When we took our seats, I saw Ramone and Elizabeth watching us. They looked pensive, so alone. I couldn’t say for certain what was happening with Ramone, but I feared Elizabeth would soon be dealt a terrible blow. I couldn’t believe that Ramone would harm his sister, though. I leaned against the steps. We sat for a full minute before Slater began to talk.
“There’s something not right going on.”
There was a lot not right going on. “What do you mean?”
“We need to keep going. We shouldn’t stop here.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that the buzzards might follow us into Victoria. But, of course, they could. They could be watching from a dark corner of the lawn even now. “We have to rest,” I told him. “Just for a few hours. Reginald and Elizabeth are exhausted. Michael, too. I’m tired, but I’m also afraid to sleep.”
“I can drive,” he said. “Let’s keep moving.” He looked up and down the empty street. “I don’t like this.”
His words filled me with foreboding. I knew too well the power that Gabriel had, when he decided to use it. Both Elizabeth and I could fall under the spell of his nightmarish dreams. “Have you ever dreamt anything…so real and yet so completely filled with nightmare images?” I was thinking of Callie, lying on the floor of the barn with her stone-white eyes.
“No. My gran told me stories, though. Visitations from strange people who passed through the highlands. They had…abilities, and sometimes they took a neighbor’s child with them when they left.”
His words hit me hard. “They stole a child?” Gabriel had said he wanted Callie. That she was his.
“In the tales my gran told, they did.”
“Any particular child?”
He thought a minute. “I don’t remember all the specifics, but she said they would pass through, as tinkers or farmhands or sometimes teachers or ministers looking to work. Maybe to preach for a few weeks to collect money, or bring in a crop. Then they’d leave. Some years they returned, but never after they took a child.”
“Who were they?”
He shrugged. “Gran didn’t know. She said they caught one of them down the road with a baby once. The highlands were a wild and unruly place then. The taking of a bairn was nae tolerated. Searchers went out by torchlight, tracking the woman they feared to be a fairy. It was believed that fairies would steal a human babe and leave a changeling in its place. But no baby had been left.”
“Did they find the baby?”
“They did. Unharmed, or so it seemed.”
“And the person who stole the baby?”
“They hanged her. But when they went back to the gallows the next morning, the noose was empty and the body was gone.”
“You said the baby seemed unharmed. Was it okay?”
“She was…peculiar, from what Gran said. Never took to people. She stayed in the woods and fields, alone, content. Folks believed she was a fairy child after all and that she slipped away from the humans to be with her own people as much as she could.”
My heart was heavy. “Did she ever find happiness?”
“She and my gran were friendly. The girl, her name was Ilka, grew up to be a healer with great talent. I don’t know if she was happy. She favored being alone and lived in a small house up on a rocky crag. She could see anyone approaching, and it was believed she’d slip away into the woods unless she chose to help them. Some she didn’t want to help. Gran said she never refused, but she simply couldn’t be found when some people came looking for help.”
“What happened to her?”
“One day she was gone. All her goods still there. Her medicines she’d made up. Her clothes and things, all neatly in the cupboard. She never came back. Broke my Gran’s heart.”
His gaze drifted down to Elizabeth and I wondered if he was seeing her in the light of the story. She, too, was an isolated woman with special gifts. She’d drifted into Mission and her life had brushed against his in an unimaginable way.
“No trace of her was ever found?”
“Not her nor the bairn that disappeared at the same time.” He finally met my gaze. “Do you know that baby is Elizabeth’s? For sure?”
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I started to bolt up, but he caught me and continued talking. “I’m not accusing. It’s a fair question. She shows up out of nowhere and one day she has a baby.”
“You never saw her pregnant?” I asked.
“Nae. Neither did Ruthie, but Ruthie loved her. Wou’na hear a foul word about her.”
“What are these…people that passed through your area if they weren’t fairies?” I thought of strange Hildy and her love of the woods and her fairy searches. She’d been fairy-like in her unusual behavior and love of nature.
