I called Mr. Doty’s name. His reply came from deep inside the barn. Chief Gardner and I followed his voice until we found him sitting on a wooden stool in front of a workbench, the bench and the walls in front of it filled with all manner of hardware and tools that were as neatly sorted and arranged as the medical devices in a surgical suite.
“Mr. Doty,” I said. “This is…”
“You be chief of police,” he said.
“That’s right,” Chief Gardner said.
“We ain’t got no other Africans on the force I know of; figured it must be you.”
“African-American.”
Mr. Doty nodded his head and gestured more or less at the front of the barn.
“Gotta be pretty upset what happened,” he said, “because, you know, history and stuff.”
“I am.”
“Don’t know what to say.”
“You’re a hero.”
“Am I? Don’t see why.”
“In the middle of the night you cut down a burning cross with a chain saw and doused it with sand.”
“Don’t make me no hero.”
“How did the cross get there, do you think?”
Mr. Doty stared for a moment as if he was unsure what he was being asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Did you see anything?”
“Naw.”
“Hear anything?”
“Naw. I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Kinda confused by it all.”
“When did you go to bed?” the chief asked.
“Ten. Ten thirty. Don’t stay up, me and the missus, like we used to.”
“McKenzie saw the cross burning a little before one twenty A.M.”
“Saw him out there with the hose; knew it wasn’t going to do much.”
“You arrived just moments later with a chain saw.”
Mr. Doty nodded some more and sighed. The sigh sounded like “Yeah.”
“But you said you were in bed at ten thirty,” the chief reminded him.
“I was.”
“How did you see McKenzie?”
“Through the window.”
“What made you go to the window?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Somethin’ woke me. I don’t know what it was. You asked if I heard anything. I don’t know. Didn’t open my eyes and go ‘What was that?’ Just opened ’em. I opened my eyes and somethin’ told me to go to the window. I went to the window. I saw what I saw.”
“What did you do next?” the chief asked.
“I put on my pants and shoes and ran out t’ the barn t’ get a saw. I knew McKenzie’s hose wasn’t gonna do nothin’.”
“Did you stop to call 911?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t occur to me. ’Sides, me ’n McKenzie, we had it figured out.”
“Did Mrs. Doty call?”
“No. She didn’t—I didn’t wake the missus. It was the volunteers what woke her, the fire department. Them sirens. They shouldn’t a done that; use them sirens. No need to wake everyone. Bad enough I had t’ use the chain saw.”
“After you cut down the cross…”
“I went back to the barn to git some sand,” Mr. Doty said. “Then I come back. McKenzie done a better job than I thought wit’ the hose by then; didn’t need to use the whole wheelbarrow-ful.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No, like I said.”
“I meant earlier. Someone walking about who shouldn’t have been here. A stranger, perhaps?”
“Chief of Police—this is a hotel, a resort, ’kay? Restaurant. All we got is strangers. You don’t know that?”
“Could someone have driven into the parking lot without you knowing? Someone in a pickup truck, perhaps.”
“I guess, yeah. I don’t guard the parking lot.”
“You live next to it.”
“I told McKenzie just the other day, ’kay? People come here, mostly they’re on vacation. Sometimes they make a lot of noise and I hear ’em. Sometimes they don’t make no noise and I don’t even know they’re there. Last night, you asked ’bout last night, a couple, younger couple, I heard ’em laughin’. Was ’bout ten. They parked their car and I heard ’em laughing and then they went into the castle and I didn’t hear nothin’ until—until whatever it was made me git up and go t’ the window. Don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“Okay.”
“We good here, Chief of Police?”
“My name is Deidre Gardner.”
“I know your name.”
“You seem upset, Mr. Doty.”
“Well, it’s—it’s a bad thing what happened, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I do. Thank you for your time.”
I couldn’t let it go at that, though.
“Mr. Doty.” Both he and Chief Gardner looked at me as if they were surprised to see me standing there. “Mr. Doty, the wooden beams that were used to make the cross…”
He nodded his head as if he had been waiting for the question.
“You saw it, too, didn’t you?” he said.
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t gonna say nothin’ ’less you brought it up; ’less someone brought it up.”
