by AmyFleming
But where was that lovely hat with the white feather trim? And where was the man who had stood beside her in the photograph? Miss McArthur would be buried by strangers among strangers.
Mrs. Miles, the pastor’s wife came through the door, carrying a vase of flowers.
“Charlotte,” she said, as she put the vase on the desk beside the coffin. “We’re having the funeral here in the schoolroom. It seemed best. This way all the students and their families will be here.”
Mrs. Miles looked in the coffin and shook her head disapprovingly. “Who opened that box? The children will have nightmares if they look inside.” She hurried out to find someone to put the top back on the coffin.
*****
The funeral was over and the coffee had been served in the schoolroom. All that was left was to clear away all the teacups and serving plates. Most of the women had stayed behind to help but soon Charlotte and Mrs. Miles were the only ones left.
Charlotte took a deep breath. “There’s something I need your help with, Mrs. Miles. I don’t want to go back to the Dredger’s place.”
“What do you want to do?” Mrs. Miles asked.
“I want to live in the teacherage. My contract says the Board will take care of my room and board. It doesn’t say that I have to live at the Dredgers.”
“Why don’t you want to stay there?”
“Yesterday, on the ridge, Mr. Dredger tried to kiss me. He pretended to let me drop over the edge so I would have to hold on to him.”
“Are you sure of what you’re saying Charlotte? That’s a terrible accusation to make about a married man.”
“I know and he’s always been kind to me. I feel so confused. And scared. I can’t quit this job, Mrs. Miles. I’m desperate for the money and I don’t have anywhere else to go -- but I won’t stay at the Dredgers. You can talk to the pastor, make him understand.”
Mrs. Miles was silent for a minute, and then she sighed. “Eileen McArthur told my husband Mr. Dredger was bothering her. I couldn’t believe it. Otto Dredger is married with children. He is on the school board. Why would he want to be bothering Eileen McArthur? My husband told Eileen she must be mistaken. And now she’s dead so we’ll never know what really happened.”
Mrs. Miles thought for a few minutes. “I’ll arrange a tea with some of the ladies. We’ll tell them you need to live in the teacherage to have enough time for your teaching. And I’ll get them all to bring some food and supplies. The sheriff is just down the way. I’ll get him to look in on you every night. We need to take care of you, Charlotte. We can’t lose another teacher.”
Chapter Eighteen
Alec Forrest’s first stop the next morning was by the train station. He followed Pastor Miles inside. The stationmaster was the only one working so Alec waited while Pastor Miles bought tickets for the four o’clock train to Missoula on Thanksgiving Day. Then he waited a while longer as James Ellis, one of the brothers from the Ellis Mine, made some quiet arrangements about a boxcar with Sam.
Alec wanted to make certain the station was empty so only Sam Wilberforce heard his questions. Had Luc Branigan shipped any cattle recently? Sam told him that Luc had shipped out some cattle about two weeks ago.
“Did you see the brands?”
“Why are you asking?” Wilberforce wanted to know.
“It’s possible the teacher, Miss McArthur, saw him rebranding cattle.”
“Do you think he killed her?” the stationmaster asked, wide-eyed.
“Just investigating, Sam.”
Wilberforce had a serious expression on his face. “Branigan did ship some cattle, but it was after the teacher went missing. Four of them were calves, and yes, he might have put the Branigan brand over Dredger’s brand. It was impossible to be sure, Sheriff, and we shipped the cattle out that afternoon.”
If Wilberforce was saying Luc might have rebranded the cattle, Alec knew what Sam really meant was that Luc had done it. Sam just didn’t want to say so. “Oh, that sounds bad for Luc,” Alec said.
Alec went over to the jail to get his deputy. The two men rode out towards the Dredger place and then cut back on the road through Branigan land. None of the land was fenced, and by the law of the open range, cattle were free to roam.
They rode along the creek and found a recent campfire. Someone had blazed a log with a lazy B, the Branigan brand. Luc Branigan had been here branding cattle. Alec and his deputy looked around the site. In the trees, close to the campfire they found a navy blue hat. After a month outside, the feathers on that hat were pretty battered but they were still white.
Alec and his deputy rode on to the Branigan ranch house. They found Luc in a barn. Alec had the blue hat in one hand and asked Luc if he recognized it.
Luc looked at it for a moment. “That’s the teacher’s hat. Miss McArthur’s hat.”
“We found it on your land, Luc. Over near the ford where you’ve been branding. Recently. When did you see Miss McArthur last?”
Luc looked guilty and he hesitated before he replied. Then he said, “I saw her the day she disappeared. She was on the main street walking towards the edge of town.”
“Why was she walking, Luc? I thought you or one of your men usually picked up her and the children.”
“She told me she would rather walk.”
“Why would she rather walk than get a ride back to the ranch?” Alec wanted to know. That didn’t make sense. By the middle of October, the weather was getting colder.
“What are you saying, Sheriff?”
“Luc, I think you killed the teacher.” Alec didn’t have any real evidence that Luc killed Miss McArthur. But he had a feeling in his gut that told him something had happened between Luc and the teacher. Maybe Alec could shake Luc up a bit and Luc would tell him what really happened.
