Murder in the Marsh

by Sara Whitford

  When Adam returned to the sitting room, he told Boaz what Emmanuel had said. His grandfather had been referring to Constable Lawson Squires, who just happened to be Boaz’s cousin.

  “I was already figurin on doing that,” said Boaz. “I need to finish this first,” he added, pointing at the paper he had been scribbling on in front of him.

  Adam wrinkled his brow in curiosity at Boaz as he crossed the room into the kitchen. “What is that?”

  “I’m tryin to make a list of all the things y’all said yesterday. I don’t want to forget anything.”

  Adam called back into the room, “Oh well, I guess I should have mentioned that I can get you some notes together about that. In fact I already have some, but I just need a few minutes before I can get them together. I’m making Emmanuel some food and willow bark tea right now.”

  He could hear Boaz groan from the next room.

  “I wish you’d have told us you had notes before I started writing all this,” Boaz complained.

  Adam thought about the fact that he didn’t have the notebook. It was with Ben down at the tavern. He’d have to quickly go down there and get it from him and bring it back so that Boaz could take it to Constable Squires.

  He quickly disappeared into his room and got dressed before he whipped up Emmanuel’s breakfast and took it in to him. No sooner had he done that, he left the warehouse and told Boaz he’d be back shortly with the notes.

  Now he had to get to the tavern fast and just pray that Ben would be around.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ADAM TOOK EMMANUEL’S HORSE TO the tavern so he could get there and back quickly. He barely took time to tie the poor creature to the hitching post before he ran inside.

  “Mama,” he said. “Do you know if that fella Ben Hamilton is here?” He sounded out of breath and quite dramatic.

  Mary was carrying a tray with plates of food to a table. She shrugged at her customers and rolled her eyes at Adam.

  “Well, good morning to you too, son,” she said to him as she placed the plates in front of the two men at the table.

  Adam stood impatiently at the bar and waited for her to finish with them so she could come over and speak to him.

  When she finally did, Adam said, “So is he here?”

  Mary wrinkled her eyebrows at him and shook her head. “I heard about Ed Willis.”

  Adam nodded impatiently. “Yeah, I know. It’s terrible, but have you seen Ben? I need to talk to him.”

  “How in the world am I supposed to know? You need to ask Valentine.” Mary gave Adam a look that made it clear she was disappointed in his callous response to her mention of Ed Willis.

  “I’m sorry,” said Adam. “I just don’t have time to talk about that right now. This may be related to that, though.”

  Mary tsked at him and shook her head. “Go on. Talk to Valentine, then.”

  “Fine, I will. Where is he?”

  Just then Valentine came through the door from the kitchen.

  “Speak of the devil,” said Mary. “Adam needs to talk to you,” she said to Valentine.

  She gave a quick wave good-bye to her son before returning to take care of her tables.

  “I heard about Ed Willis. You doin alright this morning?” said Valentine.

  “Well, I’m alive anyway,” said Adam. “I need to talk to Ben Hamilton. You seen him?”

  “Sure did,” said Valentine. “He left first thing this morning as a matter of fact.”

  Adam wrinkled up his brow. “What do you mean he left? Did he and the other men check out?”

  “No, the other two are still here. It was just him who left.”

  “That makes no sense,” said Adam. He wondered if Valentine had possibly confused Ben with either Toby or James, the other musicians.

  “I don’t know whether it makes sense or not. All I know is their room is paid for through Friday, so it makes no difference to me whether one is stayin in there or three.”

  Adam turned his head and looked behind him towards the door. He needed to get back to the warehouse with that journal of notes and the pocket mirror. Hopefully Ben had remembered to leave them for him in his room.

  “Well, do you know if he left anything for me here?” asked Adam.

  Valentine looked at him in bewilderment.

  “Why would he? Of course he didn’t leave nothin for you here—least not with me. Mighta left something with those two fellas upstairs, though.”

