Found Drowned

by Norris, Laurie Glenn;

  Jarvis stood over the body and cocked his head to one side. Starting under the ears, he traced his hands down both sides of the body.

  “Continuing dictation. Body completely out of rigor. Subject likely dead for between twenty-four hours and a week.”

  Jarvis passed his hands down her chest, abdomen, and legs, then eyed the scalpels, touching one and then another. Finally he chose, then moved to situate himself over the body. He cut into the flesh along the bottom edge of the right collarbone.

  “Now you may want to turn around, and get ready to take some more dictation.”

  Gilbert sat back down on the barrel, faced away from the table, and waited.

  Jarvis worked silently for a few minutes then began speaking again. “Cut H-incision running from…damn,” he whispered loudly.There was a long silence before the doctor finished his sentence. “Clavicle to pelvis.”

  Another silence.

  A strong coppery smell filled the room. Gilbert bit down on the end of the pencil. He heard liquid splash onto the floor.

  “Large amounts of water present in the subject’s lungs. Removed, inspected, and replaced heart and lungs. Great loss of blood.”

  For a while, Gilbert heard only Jarvis’s movement around the table.

  “All right, Mr. Bell, I’m finished. You can turn around now. May I see that notepad for a minute?”

  Jarvis had covered the girl with the wool blankets and tucked them neatly underneath her. There was blood soaking onto the table and the floor. Gilbert handed Jarvis the pencil and paper. “I didn’t know how to spell some of those words you said,” Gilbert told him. “I never went all that far in school.”

  “Not to worry, I’ll rewrite the notes but will keep yours as well, just for the record. And I’m sorry about all the blood. Most times a body doesn’t bleed a lot. But every once in a while—”

  “It looks like you butchered a pig in here,” Gilbert blurted out.

  “If there’s water I’ll clean it up.”

  “Let’s get some air first.”

  Jarvis nodded and wiped his hands, then the scalpels, on the top blanket. He replaced the instruments in the cloth, rolled it up, and wound the faded ribbon around it. After putting the cloth back into the satchel, he ran a hand over the metal clasp, securing it. Carrying his hat, coat, and bag, he headed for the door. Gilbert removed the plank, opened the barn door, and exhaled loudly. Avard and Eddie crowded around him, and everyone waiting behind them butted out their cigarettes.

  “Pa, what’s the doctor saying? Can we go in now?” Eddie asked, making for the door.

  “Nobody goes inside. Stay here, the both of you.”

  When Jarvis stepped out into the night air behind Gilbert, the eighteen men and boys standing in a circle raised their eyes and lanterns to him expectedly. He tipped his hat then held a blood-smeared left hand out in front of him as if to ward them off.

  “I can’t say anything until after there’s been an inquest and that needs to be done as soon as possible. Now I’d like to have a taste of that soup, if I may.”

  There were groans and a shaking of heads. Some curses.

  “I’m sorry, gentlemen. That’s all I can say at the moment.”

  Eddie ran back to where the food was left on the ground. The group gathered more closely around Jarvis, their faces pale in the lantern light.

  “Do ya know what killed her, Doc?” someone asked.

  “Yeah, do you know?”

  “I have a good idea but can’t say right now. Soon though, very soon.”

  Everyone started to talk at once.

  “How are we going to find out who she is?”

  “Where’s Flynn, anyway?”

  “Do you think she could have been done away with?”

  “It’s a damn shame. What’s this world coming to with young girls washing up on the beach?”

  “Well, come into the house with us, Doc,” Gilbert said. “The wife can give you some hot tea.” He raised his voice: “Flynn probably won’t show up till morning now. Those of you who want to can come in and have a cup a tea,”

  Only Neill and Rufus took Gilbert up on his offer. Bill McWilliams and Hezekiah Hopkins followed them to the house in order to collect their wives. The rest made for their wagons to head home.

  “Let us know if you need anything, Gil,” someone called.

