Magnolia Gods (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 2) (8 page)

“’Mercy,’ I said to myself, ‘That plane is quiet. What kind of engine is that? Must be some kind of experimental job. Why are they still testing? This war is over. Today is a vacation day.’

“The quiet tiny lights moved further out to the east and then were turned off, or I couldn’t see them anymore, I wasn’t sure.”

“’Lord,’ I said to myself, ‘But he don't make no noise like those big engines on the bombers I hear coming over during the war. It ain't no jet. I know that sound too. Well, he’s gone and I’m still here. Ain’t that the way.’

“Them atomic bombs, that's what scares me, ‘cause you die too quick. I looked behind me at the beach beside the pier. The other black families from the church were there. I was the only one fishing. The men wouldn't fish with me because they said I caught all the fish.

(laughter in the hearing room)

“They spend too much time in Philadelphia. They forget how to fish that's all. Not too hard to learn again if they want to. Excuses. They just want to talk to the women.”

“I jiggled my line. She complains about my talking but that woman, my wife, she likes my fishing. Before the kids came, she would come and fish with me all night. She still cooks everything I catch.

“I watched as my wife served our two children the last of the pie. I knew the pie had extra sugar in it just for me. She had worked hard on that pie. The kids loved her. I could see it in their faces as she helped them.

“I looked up to the highway above the beach. My cousins were supposed to be there. I wished they’d hurry up because the fireworks were going to start pretty soon. This was the first big fireworks display since the war.

“Then I looked again at the black river. It was real quiet. I told the Navy agent sitting there (witness pointed to investigator in the front row of the hearing room) that was when I heard what sounded like an alarm clock going off, a sound coming over the water from the other shore.

“Then, after the buzzing, the flash of light blazed everything around me, shining on the terrified faces of my wife and children, her hand frozen with a piece of pie for my little boy. I heard a roaring sound like a volcano erupting and a blast of pressure pushed me back on to the seat of my pants.

“‘The Navy Lab. It blew up. Run,’ I called to them, crawling, trying to stand in the sandy wind, my fishing rod skidding ahead of me, its line and sinkers insane. I remembered thinking again for those moments about atomic bombs, and then thinking, no, I’m not burned like those Japanese, this is a dynamite explosion. I remembered grabbing my children around the waist. I remembered pushing my wife up the sandy hill towards the road and our car to get away as bits of flaming wood floated down around them. I remembered looking back once across the river, the fear of turning to stone like in the Bible tumbling through my mind, and I saw the fire and the twisting boards floating in the air and burning on the water.”

Drexel sat back in his chair. “Must have been quite a night.”

Mike eyed the remaining folders on his lap.

“First of all,” continued the lawyer, “The defendant was dead. He was the only one who could have really confessed to the crime. Her being an accomplice was hard to prove. The prosecutors held on to her in the hope that by doing this they would satisfy everyone’s outrage, I mean, the politicians, the Navy brass, the people in the street. I think the hearing was because the public wanted something tangible. She was the one they grabbed and held in her quarters. Americans had lost an important part of the defense of the country and they wanted to get paid back, to have someone to blame.

“Add to that,” he continued, “The diplomats wanted the case out of the newspapers. What took all the time was getting a hearing date agreed to, and, of course, lots of lawyer posturing, mine included. The wife was in custody all this time.”

He twisted in his chair. “George,” he called.

The old man appeared.

“Can you find some drinks for us?”

He turned to Mike and said, “It's hot, don't you think? I remember I always liked traveling down the pretty countryside to Philadelphia, but Goddamn it was hot down there at the Navy Base.”

He turned his eyes to the ceiling. “We had some Navy testimony.” Drexel looked briefly in the next folder. “They mostly recited the lists of what was stolen, the data collected on Lawson, which wasn’t much, I mean, much subversive. They didn’t have anything. No memberships in the Communist Party. Nothing.

“The Navy spent a lot of time on the bombed out lab and pretty much established that Lawson set the bomb that blew it up just before he flew off. They also showed that he was definitely alone on the aircraft and that no one else had been with him in the lab or pier area when the explosion and theft of the plane took place. He was the only one the security guard signed in, and no way for anyone else to have entered. I mean, that place was designed to be protected against Nazi agents and enemy submarines. It was tight.

“The Navy treated Mary Lawson like a drunk shore leave sailor. She was forced to wear a gray pullover, with canvas shoes they gave her. That’s what she wore to the hearing. A couple of Navy women, very strict looking as I remember, guarded her, and they were with her in court.

“The Navy Intelligence officers, me, the hearing judges, and a group of Navy staffers were present. The Navy lawyers asked the questions and, of course, I came up with any rebuttals I could muster.

“It’s all here, what she said.” Drexel threw the folder on the floor and smiled,” The railroad ticket to New York City was a problem. You’ll read about it in this interrogation. The Navy had found the ticket in the house.”

Question: “Tell us about your husband. How did he vote in the last Presidential election?”

Answer: “I said before he was for Roosevelt because the man helped folks get jobs. That was real important down where we lived on the Eastern Shore. Folks needed those jobs.”

Question: “Did your husband like President Truman?”

Answer: “He didn't like him blowing up all those Japanese. He said that he didn't think Roosevelt would have dropped those bombs.”

Question: “What did he do about his concern about the atomic bombs?”

Answer: “He never was much on writing letters to Congress. He did not like groups. He liked to do things on his own.”

Question: “What, for example?”

Answer: “Well, I know he wanted to send money to help the burned Japanese in those cities that were hit by the atomic bombs.”

Question: “Did he send money?”

