Will O Wisp (19 page)

“
I'd like that. I sure
don't want to be out here alone until we know it's safe,” Melinda
said.

“
Me and May Jean want to go
with you, too,” Shana said. “I miss me mama and papa.”

Gracie harnessed up the horse to the
buggy and parked by the house. She got out and went in to see if
the others were ready to go.

When they came out of the house, Orie
Lang, in his buckboard, rolled down the lane with Millard Sokal
behind him on a horse and leading the men was the
sheriff.

Gracie folded her arms over her chest
and waited for the men to stop behind her buggy. The sheriff
stopped his horse over at the barn and tied his reins to the metal
hoop attached to the barn.

“
Morning, Miss Gracie,”
Orie said as he climbed out of the buckboard.

Shana ran to hug him. “Papa Orie, am I
glad to see you.”

“
Miss me did you?” He
asked, grinning at her.

The girl shook her head yes as she
hugged him.

Millard looked at all the sober faces
and said to the men, “Looks like we three had the same idea to come
visit at the same time.”

“
From the look on all those
long faces, they look like they're going to a funeral,” Orie
surmised.

“
Something must be wrong.”
Sheriff Logan walked around Gracie's buggy. “Was you ladies going
somewhere?”

“
We sure was,” Gracie
barked. “We were going to get you, Sheriff. You're only a week
late. Where have you been?”

The sheriff held up both hands. “Whoa
there? I'm sorry about that, but the phone lines have been down
between the county seat and Locked Rock. It took a while to fix
them.”

“
I'll give Earl Bullock a
piece of my mind. He should have gone after you instead of letting
this go. He knew I needed help out here,” Gracie
complained.

“
Whoa, don't go giving Earl
a hard time,” the sheriff said. “There was a brawl at the saloon.
He has his hand full trying to settle everyone down. He had a jail
full of drunks. Doing for the prisoners, and taking each to city
hall to get sentences read. He admitted he forgot, but as soon as
the lines were working, he called me.”

“
The city marshal's
problems are his job. That don't help us out any,” Gracie
said.

“
It would have been good if
Earl could have arrested Neff Graves in that brawl. He probably had
been there some time or other before we saw him in his condition,”
Melinda said.

“
Gracie, you ladies best
just tell us what's wrong,” Millard said. “You're really upset. We
can see that.”

The sheriff pushed his cowboy hat back
off his forehead with one finger as he eyed Gracie. “Millard, been
my experience when Miss Gracie simmers like a stewing pot, she
about has the lid ready to blow off her before she gets what's
wrong said out loud. Buggy is hooked up. That means you were headed
somewhere.”

“
To find you like I said.
That's where. I wanted you to look at what we think is a fresh
grave in my family cemetery. We think someone tried to hide the
fact that a baby or tiny youngun was buried there. If we hadn't
been staying here right now the grass would be grown over the spot.
No one would know a body was in there until you dug it up to bury
me next to my baby brother. Did anyone tell you they was burying a
body in my cemetery?”

“
No, but that isn't usually
reported when a newborn is born dead or dies shortly after birth.
Folks tend to bury the body in the back yard or start a cemetery of
their own, thinking they're going to live in that spot a long time.
No telling how many little babies are buried around the country
that I don't know about. Wooden markers rot away, and people move
off without new owners knowing about a burial on the
property.”

“
That's so sad,” Melinda
said.

“
I reckon if that's the way
people want to handle losing a baby that's their business, but when
they bury that body in my cemetery it makes it my business. The
fact that a woman we thought might be the mother is sneaking around
at night to visit the grave makes me wonder if there might not be
more to the baby's death than just being born dead,” Gracie
said.

“
You actually saw a woman
in the cemetery? Did you recognize her?” The sheriff
asked.

“
Nope, we were too far
away, and it was dark. She stuck out like a sore thumb, because she
had one of those white dresses and white straw hats on that women
wear to look fancy these days,” Gracie said.

“
Dressed like she was just
having the funeral for the wee one, for certain,” Shana
added.

“
When I yelled at her to
let her know I wanted to talk to her, I could see she wasn't going
to stay around. I threatened to shoot her. The woman put out her
lantern and ran off,” Gracie said.

“
If I heard you say you
were going to shoot me I'd run, too, Miss Gracie,” the sheriff
said, trying not to grin.

Millard and Orie didn't have any
trouble chuckling.

“
You want to hear what
happened or not?” Gracie barked.

“
Yes, ma'am. Sorry to
interrupt,” the sheriff drawled.

“
All right,” Gracie said,
frowning at him. She began again, “No way could we keep up with her
out in that timber. She knew where she was headed, and we
didn't.”

“
I see. Well, all I can do
is take a look at the spot that was dug in. We might have to dig up
the spot to see what's there. I can ask around to see if any of the
neighbors know of someone that has lost a baby,” the sheriff
said.

“
We already asked Lettie
Graves. She said she didn't have a baby recently, but we think
she's lying,” Gracie said.

“
Why is that?” The sheriff
asked.

Melinda spoke up. “I saw Lettie in the
Mercantile a couple of months ago. She looked like she was due any
minute then. She claims she wasn't when I brought it
up.”

“
Unhuh,” the sheriff said,
scratching a sideburn as he thought about it.

“
Lettie has another problem
that might go along with a dead baby, Sheriff,” Gracie said.
“Melinda and I walked over to the Graves place last night. Neff
fired his shotgun in the air, and yelled for his kids to all come
outside so he could kill them.”

Millard and Orie straightened
up.

“
He's never sober anymore,”
Orie said.

“
I agree with that. I gave
him some laying hens recently,” said Millard. “He could barely
stand up the day he came asking for them.”

“
What happened, Miss
Gracie?” The sheriff asked.

