Linda Castle (30 page)

Homstock was still for a moment while he stared unblinkingly at Chase. Linese couldn’t be sure, but she thought his expression was unsatisfied. He took a watch from his pocket and snapped open the face. “Then I rest my case.”

Linese wanted to scream. She wanted to rush down the stairs and flail Chase with her fists. What was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he defending himself? Hot tears stung the backs of her eyes and she stumbled away from the railing in blind agony. She was going to be sick. She had to get outside for some air. Linese managed to get to the ground floor when both the front and side doors burst open with a wet mist.

“Ma’am?” A Union officer grasped her forearms. “Are you all right?”

She stared past the young soldier and found Hezikiah smiling at her.

“Hezikiah? What are you doing?”

“The war is over, Linese.” He waved a paper over his head. “The telegram reached Ferrin County a few hours ago.” A quantity of blue uniforms began to gather in the already overcrowded courtroom. “Lee has surrendered—the war is over. The Union has survived.”

The next few minutes were a blur of activity. Linese found herself swept along while the Union officer strode to the front of the courtroom. He stopped in front of Colonel Homstock and saluted smartly. “Sir, will you surrender your sword to me?” He asked in emotionless tones.

Homstock’s jaw muscle flinched once, but he pulled himself to stiff attention. “I will.”

Linese watched in silence while the men observed the proprieties of war. In a few moments it was over. The war was over. It seemed ridiculous that it could end just like that.

The impact of what it meant settled on her.

Chase would be free.

She turned to see him looking at her with love shining in his eyes. “May I address the court?” His deep voice boomed over the room. His chains clanked and rattled when he stood up.

Kerney shifted in his chair and his small eyes darted from Homstock to the Union officer who stepped forward.

“What is this proceeding?” The Union colonel drilled Kerney with a glance.

“This is a civil trial, Colonel, it is none of your concern,” Kerney snapped.

Linese watched while one tawny eyebrow shot up toward the blue flop-brimmed hat. “Until I have orders to the contrary, everything in this town is my concern, sir.”

“Who are you?” Kerney asked with a bit more respect in his voice.

“I am Colonel Thomas Baskins of the Massachusetts 57th.”

That information seemed to settle on Kerney like a blanket of ice. Linese slumped into a chair that one of the Union soldiers suddenly produced for her, while she waited to see if Chase’s request to speak would be honored.

“May I address the court?” Chase asked again.

“Go ahead,” Kerney grudgingly offered.

“Now that the war is over, and the Union forces have entered Mainfield, I am prepared to defend myself against the charge of murder.”

The still-crowded courtroom hissed with the collective intake of breath. Linese was grateful she was sitting down. If she hadn’t been, she was quite sure she would have fainted on the spot.

O
nly an hour had passed, but the change in the courtroom made it appear more like days to Linese. She was now seated behind Chase, who had been relieved of his chains and shackles. Captain Cordell was seated on one side of her, Ira Goten had taken a chair on her opposite side.

“Have faith, Mrs. Cordell,” he said.

Colonel Homstock and Colonel Baskins sat on the opposite side of the courtroom. The contrast in their uniforms seemed odd, positioned as they were, side by side.

“I call Rancy Thompson as my first witness.” Chase’s voice drew her attention back to him. She could see hope in his eyes where none had been before.

“Rancy, tell us why you arrested my grandfather.”

The sheriff shook his head in obvious disgust. “I had received a note, the note the mayor read.”

Chase picked up the paper that was lying on Kerney’s desk. “This note? But why my grandfather? Why not arrest me if all the witness saw was a horse bearing the Cordell brand?”

“I had been visited by members of the local businessman’s committee. They suggested I do it.”

“So you were pressured by Mayor Kerney, and others, to arrest my grandfather for the murder of Alfred Homstock?”

“Yes, I thought it was a stupid thing….” His words trailed off. Linese found herself casting uneasy glances toward Captain Cordell.

“At what point did you decide I was the Cordell you were looking for?”

“I never did decide. It was decided for me. When the Confederates came to town, Mayor Kerney just started telling Colonel Homstock what he been shoving down my throat for weeks.”

“Which was?”

“The fact that your alibi had been the old Captain, and if he was with Doralee, then that left you without an alibi.”

Chase nodded and Rancy left the witness chair.

“Do you have more witnesses?” Colonel Baskins asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Then proceed.”

Linese glanced at Mayor Kerney. He appeared unusually pale, something odd give his florid complexion.

“I call Ira Goten.”

Ira smiled warmly at Linese before he strode to the witness box and placed his long slender hand on the Bible.

“Mr. Goten, would you tell the court what happened on May 30, 1862?” Chase’s voice was smooth and strong.

Ira glanced at the Union and Confederate officers. “I had been ordered to go to the woods and kill a Confederate spy who was going to assassinate men responsible for running the Underground Railroad in this area.”

The whisper of shocked voices rippled over the courtroom. Several loud remarks about Ira’s supposed Southern sympathies were heard. Linese realized that he had been playing a part, allowing himself to be beaten and maligned for a greater cause. Linese heard the steady raindrops pattering the roof overhead.

