GEORGE CHERRY’S PLACE WAS LESS than a mile from the warehouse. It was on a creek that flowed out into the North River. It would be an idea place for a criminal to hole up, steal provisions, and possibly even take a skiff and make an escape.
While he was tired from the near-constant traveling, Adam was convinced it was a good idea he was going to the estate on foot rather than horseback. It allowed him to make a much quieter approach and not worry about an animal being spotted out on the lawn if he needed to inconspicuously creep towards the house.
When he arrived on the grounds, it didn’t appear to Adam that anyone was there, but then he heard a noise. He quickly ran around the back of the house but didn’t see anyone. He checked the outbuildings, but still no one. Then all of a sudden a flash from one of the windows in the residence caught his eye.
He ran towards the house, determined to catch Harmon inside. It frustrated him to know that if Harmon was in there he could just as easily run out the front.
When he got up on the porch to check the back door, he discovered it was unlocked. He opened the door and quietly stepped inside. Not a sound. He tiptoed slowly through the kitchen, then into the dining room. Next he moved through the foyer, then into the parlor and the library, but no one was downstairs.
It was time to go upstairs.
Unfortunately, the third step creaked. He heard movement on the second floor, apparently of Harmon reacting to the sound of him moving through the house. He slowly proceeded up the stairs, which went up straight, then turned left against the opposite wall, then turned left again to enter the second floor.
He was surprised there was no hallway. Instead the second floor entered directly into a little landing area, and there were doors in three directions that were open into the other bedrooms. To the left as he exited the staircase appeared to be the master suite. He peered inside. There was a side room with a writing desk. Just beyond that there was the master bedchamber. He stepped back out into the landing at the top of the stairs. Across the way there was what appeared to be a little girl’s room.
He decided to go back through the master suite first. He proceeded through that room and around into the next, which turned out to be what looked like a lady’s dressing room. The next room appeared to be some kind of sitting room. He then made it all the way around into the enormous little girl’s room. The entire second floor was like a big circle.
Where is he? he thought. He didn’t see or hear Harmon even once while he was moving through the upstairs. Maybe he already ran out the front of the house.
He went to the windows in the little girl’s room that looked out over the front lawn, but the drapes were too swoopy for him to get a good view. He pulled back one of the heavy curtains, then looked closely at everything he could see outside. He thought he saw a figure running in the distance. He squinted his eyes to get a better look.
Just then something grazed past him.
He quickly turned in the direction from which the object came, and he saw Harmon standing in the second-floor entryway. Adam turned to look behind him and saw a knife stuck into the wall from where he had thrown it.
Adam ran over and grabbed the knife, but when he turned to look back where Harmon had been, he wasn’t there anymore.
At least he had Harmon’s knife now. He looked at the ivory handle, then the blade, and he wondered if this was the knife that was used to kill Ed Willis.
He wanted to run him down now more than ever, but the house was like a maze. He could chase him around and around and never corner him, unless he was careful.
He stood in an alcove next to the stairs in the little second-floor entryway. He decided he wouldn’t move, he wouldn’t make another sound until he heard Harmon make a noise first.
Sure enough, within a few seconds he heard something coming from the master suite. He glanced around the corner into the room just long enough to get a look at the layout and formulate a plan.
He knew he better do this right. If anything went wrong, Harmon would slip away, and it would be unlikely he could corner him again.
Fortunately, the doors leading into and out of the master suite were both along the same wall. The placement of furniture inside the rooms would prove useful. He’d have to be quick and coordinated to block off both doors of the master suite and trap Harmon inside.
His goal wasn’t to completely stop Harmon from being able to exit the room. All he needed to do was slow him down enough that he wouldn’t be able to get away.
There was a low dresser on the same wall as the two doors leading into and out of the room. Even though it did have a mirror attached, he didn’t reckon it would be too heavy to move quickly. There was also a desk and chair just inside the door leading into the master suite from the entryway. He had a plan.
God help me! Adam thought as he quickly ran into master suite and slammed the door behind him. He had no idea where his quarry was hiding, but it was no matter. He intentionally knocked the chair over in front of the door, then ran straight down that same wall and shoved the dresser in front of the other door. He had effectively trapped Harmon inside the master suite with him. He felt confident that he could move faster than the killer, and the adrenaline coursing through his body told him failure was not an option.