“Why not?”
“It looks bad.”
“Yes, it does.”
“See what?” the chief asked.
“I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout it all night,” Mr. Doty said.
“Me, too,” I told him.
“See what?” Chief Gardner asked again.
“Over here,” Mr. Doty said.
He rose from the stool and led us to a corner of the barn. Stacked into the corner were a half-dozen ten-foot-long rails and three four-foot-high posts, all cut to build a rustic-looking split-rail fence identical to the one that ran along the length of the castle’s property, the fence that kept visitors from tumbling down the steep bank into the lake.
“My extras,” Mr. Doty said.
“Are any planks missing?” I asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Are you telling me this is the wood that the cross was made from?” Chief Gardner asked.
“Don’t know if it was my wood,” Mr. Doty said. “Coulda been the same wood come from somewhere else. I mean, my wood—it all seems t’ be here far as I can tell. Built that fence long time ago; built it four, five years ago. Didn’t have no reason to replace any of the sections since then.”
“Could someone have put the cross together in the barn without you knowing about it?”
“I checked my tools, my drill and wrenches; even looked over my long bolts and nuts. Everything’s where it’s supposed to be; don’t look like no one touched it. Gas I use for my machines; can’t say anyone’s touched that, neither.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I want t’ say no.”
“You want to?” Chief Gardner said.
“I didn’t hear anyone take my ladder night Ma’am died, too. I don’t know. Drill doesn’t make that much noise when you think about it. If the doors were closed, I don’t know.”
“Mr. Doty, what will you do if the Reddings decide to sell the castle?”
He stared at the chief, his jaw set as if he was afraid of opening his mouth; of saying something that would get him in trouble.
“You would be out of a job, wouldn’t you,” the chief added. “Both you and Mrs. Doty.”
Mr. Doty stared some more; his breath became labored.
The chief stared back; she was breathing normally.
The waiting game.
I stepped in again.
“We know you’ve thought about it from what you told me the other day,” I said.
My words seemed to break the tension.
Mr. Doty was talking directly to me and not the chief.
“Yeah, we thought about it,” he said. “’Course we thought about it, me and the missus. Decided if the castle goes, then we’ll go, too. Missus has people up near Alexandria. Go up there; get a small place on a lake or somethin’. Can’t stay here in Redding. Too flat. Nothin’ to do. And we got money, if you think that’s a problem. We’ll both get the max from social when we apply and we have money saved up; the missus took care of our investments, IRAs and such. We’ll be fine.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Mr. Doty turned back to look at the chief.
“But you’re wrong,” he said. “What you’re thinkin’.”
“What am I thinking?” Chief Gardner asked.
“That I did something. That I—burning crosses, that can only hurt the castle. Why would I want that? Castle’s been my home, me and the missus, fifty-some years.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the wooden beams, that the cross was made of the same wood you have here in the barn? Why didn’t you tell me the moment I walked through the door?”
“Cuz, Chief of Police, I knew you’d blame me.”
“Most people are blaming the Sons of Europa.”
“Yeah, I heard Miss Eden sayin’ that last night. That don’t make no sense to me, neither. Them Sons—I don’t necessarily support keepin’ someone outta church cuz of skin color, you know? But show me one racist thing they done. They ain’t done nothin’ I know of.”
“Till now.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know they did this.”
Geez, Mr, Doty, my inner voice said. You don’t support the Sons of Europa, do you?
“You’re right,” the chief said. “I don’t know.”
“I’m more worried ’bout kids cookin’ meth in the woods than I am of those people. You should be, too.”
Chief Gardner pulled a white card from her pocket. I didn’t see what was printed on it. I assumed it was the logo of the Redding Police Department and her phone number. She gave it to Mr. Doty.
“If you think of anything else that you might have forgotten to tell me, you’ll call, won’t you,” she said.
Mr. Doty nodded yet he didn’t put much effort into it.
The chief turned to leave. Mr. Doty called to her.
“Hey,” he said. “The cross, the mess on the ground—Miss is kinda anxious that we clean it up. That okay?”
“Go ’head.”
Mr. Doty nodded some more.
