Miss Sylvia's Stolen Bible

by Harper Harris

  I stepped out of the phone closet, choosing to just make my own way back to the dining room. I was sure Henry would have loved to escort me back, but I didn’t want to make him run back over. He looked older than Sylvia and, even if he seemed to be in tip top shape, I didn’t like the idea of making someone wait on me like that. Plus, making my own way back would allow for a little more of a leisurely walk back.

  As I made my way back to the dining room, I looked closely at the walls. The paintings all I had names and dates. It looked like the Winters through the years. It wasn’t all portraits, some of the art hanging depicting life on the plantation. I was glad I hadn’t actually gone back in time, that would have been a little too much to handle.

  It didn’t take me too long to get back to the dining room. I could hear Sylvia and Delilah talking, about what, I had no idea. I hated that I had to ask for more from them. I had already felt like I was butting into their lives and another day would not help alleviate that feeling.

  Lightly pushing on the door, I walked into the room and, with a hint of distress in my voice, told my hosts, “The tow truck won’t be able to get here until tomorrow. It seems he needs a new fuel pump.” I sighed and asked my question, “Could I stay another night?”

  Sylvia had a reaction I was not expecting. In fact, she seemed overjoyed. Her eyes went wide with excitement as she bounced a little in her chair.

  “Of course, honey! We were going try and persuade you to stay longer anyhow. Oh, this is exciting!” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but she didn’t keep me waiting long. “Why not stay a few days? That way you can work on finding the family Bible.”

  That wasn’t exactly the plan I had in mind, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful, so I agreed.

  “Why not?”

  Sylvia clapped her hands and motioned for me to take a seat. I poured myself a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was delicious and made me feel a little better.

  Chapter Six

  We all finished our breakfast and Sylvia went off to the conservatory to have a sit down. I stayed with Delilah as she cleared the dishes.

  I didn’t just want to sit around, so I asked, “Can I help out?”

  Delilah gave me a look but nodded. I picked up a few plates and followed her into the kitchen. I decided to investigate the missing Bible. I didn’t have much else to do and I figured it would keep me occupied while the tow truck was being fixed.

  I followed Delilah all the way to the kitchen door and, before looking inside, she turned her head to look at me, and then the two of us enter. She seemed kind of uncomfortable with me being there, but she didn’t shoo me away.

  Maybe she was just wasn’t used to having someone else do housework with her. I couldn’t see Sylvia lending a hand and, while Henry was the butler, I doubted the two of them cleaned up together.

  I wanted to make her feel at ease, so I offered, “I can dry while you wash?”

  Delilah appeared to be really considering my offer.

  Nodding slowly, she finally accepted with a simple “Okay.”

  I stood by her at the sink and the two of us got into a rhythm. I didn’t want to wash in silence, but I also didn’t want to sound rude by going right into talking about the missing Bible. So, I asked something a little more innocuous.

  “Do you like it here at Red Rivers?”

  Delilah nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  I would have to ask something that didn’t only require a yes or no answer. “What are the grounds like?”

  “Rather big.”

  “Have you explored all of it?”

  “I have.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “A while.” Delilah was keeping it all very close to her chest.

  I could see she was a little shy, but I needed her to open up to me. If I was going to get anywhere in this investigation, I would need people to talk to me.

  “Did you live here with your husband?”

  Her hands stopped moving and she nodded slowly. A couple of seconds later, she started scrubbing again and it crossed my mind that maybe asking about her late husband might get me what I needed, so I opened that box.

  “What was he like?”

  She turned her body towards me, her hands still in the sink and gave me a scrutinizing look. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she turned away after a few moments and began washing again. I thought she was going to ignore my question, but she surprised me by giving me an answer that was longer than two words.

  “He was perfect. I married him in the summer of ’63. I was only twenty years old, but I knew Jim was the love of my life. We were destined to be together since we were children. I lived a few plantations over and the two of us would play all over this place together. I don’t think there’s an inch of this place we hadn’t set foot on hand in hand.”

  I was trying to dry and pay attention, which was a little easier now that Delilah had slowed her pace. Her story was pulling at my heart. It was right out of a storybook.

  “All the children in the area knew each other, but Jim and I were best friends. We were inseparable.”

  “That’s beautiful.”

  Delilah smiled, but didn’t look at me, continuing, “We went to school together and spent as much time together as we could. As we got older, my feelings for him matured. There’s a tree in the back pasture. That’s where Jim carved our initials when we were fifteen.”

  She blushed when she said that and I suspected maybe something else happened back there, but I wasn’t going to ask about that.

  “He sounds wonderful.”

  “He was,” she sighed.

  Her marriage to Jim sounded very different from Sylvia’s marriage to Bruce. I wasn’t going to pass judgment and say Sylvia didn’t have a solid marriage. I wasn’t there, and I didn’t have all the facts. But Delilah’s marriage to Jim sounded a little warmer, at least initially.

  I wanted to capitalize on the fact that Delilah was opening up to me, so I asked about Virginia next, but I decided I was going to be smart about it.

