William Johnstone - Snake River Slaughter

“Good job,” Matt said. “I take it you represented her.”

Gilmore cleared his throat before answering. “Uh, no, I didn’t,” he said. “I—uh—represented Marcus Kincaid in that petition.”

“And now you represent Katherine?”

“Yes.”

“That’s interesting.”

“It may be even more interesting, once Kincaid learns that I am working for Mrs. Wellington.”

Matt laughed.

“What is it?”

“Even if I didn’t know Katherine from before, I would be tempted to take this job, just for the sheer fascination of it.”

Coventry Manor

The ornate and baronial home looked more like a castle than a house, and that was by design. Though smaller than the Coventry Palace, Coventry Manor had the same design as the Palace on the Wey River, back in England. It was complete in every detail, including the towers, lacking only the moat that surrounded the original building.

As spectacular as the house was though, it was the grounds that attracted the most attention. The lawn spread out over at least five acres, with an artfully designed maze of shrubbery, neatly trimmed, weed-free grass, and flowers, which grew in colorful profusion in several well-tended islands. At the moment almost a dozen groundskeepers were working on the lawn, a few pushing lawn mowers, others sculpturing shrubbery, while still others were digging out a new flower garden.

Kitty Wellington was in one of the flower gardens, cutting flowers in order to make a bouquet. She was being assisted by the head of her household staff, Frederica Bustamante.

“Senor Yensen must be a very important man,” Frederica said.

“Why do you say that?”

“You have Maria cook a big meal, you have Manuel find the best wine in the cellar, and now you take the most beautiful flowers for a bouquet. I think you would not do this if he would not be a very important man.”

“He is an important man,” Kitty said.

“Have you met him before?”

“Yes,” Kitty said.

“Has he been here before? I do not remember him.”

“No, he has never been here before. I met him, many years ago. I met him when I was a young girl.”

Frederica chuckled. “You were in love with him then, I think.”

“Don’t be silly, Frederica. I was only nine years old.”

“But you were in love with him, I think,” Frederica insisted.

Kitty laughed, easily. “Well, maybe I was,” she said. “I thought he was the most handsome boy I had ever known. He was brave too.”

“Brave?”

“Yes. I told you once that I lived in an orphanage, remember?”

“Si, Señora, I remember.”

“We were always hungry then. Pease porridge, that’s all they ever fed us. Pease porridge, except for one time. One day, Matt told us to follow his lead and eat none of our supper.

“No one asked why we should do such a thing, everyone knew and trusted Matt. So when we went through the line for supper, we accepted our bowls of pease porridge, then went back to our tables. Looking toward Matt, he let it be known by sign and signal that we were not to eat our porridge.

“There were two other orphans who were different from all the others. Their names were Connor and Simon and, because they worked for Captain Mumford, who was the head of the orphanage, they never had to go through the line. Instead, they were served at their seats.

“On that night, one of the kitchen workers brought two bowls of pease porridge out to them and set them on the table in front of Simon and Connor.”

As Kitty told the story, she relived the moment so that it was as real to her, as it had been on the day it actually happened.

“ Here, hold on!” Simon called out as the woman started back toward the kitchen. “Is this a joke? What is this?”

“It’s your supper,” the woman answered.

“The hell it is. We’re having ham tonight.”

The kitchen worker shook her head. “No ham,” she said. “We didn’t cook a ham tonight.”

“You didn’t have to cook it, it was already cooked. What’s going on here? What happened to our ham?”

“I haven’t seen any ham,” the woman answered.

Though none of the other residents laughed out loud, they all repressed giggles and smiles while they watched the frustration of the two oldest of their number as they tried to eat the pease porridge.

“What is this?” Connor shouted in anger. “Nobody can eat this shit!”

Again, there were repressed giggles from the other residents. Then, at a nod from Matt, everyone got up from the table and took their untouched bowl of porridge to the garbage can. There, they dumped the porridge, turned the bowls in, then filed out of the dining room.

“Connor, did you see that?” Simon asked.

“Did I see what?”

“None of them ate.”

“Yeah, well, who can blame them?” he replied, looking at his meal with disgust.

“No, you don’t understand,” Simon said. “None of them ate so much as one bite. They always eat.”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “Yeah, you’re right. I wonder why not. Why don’t you follow them, Simon, and see if you can figure out what’s going on?”

“Yeah,” Simon said. “I will.”

Simon slipped out of the dining room, then hanging back a little, watched as the others went into the chapel. Curious, he moved up to the door of the chapel, then looked inside. Everyone was sitting quietly in the pews, with their heads bowed and their eyes closed.

“Simon,” Matt called, seeing Simon standing at the door. “It’s so good to see you here. Come on in.”

“What?” Simon asked.

“Why don’t you go get Connor and bring him with you? We would love to have you two join us.”

“Join you for what? What are you doing? What’s going on, here?”

“You may have noticed that we ate none of our food tonight.”

“Yeah, I did notice. Why didn’t you eat?”

“Because we are having a night of fasting and prayer,” Matt said.

“What do you mean fasting and prayer? How can you have a prayer service if there ain’t no preacher here.”

“You don’t need a preacher to have a prayer service,” Matt said. “Remember, the Lord said ‘When two or three are gathered in my name, there I shall be.’ I noticed that you fasted as well tonight. Won’t you please join us?”

Matt reached out as if to grab Simon and pull him into the chapel.

Simon held out his hands as if warding off Matt. He shook his head no.

“No,” he said. “I ain’t doin’ no prayin’.”

“What about Connor? Won’t you ask him to join us?”

“You’re crazy,” Simon said. “There ain’t neither one of us goin’ to be comin’ in here and sayin’ a bunch of prayers.”

“Then we will pray for you,” Matt said.

“You’re crazy, I tell you. Every last one of you.”

Matt waited for a moment, then he looked over at Eddie. “Make sure he’s gone.”

Eddie went to the door, looked through it, then turned back. “He’s gone,” he said.

“Let’s eat,” Matt said, and with that, everyone crowded up to the altar where, from beneath the pulpit, Matt pulled out a large ham.

“Oh, this looks so delicious,” Tamara said. “Where did you get it?”

“The ladies of the Methodist Church cooked it especially for us,” Matt said. “I just happened to be outside Mumford’s office when they brought it in to him. Mumford thanked them for it, then told Connor that he and Simon could both have a little of it before he took it home.”