Once we were clear of the barn, Chief Gardner spoke without looking at me. I didn’t know if she was angry or not.
“You were going to tell me about the wooden beams, weren’t you?” she said.
“I was curious to hear what Mr. Doty would say about it.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I knew about it because just yesterday I was leaning on the fence that it was used for.”
“McKenzie?”
“Yes, I was going to tell you about the wooden beams.”
“When? At the end of the episode when Jessica explains whodunit?”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“Like immediately, goddammit.”
Yeah, okay, she’s angry, my inner voice said.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
“Anything else you’d like to share, now is a good time.”
I flashed on Eden and the honeybees.
“You know everything I know,” I said.
“What a depressing thought.”
“Mr. Doty called you African.”
“I’ve heard worse.”
“Chief of Police.”
“To some people I don’t have a name, only a function. If I worked in a restaurant, he’d call me ‘waitress.’ If I was in a department store, he’d call me ‘girl.’ In Minneapolis, I was ‘detective’ even to some of the people I worked with. You can’t let it get in your way.”
We knocked on the doors of each of the cabins that ringed the clearing of Redding Castle. The guests were divided into two distinct groups. The first was outraged by the cross burning and saw it as yet another example of the great divisions that existed in our country. The second group seemed amused as if it were simply an odd thing that occurred while they were on vacation and they couldn’t wait to tell their friends about it. No one, however, testified that they saw or heard anything until Mr. Doty fired up his chain saw.
Eventually, the chief and I reached the General Oglesby Cabin.
“It was the Sons of Europa,” Eden Redding said. “I know it.”
“How do you know it?” Chief Gardner asked.
“I saw him.”
“Who?”
“Heimdall.”
“Heimdall?”
“The guard. McKenzie knows who I mean.”
Eden explained about our canoe trip past the dock in front of the Sons’ compound. Her version was a little more colorful than mine.
“I saw him,” she added. “Heimdall. Last night. I got out of bed and went to the window and I saw the cross burning and I saw a man running away from it and it was Heimdall. I could see his face because of the flames.”
“You saw him clearly?” the chief asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re willing to testify to that?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t let that slide, though.
“Eden,” I said.
“What?”
“You wear contacts, don’t you?”
“What?”
“You wear contact lenses…”
“So what?”
“Do you wear them when you go to bed?”
“Of course not.”
“When you got out of bed last night, did you put them in before you looked out the window?”
Eden hesitated before answering.
“My eyesight isn’t that bad,” she said.
She had been unable to recognize you from a much shorter distance when you were crossing the clearing the day before, my inner voice reminded me. In broad daylight.
“Do you need to wear contacts or glasses when you drive?” I asked.
Eden didn’t answer.
“It’s an easy thing to check,” I said.
“Yes, I need to wear contacts when I drive,” Eden said. “That doesn’t mean anything. I saw him clearly. It was Heimdall.”
“Okay.”
“Whose side are you on, McKenzie?”
“He’s only asking what a prosecutor or defense attorney would ask,” Chief Gardner said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t believe you.”
“I know what I saw.”
“You’re convinced that the Sons of Europa are responsible for all of this.”
“Who else?”
Eden explained in detail that Tess Redding was instrumental in quashing the Sons’ plans to build a church on Lake Anpetuwi; that she had organized resistance against them.
“They wanted revenge on the family,” she added. “It’s as simple as that.”
“Ms. Redding…” the chief said.
“Please, call me Eden.”
“Eden, thank you.”
“And you’re Deidre if I’m not mistaken.”
“Chief Gardner when I’m working.”
“Of course, of course.”
“What did you do when you first saw the cross burning?”
“I got dressed. I was going to go out and see if I could help put it out, but I saw that McKenzie and Mr. Doty had it under control. When everyone else gathered around it, so did I.”
“Did you think to call the police, the fire department?”
“No, I didn’t. I assumed that McKenzie or Mr. Doty or someone else had already done that. That was foolish of me, wasn’t it?”
