Hearts of Grey Read online

  And there, before their very eyes, were several wooden boxes all stacked neatly on top of each other. Each box was branded with the Confederate seal.

  Grady’s flashlight found the box that Michael had described dropping. And just like Michael had said, gold coins littered the floor. Grady pointed them out to Aaron.

  “This is fantastic, utterly fantastic! There must be over four hundred boxes in here. And those,” he said as he pointed at the stack of human skeletons.

  “Oh, yeah, forgot about those guys. Ooppss!” Grady said with a smile. “Have you seen enough?” he asked.

  “Not really, I’d like to look around a little bit more if you don’t mind. This is interesting stuff down here,” he answered.

  “Please be my guest. I’ll wait. Take your time,” Grady answered back.

  Susie walked along the trail that led through the darkened forest of trees and shadows. The shotgun that she carried gave her the power to do what needed to be done a long time ago. And she was the only one that could do it. All of the torment of her life had to end now, this very night.

  As Aaron climbed from the hole, something crashed into the back of his head. His lifeless body fell to the ground. Grady hadn’t realized that he had been hit, but rather he had just slipped or something. But as he climbed out of the hole, he soon knew better. Grady looked up at Katie.

  Katie signaled with her head. Grady spun around to see Barnes standing there before him. When the gun crashed into the side of head, it was a surprise. Grady fell to the ground dazed but conscious.

  “Barnes, you backstabbing son of a bitch,” Grady called him.

  “Shut up, ole man. Thanks for finding my grandfather’s gold. I knew you would,” he told him.

  “This ain’t your grandfather’s gold. Your grandfather was a thief. This belongs to the South!” Katie yelled back at him.

  “I’d watch my mouth if I were you, missy. Or I can shoot you first. Don’t make no difference to me. First, second. Either way, the both of you are going to die,” he told her.

  “Go ahead, asshole. There’s a thousand government agents or so at our house. What do you plan on doing, killing all of them?” she asked.

  “Never said that I was going to kill you here, did I? Get up, Grady. You ain’t hurt—yet.”

  “There ain’t going to be no more killing, Pa,” came a voice from behind Barnes.

  Barnes turned to see his daughter standing about ten feet away from him. The shotgun sat against her shoulder leveled at her father’s head.

  “Susie, what are you doing here? Go home. I don’t need your help here. So git!” he yelled at her.

  “I ain’t here to help ya, Pa. I’m aiming to put a stop to all of this fighting and killing,” she told him.

  Grady and Katie just watched in amazement.

  “What in the Sam hell are you talking about? There ain’t been no killing, not yet anyways. And put that shotgun down before you shoot someone. Mainly me,” he told her.

  “I watched you kill that guy ten years or so ago. You shot him in cold blood. I saw you do it. Now put the gun down, Father,” she said.

  “Susie, I’m you’re father. Now, do as I say, dammit! Go home!” he yelled at her.

  “You ain’t my father. I don’t know who you are, but I watched the man that I called father die. When you buried that guy, you buried my father along with him, you son of a bitch. Put the gun down. Now!” she demanded.

  “Susie, I’m not telling you again. Go home! We’ll talk about this later!” he yelled at her.

  “No, goddammit. Katie is my friend, and you’re not going to hurt her. Now, for the last time, drop the fucking gun! Do it now, or I swear I’ll—” Barnes cut her off.

  “Or you’ll do what? Shoot me? I don’t think so. You ain’t got what it takes. Yeah, I shot that guy. What was his name? Oh yeah, Rings. And I’m going to shoot Katie and Grady too. Hell, Katie threw your ass in jail, and now you’re protecting her?” he asked her.

  “Yeah well, maybe so, but she did one thing that you’ve never done,” she told him.

  “Yeah? And what was that?” he asked.

  “She believed in me. Hell, you never even came to jail to see me. But she did. So I’m telling you for the very last time. Put the damn gun down!” she yelled at him.

