It was almost an hour before Drake walked into the house, Lil Theo at his heels. Drake was pale but hardy. He came around the desk and hugged his father, he had been worried sick. Joshua had walked in and noted the tense air within the study. He turned to leave but Theo stopped him. It was time to see what this young man was made of. He told Joshua to close the door and to take a seat. Ida held onto Drake, her hands caressing his hair nervously. Her mother had told her nothing, only that Drake had been sent to the fork in the road, to wait until his father sent for him. Mary stood behind Henry, her hands on his shoulders, absently rubbing the hard knots in his broad shoulders.
Lil Theo stood by his mother, his hand on her arm, he knew something terrible had happened, but didn’t know exactly what. Lil Theo now towered over his mother and was eye to eye with his father. Only Mary called him Lil Theo, everyone else called him Theo. He was no longer little and still had growing to do. He waited as the others did, saying nothing. Rachel was upstairs with Mary Beth, who had left her mother to sleep; Theo didn’t want either of the young women to overhear their conversation. The news was grim and it would be too much for them to bear. It was more than any of them could stomach, but they had to.
Theo looked at each person that sat in the room, his weary eyes stopping on each face. He finally spoke, his voice thin with stress. He told his family and Joshua what had transpired the previous night. Mary sucked in her breath, and Henry’s hand covered her slender hand reassuringly. Joshua was stunned at the absolute brutality that had been done to the young men. Drake was livid and Ida had to hold him back, he wanted to leave the room. Theo held up his hand, telling his son to hold on, that he wasn’t finished with the story. He told everyone who had killed Teddy and Thomas and they were stunned to know their neighbor had been involved. He then proceeded to tell them what they had done to rectify the uncalled-for brutality.
Mary was stunned at their dangerous plan and she looked down at her gentle husband. She looked at his hands, they had helped kill eight men. Dark Henry had killed for her years ago, she knew that it could have been her children instead of the other young men who were mutilated. It was merely fate that deemed it so. She looked at Theo, he seemed to have aged, his face wrinkled and pale. It was almost the same as when he had come back from war. He had that same empty look.
Theo went on to say that they may be visited by Sheriff Paterson, Red’s father-in-law. Should that happen, everyone had to act as if they were ignorant of any mischief. He looked pointedly at Joshua, who returned his stare unwavering.
“You know the full story young man, and you now have the power to destroy this family. What say you?” Theo asked softly.
Without hesitation, Joshua said, “Sir, had I but known what had transpired, I would have gladly gone with you. Though I don’t know if I would have been much help. I have never held a gun, but I would have helped in any way that I could.”
Theo nodded; glad he wasn’t wrong about the young man. “You can help by telling anyone who should ask, that everyone spent a pleasant Sunday at home, with all the families here on the farm. Lil Theo, head out and spread the word about the alibi, just in case any of the eight men mentioned the two men they murdered, to anyone else.”
THIRTEEN
Over the course of the following weeks, there was a big to do over the eight missing men. No one had seen or heard from them since the Sunday they went missing. Sheriff Paterson had stopped by the farm a little over a week after the disappearances. From his general questions, it was plain that he had no clue as to what the eight men had done that fateful Saturday night. Theo told him they had heard of the disappearances through word of mouth and hadn’t heard what had happened. Frustrated, the sheriff had left the Anderson farm, no wiser than when he had arrived.
Still, no one left the farm for sometime after that. The patrols had stepped up and there were reports of an increase in Klan activity. The hooded men had started calling themselves the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK. They were feared, because they came in the dead of night many times, pulling people from their homes and beating them, sometimes killing them.
Theo traveled to Savannah, to purchase rifles for each of his families and ammunition as well. He didn’t want to ever see what he had with Teddy and Thomas. Willy had stayed in hiding for over a month, fearful someone would find him and finish the
