Hell With the Lid Blown Off Read online

  Alafair shifted a drowsing Grace to a more comfortable position. “Scott can’t be sure, though.”

  “Well, no, if Hosea didn’t admit to it. But why else would he do such an awful thing?”

  “I’m not so sure, either,” Alafair ventured. “Scott thinks there are more people than Hosea who had reason to kill Jubal Beldon, and until they are all cleared, he intends to continue to pursue the matter.”

  Beckie’s pale blue eyes regarded her thoughtfully. “Alafair, I wish you would stop beating around the bush. I do believe you are trying to say something to me.”

  Alafair’s eyes widened. So much for trying to be subtle. “Yes, ma’am. I hope you will forgive me for not being straight with you in the first place, but I do not relish being the bearer of unwelcome news. But what I was so delicately building up to is this; I’m afraid that Wallace is one of the suspects. At first I couldn’t imagine what reason Wallace, more than anyone else, would have to kill Jubal. But I wonder if Jubal knew something…some hurtful information about Wallace and aimed to use it to his own advantage.”

  Beckie listened to this with no apparent emotion. “What information?”

  Alafair hesitated before answering. “I don’t know.”

  Beckie smiled, but her eyes were filled with sadness. “You are trying to spare my feelings. I appreciate it. However, I see that the wicked truth about my grandson will be known, no matter how one tries to keep it secret.” She took a sip from her teacup before placing it carefully on the side table. She sat back and clasped her hands in her lap. “Alafair, what would you do if you found out something awful about one of your bairns?”

  “Well, I’ve been so lucky up to now that I kind of expect to, one of these days.”

  “No, I mean something really horrible. Is there anything one of them could do that you could not forgive? Anything so bad that would make you stop loving them?”

  Alafair was shocked at the question. She stroked Grace’s hair, soft, warm, and dark as a starless night, and the child snuggled up with her head on her mother’s heart. How could she not love her little fairy girl with a direct connection to heaven? “Surely you’re joking, Miz Beckie. There isn’t anything they could do that’d make me stop loving my children.”

  “I’m serious. Have you ever really thought about it? Is there any unforgivable sin that would make you disown one of your babies? Even something perverted and sick?”

  Perverted and sick? So Miz Beckie was aware of the rumor about Wallace and Randal. Did she believe it? And even if it was true, Alafair could understand if Beckie wanted to protect her grandson from going to prison. But she could never understand if Beckie had stopped caring for him because of who he chose to love. Alafair considered what she could say to ease the older woman’s heart.

  “No, there isn’t anything they could do that would make me disown them. I think sometimes about the news reports of young German soldiers stabbing little Belgian babies with their bayonets. Those boys have mamas. What if one of my boys did something like that?” She paused. Goose flesh rose on her arms, and she scrubbed at them with her hands. “I think I might chase him down to hell to get him back, because he’d sure be in hell. I’d trail him clean to the end of the world and besiege him until he repented. I’d spend the rest my life helping him to atone for his sins. Even if I learned that one of my young’uns was Satan himself, I couldn’t help but still love them. Love ain’t something that can be turned on and off.”

  Without warning, Beckie burst into tears. “My boy, my boy,” she sobbed. “I love him more than anything in this life, Alafair.”

  Alafair reached across the space between the armchairs to grasp Beckie’s hand. “I know. I know you do.”

  “He’s the most wonderful boy, Alafair. How could he be so good, and yet indulge in such despicable behavior? How could God let it happen? How could God let it happen? I’m so ashamed, and yet I love him so.”

  Alafair wasn’t sure what Miz Beckie was talking about. The rumor about Wallace and Randal or something much worse? “Miz Beckie, Scott knows that Wallace and his friend went out to the Beldon farm looking to confront Jubal before they left town on Sunday night. Miz Beldon told him so. She also said that Jubal wasn’t there and Wallace left unsatisfied. Now Scott is wondering if the boys met by accident on the road and something passed between them that led to Jubal’s death.”

  Beckie blinked at Alafair through her tears. “Scott truly suspects Wallace of murder?”

