The Gallant South- Part Two

Chapter V- February 16-17, 1913

     Back in October, when Colby had held Cora's head underwater, she hadn't been able to breathe. She'd tried everything in her power, grabbing at Colby's hands, trying to push herself up, trying to escape in some way. But everything she'd done had only made her gasp for more air, ingesting more water and hurting even more.
        That's how Cora felt in that moment, kneeling down in the snow, looking at Renee's body. All breath had left her body, and she couldn't draw any in.
        Vaguely, she heard Bettirose let out a scream so horrible Cora wished she was lying there with Renee too. She heard the sound of someone, maybe Theo, collapsing into the snow. Her ears were ringing and she felt like she was either going to faint or vomit.
        When Cora did turn around, Bettirose was wailing, Theo was sitting stunned in the snow, and Eveline was just standing there staring at Renee, a stunned expression on her face. Cora felt tears running down her face. Her ears were ringing and her breath had caught in her throat.
        "Oh my God," Eveline whispered. Cora opened her eyes and looked at Renee. Her throat had been slashed open with some sort of knife, and blood spilled into the snow around her neck. There was a giant bruise above her eye, and her wrists were red from the handcuffs.
        "We're gonna have to tell everyone," Eveline whispered. "We're going to have to tell everyone that Renee is dead."
        "Murdered, you mean," Theo choked out.
        "Now let's place our bets on whether it was Colby and Nielsen," Eveline said, but no one laughed. She didn't expect them to.
        Theo stood up too. "We can't leave her here. None of us are leaving her, you hear?" he near-shouted. Bettirose was still on the ground, but when Theo spoke, she stood up.
        "Where in the fuck is Colby Whitbaker?" she screamed. "He killed Renee!"
        "Wait!" Eveline shouted. "You can't go after him! He'll kill you too!"
        "Bettirose, we gotta go. We'll get recognized if people start showing up," Cora said. Bettirose didn't move, and when Theo tried to pull her away, she struggled against him.
"No!" she shouted. "No!"
        "We have to go! We can't be seen with her!" Theo shouted, trying to pull her away. She kept shouting and clawing at him.
        "Bettirose!" Eveline shouted. "We can't do anything for her!" Tears were streaming down her face. "She's dead, okay? She's dead!"
       The commotion had attracted people on the street. One lady saw the blood and fainted dead away into her husband's arms. Someone else screamed. Eveline took Bettirose's arm. "We gotta clear out," she whispered. It had hit her that she was likely to be recognized by someone.
        "What's going on here?" shouted a voice. One of the officers was standing outside the entrance to the police station, looking over at the crowd. Eveline hid behind Cora's shoulders.
        "Someone's been killed!" One of the men shouted.
        The officer looked startled. He ran back inside and hurried back out, this time with Nielsen, Ambrose, and several other officers.
        "We have to go! Now!" Eveline exclaimed at the sight of Nielsen.
        "No buts!" Cora shouted. "Now! The last thing we need is for Eveline to get caught as well!"

        They couldn't get Bettirose to leave, so the four of them sat on the benches outside one of the buildings across the street as the ambulance arrived. The crowd thinned out a bit. They covered Renee in a white sheet and put her in the back of the car. Nielsen and two other officers hopped in the back, and it drove off. Another officer roped off the area and shooed people away.
        "They can't deny that this one was murder," Ambrose said, walking towards the group. Eveline threw herself at him. He caught her wearily and looked at Cora. "They can't."
        "They can, though," Theo murmured. "They could so very easily pass it off as a suicide."
        "How so?" Ambrose asked, genuinely confused. He sat down, Eveline in his lap.
        "Well, say this: She knew she'd be convicted, and she'd also been found out. Say she broke out of jail and killed herself to avoid prosecution. It's happened before," Theo explained.
        Ambrose looked back at the station. "I didn't really think of that."
        "Or," Cora said, "They know she was murdered and they just don't care."
        "That too," Theo added.
        "And even if they were looking to convict someone, who? Certainly not 'kind and benevolent' Colby Whitbaker," Cora said with disgust. She knew that Colby would pass off her death as a suicide. He'd probably planted a knife on her that they hadn't seen because of the snow. Cora hadn't fully uncovered her body.
        "Let's just go," Bettirose said, standing up. "We have to go break the news to everyone.
Right, Cora thought. We have to go tell everyone at church that Renee was murdered.
"I'll come with you," Ambrose announced. "No one will miss me."