Poison Branches Read online

“I’m sure we will.” After a slight pause, “Why do you call it the Crow’s Rest?” Perri asked before Alice started back down the corridor.

  She considered for a moment, “I like the silly things, I guess. They are smart birds. They have that air of not taking any crap from anyone. I like that. You’ll see them around. They are usually in the trees around the garden in the morning, so you’ll hear them, and sometimes again in the early evening.” She turned, waving, and clomped off down the hallway.

  They both walked around the room, peering into the bathroom, opening cabinets and drawers. Perri flopped down on the bed, “I like the room. It’s comfy. This was built before they made closets; there’s a wardrobe. And it has a writing desk. I’m glad of that so I have a place to look over my paperwork. I think the website said there was wi-fi too.”

  “Good,” said Nina, “I have a couple of games on my tablet that I like to play and they need a connection. I have to keep up with my email too.” She opened and closed the drawers of the writing desk. Indicating the lap drawer, she said, “Here’s the wifi code.”

  “Well, let’s go get the bags and think about heading into Russellville.”

  Chapter 5

  After their bags were in the room, Perri flopped into a well-padded rocking chair and Nina was lying across the bed. Both were winded, not so much from hauling the bags upstairs, but from laughing.

  Nina’s oversized, wheeled duffle bag had rocked back and forth precariously as they came up the stairway, but because they were both carrying so much stuff, always trying to avoid a second trip, neither of them could reach out to stabilize it. Climbing behind, Perri watched Nina sway from side to side trying to keep her balance under the shifting weight of her overnight bag, her purse, and a small portable cooler she had brought. The suitcase swayed further in each direction, up on one wheel and then the other, with each step Nina took. Perri started to snicker halfway up the stairs and by the time they reached the landing, they were both laughing out loud. The unstable duffle finally performed a slow topple, twisting Nina around until she lost her balance, dropping the other bags, and sliding down the wall. Nina went down to the floor laugh-crying, “Oh, my gosh, I have to pee. Don’t make me laugh!”

  Perri sighed and asked, “What on earth do you have in that thing?”

  “Stuff I might need. You know how it is.”

  “Oh brother…yes, I do. I’m just as bad. Alice probably thinks we are gearing up for a party. Let’s get these in the room before she thinks we’re causing a ruckus and changes her mind about us staying here unsupervised.”

  After the laughter had died down and they had both visited the bathroom, they sat down to get their breath. “I better call Tom real quick, let him know we made it.” Nina pulled her phone out and dialed. After a short pause, “Hey you, we made it!”

  As Nina talked to Tom, Perri wandered down the hallway, looking at the old photos. She could hear Nina telling Tom about the B&B, but her voice faded away as Perri took in the framed moments of a time long ago. There were photos of young uniformed WWII soldiers proudly standing in front of their parents’ homes, kids riding on horses and carts, formally posed portraits of dour couples, barber shop gatherings, general store interiors, people sitting on porches, and groups of people at picnics. Some were blurred or scarred by rough storage over time. There were studio photos in tones of sepia, gray, black and white that remained surprisingly crisp, capturing an instant of someone’s life long ago, dressed in their finest.

  Among these, high up on the wall, was a photo of a tavern called the Rogue’s Harbor, as the hand-painted sign hung by the eave of the porch declared. There were at least fifteen men. There were young and old, handsome and those less so, most of them smiling and obviously enjoying the photo taking; it wasn’t something that happened very often for most people. Leaning forward and standing on tiptoes to see the photo better, Perri murmured to herself, “Boy, don’t you all look like you could get up to some shenanigans?” There were a couple of horses tethered to posts. One man had a shotgun hanging from the saddle and was flanked by a grinning man who was pointing his own shotgun at another man who was standing near the door of the tavern. He was frowning at the pointing man, turned about thirty degrees from camera. Perri almost missed her, but there was a woman in an apron standing in the doorway to the tavern, somewhat in shadow, her hand on the door jamb, peering out with a serious look. The photo was intriguing. What would otherwise be a lighthearted group having their photo taken was made a little haunting by the woman. “I should ask Alice about this place.”

