by catt dahman
There were a few newspaper articles about the woman who fell into a well and the search for her. There were slight, veiled references to the Roundtree family, but the wording was careful.
One fall, a negro boy was caught and beaten before being strung up and hanged by some local boys. It was said he molested a white girl, but the girl was never named, and Michael Roundtree knew the boy was from a good, God-fearing family, smart, and hard working. It was no coincidence that the Negro boy was lynched after Edith threw one of her screaming fits after Michael refused to stop tutoring the boy in Latin, at their house.
The newspaper clippings never called the lynch mob by name, and featured warm interviews with Michael Roundtree and cold remarks from Edith. The coverage of the case was lean and never on the front page.
In grade school, a little girl who won a spelling ribbon by beating Edith, was found at the bottom of a gulley, drowned. Michael Roundtree told himself the little red ribbon that Edith kept hidden in a jewelry box was a different ribbon.
“That’s all local gossip though, She wasn’t ever held accountable,” Fairalee said, “but Virgil would ask why was it mentioned then? He always says there is at least a grain of truth in every bit of gossip.”
Vivian laughed, “Oh wow. You really have been watching him way too much. But that’s true. He believes that. We can just say that her father and the community had concerns and they seem based on Edith’s temper, jealousy, and desire to have everything for herself.”
“That fits, doesn’t it?” Fairalee said.
“John Kingsborough and his family are totally clean. Everyone liked them, respected their business tactics, and spoke well of them,” Ed Ripley said, “But before he married Edith, John spent time in New Orleans and then hired a builder from there. What was going on in New Orleans at that time?”
“Tell us.”
Ripley began to say some of the material aloud, “Before the early 1880s, African slaves celebrated their own religion and it often involved snakes and blood rituals. West Indian slaves were added, and the rituals began a change, a sort of religion combined around voudou. Around this time, the queen of the religion was Marie Laveau and there seems to be a ton written about her but no one fully agrees on the facts.”
Fairalee read from her book, “She was a business woman and was smart enough to turn Voudou into a profitable business with stage shows and sales of charms and all. She was flamboyant, attractive, and many of her customers were white, rich people who wanted love charms or something to better their success.”
The woman had a daughter who also participated in healing, caring for the ill, and a hand in comingling of black magic with Catholicism. Because the women looked alike and acted alike, they were thought to be the same person. Marie Laveau might appear one day as an older woman who patiently tended to the ill with balms and broths, and the next day appear as a young, sensual woman dancing and selling her wares. Even if people knew the difference, it was far more interesting to say the two were one person who could change her age as needed.
Ripley pointed to a book, “There are tons of events…ball…dinners…you name it and John Kingsborough’s name and Marie Laveau’s are always on the lists of notable personages. It seems as if they socialized a lot.”
“Charles Moreau? The builder?”
Ripley nodded, “Always on the lists as well. At this point, there isn’t a lot of information, but there was a lot going on in New Orleans. There were cults, murders, reports of human sacrifice, several clubs for men only that were said to be, and I quote ‘havens for loose creole girls and fornicators and homosexual men’.”
“Well, that’s interesting. Did Moreau have an interest in Edith or in John?” Virgil thought aloud.
Chapter Seven: Side Case
Virgil and Vivian drove to meet Sheriff Thomas at the police station, and then they followed him to a dusty trailer park at the end a road, on the edge of town. A teen girl named Lisa, lived in a trailer and disappeared two months before. In a town where vanishings were normal but at an astonishing rate, the sheriff needed a solve on a case.
Virgil shook hands with the girl’s stepfather, Frank, and her mother, Mary as he looked around. There was the scent of lemon cleaner and bleach, but while the trailer house was fairly clean, it was old, cluttered, and cramped. Frank sat at a worn out Formica table with a glass of tea while Mary paced the kitchen.
“Have you got news?”