“Not necessarily,” the chief said. “Someone did call the police and fire departments. Last night, though, you told my officer … What did you say?” The chief made a production of pulling her notebook from her pocket and consulting it, even though I knew that she hadn’t written anything down since she arrived at the castle. “You said, ‘This was a deliberate act of racist violence’ and you demanded that ‘arrests be made.’ Yet you didn’t mention seeing Heimdall running away to Officer Holzt. Why not?”
“I didn’t have the chance. Your officer, as you call him, was trying to get everyone to leave the crime scene and my family … My family greatly disappointed me.”
“I understand,” Chief Gardner said. “About families, I mean. McKenzie, you were with Eden in the canoe when the two of you paddled past the Sons of Europa’s dock, correct? Do you think you can identify this Heimdall person?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“I think we’ll go have a chat with him.”
“Yes, Chief.”
“I’ll be happy to go with you,” Eden said.
“It’s best that you remain here,” the chief said. “I would appreciate it you didn’t tell anyone else what you saw until we get this sorted out.”
The chief gave Eden a business card and was about to leave when Eden spoke up.
“I can’t promise that, Chief, promise not to tell people what I saw. I told my husband last night—if Tess were here, she’d be organizing a protest. She’d be mobilizing RAH against these, these white supremacists. Since she’s not here, I have put it upon myself. I’ve already started contacting people. Resistance is essential, don’t you see? What the Sons did—this cannot stand. It will not stand. Not in Redding.”
“Unofficially, I wish you well,” Chief Gardner said. “Officially, I‘m telling you to make sure your protest is peaceful. I mean it. Keep it peaceful and you’ll have no trouble with me.”
“It will be as peaceful as the Sons of Europa allow it to be.”
“The Sons carry ARs,” I said.
“Right is on our side.”
Okay.
Apparently, one of the people Eden contacted was Barbara Finne. She had parked her car in the lot and was crossing the clearing as Chief Gardner and I made our way toward the castle. She called our names. Instead of continuing to where we were walking, though, she halted at the spot where the cross had been set afire. Mr. Doty had cleaned up the mess as best he could, only one could easily see the outline of the wooden beams burned into the grass.
Barbara took her digital camera from her bag and started taking pics.
“I guess now is as good a time as any,” the chief said.
“To do what?”
“Explain ourselves to the media.”
We altered course and made our way to where Barbara was kneeling on the grass and attempting to take a photo that would show both the imprint of the cross and the castle in the background.
“Barbara,” the chief said.
“Chief,” Barbara replied. “I’m told that the Sons did this.”
“No, someone said that they suspected that the Sons of Europa were allegedly responsible for this crime, yet we have uncovered no evidence at this time to justify those accusations. However, our investigation is ongoing.”
“Do you have any other suspects?”
“I have no comment on that at this time.”
Barbara kept circling the burned grass with her camera. She spoke in a voice that was less than respectful.
“Have you interviewed any witnesses?”
“I have no comment on that at this time.”
“Honestly, Chief, I expected a little more from you seeing as how you’re an African-American and a burning cross has always been a symbol of hate and intimidation directed at both your people and mine.”
“Your people?”
“I’m Jewish.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Some would prefer that I wear the Star of David wherever I go.”
“What do you want me to say, Barbara? I’m going to find out who did this. I am going to make it my mission in life. And then—”
I quickly flashed on the instructions she had given me earlier that morning. “Chief,” I said.
Chief Gardner spun toward me. Her face was angry, yet it quickly softened. She even smiled.
“As I was saying, I am going to find out who did this.” The chief turned back to Barbara. “And let the law take its course. In the meanwhile, our investigation…”
“Is ongoing. I get it.”
Barbara slid her camera back into her bag and retrieved a tan reporter’s notebook and pen.
“What about McKenzie?” she asked.
“He has been retained by the City of Redding Police Department as a consultant.”
“May I interview him?”
“Not while he remains a consultant for the City of Redding Police Department.”
“I’m told that he was the one who first discovered the burning cross and took steps to knock it down.”
“Who told you that?”
Barbara studied the chief for a moment as if she was considering whether or not to answer.
“No one in the police department,” she said.
“That’s something anyway.”
“You know I’m going to work this story like it’s my path to a Pulitzer, right, Chief?”
“I know.”
“I hope we’ll still be friends when it’s over.”
