Traveler Ch. 03

Barnaby looked at his wife, she nodded at him to continue.

"He used those sons of his like the secret police. A few of the more vocal families got late evening personal calls from them as well."

He looked at the fire for a moment, as if coming to a decision; he looked over at me and said. "I was going to phone you to tell you what was going on. His boys found out and paid me a visit, told me to shut my mouth before an accident happened to my youngest."

Feeling really curious, I just had to ask. "Did Cindy know any of this?"

Barnaby shook his head. "I was interested in the same question myself. When Abe had his sons strong-arming some of the families, he had Cindy at the other end of the country doing something else. He knew he had to step lightly with her, because of her relationship with your family and the fact that the only people that could ever control her is that husband of hers, your dad and you."

Barnaby left me a great deal to ponder on, we shook on it and went our separate ways.

Midway through the second day following my conversation with Barnaby, I had tied up my boat. Joan and I went into Bishop's Freight Yard. His office hadn't changed since the last time I was here some years back, his secretary hadn't either.

She smiled in recognition, I smiled right on back. "Mr. Franklin, is expecting you Traveler."

I still knocked, it just seemed the right thing to do. He of course still yells at me to come in.

Emit Franklin is what I once called him, a Danny DeVito lookalike, all be it with a beard. He roared with laughter when I said that to him, then he told me Danny was his cousin; back then I was young enough and naive enough to believe him, for all of ten minutes.

He smiled when he saw me, the smile faded when Joan walked in after me.

"Rumor's true then, about fucking time."

Emit pushed down on the intercom. "Sharon, I need you to call Phillip Harrison and Charlie Stanton. Ask them if they can be available for a conference call in an hour, if either one of them are reluctant, please mention Cassie Marshal is in my office."

In total there are five companies that the water people deal with on a regular basis, the big five run all of the commercial work along the rivers. Emit was bringing into the conversation two of the other four people. Emit got an acknowledgment from his secretary before he switched the intercom off.

Emit pointed to the two most-abused chairs I had ever seen, hell they were old and battered when my I first visited Emit with my father and he told us both to get comfortable. They both groaned as our weight went onto them.

This time Emit looked at Joan. "Ma'am, I don't know you, so I'm tempted to toss your ass out of my office until I've finished with this one."

Joan stood, held out her hand and said. "Joan Phelps, pleased to meet you."

Emit just leaned back in his seat while he eyed up Joan a little longer.

"I know a Joan Phelps, she's a writer. My wife is waiting on her next book. Is that you?"

Joan seemed to take the lack of handshake snub in her stride.

"That's me, I'm with Traveler for the duration."

His brows creased together, then Emit looked at me. "You're letting her into water people business, are you totally off your fucking nut?"

Joan thought it best to sit. After all, if he was going to toss her ass out of his office, he would have to get her out of the chair first.

"Emit."

I paused. Emit was still staring at a now sitting Joan, as if still considering tossing her out on her ass.

"EMIT."

For a well-built man, I think he left his chair by a few inches.

"Emit, part of the deal with Abe was that I relinquish Traveler status, make no contact with anyone from the water families and keep off the water. I was being ostracized Emit. Little did I know that he was in fact distancing me from the families so I didn't hear any of the rumors."

It wasn't a stare down, at least I hoped it wasn't.

"If your daddy was alive he would have killed Abe for what he'd done to the families."

Emit Franklin had known my father for a good few years before my father introduced me to him. What Emit had just said felt like a punch in the guts. I'm a grown fucking woman and that one sentence made me want to cry.

I slowly got up off the chair, I felt Joan try to hold onto the sleeve of my jacket, I yanked her hand away from me as I inched towards this man's desk; placed my hands on it and leaned over it, staring at him the whole time.

"There I was, one sunny Sunday afternoon, walking into a bar, minding my own business. Totally unaware that day was to be D-Day for Abe and his sons. I put his three boys in either jail or hospital and was still standing when the paramedics turned up."

I inched a little closer, my voice quiet but he could still hear me, I know he could because his eyes gave him away.