  “Yeah, let us know.”

  “Will do,” Gilbert said and raised his hand, more in dismissal than thanks.

  They walked in silence to the house.

  “Your mother would have killed me if they all landed in the kitchen this time of night,” Gilbert said to Avard as he opened the porch door.

  After the other couples said their goodbyes, Catherine sat Jarvis down at the kitchen table, newly spread with a starched white cloth and linen napkins. Gilbert noticed that Catherine had changed into one of her church dresses and covered it with her best apron. He grinned. For a woman, a doctor as company meant that only the best they had was good enough.

  “More soup, Doctor Jarvis?”

  “No, thank you, Mrs. Bell, I’m full. It’s lovely, though.”

  “More biscuits?”

  “Thank you, but I’ve had three already.”

  “What kind of pie would you like, blueberry or apple?”

  “I did save a little room for the blueberry, if you don’t mind.”

  Catherine went to the pantry and returned with two pieces of pie. She placed one in front of Jarvis and gave the other to her husband.

  “Rufus, Neill, what kind can I get the two of you? Sarah, anything else?”

  Catherine was serious tonight, Gilbert noted, not joking with Neill as she usually did. A visit from a doctor was one thing, but there was also a dead girl out in the barn. And she would have had a time getting Jimmy to go to bed. Gilbert guessed that his youngest was, at that very moment, upstairs, lying on the floor of his bedroom, looking down the heat register, listening to every word being said.

  “Sheriff Flynn must have had other business to attend to,” Catherine said over her shoulder as she headed back to the pantry to cut into the apple pie.

  “Yeah, we’ll likely hear from him in the morning,” Gilbert said, grasping a flowered teacup in his huge right hand and feeling like an idiot in front of the other men.

  “I’d like to stay the night if it’s not inconvenient,” Jarvis said. “I need to talk to Sheriff Flynn and don’t want to make another trip out here just for that.”

  The clatter of dishes ceased in the pantry. From where Gilbert sat he could see Catherine lower her head and shake it ever so slightly. Then, tucking a swatch of stray brown hair behind her left ear, she popped back into the kitchen and smiled.

  “By all means, Doctor, you can sleep up in the twins’ room. One of them can stay down here on the daybed.”

  “I’d appreciate it, Mrs. Bell, and I apologize for putting you out this way.”

  “No trouble at all, Doctor.”

  “Pa, I was wondering if maybe I should sit up with her tonight?” Avard said.

  “Sit up with who?”

  “The girl, the girl,” he said, blushing as everyone turned to look at him.

  “Certainly not,” Catherine replied.

  “Well, people always sit up with a body that’s passed away.” Avard frowned.

  “Yes, but it’s a young girl, your own age, and out in a barn,” Catherine argued. “It’s not decent.”

  “No, there’s no need for that,” Gilbert added.

  “She’s all wrapped up, not laid out nicely as someone would be in your parlour,” Jarvis said, smiling at the boy.

  “I think it only shows respect.” Avard’s bottom lip emerged.

  Eddie snickered. Avard reddened again and looked at his brother with narrowed eyes.

  “You’re not do
ing it and that’s that,” Gilbert said, “but what I do want the two of you to do right now is to run over to Muttart’s and wire Doctor Jarvis’s wife that she shouldn’t expect him home tonight.”

  The doctor nodded. “Yes, good point, thanks for reminding me.”

  Jarvis reached into his coat pocket and brought out the pencil and small notepad. He took a minute to write something on a yellow page, ripped it out, and handed it to Eddie. “Please forward it to Mrs. Dr. Henry Jarvis, St. Eleanor’s. And here’s a dollar to send it.” The doctor handed the boy a crisp bill.

  “It won’t be that much, be sure to come back with the change,” Gilbert directed.

  “Keep it for your trouble.” Jarvis spoke over their father’s words.

  “Thank you, sir,” Avard said, heading for the door behind Eddie. Then he turned. “Will they still be up?” he asked.