“I canna say.”
“Why your village and Mission?” Perhaps it was Slater that was the direct link.
“They seek the isolation, I think. Folks in Mission cling to themselves, they disdain and fear outsiders. The men control outside influence. The things that happen there stay there. No word gets out to the bigger world. That’s where Ramone likely ran into trouble. Handsome man shows up under the guise of selling goods. You can’t tell me the wives and daughters weren’t slippin’ out to dance with the devil. The menfolk in Mission hold their women by fear, not love or kindness. They’d be ripe pickin’ for a man like Ramone.”
Stupid, but likely true. People, no matter how isolated or repressed, would always take the opportunity for sexual pleasure if they believed they wouldn’t be caught.
I nodded slowly. “Ramone may have left because he was in trouble. It would make more sense that someone set his wagon on fire for sleeping with his wife or daughter than because he sold a pot cheaper.”
“Whatever his reason for disappearing, it’s good they found each other again. I hope.”
“Do you have reason to think it might be otherwise?”
“I believe there’s a world beneath this one. Or above, or beyond. A place where things happen that can’t be explained in this world. Some of that is good, like Elizabeth. Some is bad. I don’t know how to tell the difference.” He sighed, “Elizabeth looks happier than I’ve ever seen her. She made Ruthie’s life less miserable. I put her on the side of good.” He nodded at me. “You’re a seer, aren’t you?”
“Seer?” I didn’t know the term.
“You see things on the other side of the veil. You see the dead.”
“I do.”
“And Elizabeth. What does she see?”
“The things that Gabriel wants her to see. She saw Ruth’s murder. She risked a lot to save you.” I couldn’t stop myself from defending Elizabeth. She’d been a stalwart friend to Slater and Ruth.
“I wish she hadn’t stayed in Mission. She came up to the jail only once and demanded to talk to me. Deputy Gomes was amused, at first. He let her speak to me at the window, much as I talked to you. I told her to leave me alone, but she wouldn’t listen. She kept saying she knew I was innocent and she’d speak in my behalf.” He shook his head. “Had she gotten on that stand and told the truth, they would have hanged her for a witch beside me.”
What he said was true. “She’s brave and determined. Does she love you?”
“She doesn’t ken me,” he said. “She’s a bonnie lass, but my heart still grieves for Ruthie. We were to be wed.”
The whole sorry story began with Ruth’s murder—and the reasons for it.
“Why was Ruth killed?”
“The things she knew. The things she wrote down. She kept a journal of the times and the men. They feared she’d show others.”
“Did you see the journal?” Slater might have the key to being able to read it.
“She wrote it in a secret language. She was afraid something would happen to her once she let Lucais know she had written things down.”
“Why would she do that, Slater? Why put herself in harms’ way like that? She should never have told Lucais and those men about her journal.”
Slater’s face twis
ted with grief. “She did it because Lucais said he’d never let her go to marry me. He said she was his property, and a mighty fine source of income for him. He didn’t want her to stop with her…work.”
It all came down to greed. Nothing so surprising in all of that. “He’ll pay for what he did. I promise you that much. Lucais may have power in Mission, but the state of Alabama is much bigger and there are a lot more powerful people in Mobile and Montgomery. My uncle will bring the force of the law to bear against Lucais and his miscreants.”
“You still have the journal?”
I only smiled. “It’s in a very safe place, and soon my uncle will have it. He has the power to bring those men to justice.”
“Have you called him?”
I didn’t answer because Reginald and Michael came out of the inn. “They have three rooms. Raissa, you and Elizabeth and Callie take the first one. I’ll bunk in with one of the men, and there’s a room for the other two.” He handed me a key.
I rose and started to the car to get Elizabeth and Callie. I knew they had to be exhausted. I was barely able to put one foot in front of the other.
