To the accompaniment of sawing and hewing in the front of the building, Edwin thanked Effie.
“You’re willing to sign a statement about what you witnessed?” he asked her.
She scoffed. “Of course.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He’s a bad one, that Latting.”
“Thank thee for this important information, Effie.”
“I thank you as well, Mrs. Bugos,” Edwin said.
Effie bustled off, hailing another white-haired woman.
To me Edwin murmured, “I have additional information about Latting. This building doesn’t have another egress, does it?”
“I actually don’t know, but I doubt all these people, including members of this Meeting, would be waiting around for the tree to be removed if they could exit by another door.”
“Good point. Where has young Larkin got himself to?” He turned his head right and left, looking. He let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, watch the exits for me, will you, please? Make sure Latting doesn’t get out.”
Abial was a lot bigger than I was, but I wasn’t alone in the building or even here in the entryway.
“I will do my best,” I said. I poked my head out the front door and observed the pine-cutting team for a moment. At least the rains and wind had not returned, but the sap oozing out from the fallen growth was making saws stick to hands. I moved to the interior doorway to the worship room on the left. My eyes widened to see Wesley kneeling in front of Tilly. He held both her hands. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she didn’t appear angry with him. This looked a lot like reconciliation. I hoped for Tilly’s sake Wesley was offering an apology, and that they both could come to peace with their past as well as their present.
But where was Abial? Ah. He stood in the far corner, leaning one arm on a wall, acting far too friendly with Hazel. And she was flirting right back. A raised male voice cracking with emotion drew me away from the sight.
“All I meant was, I’m sorry she’s gone, Officer,” Reuben said to Edwin a few yards away from where I stood. “I wasn’t apologizing. I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Are you sure, young man?” the detective asked.
“I would never hurt her in all my life.” Reuben stood tall and serious. “By the sacred eagle, I swear.”
Zerviah laid a hand on her son’s shoulder, defending him with her silent presence.
Edwin examined Reuben’s face. “Very well.” He turned away and began to weave through the various knots of conversing mourners toward Abial.
“Mrs. Dodge,” a man’s voice said at my shoulder.
I glanced up to see a uniformed Larkin. “Where did thee come from?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been here all along, ma’am. Staying in the background, like the boss told me to.” He kept his gaze on Edwin, who had nearly reached Abial.
“Thee is good at it. Is thee the reserve force, so to speak?”
“Yes, ma’am, I believe I am.” He sounded both proud and a little nervous as he straightened his shoulders.
Between Abial being as far as he could get from the exit and having Larkin at my side, I figured I could abandon my post at the door.
“Shall we go listen in?” I asked with a small smile.
“Yes, Mrs. Dodge, we shall.”
Abial glanced up when Edwin neared him. The Quaker beamed his businessman’s smile at Edwin. “Well, well, Detective Merritt. Good news to report, I trust?”
Edwin gestured to Larkin, who hurried the last few steps.
Edwin touched Abial’s arm. “Abial Latting, I arrest you for the crimes of homicide, committing violence on a minor, the abuse of a girl, and indecent acts.”
Abial’s jaw dropped. Hazel went pale and backed away. Larkin reached for Abial’s wrist. The older man shook him off, his face ablaze. The entire Meetinghouse stilled, the only sounds being the scraw-scraw-scraw of the saws outside.
“This is an outrage. A travesty. How dare you, Merritt?” Abial nearly panted with the exertion of his rage, and his face had turned the color of a scarlet tanager’s plumage.
Aha. Abial had abandoned the speech of Friends in the heat of the moment. As he had also done last evening. Perhaps he had not grown up in our faith, or his parents had not used plain speech in the home. In the heat of anger, most people revert to speaking the way their family spoke.
“I am merely carrying out my duties to the full extent of the law,” Edwin said mildly, but his mismatched eyes were keenly focused on the accused.
“What is the so-called evidence thee supposedly has to prove my guilt in the matter?” He nearly spat the word “evidence.”
“All will be revealed in due time. I would appreciate you not resisting, Mr. Latting. I don’t believe that is the Quaker way, now, is it, sir? Larkin, if you please.”
The younger officer, looking somewhat terrified, managed to cuff Abial’s hands behind his back. I glanced at Tilly, who was gaping and clutching Wesley’s hand. I was grateful she’d been able to witness justice being served.
Brigid burst into the worship room, waving a pine branch. “The doors are cleared, ladies and gents.”
Applause filled the building for possibly the first time in its forty-seven-year history.
“After you, Larkin,” Edwin said, gesturing toward the door. “Mr. Latting, if you would be so kind?”
“Kind?” Abial snarled. “You won’t think I’m so kind when I sue you up one side and down the other.”
Edwin simply smiled and waved Larkin and his prisoner ahead, the mourners parting to leave them a wide berth.
“Thee will join us at the Giffords’ when thee can, I hope,” I said to the detective.
“I will do my best. I’m sure you are eager to learn what else we discovered.”
“I am, at that.”
Larkin and his prisoner hadn’t gotten far before Tilly pushed through the crowd to face Abial. When she pointed a bony finger in his face, he cringed.
“Thee! Thee, committing the ultimate act of violence and then pretending to grieve for our girl. Thee, acting as a member of the Society of Friends under false pretenses. Thee, saying thee wished for the killer to be caught.” Each time the word “thee” poured out of her with vehemence, she again jabbed toward his face. “Well, thee has been granted thy wish, and thee will burn in hell for it. Thee will have no mercy from me. I hope no one else shows thee any, either, from the police to thy jailers to God Himself. Child murderers have no place in this world of ours. I hope thee suffers for the rest of thy granted days, Abial Latting.”