‘I reckon I’ll need some guardianship papers for school and the doctor and such, but me and Henry would be glad to take him in until Annabelle gets out of jail – or if she doesn’t until he really is old enough to care for himself and the farm on his own. Now, I’m not telling you what to do, Libby. I’m making an offer that I think would make Ernie happy. He has a knack for farming and we’d be proud to raise him as one of our own.’
I certainly could not have found better parental surrogates but still there was much more information to gather before we reached a decision about Ernie’s future. ‘Thank you, Mrs Early. It’s nice to have that option. I tend to think you’re right but we’ll need a bit more time to think it all through.’
‘I think this is all a cryin’ shame. Did the lawyer tell you what her chances were for not guilty?’
‘We’ve talked but I’ve not gotten an answer to that yet.’
‘I imagine if it was up to the womenfolk around these parts, Annabelle wouldn’t have been arrested, she would have gotten a medal.’
At first, Ernie seemed thrilled to be going to the house and staying with me, even though we warned him that I’d only be around for a few days. When he walked up on the front porch, however, his smiling face turned somber. He set down his suitcase and stared at the door. We gave him time, not wanting to rush him. After a couple of minutes, Aunt Dorothy said, ‘If you’ve changed your mind about staying here Ernie …’
‘No. No. Just a minute, please.’
He shuddered, grabbed the bag and opened the front door. He didn’t pause there but rushed up the steps and dropped the suitcase on the landing. I followed and found him standing outside the doorway of the master bedroom with his eyes closed. He took a deep breath and walked inside.
His head turned as he absorbed the changes. He looked back at me with a weak smile and said, ‘Thank you, Libby.’ Leaving there, he picked up the piece of luggage and walked into his sanctuary. ‘I need to be alone for a while,’ he said before shutting the door.
I didn’t really want to leave him alone – it seemed harsh, even though it was his decision. Reluctantly, I went back downstairs.
‘He’s going to be all right,’ my aunt said. ‘He’s made of tougher fiber than his mother and more determined stock than his father. Little Ernie is going to do fine. I suspect that one day, he’ll be running this farm much as your father did with the same spectacular success.’
‘I hope you’re right. What about his lunch? It’s way past time.’
‘He told me at the Early house that he’d like peanut butter and jelly. I’ll fix one for him and carry it up with a glass of milk. For supper, he wants meat loaf, mashed potatoes and he thinks there is some corn on the cob ready in your mother’s victory garden.’
‘My mother has a victory garden?’
‘Yes, Ernie surprised me with that tidbit of information. He says Annabelle started the spring after Pearl Harbor and kept with it even though Ernest told her it was a stupid waste of time. Sounds to me like her rebellion against her husband’s control has been brewing for a couple of years now.’
‘I’ll go find the patch, pick the corn and see what else is growing out there while you take care of Ernie.’ The garden plot was surrounded by a fence to keep out any renegade cows or pigs. Everything was laid out in precise, neat rows. Seed packets, faded and ragged from the weather, adorned sticks planted at the end of rows. I picked four ears in case Ernie wanted two, selected the two ripest tomatoes and noted that green beans and cucumbers were ready for harvesting, too.
At supper that evening, Ernie acted like a normal kid. He babbled on about the coming school year and pleaded with me to wake him up at dawn to help with the chores. He was excited when I told him about the snake and asked me to show him where I dumped it. I worried about what he was burying inside and whether one day, it would explode outwards in blind fury.
When I came in from milking the cows, on Thursday morning, I heard the ring of the telephone as soon as I set foot on the porch. I hurried in and grabbed the receiver, hoping it hadn’t woken Aunt Dorothy. ‘Hello. Floyd residence.’
‘Libby?’
‘Yes …?’
‘This is Jessie.’
‘Oh good heavens, what is wrong?’
‘Well, nothing’s wrong – not really, but …’
‘It’s just so early, it sounded as if—’ I said.
‘Oh, Libby, I think it’s important. I’m not calling from behind the gates. I’m in Knoxville. I’ve been so scared since I found it.’
‘What? What are you talking about?’ I listened with mounting anxiety as Jessie explained Hansrote’s movements on Tuesday night and what she did on Wednesday night.
THIRTY
The night before last, Jessie had seen Dr Hansrote on the floor of the lab. It was odd because she’d never seen him in there that late before. She had been on her way back from the restroom when she spotted him coming out of one scientist’s office and entering a different one. In his second stop, he walked out with a folder. It struck her as a bit suspicious but then, she didn’t know if the scientists made a habit of going in and out of each other’s spaces all the time.
It crossed her mind several times and every time it did, she grew more concerned. She decided that if she saw him that night, she would have to figure out what he was doing. For hours, she looked up at the sound of every footstep but all were false alarms. Finally, after a mid-shift break, she spotted him crossing the floor and going into an engineering office. She scurried in that direction.
When Hansrote emerged with a folder in his hand, she stumbled and intentionally fell into it. She felt the rush of success when she saw the papers flying everywhere.
‘Watch where you’re going, girl,’ he snapped.
