Wanted: Gravedigger

by Christine Sterling

  “How is the other?” Ian asked.

  “Brawny?” Ian nodded. “He lost an eye and I guess he is going to be pretty scarred up. How did this happen?”

  “Shame about that lad. I wasn’t here at the time it happened. I guess those workers were trying to pry the lid off the barrel and it went flying. I’m surprised they weren’t burned. Luck of the wind, I supposed. It went on quite a few people’s clothes, but those three got the worst. They were right next to the barrel when it was being opened.”

  “I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. How many bodies do we have so far?”

  “We just found the first.”

  “Is it in a bag already?”

  “It is. It is on the wagon waiting for transport.”

  Suddenly there was a commotion behind them. Ian ran over with Dawson quickly on his heels. “What is it?” Ian asked.

  “We found Mr. Pike!” one of the miner’s called out.

  “Be careful removing him.”

  “Isn’t that Betsy Sewell’s father?” Dawson asked. He had heard Tess mention that name.

  “Yes. I guess someone should go get the marshal.”

  “I can do it,” Dawson volunteered. He turned to his men, “I want you to put him in a bag once he is recovered. You bring him to the undertaker’s office. I don’t want him buried in the mass plot.” Zhang nodded.

  Dawson watched as the workers went to delicately remove the dirt around Mr. Pike’s body. He said a quick prayer before turning on his heel to go find the marshal.

  Dawson returned to the undertaker’s studio after visiting the marshal. He learned that Mr. Woodson was killed somewhere near the front of the mine as well. That makes two coffins.

  It was becoming very real, now that the bodies of loved ones were being pulled out of the ground. He couldn’t make coffins for everyone, but these two men were from the four founding families that established Silverpines. The other founders being Mr. Henderson and Mr. Ryder. If Mr. Henderson was found, he would do the same for him. Mr. Ryder wasn’t at the mine when it collapsed.

  He walked to the back room, where he first stayed when he arrived in Silverpines. He had been chasing his wife and child’s murderer for so long that the joy of catching the gang was clouded by grief.

  This was truly the first time he had been back in this room since he returned with Tess several weeks ago. Even when he was showing the area to Will, he only spent a few minutes in here.

  He decided to spend a minute sitting and reflecting on everything that had happened in the past few days – from breaking ground on the mass graves to Brawny losing his eye to finding Mr. Pike. He found it best to put himself into his work before he became more upset thinking about everything that happened.

  His goal in life was to protect Tess from all the ugliness in the world, and it was about to hit home, full force. Marshal Sewell noted that Betsy would be most upset about her father not being there for his first grandchild.

  Dawson agreed that grandparents were an important part of a child’s life and they should be present if at all feasible. As he pulled the first coffin off the stack against the wall, he made a silent promise to the child growing in Tess’s belly that he would find a way for Charlotte Daniels to be a part of his life.

  “Mrs. Daniels ain’t taking visitors right now. She ain’t feeling so well.” The dark-skinned woman tried to shut the door, but Dawson put his foot next to the door frame, so she couldn’t shut it.

  “Milam, you tell Mrs. Daniels that I am going to see her, now,” he said as he pushed his way inside. “Otherwise I’ll take Tess and we will move so far away she will never see her grandchild.” Milam’s eyes went wide, appearing even brighter against her dark skin. She nodded and scurried down the hall towards a closed door, disappearing behind it.

  Suddenly a shriek was heard and just as quickly Milam scurried back to him. “I don’t think you–.” Dawson pushed past her not hearing the rest of what she said. He got to the door and gave one hard knock before entering.

  The room barely had any light. Only one window was uncovered. The rest were darkened. The room stank. Dawson rubbed his nose trying to get some of the odor to vacate his nostrils. It was a mix of cigar smoke, body odor and the underlying sickly-sweet smell of flowers. Dawson tried not to retch. He entered the room and closed the door behind him.

  Allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkened interior he spotted Charlotte sitting in an oversized chair under a blanket. Her eyes were glazed over, and she noticed him in the room and shrieked again, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

  “Get out! Get out!” she cried. “I have nothing for you.”

  “Mrs. Daniels, I need to talk to you about Tess.”

  “Tess? Tess who?”

  He walked over to the window and pushed back the curtain, causing her to wail more.

  “Shut it! It causes them to come?”

  Them? “Who is them, Mrs. Daniels?” Dawson could get a good look at her now.

  She threw off the blanket. It smelled like urine.

  Charlotte was in her wrapper and house shoes. Her hair was wild, and it didn’t look like it had been brushed in weeks. He moved closer and knelt down beside her chair. Her pupils were like tiny dots in a sea of blue. “He left me.” She started to sob. “He took everything and left me.”

  “Mr. Daniels?” Dawson knew that Tess’s father had been killed walking home from Timber Town, but he didn’t recall Tess saying anything about her father taking anything with him.

  “No. Mr. Clemmons.” She looked at her arms and shrieked. “Get them off of me.” She started brushing at her arms and legs, removing imaginary creatures.

  Dawson ran to the door. “Milam!” he shouted down the hallway. Milam came and cautiously looked in the room. When Dawson saw her, he pointed out the window. “I need you to go get a doctor immediately.”

  “Which one?” She put her fingers to her lips, shriveling back.

  “I don’t care. Anyone. The first one you can find.” She ran from the room and down the hallway. “And get them back here immediately.” Dawson went back to Charlotte’s chair. She had moved to the other chair in the corner where there was no light. “We are going to get help. You will be alright. The doctor is on their way.”

  A sniffle came from the dark shadows. Almost like a child. Dawson started looking around the room. It was a large room, like a formal sitting room. One wall was completely covered in rows of books. Dawson could figure out how Tess got her love of reading.

  There was a sideboard and Dawson noticed that it was covered in dust, but several spots were completely clear. It appeared something sat there but was now removed. He looked at the side table and there was a bottle of claret and a glass that was half-full. The decanter was nearly empty.

  Something was missing. There was something he wasn’t seeing.

  He started lifting the curtains to get a better view of the floor. When he got to the forth panel, he saw it. There on the floor was an empty laudanum bottle. And another. He found three bottles in total.

  She had laudanum sickness. That was causing her severe aggravation.

  He prayed the doctor would come soon and hopefully Tess wouldn’t find out. He didn’t know how he was going to fix this.

  Chapter 7

  It didn’t take long for Milam to return, with Robert right behind her. He put his doctor bag on the floor and looked at Dawson.

  “What’s going on here?”

  Dawson pointed to Charlotte sitting in the chair. Her eyes were closed, and she gripped the arms of the chair in her sleep. “I came to talk to her and she seemed to be having some type of psychotic episode. She screamed so loud I’m surprised they didn’t hear it in New Hope.”

  “Anything else?” Robert picked up his bag and walked over to Charlotte. Placing the bag on the table he pulled out his stethoscope, putting the tubes in his ears.

  “She was sure that something was crawling on her. She kept trying to get them off.”


  Robert placed the end of the stethoscope against her chest and listened. He then pulled out his pocket watch and started counting.

  “Her breathing is erratic. Like her lungs are seizing. Do you know if she is on any medication?”

  “I don’t know. I did find several bottles of this hidden behind the curtain.” Dawson handed the empty bottles to Robert.

  “This is pure laudanum. It is bitter, so she had to be mixing it into something.”

  “She has an almost empty decanter of claret.”

  “Look at the label. Stickneys and Poor’s Paregoric. This is an opium derivative.”

  “Opium? Do you think she got it from the Chinese?”

  “They’ve only been in town for a little bit. Not long enough for Charlotte Daniels to have anything to do with them. This has to be given to her by a doctor. I know we don’t prescribe this at the clinic or the apothecary. Hattie wouldn’t stand for it. The label looks like what you would get from one of those travelling doctors.”

