Amelia's Children

Chapter 7

In the boat on the way back to the cabin David kept asking Mack questions about Amelia.

"We could tell she'd been stabbed," Mack was saying. "I mean, that was obvious. Blood everywhere—still gives me creeps."

"So that was what killed her? The stab wound?"

"Well, first of all it was wounds. Two in the front, one in the back. We could see that too."

I joined in at this point. "Will didn't see any of that, though. I mean he's never mentioned that."

Mack shook his head. "No, your dad and I sent Will and Benny back to the boat, told 'em to wait for us there. There's just things kids don't need to see. As far as what she died from, yeah I guess it was those wounds. But of course they did an autopsy. Not a lot of that was made public, so I don't really know what else they found out."

"So after you found her, what happened then?" David asked.

"Well we didn't have no cell phones back then. Of course even now they don't work way out here, but, anyway, we couldn't just call the police. And there was that baby, too, so we had to do something with him. I asked Benny to give me his jacket, and we wrapped the little thing up in it and took him in the boat with us. Sarah, your dad stayed with the body while I took the boys and the baby back up to the cabin. I called the police first, and then called the wife to come look after the kids while I took the cops back down the river. After that the professionals dealt with it and I didn't know any more about it than anybody else."

"And they never found out who killed her?"

"Well, not officially, no, but everybody pretty much figured it was the husband."

"Why would they think it was the husband?"

"Well, for one thing, Robert Davis had always been a pretty odd character. Kept to himself a lot. Lived way out of town and barely talked to anyone. But that don't make him a killer, I know. The really weird thing was that he never came to claim the baby. So people kind of figured it wasn't his baby. That he'd caught his wife fooling around and killed her for it. But the police didn't have any proof. Didn't even have enough to arrest him."

"And the baby? If the husband didn't want him, what happened to him?"

"Oh, now I don't know all that. Like I said, after the cops came in I didn't find out any more than anybody. But I'll tell you who you can ask. Hank Cowart."

"Hank Cowart?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Dr. Cowart is the one who examined him. He might know something."

"Do you have Dr. Cowart's number?"

"Oh no, I don't. Don't really know Hank all that well, sorry."

"Will knows him," I said, anxious to contribute something helpful. "He used to work for him. When we get back to the cabin I'll call my brother. He'll give us Dr. Cowart's number."

"Thanks, Sarah," David said. And we were quiet for the remainder of the trip.

After we pulled the boat up on land I went inside to call Will. It made me laugh to see that Mack still had an old rotary phone on the table by the sofa. After taking what felt like forever dialing the darn thing, I waiting for my brother to pick up. Voice mail. Remembering that he usually turned his cell phone off while he was working, I decided to call his office instead. Dot, the receptionist, picked up and said in her characteristically perky voice, "Laurel Hill Family Medical. How may I help you?"

Dot was well known all over town for her quirky personality. She was thirty two years old with a sense of fashion that seemed to be stuck in the year that she was born. From the big hair to the crazy eye makeup to the ridiculously colorful outfits that she wore, she was a walking time capsule of the eighties—a decade she barely even remembered. But she was friendly and always happy, which is exactly what you want in a receptionist.