A Circle of Dead Girls

by Eleanor Kuhns

  Rouge hesitated. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘there’s Elliott. Couple of little towns before then, I think.’

  Rees looked at Boudreaux. ‘Does Elliott sound familiar?’

  ‘Maybe.’ He paused a few seconds and then burst out, ‘I ride horses. I go where Mr Asher tells me.’

  ‘Oh, come on,’ Rouge said, sneering. ‘You might be hanged for murder. Are you sure you want to protect the people who abandoned you here like garbage?’ Boudreaux flinched.

  ‘Don’t,’ Thomas said, rising from his chair. Rees, who’d forgotten he was there, jumped. ‘He may be a wizard with horses but he’s slow. He’s not going to know anything, no matter how hard you push him.’

  Rouge turned to his cousin and addressed him in French. Rees didn’t understand all of the words but the ugly tone told him everything he needed to know. Thomas responded with a ‘pfft’ and a rude hand motion.

  ‘Is Rouge keeping you fed?’ Lydia asked Boudreaux. Rouge stepped forward as though he would intervene, but Rees halted him with an upraised arm.

  ‘Oui. Uh – yes.’ Boudreaux’s response was weak.

  ‘I saw some of the show,’ Lydia said. ‘It was extraordinary.’

  ‘But the gentleman on the horse was nowhere near as skilled as you are,’ Rees said.

  ‘He is …’ Boudreaux paused, searching for the word. ‘Um. My second?’

  ‘Ah. Your assistant,’ Rees said.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll continue investigating,’ Rees said now. ‘I’ll get to the bottom of this. And if you’re innocent, I’ll do my utmost to have you released.’ Boudreaux’s desperate expression did not change and Rees did not want to promise anything further, not until he was absolutely certain he could prove the groom’s innocence and identify the guilty. Leah deserved justice as well and Rees would make sure she got it.

  ‘Finished?’ Rouge asked, turning to Rees. ‘He needs to get back to work.’ Rees nodded.

  ‘And we need to find that circus,’ Rouge added.

  Yes,’ Rees agreed with a grin. How quickly Rouge’s command not to meddle became ‘we’. ‘Maybe we should take this discussion into your office,’ he added, glancing at Thomas. His ears were practically lengthening so he could listen.

  ‘Get your sister out to the bar,’ Rouge told Thomas. ‘We’ll be in my office. And get to work.’

  ‘Wait,’ Thomas said, following them from the kitchen. He carefully shut the door behind him. ‘Boudreaux didn’t tell you everything.’

  ‘What?’ Rouge said rudely.

  ‘What happened?’ Rees asked.

  ‘Mr Asher was here,’ Thomas said.

  ‘Here? At the tavern?’ Rees asked. Thomas nodded.

  ‘I didn’t see him,’ Rouge said, impatience in every line of his body.

  ‘He came around to the back, to speak to Boudreaux. They argued,’ Thomas said.

  ‘About what?’ Rees asked.

  ‘Mr Asher wanted Boudreaux to return to the circus,’ Thomas said. ‘But he didn’t want to.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want to either,’ said Rouge with a dismissive flap of his hand. ‘Come on, Rees.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Rees said. He did not see what importance the argument had right now but one never knew. As he turned to follow the constable, Thomas reached out and grabbed Rees’s sleeve.

  ‘Boudreaux is scared of Mr Asher. Don’t know why, he was polite even when he was arguing. But Boudreaux came back into the kitchen trembling.’

  SEVENTEEN

  ‘Questioning Aaron should not be difficult,’ Rouge said when they were all seated in Rouge’s crowded office. ‘He’s in Zion. But the circus—’

  ‘And Shem,’ Rees interrupted the constable. ‘Aaron may have nothing to do with this.’

  ‘Do you have a map of the area around Durham?’ Lydia asked Rouge.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, some of the towns Mr Asher wanted to visit are listed on the poster,’ Lydia said. ‘And Boudreaux said the circus was traveling west and the town of Elliott sounded familiar to him. So, if we examine a map and compare the towns on the bill with the area around Elliott we might see …’ She stopped. Rouge had leaped to his feet and was sorting through the rolled-up documents on the shelf over his desk.

  As Rees pushed several stacks of books and ledgers aside on the table Rouge spread out the map. ‘This is Elliott,’ he said, pointing with his thick finger. Rees traced a line from Durham to Elliott. ‘There’s a number of smaller towns between Elliott and Durham,’ he said.

