I climbed into bed and fell asleep smiling as I thought of my old school chum who had grown up to be a very fine friend indeed.
When I opened my eyes, it was dark outside but I had no idea if it was the evening of the same day or if it was already heading into the next morning. I stretched and G.G. pounced on my toes making me giggle. Then, I heard a small, soft moan. I was on my feet with no recollection of getting out of the bed. My heart raced. Did I see the lump of another body on the bed next to mine? Or was it nothing but a pile of pillows and my runaway imagination? I froze in place as an icy wave of fear washed over me. I held my breath as I bent at the waist, grabbed the chain of my bedside lamp and tugged. In the sudden light, the lump bolted upright and gasped. A startled Jessie rubbed her eyes and said, ‘Oh, Libby, you’re awake!’
I urged Jessie to go back to sleep but she insisted if I were up for the day, she was as well. While I fixed coffee and breakfast, she peppered me with questions about the events since we were last together. At first, she had a very difficult time wrapping her mind around Frannie’s duplicity.
When she seemed to run out of steam, I asked, ‘How did you know to come and check up on G.G.?’
‘Your boys came to see me.’
‘My boys?’
‘You know – the lab gang: Teddy, Gregg, Joe and some big guy I didn’t really know,’ she said.
‘That sounds like our Dennis,’ I said, ‘but they sure aren’t my boys.’
‘Really? They sure act like it, Libby. They were all kinds of upset when you weren’t at home early in the morning. They said they were going with you to see Crenshaw to make sure you got out of his house safely, but when you weren’t there, they panicked. You would have thought they couldn’t breathe without you telling them when to inhale and when to exhale. Anyway, when they told me they didn’t know where you were and they were worried, I volunteered to take care of G.G. every day before and after my shift. They made me promise to let them know if you came home and they swore they’d let me know if they learned anything. When they left me, they said that they were going to see Crenshaw before they went to work.’
‘Did they talk to him?’
‘Yes, they did. Teddy met me outside of K-25 at lunch break and said that Crenshaw asked them a lot of questions about what was going on in your life. When they explained to him about your mother’s arrest, Crenshaw called someone in Bedford. Whoever he called told him they’d keep an eye out for you and send someone out to the farm to see if you were there.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Before I came over here to check on G.G., I stopped at Town Square, got in line and called Mama.’
‘Any news about the Bedford boys?’
‘No. Actually, that was why I called Mama. All she said about that was that everyone was on pins and needles. She said all the mothers, wives and sisters of the men in the company were saying: “No news is good news” but she didn’t think any of them thought it held any truth in this situation. She did have a lot of other news, though, about your mother.’
‘What is it? Is she okay?’
‘You’re not going to believe what Mama witnessed in the courtroom, Libby.’
FORTY-FIVE
Mrs Justine Early put on her Sunday best and made the first visit in her life to an actual courtroom. Mr Coxe had told her that it was not necessary for her to be there since it was a simple meeting to set the trial date in the court calendar. Justine, however, felt an obligation to her old friend Annabelle and made a promise to little Ernie to report back on everything that was happening with his mother. She didn’t feel she could do that without witnessing it all with her own eyes.
Justine was surprised to find that the seating in the room was a lot like what she found in church; nobody called them pews in court but the only difference she could see was the absence of the racks holding hymnals and bibles on the back. Everything started out as boring as could be, the two lawyers alternating in their offers of possible dates to the judge and the attorney on the other side claiming a prior commitment.
It got a bit contentious after a while and both of the men appeared more agitated with each passing minute. The sparks flew when Annabelle’s lawyer, Mr Coxe, complained, ‘Your honor, the state is deliberately suggesting dates when he knows I will be in a different courtroom with other cases. I suspect he is hoping not to bring this case to trial before the election because he is worried that my client will generate too much sympathy from the jurors that the outcome will not be to his liking.’
Mr Coxe and the prosecutor squabbled like a couple of eight-year-old boys until the judge banged his gavel three times and said, ‘I don’t care what either of you gentlemen think about the other. I don’t care what you want. I don’t want this trial dragged out for months. I want it all done in an expeditious manner. I won’t tolerate anything less. So let’s work out a reasonable date and stop all this unprofessional grandstanding.’
Annabelle chose that moment to rise to her feet. ‘Excuse me, your honor, but I am afraid this is all a big waste of your honor’s time.’
The quiet courtroom was suddenly filled with competing conversations. The judge banged his gavel like he was trying to drive nails into the bench. Mr Coxe threw an arm around Annabelle’s shoulders and tried to get her to sit down but she shrugged him off. The prosecutor was shouting, ‘Objection, your honor, objection.’
Mr Coxe joined in the fray with a plea to the judge to allow him a moment with his client.
The bailiff yelled above the clamor, ‘Order in the court.’
Just like that, the whispering, fidgeting and arguing stopped. In the new quiet, the judge said, ‘Ma’am, would you like to consult with your attorney?’
Coxe said, ‘Thank you, your honor.’