  “I think he does.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Alafair dear. Wallace didn’t kill that horrid Jubal Beldon. Wallace wouldn’t squash a flea.”

  “Miz Beckie, did Wallace confess to you after he got to Muskogee? Is that why he came back, because he knew he had nothing to fear from Jubal anymore? Trent told us how it must have happened. It sounds like his killer lashed out without thinking. I know he didn’t mean it.”

  Beckie’s expression was one of horror and disbelief. She tried to withdraw her hand from Alafair’s grasp, but Alafair wouldn’t let go. There was no getting away from the truth. “There is no way anyone can prove that Wallace did such a thing, Alafair Tucker. He didn’t do such a thing. He couldn’t!”

  Beckie stood up, and Alafair followed suit with a sleep-befogged Grace clinging to her neck. Alafair spoke quickly before the older woman had a chance to escape. “Miz Beckie, I think Mr. Eichelberger knows who did it. Just this morning he confessed to me that after Jubal left the roadhouse on Sunday night he came to try and extort money from Mr. and Miz Eichelberger. I think Jubal met his end on the road in front of their farm and I think Mr. Eichelberger saw the whole thing.”

  Trenton Calder

  It was Wallace MacKenzie who stabbed Jubal Beldon that night. All at once I was sure of it. Everything fit. Him and Jubal were both on the road that night, and Wallace admitted that he was looking for a fight. And on the day of the picnic—the day Jubal died—Wallace had shown up in that ridiculous get up with a knife stuck in his sock. That little blade could easily have made the wound Scott described on both Jubal’s leg and on his horse.

  But why? Wallace didn’t strike me as somebody who cared what folks thought about him. Maybe Jubal had something bad on his grandma. Something that would shame Miz Beckie before the whole town. And whatever his faults, I don’t think Wallace would let that happen. Or maybe it had something to do with his friend Randal who seemed to stick to him like flypaper.

  The memory of that conversation I had had with Ruth fell on me like a boulder. Is that why she was asking me about sodomites?

  Lord have mercy! If that was it, no wonder Wallace killed him.

  When I turned back around, Wallace must have seen something in my face. He took a step back and nearly stumbled over a cottonwood branch.

  I laid my hand on my pistol butt. The incident with Hosea was fresh on my mind. “I don’t think you’re telling me the truth, Wallace. I think you and your friend did meet Jubal that night. I think Jubal threatened you with ruination and you made sure he didn’t have the chance to carry out his threat.”

  I expected Wallace to look scared or guilty or take off running or something, but he snorted. “Calder, as far as I know, Jubal Beldon threatened half the people in town.”

  “Does that include you and your friend Randal Wakefield?”

  His eyes narrowed. He didn’t answer. Coleman Welsh knew he was witnessing something he didn’t want to get involved in and backed off a ways.

  “Wallace,” I said, “I know that Beldon was a skunk. If he thought he knew about you what I suspect he did, he’d have used it against you for sure, and got great pleasure out of seeing you ruined and your whole family to boot.”

  Wallace looked away.

  “Was it you or your friend plunged that little Scotch knife into Jubal’s horse?”

  Wallace MacKenzie heaved a great sigh. “Deputy” he said, “Randal had n
othing to do with it. I don’t want my grandmother upset if it can be helped. Let’s leave quietly.” He beckoned to Coleman. “When my grandma asks, tell her that I’ve gone to get more supplies and may spend the night in town.”

  Coleman started to protest, but Wallace cut him off. “Please, do me this favor. There’s nothing else you can do.”

  We left Coleman beside the wagon, looking unhappy, and I followed Wallace as he walked to the coach house to get his horse. “What is your grandmother going to think when you don’t come back tomorrow?” I asked. “You can’t keep this a secret from her.”

  He didn’t look at me. “I’ll figure that out when I have to. Let her have every minute of peace she can get until that happens.”

  Alafair Tucker

  “What makes you think that poor dear Mr. Eichelberger saw anything that night, Alafair?”