  Barnes was going to point in the direction of their house as he told her to go home. His big mistake was when he used the hand holding the gun. Susie had no choice as he brought the handgun up pointed in her direction.

  She pulled both triggers of the side-by-side at the same time. Two barrels of double odd buck found its way into her father’s right shoulder, spinning him around before he feel to the ground. The force of the double-barrels going off at the same time knocked Susie backward, landing on her ass.

  Katie grabbed Barnes’s gun and rushed over to Susie. “Hey, you . . . are you okay?” Katie asked.

  “Yeah, did I shoot him?” she asked.

  “Oh yeah, you shot him all right,” Katie told her with a grin.

  “Did I . . . kill him?” she asked.

  Katie looked over at Grady as he bent over Barnes’s body. Grady told her, “He’ll live.”

  “Your father will survive. But that took a lot of courage to do what you just did. And I do mean a lot. Thank you ever so much,” Katie told her as they exchanged hugs.

  “That’s what friends do, ain’t it?” she asked.

  “We sure do, friend,” Katie answered.

  Suddenly, they were surrounded by government agents, all with their guns out. And Mike was the first one to reach Katie’s side. “What in the hell happened?” he asked. “We heard gunshots!”

  “Susie here just saved our lives,” she told him.

  “Susie?” he asked as he first looked at Susie and then over at Barnes as he was being treated and placed under arrest.

  “You shot your own father? You put their lives before his?” he asked.

  “Well, I didn’t mean to. I mean that I didn’t want to, but he pointed his gun at me. So I pulled the trigger,” she told him.

  “Well, I think that I may have underestimated you. And for that I’m sorry,” he said.

  “I did what had to be done. Is that other guy going to be all right?” she asked.

  “Oh, you mean good ole Aaron here? He’s a government man. He might have a bump on his noggin for a day or two, but he’ll live,” Grady answered.

  “Hey, Grady!” Aaron called.

  Grady looked at him and smiled.

  “Next time, you go first. I’ll even give you my gun,” he told him with a smile.

  “You know we can all sit up here on the grass on our asses all night long, but we do have a pretty big day tomorrow, remember?” Katie told all of them.

  “Ya know, she’s right. Let’s all go home,” Grady told them.

  Now considering all of the excitement of the night before and that of the following day, it was no surprise to anyone that nobody got any sleep at all. Melissa had shown up about thirty minutes after all of the shooting had stopped. And she complained that she always happened to miss the good shit.

  Now it’s a known fact that if you want to keep something a secret, you’d be better off just forgetting that idea because someway, somehow, someone somewhere will find out about it, and the next thing you know, everybody and their mothers knows about it. And this was no exception. Everyone knew about it because everyone was there. More people filed into Mattersonville than ever before. And it was also surprising to find out that people in general could actually pull a rabbit out of their ass if the situation called for it.

  Now, nobody knew where they got them, especially on such short notice, but the Preservation Society showed up with over twenty-five glass display cases, all of which were framed with polished oak frames. And they spent hours going through all of the original documents that had been removed from the safe, three hundred and twenty six in all, and carefully placed each piece of paper, large and small, into these display cases so eve
ryone could view the documents, but they would be protected when pressed between the two pieces of glass. And they set them up on easels in the main entrance to Matterson House. It was a very impressive display of American history indeed.

  The Sons of the Confederacy showed up in all of their splendor. Each of them wearing vintage costumes of the Confederate Army. Each of them carried a vintage Civil War musket and all of the gear that the actual soldiers had carried across these actual grounds so long ago.

  And if you have ever wondered whatever became of all of those Confederate flags, well wonder no more. For they were all there on display, waving in the Georgia sun, flapping to the warm breeze that blew. With all of the Confederate memorabilia that was on hand, one might expect to see General Lee ride up on his noble steed and start barking orders to his loyal men.