  “Muttart is awake until all hours, says his sailing days ruined his being able to sleep much,” Gilbert said. “Just bang on the door till somebody comes and opens it. They’re used to people coming to the house at all hours to send bad news somewhere.”

  “Pa, don’t forget about the lanterns in the barn,” Avard reminded Gilbert before going out the door.

  “Watch yourselves and come right back,” their mother called after them.

  Rufus yelled at them as well. “Just wait a minute, you two, and I’ll drive you over there. Thanks for the pie, it’s getting late. Lillian will be worried.”

  “Yes, we’ve got to go as well,” Sarah said, rising from the rocking chair in the corner. “Come on, Neill, morning comes early.”

  “I don’t know what’s got into Av,” Gilbert said, taking his cup back to the stove for a refill after the others had left. “Imagine sitting up all night with a dead girl in a barn.”

  “He’s always seen it done when somebody around here passes, seen it done since he was a little boy,” Catherine said. “It’s good of him to think of it, but it’s not proper in this case.”

  She sat down for the first time since the men had come into the house. “What going to happen now?” she asked.

  “Well, after Sheriff Flynn gets a look at her and I hold a coroner’s inquest, she can be buried,” Jarvis told her. “He may want to hold off on that for a few days, in case she can be identified, but it can’t be postponed for too long. The body isn’t in good shape.” He looked at Catherine. “And it will only continue to deteriorate. Flynn will probably also want to have a look at her clothes, what’s left of them.”

  “They’re all right there in the barn for him to see,” Gilbert said.

  “And he may know of some girl who’s missing,” said Catherine, shaking her head. “I hope he does.”

  “I’ll have to talk to Reverend Silliker about getting a spot in the graveyard just in case no one shows up to claim her,” Gilbert said. “I’ll drive over tomorrow, after Flynn’s here and gone.”

  “Is there anything we can do to get her ready for burial?” Catherine asked.

  “I think it’s better just to leave her as is,” Jarvis said.

  Gilbert nodded. “I don’t want any of you going near that body,” he said, rising from the table. “Now I’ll go get those lanterns. Don’t want the barn to burn down on top of everything else.”

  “Doctor, I’ll change Eddie’s bed; he can sleep on the daybed there in the corner,” Catherine said.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Bell.”

  “Call me Catherine, please.”

  “And I’m Henry, to the both of you.”

  “You got any old rags?” Gilbert asked Catherine.

  Catherine went over to the sink, opened the cupboard door below it, and reached in. “Will these do?” she asked, handing him the torn pieces of a large cotton towel. “I don’t need them back.”

  “Good, they’ll work.”

  Gilbert headed for the porch.

  “I’ll come out with you,” Jarvis said.

  As they walked across the yard, Gilbert diverted his steps to the barn’s main entrance.

  “Wait a minute,” he said.

  He stepped inside the door and brought out two galvanized buckets.

  “Just need to go to the well.”

  He handed Jarvis the rags. In a few minutes he was back, water sloshing from the tops of both pails. They made their way to the barn. They could smell the sickening sweetness before they opened the door.

  “Smells like spoiled apples,” Gilbert said.

  “The body’s breaking down,” Jarvis explained.

  Gilbert placed the buckets on the floor and got on his knees.

  Jarvis washed the table around the body.

  “Now that she’s out of the water she’ll decompose faster,” he said. He hesitated for a moment and then continued. “Gilbert, I’m going to have to rely on you for names of some local men to make up a coroner’s jury. We’ll need to decide whom to contact tonight and get word to them first thing tomorrow morning. And we’ll need to hold the jury here where they can look at the body.”

  “Sweet Jesus.”

  “I know it’s a lot to ask of you and your family but I’m obliged to impanel a jury. Hopefully it won’t take any more than a couple of days.”

  Outside the barn again, Gilbert put down his bucket and braced the door with a board that had been resting on the side of the building.

