Black River

FIVE

Kim Davis filled a cold mug with a craft beer, handed it to a customer at the bar, and watched the old man shuffle out the Tiki Bar door into the wash of bright sunlight in the parking lot. She tossed Max a piece of cheddar as Sean O’Brien set the folder on the bar. Kim said, “Well, well, looks like whatever’s in that folder was enough to make you want to keep it.”

O’Brien smiled. “Nothing to keep, really. Just a copy of an article in a newspaper, a photograph, and an address.”

“Okay, I’m curious. If you don’t mind me asking, what did the gentlemen want?”

“He’s looking for something long ago from his past…something, that if found, might change a long-held legend or perception of his family.” O’Brien told her the story the man had left with him.

Kim splayed both of her hands on the top of the bar and leaned closer to O’Brien. “So, are you going to take the job?”

“I don’t know. On first pass, I’d say no. But there’s something in the old man’s eyes, a quiet dignity, a long-distance stare…a last hope. I don’t know if I can help. I said I’d think about it and let him know.”

“Seems innocent. I mean, you’re just looking for a painting, right? Not an old body, a fresh body, or anything threatening. The change might do you some good, Sean. Can I see the picture?”

O’Brien opened the folder and slid the copy of the photograph onto the bar. Kim looked at it, her eyes growing wider. She moistened her bottom lip. “That, woman…she looks familiar…like I’ve seen her somewhere before, at least I’ve seen the image. I just can’t say exactly where. So this woman was that man’s great, great grandmother?”

“That’s what he says.”

“She’s beautiful.”

O’Brien looked up from the picture to Kim. “That’s what I thought. She’s striking. So you really think you’ve seen this before? He said it was on the news, CNN, in this USA Today story, and other news outlets.”

“No, I didn’t see it on TV or online. I believe I saw it somewhere else. I just can’t place it. It’s like trying to recall puzzle pieces from a day-old dream. Oh well, maybe I’ll think of it. You said the man left an address, too. Whose address?”

“The home of the person who donated the photograph to the Confederate Museum.”

“What real use is that if whoever donated it told the museum they didn’t know the identity of the woman in the photo?”

“Because sometimes an old photo is stored with other things that might shine some light into the past.”

“Hey, Kim,” shouted a charter boat captain at the end of the bar. “Turn up the sound on the TV. Looks like some poor bastard got nailed in the Ocala National Forest.”

“Hold your horses, Bobby,” Kim said, reaching for the remote control. She pressed a button and the sound became louder.

On screen, a news reporter stood in the Ocala National Forest, the images quickly cutting to video of flashing blue and red lights from police and emergency vehicles. Police and paramedics worked the scene behind yellow crime tape wrapped around cypress trees laden with Spanish moss. A white sheet was pulled over a body lying on a gurney, a red flower of blood in the head area, detectives in the background questioning men dressed in Civil War uniforms.

The reporter looked into the camera and said, “Police investigators are initially saying the death is most likely an accidental shooting. The victim, a long-time Civil War re-enactor, is described as a man in his late thirties, someone who spent occasional weekends participating in Civil War battle reenactments. Police say the shooting happened when a movie crew was filming a battle scene between re-enactors playing Union and Confederate soldiers in the production of a movie called Black River. The man may have been shot with a Minié ball, which is a bullet used in vintage Civil War era rifles. All of these old rifles are supposed to be firing blanks. However, one was not. I’m told there are more than two hundred extras on the film, evenly divided between actors playing Union and Confederate soldiers. Filming the movie, which is described as a big-budget Hollywood feature, is suspended pending the results of the investigation. Detectives want to know how the Minié ball got in the chamber of one of these old rifles…maybe a horrible oversight that now has resulted in a death. If somehow this death points toward a homicide…detectives will be searching for a motive, and that would make this unfortunate incident like something found in a mystery movie script. The name of the man killed is being withheld pending notification of relatives. Live from the Ocala National Forest, this is Mike Stratton, Channel Seven News.”

The charter boat captain, a barrel-chested man with sunspots the size of dimes on his bald scalp, said, “Doesn’t sound like an accident to me. Lot’s of crazy shit happens out there in the national forest. I know it sounds weird, but I wonder if they were filming exactly the time the fella got shot.”

Kim blew out a deep breath. “Come on, Hank, that’s morbid.” She glanced down at the photo on the bar and then raised her caramel eyes to meet O’Brien. “That’s odd, Sean. Here we are talking about a lost Civil War era painting possibly being connected to the unknown identity of this woman in the photograph, and a Civil War re-enactor dies on a movie set doing a mock battle. I know it’s just coincidental, but I got goose bumps on my arms. Another thing…remember when I told you I did some acting back in college?”

“I remember.”

“I’ve always had the acting bug. Once bitten, I suppose. Anyway, when they had an open casting call, I drove to the production office and auditioned.”

“You didn’t mention that.”

“Probably because I didn’t get the bit part I auditioned for. I was out most of the day. Met a lot of Civil War re-enactors the producers were recruiting. I hope to God that one man I spoke with wasn’t the poor person killed on set. I can’t remember his name, but I do remember one of them kept staring at me. He was weird. I’m actually glad I didn’t get the part if I’d have had spent time on set around that man.”

“Maybe he wasn’t hired.”

“Maybe. But now good old reality comes along in a non-scripted scene in real life where that older man walks in here with a 160-year-old Civil War puzzle, and he’s asked you to solve it for him. That’s the kind of thing that gives me goose bumps.”

O’Brien slid the photo back in the folder, closed it and smiled. “You have an active imagination.”

“Sometimes, but when I first saw the old man guarding that folder on the table waiting for you, I felt it was harmless. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“It’s only an old photo. Come on, Max. Let’s head down the dock to Jupiter. We have some work to do.” O’Brien stood. He looked at Kim. “Don’t worry. I haven’t even taken the job. Finding a 160-year-old painting would be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack of time. The question is where is the painting today? It might not still exist.”

“But like the old man said, Sean, you have a way of finding things…or they have a way of finding you. Maybe it’s because you have the courage to look under the rocks.”

“I’ve got to fix a bilge pump on Jupiter. See you later.”

Kim watched O’Brien step out the restaurant door facing the marina. She looked through the open window as he walked down the long dock, the sound of laughing gulls in the warm breeze, a flock of the white pelicans sailing over the moored boats.

She glanced down at her tanned upper arms, the warm breeze doing nothing to make her goose bumps go away.