  “Travelling doctors? Like in a wagon with potions and lotions?”

  “The very same. Most of what they sell is pure alcohol. Or Opium. Or heroine.”

  Dawson cursed. “I think I know someone like that. They prey on widows. Is she going to be alright?”

  “Well that depends.” He lifted one eyelid and looked in her eyes. “Given the way you described her behavior and looking at her now, I’d say she has a very heavy dependency on that drug. It is going to take her a while to get over it. ”

  “How do we do that?”

  “She’ll need round the clock care. There is an asylum over in..”

  “No. Absolutely not. If she goes there she may never come out. What is our next choice?”

  “I can talk to Hattie and Chelsea and see what we can come up with. She may be able to stay at the clinic, but again, she’ll need someone with her at all times. It won’t be pretty.”

  “Can she stay here?”

  Robert thought about it. “She could. Are you prepared to move in here with her?”

  “Let’s get her to bed and figure out a plan.”

  Dawson scooped up Charlotte in his arms. He expected her to weigh more. He looked at her, with her blonde hair plastered against her head. He knew she was in her upper forties, but she looked much older now.

  Her skin was pale with red splotches and her lips were cracked. She was an attractive woman, and he could see Tess in her. But that is where the similarities ended.

  “Where is her bedroom, Milam?”

  Milam rushed forward. “No, suh. It ain’t right that a man goes in there.”

  “Milam, show me where the room is and you can be there the entire time. She’s going to need a bath and a change of nightclothes. I don’t know how long she has been in these.”

  “About a week,” Milam said, heading down the hallway.

  “And you didn’t think of getting Tess?”

  “They wouldn’t let me leave.”

  “They?” Dawson followed Milam into Charlotte’s bedroom. There was a large four poster bed, a wardrobe and a dressing table. A portrait of Tess hung above the dressing table.

  “Miss Charlotte and Mr. Clemmons. He said that he was watching me at all times and if I told anyone he would kill me.”

  Placing Charlotte on top of the covers he turned back to Milam. “Do you think you could describe him?”

  “I shur enough could. He was about the same age as Miss Charlotte. Hair the color of silver straight from the mine. He wore glasses and had this pocket watch he showed me many time.”

  “Was it gold with a train on the cover and stones coming out from the smokestack?”

  “Why yes it was. How did you know that?”

  “I know exactly who it was. Where is he now?”

  “I don’t know. He came out from seeing Miss Charlotte and said he had to go somewhere.” She thought for a moment. “You know what’s odd? He came out with a bag. I don’t recall him taking a bag in there.”

  “Thank you, Milam. I need you to take really good care of her until I get back.”

  Tess was frantic with worry when Dawson told her what transpired.

  She insisted on going to see her momma immediately and broke down in tears when she saw Charlotte laid out on her bed. Milan had managed to maneuver Charlotte into the bathtub and scrubbed her hair

  She no longer smelled like the room downstairs, she smelled like the cologne on her dresser.

  Dawson rubbed Tess’s back while she sobbed next to her mother. Dawson didn’t know what kind of support she needed, so he simply comforted her with his touch.

  “I should have come back. I should have known something was wrong.”

  “You wouldn’t have known, Honeybee. She kept it a very good secret.”

  “But I saw her at the café when we were first starting to sew bags. She smelled like burning flowers.”

  “That is the opium. It is going to take a while for her to lose her dependency on it.”

  “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know anything about how to deal with something like this.”

  “Dr. Childs will help us, as will Dr. Tory.” Tess nodded and wiped her nose. “I need you to go through the house and tell me anything you think might be missing.”

  “Why?”

  “I think that this Mr. Clemmons was stealing from your momma.”

  “No!”

  “Yes. He is the case I was working on when you came to see me in New Harbor.”

  “Was it that man in the saloon?”

  “Yes. He called himself Shippenbottom, but he is going by a different name now.”

