BooksBarbecue
Back The Empress File Save as PDF
Chapters (20)
  1. Prologue
  2. CHAPTER 1
  3. CHAPTER 2
  4. CHAPTER 3
  5. CHAPTER 4
  6. CHAPTER 5
  7. CHAPTER 6
  8. CHAPTER 7
  9. CHAPTER 8
  10. CHAPTER 9
  11. CHAPTER 10
  12. CHAPTER 11
  13. CHAPTER 12
  14. CHAPTER 13
  15. CHAPTER 14
  16. CHAPTER 15
  17. CHAPTER 16
  18. CHAPTER 17
  19. CHAPTER 18
  20. CHAPTER 19

I shrugged. “You could just give us credit for a selfless act.”

He looked at us for a moment, then said, “Nah.”

Back on the boat I called Bobby:

Will tell John/Marvel about Harold body. Will call cops anonymously and give them IDs. Will tell John/Marvel you found body reports in data searches. Please back up if John inquires.

He came back:

OK. But need long talk soon.

He was getting nervous, thinking about friends and loyalties. I answered:

Yes. Tomorrow, day after. Soon.

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

The next morning I phoned the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department. Posing as a reporter for a Memphis television station, I asked a couple of airweight questions about bodies pulled from the river. A woman had been found, a deputy said, but hadn’t been identified. There’d be no further comment pending an autopsy.

I called another meeting at the country place.

“It’s about your friends, the ones you’ve been looking for,” I said cautiously, talking to Marvel on the telephone.

I went to the meeting alone, LuEllen shying away again. John and Marvel showed up at the rendezvous, tense, expectant.

“What? What?” Marvel asked as I came through the door.

“It’s about Harold and Sherrie. I think they’ve been found,” I said. “They’re dead.”

“Oh, no,” she whispered, sinking onto a couch. John stood beside her, a hand on her shoulder. He had an odd look on his face: I wasn’t fooling him, not entirely.

“Bobby called. He’s been doing a data search

and he found that the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department has pulled a couple of bodies out of the river near Rosedale. A man and a woman. Both black. The man was dressed like you said Harold was. The woman, I don’t know

they said a yellow blouse

“

“It’s them,” Marvel said. She was dry-eyed, but on the thin edge of an explosion. “She was wearing yellow; her mama told us that.”

“We’ve got to let the cops know; we’ve got to bring it back to Longstreet,” I said.

“What do you want us to do?” John asked.

“I want you to get Marvel

or somebody

down there and identify the bodies. Tell the deputies you heard it on the radio. Find out how they were killed. Tell the deputies what you suspect - that Harold had gone to visit Dessusdelit - but tell them you don’t know why. Tell them that Harold had some information about this political scandal that’s going on. That’ll put a lot of pressure on Dessusdelit.”

“All right. I can do that,” Marvel said. Her fingers were dug an inch deep into the tough fabric of the couch arm.

“I’ll go with her,” John said. “What are you doing?”