  “He refuses to say who met Jubal on the road. But he knows. ‘Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.’ That’s what he said to me. Miz Beckie, I have to tell Trent about Mr. Eichelberger, and Trent is going to press him until he tells what he knows. I had to warn you, ma’am. In fact when I got to town this afternoon, I found out that Trent is already questioning Randal about that night, and plans to question Wallace next, if he ain’t already. It’s going to come out, who killed Jubal Beldon.”

  Beckie flopped back down in her armchair, hopeless. “No it isn’t. The only thing that’s going to come out is the wrong thing. Wallace didn’t kill Jubal, but if the law confronts him he may say that he did. I know my grandson. He will protect someone he cares for.”

  Alafair’s heart skipped a beat. “You know who it was? It was Randal?”

  Beckie laughed at that. “I wish it had been. That would solve everything. No, Randal Wakefield didn’t do it either. It was I who plunged the knife into that evil man’s leg.”

  “Oh, Miz Beckie, no!” The two women started and turned to see Ruth standing in the parlor door, pale with shock and clutching a sheet of piano music to her chest. She was not having it. “Mama, she’s lying! She’s the one who’s trying to protect Wallace. Tell her not to do it!”

  “Ruth, hush!” Alafair scolded. “Miz Beckie, if you are trying to protect Wallace, it’s a foolish thing to do. The truth always comes to light.”

  Beckie’s smile had no humor behind it. “I know it does. Come in, Ruth dear. You may as well hear this.”

  Ruth sat stiffly on the ottoman at her mother’s knee. Grace was wide awake now, sitting straight up on Alafair’s lap with a look of interest, as though she understood the situation perfectly.

  Beckie leaned back and got comfortable before she began her tale. There was no tension in her expression anymore. There was no point.

  “You were right when you said that Jubal threatened my boy, Alafair. He came by the house Sunday afternoon and confronted Wallace and Randal in the backyard. Wallace gave him all the money he had saved for his trip, trying to buy his silence. I heard the entire exchange. After Jubal left, we figured he might go straight to the sheriff with his infamous insinuation, even though he had been paid. So we made a plan. Wallace and that friend of his took the shay and headed for Muskogee, where they could take the train out of state the next morning.

  “I planned to walk into town and catch the eight-thirty to Muskogee myself. The boys were to leave the buggy at Wallace Junior’s house, and get the first train out of Muskogee going anywhere far away. I had no idea they went looking for that evil man first. Thank God they didn’t find him. I thought that after the boys were long gone, I’d tell my son that I intended to sell the house and move to Muskogee to be near him and his wife. He’s been after me to do that very thing for a long time. I planned to suggest to Junior that one of his agents could take care of the sale and move my furniture so that I would never have to come back to Boynton again. I didn’t want Junior to get wind of why we left so hastily. Him and his son don’t get on that well in any event. He’d disown the boy if he believed the rumor was true. And I think he would believe it.”

  “Miz Beckie,” Ruth interrupted, “what could Wallace have possibly done that is so bad his own father would disown him?”

  “Never you mind, Ruth dear. Perhaps it isn’t even true.” Her expression said she feared it was true, though. “Nothing vicious or cruel, I assure you. I packed a bag and left the house for the station at about an hour before the train was due. Then when I got to the junction I turned right, toward the Beldon place, instead of going straight on into town. I don’t know what I aimed to do. I didn’t know for sure if Jubal would follow through on his threat, but I expected he would. It’s miles to the Beldon place and I had a train to catch, but I had to try one more time to save my boy.

  “Anyhow, it turned out that I didn’t have to walk all that way after all. I had almost reached the junction to the Morris road when I saw Jubal on that roan of his, coming out of the Eichelberger farm. Like I said, I didn’t have a plan. But he saw me and came toward me. I nearly lost my nerve, but then I figured what more could he do to me? Kill me? It would have been a relief.

  “So he says to me, ‘Howdy, Miz MacKenzie. I figured you’d be coming by to see me directly.’

  “I asked him what he wanted to leave us alone. He told me that Wallace had given him two hundred dollars and a good idea, and he reckoned that if I was as eager to buy his silence, he might keep his newfound knowledge to himself. If he had enough money he might even decide to go to Chicago and live in style.”