  “Oh my. I totally forgot. When I saw Momma at the café that day, she was with a man. I couldn’t place him, but he reminded me of Mr. Shippenbottom. She gave me a different name, so I didn’t put it together. How could I be so stupid?”

  “Don’t worry Honeybee. We will find him.”

  “Are we moving back here?”

  Dawson wasn’t in favor of the idea, but he knew that Tess wanted to repair the relationship with her mother, and he wanted his child to know his grandparents. “If that is what you wish.” Tess bit her bottom lip, tapping her finger against, deep in thought.

  “I think we need to stay here. Just until she is alright.”

  “Of course. I’m going to get someone to guard you too. I don’t want Mr. Clemmons coming back if you are here.”

  Tess nodded, it was done.

  Dawson left Tess to take care of her mother. He needed to finish the coffin for Mr. Pike. It was only a matter of time before they found Mr. Woodson, so he decided he should probably finish the second coffin as well.

  The lantern was lit when he came through the lean-to. Will must be back, he thought. He knocked before entering the workshop. The coffin Will was using as a bed was right as he entered the door. Will wasn’t sleeping, so maybe he didn’t come back. Dawson couldn’t recall if he left the lamp lit, so much had been happening.

  He continued through to the wood room and there was Will, softly singing to himself. He was running his hand down the top of the coffin and holding a chisel in the other. Dawson coughed to announce himself.

  “Good evening, I didn’t see you come in.”

  “Just got here. What are you doing?”

  “I finished off the coffin and was etching the top.” Dawson looked over Will’s shoulder to see what he carved in the wood. It was a beautiful cross with a flower garland wrapping around it. Underneath the cross was Ps. 23:4.

  Dawson traced the verse with his finger. “’Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’ It is beautiful. I’m sure that Mrs. Sewell will think it’s lovely. Where did you learn to carve like that?”

  “I had a lot of time during my recovery. I was going out of my mind, and I didn’t want to be put in the asylum. So, I needed to find something to focus on. Wood carving was it.”

  Dawson took a seat
on the chair next to the workbench. He noticed that Mr. Daniels’ bible was laying out, opened to the Psalms.

  “I was just reading that as I was working.”

  “That was Tess’s father’s.”

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No. I’m sure that they would be glad you are reading it. Tell me about the rest of the day.”

  “The miners are starting to find the bones. Sometimes there isn’t even enough to put in its own bag. They brought over four bags of bones today. I had them put them in the grave closest to the graveyard. We put more lime on top of the bags, thinking it will go through as the fabric starts to disintegrate. Zhang and his workers were going to cover that first layer this evening and then start on the fourth grave.”

  “I need to dig a proper grave for Mr. Pike.”

  “Already taken care of. Sing Li and I did that this afternoon. It is covered with a blanket, so Mr. Pike can be buried tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, Will. I appreciate that.”

  “No need to thank me. It was what needed to be done.” Will paused a moment as if contemplating his next question. Finally, he asked, “How is your mother-in-law?”

  Dawson was surprised he knew. “How did you find out.”

  “Silverpines is a small town. Everybody knows everybody’s business here. I’ve only been here a short time and I already know that.”

  Dawson laughed at Will’s observation. “I am hoping Charlotte makes a full recovery. It is going to be a long road ahead of her.” Will nodded. “If there is anything I can do, let me know. Being down that road isn’t easy, but God always provides a way out of the darkest pit.”

  Dawson nodded. “How are you liking Silverpines so far?”

  “What’s not to like? I get a meal in my belly daily. I have a place to sleep and I even have some coins jingling in my pocket. I am very blessed to be here. I’d like to stay if I can find work after this job is done.”

  Dawson realized that Will wouldn’t be the kind to be unappreciative of what he was given. “You can stay here as long as you like.” He slapped Will on the back. “How about we go to the diner and get dinner? I need to get something for Tess to eat. It will be my treat.”