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Aaron gave Dani’s hand a quick squeeze, and then stood and moved to the front of the room and took the microphone.
“This began before the police in Jubilee even knew Charlie had been shot. I was in the front lobby of the police station when a woman walked in with the sole intention of just turning in something she’d found. It turned out to be Brendan Pope’s journal, and you all already know about that, right?”
There was a rumble of voices and heads nodding.
“As we were taking her statement about how she’d come by the journal, and what she’d seen, we received the news about Charlie’s shooting. After that, herstatement about seeing a man with a hiker’s backpack running up from the creek, staggering and drenched in sweat, became something of interest. She’d already told us she saw a metal detector, a camp shovel, and a handgun fall out of his pack when he fell, and at that point, we realized the implications. After the man drove off, she saw something lying on the ground where he’d been parked. Likely it had fallen out of his pack with everything else but slid beneath the car and he didn’t see it. This turned out to be the journal. At that moment, we realized there was a real likelihood that she’d seen the man who shot Charlie, but we couldn’t prove it. It became a scramble to get prints from the journal, hoping to ID him, but it turned out his prints weren’t on file in the criminal justice system. All we had was her. But to keep her safe from the shooter trying to remove his only witness, we didn’t let anyone, including the media, know she existed.. Then Sheriff Woodley was informed, and he brought a police sketch artist to create the composite sketch that was released nationwide. After that, the shooter was identified on security footage at the Hotel Devon, and our witness identified him as the man she’d seen dropping the gun and the journal. At that point, it was vital that no one knew of her existence. For all we knew, the shooter might be desperate enough to kill the only person who could identify him. We not only have her to thank for finding the man who shot Charlie, but we also owe her a huge debt of gratitude for bringing the journal, a family heirloom, fullcircle. Over the weeks of working on this case, she’s become an important person to me and to my family, and Cameron wanted you to meet her.” Then Aaron looked straight at Dani and smiled.
“Dani, honey, would you please stand?”
Dani took a deep breath and then stood.
“Everyone, this is Dani Owens, Jubilee’s new first-grade teacher, and the secret witness who helped crack the case and find Charlie’s shooter.”
Dani smiled shyly and waved while the people began clapping and cheering.
She sat down as Aaron returned to join her, and Cameron returned to the podium.
“Thank you, Aaron, and now for the rest of the story. I wanted to read the journal, but since it was still evidence in an open case, it was not allowed to leave the police station. However, they let me come to the station to read it. It took me a couple of days to decipher the old script, but it was an eye-opening and moving depiction of our Scottish ancestor’s beginnings here in Kentucky, and how he came by his Chickasaw wife. All my life I’d been told Brendan’s wife, Meg, was Choctaw, but it’s not so. She was a little Chickasaw woman by the name of Cries A Lot, who Brendan called Meg. Their story is wonderful and sad, and the bond between them was obviously strong and loving. But as I read, I began to realize why the man who shot Charlie came to Jubilee and what he was doing at Big Falls. At the end of the journal, two things happen at once that are directreasons for what’s happening now. Brendan and Meg’s children were grown and had families of their own by the time the Civil War began. And sometime thereafter, a troop of Confederate soldiers came through Jubilee. They had a team of mules pulling a wagon, rumored to be carrying Confederate gold. They went through Jubilee on the same day Meg went up the mountain to pick berries. When she didn’t come home, they went looking for her. They trailed her footprints all the way to Big Falls where they found her basket of berries spilled on the ground, her little footprints mingled among a dozen or more boot prints, and way too much blood on the ground for someone to have survived. They looked all over for Meg without success, then followed the boot prints back to the main road and found the wagon that had gone through Jubilee earlier, abandoned and with a broken wheel. They followed the trail of the soldiers for miles, until they came upon all of them dead, with no further sign of Meg. Brendan and the searchers decided when the wagon broke down, the soldiers carried the gold into the woods to hide it, came upon Meg picking berries, and killed her so she couldn’t tell where they’d hidden their treasure, and hid her body, too.”
Again, gasps and murmurs filled the air, and in the midst, Ella Pope suddenly covered her face. “The crying woman,” she said and began to weep.
Cameron kept talking. “We think Nyles Fairchild came looking for gold. He told the police who arrested him that shooting Charlie was an accident. He heardsomething coming through the trees and shot because he thought it was a bear. But he left Charlie to die, right where Brendan’s Meg disappeared. And that’s why I’ve asked you all here. I believe Meg is somewhere on this mountain, likely with whatever it was the soldiers hid. I want to organize a search with all of the up-to-date technology available to us and find her. Until this journal reappeared in our lives, none of us knew this story, and I don’t believe in coincidences. I think there was a reason Dani Owens found the journal. Brendan Pope began writing it in 1833, and almost two hundred years later, it’s come full circle for a reason. We need to find our little Chickasaw grandmother. There’s a sign-up sheet on the table in front of me if you want to participate in this search. And if you can’t, that’s totally understandable, too. But she belongs to us. Her DNA is in every Pope who came from this place. She’s been alone for centuries. It’s time to bring her home.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as men began getting out of their seats and moving quietly toward the table to sign up, and as they did, women began gravitating to where Shirley and Dani were sitting to introduce themselves to Dani and thank her. Later, Dani would not remember a single name or what they looked like, because she was too overwhelmed to speak and her eyes were full of tears.
They drove home in mutual silence, each thinking about what had transpired, and the search that layahead. When they got back to the house, Aaron parked to let his mom and B.J. out.
“Thank you for supper and the moral support,” Dani said. “Next time, I’m cooking for you.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” Shirley said. “Rest well, honey. You did yourself proud tonight.”
“What are you gonna cook?” B.J. asked.
They all broke out laughing.
“Damn, B.J., give her a minute to think about it.”
B.J. grinned. “Just asking. Whatever it is, I’ll like it.”
“Good to know,” Dani said, and then laughed again as Shirley and B.J. went up the steps and into the house.
Sean and Wiley drove up and waved at them as they went inside.
Light was shining from the windows, marking its place in the dark. It was both solace and safety to the family within. Aaron gave it one last look and then put his car in reverse.
“Time to get my girl home,” he said as he backed up and took the driveway back to the main road, then headed back down to Jubilee.
They were silent for a couple of minutes before Aaron spoke.
“Are you okay? I mean…being outed like that? I know you were anxious about it.”
“I’m fine. Most of my anxiety was about being the only outsider in such an important family meeting, but it wasn’t as worrisome as I thought, and everyone was really nice to me, afterward.”
“I’m anxious, too, but for different reasons. It’s been such a long time since all of this happened. What if we don’t find Meg?” he said.
“I don’t know. Maybe the family could have something as simple as a memorial service, and Cameron reading sections from the journal about their lives together. Having said that, I can’t help feeling she’ll be found. Like Cameron said, there has to be a reason why all of this has come full circle.”
“I hope you’re right,” Aaron said. “I sure hope you’re right.”