  Alafair was listening to Beckie’s story with a look of skepticism on her face. She still thought it likely that Beckie was attempting to take the blame for her grandson. But Beckie misinterpreted her expression.

  “It’s not like I believed him, Alafair. I knew that even if I gave Jubal every dollar I possess, he’d hold that scandalous libel over our heads for the rest of his life. But what could I do? I told him I’d pay him anything he wanted. I said I had near to twenty dollars on me and I could get more from the bank come Monday. Five hundred dollars, I said. I put my carpet bag on the ground and started digging around in my pocketbook for my money purse, and that’s when I found it. My da’s sgian dubh.

  “I didn’t even think. I pulled it out and stabbed that scoundrel in the thigh. He screeched like a banshee and I went to stab him again, but his horse shied and I stabbed the poor creature in the hip. He went to bucking like a wild unbroke mustang, and Jubal was flung right off on his head. He didn’t even have time to brace himself. The horse took off across a field, and I never saw him more.

  “Jubal broke his neck. I could tell right away he was dead. I stood there shocked to my soul at what I had done. I don’t know how long I stood there, but the Eichelbergers must have heard the ruckus, because they both came running. I expected I was doomed, but you know, neither of them even asked me what happened. Mr. Eichelberger even laughed when he saw Jubal lying there dead. Dear Miz Eichelberger looked relieved. The worst part of it, Alafair dear, is that I was relieved, too. I came very near to falling on my knees to offer up a prayer of thanks for our delivery, but truth is I knew the Lord didn’t approve of my action. I couldn’t help myself, though. The three of us dragged the body back up the drive, and Mr. Eichelberger put him in one of his storage sheds. He told me not to fret myself about it for even one minute. He said he was going to dig a hole in the woods and bury the body where nobody would ever find it.”

  A feeling of uncertainly began to niggle at Alafair. Was Miz Beckie’s story true after all? If Eichelberger had hidden the body in one of his sheds, and the shed was blown to bits in the storm, that would explain a lot.

  “Miz Eichelberger asked me to come inside and rest my nerves, but I told them I had a train to catch and walked back home. I washed my face and hands and got to the station in time to get the train.

  “When I got to my son’s house a little after nine, the shay was parked behind his house. The boys had intended to resume their trip
to Colorado that very night and didn’t mean to tarry. But I pulled Wallace aside and told him what had happened. There was no reason to worry about Jubal Beldon anymore. I expect he talked it over with his friend Randal, and that’s when they decided to join up while they were in Muskogee.

  “I didn’t have anything to say about that. I had a visit with Junior and my daughter-in-law and headed for home on Monday evening. Just in time to nearly get blown away.

  “When I found out that the Eichelbergers’ place was destroyed and that Jubal’s body had been found in a field, I didn’t imagine anyone would suspect me or my boy either. I figured the sheriff wouldn’t think other than Jubal was killed in the storm.”

  She smiled. “I almost got away with it. But of course sin always comes to light. I’d do it again though, God forgive me. I don’t care about myself. I’m old, but Wallace has his whole life ahead of him.”

  Alafair was stunned. She had been so certain that Wallace and his friend were the culprits and both Beckie and Mr. Eichelberger were covering for them. Could it really have been the other way around?

  There was a long silence after Beckie finished, broken only by a sniffle from Ruth. Until Marva Welsh rushed into the room, breathless. “Miz Beckie, Coleman come in the kitchen and told me that Deputy Calder just arrested Mr. Wallace for stabbing Jubal Beldon! Mr. Wallace didn’t want Coleman to tell you that he is in custody, but I figure you ought to know. Miz Beckie, I don’t think he done it. I saw Mr. Wallace and his friend go by the house in a big hurry on Sunday evening, heading toward Muskogee in that yellow-topped shay. I was surprised to see them because I thought they were already long gone. Then at least two hours after that, Coleman and me saw Jubal Beldon on the road west of town. He was still alive after Mr. Wallace left town.”

  Beckie stood up, full of purpose. “Oh, that foolish boy! What is he thinking? Well, ladies, I hope you’ll be so kind as to accompany me to the sheriff’s office. It’s time for me to clear this matter up.”