"My father was dead Emit. It was left to me to make the decisions and they consisted of these options. With my boat now torched, it was left to a total stranger to our world to rescue me from the hospital and look after me. A stranger Emit, a stranger because I had no family to fall back on. The families were already taking sides Emit; what was going to come next as sure as night follows day was a civil war between the families. With Abe and his boys on one side and on the other side, a woman who couldn't even go to the bathroom without the aid of a man I had only just met."

I had to choke back my tears, the only thing that got me through those turbulent times was a man I for weeks spitefully called Mr. Robert Douglas of Illinois. Not once did he complain or back away from this woman who depended on him for so much and still does.

"For the sake of the families Emit, I put my own pride aside and sought peace with Abe in order for the families not to fall apart. I already had his sons' blood on my hands; how many of the families would I have to lose as well? For the sake of those families, I gave Abe Traveler status and took his deal. I became a land person so the peace could remain within the water families."

By now Joan had stood and wrapped her arms around me, this time forcing me to sit down. Not once did Emit say anything. We all took a moment, and then Emit looked at the phone on his desk, two lights on the phones base were constant and I hadn't noticed until he looked at his desk phone.

We all took a moment, then Emit said. "Gentlemen, your vote please."

"I vote yes."

I knew that voice, that was Charlie Stanton. How the fuck? When did he sneak in?

"I agree, I vote yes."

And that was Phillip Harrison.

This time Emit spoke. "Gentlemen, I agree, I vote yes, with the votes of Bill Fenton and Woodrow Tennant given to me to vote at my discretion, the vote is unanimous, thank you gentlemen, please make the relevant phone calls."

Joan and I looked at each other, we both heard the click of phones being disconnected. Emit started to smile, he also leaned back in his chair, the groan of his own chair a clear indication that Emit Franklin's bulk was truly testing all the safety features of his office furniture. His smile just got a little wider and I suddenly understood. Although Sharon was told to tell Charlie Stanton and Phillip Harrison that the meeting was in an hour. She had put them through as soon as she could get hold of them.

Emit goading Joan was just a holding tactic until Sharon could get all the right people into play.

"Young Lady, I knew your daddy for twenty odd years. He would have been proud of you today."

Joan and I just sat and exchanged confused looks. It seems that Abe got greedy; he went to the big five companies and pushed the prices up for transporting their goods. What he had planned to do was skim off the increase and leave the families with the usual fee for transporting the goods. He even got his boys to pay a visit to a couple of the big five.

The five quickly retaliated by slowly moving the water freight onto trucks. It still would have taken a year or so, such was the slow pace at which the five were shifting the moving of goods from water to road. When the families noticed, they went to Abe; his plan fell apart and he confronted Emit. For his part, Emit simply played a recording of a conversation Abe had with the five. Abe would have been in big trouble with the families if that recording got out.

Once again Emit leaned on his desk. "We knew you were under so much pressure to relinquish your title. But we couldn't interfere, none of us who have had dealings with Abe wanted him as Traveler. The bar fight pushed his own agenda up and we didn't have a chance to warn you. Last year, he actually came to one of our meetings, walked in like he owned the place and stated his demands."

This time he looked directly at me. "Your daddy told you rule number one about the big five, what was it?"

I remembered that conversation so well. Dad had just come away from a meeting with the five, he was so mad he actually asked me to take charge of the boat while he went below to get a drink and my father didn't drink.

"He said that rule number one was, don't get the big five mad."

Emit shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Emit stated that the five needed a month, then all the original contracts with the families will be honored. Which would see all the families back to a healthy living.

Then his smile disappeared, more so as he turned to look directly at me.

"There is a clause we have added, Cassie. I'm sorry but it was off the back of Abe bursting into a meeting that he simply wasn't invited to. The clause states that all original contracts will be honored, for as long as Cassie Marshal remains as Traveler."

Emit backed up on the clause in the contract when he reminded me that they had had to deal with him when I handed him Traveler status.