“We shouldn’t stay here overnight,” Slater said to Reginald. “We should keep moving. I was telling Raissa. It’s dangerous here. We haven’t left them behind.”
I kept walking and let Reginald handle it. When I got to the car, I gave Elizabeth the room key and helped her gather the baby’s things. Ramone carried Callie as we went up to the inn. We passed Reginald, Michael, and Slater, still in discussion. I wanted to help get Elizabeth and the baby settled, then call my uncle. It would distress him, calling at this hour, but I had no choice. And then I wanted a chance to talk to Madam. I had so many questions.
When everyone was settled and Michael had been tasked with finding a way to remove the slave collar from Slater’s neck, I met Reginald on the steps of the inn. The proprietress wouldn’t allow us to make a long-distance call from her phone, but suggested we go to the police department. We had to go there anyway, so we moved the car and hid it behind a row of businesses in an alley. From there, we walked to the police station.
The first hint of fall swept down the street and made my skin prickle with the unexpected chill. The weather had been hot and humid for months. Now the seasons were changing. I could smell the coming winter. A few leaves drifted from trees and onto the sidewalk, a reminder of the shorter days ahead as the Earth tilted Alabama away from the sun.
“It won’t be long, Raissa. This will be over.” Reginald was worried but clearly trying to hide it.
“I have a bad feeling.” I couldn’t lie to tell him. As we walked, I told him about the barn, the buzzards, the baby with her white stone eyes, and Dream Ramone, dead against the wall. “Gabriel can make me see whatever he wants. I don’t know reality from the dream, and at this point I have no idea who Callie’s real father might be.” I rubbed my face with both hands. I was tired. “I just don’t understand why he wanted Elizabeth to see the truth about Slater. Why not just let them hang him and be done with it?”
“A question without an answer, at least right now.”
“Slater says he knew about the journal I found at Ruth’s. The one Hildy helped me find.” Dead Hildy. She’d led me to the answer I needed. “Ruth told Lucais that she’d made a record of the things she’d done, and with whom. That may be the reason she was killed. We’ll have the evidence once we decipher the journal.”
Chapter 31
We arrived at the bleak police station and I was struck by the sense of darkness even in the architecture. It was nighttime, and Victoria had few streetlights. Reginald opened the door for me. I stepped inside to confront a dour law officer sitting at a tall desk. “We’re travelers and we need to use your phone to make a long-distance call. I can reverse the charges.”
“Can you now, little lady?” He looked down at me as if I might be lying. “Who are you calling?”
“My uncle. Our car broke down and we need him to send some help.”
“Where are you from?” He watched me too closely. My skin prickled. There was something not right here.
“Mobile. My uncle is Brett Airlie. He has a steamship company and runs supplies up the waterways for towns all over the state.”
“I’m still not sure you can use the phone. We aren’t a phone service for every Tom, Dick, or Harry. Maybe you should find the mechanic tomorrow morning and get that car fixed so you can leave.” He spoke to Reginald. He’d assessed me as a mere woman and was done talking to me.
Reginald leaned in to him, excluding me. It was an action that bonded Reginald with the policeman and left me out. It worked, but it still chapped me.
“I’m in a bit of a pickle here, Sergeant.” Reginald turned on the charm. “The car belongs to her uncle,” he nodded his head toward me, “but I’m the one who hit a limb in the road. I need to explain to Mr. Airlie. I owe him that.”
Reginald had wisely played on the scenario that he was doing the right thing in owning his actions. He was the responsible person—and it didn’t hurt that he was male. A responsible female would not impress the lawman.
The officer gave him a conspiratorial grin. “The phone is over on the desk there. Leave me with a bill and I’ll see that you’re arrested.”
“No sir,” Reginald said. “I wouldn’t do that.”
I kept my mouth shut. I was tired and aggravated by the officer’s unwillingness to let a woman use the telephone, but I was smart enough to remain silent. One thing about traveling with Reginald and working as a private investigator: I’d gotten a heaping helping of the inferior role that women were allowed by law enforcement, religion, banks, businesses, schools, and society in general. Our opinions were not welcome. We were, like children, to be seen and not heard.
