Magnolia Gods (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 2)

by Thomas Hollyday

  Answer: “What are they saying?”

  Question: “Lights were moving in the sky but strangely they heard no noise. The lights were red and green and circled your house at low altitude. After a few circles around your farmhouse, the lights turned west and went away.”

  Answer: “I don't know anything about that.”

  Question: “Do you think these might have been running lights of an airplane?”

  Answer: “I don’t know.”

  Question: “These folks say they know you and your husband pretty well.”

  Answer: “Well, maybe they do.”

  Question: “We have all of them relating in sworn statements that it was you out back of your house that night with a flashlight signaling, blinking, to the lights up in the sky.”

  (Mary asked us to end the interview after that. She ordered fresh tea for all of us and sat quietly holding her glass)

  “Here’s something you might want to read,” Drexel said and handed him a page with handwritten notes. “That’s from a book we found in the River Sunday Library, a history of the town. It explained the legend of Magnolia Whispers. You remember she mentioned, ‘wisdom from the spirits?’ My staff looked it up. I mean, we were thorough in reviewing her testimony for anything that might help or hurt her.”

  Mike took the paper. “Did you learn anything?”

  Drexel grinned. “History of the Indians? I don’t think anyone gave a damn. We did not put it into evidence, if that’s what you mean. See for yourself if you can figure out why he used that name for the seaplane.”

  Indian Tales of the Eastern Shore, compiled from conversations with actual Indians of Maryland and Pennsylvania, by O.P. Spicer, Historian, (Maryland Books, Philadelphia, 1927). Chapter nine, “The Tragedy of the Nanticoke.”

  “The legend of magnolia whispers is one of our most fascinating and terrifying legends to come down from the early days. The Nanticokes were a strong and proud people throughout the Eastern Shore. One small band professed to be in special communication with the gods of the Nanticokes. It was said that their leaders listened to the whispers of their gods in the wind in the leaves of the great magnolias. This group who lived far inland from the Chesapeake was never invaded by the hordes of Northern Indians who would come through the area to get food and take captives. The invading groups feared this immense power.

  “They were first seen by the early immigrants from England and their lands were sought for growing tobacco. No one traded with these people however. The colonists were religious men and women but they were also superstitious. They heard the legends of this group, and they feared to communicate with them lest they be tortured or killed by their supreme power.

  “Finally in the deep night an English captain named Lawson and one of the missionaries holding a cross attacked. In the village they found huge groves of magnolia trees. The Indians were asleep, apparently secure in the thought that their spirits had not warned them of this incursion. The colonials, aware that the Indians believed in the whispers of these trees, set about firing the trees and the village.

  “Great was the terror of these Indians, not used to warfare of any kind. Their supreme weapon had been the fear in others of their incantations and of these trees of knowledge. When the trees were set afire, they turned and ran, leaving the land to the colonists.

  “What happened to the Indians after that is not known. One survivor of this clan was said to be still preaching in New York State long afterward, a very old man. He incanted against the outsiders and put curses on their lives and those of their children but he died long before the Revolution. This writer visited the land where the clan was said to have had its village. Now the farmer there plows around the one remaining stand of the magnolias and tells me that he hears no whispers.”

  Drexel handed him another page. “This one is from the History of the Lawson Family of Maryland written in 1910 by Admiral Richard Lawson, who was the father of Captain Lawson.”

  “Colonel Edward Lawson (1650-1703) was one of the truly great soldiers in early Chesapeake settlements. Certainly his victory over the Nanticoke settlements in the central Eastern Shore was one of his greatest accomplishments.

  “A whole tribe of Nanticoke were destroyed in a surprise attack by Colonel Lawson and his militia in 1697. His militia was handpicked for this duty from local bondsmen and free men who usually worked for him or owed him money. Colonel Lawson with his own funds armed them with the latest weapons and cannon.

  “The Nanticoke village was eliminated as a lesson to other marauders. Especially important was the need to cut down the great magnolia trees which had a special significance to these Indians and were deemed important to destroy so as to also destroy their spirit, their desire to fight, and their unholy religion. It was said that the elders of the tribe would meet under the great trees for formal conferences and that these meetings had been going on since the earliest days any of the Indian could remembers. It was said that when the winds blew in from the Chesapeake that certain whispering sounds came from the leaves in the trees as the breeze blew through and that these sounds were interpreted as messages from the spirits of the land, messages that gave wisdom and protected this particular Nanticoke tribe from danger. So they took great care to cultivate the trees and each family had a work detail of hours spent in this care as a village responsibility.

  “The militia members reported to Colonel Lawson that destroying some of the trees took several days as the trunks were very large. And the roots of the trees were viciously holding to the ground as though they were an enemy army.”

  Drexel leaned toward Mike. “Have you learned anything about the case that I might not know?”

  “Nothing”

  “Probably just as well you don’t tell me. Aviatrice doesn’t like people who know too much about the Lawsons.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Wall tried to threaten me. He scared off all the other lawyers. I was the only one who would take the case. I thought it would help my career. It didn’t. I found out that Americans didn’t like anything to do with Communists. I got over the smear campaign though.” The old lawyer smiled and reached down and handed Jesse another folder.

