and I was Missy’s lady maid when I was small. Afraid that might be more than is tolerable. Besides, he don’t need to know.
He sits up then. I only know that because I hear him squeeze to his feet in the dark, turn hisself round standing, then wiggle back down twixt the bales. “Well, all that don’t mean nothing. How’d you figure they wasn’t just robbed or kilt and left in the building that one-eyed fella and that Moses fella watched over for that…who’d you say…that Washbacon man?”
“Washburn. And them trunks was heavy.”
“Maybe they done stole everythin’ what them girls had and put it in them trunks.” Right now, it’s clear enough, Gus knows more about bad men than I do.
“I heard something in that box. Thumpin’. Moanin’.”
“The man said the boss had him a new dog in there, right? How you reckon that noise weren’t a dog?”
“I know how a dog sounds. Been scared of dogs all my life. Got a sense when one’s near. Smell it, even. Wasn’t no dog in them trunks.”
“How come you’re feared of a dog fer?” Gus spits into the cotton. “Dogs is good to have around. Keep ya comp’ny. Fetch a shot squirrel or a duck or a goose. Tree up possum so’s you can git it for supper. Nobody don’t like dogs.”
“It was Missy Lavinia and Juneau Jane in them trunks.”
“So, wa’chew want I’s supposed do about it?”
“Use your thievin’ skills. Sneak up there on the boiler deck. Tonight. See can you find any sign of them in the passenger cabin or the staterooms.”
“I ain’t!” Gus scrabbles backward, out of reach.
“There’s a dollar in it for you. A whole dollar.”
“I don’t need me a dollar that bad. This trouble of yours ain’t my affair. I got trouble of my own. First rule a’ the river. Don’t get drowned. You’re caught sniffin’ round the first-class passengers, they shoot you, then drown you. You want my advisin’, I say keep to yer own bid’ness. Live longer thataway. Them girls shoulda thunk what they was doin’ before they done it. That’s what I say. Ain’t yer affair, neither.”
I don’t answer right off. This bargain with Gus needs to be worked careful, done in fine stitching a little at a time, so’s he don’t even feel the needle going in. “Well, you got a point. That is true enough about Missy Lavinia. She’s a haughty sort, anyhow. Thinks she can crook a finger, make the whole world do her biddin’. Spoilt from the time she was laying in the cradle.”
“Well, there you go, then. Right there.”
“But that Juneau Jane, she’s just a child.” I mutter it, like I’m trying to reason it for myself, not him. “Only a child in short skirts, yet. And Missy played a bad trick on her. Not right for something like that to happen to a child. One that’s a little girl yet.”
“I ain’t hearin’ you. I’m gone to sleep.”
“Judgment Day is to come for all us sometime. Some fine day, long away from now. Don’t know what I’ll say, standin’ before the throne, when the good Lord asks me, ‘Why’d you let something terrible happen, when you might’ve stopped it, Hannie?’?” I’ve told him my name is Hannie, short for Hannibal, a boy’s name.
“I ain’t got religion.”
“Her mama’s one of them colored Creoles. A witch woman from down in New Orleans. You heard of them? Put curses on people and such.”
“If that Juneau Jane gal’s a witch child, why don’t she fly herself outta that box? Come right through the keyhole?”
“Might be she can. Might be, she’s hearing us right now, listening at what we say. Might be she’s listening to see, Do we mean to help her or not? She dies, she’ll be a haint, after that. A witch-haint, clinging round our necks. Witch-haints, now them are the worst kind.”
“Y-you…now, you quit talk…quit talkin’ like that. Crazy talk.”
“Drive a body crazy. Them witch-haints will, sure enough. Seen it with my own eyes. Never let a body rest once they