‘Oh, Dr Hansrote, I am so sorry. I am so clumsy, sorry, sorry, sorry.’ She dropped to her knees gathering up papers, mixing them up as she did. When he wasn’t looking, she stuffed one sheet into her coveralls.
The whole time, he was sputtering, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve got it. Get back to work. You’ve caused enough damage already.’
After making sure the piece of paper she’d hidden was secure, she rose to her feet and said again, ‘I’m so sorry, Dr Hansrote.’
‘Please, just get out of my sight.’
‘Yes sir,’ she said as she curtsied and rushed away. The heat in her face made her feel like she would explode. She trembled so much inside that it transferred out to her fingers. She struggled to even her breath – in and out, slow and sure.
Running into the restroom, she pulled out the piece of paper and stared at it. It was some sort of technical diagram, that much she knew, but for what, she had no idea. She pulled open her coverall and tucked it away in her underwear, to make sure it couldn’t fall out while she worked.
At the end of her shift, she headed over in dawn’s light to the pay phone at the Town Center. She started to dial and then realized she shouldn’t use a phone on the reservation to tell Libby about what she found. She changed clothes, grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria and hopped the first ramshackle bus into Knoxville. She carried the page from the file, folded in her purse. She was terrified that she’d be stopped and searched at the gate on the way out. Once she passed that danger point, the bag seemed to grow hotter in her hand with every mile of the drive. By the time she disembarked, her palms were sweating and she had beads of perspiration across her upper lip.
It was too early for the drug store to open so she walked the streets looking for another option. She found an outside phone booth at a gas station, slid in and shut the door. ‘The phone rang so many times I was about to hang up but then you answered,’ Jessie said.
‘Describe what’s on the paper, please,’ I asked. By now, my heart was pounding. What she had found might be just what we needed to implicate Hansrote in espionage. If it was, it was also something that could get Jessie in a lot of trouble.
‘It shows tubes. I think like the ones I’m cleaning shift
after shift—and where to connect to something else. I can’t make any sense of it, really. Do you think it will help?’
‘It very well might, Jessie. But you can’t be carrying this around …’
‘I’ll stick it in my jeweler box when I get back to the dorm.’
‘No. If Hansrote reviews that file and discovers something is missing, he might remember you. If he does, he could point a finger at you just as he did at Frannie. At that point, your room would be searched. You need to find Teddy, Joe or Gregg and turn it over to one of them. But make sure you don’t do it standing in front of Y-12. Walk a bit away from the place – there are too many guards there. And make sure no one is listening into your conversation. Can you do that?’
‘Yes. I’ll be glad to get rid of this thing. I’ll keep an eye out for Dr Hansrote and see what else he does.’
‘But don’t try that trick again. He’ll never be fooled by it a second time,’ I warned.
Returning to Oak Ridge as soon as possible was now imperative, I just hoped that Monday would be soon enough. I needed to see that paper and decide what to do with it. And should I take it to Crenshaw? Or is there someone else better suited to handle this situation?
THIRTY-ONE
I felt that I galloped through the rest of Thursday. We talked to two potential farm managers and both of them met Aunt Dorothy’s approval and seemed capable of doing a good job. I relied on my aunt’s judgment about character because she was used to hiring people, but it was all new to me. We had three others scheduled to come by Friday morning and then we’d have to decide.
We talked with Ernie and once we got him past the expectation of living in the house, he decided that he wanted to go to Tennessee with me. When he realized that although that might be a possibility in the future, it wouldn’t work now, he said that he would rather stay near the farm and his friends at the Early place rather than move away with Aunt Dorothy. He did have the graciousness to apologize for rejecting her offer – better manners than I’d expected from a twelve-year-old.
Wilford Coxe stopped by that afternoon and I talked to him about my mother’s future. He admitted that he would consider it a victory if he could save her from the death penalty. ‘With a life sentence, she could be out in thirty years.’
‘She’ll be almost eighty by then. She may never get out of prison except in a coffin.’
‘We can only hope and pray she lives to see freedom again. I wish I could do more. Normally, in a case like this I would try to get an acquittal with a self-defense plea, but your mother admitted that she intentionally shot him in the back while he was sleeping. I will do my best during the penalty phase to itemize the abuse she suffered and little Ernie experienced. That might keep her from the electric chair and maybe we’ll get lucky and get a second-degree murder conviction, but don’t count on it.’
The harsh reality of the sentence rocked me. Yes, my mother did something wrong but she did it for all the right reasons. If only she shot him when he was coming at her. Then again, she probably was not capable of looking him in the eye and pulling the trigger. More’s the pity.
‘One day,’ Aunt Dorothy said, ‘brutish behavior by men like Ernest Floyd will not be tolerated – not by the police, not by anyone.’
‘I hope you’re right, Miss Clark,’ Mr Coxe said with a sigh. ‘This is not the first case I’ve seen where the law sanctions a miscarriage of justice. Now, what have you decided about little Ernie? Your mother gave you unconditional control over him and the farm. If she ever gets out of prison she couldn’t get either back unless you agreed. I would suggest that no matter where you place Ernie, you maintain as many options as possible to reverse your decision.’