  “I wouldn’t mind you aggravating that bastard Wall. Here, this is the eyewitness account of Lawson taking off that night. The statement was from a fisherman who saw the whole event from the other side of the river.”

  Question: Describe what you saw on the night of July 4, 1946.

  Answer: “The night was quiet and peaceful, very pleasant. World War Two had been over for almost a year. The bombers no longer droned overhead at twilight. Now in the evening there was only the chattering of human life, of families growing and children at play. That Fourth of July night it was like pre-war times with good food and laughter and no fear.

  “The smell of dead fish and seaweed rotting in summer heat rose from the shallows. I was fishing off a small wooden pier across the river from the city streets of Philadelphia and the lights and brick buildings of the United States Naval Research Laboratory.

  “Suddenly, out in the darkness in the middle of the river, I heard a seaplane taking off, the washing of its propellers cutting through the air. I watched as the seaplane’s small white wing lights lifted gently, the propeller noise easing back. Then the plane was silent but the lights still climbed silently at high speed from the river in front of the base, heading east over New Jersey to the Atlantic.”

  Question: “You’re sure it was east?”

  Answer: “Yessir, out the river, then turning due east.”

  Question: “Go on.”

  Answer: “I remember thinking about my wife just then and I said to myself, softly so she wouldn’t hear me, she thinks I fish too much and that’s why I’m always talking to myself. Got the children scared sometimes, she says.”

  “I tilted my head to watch the light.

  “’Mercy,’ I said to myself, ‘That plane is quiet. What kind of engine is that? Must be some kind of
experimental job. Why are they still testing? This war is over. Today is a vacation day.’

  “The quiet tiny lights moved further out to the east and then were turned off, or I couldn’t see them anymore, I wasn’t sure.”

  “’Lord,’ I said to myself, ‘But he don't make no noise like those big engines on the bombers I hear coming over during the war. It ain't no jet. I know that sound too. Well, he’s gone and I’m still here. Ain’t that the way.’

  “Them atomic bombs, that's what scares me, ‘cause you die too quick. I looked behind me at the beach beside the pier. The other black families from the church were there. I was the only one fishing. The men wouldn't fish with me because they said I caught all the fish.

  (laughter in the hearing room)

  “They spend too much time in Philadelphia. They forget how to fish that's all. Not too hard to learn again if they want to. Excuses. They just want to talk to the women.”

  “I jiggled my line. She complains about my talking but that woman, my wife, she likes my fishing. Before the kids came, she would come and fish with me all night. She still cooks everything I catch.

  “I watched as my wife served our two children the last of the pie. I knew the pie had extra sugar in it just for me. She had worked hard on that pie. The kids loved her. I could see it in their faces as she helped them.

  “I looked up to the highway above the beach. My cousins were supposed to be there. I wished they’d hurry up because the fireworks were going to start pretty soon. This was the first big fireworks display since the war.

  “Then I looked again at the black river. It was real quiet. I told the Navy agent sitting there (witness pointed to investigator in the front row of the hearing room) that was when I heard what sounded like an alarm clock going off, a sound coming over the water from the other shore.

  “Then, after the buzzing, the flash of light blazed everything around me, shining on the terrified faces of my wife and children, her hand frozen with a piece of pie for my little boy. I heard a roaring sound like a volcano erupting and a blast of pressure pushed me back on to the seat of my pants.

  “‘The Navy Lab. It blew up. Run,’ I called to them, crawling, trying to stand in the sandy wind, my fishing rod skidding ahead of me, its line and sinkers insane. I remembered thinking again for those moments about atomic bombs, and then thinking, no, I’m not burned like those Japanese, this is a dynamite explosion. I remembered grabbing my children around the waist. I remembered pushing my wife up the sandy hill towards the road and our car to get away as bits of flaming wood floated down around them. I remembered looking back once across the river, the fear of turning to stone like in the Bible tumbling through my mind, and I saw the fire and the twisting boards floating in the air and burning on the water.”

  Drexel sat back in his chair. “Must have been quite a night.”

  Mike eyed the remaining folders on his lap.

  “First of all,” continued the lawyer, “The defendant was dead. He was the only one who could have really confessed to the crime. Her being an accomplice was hard to prove. The prosecutors held on to her in the hope that by doing this they would satisfy everyone’s outrage, I mean, the politicians, the Navy brass, the people in the street. I think the hearing was because the public wanted something tangible. She was the one they grabbed and held in her quarters. Americans had lost an important part of the defense of the country and they wanted to get paid back, to have someone to blame.

  “Add to that,” he continued, “The diplomats wanted the case out of the newspapers. What took all the time was getting a hearing date agreed to, and, of course, lots of lawyer posturing, mine included. The wife was in custody all this time.”

  He twisted in his chair. “George,” he called.

  The old man appeared.

  “Can you find some drinks for us?”

  He turned to Mike and said, “It's hot, don't you think? I remember I always liked traveling down the pretty countryside to Philadelphia, but Goddamn it was hot down there at the Navy Base.”