“Nothing concrete, Mary, but Sheriff McLendon and his wife, Deputy McLendon have strong successes in investigations. We still need to ascertain if this is a run-away situation or …something else.”
“She didn’t run away,” Mary said. She had said the same thing for the last two months. She ran a hand through bleached blonde hair, making her big earrings glitter and turn.
“How was she doing in school?” Virgil dug in.
“She was an A student and was beginnin’ to study with other girls the week she went missing. Lisa was getting’ more sociable.”
“And at home? Any changes?”
“None.”
“Except she was getting’ more with other kids, Mare. She had a friend come over the night she disappeared and she had some phone calls that week from girls.”
“That was unusual?”
“Them girls don’t usually hang out with the likes of us,” Frank said.
Mary sighed.
Sheriff Thomas said, “The group of kids I told you about, Sheriff McLendon. They’re the wealthiest kids in town and developed a new friendship with Lisa.”
“That Judy girl come over and they went to Lisa’s room giggling and then they left on a double date. Some boy driving a van.”
“We have that in the file, Sheriff,” Thomas said.
“May we see her room? Have you changed anything?”
“I ain’t touched a thing. I keep telling myself that when she gets home, she can clean it up herself,” Mary choked a little as she wiped her nose with an arm.
Lisa’s room was typical for a teen girl. There were a few magazine pictures of musical stars taped to the paneled walls, a pile of stuffed animals, worn and faded, on the quilt of Lisa’s bed, a dresser and desk. The dresser was covered by piles of make-up and small perfume bottles.
Virgil sniffed a few bottles. Floral. The cosmetics were interesting and Vivian had already picked up a few tubes and small plastic cases. She looked at each, “ These are new and from a discount store. There are a lot of new kinds…twenty or so.”
“She didn’t have those before. Maybe she and Judy bought them, but Lisa didn’t have the money to buy that junk,” Mary said. Her face was bare of cosmetics except for some bright, cheap lip stick.
Vivian, having looked at a picture of Lisa, frowned, “These are strong shades. Did Lisa wear these colors of make-up?”
“No. She wore lip gloss and mascara is all normally.”
“Her choice or yours?”
“Both. She tried a few times to wear fancy make-up but I didn’t allow it. Ain’t no reason for a young girl to cover her face in all that paint.
A chair was before the dresser and that was where Lisa sat as she got ready for the date. A spot on the bed was clear and presumably where Judy perched and coached.
“Those foam rollers ain’t hers either. She didn’t curl up her hair.”
“Did she look different when she left?” Virgil asked Frank.
He shrugged, “I barely saw her but she was on a short skirt, big heeled shoes, and her hair was all curled up and wild. I started to say somethin’ but it would have turned into an argument.”
“Did you argue often?”
“Here we go again, blaming me? No, we didn’t. And I didn’t have anything to do with her going missing,” Frank growled.
“I am just asking.”
Virgil studied the man a few seconds and then went back to looking over the room. On Lisa’s desk, there was a paper she was working on for school. In a drawer, there were A papers stored. On a bulletin b
oard were pictures of movie stars and a few cartoons cut from a newspaper, some poetry torn from a magazine, and pictures of cats and dogs. There were no movie stubs, no pictures of Lisa and friends, no corsages, and nothing to indicate a social life or personal things.
In a drawer were a few crumpled dollar bills Lisa made from babysitting. Gathered, they totaled fifteen dollars. There was some change as well, gum, a few pieces of broken, junk jewelry, pens, paperclips, and a dozen rubber bands. There were no notes from friends, letters, or anything personal.
Sheriff Thomas, as if reading their minds, opened the folder and pointed to some notes. Lisa had no friends and was teased and made fun of for her living style, parents, and unpopularity.
Virgil and Vivian looked at Lisa’s closet, “What is missing?”
Mary pointed, “A top she liked to wear that was a little short. It showed her stomach and she never wore it out, but I guess she did that night.”
“And a skirt?”
