Chapter 16 - Murder

Caleb places the blame for the death of his child and takes matters into his own hands.

          The loss of their son was devastating to both Caleb and Elizabeth.  Caleb had lost people his whole life but this was different.  This was his own child.  He looked for someone to blame.  He knew deep down it was just an accident but it was easier for him if he had someone who he could place it on.  When his mother had died his father had placed blame on everyone including himself, and Christopher had placed all of the blame on Caleb.  When Caleb lost his father and then his brother, he had secretly blamed himself.  The loss of his son, however, could not be his fault.  He was working, trying to make enough money to support his growing family.  Had he not been working, no member of the family could survive.  Elizabeth certainly could not be to blame for the accident, he told himself.  She had simply been looking after the livelihood of their animals, which in many ways was the livelihood of themselves.  This brought him to blame Jack.  Jack had promised Caleb and Elizabeth that he would stop by every evening on his way out of town and tend the horses so that she could rest and prepare for the baby’s birth.  That evening, he had been so late stopping by that Elizabeth worried that the animals would not be taken care of at all and therefore took care of them herself.  If Jack had been to the house on time, Elizabeth would never have had reason to go into the barn and therefore the baby would never have been lost.

         Caleb decided he would make Jack pay for what he had done to the family.  One evening, several weeks later, after he left work, he bypassed the city and rode toward the Reynolds home to the north.  As he made his way toward Jack’s house he heard the clop of a horse coming up the road behind him.  When he turned he saw Jack riding toward him.  He was on his way home from town where he owned a small mercantile and freighting business. 

Jack raised his hand and waved to Caleb, “Hello there.  Where you headed at such a time?” he asked curiously.

“I was just headed up to your place to pay you a visit.”

“Really?  What is it you needing?  Can it wait ‘til morning?”

“No it can’t wait ‘til mornin’.  I need to speak with you.” Caleb answered calmly.

“Well…it ain’t going to take long is it?  It’s my wife’s birthday…I’m bringing her a surprise.”

“Naw…it ain’t goin’ to take too long.  Just a minute or two.  In fact I can ride with you up the road a ways and talk to you on the ride.”

“Okay.  What is it you wanting to talk to me about?” Jack asked with a smile and they started up the road together.

“Well…” Caleb began, reaching into his coat.  “You see…loosing our son has really been tough on Elizabeth and I.”  He put his hand on his gun and pulled back the hammer.

“Listen…I know this is hard on both of you.”  Jack looked straight ahead down the road and spoke slow and soft.  “I wish I could go back and fix it all, but things like this happen.  It was honestly just one of those things that happens.  I would have been there, but the business kept me in town later than expected.  I really would not have expected her to have gone out on her own.”  He thought a moment.  “Caleb I don’t expect you to forgive me easily and I know things like this take time to get over.  I wish I knew a better way to say all this.  I’ve never been too good with words, especially in this type of situation.”  He turned toward Caleb, his eyes filled with remorse.  “I am really sorry that this had to happen…”

Caleb pulled the gun out of his coat and put the barrel in Jack’s face.

“I…I…I’m sorry…”

“Sorry isn’t bringin’ my son back.” Caleb yelled angrily.

“This…this was never supposed to happen.”  Jack objected, terrified.

“You are damn right this was never supposed to happen.”  He pulled the trigger.

The shot hit Jack in the forehead.  He slumped in his saddle and fell sideways off his horse.  Caleb dismounted and smacked Jack’s horse sending him on a gallop toward home.  He dragged the lifeless body of his former friend to the edge of the road and into the trees.  As a last thought, he emptied Jack’s pockets in the dim light. 

Caleb remounted his horse and rode back down the rode toward home.  Almost as soon as he rode off, he realized his awful mistake.  His stomach knotted and his heart pounded.  What had he done?  He thought.  Jack was the first man he had ever killed out of pure hatred rather than for his own survival, and he had certainly never stolen from anyone, especially a dead man.  He tried to justify what he had done by telling himself that Jack was to blame for his son’s death and his wife’s anguish.  He instantly regretted killing the man who had been his best friend almost from the moment he came to Providence.  He thought about Jack’s family waiting for him in that house outside of town.  He thought about the wife who was now a widow and the children who were now fatherless.  It made him sick to his stomach.  He climbed down from his horse and stepped to the side of the road to vomit.  

He knew it was too late to turn back now.  This would just have to remain his secret.  Caleb decided to forget what had happened.  He could speak of it to no one.  Not even Elizabeth could know what he had done; especially not Elizabeth.  If anyone found out that he was responsible he would lose everything.  All he had worked so hard for would be taken away from him for sure

He rode into town but instead of going straight home, he rode to a local tavern.  He was still a bit shook up and decided to stop for a drink before going home.  Just something to relax, he told himself.

