A Season of Revenge by P. J. Dunn - HTML preview

CHAPTER 18 Time Will Tell

It had been five months since the last known communication of any kind from Colton Baker. There had been no additional murders or attempts on the lives of any of the investigators or others named on Colton’s “hit list.”

Some began to think the threats were just idle and that Colton was unable to carry out his plan. Stewart Baker continued to reiterate to the officers involved that this is just what Colton wanted.

A telegraph arrived from police in Memphis, informing the investigators that a man named Colton Baker had booked passage on a riverboat to New Orleans. But Colton Baker never boarded the boat. Stewart and Mac made a trip to Memphis to check out the only semblance of a lead to surface in five months, but it was not much of a lead.

Once in Memphis, a local detective named Lucas Deering presented what information he had to them. After speaking with the riverboat booking agent, Mac and Stewart had come to the conclusion that the lead was a dead end. Mac asked the booking agent for a passenger manifest and was given a list containing the names of the passengers for that trip. Having this list in his hand, Mac, not wishing to cause too much of a problem, asked for a passenger list for the next two excursions to New Orleans. He folded up these lists, placed them in his jacket pocket. He and Stewart thanked the agent and Detective Deering for their help and boarded their boat for their trip back to St. Louis. Mac and Stewart settled in their rooms then met in the galley for dinner.

They discussed the fact of the lead being a long shot, but it was all they had. Mac reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved the copies of the passenger list. He viewed the first seeing where the name Colton Baker, had been crossed off and noted “passage delayed.”

“Look at this, Stewart. It doesn’t indicate a no-show. It is noted as the subject just delayed his departure.” He handed him the list.

Stewart looked at the list as Mac looked at the second list. He laid the second list on the table and began to peruse the third list. “Holy crap, Stewart. Look at this, look at this, Stewart. This has got to be him!” Mac declared. Look at this…Colton Baker; Calvin Barker; Clarence Bradley….That’s got to be him! Clarence Bradley left six days later for New Orleans.”

“Mac, we’ve got to get off this boat. We’ve got to head to New Orleans.” Stewart replied.

A riverboat trip down the Mississippi is a really relaxing trip, especially in good weather. The boat crew would devise varied modes of entertainment, which included shows and gambling, some with passenger interaction. Mac and Stewart returned to the Memphis Police Department and located Detective Deering. He was informed what they had found and suspected.

“Lucas, why were you going over passenger lists, and when you saw the name Colton Baker and why did it catch your attention?” Stewart asked.

“I was just checking for Vicksburg Police. They are working a murder case of a woman found on board a riverboat. She was killed and mutilated.” Lucas explained.

“But, what about the name, Colton Baker, why did that catch your interest?” Mac asked.

“We had received communication several months ago about Colton Baker being sought in reference to a murder in St. Louis,” Lucas said.

 “You guys may be interested to know, the riverboat, the Natchez, that Clarence Bradley boarded, is moored at the dock now. 

“We have got to book passage on that boat, Mac.” Stewart said.

Mac, Stewart, and Lucas wasted no time beginning to question the riverboat employees, many of whom remembered Clarence Bradley. He was a flamboyant and memorable person. Bradley was a gambler and a ladies’ man.

Mac talked with the Purser, who also remembered Bradley quite well. “He appeared to have a lot of money,” the Purser said. “He had me to handle several thousand dollars for him.”

The Purser recommended Mac talk with Virginia, one of the servers in the dining room. It seems that Bradley had taken a special interest in her.

When Mac talked with Virginia, she seemed quite apprehensive about discussing Bradley at all. She did seem to open up more with Stewart when she discovered he was a U.S. Marshall. Virginia felt uncomfortable any time Bradley was around her. Bradley had a residence in Baton Rouge and was constantly inviting Virginia to his home, even to the point of giving her the address and a key to the house. He said the servants were always there, if he wasn’t.

Virginia gave the address and the key to the investigators. The trip to Baton Rouge seemed to take forever.

Mac, Stewart, and Lucas were met by two Baton Rouge Detectives when the boat docked. Bradley’s home had been under surveillance since Baton Rouge had been notified, but when the house was entered only a caretaker and his wife were present.

The caretaker told the officers that Mr. Bradley had left 3 days prior and would not return. The home was to be sold. The caretaker did not know where he may have gone. Mac and Stewart were at a dead end again.

A well dressed man walked down the gangway, stopped and removed his Panama straw hat, and looked around at the beautiful beach and the beautiful women. A man walked up to him opened a humidor and offered him a cigar. “Ahh, a real Cuban cigar, made right here in the carribean.”

The man spoke to him. “This way Mr. Bryan, I will show you to your bungalow.”

“Please, call me Christopher.”