It didn’t take long for Mac, Toney, and the Chief to get to the Third Street Pier. The area was saturated with police officers. Some were walking together in a line, arms interlocked, scouring the ground for anything. Anything that might be a clue as to what happened to Ella. Toney joined in with the other officers as they performed an all-out search for any evidence.
Mac and the Chief were directed by another officer to Captain Shelby. Chief Atkins greeted the Captain, “Hello Seth. Have you got anything yet?” He asked. “A little bit, Chief.” the Captain replied. Mac reacted when he heard Shelby. “What, what have you got, Seth? Where’s my Ella? Where is she Seth?” O’Hara screamed. All of the officers searching the grounds stopped for a moment. One of the Officers yelled out, “We gonna find her Sarge.”
The volume of his voice dropped slightly, “By God, we gonna find her, and when we do….” Mac looked at Captain Shelby.
“Mac we have an old homeless man, and I want you to hear his story.” Shelby told him.
“Where is he?” Mac demanded.
“He’s over there with Pitt.” Shelby said, but before he could say anything else, Mac was gone. Pitt was standing next to the entrance to the pier, and the old man was sitting on a pylon protruding about three feet out of the ground.
Mac ran up to the old man reaching and grabbing him by his shirt and standing him up. “Where’s my Ella?” Mac again screamed. The frightened old man cowered back, thinking Mac was going to hit him.
“Easy Mac, easy now. He did not hurt Ella.” Bobby said, as he tried to pull Mac away. Mac released his grip on the old man.
“Tell Mac what you saw, Ricky.” Bobby directed the man.
“Yeah, okay, feller. I didn’t hurt that woman.” Ricky said nervously, still cowering back away from Mac.
“We know, Ricky.” Bobby assured him. “It’s okay. Go ahead, Ricky, and tell the Sarge what you saw.” “Awright,” Ricky said tentatively. “ I been stayin’ under the pier over there,” pointing toward the corner of the pier as he talked, “ and I heard a wagon come up over there next to the old warehouse, and they was in a big hurry. The big guy, he jumped off the wagon, before the other feller could even get it stopped. He took a big ol’ knife off his side and hid there at the corner of the building. The other feller got off the wagon too, but I didn’t see no knife on him. About that time, a woman came around the corner on a horse, and the big feller waited till she just past him and he jumped out and scared her and the horse. Well, the horse, he reared up and the woman was thrown off.”
“Was she hurt, Ricky?” Mac asked.
“I don’t think so.” Ricky continued. “The big guy, he ran over to her and put that big ol’ knife right under her chin on her throat. The woman quit wiggling, and she asked him not to hurt her. The other feller said if she just did what they said they wouldn’t hurt her. Then they got her up off the ground, and they tied her hands behind her back, they blindfolded her and put a gag in her mouth. The littler feller said for her to be still and not make no noise or they would kill her. They put her on the back of the wagon and pulled a tarp up over her.”
“Did they leave then?” Mac wanted to know.
“Yeah, they did. Well, after they picked up that box they knocked off the back of the wagon.”
“A box?” Bobby asked. “What kind of box, Ricky?”
“Well, it was just an old box. It had a lantern in it, but they broke the glass in it. And you know it looked like a new lantern. There was some candles in there too, and a hank of rope. It was kinda funny. I believe one of them fellers might be a little strange, like them guys in them shows. You know them burlesque shows.”
“Why would you think that, Ricky?” “Well there was a dress in that box, and the little feller just went to fussing and ran over there and picked it up and brushed the dirt off of it. Then he folded it up and put it back in the box.” “What did the dress look like?” Mac questioned. “It was a pretty dress, all fancy and frilly and it was yellow.”
Mac took a deep breath and let out a big sigh. Bobby called out, “Oh, hell no.” And the Chief, feeling weak, grabbed the handrail on the pier to steady himself. “We have to find her, and in a hurry.” Chief Atkins said.
Ricky pointed out the direction they left in the wagon. Mac and Bobby immediately looked to follow the wagon tracks. There wasn’t a lot of travel in that area, so following the tracks was not too difficult, to begin with. After about a block and a half, it became much harder to discern the tracks of that particular wagon. Frustration began to set in. The St. Louis Browns were playing a game this afternoon and streets that normally had very little traffic, were today very crowded.
Mac figured, as with the other murders, the suspects would stay in the industrialized areas, but between the Ballpark and the river were several hundred factories, abandoned buildings and warehouses. Mac and Bobby started to try to eliminate some of the buildings. There were just a few patches of wooded area. The Chief sent officers to each of these areas to eliminate them from the potential sites where Ella may have been taken.
Adam and Toney had helped at the pier in the search for evidence. These two teamed up.
“I have a couple of ideas,” Adam said. They walked back to the pier to the Chief, and Adam and Toney asked if they could check out a hunch they had.
“A hunch is about all we’ve got right now,” the Chief said, “but keep us informed what’s going on.” Adam and Toney agreed and took off down the street. “We need to talk to Calvin, Doc Baker’s stableman.” Adam thought out loud.
“Yeah, Adam, and I was thinking, Ricky said the yellow dress was all frilly and fancy. We need to know where that dress came from, and who bought it.” Toney added.
“Okay,” Adam agreed. “Let’s go pay Calvin a visit first.”