  Then someone said something to the effect that there wasn’t any cannons or cannonballs. Remember what I said about the rabbit? Well, within hours, they had cannons—both Confederate and Union models. They were staggered across the large meadow, facing one another as if at any time, you would expect them to start firing at one another.

  There were several white tents set up all over the place. Several of them were fully supplied with everything that those brave souls carried into battle so long ago. Many of the tents had little fires burning in makeshift fire rings. They came complete with some hot coffee and a spare cup offered up to anyone that just wanted to sit a spell and listen to some southern folklore as told by the owner of the camp just as if he had been there in battle nearly one hundred years earlier. And there was plenty of good ole southern music too. But if you happened not to care for a particular tune, you could simply walk a few feet to the next tent and hear a whole new melody.

  The cave that held the wagons and those skeletal remains of the horses was opened, and guards were posted to keep the honest people honest. You would be surprised at what people would try to steal just so they could have their own little bit of history to take home.

  But out of respect for the horses, they were left as they had been found until they could each receive a proper burial. That was at the insistence of Katie and Melissa.

  Lights were set up in the cave so people could view the scene and see for themselves what had happened there in the dark unforgiving cave so long ago.

  Katie stood there on the front porch, struck in total amazement as to everything that was happening in her very own front yard. Then a man called out to her, and she turned to greet him.

  “Well, good morning to you, my dear sir, did you get it?” she asked as she had recognized the gentleman as being the reporter for the Boston Herald.

  “Yes, ma’am, I did, and good morning to you too. You’ve got one hell of a show going on here. Very impressive if I do say so myself,” he told her.

  Katie didn’t respond to his small talk. “The paper please,” she asked as he held her hand out.

  “Oh, yes, of course the paper, I’m sorry. Here you go,” he told her as he handed her the morning edition of the Boston Herald for July 4, 1955. And there it was printed in big bold type.

  major general william tecumseh sherman cleared on any wrongdoing in the greatest crime of the civil war

  Katie just smiled. “Thank you, my dear sir. You got it right,” she told him as she gave the unexpecting man a light hug.

  “Well, you’re welcome, miss. I told my publisher that it had to be just like you wanted,” he told her.

  “Well, on behalf of my family, you tell your publisher thank you. So are you going to stick around for the real fireworks, or do you have somewhere to go?” she asked.

  “Miss, you couldn’t pry me away from all of this. I’m here for the duration,” he told her.

  “Well, good. Make yourself at home. There’s food. Well, there’s food everywhere I guess,” she said as she looked around to see food cooking everywhere.

  “Thank you, I smell chicken cooking. I think I’ll go track it down,” he said as he turned and walked away with his nose in the air.

  Now out of the respect due to those poor souls whose skeletons were found next to the gold, it was decided that the public would not be allowed to view the removal of their remains. Heavy security was set all around the area as the local doctors, with the help of an especially trained medical team from Washington, removed each body as slowly as possible. It was extremely difficult because every time one bone was touched, five or six more would fall off. Keeping the right bones together with the right body proved to be a very tiring task.

  Aaron James watched as they picked bone by bone from their eerie graves. There wasn’t much left of their clothing, but what little did remain suggested that they were in fact slaves, black slaves forced to help one white man steal from another white man. And all they got for their trouble was a bullet to the back of their heads. The times might have been different back then, but wrong was still wrong. And it always would be. Slavery was wrong and so was murder regardless of one’s color. But this was the south where the laws of the land were very seldom overlooked when it came to the colored folk. Even now in 1955, being black around here wasn’t the easiest thing to conquer.

  Mike and Katie sat there at a table under a large oak. In front of them sat plates overflowing with everything from Cajun to southern style finger-licking food.

  “Do you believe this madness? I mean, shit, where in the hell did all of these people come from?” Katie asked.

  “Got me. I know that those guys over there are from California, and there’s talk about some people all the way from Oregon. How did they get here this quick? It’s beyond me,” he told her.

  Grady walked up behind them and put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. She turned to look at him.