Annabelle rose her voice above his. ‘No, your honor, I would like to speak to you.’
‘Very well. Sit down, Mr Coxe.’
‘But, your honor—’
‘Another word, Mr Coxe and I’ll hold you in contempt of court. Ma’am, you may address the court.’
‘Your honor, I want to change my plea,’ she said.
‘Have you discussed this with your attorney?’
‘Yes, your honor, several times and we continue to disagree. I beg your forgiveness for disrupting the proceedings but I thought it was important to speak up on my own behalf.’
‘Do you want to dismiss your lawyer and represent yourself?’
‘Yes, sir, your honor, I do,’ Annabelle said. She turned to Mr Coxe, smiled and said, ‘I’m sorry, Wilford.’ Then she faced the bench and said, ‘Your honor, I plead guilty to the murder of my husband, Ernest Floyd. I got the gun. I pulled the trigger. And I meant to kill him.’
The uproar in the courtroom was so deafening that although Justine could see the judge slamming down the gavel, she could not hear the sound of it. The bailiff stood up on the row directly behind the prosecutor and shouted, ‘Quiet down or the judge will clear the courtroom.’
That announcement brought a hush broken only by the last two hammers of the judge’s gavel. ‘Are you certain about this decision?’
‘Yes, your honor. I was raised to tell the truth and denying it now will not serve any good purpose.’
The judge accepted her plea and adjourned the court to allow the attorneys on both sides some time to address the new situation they now faced.
Justine waved as Annabelle rose and started for the side door. Annabelle smiled at her friend and motioned to Mr Coxe. When he approached, she whispered in his ear. A moment later, a guard whisked her out of sight.
Mr Coxe walked over to Justine and said, ‘Mrs Floyd asked me to tell you that she did this for her children. She didn’t want Libby distracted from her work and she didn’t want little Ernie to hear about the ugly portrait that would be painted of his father at trial. She asked if you would give her love to Libby and Ernie.’
‘Can she change her mind again and change her plea back to not guilty?’ Justine asked.
‘She could try,’ Mr Coxe said, ‘but the judge might not allow it and even if he did and the case went to trial, the prosecution could use this guilty plea like a club to beat her over and over again. After that, the death penalty would likely be a certainty. Under these circumstances, though, it is possible that his honor will show her a measure of mercy.’
FORTY-SIX
Jessie and I went off in different directions that morning – she headed to K-25 and I to Y-12. My bitterness towards Frannie had not subsided over the night, in fact, it had grown. I keenly felt the absence of the car as I stood at the bus stop waiting for the rattletrap to screech to a halt and carry me across the reservation to work.
I entered my lab area and was greeted by cheers and dozens of shouted questions. I knew Gregg and Joe expected answers but now was not the time. ‘I’m back. I’m fine. And I’m ready for work. Charlie wanted me to fill in for him, so I’m retreating to his office. Please give me some time to figure out just what I need to do. Then, I’ll be glad to talk to anyone about their specific problems or concerns,’ I said.
I was greeted by an uproar of objection but I went into Charlie’s space and closed the door. The stack overflowing his in-box was enough to make me want to turn around, go home and bury myself under the covers. But I sighed, placed a hand on top of the stack and another under it and flipped it all over to start with the oldest first.
To my chagrin, much of the pile was requests for reports that required the information that I regularly provided to Charlie but which, in my serial absences, I had not been able to do. I set each one of those aside until I had time to get back to my own work or train someone else to handle it. Then, I sorted the rest.
First, I tackled the phone messages. I returned each call and explained in vague terms that Charlie had been injured, was currently in hospital and was recovering nicely. With as much diplomacy as I could muster, I batted away the questions for details. At this point, I was not at all certain of what was and wasn’t public knowledge and I didn’t want to disrupt my current peaceful relationship with Crenshaw by saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.
Next I handled the purchase order requests – fairly routine and easy to understand. I approved all but one that I set aside for the time being and took them down to the purchasing coordinator. She would check the inventory for everything that was at hand and pass along the rest for approval from Charlie’s superiors.
I had lost track of time and my surroundings and was quite surprised when a knock on the door caused me to look down at my watch. 12:30. Where had the morning gone? ‘Come in,’ I said.
Gregg and Joe walked into the room and Gregg asked, ‘Don’t you think you should take a break for lunch?’
At the cafeteria, we spotted Dennis and Teddy and drew them into our little group in a far, sparsely populated corner. I ran down the events since our meeting, interrupted frequently by questions.
Teddy was the most distressed by my tale. ‘I should have walked you home. I should have gone into your house and checked it. It’s all my fault.’
‘Teddy, you can’t blame yourself. If you had come home with me, it wouldn’t have made a difference. She had a gun – either she would have left with two hostages or she would have left you lying face down on the floor and that would have been far worse.’
Before I could get them all to return to work, I had to give repeated assurances that I was okay. On the way back, Teddy asked if there was any news about my mother and I told them that story, too. I was more tired when I got back into Charlie’s office than I was before my so-called break.