Reginald made the call to Uncle Brett, reversing the charges as he’d promised. We had to let the phone ring a long time for Uncle Brett to rouse himself and answer it. In fact, it was Isabelle who finally answered and accepted the charges.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, her panic clear.
“You could say that,” Reginald held the phone so I could also hear. “We’re in Victoria. There are some bad people hunting for us.” He lowered his voice. He didn’t want to involve the police, and I was glad. The officer hadn’t offered much hope in the way of being interested in our safety. We were strangers and not his business, or so it seemed.
“Bad people? Let me get Brett.”
In only a minute Uncle Brett was on the phone. “Who’s after you and what do I need to do?” He got right to the point.
“We need Madam.” Reginald also dove in headfirst. “Can you get her up here as quickly as possible? We need you as well. Come by train. The roads will slow you down too much. We’re in Victoria but we can’t stay here. We aren’t safe. We can meet you in Gadsden.”
“I can try to get her, if her health permits. Don’t bother meeting us, just find a safe place and stay put. I’ll hire a car.”
“We’re using the phone in the Victoria police station.” Reginald kept talking but his gaze was on the officer, who was too far away to hear our conversation but was looking peeved. “We don’t have access to another phone. Can you send some state or federal lawmen from Montgomery or somewhere? Send them quickly. They need authority in Victoria and Mission, but the local law is…compromised. There’s a lot of bad stuff happening, Mr. Airlie.”
The officer had come out from behind his desk and was headed our way.
“I have to go. We’re at the Victoria Inn on Second Street. Please hurry. It’s not a good situation.” He hung up the phone just as the officer stopped in front of him.
“All done?”
“Yes, thank you,” Reginald said. “Is there an all-night diner nearby, perhaps? We need a place to wait for morning to get the car fixed. We’ll be gone as soon as the repair is made.” He winked at the lawman. “We’re engaged but not yet married. She comes from a good family. We can’t risk anything that looks improper. She’
s a society girl.”
I kept my eyes downcast as Reginald lied. He didn’t want the officer to know where we were staying.
“You must be from the city.” The officer took in his clothes. The heat had wilted the starch in Reginald’s shirt, but the cut of his clothes told of a man who took grooming and appearance seriously. “What’s your business here in Victoria?”
“We’re looking for property for my uncle to buy,” I said, before I thought to stop myself. The look he cast at me told me I should have kept my mouth shut.
“What kind of property?” he asked Reginald.
Reginald picked up the question without a pause. “A sanctuary or hideaway. Mr. Airlie has a very stressful life with his successful business. He needs a place in the woods to simply unwind. We found one property in Mission, but we’re going to look on the outskirts of Victoria. I think Mr. Airlie might prefer to be closer to…civilization.”
“I see.” The officer looked from Reginald to me and back. “And that’s all you’re up to?”
“I don’t catch your meaning,” Reginald said.
“You sounded like you might be in trouble,” the officer pressed.
“Only in the sense that I may have damaged the car.” Reginald took in a long breath. “Mr. Airlie is a lovely man, but he expects people to treat his possessions with care. I fear I may have disappointed him. He said to take it to a mechanic. Can you recommend one?”
“Junior Albee has a little shop. The boy is slow, but he’s a steady worker and he gets it fixed. Folks swear by him.”
“Thank you.” Reginald stoically didn’t react to the name we’d heard before in reference to attacks on women. “Might we have the address?”
“Sure.” The sergeant found a piece of paper and pen and wrote down an address. “Get there early because he gets a lot of work. Folks can be the bumsucker, you know. Those who need a favor from Deakle Albee make use of Junior’s shop.” He chuckled. “Not a bad way to keep your boy in business, is it? But the word is that the boy is a solid mechanic.”
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