  Perri slung her satchel on her shoulder and walked back to the room. Nina was putting her phone into her purse. “Shall we head in to Russellville? I would like to have as much time as I can in case there turns out to be a lot of probate records. I won’t have another day this trip to review them. I’d have to come back.”

  “I love your optimism, Perri!”

  “Yeah, I know, I know. I’m hoping there will not only be a bunch of records, but this time the records I want weren’t included in one of the two boxes that are missing, were lost in a fire in 1892, or, just two days ago were sent five states away to be scanned.”

  “You said you called ahead though, right? They would have told you if the records weren’t here,” Nina said encouragingly.

  “And now I love your optimism.”

  Chapter 6

  Perri steered the car through several miles of country roads past fields that were taking on a patchwork appearance as the tobacco harvesting began. Nina grinned, “I love it. This is Lickskillet Road!” Don’t you wonder how places like this got their name?”

  “I definitely do, and that’s one I want to look up.” The scattering of cotton ball clouds was brilliantly white against the cornflower blue sky. With the top down, sunshine flooded the interior and felt warm and golden on the top of Perri’s head. The only oncoming traffic here was an occasional truck or a tractor pulling carts fully-laden with tobacco making their ponderous way to a curing barn somewhere. The yellowing, wilted leaves swayed back and forth on the sticks. The farmers waved as the convertible passed them. Perri and Nina lifted their arms and hooted a reply, enjoying the wind and sun. Perri stopped at the intersection of Highway 79, then turned right and headed northeast toward Russellville

  As they drove into town, Nina had been studying the map of downtown Russellville that Perri had printed. She looked up and said, “We’re only a few streets away. You’re going to come to a light in a minute. You can go straight or turn left.” They passed a few fast food places, a school, an automotive supply store, and a large cemetery. “Is that one we are going to?” asked Nina.

  “No, of course not, silly. All the ones I need are out in the woods or on someone’s land.” A few turns later, Perri was pulling into the small parking lot of the County Clerk’s office.

  The building was a single story, low, rectangular stone building. It appeared to have been built by hand with white stones of roughly the same size, but of varying lengths and heights, the spaces between being filled with grayish mortar. “Wow,” Perri exclaimed, “I didn’t expect this. This has been here a long time.” She parked the car in one of the few spaces in the small lot and walked around the corner of the building. Nina leaned on the fender of the Cooper, which was hot through her cotton shorts.

  “Hey Perri! We gonna go in or examine the building?” Nina called out.

  Perri reappeared around the corner. “Ok, geez.”

  “Well, time’s a wastin’ and I’m going to have to listen to you bellow about it all weekend if you run out of time.”

  Perri grabbed her satchel out of the back seat of the car. “I don’t think we need to put the roof up.” She opened one of the double doors beneath a canvas awning and walked in, Nina right behind her. There was no one at the counter, but before the door fully closed, a friendly faced lady who looked to be in her late 50’s came around the corner of a partition. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, I’m Perri Sea
more. I talked with Cora a couple of weeks ago on the phone about coming in to view some probate records. Records for a Berry Nichols?”

  “Oh sure! I’m Cora. We pulled those records for you and have them here in the office. Come on over to our viewing room and I’ll bring them to you.” As they followed Cora, Perri glanced over her shoulder at Nina and made her what-do-you-know face.

  Cora led them to a small room. Its contents included a table, a banker’s style lamp, in addition to the overhead fluorescents, and a couple of chairs. The wall with the opening was glass; there was no door. There was nothing on the walls of the room and no other furnishings. “We can’t allow any food or drinks, backpacks, large bags, or ink pens in here. You can leave your bag outside the door on this table and take what you need from it into the room. You can use a pencil to make notes; if you don’t have one I can get you one. If you want copies of something, just let me know. You can use a digital camera or phone to take a photo, but you have to have the flash off. Sorry, but we have to protect the documents. You wouldn’t believe what some people will do.”