  “Is your marriage recording in the Winters’ Family Bible?”

  “It is.”

  “Do you really think Virginia took it?” I held my breath, waiting for Delilah to respond.

  She didn’t at first, focusing on some food stuck to a dish. I was worried I hadn’t been sensitive enough, but then she lets out a small confession.

  “I know she took it.”

  “How?”

  She twisted her mouth and then said something that sounded familiar. “I once caught her stealing a set of silver spoons. They’d been in the family almost as long as the Bible had been.”

  Another instance of Virginia stealing. Why was she coming to Red Rivers to take things?

  “What did you do?”

  “I was able to get them out of her hands. It was a bit of a tussle, but no one was hurt. The thing is, there were other things that have come up missing.”

  How long had Virginia been stealing from the Winters family? It couldn’t all just hedge on a grudge. There had to be something else behind her continual theft.

  “So, you think Virginia has been repeatedly stealing?”

  Delilah nodded again. She looked around the kitchen, as if looking for someone, before leaning in and confiding in me, “I think she’s been selling all of it to get money to buy pain medication. She was in an accident a few years back and hasn’t been the same since.”

  Delilah went back to scrubbing the dishes, as if our conversation hadn’t even happened. It gave me time to digest everything she had said. Virginia Olsen was stealing, not because she had some long-held grudge against Sylvia for stealing Bruce away, but because she needed the money.

  The question was: why did she need the money? She was supposed to be a wealthy woman, her fortune second only to the Winters in the surrounding area.

  But if she was an addict, their actions didn’t always make sense, so it could be some backwards logic sh
e thought up. Some way to get money for drugs, money that wasn’t hers, and screw over a woman she didn’t like. Still, it wasn’t all fitting together quite yet. Something else was missing.

  Delilah and I finished the dished and she gave me a quiet, “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  I was pretty sure she was warming up to me. We had an actual conversation, so that meant something.

  I wanted to get out of the house for a bit, maybe remember what it was like to be in modern society, so I told Delilah, “I’m going to walk over to my car to get a change of clothes.”

  I didn’t want to end up needing to wear their old southern get-up. Not that it looked bad, but it just wasn’t for me.

  “That sounds like a good idea.” She smiled softly and then headed towards the door. Before leaving, she turned to me and said, “I’ll see you when you get back,” and then left the kitchen.

  I wiped my hands on one of the hand towels and headed upstairs to get my keys from my room. After grabbing them from my purse, I headed back down to the foyer, determined to figure this mystery out while also grabbing myself some more suitable attire.

  Chapter Seven

  I was heading towards the front of the house when I ran into Henry.

  “Oh, hello Henry.”

  I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised to see him. He was the butler and it was his job to be around the house, making sure everything was in order.

  “Miss Jacobs. Are you headed somewhere?”

  He was very intuitive, another skill needed to be as good as he was at his job.

  “I was going to walk down to my car to pick up some stuff. I should be back in about an hour.”

  I figured the daylight and the fact that I had walked that way before should make the trip a little quicker and easier this time.

  “That’s wonderful. Since you are headed out, could I impose upon you to take the dogs with you?”

  I titled my head at the odd request. He wanted me to take the dogs for a walk? They weren’t too far behind him, wagging their tails and doing doggy things, but that didn’t mean I was ready to have them join me on my errand. Taking them with me would surely make my walk take a lot longer. Plus, they were practically strangers to me.

  I considered refusing, but I didn’t want to appear rude. Maybe he was asking because I had appeared so eager to help out last night.

  I looked over at Snickerdoodle and Macaroon. They were both tilting their cute heads back at me. Aw, it wouldn’t be such a hassle to take them along. And it might be nice for them. They probably didn’t get out much since their owners were so elderly. It would probably be a nice treat for them. So, I accepted Henry’s suggestion.

  “Sure. I wouldn’t mind having the two cuties come with me.”

  They looked over at me and it was like they sensed I was supposed to be taking over their care for the next hour or so because they ran over to me and rubbed against my legs. They were rather nice dogs. I decided this would be fun after all.

  “Let me get their leashes,” Henry said. “They’re in the foyer.”

  I followed Henry to the front and he got the two leashes out of a closet to the side. I hooked Snickerdoodle and Macaroon and headed to the door. Henry gave me some advice right before we left.

  “They can be a tad bit rambunctious, but a little assertiveness will get them in line. They are just rather excitable.”

  “Okay, we’ll see you in a bit.”

  The dogs pulled me towards the door and, when I opened it, they pulled even harder to get outside. Indeed, they were rather excitable, but I felt I could manage. Henry shut the doors behind me and Macaroon and Snickerdoodle pulled me along.

  I allowed them to guide me until we reached the edge of the driveway. It was clear I would have to hold my ground if we were going to get to my car in one piece.

  The walk was a pleasant one, and Henry’s advice worked out pretty well. The two of them tried to veer off the path a few times, but a soft tug got them right back where I needed them. I made sure to enjoy the sun and fresh air and we were back at my car before I knew it.

