“I don’t know who could possibly succeed him. As far as I know, Father Jupiter did not leave any line of succession. And with his sudden death …” Venus’s eyes darted from side to side. “It will have to be worked out. But I assure you the Order of the Rings of God will remain intact. We owe it to Father Jupiter to further his ideals of love, charity and spirituality.”
“Lofty goals.”
“From a lofty man.”
“One more thing,” Marge said. “Pluto came back to your room to tell you the news.”
“Correct.”
“Do you recall the time?”
“Around a half hour later. So maybe it was five-thirty. But I wasn’t clocking him.”
“Of course. So as best as you can remember, Pluto came to your room and told you the news about five-thirty?”
“I suppose.” She buried her face in her hands, then looked up. “It all happened very quickly … very surreal. I still can’t believe … I knew he hadn’t been himself, but …”
“Hadn’t been himself in what way?” Marge asked.
“He wasn’t exactly ill, but he seemed … drained. He hadn’t been in his ordinarily high spirits for least six months. And he often held his head—like he had a bad headache. I was concerned. But when I asked him about it, he shrugged me off and assured me it was all very normal. That it was part of the process.”
“What process?”
Venus eyed Marge. “If I told you, you’d scoff. All the violators scoff.”
“Try me.”
Again Venus hesitated. “Part of the communication process with the beyond. Father Jupiter knew that his body was being tapped of its life energies because he had begun to make serious contact with the forces.”
Again, the room fell silent.
Venus said, “You wouldn’t understand. You couldn’t understand.”
Marge tried to keep skepticism out of her voice. “What kind of forces?”
Venus waved her off.
“Please. I want to understand, Venus. Who had Jupiter contacted?” Maybe someone was threatening him. “Tell me.” Keep the voice even, Dunn. “Were they humans? Were they aliens?”
To Marge, it appeared that Venus was appraising her sincerity. Finally, the alluring woman said, “Not aliens as you perceive them—little beeping things with five eyes and antennas.”
Her voice became intense.
“For about six months, Jupiter had been receiving signals … electromagnetic waves that he felt were coming from an alternative universe. He was particularly excited because these signals were not classic Big Bang background radiation. You know … stuff given off when the universe was created. They seemed to be organized signals. How he could tell, I don’t know. But that’s why Jupiter was Jupiter. Only a man of his scope could interpret such things.”
Marge tapped her pad. “He was a brilliant man.”
Venus’s expression took on a slight sneer—the upward curve of her lips, the roll of her eyes. “An understatement, Detective.”
Marge ignored the condescension. “Tell me about these signals, Venus.”
The young woman’s smile was patient. All in all, Venus appeared cooperative.
“Jupiter said these were far-away stellar signals—many, many light-years away. So distant that they may have come from the original creation of matter. When the universe was still in ten dimensions instead of four. You know about the four dimensions, don’t you—length, width, depth and time as a function of space. Space time. Einsteinian time. Do you know about Einstein’s special theory of relativity? E equals MC squared?”
“I wasn’t great in science,” Marge said. “Maybe you could skip the equations and just tell me in layman’s terms about the signals?”
The female guru seemed relieved and went on. “According to Jupiter, there are other universes that parallel our own. You get to them through the black holes. Unfortunately, once you enter the event horizon, you can’t come back. Even if Jupiter’s space travel theories are eventually accepted, and time is proven to be multidirectional, travel through black holes is strictly one way. So no one can ever come back to tell us about the experience.”
No one spoke. Marge glanced at her notes—black holes, ten dimensions, time multidirectional. She was lost, but so what? She was investigating a suicide, not exploring the Order’s whacked-out philosophy. Still, it was not something to be completely overlooked. The Order’s “isms” may be the reason why Jupiter killed himself.
Venus’s eyes clouded over. “I think I may have mixed up a few points. All I know is that it made perfect sense when Jupiter explained it. He was preparing us for the eventuality of it all. Especially because of the millennia. The timing just seemed to work out perfectly.”
Marge’s ears perked up. “Eventuality of what?”
“Space travel to a different physical as well as metaphysical plane. He claimed that time was closing in. From the Big Bang to the Big Crunch. Of course, Jupiter’s concept of time is different from ours. A short time to him could have been a million light-years. Which is a very long time.” She looked down. “Anyway, this is all tangential. I guess I’m just trying to figure out why.” She exhaled. “Life as we know it is so … short … so temporary.”
“Jupiter’s space travel …” Marge leaned forward. “Did part of the process include suicide?”
“In theory, I suppose that suicide could be made part of it. Not that Jupiter ever mentioned suicide as a mode of transport. He spoke in more theoretical terms. Let me assure you, Detective, that the Order of the Rings of God is no Heaven’s Gate. Jupiter was no crackpot. He certainly didn’t believe in castration. We have children here. Mass suicide isn’t part of our philosophy.”
Marge said, “Still, it appears that Jupiter did take his own life.”
“If he made that choice, he had a very good reason.”
Marge said, “Did you happen to notice any suicide note?”
“No. But I was taken away so quickly … there could have been.” Seconds ticked by. “Did you find something?”
“Did Jupiter ever talk about suicide?”
“Mostly he spoke of the temporal issues of life. Was there a note, Detective?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. If Pluto removed something from Jupiter’s bedroom—”
“I’ll find out. Whatever is in Jupiter’s bedroom now belongs to me.” A beat. “Once you’re done with the questioning, how long is your involvement going to last?”
“Not too long—”
“What’s the process? You determine the cause of death, then release the body?”
“Basic—”
“And if the death was natural, there’s no problem?”
“None—”
“But if the death was caused by suicide, then what?”
“The coroner issues the death certificate based on his findings—”
“And then you release the body for burial?”
“Yes.”
Venus rubbed her eyes. “So why are the police involved? Why do you care if he killed himself or not?”
Marge hesitated. “Jupiter’s