When Johnny Came Marching Home (35 page)

"That's horrible. Don't tell me any more, please."

"There's just one more thing you have to know," I said.

She stared at me, fearlessly.

"The awl was in the barn behind your father's store," I said. "Josiah found it while he was helping your father restock the shelves."

"Wha . . . What?"

I reached out and took her hand. The shock on her face was exactly what I had hoped to see.

"Are you saying someone in my family killed Johnny Harris?" she stammered.

"I'm not saying that. But if people hear that we found the murder weapon in your barn it's certain to create a great deal of suspicion." I paused, giving her time to understand what I was saying. "Did your father know about the relationship between Johnny and his wife?"

She shook her head vehemently. "No, I'm certain he didn't. I suspected there was something between them, but I didn't know for sure until you spoke to her. And I know my father. He's a very straightforward man. If he had known, if he had even suspected, he would have confronted Mary, and if she admitted it he would have gone after Johnny openly."

I could find no argument with her rationale. We were quiet for several moments, then she said, "If it was Mary, and it comes out, it will kill my father. He's lost so much; first Abel, then my mother. This . . . this would be more than he could bear." There was fear in her eyes now.

I picked up the reigns and started Jezebel in motion. "I don't want you to worry about this anymore," I said.

"What are you going to do?"

"When will your father be away from the store again?"

"Tomorrow," she said. "He'll be picking up supplies again."

"I want to talk to Mary."

"You think she killed Johnny, don't you? You think she killed him and hid the awl in our barn."

I very much wanted to ease her fear. "Anyone could have put the awl in your barn," I said. "Anyone at all."

 

* * *

 

Mary was alone in the store when I got there the following morning. It was ten o'clock. I had watched Walter drive his buckboard north toward Richmond, and then had waited half an hour to make sure he wouldn't return unexpectedly.

Mary gave me a warm smile when I came through the front door, but the smile disappeared when I asked if she could call up to Rebecca and have her take over the store for a short time. "I need to talk to you," I said. "And it's best I do it while Walter is away."

Rebecca came downstairs looking happy to see me, and it made my heart swell to glimpse the pleasure in her eyes. She rose up on her toes and kissed my cheek.

"We won't be long," I said.

"Take all the time you need." I noticed that Rebecca had not looked at Mary when she came downstairs, nor did she now.

"Do you want to go up to the parlor?" Mary asked. She too had consciously avoided making eye contact with her stepdaughter.

"No, I'd like you to go out to the barn with me. I need to show you something there." She seemed initially confused, but she held it in and followed me outside without objection.

I led her into the barn and walked her to the rear corner where Josiah had found the bloodstained awl. I removed it from my jacket pocket and opened the neckerchief in which it was wrapped. Mary gasped when I held it out to her.

"This is the weapon that killed Johnny Harris," I said simply. "We've had the dried blood examined at the university and we exhumed Johnny's body to make sure the blade of the awl fit the wound. All the results were positive, and Doc Pierce is certain that this was the murder weapon."

Mary's hands were trembling and I paused to draw the moment out. Then I stepped up to a box that sat next to the rear wall. "We found the awl behind this box. Someone threw it here to hide it."

"What are you trying to say, Jubal?" Her voice was shaking, and despite the chill in the air there was a visible line of perspiration on her upper lip. "Are you saying you think I hid it here?"

I stared at the earthen floor and toed the dirt with my boot. "I'm not trying to say anything in particular, Mary."

She began to shake uncontrollably. "He was terrible and vile," she blurted out. "He laughed at me, just laughed at me, and then he threatened to tell Walter that he'd been with me. He said he'd have to leave Jerusalem's Landing when he did, but that he planned to do it anyway. He said with him gone, the whole village would turn against me and Walter would throw me out with nothing. He said I'd be lucky if the townspeople didn't take a bucket of tar to me." She was sobbing, no longer able to control herself. I handed her a clean handkerchief and she wiped away some of the tears.