  Perri nodded in agreement, “Oh, I totally understand. All I really need is my laptop, camera, and notepad. I’ll use my camera for photos, but I probably also will ask for copies of any documents I need. I’ve learned the hard way not to totally rely on photos that aren’t safely loaded to my computer, printed and backed up. I do have a pencil, thanks.”

  Cora smiled, “Cool beans. I’ll go get the file.” Cora headed off into the labyrinth of cubicles.

  Nina took a seat and looked around. “Kind of like a police interview room, huh?”

  “Well now, I wouldn’t know that.” Perri smiled and plugged in her laptop and turned her notepad to her notes about Berry Nichols. “And how is that you have come to be familiar with police interview rooms? Something you haven’t told me?”

  “TV. They always look like this, right? Even on those cold case shows that are real.”

  “Yeah, I guess they kind of do,” Perri muttered from just outside the room as she shuffled through her satchel for a pencil.

  Cora reentered the room with a folder about an inch thick. That brought a smile to Perri’s face. “Here ya go. Just holler when you need copies or you’re finished.” She tapped the table once and left.

  “Awesome. It isn’t three sad little papers in a folder. Look at this! I’m hoping I find a document that specifies names. There has to have been a clerk who took the time to write down children’s names somewhere instead of always referring to them as ‘the Heirs of…’!”

  “Well, dig in,” replied Nina as she settled into her chair, “I’m going to catch up on my reading while you do that.” She pulled her legs up onto the chair and flipped open her iPad.

  Perri smiled to herself and opened the file to the top document. “Ok, what have you got for me?”

  Chapter 7

  A couple of hours later, Nina stood up and stretched. “I’m going to look for the bathroom. Need anything?”

  “Not yet, I’m making a list of documents I want, but there’s more to go. What time is it?”

  “It’s nearly 3 o’clock. They close at 4:30 right?”

  “Crap. Yes. I’ll hurry.”

  Nina stood outside the glass walled room and tentatively called out, “Cora?”

  “Coming,” came from across the room.

  Cora directed Nina over to the courthouse where there was a public restroom. The courthouse was very close, down a short path and across a parking lot. When Nina returned, she stood for a moment inside the doorway and was deciding whether or not to announce her presence or just head back to the document room when she heard a jumble of voices talking with some urgency.

  “What the heck?” “No way! What happened?” “Does anyone know anything?” said unfamiliar voices.

  “No! They don’t!” came an answer, from someone slightly out of breath. “Well…apparently…” the voice paused and Nina could hear the sound of someone sitting in an office chair and rolling it across a mat. The voice launched into a story, “William Parker, from the feed store, found her this afternoon. He told Emily, the dispatcher over at the Sheriff’s office, that he went out to the graveyard to walk his dog.” There was another pause and the listeners immediately cajoled the storyteller to continue.

  “Ok, ok!. Had to catch my breath. I practically ran over here you know. I’m not used to runnin’. Ok, so anyway, Will said he was walking Brownie in the cemetery. He went in the south entrance, where the mausoleums are. When he was still a ways out from the big Clay mausoleum, he saw what he thought was a pile of clothes someone dumped in the lot” Quick responses of “Yes, yes” and “Go on!” rose up during any lapse of narrative.

  “Will said he kept on walking past that and followed the road around the street side end of the cemetery. Before he got to the row of trees, he was kind of looking around where that pile of clothes were and figuring to himself that he’d mosey over there to pick them up on his way out and throw them away. He followed the road all the way around until he was coming back to where the road T’s and he took the turn toward the old wall that goes around the mausoleum plots. As soon as he made that turn by all the big cedar trees, he could see a car all wrecked up against the stone wall just past the left-hand turn in the road. He sped up a little in case someone was hurt in it, but when he got there the car was empty. Now he was afraid that the pile of clothes wasn’t just a pile of rags. He walked further down the road to go around the wall and headed over to the bundle. He said Brownie started straining on the leash. Brownie doesn’t do that normally. He said he had a hard time holding on to the leash. It sure wasn’t a pile of clothes when he got there…” The voice stopped for effect.