"The veneer fell away when the office door closed. He wasn't your father and he sure wasn't you. For a big man he sure cornered the market in little man syndrome."

I had to bite down on my lip when he used that phrase, when you considered Emit's stature. The five initially looked at it as him flexing muscle and waited for him and his opinions to settle down, they never did and in fact as week followed week, they got worse.

My stomach fell then. More and more often I was seeing why Abe removed me entirely from the water when he took the mantle of traveler. He wasn't my father, Abe was using the families as a way of lining his own bank account by sticking his hand into the contingency accounts like it was his own private piggy bank.

Once again I shook my head and hated myself for not seeing any of this sooner. All this still left me with a question that could still sink us all as a family.

"But what happens when I retire?"

Emit winked at me, then smiled. "We won't interfere with who takes over from you, this isn't a power grab from us, but we do not want a repeat of someone like Abe taking over and muddying the water again. So, in answer to your question, when you retire, choose your successor wisely."

He also emphasized that for years we had coexisted. Neither the five or the families where greedy, moving freight was a sensitive business, so the less waves made, the more business got done. He cited our history with my father as Traveler, both the five and the families making money and the families even managed to grow, sometimes adding canal boats as children got older. The families also could now afford a better education for those children that wanted to branch away from the water.

"In a war, everyone loses, Cassie. You yourself are a prime example, the families couldn't react quickly enough to help you when Abe and his sons came for your title. When Abe's greed became known to us, we lost money by having to move goods by road. We had invested so much in storage facilities tight to the canals that turning it around and into land-based business was going to cost us dearly for some years."

The five devised a plan that needed time to work. They knew they were hurting the families, but they had also worked out that if they turned to land-based transport at least one of the five was going to go under.

*******

We left Emit's office on autopilot. We even stayed another day tied up alongside Bishop's Freight Yard. Emit stopped by for a coffee before he went home; he reminisced about dad, told me stuff that I never knew. Joan was smart enough to give me alone time on deck that evening and I cried later that night when my memories came back.

As Emit went to leave he did say we could stay as long as we liked, but if I was still here and not at home with my husband and two children any time soon then he may as well make money out of us and start charging us rent.

We did our civic duty and kicked him off my boat. We did cast off the next morning, I had another stop to make. From Bishop's Freight Yard, it was still a week's journey, but when I explained where we were going, Joan instantly agreed.

A week later we entered Faraday Lock. Joan was taking pictures of the lock and gates via her cell-phone. It still took us almost a half a day's cruising before we came to the lock gates that in a roundabout way, caused the downfall of Abe and his boys. We went through the lock gates and moored up a couple of hundred yards further along, out of the way of any other traffic that might want to pass us.

The villagers had placed a plaque on the wall that was once the lockkeeper's house. I remember reading that both parents showed up and thanked the villagers for doing this. It was an interesting plaque for which they got Maddie Cooper involved as well. She asked for a week to think about the wording and the villagers readily agreed.

It read. 'For six years Brenda Cooper (the Red Lady) rested here. We, the family of Brenda Cooper thank the villagers for looking after her. Now she is at home and still loved by both the kind villagers of Cinder Creek as well as her family.'

I watched as Joan wiped a tear from her eyes once she had finished reading the plaque. She took more pictures of the lock as well as the plaque while I sat on the lock gate watching her. An old lady with flowers in her hand came around the corner of the old lock keeper's house, came to a sudden stop and once she recovered, she smiled and placed the flowers below the plaque on the wall.

As she went to walk away, Joan asked if she could talk to her. The old lady smiled again and pointed to the seat that looked out at the canal. They talked for close to an hour, about the Red Lady, the ghost that was said to appear at certain times in the year and of course, about the day that the red lady's body was finally discovered.

By now both the lady and Joan were hand in hand as the little old lady reminisced about that day. "The whole village knew they had found her when we heard the water people sing their song. It was an event that meant a village sat frozen in time, so many of us cried for her; she didn't deserve to die, or for her folks not to have anything to bury, just mourn a ghost."

She stood, but only to push her hand into a pocket and pulled out something.