“Print the truth and we’ll still be friends,” Chief Gardner said.
“The problem with the truth is that even two conscientious and scrupulous people might not always agree on what it is.”
“Do the best that you can.”
“You, too.”
The chief and I made our way to the castle. As we walked, I threw a glance over my shoulder. Barbara was moving in a straight line to the General Oglesby Cabin. Eden was standing in the doorway waiting for her.
“At least you have a week before the story blows up,” I said.
“What makes you say that?”
“The Weekly Bulletin—it’s weekly.”
“Barbara sends what she calls a ‘daily briefing’ by email to all of her subscribers when she has a breaking story like this.”
“Meaning it’s already blown up.”
“Thank you for that, by the way.”
“What? Keeping you from going off in front of Barbara?”
“No, for the intel about Eden’s eyesight.”
“Yesterday I was a lot closer to her than Heimdall would have been, yet she didn’t recognize me.”
“I’m thinking that Eden might have seen exactly what she wanted to see.”
“If she saw anything at all,” I said.
“Heimdall. If only.”
“Hmm?”
“Idris Elba played Heimdall in the movie Thor: Ragnorak. I would love to interrogate Idris Elba.”
“There’s only one thing to do in the meantime. Buy you breakfast, Chief?”
All of the tables on the patio facing Lake Anpetuwi were empty except for those on the far side that had been commandeered by the Redding siblings. A woman was clearing one of them when we arrived.
“Too late for breakfast?” I asked.
She smiled brightly as if a cross burning in the clearing behind the castle had happened so long ago that it wasn’t worth remembering.
“It is,” she said. “I’m sure we can manage something, though. Morning, Chief.”
“Just coffee for me,” the chief said.
I held up two fingers.
“The same,” I said.
“Sure thing,” the woman said.
“Miss?” I asked.
“Sir?”
“Do you have any of that sticky pudding?”
“We do.”
“A small portion.” I was looking at the chief when I added, “Just enough to keep body and soul together.”
“Coming right up,” the woman said.
She scurried away, leaving us alone with the Reddings. They were watching us now, a suspicious expression on all of their faces except for Anna’s. She seemed amused.
“Well?” Olivia said.
Chief Gardner pulled a chair away from a small table and sat down.
“Ms. Redding?” she asked.
“What are you doing about all of this?”
“Our investigation is ongoing.”
Carly Redding moved a few paces away so that she was standing apart from her brothers and sisters.
“What the fuck does that mean?” she wanted to know.
“C’mon,” Big Ben said. “There’s no need for that kind of talk. What’s wrong with everyone this morning?”
“The Sons of Europa attacked the castle last night and I want to know what the chief of police is going to do about it,” Olivia said. “Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so.”
“Neither do I,” Marian Redding said. I hadn’t seen her at first. Unlike the other Reddings, she was still sitting and without her husband by her side she seemed smaller.
“We do not know for a fact that the Sons committed this atrocity,” the chief said.
“Eden saw them,” Carly said. “Are you saying she’s a liar?”
“Our investigation is ongoing.”
“You are calling her a liar.”
“I heard an interesting tidbit of information this morning; perhaps the chief did, as well.” Anna slowly took a sip of coffee from a china cup and deliberately placed the cup on a matching saucer that she held in her hand, making sure she had acquired everyone’s attention before continuing. “I heard that the wooden beams used to make the cross came from our own barn.”
For a few beats, the Reddings seemed genuinely dazed by their sister’s remark. Big Ben clenched and unclenched his fists as if he was contemplating punching her out. It was Carly who broke the silence.
“What the fuck?” she said.
“I heard that it was the same wood that we had used to build the fence.”
Anna waved more or less at the lake as if the gesture alone would tell her audience exactly which fence she was referring to.
“That’s a stupid thing to say,” Big Ben told her. “Why would you say that?”
“Mrs. Doty told me.” Anna smiled. “Unlike you, I actually converse with the help. In any case, if she told me, it stands to reason she might have told others.”
“That’s crazy,” Olivia said.
“Yes, Livy, it is in a word, crazy.”
Olivia glared at her sister-in-law. I didn’t know if she objected to the evidence Anna had presented or to her use of Olivia’s hated nickname.