At Doc Baker’s residence, they were very careful to not be seen as they made their way down to the stables. Calvin was in the main barn cleaning one of the stalls. Adam and Toney walked into the barn and to the stall where Calvin was working. “Hello Calvin,” Adam said. Calvin was startled, dropping his rake he was working with.
“Who are you guys? What do you want?” Calvin asked nervously.
“We are police officers, and we need to speak with you, Calvin.” Toney informed him.
“But I ain’t done anything. I, I, just work here and I ain’t done nothing.” Calvin whined.
“We just need to ask you some questions,” Toney said looking straight at Calvin for his reaction.
Toney began, “Calvin, do you know Myrtle Sandford?”
“No. No I don’t.” Calvin responded.
“Are you sure, Calvin? She went by the name Myrt. You sure you don’t know her?” Toney inquired.
“Myrt? Well, yeah, I know Myrt“. Calvin looked puzzled. What’s going on with Myrt? He wanted to know.
“Calvin, I hate to tell you this, but Myrt has been killed.” Adam could see the horror in Calvin’s eyes.
Holding back tears, Calvin asked,” when? How? Why?” Adam reached out and took Calvin by the arm.
“Come over here, Calvin, sit down, and I’ll answer your questions and you answer mine. We’ll help each other. Okay?” Adam sat down with Calvin and explained to him of the events of the day, and how this somehow was tied to the murder of Inez Baker and now the kidnapping of Ella O’Hara.
“Calvin, the purple flowered dress you gave to Myrt, where did you get it?”
“Why, Ms. Inez gave it to me. I prepared her a carriage one day, and she was wearing that dress. I told her how pretty it was and she said she didn’t like it. Oh, it was beautiful, but that it just didn’t fit right. She said she was going to give it the mission downtown, and maybe someone would like to have it. I told her, I knew someone who would love to have it, and she would look pretty in it too.”
Calvin had to stop at this point. After a couple of minutes, he resumed talking. “Ms. Inez said she would give it to me for my friend. Then she began to tease me about having a girlfriend. She said she wasn’t even going to ask who she was; she would just look for the pretty Lady in the purple flowered dress. A couple of days later, she brought it to me, and I took it to Myrt at the hobo camp. She gave me some earrings and a pair of reading glasses to give her too. She said she had gotten new glasses.”
Adam and Toney took all of this information in, and Toney asked, “Calvin, when did Ms. Inez give you the dress?”
Calvin looked at the ground, and then raised his head. “It was about a week before she disappeared.”
Adam and Toney knew it was time for the loaded question, and they hoped they got the answer they were looking for. Adam shuffled his feet, rubbed his hand through his hair, cracked his knuckles, and said, “Calvin do you know of anyone who might want to kill Ms. Inez?”
Calvin once again looked at the ground and grew very quiet. “Doc and Ms. Kara would loved to have gotten rid of Ms. Inez, but if they had anything to do with the murder, I wouldn’t know. I do know that on her last trip to New Orleans, she finally discovered just who Kara was.”
“Wait a minute Calvin. You are saying that the trips that Ms. Inez made to New Orleans were not to participate in voodoo or black magic religious ceremonies.” Adam said excitedly.
“Oh no.” Calvin replied. “The trips she made to New Orleans were ‘fact finding’ missions. When she would return from a trip, she would confide in me and tell me what she discovered.”
“When she returned from the last trip, had she learned anything new or revealing?” Adam inquired.
“Yes, yes there was. She told me she had learned Kara’s real name, who she was, and she would now destroy her.”
“What do you think she meant by that? Did she tell you Kara’s real name?” Adam awaited the answer.
“Kara wanted to destroy Ms. Inez marriage. She wanted Doc Baker and all his money. Kara’s real name is Marianna Gomez. She is from Haiti. She is better known as Priestess Marianna.” Calvin stated.
“But just what did Inez find out about Kara that would make Kara want her dead?” Adam wondered aloud.
Ella had now been tied to the large gear in the wheel pit for over six hours. The cramps racked her limbs and the pain was excruciating. There was very little light in the wheel pit now that Jacque and Andre had left and extinguished the lamps, but still light enough for Ella to see the yellow dress hanging on the wall. She couldn’t stop looking at it.
She heard a noise at the top of the stairs, and saw the faint glow of a lantern. She listened to the footsteps and watched as the glow of the lantern grew brighter as the person or persons came down the stairs. She prayed that it was Mac or some of the officers coming down the stairs and not Jacque or Andre. Her heart sank when she saw Jacque followed by Andre.
“Untie her.” Jacque ordered Andre. Andre went to Ella and began to untie the ropes holding her to the large gear. First her legs, then her arms and hands were freed. Ella barely moved her legs, and pains shot throughout her lower body. She had been in that stretched position for over six hours. It was the same with her arms. She was finally able to move when Andre grabbed her arms, pulling them behind her and tying her hands together once again.
Jacque then ordered Andre to bring her to a table that was next to the wall where the yellow dress was hanging on the wall. “Strip her, and put the yellow dress on her.” Jacque told Andre. Andre smiled, and was excited about the task he was to perform. He placed her on the table and began to slowly loosen the cords fastening her undergarments. Ella screamed loudly, but no one could hear her.