  “What, what??” came the response, in unison.

  “I’ll be darned if it wasn’t Amy Barrow, face down in the muddy grass and dead as a doornail! And Will says she sure didn’t keel over of anything natural. That girl was just on about thirty and she wasn’t sick. But that’s all he’d say.” Nina could hear gasps and whispering by at least a couple people besides Cora.

  “Of course it wasn’t natural, she was probably badly hurt in the wreck and died trying to find help! That’s so awful. Poor Amy! Why didn’t she call someone?” said one of the listeners.

  “Will said it wasn’t from the wreck.”

  There was some shuffling around and encouragement to continue by the eager listeners.

  “So,” continued the storyteller, still a little winded, “William high-tailed it out of there and reported it to the police. He said he practically ran home, best he could, he was afraid someone might still be hanging around the cemetery. There had to be another car; he said the damage wasn’t from just hitting the wall because Amy’s car was wrecked at both ends. He was afraid someone might still be hanging around. He wouldn’t say any more, said they told him not to talk about it right now. He went home to have a pick-me-up beverage, I would imagine.”

  Silence as the information sank in.

  Nina tiptoed back to the document room and then zipped in through the door. She bumped against the table just as Perri was standing up. Papers on the table scattered out of their neat stacks. “What’s gotten in to you? They have an open bar over at the courthouse?”

  Nina leaned toward her, took her elbow in hand, and whispered breathlessly. “Perri, you gotta hear this!”

  “What?” Perri stopped gathering her belongings and looked at Nina, wondering what caused her dramatic entry.

  “I heard them talking in the office just now. I mean, here, this office, Cora and a few others. One of them was telling about someone being murdered in a cemetery. Someone they know, it sounds like.”

  “What are you talking about? A murder? Here?”

  “Yes! They were talking about how a guy from the feed store found the body in a cemetery this morning while he was walking Brownie. Brownie is his dog. William is the guy. The body was in a plot and her smashed up car was on the cemetery road. No other car was ther
e. They don’t know much else. But the guy who found the body was told not to say anything.” Nina and Perri looked at each other.

  “Well,” Perri said, “that beats my probate record research. Let’s go find out what we can.”

  Perri and Nina crowded through the door at the same time and turned left out of the viewing room, toward the rear of the office rather than back toward the desk. They could hear the sounds of several voices, kept at a low tone but gabbling all at once. Perri peeped around the corner of the cubicle and softly said, “Excuse me.” Cora and two other women jumped up, startled. Cora rushed toward Perri, “Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry, do you need something?”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt. I know it’s about time for you to close up.” Three pairs of wide eyes stared at her. “I am finished with the Nichols file and wondered if I could get copies of the documents I need? I laid them out on the table in the viewing room.” As Perri spoke, she gazed past Cora to the coworkers who had been discussing the exciting news a few moments ago. They both looked away and turned toward the desk, straightening papers and moving office supplies around.

  “Sure, sure, you can, let me get right to that.” Cora bustled down the corridor formed by the partitions. Perri and Nina followed her to the viewing room. Cora stopped at the table, flustered, and stared at the documents.

  “I would like to get copies of these,” Perri indicated a stack of papers.

  “Ok,” replied Cora, clearly distracted, as she swept them off the table and took them to the front desk, behind which the copy machine was located against the far wall.

  Perri and Nina glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. “Um, everything alright?” Perri asked tentatively.

  Cora kept copying, “Well yes, I…”

  “We caught part of the, uh, conversation as we walked through the office. Someone has been found dead?