“No. That wasn’t hers. Maybe that friend brought it over, but Lisa didn’t have no short skirt. Them shoes sound like hers though and she’s got a pair missin’.”
“It sounds as if she made up her face, fixed her hair, and dressed contrary to normal.”
“Yep.”
“Boyfriends? Did Lisa date? Sneak out? Drink or smoke?”
“No to all that. She was too young to date really and the boys that showed her interest was dirty, low-lifes,” She cut her eyes to Frank and sighed again. “I didn’t know about this here date, but she come in with that Judy and Frank give her permission that mornin’ when I was asleep.”
“That morning?”
Frank nodded, “I got up for a glass of tea and she was drinking milk and heading off to school. She said not to bother her mama but could she go to a show or somethin’ with her friends. She didn’t ever ask me nothin’ so I teased her a little and she got mouthy, and then she left. When she came home, Mary was gone to work, and I teased the girls some and let ‘em do what they wanted. Didn’t figure there was much bad they could get into in a group.”
“You thought wrong,” Mary snapped.
“What did you tease her about?”
Frank scratched his head, “Meh. Did she wanna drink or a cigarette. That shit. I liked to see her get all embarrassed and she always said no. She didn’t mess with smokes or drinkin’.”
Virgil and Vivian returned to the kitchen. Virgil asked about money, hobbies, interests, and then sat back, thinking. “When she left here with her friend, all was fine. Lisa didn’t plan to run away or to not return. Either she decided that later, she was taken against her will, or something else happened. She is not a run away.”
Mary nodded, “I ain’t sure if I should be relieved or not. I been saying that all along.” She cut her eyes to Frank and back, “You think someone hurt her?”
“It’s possible. If she called here, you would have gone to get her?” Virgil asked Frank.
“I would have but after them girls left, I went out to go buy beer and my damned truck wouldn’t start.”
Thomas broke in, “That was checked and it’s true.”
Mary offered her visitors iced tea, filled plastic glasses with ice, poured them tea, and drank hers slowly, “I had my old car with me down to the café and all. Lisa could have called me. She had the number memorized.”
“Did anyone around here in the park know about her going out with those kids?”
“She didn’t talk to anyone around here. She was kind of scared of the folks here. They ain’t all bad, but they are rough, yanno. I don’t think anyone knew except for seeing the van come get her.”
“I didn’t get anyone saying they knew anything but yes, they did see the van and wondered what Lisa was doing,” Thomas said.
“I didn’t do anything,” Frank stated.
Virgil looked at the man, “I don’t have you at the top of my list of suspects either.”
When they left, they drove over to the town’s park. Thomas said he’d sit in his car while Vivian and Virgil met the high school students. “The rest have parents who threatened to lawyer up and refused to talk. All I found out, I had to drag from the kids and ended up interviewing about fifty kids to get what I have.
Trish and Steve sat at a concrete table, on benches, and looked around nervously.
“Thank you for meeting with us,” Virgil said.
“Let’s just make it fast, okay? I mean, I hope you can find Lisa…no one wanted anything bad to happen to her.”
Virgil was up to date on the trick they pulled, pretending to befriend the girl in order to set her up to be the butt of a joke that many of the students were in on. He was disgusted at the behavior of the kids and felt they should all be held responsible for anything that happened to Lisa.
“From what I saw at Lisa’s house, I reckon dressing Lisa up in garish make-up and fixing her hair and getting her into skimpy clothing was part of the plan?”
Trish jumped. She had no idea how he knew Judy did all that, “Yes, Sir.”
“What was that about?”
“Making her look like her mother…a whore. All the kids talked about Lisa’s mom being a hooker at the truck stop,” Steve said.
Virgil thought the boy was less sorry about the prank than Trish was.
“You were in the van when Lisa was picked up? Okay. At that point, Lisa was dressed up like a prostitute, but she didn’t know it and she didn’t know you all had a joke going. Everyone was fine with this?”