"I asked him what he wanted and he said he didn't want anything. He said I'd already given him what he wanted. Then he laughed at me again and promised me this time I'd get what I deserved. I asked him what he meant and he just laughed again, and told me I knew exactly what he meant. Then he slapped me across the face and he kept doing it. Once, twice, three times, more. Not hard really. It was for humiliation more than pain. We were in the barn and the awl was just there, and I . . . and I . . ." She squeezed the handkerchief between her hands and twisted it fiercely. "Later, after Johnny was dead, Bobby Suggs came to me and told me he knew everything about me." She was babbling now, unable to stop talking. "He said I had to tell him where Johnny had hidden it or
he'd
go to Walter and tell him everything—"

"Hidden what?" I asked, stopping her.

She seemed momentarily confused. "I thought I'd told you. It was why Johnny was afraid of him—why he thought he might have to kill Bobby."

"Slow down and tell me," I said.

"I'm sorry," she said. She took a deep breath and continued: "Johnny told me that he had something he'd brought home from the war and that half of it belonged to Bobby Suggs. But he said he had no intention of giving him his share, and that he'd told Bobby that. He said they argued and that Bobby had threatened to kill him, and that he'd had to use his gun, had to stick it in Bobby's face to drive him off. But he knew Bobby would be back. He said it was only a matter of time before he came after him, and when he did he wouldn't have any choice. He'd have to kill him."

"What was it that he had?" I asked.

"I don't know," Mary said. "Johnny wouldn't tell me. But he said he'd be able to live off it for a long time, maybe even use it as a stake to head out west."

"Did he tell you where it was?"

"No. He said the only people besides him who could find it were you and Abel. He said it was hidden in a place only you three knew about, a place the three of you had built when you were younger. Then he laughed and said that since Abel was dead you were the only one who would know where it was, but that you were too thick-headed to figure it out." She stared at me for a long time, her eyes begging me to understand. "Jubal, Johnny was a terrible man. Everybody tells me what a wonderful boy he was, but he wasn't like that anymore. He was cruel and vicious and hateful and he enjoyed hurting people. And I think Bobby Suggs is maybe even worse."

"I know," I said. "I know what Johnny was like, what Suggs is still like. On the day Abel died I saw them shoot down a man and his wife. They weren't armed, they were just proud and defiant, and Johnny and Suggs never gave them a chance; they just murdered them where they stood."

I felt no pity for the woman. Whatever happened to her she had brought upon herself, just as Johnny had brought about his own death. But in Mary's case being a fool didn't warrant the destruction of her life. And it was certainly no reason to bring pain to Rebecca or her father. I studied the earthen floor again, then took Mary's elbow and led her back toward the store. "Johnny would have killed you without giving it a thought," I said. "Consider yourself lucky he didn't." I held her eyes again. "Bobby Suggs would do the same. Stay clear of him."

When we reached the back door she stopped me and stared up into my face. "What's going to happen to me? What are you going to do?"

"Nothing's going to happen," I said. I saw relief course through her, and it angered me. My mind took me back to the night I told the Harris's that their son was dead; how Mary had accompanied her husband to help ease their pain, help them through that terrible night, and I recalled how Mary's hands had trembled violently as she reached out to Johnny's mother. Now she reached for the door and I took her arm and turned her back so we faced each other again. "Nothing is going to happen to you, unless you do something to hurt Walter or Rebecca," I said. "Or if you say anything that hurts Reverend Harris or his wife. If any of those things happen, you'll regret the day you met me, and you'll wish to God you had never heard of Jerusalem's Landing."

 

* * *

 

The next morning I headed for Billy Lucie's woodlot. I had asked Josiah to ride with me and to bring his rifle along.

The work crew had just gotten out of bed and was having their morning coffee when we rode up to their campfire. Suggs was sitting on the bunkhouse steps and he glared at us, but said nothing. I dismounted and walked over to him, and without warning, reached out, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and yanked him to his feet. Josiah angled his horse so his rifle took in the entire work crew.

"What the hell are ya grabbin' me fer?" Suggs yelled.

"I'm about to lock your sorry ass up for the murder of Johnny Harris," I said. I shoved him as hard as I could and sent him staggering across the dooryard of the bunkhouse.

"I din' kill nobody," he snarled.

"Really?" I leaned in close so the other loggers wouldn't hear me. "I seem to remember a farmhouse in Virginia where you and Johnny Harris slaughtered a man and his wife."