Luc no longer looked guilty. Now he looked outraged. “That’s ridiculous, Sheriff. Why would I do that?”
“You tell me, Luc. You tell me.”
*****
Wednesday morning, in the classroom, Charlotte listened to the stillness. For once, she didn’t feel rushed. Her classroom was organized for the day. The assignments for each grade were on the blackboard, so everyone could get busy as soon as school started. They would spend the morning doing reading and math and the afternoon rehearsing for the Thanksgiving Pageant. By now, all the children should know their lines.
She lifted the brass box out of the bottom drawer of her desk. She ran her fingers over the smooth finish of the box and thought for a minute about the woman who had owned it. What an awful way to die, shot in the woods, her body lying in a frozen stream for over a month.
If it wasn’t for the blue wool coat and dress, it would have been impossible to say who the dead woman was. The door at the back of the classroom opened and a man appeared in the doorway. He was dressed like a miner in heavy canvas pants, a knit shirt and suspenders.
“You’re the man in the picture,” Charlotte said.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“I’m Charlotte Fraser, the teacher here.” She was sure the man must have known Miss McArthur. “This is my classroom now,” she said.
“Your classroom? Where’s Eileen McArthur?”
“You knew her,” Charlotte said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Of course I did. What’s going on here?”
“Please calm down, Mr...?” she raised her voice in a question.
“Neill McArthur.”
All Charlotte could say was, “Oh my goodness,” over and over again.
“She’s my wife,” Neill said.
“I didn’t know she was married,” Charlotte said. It had never crossed Charlotte’s mind that Eileen McArthur was married. Not even when she saw the picture of the couple outside the church. Not even when she saw the ring on the chain around her neck. Charlotte was astonished.
“I came as soon as I got her letter. Where is she?” Charlotte recognized the letter in his hand. It was the one Charlotte had mailed the first day of s
chool.
She wished there were anybody else here to give Neill this heartbreaking news. Very gently, she said, “Eileen died. Her funeral was yesterday. You’ve only just missed it.”
“What happened to her?”
“I could go and get the sheriff. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you,” Charlotte said. She went outside. Tommy Dredger was playing in the schoolyard. She sent him to get the sheriff and went back inside to wait with Neill McArthur.
“She wanted to leave,” Neill said, more to himself than to Charlotte. “She wanted to leave, but I wanted her to stay. It’s no life for a woman out on a gold claim. And she was making good money here.”
There was nothing Charlotte could say.
“It was my fault. Everyone here thought she was single and there aren’t very many single women in Bandit Creek. She was afraid of something.”
“I have some of her things,” Charlotte said. “She left them here in her desk.”
She pushed the brass box with the picture and letters across the desk to him. Then Charlotte lifted the gold locket out of the bottom of the drawer.
“Is there a wallet?” Neill asked.
“This is everything I have. Anything else must be in her trunk at the Dredgers.”
Charlotte went to pass the gold locket to him and it spun around on the chain. “Eileen wrote me about that locket,” Neill said as he reached for it. “Someone must have given it to her.”
Charlotte noticed a thistle carved into the back of the locket. She pulled it back and asked whether Eileen was Scottish.
“No, her family name was Devlin.”
“I saw a watch with the exact same carving of a thistle,” Charlotte said. She thought about Otto Dredger’s watch. It couldn’t be a coincidence, the thistle on Mr. Dredger’s watch and now on this locket. Then she remembered Eliza Dredger searching the ranch house for something.
Neill took the locket from her. “Pretty little thing,” he said. He took the picture out of the locket and examined it.
“This here is Laura Wallace,” he said, surprise in his voice.
“Who is Laura Wallace?” Alec asked, from the back of the room.
“She was a teacher, back in Galveston. She taught both of us, Eileen and me. We grew up near Galveston. Laura’s dad owned a big ranch. They all died during a hurricane. Their ranch hands said they were murdered.”
“Why did Eileen have that locket?”
“I don’t know, Sheriff. In her last letter, she said she was afraid and wanted me to come and get her. I came as soon as I got the letter.”
“When did you see her last?” Alec asked.
“It was about a month ago. I used to come to town to see her, but we didn’t want anyone to suspect she was married, so we met up on a ledge above the river.”
“Over by the waterfalls?” asked Charlotte.
“Yes, you can see for miles around up there,” he said.
“How did you know about that ledge?” Charlotte asked. “You really can’t see it from the top of the cliff.”
“Eileen said she’d been there before.”
“I’m going to keep the locket,” Alec said. “It could be a clue to who killed her.”
“Eileen had a little wallet,” Neill said again. “It has all of my wages from the mine. I didn’t want to keep the money on me.”
“Check with Otto Dredger,” Alec said. “That’s where she was boarding.”
Charlotte pictured Otto Dredger in her mind, pulling the gold chain and ring from Eileen McArthur’s body and wondered whether Neill McArthur would ever get his money.
“Can you think of anyone who would have harmed your wife?” Alec asked.
“No one wanted to hurt her,” Neill said. “There was one fellow who was a rancher who kept asking her to go riding with him. She was trying to keep our marriage a secret, so she went out riding with him a few times.”