  ‘There’s a lot of them,’ Rouge said, ‘but most are so small they’re lucky if they have a general store.’

  ‘Here’s Grand Forks,’ Lydia said, tapping her finger on the map. ‘That’s on the bill.’

  ‘Metinic Lake and Squapan Falls are between Durham and Higgins Springs,’ Rees said. ‘Almost in a straight line.’

  ‘Grand Forks is the largest village in that area,’ Rouge said. ‘Of course, Asher might have taken his circus in a different direction.’

  ‘True,’ Rees agreed. ‘But right now this is the best lead we’ve got.’ He straightened up. ‘How many days drive are those towns?’

  ‘Grand Forks is probably less than a day,’ Rouge said. ‘I don’t know how far Metinic Lake is past that.’ He paused and added, ‘Are you planning to go there?’

  ‘If I want to question Shem, I must. Don’t you agree?’ Rees looked at the constable who nodded reluctantly.

  ‘There’s something else,’ Lydia said, raising her gaze to meet Rees’s. ‘I wonder if Leah was the murderer’s first.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Rees asked although he thought he knew.

  ‘I’m not sure myself,’ Lydia admitted. ‘It’s just that – well, everything was so well planned no one saw anything. If the devil who murdered Leah is a member of the circus, he could be doing the same thing in every town in which the circus performs.’

  Rees exchanged a glance with the constable.

  ‘She’s right,’ Rouge said reluctantly. ‘I’ll need that bill – I should write to the constables in all the towns the circus has visited.’

  Lydia touched Rees’s hand. ‘I don’t believe Brother Aaron is guilty of this. I know he’s difficult. He doesn’t follow all of the rules and he resents the Eldresses. But he is so passionate about celibacy that he doesn’t even attend Union.’

  ‘And that’s exactly why I think he might be guilty,’ Rouge said. ‘It’s not natural for a man to deny his natural urges.’

  ‘How can you even say that?’ Lydia asked with a flash of temper. ‘Your own priests are celibate, are they not?’

  Rouge’s mouth dropped open. ‘Now wait,’ he said and stopped, unable to find any other words.

  ‘He followed Shem and Leah,’ Lydia said, turning to Rees, ‘because Aaron is very protective of children. You know that to be true.’

  Rees nodded slowly, remembering Aaron’s devotion to the boy Calvin and his terrible grief at the child’s death. ‘He’s protective of the boys,’ he said. ‘But we can’t be sure he’s innocent until we finish looking into this.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Rouge said. ‘Aaron must be questioned.’

  Rees looked from Rouge to Lydia and back again. ‘And I have to follow the circus. No one else can do it.’

  Rees and Lydia left the tavern and started for home, stopping on the way to post Rees’s letter to David at the General Store. After wasting several hours on this fruitless journey, they would be rushing all day to catch up.

  Nonetheless, at the end of the main road where it turned into Surry, Rees did not take the left. He turned right, driving down toward Zion. Lydia turned a look of surprise upon her husband. He smiled at her. ‘We’re out already,’ he said. ‘We might as well try to question Aaron. I’d like to be the one to question him – at least before the constable does. His tactics are not always the most productive.’

  ‘You mean because he frightens the other person into silence?’ Lydia asked acidly.

&n
bsp; ‘That. And he doesn’t always ask the necessary questions.’ Rouge tried to pull out the truth with intimidation; Rees preferred a subtler approach.

  The main street in the Shaker village was already crowded with people heading toward the Meeting House. ‘It’s later than I thought,’ Rees said.

  ‘I’m positive Annie has everything well in hand,’ Lydia said. But she didn’t sound sure and when he looked at her, he saw the worried pleat between her brows. Since Jerusha’s abduction the previous year, she could not be easy leaving her children.

  ‘We’ll be home soon,’ he said reassuringly.

  He pulled the wagon to a stop in front of the barn and tied Hannibal to the rail. ‘I don’t see Jonathan anywhere,’ Lydia said.

  ‘Or any of the Elders,’ he agreed, looking around at the silent villagers. ‘Maybe they’re already inside the Meeting House.’

  ‘Maybe,’ she said, her eyes roving over the crowd. ‘Wait, there’s Esther.’ Lydia pointed to the Eldress poised on the steps of the Dwelling House. Lydia waved to catch her attention and they threaded their way through the crowd to meet her. ‘Did you find Shem?’ Esther asked.

