Case MO70

Marshal: Captain Macy.

Witness: Sergeant Goodman.

[Silence]

Marshal: I’m sorry about-

Witness: Don’t bullshit me, Goodman. Just do what you have to do. I’ve still got a wife and two sons to take care of. I have that at least.

[Silence]

Witness: I didn’t know, you know. What Lament did, exactly. But I knew I didn’t know. When I was a kid, he was the smartest, brightest kid in town, until he got sent away. It was a big impression on me, seeing another kid smarter than some of the adults. So when he came back and said ‘trust me’, I trusted him. Let him use my basement, didn’t look inside afterwards until he cleaned it all up. I had a soldier’s constitution before the war even started; sometimes you have to do awful things to win.

[Silence]

Witness: But his war’s not my war. Mine, I still have a hope of winning. Him, I think he’s as daft as those Lily-Whites if he thinks he can still win. what’s left of them at least.

Marshal: Sir…are you fit for this? We can wait until-

Witness: I am fitter now than I have been for some time. Let’s get this over with. I rode into town, threatened the other Marshal into letting me work, punched Lament’s jaw so hard he blacked out, and got to work. Had to find my daughter, had to find some wizards.

Marshal: I understand your expertise was sorely needed.

Witness: I just asked the question none of you were asking: what the hell was my girl eating? I talked to anybody who might have victuals or rations in the cold of winter, civilian or federal, asked about any oddities and, guess what, that skull-cracked strongman Bean’s been leading by the neck had been asking for extra portions. So I asked anybody who’d worked with those two and he’d been asking for all sorts of odds and ends. Copper wiring cinched it; I know Geraldine took that contraption Matilda gave her when she…left.

[Silence]

Witness: Still odd to say it. Sure as hell feels like she was kidnapped.

Marshal: Again, we can pause if you need a bit more time to rest, sober up…

Witness: I just…don’t know. You always hear about someone’s sister or daughter running off with the first man to catch her eye, but…I mean I can’t blame them the way I ran off to get into trapping and fur trading. There’s always something more interesting in the next town over, and a half-decent man who’ll take you there. But Geraldine already had plans. She was going to make it in Stephens. And now that’ll never happen because she threw her lot in with him.

Marshal: Well there’s still Newnham in Cambridge.

Witness: Yeah and there’s still convents and salons and ditches. The whole world for her - except the country with the town with the family that loves her. I’m never going to see her again.

Marshal: She’s still alive. And you’ve got the rest of your family. You still have your life, sir. So pull yourself together.

Witness: Yeah. Fine. Sorry. Forgot myself. Right. So Geraldine with…Williams? Bitters? Whoever he is now. He’d already gotten shipped off to Ohio with Lament and 19 wouldn’t let me on the next train without more proof, so I just had to sit with my thumb up my ass. Got assigned to figure out what the hell happened with the Blue Wench escaping. 19 had his people pointing guns at every rustling bush in case it was a bear or some other creature of violence, but I worked with Matilda. She’s wily and patient; she prefers reconnaissance to an ambush. So I started looking for birds high in the sky. Saw them flying to and from the southwest, started walking.

Marshal: And that’s when you found her notes about what the birds told her. How they saw what happened to Mr. Freestone and Geraldine until they got put on trains.

Witness: Yeah, her notes.

[Silence]

Marshal: Macy, this case is likely to be held in abeyance or sealed given the circumstances of Victor’s escape. I already have orders to close this as quickly as possible; I’m just making sure we get all the details in case we have to go through this again. It wouldn’t be actionable in any trial. You can tell me the truth.

Witness: I found her notes.

Marshal: We saw no sign of her having that much paper; the one note she wrote was on a scrap of cloth she’d managed to squirrel away. And there’s no logs of paper going missing shortly after her escape, just the bones.

Witness: I found them, Marshall.

Marshal: Just…I won’t hold it against you. You found Matilda herself, made some bargain with her for information, and then gave her paper to write down that information for plausible deniability. That’s how they were able to pinpoint Cincinnati over Columbus or Cleveland. And it would also explain that box with holes you brought onto the train and-

[Chair scraping, heavy receding footsteps]

Marshal: …We will continue later then.

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