  I had to strategically hook their leashes on my arm in order to keep them from running off while I was unlocking my car door. They ended up nicely taking a sit by my car, but I knew dogs could bolt at any moment, so I kept a firm grip.

  I opened my car door and dug through my mountain of stuff looking for my duffle bag. Luckily, it looked like no one had gotten inside and messed with anything. I wondered if this road got much traffic at all. I was glad everything I owned was intact, but the thought still passed through my mind.

  Looking through my things, I realized how far away California and my problems there already felt. That was good, but my future life, just an hour down the road, was also feeling kind of far away at the moment.

  As I was rummaging through, trying to find my clothes, Macaroon and Snickerdoodle started to whine. I looked behind me, but nothing seemed amiss. I chalked it up to a squirrel or something, so I just tightened my grip and continued to shift through my things.

  Unfortunately, the Great Danes had a little more gumption than I expected and they began to pull on their leashes. I thought I could just do the slight tug and they would relax, but, boy, was I wrong.

  They ended up pulling hard enough to get me out of the car. I fell right on to my butt, but I couldn’t worry about that when the two of them were trying to run off. I got on to my knees and managed to keep them from running off.

  I softly petted their fur and it seemed to calm them down enough that they sat back down. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around to see if I could locate what got them so riled up.

  My eyes fell on an old lady across the road. She was just standing there, staring at me. I looked back, expecting her to make some kind of move, but we ended up regarding one another for a few minutes. She looked a little frazzled and disheveled, like she’d been walking around in the woods for a little longer than she should have been.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t really want to approach her, but I also didn’t want to keep staring. Fortunately, she spoke first.

  Pointing, she asked, “What kind of car is that?”

  I was caught off-guard by her question. It wasn’t what I thought would be burning in her mind. I stood up and pointed at my vehicle and she nodded.

  “It’s a Ford Focus,” I responded.

  She just shook her head and I had no idea why.

  I reiterated, “It really is a Ford Focus.”

  She kept shaking her head and said, “It’s an odd-looking car.”

  I looked behind me just to see what she was talking about, thinking that maybe something had happened to my car in my absence that I hadn’t noticed due to the dogs acting crazy, but nothing seemed amiss to me.

  She continued, “My father had a Hudson Sedan. It was the nicest car in the neighborhood. He would get it washed once a week.”

  The old lady didn’t really seem with it and I thought to myself that she might be the ever talked about Virginia Olsen. Maybe the confusion Henry had mentioned wasn’t feigned.

  I had to double-check to be sure, so I inquired, “Are you Virginia? Virginia Olsen?”

  She nodded. I wanted to ask her a few questions, but first…

  “Are you okay? Do you need any help, Virginia?”

  She shook her head again and told me, “I need to get home.”

  I knew she lived at the plantation next door, but I wasn’t sure what direction it was in. I only knew it was called White Pines or White Oaks––something like that. Maybe I could get her to talk to me if I played my cards right.

  “I can help you out if you tell me where your home is?”

  She didn’t respond to my offer for help, so I proceeded to my point a little quicker. “I wanted to ask you a few questions, Virginia. About the Winters’ Family Bible?”

  Being blunter didn’t help at all because Virginia just repeated, “I need to get home.”

  I wasn’t su
re what to do at this point. She was too disoriented to question and I didn’t want to put her under any extra distress. Maybe I could figure out where her home was if I got back to Red Rivers. I knew they all weren’t very fond of Virginia, but surely they wouldn’t make it harder for me to get her back to her own house.

  I started to approach her, the dogs trailing behind me. Unfortunately, the fact that I was getting closer spooked Virginia and she took a few steps back.

  I held out my hand and said, “Don’t worry. I just want to help you.” But none of my attempts worked and she turned around and took off running.

  I was shocked–– first by how quickly she was booking it. She must have been Sylvia’s age, but I knew she would not be easy to catch.

  After getting over my initial surprise, I gripped on to the dog’s leashes and sprinted after her. She was still in my sights, so I tried my best to keep up with her, but not only was she fast, she was also pretty clever because she kept switching directions. Maybe I’d have been able to keep up with her if I didn’t have the dogs with me, but even that was a bit iffy. Virginia might have just been faster than me.

  Soon, I had lost sight of her. I had stopped running and began wandering around, just trying to figure out where I was. I had maybe been a little too gung-ho and now I was lost in the woods. Everything just looked like trees and then more trees. I was pretty sure I had gotten myself legitimately lost.

  So, now, not only was my car broken down on the road, but I was also lost in the woods. At least I had two giant dogs with me. I looked in all directions, but I couldn’t tell which way was going to take me deeper into this chaos. I just continued walking, hoping that I would eventually find my way out.

  I was on the verge of breaking. There was just too much green in all directions and it all looked the same. Snickerdoodle and Macaroon weren’t much help in the navigating department and walking without knowing where I was going was nerve-wracking.