“
The younguns came out of
the house and lined up in front of the porch like Neff yelled at
them to do. Neff waved the shotgun at them. He said he was trying
to decide which one of them to shoot first, but he intended to kill
them all. He said they were good for nothings.

Lettie grabbed the youngest and held
on to her when she started crying because that made Neff mad. They
all just stood there scared to death and waited for Neff to pull
the trigger. Sure enough he did, but he was so drunk his aim was
way off. He shot the house roof. Sheriff, you need to arrest him
for attempted murder,” Gracie demanded.

“
I could arrest him, but a
charge wouldn't stick if his wife won't testify against him. In
cases like this, the wife and the younguns are usually so scared
they won't admit to what's been going on,” the sheriff
said.

“
We wouldn't need them to
testify. I and Melinda can do that. We saw the whole thing,” Gracie
said.

“
Still not sure it would
get Neff sent up for long,” the sheriff said. “Since it wasn't your
family.”

“
That is where you're
wrong, Sheriff. Shana was one of the children Neff pointed that gun
at,” Melinda stated.

“
Shana was over there in
that mess,” Orie cried.

“
Yip,” Gracie
said.

“
Why did you let her
anywhere near that family?” Orie asked.

Shana put an arm around May
Jean. “
Papa Orie, I wanted to visit May
Jean. I didn't know what was going on over there. It was my idea to
stay the night with May Jean. None of us had any idea what would
happen,” Shana defended Gracie and Melinda.

“
Mr. Orie, we're sorry, but
Gracie and I didn't know how bad it was over there,” Melinda
said.

“
Lookee here, you better
believe we wouldn't have let Shana anywhere near that place if we
knew what was happening. Not after the way Miss Molly worried about
the girl coming out here with me,” Gracie said gruffly. “Well, how
about it, Sheriff? Will you arrest Neff?”

“
If you're sure you want to
sign an arrest warrant for me,” Sheriff Logan said.

“
We're very sure,” Melinda
butted in. “If we get that man out of that house, we can help
Lettie and those children. The church members will help take care
of her and her family.”

“
All right, Orie and
Millard, you two want to go over there with me for backup.
Normally, Neff wasn't hard to handle, but if he has been waving a
shotgun around, I don't want to take any chances.”

“
We're with you, Sheriff,”
Orie said.

“
I just hope we aren't too
late. He might have already shot the rest of the family,” Millard
added.

“
What about that grave in
my cemetery?” Gracie barked.

“
I will look at that on my
way over to Neff's farm. Orie, see if Thad has a shovel in his tool
shed we can borrow,” the sheriff said. “Bring it along.”

Gracie, Melinda and Shana with May
Jean on Melinda's lap followed in their buggy behind Millard and
Orie's buckboard. The sheriff took the lead on his horse. Gracie
watched two eagles soar over them and disappear into the trees. So
much to admire around her place when they were on a ride, but none
of them could enjoy this ride.

Ben Logan dismounted and tied his
horse to the fence by the front yard, and Millard tied up right
beside his horse.

Gracie started to get out of her
buggy. Sheriff Logan's arm shot out. “Hold up, Miss Gracie. You're
staying put until we look the area over. Men, stay behind me for a
spell until I tell you to start digging. I want to look at around
as I go.”

Orie leaned on the shovel with Millard
by him while Sheriff Logan looked at the ground all the way to the
far end. He stopped by Gracie's baby brother's stone and studied
the freshly dug earth.

“
All right, men. Come look
at this. Reckon we won't need the shovel after all,” the sheriff
said.

“
What does he mean by
that?” Melinda asked Gracie.

“
Don't know. They're
talking too low for me to catch what they're saying. We should be
there with them,” Gracie groused.

Finally, Millard came back to the
buggy. “All right, you ladies come look now.”

“
Look at what?” Gracie
snapped at Millard.

“
You aren't going to like
this, Gracie. Just go look,” Millard said, following behind
them.

The women and the girls stopped by
Orie. They stared at the ground. What they saw was a hole dug down
about four feet, just right for a shallow grave for a
baby.

“
What do you think, Miss
Gracie?” Logan asked.

“
Some time or other in the
past two days, we or someone else has scared off the person who dug
that hole. The dirt still looks fresh,” Gracie said.

“
That's what I think,”
Sheriff Logan agreed. “If we knew who did this, we could arrest the
person for desecrating a cemetery to start with until we find a
body. I'd say this looks like a grave. Since the hole is so neat,
the body must have been in some sort of box.”

“
For sure, this has
something to do with the mischief of the will o wisps I do
believe,” Shana said softly.

May Jean grabbed her arm.
“Hush!”

“
Whoa, what are you girls
talking about?” Sheriff Logan asked.

May Jean ducked her head and shuffled
from one foot to the other.

“
For certain, will o wisps
have been roamin' in the timber. Aunt Gracie and meself saw one,”
Shana declared.

“
What's a will o wisp, if
you don't mind me asking?” Orie said, looking at Gracie.

Gracie waved at Shana.
“
Best ask her. She's the expert on
this.”

“
Will O Wisps are spirits
that roam near where they died,” Shana said.

“
What do they look like?”
Sheriff Logan asked.

“
They be dressed in white
and are see through. They sort of float along through the trees and
try to hide when they see anyone comin',” Shana said.

“
Dress in white, huh? Like
the woman standing here by the grave?” The sheriff
asked.

“
Only difference between
that woman and Shana's will o wisps was we were close enough to see
the woman was real. I figure the creature Shana and I saw might be,
too. We were too far away to know for sure. I think someone would
rather we didn't wonder around in the timber. I figure who ever it
was tried to scare us off. It worked on the Indians. They won't
come near my timber now, because they saw spirits.”