Bag of Bones: Chapter 19 (pages 318-330)

The big news of this chapter is that Max Devore has supposedly committed suicide right after Mike called and agreed to Max's terms about not asking questions about him. Early in the morning Bill Dean calls him up with the news that he has heard on the six a.m. television news.
Rogette Whitmore had called a 2 am press conference, per Devore's orders, to give the world the news of his death. Devore had carefully planned everything out and Mike comes to the conclusion that the letter Max had sent to him was a veiled suicide note because it contained phrases like, "let me rest in peace" and "urgent business I need to take care of."
Mike is relieved and glad that Max is dead but is concerned that the local townspeople might blame him and Mattie. That their custody battle drove him to kill himself.
Bill again warns Mike, but in a friendlier way, to leave town. He says the local townspeople think he is, "shacking up with Mattie" (why this is such a big issue in this book bothers me. I'm not sure what the objection the townspeople would have for them being together. The age difference? They don't like Mattie in the first place. Mattie should never be allowed to be in a relationship again? King should explain the reasoning behind this if it is going to be a huge plot point. I feel like I'm reading The Scarlet Letter here and New England Puritanism is back.)
Mike hangs up the phone and thinks that he and Bill Dean are back on better terms but not really friends again. That had changed when he, "realized what he (Bill) had almost called Sara and the Red-Tops." (Page 323). This again brings up Mike's new psychic ability. He had no way of knowing what Bill was going to say but somehow he has a psychic flash telling him what Bill was thinking.
He calls Mattie and of course Mattie is relieved and upset about Max's death all at the same time. They agree to meet the next day for lunch in the common green so everyone can still see them.
Mike's brother, Sid, then calls. It had been so long since his brother was introduced I forgot he existed. Mike asks him about their father and where he came from and their grandfather etc. A large plot point emerging is that Max said that Mike and his father came from the same background, and since Mike is a different generation than Max, Mike assumes that Max means his grandfather. But Mike's father and grandfather were fishermen, while Max's was a logger so Mike is still wondering. He doesn't get any answers from Sid. Mike ends the conversation and goes back to the kitchen and finds that the magnets have spelled out CARLADEAN. Mike thinks it means Carla Dean, but Mike doesn't know anyone related to Bill Dean named Carla. He only glimpses this for a second before the letters are scattered away. Mike hears the "Oh Mike, Oh Mike" he heard from the tape recorder earlier and now he knows it's Jo's ghost who put the name there but he thinks a different ghosts knocked the letters off because that ghost didn't want Mike to see what was on the fridge.
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Since this is only page 330 of a 530 page book, I doubt we've seen the last of Max Devore. This is probably where the supernatural elements start ramping up. So far this book has been very "normal." We get a nice little 75 pages or so of a man grieving for his dead wife, which was very well done. Then the next 125 pages we deal with Mike getting to know Mattie and her daughter Kyra. Another 100 pages of larger than life (and most decidedly not normal) Max Devore. Mike seems like a nice and decent human being except for his constant obsession of sex with Mattie. Which after a while, does get to be just a little bit creepy. He seems pampered and self-obsessed and maybe throughout the books he'll learn to be a more giving and caring person, who knows?