Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
She belts out a loud bark of a laugh and says, “He said no. I mean, he was gentle about it. But he sat me down and told me that Ezra wasn’t a real healer.
He tried explaining about the placebo effect, but I didn’t really get it.
Then he showed me pictures of this place in France—Lourdes?
It’s this grotto with a spring that people say was blessed by God with waters that have the power to heal. ”
“Yeah,” I say. “I’ve heard of it.”
She nods and says, “People go there and get cured and then the road on the way out is littered with crutches and canes where folks have thrown away their walking aids. They think they’re healed so their bodies make all this extra dopamine and adrenaline and they feel great.
The mind can do a lot of wild stuff to convince us our reality is different than it is. ”
“You’re not kidding,” I say, thinking of my own nightmares, Katie’s prophetic dreams, Crystal’s vision of Ezra.
“You only have to want to believe it—even on a subconscious level—for it to feel true. That’s what my dad told me. He said you drive away from the grotto and you see all these crutches and walkers and stuff on the side of the road. But you know what you never see?”
“What?”
“Prosthetic limbs!” she says with a laugh. “If God—the God who made the entire world in seven days—were really healing those people, then regrowing a limb should be no problem.”
“What did you say when he told you that?” I ask.
“I was as stubborn then as I am now!” she says. “I told him I still wanted to go!”
I chuckle and sit back in the chair, feel myself smiling at her.
Her warmth and her openness. But then her grin turns downward and her lips purse to the side before she says, “He told me, Zelda, you are brave and you are strong and you can overcome whatever’s put in front of you.
But sometimes, you’re going to need help.
And right now you need the help of a doctor, not some snake oil salesman in a fancy black suit.
I remember that part really well. A snake oil salesman in a fancy black suit.
My dad always had him pegged. Ever since Maggie left and took Katie with her … he never trusted Ezra.”
“Did that convince you?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “But then he told me about Janey-Beth.”
“Janey-Beth?” I ask. “Wait, that’s … that’s Chief Dishman’s daughter, isn’t it?”
She nods.
“She was younger than me,” she says. “About Katie’s age, I think.”
I remember my first day in Mount Zion, in the police station, Dishman mentioning that his daughter went to school with Katie.
I remember Joel Shepherd using the girl’s name like a weapon.
And I remember sitting in Ezra’s kitchen, listening as Dishman told me that his daughter died of leukemia when she was young.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Hardly anyone knows the real story. This town is bad for gossip and my dad always kept it to himself. I think I told you he and Chief Dishman were real close. They’d been friends for years.
Anyway, Dishman used to always come in here after shifts, sit in this office where you’re sitting now, and talk to my dad. ”
“Okay…” I say. “So, what happened? Dishman told me his daughter died of cancer.”
“Well, that’s the thing,” Zelda says. “She went downhill fast. Like, really fast. Her mom … What was her name? Sarah. It was Sarah Dishman. She was extremely religious and only became more fanatical when Janey-Beth got sick. Of course, when it first started, they took her to the doctor. But, as the weeks passed, Sarah decided that only God could help Janey-Beth. So, one night she called Ezra King and had him come out to their house for faith healing. Ezra ministered to Sarah and stood over Janey-Beth’s bed and told the both of them that only God truly had the power to heal. ”
“Oh no,” I say.
Zelda nods, knowingly, and says, “My dad told me later that Chief Dishman wanted to go to Lexington or Louisville or Cincinnati, a good university hospital, but Sarah refused. She said the cancer treatments were a long shot, at best, which may have been true but we’ll never know.
Because she was convinced that Janey-Beth would be healed by God. ”
“No,” I breathe, a sharp bitterness replacing the warmth in my belly.
“And then Janey-Beth died,” Zelda says, softly.
“It was only a few weeks from her diagnosis to her death. It took her so, so fast. And afterward, Sarah figured she must’ve died because Chief Dishman’s faith wasn’t strong enough.
That it was his fault. And my dad always thought it was Ezra who put that notion in her head.
That this was his explanation for why God hadn’t healed her daughter. ”
“Where’s Sarah now?” I ask.
“Oh, she left. A long time ago. Went off to live with her family in Western Kentucky somewhere, never came back. He’s been on his own ever since.
His job is his whole life as far as anyone can tell.
Without his daughter, his wife, being the chief of police of Mount Zion has meant everything to him. ”
“But Chief Dishman always thought Ezra was the real deal,” I say, as I realize it. And he’d been duped. Just like Crystal had. Just like Will had. Just like most of Mount Zion had.
“Well, the chief surely can’t believe it now,” Zelda says. “Not after everything you guys uncovered.”
“No…” I say. “No, you’re right.”
And I think about Roman Bradley standing in that cabin, the gun trained on Dishman, fear and shame in his voice.
He had to go. Ezra had to go and I … I did what I had to do …
And Gavin had been surprised that the coroner had punched Ezra in the face.
Had hit him hard enough to bowl him over.
Send him flying into the ornate altar at the front of the church.
Tumbling fast enough to really hurt himself.
Fast enough to kill him. Because maybe he hadn’t.
Maybe he’d only helped Ezra fake his death.
Only got the door hardware and put the wrong body in the coffin, dug it up later, kept the illusion going until he knew it was all over.
“Shit…” I breathe.
When I’d first arrived in Mount Zion, Dishman had sounded as if he respected Ezra.
Believed in him. In the force of his faith, the power of his devotion.
He’d not thought, then, that Ezra was a fraud.
But it had become clear since. In the course of our investigation, he’d figured out exactly who Ezra was. Probably long before I did.