 

He sat at the bar and drank one shot of whiskey after another trying to erase his memory of the night.  No matter how much he drank, however, he could not forget.  He finally gave up and staggered out of the bar and rode home. 

He tied his horse in front of the house, not bothering to take him to the barn, and stumbled into the house.  Elizabeth sat in a chair across the room.  The lantern glowed dimly on the table beside her, her sewing lay in her lap and her head slumped.  Caleb got retrieved a blanket and covered her up to the chin.  He turned out the lantern and slowly left the room.

“Caleb?” he heard faintly behind him.

He turned and stumbled into the wall, grabbing the doorframe to balance himself.

“Where have you been?”  Elizabeth asked softly.  “I made you dinner.”

“I…I stayed late.  I don’t feel too well right now. I think I’m goin’ straight off to bed.”

“Are you sure you don’t want dinner first?” She asked rising from her chair and starting toward him.

“I couldn’t eat.  I couldn’t keep it.  I don’t feel well.”

She stepped up to him and put her arms around his waist.  He stumbled back a step and then regained his balance.  She looked up into his face with concern.  “I worried.  Are you alright?”

“I will be after I get some rest.”  He forced a smile and kissed her on the forehead.

“What’s that awful smell?” she asked sniffing his shirt.

“It’s nothing.  I’m going off to bed.”  He stepped out of her arms and went down the short narrow hall and into their bedroom with Elizabeth following behind him.

 

          When Caleb came home the next evening Elizabeth was waiting for him at the door. 

          “Caleb, something has happened,” She told him as he stepped onto the porch.  She motioned for him to enter the house and she followed him in.  “This morning Jack was found dead on the side of the road, just north of town.”

          Caleb’s heart began to race and he became light headed.  He stumbled back and sat down in his chair.  Oh no, he thought.  They know what I have done.  Elizabeth took his hand and knelt at his side. 

“How?” he asked.

          “Shot,” she answered sadly.  “Mrs. Reynolds said he never came home last night, but his horse did.  After she sent the children off to school this morning she came to town to inquire about him.  A group of men set out to look for him and that’s when they found him in the trees off the side of the road.”

          “Who did it?  Why?” he asked, trying to remain calm and making every effort not to give himself away.

          “No one knows.”  She thought a moment, and then continued somewhat to herself, “Poor Mrs. Reynolds…and the children.  I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do this to them.”

         

          Caleb sat at the bar thinking about his confrontation with Jack.  It ate at him making him sick to his stomach.  It was all he could think about.  Then he began to think about Elizabeth and Hannah.  What would it do to them if they were to ever find out?  He knew it would crush them to know that he had committed such a terrible act.  If he were found out, he would probably be hanged.  Then, he knew, Elizabeth and Hannah would be alone.  He could never allow this to happen.  He could not change what he had done, but he knew he could save his family from devastation and he was more than determined to do so. 

          As he finished his drink, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.  He turned to face a man of heavy build.  The man’s features were strikingly familiar though he was sure they had never met.  A slight chill ran down Caleb’s back.

          “I need to have a word with you,” the man boomed.

          Caleb nodded.

          “We know what you did!”

          Panic struck Caleb and his heart began to race.

          “You’re the one who killed my brother!  It’s just a matter of time before they figure it out.”

          Caleb tried to speak but no words would come out.

        “But you see,” the man continued, raising his pistol. “Time ain’t something I got a lot of.”

          Caleb looked down the barrel of the gun and struggled to utter a word in defense of himself.

          “I ain’t a patient man.”  He pulled back on the trigger.

          “Bang!”

          Caleb sat up in bed.  His heart pounded and sweat soaked his clothes.

          “Bang!”

          The wind eerily howled around the house.

          “Bang!”

          “Are you going to latch it?” Elizabeth asked sleepily at his side.

          “What?”

          “Bang!”

          “The shutter.  Are you going to latch it so the wind won’t blow it?”

          Caleb climbed slowly out of bed. His head began to pound and his body ached from being forced out of sleep so quickly.  He stumbled blindly through the dark house and out into the chilly wind to latch the shutters closed.

          The remainder of the night he laid awake unable to go back to sleep, despite the aching tired feeling weighing down on his body.  As the wind died and the sun began to peek through the slits in the shutters, he decided he would have to do something about the situation.  The only thing he could do; move his family away from Providence.