“They do here, on this island. Some look like they’re a hundred years old.”

“Maybe the spirit of the little girl chose it to serve as her medium.”

“To speak to Solano? I thought you said she spoke to him in his dreams?”

“And perhaps she spoke to him through certain dolls too.”

“Are you making this all up as you go?”

He feigned hurt. “Please, Jack. Can you at least try to keep an open mind?”

“I am, Peps. It’s all going in one side and coming out the other.” I indicated a large wood-framed photograph hanging on the wall to the left of the shrine. “So is that the great Solano himself?” It showed a man with thinning black hair, kind black eyes, an unkempt handlebar mustache, and a wispy goatee. He was smiling, revealing yellowed teeth. He wore a sleeveless jacket beneath a poncho. “Looks like a nice enough guy.”

“Nobody said Solano wasn’t nice.”

“Just crazy.”

“Spiritual—”

“…MA-MA…”

I started. Pepper seemed as surprised as me.

I said, “Which one—”

“…MA-MA…”

The voice was loud, whiny, effeminate.

Pepper began backing up toward the door.

“Where are you going?” I said.

“A doll just spoke, Jack!”

Ignoring him, I moved along the wall, trying to figure out which doll was speaking—

“…MA-MA…”

My eyes paused on a clown doll directly before me: brown shaggy hair, white face, pink nose, pink dimples on the cheeks, pink lips.

Was it smiling at me?

The kid inside of me that had once been afraid of the dark and wondered what slept under my bed wanted to follow Pepper’s lead and get the hell out of the claustrophobic room. Nevertheless, the rational adult wouldn’t allow it.

It was just a doll. An inanimate chunk of plastic. Battery-powered, programed to speak every now and then.

I reached for it, to turn it around, to peel off its pajama top, to check for the on/off switch and battery compartment—

A thunderous bang! shook the wall, accompanied by an ear-splitting shriek.

I cried out, stumbling backward. I collided into a support beam and fell down, dragging several dolls with me. At the same time laughter erupted from the other side of the wall.

Embarrassment burned me from the inside out. I pushed myself to my feet, scooping up the dolls on the floor. I’d snapped the strings holding them in place, there was no way to reattach them to the beam, and I was still cradling them in my arms when Nitro and Jesus appeared in the doorway to the hut, both grinning like pigs in shit.

Nitro said, “You scream just like a little girl, Jack Goff!”

Jesus assumed a straight face that barely disguised his look of hauteur. “I hope you’re okay, Jack,” he said with the proper air of civility. “You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”