I plowed through Charlie’s backlog for another hour before stopping to go to my station and start on my belated analysis reports of progress on the purity of the green salt. I had a lot of samples to extract and run through the process and doubted I could do more than make a dent in my own responsibilities.
Of course, on that discouraging note, I was interrupted by the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw and his cluster of uniforms. Did he always travel with a mufti-clad entourage? I led him back to Charlie’s office where he positioned two men by the door before closing it.
‘Miss Clark,’ he began, ‘we found your car.’
‘You arrested Frannie?’
‘No. But we did locate your car and someone is driving it back here now. We found it on the side of a highway between Little Rock, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas.’
‘Where is Frannie?’
‘We don’t know. Some suspect that she might have found other transportation and is headed for Mexico. The authorities along the border have been informed to be on the look-out.’
‘Mexico?’ I asked. ‘But Mexico is our ally. Why would she go there?’
‘I am surprised you knew that, Miss Clark. Most civilians are unaware that Mexico is working with us against the Axis but then, you have consistently surprised me – I imagine I should be more amazed if you didn’t.’
‘Why would she go hide in the country who is opposing Germany?’
‘Miss Clark, I have come to hold you in high regard. Perhaps I should not completely explain the circumstances to you but I feel you have earned the right to certain information. However, I cannot risk sharing it with you, unless you give me your iron-clad assurances that you will repeat this to no one. Not to friends. Not to family members. Not to your secret group of whoever.’
His eyes seemed to pierce through the skin. The look on his face was intimidating and a bit frightening. For a moment, I was not sure if I wanted to hear what he said. Then I nodded. ‘Yes sir, you have my word.’
‘We are not certain if Ms Snowden was spying for the Germans or for the Soviets.’
‘But sir, Russia is our ally.’
‘For the moment, Miss Clark, but probably only until we defeat the Germans. Stalin and his gang will be on our side for only as long as it is to their benefit. As soon as they feel that time is past, many of us believe that they will be our new arch-enemy.’
That glimpse into international politics was a stunning one for me. I could not quite grasp that Machiavellian-sounding concept. I knew, however, that Crenshaw was convinced of it. The possible ramifications for the future were staggering.
‘You’ve taken the secrecy oath, Miss Clark. And now, I am simply reminding you that you need to take it a step further. Not a word to anyone. I wanted to give a full accounting to you – and only you – and now I will leave you to your work.’ He rose to his feet.
‘One moment, sir. I do have a couple of questions. First of all, about the others involved in Marvin’s murder and the spy operation …’
‘We feel confident that we have everyone on the reservation, with the exception of Ms Snowden, under lock and key. They will have no communications with anyone for the duration of the war.’
‘I’m curious, sir, how did you know Frannie was staying at the Andrew Johnson Hotel?’
‘We didn’t, actually. Initially, we thought she had to still be here inside the fence. Then, we started thinking about the possibility that she had slipped out unnoticed. We questioned everyone working at the train depot without finding any indication that she’d been there. After that, we blanketed the town. We focused, at first, on the places where black-marketers, thieves and other wrong-doers congregated, hoping to find someone there who’d seen her. Either they hadn’t or they wouldn’t tell us and we came up empty-handed. We sent a couple of teams to the different hotels – not because we imagined she’d gotten a room there but the possibility that her contact or a co-conspirator might be in one of them. We were quite surprised when we discovered Frannie Snowden in the Andrew Johnson.’
My eyebrows raised at this incredulous scenario. ‘You’re telling me, it was all just a coincidence?’
‘That’s the size of it, Miss Clark. Stranger things have happened before and will happen again.’
I didn’t believe him. I suspected there was something more – some information or person that he was protecting. I knew if he
was, he was not going to tell me. ‘One last question: who is Raymond and has he been arrested?’
‘We gravely doubt that is his real name. Agents have blanketed Manhattan and the surrounding area looking for any sign of him or his operation. There is little hope of identifying him, however, since we have no physical description. Nonetheless, the work will move forward.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘I hope, Miss Clark, that you have learned a lesson. Coming to me with any perceived criminal problem at the outset will eliminate the danger to you and your friends and make the quest for answers more efficient.’
I was not inclined to respond but he riveted me again with that icy blue stare that I knew would not cease until I did. ‘Yes sir. I will bear that in mind.’
‘See that you do,’ he said as he spun on his heels and departed with uniforms in tow.
FORTY-SEVEN
A few days passed before Charlie returned to his post and relieved me of double-duty. He seemed a bit physically weak but in all other ways on top of the world. In another couple of days, I was caught up on my work and had turned another small container of the precious salt over to the courier for delivery to who knew where.
I was in high spirits when I returned to my home that night but an ugly bolt of apprehension coursed through me when I discovered a small package on my porch and a note wedged in my door. I went inside and opened the note first. I smiled when I saw it was from Corporal Sammy Grant reminding me that he’d be looking for me at the dance Saturday night.
I then tackled the package. Inside was a worn copy of Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Puzzled, I opened the letter enclosed from Mrs Early:
Treason in the Secret City Page 23
