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your door was wide open and I just wanted to be sure you’re okay.”
    There was no answer and Reg heard it for the first time: complete silence. He walked into the living room, which was open to the dining room but nothing else. There was light coming from the right of the dining room, and Reg figured it probably led to a kitchen or hallway.
    “You there Mr. Seals?” No answer. Reg thought the house was eerily silent. He had a feeling things had gone bad or soon would. When things like that happened, he had an entire repertoire of ways to lighten the moment. Moreover, it helped when dealing with the crazies. When Reg did outlandish stuff the wackier ones took notice. Perhaps they thought he was a kindred spirit. For fun…he slipped into Uncle Remus and days gone by. It simply seemed like the thing to do.
    “Nice wedder dis dey,” Reg said. More silence.
    “Is you deaf? Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder. You er stuck up, dat’s w’at you is,” Reg said in perfect Brer Rabbit speak. There was still no answer.
    He went into the hallway and had two choices: right or left. He went right and it led toward a bathroom and further down the hall was a bedroom. Both were empty. He turned around and followed the hall until it led to a kitchen.
    “Spozen I runs up on you, Brer Buck, w’at you gwinter do? Brer Reg ain’t see no peace w’atsumever since de bad po-leezmun starded fussin about yer brudder. Ef you don’t tell me howdy like spectubble folks do I might go prancin, lippity-clippity down dat street. Yer brudder will be waiten fer me and he gree’ble to burning dis here howz down.”
    More silence. Reg checked the empty kitchen and was at a back stairway that led upstairs. He slowly walked up the steps and found himself in a large room. To the right was a doorway that led to another bathroom. He slowly walked into the room and saw the bathtub full of water, blood, and Buck. Both wrists had been cut properly—long-ways and plenty deep enough. The razor was lying on the floor near the tub. Buck had finally found his peace.
    “Look what you’ve gone and done, Buck. Was the pain that bad?” Reg looked at him and thought it came down to this for so many…squandered lives and the predictable; people looking back on their youth and so many things were nothing more than a fabrication. For some, a maze of events that could have and even should have been. Reg believed with his entire heart it was a curse everyone endured.
    “I only wish things could’ve been different for you. More help for you. I think of you as one more lost soul that slipped through the cracks. I look at you and wonder what could’ve been.”
    He reached down and closed Buck’s eyelids. Reg was no stranger to death, and that said, he mourned the loss of all life. These were things only his wife Phoebe understood. The other cops were clueless when it came to this part of Reg. He had more layers than an onion and he guarded each and every one.
    He turned the volume up on his portable radio and called Kyle. “Everything’s secure, you can come inside.” Kyle acknowledged and drove to the front of Buck’s house and got out. Reg stood by the open front door and warned Kyle about the razor pieces on the door handle and the thumbtacks on the porch.
    “It’s safe. I disabled the exterior alarm system.”
    “Huh?”
    Reg pointed at the hair blower and curling iron. “The video surveillance system. I disabled it just in case the audible alarm goes off. I didn’t want you to get frightened.”
    “Is it safe inside? Is Buck in the house?”
    “He is and he wants to speak with someone in authority, real authority. I told him about you and he wants to see you.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Upstairs. He won’t come out of the bathroom until after he sees you. C’mon, I’ll show you where he’s at.”
    Reg walked up the back stairway and Kyle followed as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. They walked toward the bathroom and Reg