Anna leaned far enough forward in her chair to set her cup and saucer on the small table in front of her.
“Everyone here knows their way around the castle, of course, as well as the barn,” she said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Alex asked.
“Just a fact worthy of consideration, wouldn’t you agree, Chief Gardner?”
“Our investigation is ongoing,” the chief said.
“Jesus Christ,” Carly said.
The waitress who had taken our order took that moment to serve the coffee and my sticky pudding. She must have been able to accurately gauge the mood on the patio because after setting a tray between the chief and I, she swiftly departed without a word.
“It would be helpful if all of you would tell me exactly where you were last night,” Chief Gardner said.
It was a simple question, easily answered. Carly was in her bed in Redding, Marian was in her bed at her farm just outside of Redding, Alex was in bed with his wife Eden in the General Oglesby Cabin, Big Ben and Olivia were sleeping in their room in the castle, and Anna was reading in Jenness Crawford’s room. No one heard or saw anything before the fire department arrived—except for Eden.
“She claimed she clearly saw that guard, that sentry that she called out on the Sons’ dock two days ago,” Alex said. “She must have told you?”
“She did,” the chief said. “We’ll be speaking with the Sons next.”
“I should hope so,” said Carly. “This is a fucking catastrophe.”
“We need to sell this place, the sooner the better,” Olivia said.
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world—Helen Keller,” Anna said.
“Another Redding quoting shit,” Carly said.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough, right, Chief?” Big Ben said. “Until then, I think we should all just relax.”
“You fucking relax,” Carly said.
She used that line to depart on.
“What a pill,” Alex said after his sister was gone.
The remaining Reddings reseated themselves at their patio tables and resumed talking as if Chief Gardner and I were no longer there.
“I wonder how poor Jenny is taking all this,” Marian said.
“I don’t know,” Big Ben said. “I haven’t seen her this morning. Have you?”
Marian shook her head.
“She’s probably curled in a ball somewhere and weeping her eyes out,” Olivia said.
“Don’t say that,” Marian said.
“Not to worry,” Anna said. “I often hear casual mention of this or that gene skipping generations. This is nonsense, of course. Genes do not disappear and then reappear in later generations. However, the expression or manifestation of genes—traits, if you will—can skip generations under some circumstances.”
Alex placed both hands on his head as if it suddenly hurt.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I’m suggesting that our darling Jenness more strongly resembles old John Redding than we do. She is not weeping, as Livy suggests. Oh no. I’ll wager she is in her office at this very moment, in deep consultation with her mentor, both recognizing the question in front of her and taking the necessary steps to answer it.”
Consulting with her mentor, my inner voice said. I was wondering what Nina was up to.
Olivia shook her head.
“I asked you, please, not to call me Livy,” she said.
While the Reddings talked it over, I finished both my coffee and the sticky pudding. Nina was right—it tasted exactly like the recipe she served at Rickie’s.
Chief Gardner ignored her coffee, however. Instead, she slipped her cell phone from her pocket and set it faceup on the tabletop. She removed her notebook, consulted a page, and tapped the phone number that was written there on to the keypad of her cell and hit CALL.
A moment later, we both heard the ringtone of a cell phone calling to its owner from the far side of the patio.
“Clever girl,” I said.
Olivia Redding reached into her pocket and pulled the phone out. She read the caller ID. I had never seen the color leave someone’s face so quickly. Give her credit, though—she didn’t panic; didn’t even glance toward our table. Instead, Olivia told her family, “Excuse me,” and pivoted in her chair so that her back was to the Reddings and us. She swiped right and pressed the speaker of her cell against her ear.
“This is Olivia Redding,” she said.
Chief Gardner spoke quietly.
“We can speak privately or we can speak publicly, you decide,” she said.
“What would we talk about?”
“The reason I have your cell number.”
Olivia rose from the table and smiled.
“I need to take this,” she told her family. “I’ll see you all later.”
Olivia spoke calmly as she crossed the patio.
“Yes, we can talk,” she said into the phone. After she entered the castle, putting walls and distance between her and her family, she added, “Meet me in the art gallery.”