw it happen.'

'Looks to me like he ought to blame them hogs. They're the ones that did it. Killed her.'

'Killed her and eleven other people, you mean.'

'That's not what I mean', said Jo. 'That's not what I said at all...'

'Now, listen to me, Jo Howell. There's twelve people dead in this town since yesterday was a week ago. That thing was there in every one of the cases - every single one. I know that for a fact.'

'You cain't know', protested
jo.

'I
do
know. I saw you give it to Lany Coppage. Gussie found it under the bed the morning after Thelma killed James Shirley. I saw it round Dorothy Sims's neck 'fore she went and killed her husband. Jack Weaver saw his wife pick it up off the ground ten

minutes 'fore she got done to death by them hogs. Twelve people's dead, and I just want to make sure that there's not any more. You understand? I don't want you and Dean to be responsible for no more bodies in Pine Cone.'

'Why you think we're responsible for houses burning down, and wives killing their husbands and all, and pigs going on the rampage?'

'Because you gave Lany Coppage that thing, and that started it all off. And I got to know how it works. I got to know how it works, so I can stop it from doing any more damage.'

'A amulet don't
work,
Sarah, it just sits there. It's got no moving parts, it's not like a watch. What can it do? You saw the thing. It was just a piece of metal with a chain on it. Got it from Montgomery Ward.'

'I thought you said your cousin Bama gave it to you, back when you were little.'

Jo hesitated, then replied, 'I was thinking of something else. I got it out of the Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogue.'

'Show me the catalogue, Jo. Show me where you ordered it, and I'll believe you.'

it was years ago. I don't keep catalogues.'

'Well', said Sarah, 'Becca does. I'm going over there tonight and look through the Montgomery Ward catalogues and find where you bought it.'

Jo stared hard at her daughter-in-law.

i'm not gone find it, am I? It's not gone be in that catalogue, is it?'

'Well', said Jo, 'I ordered it out of a Montgomery Ward catalogue - I
think
it was a Montgomery Ward catalogue - or it might have been one of them jewellery catalogues that we get from Mobile, maybe it was one of them. It was so long ago, I don't hardly remember which.' She looked about the room uneasily.

'When did you order it?'

i don't know', she said vaguely, 'sometime 'fore you married Dean. I don't know exactly when.'

'How much did you pay for it?'

'Four ninety-eight.'

'That all?'

'I couldn't afford no more.'

'Why'd you want it?'

Jo twisted uncomfortably in her chair. 'I don't see why I'm supposed to answer all these fool questions. I didn't have nothing to do with them people dying. I gave Larry Coppage this piece of jewellery that I didn't have no use for no more.' She paused, then added suddenly, 'I gave it to him, 'cause one time Rachel Coppage was over here, and I was wearing it, and she said she liked it. So when Larry Coppage come over here, I thought I'd give it to him, 'cause I didn't wear it no more, and Rachel had said she wanted one like it. What she did with it after I give it to her is no business of mine. If she wanted to run right out and give it to Thelma Shirley that's all right with me. I give it to her, and she could do with it whatever she wanted to.'

Sarah knew that Jo had made this story up on the spur of the moment, and she knew too that if she continued to question the woman about it, Jo would only make the lie more elaborate. She wanted to cut through all that.

'I don't care about that. I still got to know how it works, what makes people die that get hold of it. Why didn't you die, for instance?'

Jo shrugged. 'I think all this is crazy. I don't know why you so worried about that thing. It's got no moving parts. It just hangs there. Even if you got it back, you couldn't get your money back for it. Those places in Mobile don't give refunds, you know.'

Sarah shook her head in frustration and walked out of the room. She hadn't found out what she wanted to know, but she had made progress. Jo was on the defensive, and she had admitted that it was the same amulet that had appeared in all the deaths and no longer maintained that there was more than one. Sarah only hoped she found out the rest before someone else died. She dared not trust that the thing was buried forever in the mud of Jack Weaver's pigpen.

It was almost six o'clock on Thursday afternoon. The undertaker and the coroner were drunk, and still had not decided what to do about Morris Emmons' fragmented body. Sarah Howell had begun to fix Dean's supper. She was still angry about the air conditioner and hadn't decided yet whether to make anything for Jo or not. On the other side of Commercial Boulevard, a fifteen-year-old black girl sat in the kitchen of the house belonging to Mildred and Graham Taylor, watching after the two Taylor children, little Graham, about three, and his brother Ralph, who had just passed his first year. Audrey Washington was a skinny, slightly haughty girl, but extremely good with children. She came over to the Taylor house each afternoon after school, and kept the boys so that Mildred could go out and run the day's errands. This afternoon Audrey was anxious, for Miz Taylor had promised her that she would be able to leave by five-forty-five, but the woman had not yet returned from shopping.

Nervously glancing at the clock above the stove, Audrey crooned to the infant in her aims, who dozed peacefully. Little Graham was playing quietly beneath the table with a set of square wooden blocks.

Audrey was surprised by a knock at the back door. She rose slowly, trying not to disturb the baby, and stepped on to the latticed back porch. Out here, a radio played country music sofdy and the washing machine had just begun its second washing cycle. Audrey rocked the child in her arms, and continued to sing as she kicked the back door open. She was very much surprised to see that it was her father on the back steps. She glanced at him with annoyance, and peered down the driveway to make sure that Mrs Taylor was not in sight.