“Did she tell you who it was?” Alec asked.
“Someone named Luc, Luc Branigan, I think she said.”
“Do you know what happened?” Alec asked.
“She told me she was going to have to tell him to leave her alone.”
“Is that who she was afraid of?”
“She didn’t say in her letter, just that she had a locket with a picture in it. Something wasn’t right and I had to come for her.”
After Neill left, Alec stayed behind to tell Charlotte they had arrested Luc Branigan. They planned to question him, but after talking to Neill McArthur, Alec was certain that Branigan was guilty of the murder. “I hope that makes you feel safer,” he said.
“I can’t believe Luc killed her,” Charlotte said. “He’s been so good to me.”
“He’s been rebranding some of Otto Dredger’s cattle as Branigan cattle. I think Eileen McArthur saw him. And we found her hat near his campfire.”
“He used to pick us up at the school and drive us home,” Charlotte said. “I can’t believe it.”
Alec looked at her carefully. “Are you fond of Luc?”
Charlotte wondered why Alec Forrest had any concern about whether she might care for Luc. How did that figure into his search for a murderer. “Why do you ask, Sheriff?” she said.
He paused for a moment and looked like he was trying to come up with some explanation. Then he shrugged and left the schoolroom.
*****
That night, after having her dinner in the teacherage, Charlotte went back to the schoolroom. Thanksgiving was a little more than a week away and she wanted to make certain all the costumes were organized. Satisfied that everything was in order, Charlotte went back to the teacherage.
When Alec came by that night, Charlotte smoothed her dress and hair before she let him in.
“Are you really going to come and check on me every night?” she asked.
“Mrs. Miles would have my head, if I didn’t,” Alec said ruefully.
“Does Mrs. Miles run this town?” Charlotte asked.
“It’s best to let her think she does,” the young man said. “Then everyone can get about their business. Besides, a young girl living here by yourself. I like to know you’re safe too.”
“I can take care of myself,” Charlotte said, thinking of the revolver in her purse.
He smiled. “You certainly aren’t the helpless type.”
“I’m glad you came by, Sheriff. I need to talk to you about that locket that Eileen McArthur had. Otto Dredger has a pocket watch with that same thistle engraved on it. Same as the locket. He had a picture of a girl. He said it was his sister, Laura. It’s too much to be a coincidence.”
“Neill McArthur was pretty sure that girl in the picture in the locket was named Laura Wallace,” Alec said. “I sent a telegram today to the Galveston sheriff to find out what happened to her and her family.”
*****
Annie Hamilton was getting ready for her first visitor for Tuesday evening. When he got there, Pastor Miles was out of breath. His wife had been late leaving for her meeting, and so he was late but he had the train tickets for Annie and her son.
After they made love, they lay together in silence for a few minutes. Then Pastor Miles said, “I’ll be so glad to take you away from all this.”
“Not nearly as happy as me,” she said.
“I want to go to the train separately,” he said. “In case my wife decides to come and see me off. There’s no point in embarrassing her.”
She took the tickets from him. “Separate is fine,” she said. She wondered if he had an extra ticket in case his wife changed her mind and decided to come along.
The pastor left so he would be home well before his wife. Some things never changed. In that minute, Annie knew the pastor was never going to leave his wife. He might think so, but when he was settled in Seattle, he would send for his wife.
Annie tucked the tickets away before Otto Dredger came up the stairs. For once, she was happy to see him. They could make plans about picking Tommy up on Thanksgiving. Otto agreed that Annie could take him fr
om the school after the Thanksgiving Pageant. They would have plenty of time before the train left.
Tonight Otto wanted to talk about the new teacher, Charlotte Fraser. Had Pastor Miles said anything about why she moved into the teacherage?
Annie didn’t tell him that she and the pastor had been busy making their own plans. The less Dredger knew about what she had in mind, the better. Instead, she told Otto that the pastor said that Miss Fraser was looking for more time to prepare for her school classes and was busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. Her words seemed to reassure Otto, and she wondered why he was so worried.
Then Otto wanted to talk about Luc Branigan and whether Annie thought that he was the one who killed Miss McArthur. She knew Otto was trying to find out what the whole town was saying.
“Nobody seems to believe Luc did it,” she told him, “but it certainly is a mystery. No one had any reason to kill the teacher.” Then she told him something that really seemed to shake him up. The deputy, Frank Waters, had told her that Miss Fraser had found a locket in the classroom and Sheriff Forrest thought it might be a clue to the murderer.
*****
Charlotte was getting ready for bed when she heard some noises on the breezeway outside her door. She got back into her clothes and lit her lantern before she ventured outside.
Across the breezeway, the door to the classroom hung open. “Is anybody there?” Charlotte called out. She could hear someone tearing through things in the classroom, looking for something. She backed away from the door and closed it securely behind her and then she propped her single chair against it.
Eventually the noises stopped, but Charlotte was too frightened to go out. She wished that Alec Forrest was with her now.
*****
The next morning, Charlotte stayed in the teacherage until she could hear children gathering in the schoolyard. She went outside and asked one of the boys to run and get the sheriff before she crossed over to the schoolroom.