  He turned his eyes to the ceiling. “We had some Navy testimony.” Drexel looked briefly in the next folder. “They mostly recited the lists of what was stolen, the data collected on Lawson, which wasn’t much, I mean, much subversive. They didn’t have anything. No memberships in the Communist Party. Nothing.

  “The Navy spent a lot of time on the bombed out lab and pretty much established that Lawson set the bomb that blew it up just before he flew off. They also showed that he was definitely alone on the aircraft and that no one else had been with him in the lab or pier area when the explosion and theft of the plane took place. He was the only one the security guard signed in, and no way for anyone else to have entered. I mean, that place was designed to be protected against Nazi agents and enemy submarines. It was tight.

  “The Navy treated Mary Lawson like a drunk shore leave sailor. She was forced to wear a gray pullover, with canvas shoes they gave her. That’s what she wore to the hearing. A couple of Navy women, very strict looking as I remember, guarded her, and they were with her in court.

  “The Navy Intelligence officers, me, the hearing judges, and a group of Navy staffers were present. The Navy lawyers asked the questions and, of course, I came up with any rebuttals I could muster.

  “It’s all here, what she said.” Drexel threw the folder on the floor and smiled,” The railroad ticket to New York City was a problem. You’ll read about it in this interrogation. The Navy had found the ticket in the house.”

  Question: “Tell us about your husband. How did he vote in the last Presidential election?”

  Answer: “I said before he was for Roosevelt because the man helped folks get jobs. That was real important down where we lived on the Eastern Shore. Folks needed those jobs.”

  Question: “Did your husband like President Truman?”

  Answer: “He didn't like him blowing up all those Japanese. He said that he didn't think Roosevelt would have dropped those bombs.”

  Question: “What did he do about his concern about the atomic bombs?”

  Answer: “He never was much on writing letters to Congress. He did not like groups. He liked to do things on his own.”

  Question: “What, for example?”

  Answer: “Well, I know he wanted to send money to help the burned Japanese in those cities that were hit by the atomic bombs.”

  Question: “Did he send money?”

  Answer: “He could not find a way as far as I know. Last I remember he was going to contact the United Nations. I don't know whether he did contact them or not. He just stopped talking about it.”

  Question: “Did he ever mention the Communist Party?”

  Answer: “Not much. He said they were as guilty of crime against humanity as the Nazis.”

  Question: “Why did he say that?”

  Answer: “He said they both liked to fight wars. They loved war. He said that made them both guilty as hell of killing people.”

  Question: “In your house, we found a train ticket to New York City. Who was going to use the ticket?”

  Answer: “I don't know about that. The Captain had his own things. I didn't touch them.”

  Question: “How do you explain that your fingerprints and the fingerprints of your husband were on the ticket?”

  Answer: “I don't know. I must have moved it to dust his desk.”

  Question: “What do you think happened to your husband?”

  Answer: “The newspapers say he flew his airplane towards a Soviet battleship in the Atlantic Ocean.”

  Question: “What is your opinion about that?”

  Answer: “I don't think he would give his secret work to the Soviets. I think he crashed in the ocean. He was out on a test flight and he crashed.”

  Question: “Why did the laboratory explode?”

  Answer: “Laboratories explode all the time. They test stuff and sometimes it blows up.”

  Question: “Your husband was flying a seaplane. Don’t you think he s
hould have landed rather than crashed in the ocean?”

  Answer: “Well, maybe it crashed in a storm.”

  Question: “The weather was calm.”

  Answer: “I don't know. You ask me what I think and I tell you. That's all I can do.”

  Drexel spoke up when he saw that Mike had finished reading.

  “The Navy was hot on that ticket,” the lawyer said. “They thought they had her. Problem was they could not prove that ticket had anything to do with Lawson’s plot. The fact that he might have flown over the farm did not mean anything either. I made the point that the two of them were married and that any signals might have been romantic in nature. The Navy could not prove her enough of an accomplice to go to jail.

  “I argued for the case to be closed, that is, I argued through the Navy lawyer that the court appointed her. I said to the officials, ‘You want to keep digging, then all right, but you will find nothing. So maybe we are thankful that we have a vigilant group of Navy investigators and they never quit, I said, but in this case it seems a waste of the taxpayers’ money.’

  “The judges decided to let her go home.”

  He handed over another paper, saying, “Here are the recommendations.”

  “Philadelphia Naval Factory Explosion and Theft of Seaplane on 4 July 1945: Court of Inquiry: Recommendations.

  1. That concerning the explosion in the Naval Research Factory laboratory:

  a. Any results from further investigation of the activities of Captain Edward Lawson will be presented to this Court as discovered in the future.

  b. Nothing has been presented to this court to link him definitely to the explosions.

  c. Mary Lawson, the wife of Captain Edward Lawson, is not linked by any information presented to this court to any explosions at the lab.

  2. That until the seaplane is retrieved from its crash site in the Atlantic Ocean, no further information can be gained concerning the destination of its pilot.