  ‘The circus has left town,’ Rees said.

  ‘And Shem with it,’ Lydia said.

  Although no sound escaped Esther’s lips, her mouth formed a round ‘o’.

  ‘So, I want to speak with Aaron again,’ Rees said.

  ‘You can’t,’ Esther said.

  ‘What Sister means,’ Jonathan said, coming up behind Esther, ‘is that Aaron isn’t here.’

  ‘Where is he?’ Rees asked.

  ‘You’d better come inside to the office,’ Jonathan said as he and Esther exchanged a glance.

  Rees already knew this would be bad news.

  Once inside the office Jonathan said, ‘Aaron is gone. And a cart and horse are missing.’

  ‘We don’t know where he’s gone,’ Esther said, adding grimly, ‘although we can guess.’

  ‘He’s gone after Shem,’ Lydia said. ‘Of course.’

  ‘But how did he know where to go?’ Rees asked. And then, as he thought it through, he added emphatically, ‘God damn!’

  ‘Will,’ Lydia said in reproof.

  ‘Don’t you see?’ Rees asked, turning to face her. ‘Aaron knew all along Shem was running away to join the circus. He lied to us.’

  Jonathan looked as though he wanted to swear too. ‘We can’t be sure,’ he said. ‘I hope Aaron wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Esther said. ‘If he knew Shem was planning to run away, why wait to follow him?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Jonathan said with a nod. ‘Why didn’t they go together?’ No one spoke for several seconds.

  ‘Because Aaron didn’t know, at least he didn’t when Shem left,’ Rees said finally. ‘So how did he find out?’ He thought for a moment. ‘I want to see Aaron’s bedchamber.’

  Jonathan looked at Rees. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because Aaron found something that told him where Shem went,’ he said.

  Jonathan looked skeptical and Rees could see the Shaker wanted to say no. But he didn’t. ‘Very well,’ he said at last. ‘Come with me.’

  Rees followed Jonathan into the hall and down the stairs to the first floor. Rees knew this hallway well. When he’d come here from Dugard over two years ago he’d stayed in a room at the front. Aaron’s chamber was by the back door and he too occupied the room by himself. ‘He’s difficult,’ Jonathan said as though he heard Rees’s thoughts. ‘And we have an uneven number of Brothers so …’ He lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug.

  Rees nodded, brushing past Jonathan and knocking him into the doorframe in his eagerness to get inside. ‘Sorry,’ Rees said, still in too much of a hurry to even look at the Elder.

  Like all the bedchambers Rees had seen, this one was small and sparsely furnished. A single bed occupied most of the space. A table with an ewer and a jug was positioned in one corner and a small desk sat next to it. A chair, presumably for the desk, was suspended on the wall from a peg with a coat hung nearby.

  Rees looked around. One of the Sisters had draped the bedding over the foot rail to air and swept the floor. Nothing appeared unusual in any way. ‘When did you discover Aaron was missing?’ he asked Jonathan.

  ‘He didn’t turn up for his morning chores.’

  ‘So, we don’t know when he left,’ Rees said, glancing over his shoulder.

  Jonathan shook his head. ‘We don’t but I think we must assume he left immediately after you did,’ he said.

  That meant, Rees thought, that Aaron had a sizeable head start. Hopefully, he did not know exactly where Shem was going.

  Rees systematically began to search. He found nothing but a few items of clothing in the chest of drawers. Only a Bible reposed upon the bare desk. Rees turned his attention to the bed. First, he shook out the bedding. Nothing. He slid his hands under the mattress and then he lay on the floor to peer up at the ropes. There was nothing slipped between them.

  ‘What do you expect to find?’ Jonathan asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Rees replied. ‘I’ll recognize it when I find it.’ Jonathan’s mouth flattened into a thin line but he said nothing.

  Rees went through the pockets of the coat hanging on the peg. Still nothing.

  ‘Maybe Shem did tell Aaron where he was going,’ Lydia said from the doorway. Her training as a Shaker still prevented her from entering a man’s bedchamber unless she was cleaning it. ‘Surely Aaron isn’t roaming the countryside with no destination in mind.’

  ‘He might be if he is worried enough about Shem,’ Jonathan said. ‘I doubt he knows anything. Surely he would have said …’ He bit his lip.

