Page 84 of Return to Telegraph Creek

“Of course.We did come to Telegraph Creek to help her, after all.Turns out findin’ her was only the start of it.”

“Yes, it seems that’s the case,” Miss June stated.

The door creaked, and Peter stuck his head out.

“Miss June, I changed Sam’s cloth ’cause he shat himself.Where should I put the dirty stuff?Momma usually takes it somewhere.”

“Oh, Peter, bless you.Thank you.You are such a great help to your momma and me.Here… Let me show you what to do.”

Miss June went inside with Peter, while Oscar and I stood together, watching Trick and Cal.

“Those children are so lucky Cal came to ’em, e’en if ’twas through trickery,” Oscar said.“Cal may have done something horrible, but I reckon ’twas deserved.”

“I reckon so,” I said, gazing into the distance, where Trick and Cal sat by the old barn.“I wonder where the pieces are.”

Oscar paled and looked at the barn.

“I suppose we’ll have to ask her…but not yet.”

“No, not yet,” Oscar agreed.

We stood under the trees near the homestead as the sun climbed higher and the breeze picked up, giving us some relief from the sticky summer heat.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A Puzzling Dilemma

Eventually, Trick brought Cal back to the house and left her in the care of Miss June, while the three of us strolled back to the barn.

“Do you suppose Albert’s—bits—are buried here somewhere?”Oscar said with distaste, as he gazed at the barn and its surroundings.

I glanced his way.“I did think it strange that there was fresh straw o’er the floors in there, when Cal had said they didn’t use the barn and that nobody had been in there for so long.”

Trick murmured something.

“Huh?”Oscar said.

“She threw him in the river.Well, she threw what was left of him in the river,” Trick said, kicking at a stone with her boot.“Anyway, ’twould stink if she’d put him under the floorboards in the barn.Cal’s not that stupid.”

“But how—?”I couldn’t picture it, what with the children around.

Trick stopped walking and stood there, giving us a steady look as she related what Cal had told her.

“She took the children to the well and cleaned everyone up, put them to bed and told them everything was fine, that she had to do what she did and that their lives would be much better for it.”

Our somber gazes flitted between each other, as we thought about that.

Trick continued after a minute.

“I doubt those children were all that upset about Albert’s death, only the glimpse they got of their kind and loving momma bein’ so…efficient.”

I stared at the ground.“Did she tell you how he was?How he threatened and maligned them at every opportunity?”

“Uh-huh.”

My heart wept at the cruelty of it all.That Cal had been forced to do something so awful for the sake of her own survival…and the children’s.

“Once the children were in bed, Cal snuck back out to take care of it.She must have been exhausted, but she got rid of all the evidence of her husband’s demise, cleaned up the barn and spread the fresh straw on the floor to hide any stains that were left.”