“Did you do that, Ira?” Chase stood straight and tall.

“I was waiting in the woods when I ran into you.” Ira grimaced. “I had just about made up my mind you were the
spy, the man I was supposed to kill, when we ran into Alfred Homstock.”

“Then what took place?”

“He showed us a money belt, asked if it would be enough to buy passage on the Underground Railroad, then he tried to kill you. And you didn’t have any idea why.”

Linese saw Colonel Homstock stiffen with interest. She concentrated on his face while Ira kept talking.

“Homstock was shot in the shoulder with his own gun, but he managed to steal your horse and get away. I realized if you were not the man Alfred Homstock thought you were, then there was only one other person he could’ve been after. He had come to kill your grandfather.”

Linese snapped her head around and stared at Captain Cordell. He smiled uncomfortably under her gaze and a faint blush crept up his weathered cheeks.

“I’m sorry, honey, I did what I thought was best.” He patted her arm with his big, rough hand and the reality of what he was saying hit her like a cold wind.

“You are not crazy,” she whispered incredulously.

“No crazier than any other Texan,” he snorted proudly.

Linese leaned back in her chair. She was numb. How could she have lived with him and never had an inkling that he was sane?

Then she thought back to the day at Doralee’s house and the other times, when for a split second she had questioned the story. She shook her head in astonishment. She should have followed her own instincts.

“We got horses from Cordellane and went after him.” Ira’s words snapped her out of her reverie.

The entire courtroom was so quiet you could have heard a mouse tread across the floor. She glanced over the assembly and found them all perched on the edges of their chairs, held in silence by the unfolding story.

“You made it to the Ferrin County church ahead of me,” Ira continued in a charged voice.

“And when you got there, Ira, what did you do?” Chase probed.

“I saw two Cordell horses tied out front, the one he stole and the one you were riding. Then I found Homstock’s body. So I took the horses and headed back to Cordel-lane,” Ira explained.

“Who did you think killed Alfred Homstock?”

Ira averted his eyes. “I thought you had. But now I know you didn’t.”

There was a loud murmuring in the courtroom. It mingled with the sound of pelting rain.

“When I returned from war, what did you give me?” Chase asked.

“A Colt and a handful of gold coins.”

Colonel Homstock’s hands were clenched into fists on the table before him. Linese saw his eyes narrow more with each new fact Ira revealed about the night Alfred Homstock died.

“Where did you get those items?”

“You loaned me the Colt when we went after Homstock, and the gold is what he dropped from his money belt. I picked it up.”

“What happened to the rest of it?”

“I don’t know. The money belt was not on his body,” Ira said with a frown.

“Why didn’t you speak of this before now?”

“For the same reason you were prepared to die—too many others were at risk. We made a pact that night to keep silent.”

“Thanks, Ira.” Chase shook Ira’s hand before he got up. “I’d like to call Linese Beaufort Cordell to the witness chair.”

Linese tried to blink back her surprise. She made her way to the witness chair on shaky legs. While she took her oath to tell the truth, her mind was racing ahead. What on earth was Chase going to ask her?

“I believe most everyone here knows you are my wife, but for the benefit of our new arrivals, would you state your name.”

“Linese Beaufort Cordell.” She tried to still the quiver in her voice.

“When did you meet me?” Chase leveled a glance at her and she felt strength emanate from his hard gray eyes. It brought a measure of calm to her when she looked at him.

“May 30, 1862.”

He smiled at her. “Where did we meet?”

“At the Presbyterian church social.”

“What county?”

“Ferrin County.”

“Is that where the body of Alfred Homstock was found?”

“Yes, I believe it was.”

“Thank you. I have no more questions at this time.”

“Chase?” Linese half rose from her seat in shock. Surely he meant to ask her about the man she had seen. Surely he intended to bring it up now that the war was finished.

“I have no more questions of you.” Chase looked into her eyes and she knew it was pointless to argue. Whatever he was doing, it was obviously going to be done his way and in his own sweet time.

“I call Samuel Green to the stand.” Chase’s voice rang out over the musical sound of rain.

The little jeweler looked more unhappy than ever to be taking the stand, but he slowly made his way back to the witness chair.

“Mr. Green, you testified that I bought a cameo from you with British gold.”

“Yes, that’s right.” He swallowed hard and Linese felt sorry for the little man who squirmed under Chase’s unrelenting gaze.

“Have you ever sold anything, to anyone else in Mainfield that was bought with British gold?”

Her breath lodged in her throat. There was something about the way Chase asked the question that made her believe he already knew the answer. Mr. Green frowned and rubbed his fingers across his thick chin whiskers.

“Yes. It was a while back as I recall. I sold a ruby stickpin. It was paid for with British gold.”

Linese heard the collective gasp in the courtroom. Chase turned to her and she knew he had solved the puzzle. Now he was going to tell everyone else.