  Adam wasted no time turning the corner and flying up the stairs to the hallway that housed the guest rooms. There were only three rooms up there, and one of them belonged to his mother, so there were only two for him to check.

  He gave a sturdy knock on the first door and there was no answer, so he went to the last room on the hall. I should’ve known they’d be in this one, he thought. It would have been unlikely for Valentine to put them in the room right next to Mary.

  The musician named James answered the door. Adam didn’t know his last name. He’d never learned it when he first met Ben and Toby. He was a very slight man, small, with greasy black hair and eyes black as coal, and a shadow on his face from the whiskers that were poking through all over it.

  “Good day, sir,” said Adam. “I know you may not remember me, but I came here early yesterday morning and asked Ben to—”

  “Nay, lad. I cannae say that I do,” James interrupted, shaking his head. “Dead ta the world yesterdee marnin t’was I.”

  Adam chuckled and gave a nod. He’d never heard the man speak before, so he was a little surprised by his accent. He’d assumed he was from the same place as Toby or Ben, but he was obviously not, though Adam couldn’t decide for sure the exact origin of his brogue.

  “Yes, sir. I understand,” he told him. “Listen, I’m trying to find Ben—or at least find out if he left anything here for me. He had a couple of things that he was holding for me.”

  James shook his head. “I know not where he is nor if he left nothin. Seen him last night, I did, an’ we all played some fair tunes, but I dinnae remember anathin after that.”

  “Do you at least know where he went?”

  “Nay, tho’ I recall ’im sayin he come into a wee bit o’ luck and was on ’is way ta Charleston.”

  Adam lowered his head and thought about what James had said. It took him a second to understand all of it, as his manner of speaking was so different, but finally he decided to ask just once more, “And you don’t think he left anything for me here, then?”

  James turned back and looked into the room. “I dinnae see a thin’ for ye. Took all that was here, he did. Perchance me chum Toby knows more than I. Ya might ask him tanight.”

  Adam gave him a single nod and said, “I’ll try to do that. Thank you, sir.”

  Tonight, thought Adam. That’s no good. I need to get that notebook and silver mirror to Boaz now! He knew there was no use in discussing it further with James, though.

  He went back downstairs and spoke to Valentine once more before he left.

  “If you hear anything about Ben, or when Toby gets back, if he says anything, would you please, please let me know somehow? It’s important.”

  Valentine nodded. “Will do.”

  ADAM KNEW HE BETTER NOT go back to the warehouse without those notes, and since he didn’t have the original notebook he briefly considered going to Moore’s Mercantile to buy a new one. That idea was quickly scuppered, however, when he realized he hadn’t brought any money with him. He was thankful in a way that the decision was out of his hands.

  What choice would he have now but to tell Boaz about Ben coming to help the day before? He hated to do it—and it was precisely what he had hoped to avoid—but this whole business had gone far enough. Things were even more serious now with Ed Willis’s murder.

  As he rode the horse back to the warehouse, he thought about how frustrating Ben’s sudden departure was, although he could understand it, considering how anxious he was
to get down to Charleston to see his sister.

  When he got back, he explained to Boaz about Ben and how they had brought him along to Harlowe Creek. He explained how Ben was assigned the journal to take notes in, and he had been the one who brought the silver mirror back to Beaufort to show the sheriff or the constable.

  Surprisingly, Boaz wasn’t even mad. In fact, he apologized to Adam.

  “I reckon I forced y’all into it, and I’m sorry about not lettin one of the other fellas go. But I declare, between Martin’s and Jones’s foolishness lately and Ed Willis not showin up, I’d about had it.” He lowered his head and stared at the floor. “Of course we know now why Ed won’t there.”

  “I understand,” said Adam. “I should have said something about it yesterday, but I didn’t know how y’all would take it—after everything that had happened and all.”

  “What do you remember about that silver mirror?” Boaz asked.

  “Well, like I mentioned, it was small.” He opened his right hand and rubbed his palm with the fingers of his left hand. “It was no bigger than this—and it fit in his pocket.”

