Judith held out her right hand to show red marks on the top of her hand
“The weight on the other end yanked me down. It felt like my arm was being jerked out of the socket. I untangled my hand and swam underwater as best I could. The current was strong, but I remembered what Billy Grundy said, ‘Cut though the current at an angle!’”
Albert, please get Mrs. Greene, another brandy. While you are at it, pour a glass for you and Norwood. I think you have earned it.
“Yes, sir!” Concerned, Judith asked,
“Do you suppose she drowned?”
“I hope so!”
“You can’t say that, Phillip! You’re a doctor!”
“And you’re my wife! Would you hold still?”
“That means, I would have done murder!”
“Self-defense is not murder! Now let me finish this bandage so we can take you to the hospital.”
“She might be waiting for me!”
“You need to calm down! Everything will be all right. As soon as we get to the hospital, I will send Mr. Bacon out to get the constables. If there is a strange lady skulking around town soaking wet in these low temperatures who looks like she had been in a fight with a bear, then it is likely they have found her.”
“If she doesn’t come back, Phillip, it will be somebody different!”
“No, it will not happen again! As soon as this hole in your leg heals I will put you on a train. You will pay a little visit to your old friend Captain Willard and tell him all the sordid details about the pandemonium around here. It is not my idea, Colonel Wyche came up with it. You are the only person left alive that can help them catch the murderers.”
“I can’t do that!”
“Yes, you will! Then you will get on the first boat to Europe and stay there until it is safe to come back, or I will join you!”
“What about Little Jack?”
“Oh-no... Is this going to be something new?”
“There is a nice lady at Oak Crossroads named Lydia Rhodes She is the daughter of the postmaster. See her as soon as possible. She will help you two get acquainted. Make sure our son’s tuition is paid in advance.”
“He thinks he is our son?”
“No, rather he thinks he is my son. I told him his father was killed in the war.”
“What?”
“Well, his real father was killed in the war. However, you are my husband, so I guess that makes it a lie, since I am the only mother he has ever known.”
“Albert, is there any more of that brandy left?”
Doctor Greene was not as surprised to meet Little Jack as Little Jack was to meet Doctor Greene. They warmed to each other quickly as they share a common affliction, namely having lived under the illusion the other had died. Judith, the “Queen of Liars” as Little Jack bitterly called her at first, was fortunate to have an advocate in her husband. He patiently explained her unselfish devotion. Her reckless mishandling of the truth required complete honesty on his part. The young man did, however, marvel at the stories of the heroic exploits of his mother. He called her “mother” without hesitation. Sweet Miss Rhodes moderated their first meeting, but soon the visits were more regular and on the initiative of each. Little Jack joined Doctor Greene during the summer of 1882 in Old Port, and they had their own adventures.
As for the matter of Mrs. Greene’s battered assailant the authorities never found a body in the river. The police searched for a woman matching her description, but found nobody like her. Like Colonel Wyche’s murderer, she was another phantom. Captain Willard would return to Old Port for the first time since the end of the war to take up all the loose threads. The mystery would deepen.
Epilogue
On March 20, 1882, Doctor Lovejoy met Doctor Greene in Old Port Cemetery for the exhumation of two graves. The first was the crypt of Andrew Jackson Greene, and the other was a patch of ground in the Greene family plot not supposed to contain a body. This was the ground that Laura had tried to excavate with her hands the night she injured herself. Present at the proceedings was Myrtle, Miss Rhodes, Little Jack, and Mr. Thomas. The latter having volunteered his services if the absent Mrs. Greene was charged with a crime. It seemed likely she would be. Similarly, he secretly thought he might have to defend the widow Wyche for her part in opening up the abyss. But so far, none of the evidence connected her to the casket.
Little Jack’s crypt revealed what Doctor Lovejoy expected. It was empty. Then, the gravediggers started on the ground that supposedly contained nothing. When they found a casket, Lovejoy asked if anybody wanted to leave because he intended to open it. Miss Rhodes did not want to see the remains, so she walked to a stone bench on the pathway that circled behind the plot.
The remains inside the casket were skeletal. Apart from buttons, little remained of the clothing. However, it was obviously fragments of a dress. On the finger bones of both hands there were several beautiful rings. One, a filigree French cameo that Doctor Greene recognized. Carefully Doctor Lovejoy removed it and handed it to Doctor Greene. The name “Judith” was spelled out in the delicately cut white gold. He handed it back to Lovejoy saying, “Return it to her finger. We must have her stone placed here.” Reverend Sykes memory was sharp, after all. This was Sarah Porter, Little Jack’s true mother.
JUDITH GREENE: The Old Port Chronicles, Part 1 Page 14