  “Don’t want any animals getting in at her overnight.”

  He shoved the plank hard up under the handle and shook it.

  “Nothing can get in there now.”

  When Gilbert got back to the kitchen Catherine was coming downstairs with a pile of bedding.

  “Where’s Henry?” she asked, trying out the doctor’s first name.

  “He stopped to see a man about a horse.” Gilbert winked at her.

  “For God’s sake, if I must say it, Gilbert, don’t be vulgar.”

  “All right, he’s in the outhouse.” He grinned.

  Catherine put the pillows and blankets down on the chair by the stove and pulled the daybed out from the wall.

  “The boys should be back soon,” Gilbert said, walking into the porch and looking out the window.

  Catherine sighed. “Gil, there’s some mother out there tonight worried to death about her daughter.”

  “Maybe.”

  “The poor soul doesn’t even know her child is dead.”

  “Don’t think about that,” Gilbert said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

  The porch door opened.

  “Getting chilly out there now,” Jarvis said, taking off his boots.

  “I heard your boys coming down the lane. It was good of them to go and send that telegram so late.”

  “Henry, are you sure there isn’t something we can do for that poor child? Clean her up a bit, to get her ready to be buried?”

  “Catherine.” Jarvis sat down at the table again, reached for the salt shaker, and moved it from hand to hand as he spoke. “In order to find out what happened, I had to examine her. It’s not something a lady should see.”

  “Oh.”

  “You can give her a nice funeral and decent burial if her family doesn’t come forward. That’s the most anyone can do for her now.”

  “Yes, that we can do. I’ll make sure of it.” Catherine looked at Gilbert.

  “I said I was going to see Silliker tomorrow,” he reminded her.

  “And I’ve just told Gilbert that we need to hold the coroner’s inquest here. That will take a couple of days, at the very most, I hope. That’s a big thing you can do for her.”

  “He and twelve men are going to take over the barn.” Gilbert shook his head.

  “They won’t be staying here, of course. But they will be here likely most of tomorrow and the day after if necessary. You will be paid for all of the meals you provide us and for
the use of your premises. I apologize for such short notice.”

  Catherine turned, wide-eyed, to Gilbert, who shrugged.

  “I’d better get upstairs to bed,” she said. “Lots of baking to get to in the morning. Gilbert, show Henry to the boys’ room, please. Goodnight now.”

  She walked into the hallway and up the stairs, her right hand massaging her temples.

  Jarvis took the notepad and pencil out of his coat pocket again.

  “All right, let’s sit here for a few minutes and compile a list of names for the jury. You, Neill, and the two little boys will all have to testify.”

  At that moment Avard and Eddie came through the porch door.

  “Lock that up for the night,” Gilbert commanded.

  Eddie reached up and drew the bolt into the slot.

  “Now, have a seat at the table, the both of you,” Gilbert ordered, “and help us come up with some names.”

  ***

  An hour later Jarvis was finishing his transcription of Gilbert’s notes, sitting in the boys’ bedroom at a wooden table below a window that looked out over the Northumberland Strait. It was Eddie and not Avard who had come up the stairs after him, explaining that his brother had decided he wanted to sleep in the kitchen. Eddie was snoring softly almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  Jarvis put down his pen and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long day. He wished he’d been able to make it home. Lucy and he had quarrelled again this morning, and he wanted to make it up to her. He probably should have sent that telegram himself.

  It would be a few days before he was home. He’d stop off in Summerside and pick her up a little something. He had learned long ago that the way back into his wife’s good graces was through the opening of his pocketbook.

  Jarvis looked down at his notes. He hesitated for a moment and then wrote along the top of the next clean page:

  Subject was approximately four months pregnant. Fetus deceased but intact.

  Jarvis turned down the lamp and crawled into bed. The night was still and through the open window he could hear waves lapping on the beach. He thought about the body out in the barn.