Alford Tales -- Murder! Part 3

Thinking about that day Pa left with his musket.  Mama said "I saw him go towards Mr. Hoover's land.  Not north."  I did not ask, but it was a moment that I did not forget.

"Pa had left with is musket and went south."  Henry told me that as well.  He saw him.  Mr. Alford and I visited with Henry and Eleanor.  They stayed with us a few days before heading to the west.  On to Preble County in the Ohio country.  Going with their children.  We stayed here in Monroe County and said goodbye to John a few years ago as he left for Hancock County in the Indiana country.

"I saw him walking towards Mr. Hoover's farm.  Unless he turned north somewhere along the way, he went that way."  Mr. Hoover farmed over the hill.  He and my Pa had been good and neighborly.  Their children were gone west as well.  

"But later Robert and I found Pa's musket down by North River. I've never told anyone this. Robert never believed me so I never said anything about it.  He told me to forget it."  When Henry was growing up, he had a fancy to image things.  I was more sensible like my Mama.  Eliza and Sarah and I were all sensible.  We had to be with our husbands.  It wasn't until now when Henry said "I'd swear on the family Bible that what I saw was there.  She was there standing in the wood on that island in North River."

Henry told me what he say.  "She was there. The old witch that Pa always talked about. Standing there in plain daylight.  I though witches only came out at night."  When Henry said that, I couldn't help but wonder about something else I had heard.  He went on. "Robert didn't see her.  He was too busy looking at the musket.  Cleaning off the mud.  His back was to her and I could see her over his shoulder.  She had on a black cloak with her hood up over her head.  Could only see part of her face."

"You always had a wild imagination.  Remember that time that you thought you saw..."  He didn't let me finish my sentence.  That was unusual for Henry.  He was always polite and kind to listening.  Very much a man of the Bible's teachings.

"I saw her standing there. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.  And felt funny. Like she was trying to kill me.  Robert ran off with the musket.  He yelled to hurry up.  But I saw someone was running through the woods on the other side of the river.  Looked like a man.  I tried to see who it was but never did.  I was afraid to turn back to see if she was there.  I was just a youngin' then.  More scared than anything."

I began thinking about that time when Pa died.  Henry had seen the old witch of North River.  Someone running through the woods. Mama talking about Pa heading south and not north.  It all began to come together.  It all began to make sense what I had heard while listening to concerned news.  First someone running through the woods.  Someone meeting someone on the island.  And Pa with his musket.

That was when I knew Pa had not been murdered like I had always thought, but killed by accident.  Reminded me of that old play I saw once when a traveling troupe had come through Monroe County.  Down at Lewisburg. They acted out the play about Romeo and Juliet by that Mr. Shakespeare.  That's when I knew that the real murder had been of Mrs. Gwinn.  Part of a lover's plot.