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His father hissed, “Shut up!” before saying to Drake, “Don’t recall anybody by that name.”
Drake asked through his inner rage, “So, Atwater didn’t shoot him dead while his wife and child looked on?”
Something crossed Boyd’s face that might have been regret, guilt, or shame but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. “He didn’t kill nobody. And even if he did, what business is it of yours?”
“Daniel’s mother works for me.”
Again, a fleeting something played over the skeleton-like face.
Ennis spoke into the breach. “Sticking your nose where it don’t belong may make you gator bait, too.”
Drake knew Ennis was part of a ragtag supremacist group called Protectors of the South made up of illiterate poor White men like himself determined to turn back the clock. Drake looked him in the eyes. “But then Atwater would have the noses of my brothers and the Army in his business. You think Atwater would enjoy that, Boyd?”
Ennis received a sharp look from his father before Boyd settled his attention back on Drake. “Go home, LeVeq. Nothing to be found here and don’t let me catch you on Atwater land again.”
Drake was well aware that if Meachem were of a mind to kill him and Solomon he could, and their bodies, like Daniel’s, would never be found. Rather than be the source of Julianna’s grief, Drake offered the overseer an almost-imperceptible nod. Reining his horse around and hoping they wouldn’t be shot in the back, he and Solomon rode away.
Dusk was falling. Solomon headed home. Julianna and Erma Downs were acquainted through St. Augustine’s Church, so Drake stopped by her house to tell her about the murder.
Upon hearing the news, Julianna wiped the tears from her eyes. Beside her sat a solemn Valinda.
Julianna said, “Erma and I met right after she received her free papers. She saved every spare penny for ten years, hoping to buy his freedom, only to have him drafted during the war, and now this. She has to be heartbroken. Have the authorities been contacted?”
“I’ll do that in the morning. Sol and I went to the swamp to try and retrieve his body but Meachem ran us off.”
“Will these hatemongers ever leave the race alone so we can live?” Julianna shook her head with disgust. “Is there anything I can do for Erma or her daughter-in-law?”
“I’ll ask and let you know.”
“Okay,” she replied softly. “Tell her I send my condolences. I’ll light a candle for Daniel’s soul.”
“I will.”
“And please be careful tomorrow. Some people aren’t going to like you bringing the matter to the authorities.”
“I know but I owe it to Erma and her family to try and get him some justice.”
“I agree, but again, be careful.”
He nodded. “I’ll let you know what happens.”
“Thank you.”
He gave the women his goodbyes and departed.
Thursday morning, Drake approached Merritt in his office before the doors opened for the day. The lieutenant was shaving with the aid of a small mirror he’d tacked to the wall.
“I need to speak with you,” Drake said.
Merritt paused and turned. “About?”
“A freedman was murdered yesterday for refusing to sign a work contract he found unfair.”
Merritt eyed him as if trying to determine how soon this conversation might be swept away. He resumed skimming the razor over and around his beard and sideburns. “As you know, we encourage signing whether they believe it’s fair or not. They must work.”
“Not under conditions that are a substitute for slavery.”
“We don’t control the wording.”