  “Do you think it was real silver?”

  Adam thought for a moment before he answered. “I reckon it probably was. You could see where it was tarnishing down in the grooves of the engraving.”

  “What was engraved on it?” asked Boaz.

  “Let me think…” Adam rested his elbow on the table and pressed his forehead against his fingers. “What are those flowers called? They’re purple—they smell real good, and they’re all in a little bunch…” He quickly tapped his fingers across the table, deep in thought. “Hyacinth! I was trying to think of it. It was an engraving of hyacinth blossom, like this.” He took the pencil and paper that Boaz had been using to make notes, and he made a very rough sketch of the design.

  Boaz looked it over and then folded up the paper and stuck it in his pocket.

  “Fine. I reckon I’ll go on and see my cousin now, tell him what we know.”

  All of a sudden Adam remembered something.

  “Wait a minute!” he said. He got up and dashed into his bedroom, then returned with the satchel he had been carrying to Harlowe Creek.

  “I forgot I had taken this.” He pulled the bloodstained wooden canteen out of his bag. “We found this near that man’s body. There are initials on it.” He pointed to the letters that were painted on the side.

  Boaz was slow to take the canteen from his hands, careful not to touch it where it was stained. Adam realized that he had grabbed it in such a hurry the day before that he hadn’t thought much about the blood dried on the thing, but thinking back on it, that was only because it had been so much less repulsive than the rotting corpse they had found.

  “And you just now remembered this?” Boaz asked. “This is fairly important, don’t you reckon?”

  “You’re right,” said Adam. “It is real important. I just didn’t think about it before. Remember, I was surprised to sleep so late this morning, and with Emmanuel so bad off, this canteen just wasn’t the first thing on my mind.”

  Boaz nodded. “I understand.” He wrapped the leather strap that hung from the canteen around it, then grabbed a cloth sack and stuffed it inside. “If nothing else, maybe those initials will help.”

  “Lord willing,” said Adam.

  Chapter Twenty

  WHEN BOAZ LEFT THE WAREHOUSE, Adam checked in on Emmanuel once more. The old man was wrapped up warmly in his bed and seemed to be resting peacefully, so Adam thought it would be a good time to go see Laney and her brother and Catherine. He wanted to tell them about everything that had happened in the last couple of days in case the word hadn’t gotten out to them on Lennoxville Point.

  As he exited the living quarters and was about to go downstairs to leave the warehouse, he paused, and for the first time he wished he could lock the door, but he couldn’t, because he was certain Boaz didn’t have a key with him. Maybe I should just wait until he gets back, Adam thought.

  He got about halfway down the stairs before he turned to go back up. In a stroke of divine timing, Martin came into the warehouse just as Adam was about to return to the living quarters.

  “Where you headed, Fletcher?” Martin called up the stairs.

  “Nowhere, actually,” said Adam. He went back down to the bottom of the stairs to talk to him. “I had thought I’d go out to your cousin’s place to make sure they know about what all has happened, but then it dawned on me that I’d better not leave Emmanuel here alone with the place unlocked, and I doubt Boaz has a key with him.”

  “Go on,” said Martin. “I’ll stay here. I ain’t doin nothin else today, anyway. I was goin to see if y’all had heard anything.”

  “Boaz has gone to find the constable.”

  “I thought Emmanuel was gonna do that last night,” said Martin.

  “He’s real bad off with that arthritis. He’s in bed and has been since late yesterday.”

  Martin looked concerned. “Really? I’ve never known him to be bad off like that.”

  Adam nodded. “I know. Me neither, but he’s hurting real bad, and I guess this cold weather isn’t really helping.”

  “Were you able to see Ben this morning?” Martin asked.

  Adam realized his brain must have been in a fog. It had not even occurred to him to tell Martin what he had learned.

  “No,” he said. “I found out from Valentine this morning—Ben is gone.”