"That was the war!" Bobby shouted.

"The war. Oh, I see, it was the war. That's where unarmed civilians were fair game. That's the place where you could gun down a man and his wife because they wouldn't give you the key to the cashbox you and Johnny stole from their house. Abel and Josiah and I watched you do it, and if that artillery barrage hadn't started we would have blown your ass to hell right then and there."

"Ya tried ta git the army ta arress' me on that, an' they tol' ya ta forgit it; they tol' ya there wasn't no evidence. It was jus' yer word and that nigger's word agin' Johnny's and mine."

Josiah raised the barrel of his rifle and smiled down at Suggs. "Ya call me a nigger one more time an' ya ain't gonna have ta worry 'bout Jubal arrestin' ya. The only thing ya'll havta worry 'bout is what hole yer bones is gonna rot in."

"Ya gonna let that . . . that sumbitch talk ta me like that?"

"I'm going to let him talk to you any way he wants. And you take one step out of line and I'm going to let him shoot you any
place
he wants. And if he misses, I'll shoot you myself."

"I won't miss, Jubal. I sure won't miss this piece a sorry white trash."

I heard a voice call out and watched Billy Lucie ride across the clear-cut. When he reached the campfire he dismounted, handed the horse's reigns to one of his men, and walked toward me. "Looks like maybe I'm gonna be shorthanded a man fer the day," he said.

"I'm afraid so," I replied. "He'll be packing up his things and coming with me. Does he have any weapons in the bunkhouse?"

"Ain't supposed ta," Billy said. "But I can't guarantee it." He raised his chin toward Suggs. "He's wearin' a knife on his belt."

I nodded. "Not for long. His horse still in your barn?"

Billy said it was. "An' his pistol should be in his saddlebags," he added.

"Will you collect his horse?" I asked Josiah. "And see if his pistol is there."

Josiah nodded and rode off.

I turned back to Suggs. "Throw the knife on the ground." My hand was on the butt of my pistol for emphasis.

Suggs did as he was told and I picked it up and pointed the blade at the bunkhouse. "Let's go pack up your stuff," I said.

When we were alone in the bunkhouse, Suggs turned to me "I din' kill Johnny," he said. "An' tha's the truth."

"I don't care who killed him. I just want someone to hang for it. And you've been elected."

"Wait." He held up his hands, palms facing me as though he were warding me off. "There's some money to be made cheer. A lotta money."

"Tell me about it," I said.

"Ya was talkin' 'bout that cashbox, the one me an' Johnny took from the farmhouse in Spotsylvania."

"That's right."

"Well, the only reason we went there was that we heard those folks had a big poke stashed away. Had it since afore the war started. We found it sure enough. All it took was puttin' a gun ta the man's head an' that woman opened up right quick. But when we found it the man wouldn't give us the key, an' we wanted ta be sure we got us the right cashbox. So I shot him in the leg, figgerin' the woman would come ta her senses. But then Johnny panicked an' shot her too. Killed her right where she stood, so I had ta kill the man, an' we ended up blastin' the lock off the box when that artillery barrage started up. An' jus' like we'd been tol', it was stuffed with money, and not that Confederate kind, but real money from afore the war started. An' they was big bills, hun'reds mostly. There hadda been $10,000 in there."

"Why didn't the Rebs take it when you were captured?"

Suggs grinned at me with yellowed teeth. "Cause I was too smart an' too quick fer 'em." He jabbed a finger into his chest. "Me, not Johnny. I buried that cashbox while Johnny was takin' cover in the farmhouse. He laid there under a kitchen table an' watched me do it. I figgered Johnny an' me, we'd come back after we got away from the Rebs. See, I wasn't gonna cheat him like he cheated me. But it din' matter, cause we din' git away. We ended up in Andersonville Prison instead."

"And when you were freed Johnny beat you back to the farmhouse and took the money for himself."

"Tha's right. We were moved to other prisons when Sherman's army got close, an' the one Johnny was in got overrun first. He was gone a good five days afore I even started out, an' by the time I got ta that farmhouse the only thing there was an empty cashbox all buried back up with a little note inside it that said I shoulda been quicker. I found out later that Johnny had already been discharged an' was headed home."