He stood along the wall where the dresser had been and watched for him to come out. He didn’t have to wait long. Harmon quickly emerged from behind a changing screen and slowly walked towards Adam.
Adam’s jaw was tense, and his eyes were narrowed in anger. His heart was racing, but he wasn’t intimidated—not even a little bit. He knew Harmon was dangerous, but he also knew he’d caught his other victims off guard. They hadn’t been anticipating him trying to kill them. Adam, on the other hand, was ready.
“Whatcha doin boy?” Harmon asked.
Adam said nothing. He only glared at the murderer standing less than twenty feet in front of him.
Harmon started to walk closer. Adam didn’t move a muscle.
“What brings you out here, Adam? I ain’t got a quarrel with you, you know.” He took a few steps closer. “You can just go on your way. We can just both go our own way. I’ve got a sister waiting to see me in Charleston, but I told you I can’t go down there empty-handed. This fella here with this big ol’ house”—he motioned around the room—“he’s got far more than he needs, don’t he? He won’t miss it if I just take a few little things.” Harmon stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out some jeweled trinkets he’d picked up around the house and showed them to Adam. “This is all I want right here. See? I reckon them people who live here won’t even miss ’em, they’ve got so many pretty things.”
Adam still didn’t speak. He only sighed and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. After a second or two he slowly cocked his head to size up his opponent, just like he would in a game of chess. Harmon was about his height. He looked strong, but no more so than any of the men Adam worked with every day. He also knew for a fact that a man Harmon’s size, and especially his age, had never been able to take him down at the tavern.
Adam was finding the longer he stayed still and quiet, the more unsettled Harmon appeared to become. The killer was getting fidgety. He seemed nervous. Nervous people did desperate things.
Adam was trying to calculate all of the various moves Harmon could make, given where both of them were standing. He was also calculating what his own response would be to each of them. When he noticed Harmon glimpse down at his hand, he knew his goal was to get the knife away from him.
Adam had been gripping the knife upside down by its handle, with the blade hidden behind his wrist. He didn’t want to make this any bloodier than it had to be, and his bare hands had done a fine job in the past of helping him deal with unsavory characters.
For a fleeting moment he thought of how easy it would be to end Harmon’s pathetic life with one well-directed thrust of the blade, but then he thought about Ed Willis. If this knife was the one that killed Ed Willis, there was no way Adam wanted to be the next one to take another man’s life with it—at least not if he could help it. Nevertheless, he also knew if it came right down to it, he’d kill Harmon before he let Harmon kill him.
In that second Adam knew exactly what to do. He looked at Harmon, then looked across the room to the far side of the bed, where there was the dressing screen and the chamber pot. He quickly tossed the knife across the room so that it landed between the chamber pot and the screen.
Just as Adam expected, Harmon ran towards the knife, but Adam was quicker. He charged at him like a bull and knocked him back, but Harmon was able to regain his footing by holding on to the footboard of the bed and pivoting. He pulled away and tried to take another step, but he didn’t get far.
Adam lunged at him full force from behind.
Once he had him down, Adam threw the weight of his body across Harmon’s back and pulled his arm up behind him to force him into submission. Harmon kept fighting, though.
“This is no good, boy,” a breathless Harmon said, face to the floor, while struggling to breathe from under Adam’s hold. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will. I told you I ain’t got no quarrel with you.”
“You won’t kill me. I’ve got your arse on the floor,” Adam said. They were the first words he’d said to the man since he got into the house. “You killed my friend, you worthless snake.”
Harmon laughed and tried to take a really good breath. He then suddenly tried to burst up by twisting from under Adam’s hold. Adam wasn’t having it, though. He shifted his bodyweight a bit, causing Harmon to think he would be able to break loose. As soon as he’d turned himself all the way around so that he was facing Adam, Adam gave him a sturdy punch, which forced the back of Harmon’s head to crash against the bricks of the fireplace.
Almost instantly the killer went limp. He wasn’t dead, just knocked out.
At that point the only thing Adam had to do was find something to bind the fugitive. He decided the silk ropes that were used to hold back the curtains should work just fine. He made quick work of hog-tying Harmon, binding his hands and feet behind him.