  Rees swept his eyes once more around the room. He had searched everywhere with no result. Maybe he was wrong. In desperation he picked up the Bible and flipped through the pages. Nothing. But then the tome fell open at a middle page. The corner had been turned over and from the looks of the greasy paper Aaron had read this section many times. But that was not what caught Rees’s interest. A torn piece of thick paper had been tucked into the spine.

  ‘What’s that?’ Jonathan asked, peering over Rees’s shoulder. He answered his own question. ‘It looks like Aaron was moved by the Spirit and chose to draw something to honor Him,’ he said in a wondering tone.

  Rees looked at the faint pencil sketch; the left side of the Tree of Life. He could not imagine the dour Aaron drawing anything so ethereal. ‘Where’s the rest of it?’ he muttered, trying to remove the paper. It was firmly fixed. No wonder Aaron had torn the sheet when he’d tried to remove it. ‘And why is it here?’

  ‘Brother Aaron was particularly fond of that Psalm,’ Jonathan said in a repressive tone.

  Rees took his thumbnail and gently pried up one end of the drawing. Then slowly, oh so slowly, he teased out the rest of the scrap. He never knew what impulse inspired him to turn over the paper but he did. ‘“Gon to”,’ Rees read in clumsy block printing. ‘God damn it,’ Rees said emphatically and very loudly.

  ‘Rees, please,’ Jonathan said. ‘Such language.’

  ‘Don’t you see,’ Rees bellowed, turning on the man beside him. ‘Shem left a note.’

  ‘He couldn’t have,’ Jonathan said. ‘Shem is illiterate.’

  ‘So, you tell me then why did Aaron leave?’ Rees demanded. He didn’t care he was shouting. ‘Aaron knew all along that Shem was running off to the circus.’

  ‘Will, Will,’ Lydia said. ‘Stop shouting. The constable can probably hear you in town.’ Jonathan watched her in dismay as she entered the bedchamber. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Look at this,’ Rees said, handing his wife the slip of paper. ‘Shem left a note. And Aaron kept it without telling anyone.’

  ‘That seems unlikely,’ Esther said, also stepping into the room and peering over Lydia’s shoulder. ‘Even if Shem knew how to read and write some, these chicken scratches make no sense.’

  ‘Yes, they do,’ Rees said.
‘Look.’ He pointed at the top line of pale letters. ‘“Gon to” – it doesn’t take much imagination to see it means “Gone to circus”.’

  ‘And these,’ Lydia said, pointing at the marks on the bottom, ‘these are letters. See?’ She ran her finger over the first one. ‘“L”.’

  ‘That means nothing,’ Jonathan said.

  ‘I think it does,’ Lydia said. ‘These are the letters: L. E. A. T.’

  ‘Leat?’ Esther repeated. ‘What does leat mean?’

  ‘No,’ Lydia said. ‘It’s L, E, Ah, T.’ She looked up and met her husband’s eyes. ‘It’s Ellio—’

  ‘Elliott,’ Rees said, understanding in a flash. ‘Aaron is following the circus to Elliott.’

  Lydia nodded. ‘Shem knew where the circus was going and left a note. He probably didn’t want Aaron, or anyone else,’ she added, her eyes moving to Jonathan, ‘to worry.’

  ‘Aaron has at least half a day’s head start,’ Rees said.

  ‘I don’t understand why Aaron would lie,’ Jonathan said miserably.

  ‘I’ll have to leave right away,’ Rees said. Lydia bit her lip.

  ‘Yes, I suppose you do if you want to catch them.’

  ‘I just hope the circus stopped along the way,’ Rees said.

  EIGHTEEN

  The children playing were outside when Rees and Lydia arrived home. Lydia’s mouth turned down at the corners and she shook her head in silent disapproval. But Annie had swept the kitchen floor and both wood and water had been fetched. ‘Bread is rising on the board,’ Annie said. Lydia began to smile. Rees decided he was glad Annie came often to the farm. She worked hard and would be company for Lydia when he was away.

  ‘Annie and Jerusha have everything well in hand here,’ Lydia said, turning a meaningful look upon her husband. ‘I want to accompany you.’

  He shook his head at her. ‘It may be dangerous,’ he said.

  She fixed her clear blue eyes upon him. ‘Dangerous? You’re going after a Shaker Brother and a boy,’ she said. ‘How dangerous could it be?’

  ‘I’ll be sleeping rough,’ he said. ‘Camping by the side of the road.’