Page 69 of After 5
“Don’t bother. They have what they came for.”
He hugged me. “I’ll still have them do a drive by. And think about installing security cameras.”
“Sure.”
Cameras might be a good thing. In the last month two people and a slew of animals had broken into my house.
* * *
I spentthe next two weeks researching the Civil War. Gertie and I watched documentaries and movies—good and bad. The entire episodes ofNorth and Southstarring Patrick Swayze before he startedDirty Dancing. I read books, letters, and anything I could get my hands on about the war.
My focus was Gettysburg and Vicksburg. These were the two battles coming in July. Jake was wrong about the Mafusos skipping this moon cycle. I felt it in my bones.
Three nights before the wedding, I sat cross-legged on my sofa thumbing through a twelve inch by twelve inch book titledA Photographic Remembrance of the Civil War. The fighting at Vicksburg would be on the downward swing by the time the moon cycle opened.
The battle had begun in the middle of May and the Confederates surrendered on July fourth. I studied the town strategically located on the banks of the Mississippi River. By the time the moon cycle opened the fighting will have decreased to a minimum. General Grant starved the Rebels into surrender. I doubted the Mafusos planned to go there.
Gettysburg seemed more logical. If they dropped Caiyan there, the chances of him getting shot were greater. Flipping through the pages of the book that lay in my lap, I studied the generals. The battles. There were many that took place in the four years of the War of Northern Aggression. I reminded myself that’s what the South called it. The North referred to the war as the Southern Rebellion.
Rebels versus Yankees.
Jake was right about the statistics at Gettysburg. There were over fifty thousand casualties, some seven thousand men died, and the rest were injured, missing, or taken prisoner. The chaotic upheaval of the small town completely raided of food and supplies would take years to recover. I passed quickly over the photos of dead men and slain horses left for days on the battlefields before their bodies could be moved or buried.
A cold prickle skittered my spine. Caiyan, please don’t go there.
Gertie entered through the back door. Her book bag was slung over one shoulder, and her purse dangled from her forearm. She dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and grabbed an apple.
“Hey, what’s up?” She moved toward me and took a giant bite of the apple.
“Not much, just going through these books again.”
“If you think he’s going to Gettysburg, we could zip up there and check out the battlefields.” Gertie looked at me hopefully as she chewed her apple. She loved to traipse through anything of historical significance. Battlefields, castles, ancient ruins—I’d been to more museums than should be allowed in a lifetime.
“Since the wedding is on the same day the moon cycle opens, I don’t think…I mean, I hope, this is not on Gian-Carlo’s bucket list.”
“Has Jake found anything linking a key to the Civil War?”
“No, he’s coming up empty.”
There was no record of any of the keys of a member of the WTF that would have been worn by an ancestor in the Civil War. My family was part Native American; we came into the show later. Tina’s parents immigrated to the United States after Vietnam. I wasn’t exactly sure about Gerry, and if I asked, he’d lie. The rest of my team was from across the pond.
Ace had said they arrested Caiyan in Gettysburg but had no idea why he was there. Brodie confirmed the information that when Caiyan was rogue, he tracked him to Gettysburg and apprehended him.
“All I can do is sit, wait, and hope Caiyan makes an appearance before he does something stupid.”
“Yeah, like marry Satan’s bitch.”
“I meant, like allow the Mafusos to dump him in a past time he has already been without a word to me so I can rescue him before…you know.”He dies.
“That’s what I meant too.” She wedged the apple between her teeth and upended her book bag onto the coffee table. Three stuffed files slid out.
“What are these?” I laid the book aside and picked up one of the files.
Removing the apple, she picked up a file and came to sit by me on the couch. “These are copies I made, correction, my assistant and I made.”
“You have an assistant?”
“Yeah, cool huh?” she shrugged. “Anyhoo, Ragina’s photos got me thinking. I have a friend that works in the American Civil War Museum. These are letters the library had on microfiche from soldiers in the Civil War. My friend mailed them to me. That one,” she pointed to the folder I held, “has the ones from Gettysburg.”