“That is ridiculous,” Mayor Kerney blustered, and he leaned forward in his chair. With lightning quick action, Chase leapt around the desk and grabbed the man by the throat. With his free hand he reached beneath the desk, and when he brought his hand up it was clamped around Kerney’s fat wrist.

“Now, Mayor, what have you got there?” Chase smiled, but it was not a smile of mirth. “What did you have hidden in your boot?” Linese saw Chase’s eyes harden like the cold gray of gunmetal.

“Nobody in this room is to move a muscle,” Colonel Baskins’s voice rang out. He nodded and she watched Union soldiers position themselves in front of every door and window in the courtroom.

Linese was hard-pressed to tear her eyes away from Chase’s grim face, but she looked at the mayor’s hand a saw what he was clasping in white-knuckled desperation.

“That’s a mighty mean looking blade,” Chase said softly, as he let go of his grip on the mayor’s neck.

The mayor looked around the room. Beads of sweat had formed on his brow and upper lip. Linese saw panic in his face. “A man needs to protect himself.”

Chase smiled again. “Linese, would you take the witness stand?”

She swallowed hard and nodded. Mr. Green practically ran, eager to get away from the bizarre situation taking place next to him.

Linese sat down and Chase turned his attention back to Kerney. “Mayor Kerney, what did you do when I returned to Mainfield with my new bride in 1862?” Chase tightened his grip on the man’s wrist and the knife clattered to the desk.

“I—I don’t know what you mean.”

“Come now, Mayor. Don’t you remember paying me a little visit? Don’t you remember telling me that you had information that a horse bearing the Cordell brand had been seen in Ferrin County, that a murder had been committed, that you thought my grandfather’s continued safety depended on my cooperation?”

The mayor’s face flushed to a bright crimson. “I might’ve said something like that, but—”

“Mayor, how is it that you knew a horse with the Cordell brand was there in Ferrin County that night? Were you there?”

The mayor’s eyes flicked from Chase to Colonel Homstock and back. Linese saw his jowls quiver when he swallowed. “Of course not. What a ridiculous notion.”

“Then how did you know?” Chase’s voice was deadly soft.

“Well, I—that is—I had been in Louisiana, on business. I was riding by and saw the horse. It was the horse Captain Cordell always rides—that big black mare.”

“You saw the horse tethered at the church. But you never stopped?” Chase was toying with him like a barn cat with a mouse.

“No. I never stopped.” Mayor Kerney seemed very pleased with that answer. “I rode straight on back to Main-field.”

“What kind of business were you on that night?” Chase smiled and turned toward Linese. She felt her heart increase its tempo inside her breast. For the first time she knew what he was doing. He was building to the moment when everyone would know who had killed Alfred Homstock.

“Business,” Kerney snapped.

“And would your business have been raiding, looting, gathering what profit you could from the misery of a country torn by war?”

Kerney paled. “Yes! The Businessman’s Association had been raiding in Louisiana that night.”

A strange ripple moved through the courtroom and Linese saw every eye turn and focus on those men who had been associated with Kerney. It gave her pleasure to know they would profit no longer in Mainfield.

“So, after you raided, looted and burned farms, you quietly rode back home?”

“That’s right. It was wartime. You can’t fault me for what I did,” Kerney snarled.

Linese felt the confidence and love pulsing from Chase each time he looked at her. When he turned to her, she was ready.

“Linese, tell me some more about May 30, 1862. Tell me what happened after the social ended.”

“I left late with my aunt Hesta after we cleaned up. When I went to the hand pump outside to wash up, I ran into a man.”

“What was he doing?”

“He was washing up at the hand pump.”

“Did you know him?” Chase stepped away from Linese.

“Not at the time. He was not from Ferrin County. I only met him after we married and I came here to live in Tyron County.”

“What was he washing, Linese?”

“The man was cleaning off a long knife.” She pointed. “That knife. I saw Mayor Kerney, behind the church washing his hands and that knife.”

Colonel Homstock barely kept his seat. His body vibrated with rage. She saw his hands, still tightly closed into fists in front of him on the table and realized he was trying to control the desire to kill Mayor Kerney.

“Tell us, Mayor, why did you do it? You didn’t care who won the war, so why did you stab that man in the back?” Chase asked.

“For the gold. I did it for the belt full of gold. The idiot had stopped to see to the bullet hole in his shoulder. He had the belt slung over his arm. It was easy, he never heard a thing.” Kerney’s eyes had glazed over and a bit of spittle was forming at the corner of his flaccid lips.

He was mad. Linese could see that now.

“I’m going to take a great pleasure in seeing this man hang,” Colonel Homstock’s voice rang out. He stepped in front of Chase and held out his hand while two Union soldiers took hold of the mayor. “Major, I hope you will accept my apologies.”

Chase grasped the colonel’s palm. “I do.”

“What will you do now, Major Cordell?” he asked.

“I’m going home. I have two daughters that I’m mighty anxious to get acquainted with.”

Linese smiled and felt tears on her cheeks.

“Linese?” When she looked up she found Captain Cordell smiling sheepishly at her. He held out his closed fist. “I have something for you.”