Black River

EIGHT

The store smelled of things remembered. O’Brien entered Crawford Antiques through a screened door that whined when he pulled it open. The inside was dimly lit, low wattage bulbs glowing under Tiffany lampshades. The still air was layered with a musky scent of old pennies, leather, sawdust and linseed oil. Antique furniture, grandfather clocks, phonographs, vinyl records, rusted wooden-shaft golf clubs, vases, pictures — framed and unframed, filled every nook and corner.

O’Brien stepped across a wooden floor that creaked and groaned under his weight. He stood quietly and watched dust fall from cracks in the ceiling. Someone was upstairs, walking over a floor above him. A one-inch sized roach ran from the crevices in the rough-hewn ceiling and scampered the length of a wooden beam.

Within a half minute, an elderly man came down the steps, like a crab trying to get its footing on sand. The man used both hands, gripping the banister for support. He wore bib overalls and a red flannel shirt that buttoned at the neck and wrists. “Can I help you?” he asked, stepping over to a counter with an old manual cash register sitting on it like a museum piece. He looked up at O’Brien through bifocals, smudged with dirt and fingerprints. His white hair was unkempt, beard the color of dirty cotton. His breathing labored, as if the air was pushed through a cracked billow.

O’Brien smiled. “Hi, are you the owner?”

“Yep, Carl Crawford’s the name.”

“Sean O’Brien…nice to meet you, Mr. Crawford. I feel like I stepped back in time. This is quite an assortment of Americana. Is most of it from Florida?”

“From all over. You name the state, or the decade, and we probably got something in here from that period or place. Whatcha you lookin’ for?”

“A painting.”

“What kind of painting?”

“Something from the Civil War.”

“You mean painting of soldiers, maybe something of General Grant or Lee?”

“No, I’m looking for a portrait of a woman.”

“Those are rare. We may get one come a blue moon.”

“Do you have one that looks like this?” O’Brien opened the folder and set the copy of the photograph on the counter.

Carl Crawford’s white eyebrows rose. He squinted through the bifocals, holding the picture to study it in the dim light, the brown age spots on the back of his weathered hands the size of pennies. He grunted, shuffled down the counter, reached under a lampshade and pulled a chain, holding the image under the soft light. “Where’d you get this?”

“You recognize it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have it in the store?”

“I did. But it’s long gone. Didn’t have it for more than a couple of days before it sold. And that was months ago.”

“Do you remember who bought it?”

Crawford lifted his eyes from the photo to O’Brien. “You sound more like a detective than a buyer of antiques. You mind telling my why it’s so important you find it?”

O’Brien told him that the unidentified photograph was donated to the Confederate Museum. He added, “That painting you had was probably painted from the original photo. It was a photo found on a Civil War battle-field between two dead soldiers, one Confederate, the other Union. A man about your age believes the woman in the photo is a relative of his. But he can only prove it if he finds the painting.”

“How’s that?”

“There’s an inscription on the back of the painting. Do you remember seeing it?”

Crawford closed his eyes for a moment, searching his memory. “I don’t recall ever looking at the back of the painting. The front, the woman’s face, was mesmerizing. It was in a frame, signed, I think.” He glanced down at the picture. “Why’s this man trying to locate the painting now?”

“Only because the photo recently turned up. If he can match the two it’ll proved his great, great grandfather died a war hero not a deserter.”

He nodded. “I see. Honor is something that gets little attention until it’s lost. Sometimes the genie never goes back in that bottle. That’s why disgraceful people are often more remembered than honorable folks. Go figure. So this friend of yours has been toting the stain on the family name, huh?”

“You might be able to help him put the genie back in the bottle. Do you remember who bought it, or do you have a record of its sale?”

Crawford looked to his left where a steel gray cat jumped from a rocking chair and sauntered from across the floor. “I remember it was man and a woman — a husband and wife. Never saw them before or since. I do recall they paid me cash, the full price, two hundred dollars. He bought the painting and she bought a bunch of old magazines, Saturday Evening Post. Maybe a dozen or more. The magazines and the painting came from the same place.”

“Where was that?”

“An estate sale near Jacksonville. The woman who sold the stuff to me said the painting and box of magazines had been in her grandmother’s attic for a lot of years.”

“Do you recall the name of the woman who had the estate sale?”

“No, hell at my age sometimes I can’t remember what I had for breakfast. But I might have their address.” He opened a scratched and dented black file cabinet behind him, thumbed through tattered file folders, breathing through his open mouth. “Here it is. I bought the painting, magazines and a French end table inspired by Louis Fourteenth.” He wrote down the address on a small piece of paper and handed it and the photo to O’Brien. “Wish I could be of more help. If I see the folks that bought the painting, I’ll call you.” He nodded, his face filling with a look of unease. “I do recall something else.”

“What’s that?”

“A couple of days before the couple bought the painting, a man came in the store looking for Civil War collectables. He saw the painting and wanted it on the spot. But he didn’t have enough to cover it. I offered to put it in layaway for a few dollars down. But he said he always paid in full. Said he’d be back later. It was a few days after that when couple came in and bought the painting. It must have been two weeks later before the man returned. And when I told him the painting had been sold…he…”

“What’d he do?”

“It was the way he looked at me. It was like he wanted to kill me. He left in a huff and said I ought to be careful because an old building like mine was a firetrap. But that’s been months ago so I’m hoping he was all hot air.”

O’Brien gave the man a business card. “Maybe he came to his senses. Thank you, Mr. Crawford.”

He looked at the card through his bifocals. “This says you’re a fishing guide…Sean O’Brien, full and half day fishing trips. Are you good at catching fish?”

“Not really.”

“Maybe your luck will change at finding people…and the painting.”