  “Daddy, where did you take off to? I looked all over but I couldn’t find ya,” she told him.

  “Had to get lost for a while. Too damn many people. But speakin’ of people, could you come with me?” he asked. “There’s some people that I really think you need to meet.”

  “Sure. Michael, do you mind?” she asked.

  “No, go ahead. Don’t worry about me. I’ll just sit here and feed my face,” he answered as he took another bite off of a chicken leg.

  Grady led Katie over to where Melissa was talking with three very handsome gentlemen.

  “Well, well, looks like you found yourself three good-looking guys. Does Rick know?” she asked half kidding with her.

  “They’re not my friends. They’re yours,” Melissa answered.

  Katie stared at the three guys standing before her. “No, I’m sorry, but if I had three friends that looked like these guys, I would have remembered them for sure,” Katie told them.

  “Well, we’re sorry for crashing your party, miss, but we just wanted to stop by and say thank you once again,” one of the men told her.

  “You’re not crashing my party, but I have to ask. Thank you for what?” she asked.

  “You really don’t remember us, do you?” another one of the men asked her.

  “Okay, I’m really sorry, but I don’t know who any of you are?” she told them again.

  “Well, my name is Delroy, and this here is Billy Ray, and that’s Leroy,” one of the men told her.

  Katie had to take a few steps back. If her jaw had dropped any more, her foot would have gone into her mouth.

  “You’re the guys from the cave?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am, we are. I sure hope you don’t mind us stopping by, I mean, considering what we was going to do to ya and all,” Delroy asked her.

  “Well, I’ll be! Jus’ look at ya all. All spit and polished like ya are. Wow, you got all cleaned up’d just to come say thank you. How sweet ya all are,” she told them.

  “Well, not exactly, ma’am. Ya see, ever since that night that ya gave us a chance, well, we’ve changed. We got some new clothes with that hundred dollars that that girl paid us, and well, we even have girlfriends and all,” he told her.

  “You’re k
idding me, right? You changed around your lives just because I gave you a break, and you did it all in less than a week?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. In fact, Billy Ray and I are starting new jobs on Monday. And it’s because of you, miss,” Delroy told her.

  Katie turned to look at Melissa. “Do you believe this?” she asked.

  “I know. That’s what I said. Katie, I don’t know how you keep turning turds into diamonds, but you’ve done it again,” Melissa told her.

  Billy Ray looked at Katie. “Miss, are you . . . like crying?” he asked.

  “It’s okay. It’s a good cry. You know what, guys, I don’t think I’ve ever been so touched than I am right now,” she said as she gave each of them a huge hug.

  “You guys are my guests here today. And I won’t take no for an answer. Is that understood?” she asked with a smile.

  “Ma’am, it would be an honor to attend this here party,” Leroy told her.

  “No, the honor is all ours,” Mike said as he reached out and shook their hands. Katie turned to look into his face.

  “And just how long have you been standing there?” she asked.

  “The entire time. Your daddy signaled me to follow ya. So I did,” he confessed.

  “Then you know who these guys are?” she asked.

  “Yes, dear, I do. But the main thing here is not what they once were and what they are now. I, for one, am truly impressed,” he answered her.

  “In less than a week, do you believe that?” she asked.

  “Katie, ever since I started hanging around you, it’s been one surprise after another. So nothing shocks me anymore when it comes to you,” he told her.

  Katie turned to look at her daddy. “Daddy, do you believe these are the same guys from that cave?” she asked.

  “Well, I reckon so. But there’s something that you seem to be forgettin’, ain’t there?” he asked her.

  “Forgettin’ something? Like what?” she asked.

  “Well, as bad as raping you—or attempting to at least—was, in fact, had they not agreed to what Susie had planned, then I wouldn’t had found that first coin, which led us to the horses and then to here. So in fact, if it wasn’t for these three gentlemen, we might not even be here today. Did you ever think of that?” he asked.