I explained our plans and he promised to have the paperwork ready by the end of the day. He was completely in sympathy with getting me back to work even without knowing any of the details of what I’d left behind. He suggested meeting me in the evening at the Early place and wrapping up that detail as soon as possible.
After that meeting and with the agreement that Ernie could stay on the farm as long as I or Aunt Dorothy were in residence, we returned home. I was feeling good about our progress and the future. Then, the telephone rang.
The man at the other end of the line was unrecognizable at first from his breathlessness and the gasps separating each word. ‘Libby … they’re … gone!’
‘Joe?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Knoxville … phone booth.’
‘Who’s gone?’
‘Gregg … and … Frannie. They’re gone, Libby. They took them.’
‘Gone? Gregg? Frannie?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who took them?’
‘I don’t really know but …’
‘You don’t know? Do you think Hansrote was one of them?’
‘I don’t think so. If he was, there is something really peculiar going on.’
‘Start from the beginning and tell me what happened.’
THIRTY-TWO
Gregg and Joe had taken Libby’s car into Knoxville for Gregg to visit with Frannie and Joe to call his sister. After Joe finished an interesting conversation about Hansrote’s wife, he returned to the hotel. The two men chatted with Frannie, played some gin rummy and then Joe went out to get some magazines and toothpaste for her before they left.
Joe stood on the sidewalk opposite the hotel waiting to cross the street, when he saw four men go into the front entrance of the hotel – two civilians and two soldiers looking very official. He felt the unwelcome electric charge warning of danger and wanted to flee immediately. Sneaking into the lobby and up to the front desk, he leaned behind a post that blocked him from their view. One of the men asked about any new guests. The clerk mentioned a couple of names and room numbers including one for Mr and Mrs Gregg Abbott. Joe slipped out the front door and, running as fast as he could, circled to the back of the building and pounded up the service stairs two at a time to Frannie’s floor. Joe felt defeated when he saw that the suits and uniforms were outside of Frannie’s door by the time he got there.
Joe hid in the stairwell, peering through the small window as they went inside. He heard muffled voices and then saw an MP emerge with one hand clasped on Gregg’s elbow and the other flat against the center of his back. Another uniformed military policeman came out of the room holding on to Frannie whose wide eyes and twitching face made her look like a cornered rabbit. Behind them was one of the men in civilian clothes who stepped in front of them to press the down button for the elevator and held it open until everyone was inside. Joe waited for the second man to enter the hallway through the now opened door of Frannie’s room. Joe then eased open the entry to the stairs a crack and heard the sounds of opening drawers and overturned items and assumed the room was being searched.
Heading down the stairway to the parking lot, he stared out at three other MPs roaming through the spaces between the vehicles. He held his breath every time one of them got near Libby’s old Buick but after a while it became apparent that they were seeking a car but had no description to back up their hunt. After going up and down the aisles for a while, they went around to the front of the hotel with Joe following them at a distance. He saw them go inside and then emerge only a moment later. They looked up and down the street as if waiting for someone.
‘I decided it would be safer to wait until nightfall to approach your car,’ Joe told Libby. ‘The delay was making me crazy but I knew I couldn’t risk getting picked up because I needed to remain free to warn you about what happened. So I looked for a phone booth – the drug store was closed for the day. I was afraid that by the time I reached you, someone would have paid you a visit at the farm and taken you away, too. It’s growing darker by the minute now so I probably should hurry back to warn Teddy. You came to my mind first but Crenshaw knows his name, too. I better go see him.’
‘I think I need to go see Crenshaw as soon as possible,’ I said. ‘I’m not sur
e if I can make the train tomorrow morning or not. Check at the station before you go back home. See when the train from here will arrive tomorrow and tell Teddy to come pick me up then. Tell him if I’m not on the train tomorrow, to call me. I’m going to get there as soon as I can.’
‘What if I can’t find Teddy to give him the message and he doesn’t know to be there waiting for you?’
‘If you can’t find him, you meet me tomorrow, okay? I won’t ask you to go with me but I’ll need to know if I need to ask Crenshaw about him, too.’
‘And what if I don’t get back?’ Joe asked.
‘Then I’ll find another way to return to the reservation. If there is no one waiting for me, I’ll have to get back without going through a gate. God speed, Joe. I’ll see you as soon as I can.’
When I hung up, Aunt Dorothy said, ‘I’m not sure what’s going on, dear, and don’t know if you can tell me. But it is apparent from hearing your end of the conversation that your immediate return is required.’
I went through the latest development with her and then we discussed the open issues about the farm and my mother’s case. ‘I feel so torn. I don’t want to leave with all these loose ends still hanging but everything back there seems so terribly urgent right now.’
‘Don’t you give it another thought. I’m grateful that you were able to come here at all. I’ll have you on the train in the morning. Please call me as soon as it is possible. I know it’s not easy but I don’t want to make any irrevocable decisions without your opinion on matters first and I will worry about you between every call.’
I promised her to keep in close touch and hoped it would remain possible. I didn’t want to draw any more attention to the fact that it was just as likely that I would be rounded up as soon as I arrived. I’d worry about that if it happened.
Treason in the Secret City Page 16