"I was one of the lucky ones, I taped the song that day as the breeze helped it envelope our village, I've had to make so many copies for the rest of those of us that wanted to keep her in our thoughts."

The old lady pushed down on a button on her cell and once again Cal-un-den resonated between the crumbling walls of the old lockkeeper's house and the sloping hill on the other side of the lock. A place that so many water people stood and waited, like the villagers down the hill, the people of the water knew the story of the Red Lady. Even to this day, many water people that pass through would still lay flowers.

When the song ended, the old lady stood and invited us both to tea. We gladly accepted; on the way down the hill and almost all through tea, Joan and the old lady who insisted we call her Beth from now on, talked about the Red Lady. We were with Beth for the rest of the afternoon and some of the early evening.

As Joan and I settled back onto the boat and got ready for bed, she suddenly came to a stop, then turned and looked at me.

Her eyes narrowed, she was still holding onto the pillow she was hugging. "You did that on purpose. I know you did."

I needed to see where she was going to, so I pushed, just a little.

"I'm a little confused as to what you're talking about."

Her cheeks went an interesting shade of red. "You're a conniving little bitch, you manipulated me; this whole trip you've done nothing but manipulate me into coming to this very place."

Her pillow landed on her bed as her arms went into a wide arc. "You want this to be my next book, don't you? Not Traveler, but Brenda Cooper."

I smiled, sat cross-legged on my bed and hugged my own pillow, finally allowing myself to rest against the bulkhead behind me.

"We both know it would be insane to write a book about me, if you out me to the world in a book, my worth as Traveler will cease to exist. Traveler only works from behind the scenes, not in any form of publicity. My father knew and understood that; it's a fundamental part of Traveler's life, he/she is a ghost who fixes the families, soothes the companies and makes everything better so we as a collective can continue to live in peace."

I pointed out of the boat and reminded her that this was the real story; an innocent was killed by a madman who was protected by a father that turned a blind eye to his own son's behavior. Brenda Cooper's life and dreams should be highlighted and talked about. I still had to carry the remorse that Brenda was guilty of nothing, other than looking like me and that's what got her killed.

"Sleep on it, Joan. Let me know what you decide in the morning."

"SLEEP, what the hell, Cassie, how do you expect me to sleep with all this going around in my head?"

"Goodnight, Joan."

I turned the lights out, amongst the grumbling and moaning I did hear. "You're a damn bitch and I hate you."

"I know. Goodnight, Joan."

It was quiet on the boat when I woke the next morning, Joan's bed had been slept in. I got dressed and now armed with a coffee, I wandered outside. Although it hadn't become a ritual, I would be inclined to call it, habit. I sat for a while on the lock gate and thought about the day we found Brenda Cooper.

Jason had gambled with his life and sanity that day, to give Maddie Cooper a last glimpse of her own sister. Through Jason and the Cooper sisters, we found Brenda's body. A family could now find the peace they deserved.

My eyes once again looked at the lock keeper's cottage and inwardly I smiled. I had the time, persuading my husband and through him, our children may take a little longer. But, I had the time.

Joan was just coming up the hill from the village. She waved and I waved back.

By the time she got closer, I could see the smile on her face. Maybe she's warming to the idea for her new book?

"I had breakfast with Beth. She realized who I was when she spoke about us to a friend of hers. I retaliated by telling her that I'm going to write about the Red Lady."

I smiled and winked at her.

"Why didn't you just sit me down and explain all this to me?"

I took a sip of my coffee before I answered. I pointed to the crumbling house that used to be the lockkeeper's cottage.

"I own that, Joan. Not long after I returned home from the funeral of Brenda Cooper, I phoned around. It took a while but I got to the right department. The waterways authority didn't even know there was a skeleton of a house here, that's how outdated their files are. They sent in a surveyor and a week later they gave me a price for the house and on condition of allowing unlimited access for maintenance, insurance inspections in on or around the lock system, that sort of thing. My lawyer sent them the check two days later. I'm not sure they ever had such a quick sale like that before."