Read Online Magnolia Gods (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 2) by Thomas Hollyday - Free Book Online Page B

ground as though they were an enemy army.”
     
    Drexel leaned toward Mike. “Have you learned anything about the case that I might not know?”
    “Nothing”
    “Probably just as well you don’t tell me. Aviatrice doesn’t like people who know too much about the Lawsons.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Wall tried to threaten me. He scared off all the other lawyers. I was the only one who would take the case. I thought it would help my career. It didn’t. I found out that Americans didn’t like anything to do with Communists. I got over the smear campaign though.” The old lawyer smiled and reached down and handed Jesse another folder.
    “I wouldn’t mind you aggravating that bastard Wall. Here, this is the eyewitness account of Lawson taking off that night. The statement was from a fisherman who saw the whole event from the other side of the river.”
     
    Question: Describe what you saw on the night of July 4, 1946.
    Answer: “The night was quiet and peaceful, very pleasant. World War Two had been over for almost a year. The bombers no longer droned overhead at twilight. Now in the evening there was only the chattering of human life, of families growing and children at play. That Fourth of July night it was like pre-war times with good food and laughter and no fear.
    “The smell of dead fish and seaweed rotting in summer heat rose from the shallows. I was fishing off a small wooden pier across the river from the city streets of Philadelphia and the lights and brick buildings of the United States Naval Research Laboratory.
    “Suddenly, out in the darkness in the middle of the river, I heard a seaplane taking off, the washing of its propellers cutting through the air. I watched as the seaplane’s small white wing lights lifted gently, the propeller noise easing back. Then the plane was silent but the lights still climbed silently at high speed from the river in front of the base, heading east over New Jersey to the Atlantic.”
    Question: “You’re sure it was east?”
    Answer: “Yessir, out the river, then turning due east.”
    Question: “Go on.”
    Answer: “I remember thinking about my wife just then and I said to myself, softly so she wouldn’t hear me, she thinks I fish too much and that’s why I’m always talking to myself. Got the children scared sometimes, she says.”
    “I tilted my head to watch the light.
    “’Mercy,’ I said to myself, ‘That plane is quiet. What kind of engine is that? Must be some kind of experimental job. Why are they still testing? This war is over. Today is a vacation day.’
    “The quiet tiny lights moved further out to the east and then were turned off, or I couldn’t see them anymore, I wasn’t sure.”
    “’Lord,’ I said to myself, ‘But he don't make no noise like those big engines on the bombers I hear coming over during the war. It ain't no jet. I know that sound too. Well, he’s gone and I’m still here. Ain’t that the way.’
    “Them atomic bombs, that's what scares me, ‘cause you die too quick. I looked behind me at the beach beside the pier. The other black families from the church were there. I was the only one fishing. The men wouldn't fish with me because they said I caught all the fish.
    (laughter in the hearing room)
    “They spend too much time in Philadelphia. They forget how to fish that's all. Not too hard to learn again if they want to. Excuses. They just want to talk to the women.”
    “I jiggled my line. She complains about my talking but that woman, my wife, she likes my fishing. Before the kids came, she would come and fish with me all night. She still cooks everything I catch.
    “I watched as my wife served our two children the last of the pie. I knew the pie had extra sugar in it just for me. She had worked hard on that pie. The kids loved her. I could see it in their faces as she helped them.
    “I looked up to the highway above the beach. My cousins were supposed to be there. I wished they’d hurry up because the