  “What the hell?” said Martin. He was visibly shocked and angry.

  “According to that other fella, James, just before Ben left this morning he said he’d come into some luck and was heading on down to Charleston.”

  “Luck my ass!” said Martin. “The only luck he came into was me being such a damned fool that I paid him out of my own pocket yesterday. Why would he have any reason to stick around after that? We ain’t even gotten paid for that job yet, and who knows when we will now with all these murders happenin everywhere?”

  Adam’s face fell. “I had forgotten about that—I mean that you went ahead and paid Ben.”

  “Well, I damn sure haven’t forgotten about it,” said Martin. He kicked the side of the staircase.

  Adam didn’t want to tell Martin that not finding Ben also meant he had not been able to get the notebook or the pocket mirror. At this point he just wanted to get over to see Laney and make sure they knew what was going on.

  “Listen, just stay here with Emmanuel, alright? I’m going to your cousin’s place now. Boaz should be back directly.”

  Martin nodded. “Fine. I’ll see you later.”

  ADAM CLIMBED ON THE BACK of Emmanuel’s horse again and left for Laney’s place. He rode out to Lennoxville Point as fast as he could and didn’t slow down until he got to the hitching post in front of Laney’s house. No one was outdoors, which was unusual to see. Usually Cyrus or Violet, or even Aunt Celie, would be outside doing something.

  Adam went right around to the riverfront side of the house and ran up on the porch and pulled the cord to ring the bell.

  Will answered. “Adam, what a surprise. Come on in.” He motioned for Adam to enter.

  They went into the parlor, where Catherine sat near the window working on needlepoint, and Laney was sitting nearby on the settee, reading a book.

  Adam removed his hat and greeted them all.

  “Have a seat,” said Will. “It looks like you’ve been in a race.”

  Adam sat in a large green velvet chair next to the settee. “I feel like I have,” he said. “Did y’all hear about Ed Willis?”

  Will crossed the room and sat in a chair near his wife. “What about him?”

  They haven’t heard. Adam did not like having to be the one to tell them about it, but he knew that he had to, especially considering how far they lived from town. Who else would’ve told them?

  Adam took a deep breath, then quickly sighed. “He was murdered.”

  Will, Catherine, and L
aney all reacted in total shock:

  “What?”

  “When did this happen?”

  “Do they know who did it?”

  Adam shook his head. “No. All we know is, night before last—Sunday night—he was apparently at home playing cards. He had been with Martin and Jones earlier that evening. At some point he went home and got into another game. Then somebody stabbed him.”

  “Oh Lord, not again,” Catherine said under her breath.

  She was clearly affected strongly by the news. She winced and looked at her husband, then excused herself. Will gave her an understanding nod and told her to go lie down for a while and rest. Laney was not going anywhere, though. She clearly wanted to hear all about what had happened.

  “When did you find out?” said Laney.

  “Well, we didn’t find out until we got back from Harlowe Creek yesterday evening. We had gone up there to do an informal survey for Emmanuel but ended up having to come back because of something that happened up there.”

  Will gave Adam a puzzled look.

  “That’s another story,” said Adam. “I’ll get to that in a minute.”

  Will had no choice but to wait and listen as Adam continued.

  “See, yesterday morning Ed Willis was supposed to have come with us to do the survey, but he didn’t show up. Since he’d been out with your cousin and Ricky Jones the night before, everyone figured he must’ve just been sleeping off his drink, but then Boaz sent Elliot over there to wake him up, get him into work, but Elliot found him dead on the floor near his table, stabbed in the chest.”

  Laney closed her eyes and shook her head. “I declare! What is this world coming to?”

  “I don’t know about the world,” said Adam, “but seems to me this territory’s got some real problems.”

  “First, there was that poor woman who saw her husband killed by those bandits, then there was that girl in New Bern, and now Ed Willis!” Laney shook her head in dismay. “Seems like criminals are running wild all over the place.”