No sooner had he gotten him tied up when Harmon started to come to. The killer had the nerve to mouth off, but Adam didn’t let it rattle him.
“You know that friend of yours,” said Harmon, lifting his face from the floor to try and look at Adam. “He never even saw it coming. We was sitting at his table playing cards.”
“You be quiet,” said Adam. “I don’t want to hear another word come out of your mouth.”
“See, I figured he had a winning hand, but I don’t much like losing.”
“And yet look at you there,” said Adam. He kneeled down and glared at him. “You’re tied up just like a hog waiting for the slaughter. Isn’t it funny how quickly your situation can change?”
Harmon let out an ungodly scream, either out of sheer desperation or in an attempt to unnerve Adam.
“You might as well settle down,” Adam said.
He got up and walked into the little area with the writing desk. He found a book to read, then brought it and the desk chair into the bedchamber, where he sat with his feet propped up on the hearth to keep an eye on the prisoner.
After about fifteen minutes he was relieved to hear Martin hollering outside. “Fletcher! Hey, Fletcher! You in there?”
Adam went to the window in the upstairs entryway and opened it. He called down to his friend, “Get on up here—use the back door.” He motioned around to the other side of the house.
Within a few seconds Martin was in the house and running up the stairs.
“Where are you?” he called out.
“In here,” said Adam.
Martin observed the scene. He saw Harmon hog-tied on the floor and Adam sitting in the chair next to him with a book in his hand called The Bruised Reed.
“Good God Almighty!” Martin exclaimed. “What did you do?”
“I caught him,” said Adam. “Bound him up and got him ready for when you arrived.”
“How did you know I would be here?” said Martin.
“Because. I told Boaz if I wasn’t back in an hour to send somebody. I knew you’d come. And anyway, if you didn’t show up shortly, I’d have just dragged his sorry arse down the stairs and dragged him back to town myself. I’m mad enough I near about believe I could do it.”
“Oh well I’m almost sorry I came, then,” Martin joked.
Adam put the book back on the shelf and then went over and motioned for Martin to help him pick up Harmon to bring him down the stairs.
They carried him out of the house, pulled the door to—but couldn’t lock it, since Harmon had picked the lock and they had no key—then threw him in the back of the horse cart. They went by Constable Squires’s house to let him know they’d gotten the fugitive, then carried him, still bound and tied, to the gaol, where the constable untied him and locked him inside.
After that, Adam and Martin returned to the warehouse with a great sense of relief to bring the news that Adam had caught the killer.
Emmanuel was glad to hear it, and Boaz patted Adam on the back. “Well done, boy. I thought you were a fool for going over there by yourself, but it seems like you handled it all just fine. To be honest, though, I’m surprised you didn’t kill Harmon yourself right there.”
“I’ll tell you,” said Adam, “I’m like Emmanuel. I want to see him face justice. If it had come right down to it, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do whatever was necessary to defend my life, but he turned out to be easier to disable than I expected. He’s really not much of a threat without that knife in his hand.”
“Still, it was brave of you to rush in there like that, Fletcher,” said Martin. “And I’m sure Mr. Cherry will want to reward you somehow when his family gets back from Tortola.”
“Eh, I don’t care about any of that.” Adam shrugged. “You know, it was bad enough that Harmon was a killer, and that he’d fooled us all, but I don’t know if I’d have gone after him like that if he hadn’t killed Ed Willis. I’d have probably just left it to the authorities.”
“Well, I for one am glad you caught him,” said Boaz. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Martin laughed. “That’s only because you weren’t in Havana.”
Boaz rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Oh, sure. I forgot.”
“Ed’s part of the family here,” said Adam. “I just couldn’t stand the thought of letting him get away with taking him from us.”
And part of the family he was. Adam thought about how much his “family” had grown since he had come on board at Rogers’s Shipping Company. Up until the day he first started working in the warehouse, his whole family, his whole world, had been wrapped up in the Topsail Tavern, but now he considered not only his biological relations as his family but all of the men at the shipping company, as well as the Martin family. And he thanked God for them all. He would bring to justice anyone who would do any of them harm, by any means necessary.