Page 63 of Southernmost Murder

“Court records?” I asked. “What years?”

Louise scratched the tip of her nose as she thought. “Throughout the 1850s and ’60s. You need exact dates?”

“It’s preferable.”

Louise didn’t make to move from her seat. “Rogers worked with Smith three times.”

“That’s pretty bad luck, don’t you think? Getting stranded and needing wreckers so many times for an experienced captain.”

“Not every captain was as competent as Smith.”

“True.” I tapped her desktop absently. “Did Rogers ever appear in the court records as having dealt with wreckers other than Smith?”

“No.”

Crap. Not sure what I was fishing for, but—

“Except when he reported piracy.”

“When was this?”

Louise’s face pinched up. “In 1867.”

The same year as the diary Cassidy had stolen.

“What did the records say?” I asked, leaning down to be eye level with Louise.

She gave me a critical expression. “Neither Rogers nor piracy have anything to do with Smith, Aubrey.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’ve been learning more about Rogers and his time in Key West. I’m interested,” I answered, which, hey, not total bullshit.

Louise looked away and studied her antique wristwatch for a good minute. “He originally claimed to have had a run-in with theRed Lady.”

“The supposed ship of One-Eyed Jack,” I stated.

Louise sniffed. “That would be correct,” she said woodenly. “But he retracted the claim and let it drop.”

“Did he report any stolen goods when meeting theRed Lady?”

“He said he was boarded, pirates began to loot, but then quickly abandoned his vessel. Rogers never said what, if anything, was actually stolen.”

“Why do you think he’d have recanted on the story?”

“Oh, heaven knows,” Louise exclaimed. “A resurgence in piracy wouldn’t have been good, especially so soon after the Civil War.IfRogers had some sort of run-in, and I stress the ‘if,’ I suspect Key West would have dealt with it on their own. They were the only southern port under Union occupation during the war, and if the Navy came back down to deal with another wave of pirates—you know folks hold grudges for a long time. I doubt many would have wanted an influx of the US government again so soon.”

“So they’d have scrubbed it from the record,” I concluded.

Louise nodded.

I wracked my brain, trying to come up with enough plausible leads and players in history that one of them would have to cross Jack at some point throughout the years of his activity. But I had to simultaneously not let Louise know exactly what I was fishing for. What a pain in the ass.

“Louise? Who was the judge superior in wrecking court at the times Rogers would have been going?”

She didn’t answer right away.

Ah-ha! I’d stumped her!

“Judge William Marvin, I believe.”