“I guess. She didn’t have friends, Sheriff, so she was happy that week. She wasn’t that bad. She was different, but she acted and thought pretty much the same as we did. My parents would have just died if I had hung out with someone like her, though.”
“Like what?”
“From the bad side of town. Her mother is a whore and her dad is a drunk. Those kinds of people do nothing but suck the life out of others. They’ll bring everyone down they can.”
“I see,” Virgil replied, “On the night Lisa vanished, you all went to Al’s house. I bet you had alcohol, there was sex, and maybe some drugs? Sounds like she really brought you down,” Virgil said sarcastically.
The teens stared at the top of the table.
He pushed, “Did you give Lisa alcohol?”
“No,” Trish had a guilty face.
“Try again.”
“”She had a beer or two but that’s all. There was not hard liquor in the van.”
“I feel so much better,” Vivian snapped, “You gave her beer? She didn’t drink!”
“Really?” Trish looked more guilty, “I didn’t know that.”
“You didn’t know her at all. She was a straight A student, didn’t smoke or drink either. Her parents were strict, despite whatever you think about them. Did you smoke pot?”
“A little,” Trish admitted, wiping her eyes of tears.
“And you all called her wild and other names? She was far more innocent that you rich kids.”
Trish sniffed, blew her nose, and stared harder at the table. Steve’s icy glare broke and he looked a little guilty.
“Who came up with this plan first?”
“Judy, Dustin, and Tim wanted to do it. We planned the weekend before. We all were agreeable, though. None of us refused or even argued,” Trish said honestly. “Sheriff, do you think she is okay? Lisa? I never wanted anyone to get hurt or to disappear.”
“We don’t know, Trish. It’s been almost eight weeks since she vanished and there are no sightings of her, she had no family to run to, and she hasn’t called. It can be that she ran away, but we think she would have taken some clothing and some money she had. If she ran away without money and anything happens to her….”
“I wish we had never listened to Judy,” Trish said.
“I understand that when she found out it was all a sick joke, she decided to leave Al’s house?”
“Yes,” Steve said.
“Did she ask to use a telephone or try to use one?”
&
nbsp; “No.”
“What did she do?”
“She ran out the front door and that was all we saw.”
Virgil leaned forward, “From his house, she could have gone down the driveway and to the street to walk to a phone, right? Or she could have gone to the right or left as well. What makes sense to you?”
“She was upset,” Trish said, glancing at Steve, “and she ran out. She was crying and muttering how she never wanted to see us again and all. I kind of felt bad then. Everyone was laughing and cheering. I looked at Steve and we saw Lisa’s eyes when she ran out. We may have looked okay and part of it on the outside, but inside, I felt a little sick.”
“Would she have gone towards the other big houses? I doubt it. No one saw her on the street, so that excludes that. In the other direction were the woods, and the Kingsborough house.”
“She might have gone that way to use a phone.”
“Was she scared of the Kingsborough House?” Vivian asked.
“I dunno. We’ve grown up around it and it’s creepy, but it’s all fake, probably, so no one is scared of that place. I would go there alone at night, but Lisa was upset and she could have headed that way.”
Virgil knew that the woods had been combed and there were no signs Lisa went through there, but a hard thunderstorm of rain, the morning after Lisa vanished, left nothing anyway.
“What was planned for the following Monday at school?”
Trish blinked. Sheriff Thomas hadn’t asked them that, “What?”
“You pulled off a major scam, everyone knew, and therefore, you had to be planning to gloat and tease Lisa at school.”
“We didn’t plan that really. We knew people would be telling the story and laughing, but the main part was over. It was more about seeing Lisa’s embarrassment on Monday and sending a message that no one gets into the popular kids’ circle. Look, I know it was wrong. Tammy and Judy are very strong-willed, so it wasn’t like we could go against them and it built fast. It was funny at the time, Sheriff.”