Answer: “He could not find a way as far as I know. Last I remember he was going to contact the United Nations. I don't know whether he did contact them or not. He just stopped talking about it.”

Question: “Did he ever mention the Communist Party?”

Answer: “Not much. He said they were as guilty of crime against humanity as the Nazis.”

Question: “Why did he say that?”

Answer: “He said they both liked to fight wars. They loved war. He said that made them both guilty as hell of killing people.”

Question: “In your house, we found a train ticket to New York City. Who was going to use the ticket?”

Answer: “I don't know about that. The Captain had his own things. I didn't touch them.”

Question: “How do you explain that your fingerprints and the fingerprints of your husband were on the ticket?”

Answer: “I don't know. I must have moved it to dust his desk.”

Question: “What do you think happened to your husband?”

Answer: “The newspapers say he flew his airplane towards a Soviet battleship in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Question: “What is your opinion about that?”

Answer: “I don't think he would give his secret work to the Soviets. I think he crashed in the ocean. He was out on a test flight and he crashed.”

Question: “Why did the laboratory explode?”

Answer: “Laboratories explode all the time. They test stuff and sometimes it blows up.”

Question: “Your husband was flying a seaplane. Don’t you think he should have landed rather than crashed in the ocean?”

Answer: “Well, maybe it crashed in a storm.”

Question: “The weather was calm.”

Answer: “I don't know. You ask me what I think and I tell you. That's all I can do.”

Drexel spoke up when he saw that Mike had finished reading.

“The Navy was hot on that ticket,” the lawyer said. “They thought they had her. Problem was they could not prove that ticket had anything to do with Lawson’s plot. The fact that he might have flown over the farm did not mean anything either. I made the point that the two of them were married and that any signals might have been romantic in nature. The Navy could not prove her enough of an accomplice to go to jail.

 “I argued for the case to be closed, that is, I argued through the Navy lawyer that the court appointed her. I said to the officials, ‘You want to keep digging, then all right, but you will find nothing. So maybe we are thankful that we have a vigilant group of Navy investigators and they never quit, I said, but in this case it seems a waste of the taxpayers’ money.’

“The judges decided to let her go home.”

He handed over another paper, saying, “Here are the recommendations.”

“Philadelphia Naval Factory Explosion and Theft of Seaplane on 4 July 1945: Court of Inquiry: Recommendations.

1. That concerning the explosion in the Naval Research Factory laboratory:

a. Any results from further investigation of the activities of Captain Edward Lawson will be presented to this Court as discovered in the future.

b. Nothing has been presented to this court to link him definitely to the explosions.

c. Mary Lawson, the wife of Captain Edward Lawson, is not linked by any information presented to this court to any explosions at the lab.

2. That until the seaplane is retrieved from its crash site in the Atlantic Ocean, no further information can be gained concerning the destination of its pilot.

3. That Captain Edward Lawson remains a prime suspect for traitorous activities with regard to the theft of the seaplane.

4. That security should be improved at the seaplane facility at the Naval Aircraft Factory.

5. That Mary Lawson can not be tied definitely to the theft of the seaplane or to any planning for its delivery to any destination which might endanger the national security of the United States.

6. That Mary Lawson should be free to go to her home pending any further proof of her guilt.

7. That until the investigation of the theft of the airplane and the destruction of the lab finally proves Mary Lawson innocent, that she is to have no survivors benefits from her deceased husband’s naval career.

The record of proceedings was read and approved and the court finished the inquiry at 1:30 PM.

A.F. Jinson

Captain, US Navy

President

Charles Buck

Lieutenant Commander, US Navy

Judge Advocate”

“Of course,” said Drexel, “The newspapers had a fit. I wasn’t too popular for getting her freed. Eventually, though, it all died down. Life went on. She went back to her farm.”

“Those military judges still around?”

“Dead and gone. They were pretty old at the time of the hearing.”

“Nothing more came of it?”

“Nothing.”

“We couldn’t find any records of the hearing. This is the first official document I’ve seen,” said Mike.

Drexel smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

“What did Wall do?”

Drexel looked at Mike. “Bernard Wall was about as angry as anyone I have ever seen. He was swearing at her. He would have punched her if the security had not restrained him. He just kept talking about the millions he had lost. Yelling, all kinds of things. I remember he swore at her and asked where she and her rotten husband had put all the valve designs he had paid for.”

“What about coworkers?”

Drexel had one folder left. He handed it to Mike.

“In this folder, you’ll read the testimony of the only witness the Navy could find to speak of what went on at the lab. You see, towards the end of the war, most of that lab had been reassigned. The ones who knew Lawson during the earlier years were shipped to the Pacific and killed, most of them, in Okinawa. The place had been almost shut down after the war contracts stopped. I gathered that Lawson was trying to keep the research going forward without much funding from the Navy.

He laughed. “They tried another witness too. Lawson’s secretary. She didn’t testify.

“What happened with the secretary?”

“Rebecca Scott.” Drexel smiled, “She was crazy, that woman.”

“What do you mean, crazy?”

“She'd carry on screaming and cursing all of us. Not only me. The Navy too. Nobody could get a simple clear sentence out of her among all the swear words. After a day or so of trying to get her talk, she was committed to a hospital near Philadelphia.”

He went on. “Then came the questioning of the other prospect, Hiram Jones, another Navy man, who had been assigned to the lab and who had just reported in a few weeks before the explosion.”

“What about Hiram Jones?”

“He didn’t say much.”

Drexel reached into the folder and produced another piece of thin typewritten paper.

“Hiram Jones,” he said as he handed the paper to Mike.

Question: “When were you assigned to the Naval Research Laboratory, Lieutenant Jones?”