Chapter Thirteen
The next morning while they were preparing to go to the market, the exterminator arrived. In the excitement over finding the box, she’d forgotten about the mice. His name was Willie Samson. He was a middle-aged Black man with a receding hairline and mutton chops. Accompanying him was an adolescent boy, introduced as his son, Peter.
“Miss Helen said you have mice?” he asked Raven, who’d answered his knock on the front door.
“Yes. Come in.”
He entered and looked around. “Were they downstairs or upstairs?”
“Upstairs.” Raven felt a bit remorseful about having Mr. Samson do a job because of something she’d instigated, but the idea that he’d be paid for his work made her feel better.
“Do you know how many there were?”
“I only saw three.”
She escorted them up to Helen’s room. The broken bed was still on the floor. Mr. Samson raised an eyebrow. She explained, “It fell when she was jumping up and down on it while the mice were running around.”
He suppressed his chuckle. “Okay. I’ll look around outside to see if I can find where they may have gotten in. Have you seen any since yesterday?”
“No.”
“I’ll put out some traps. If they’re still in the house, the traps will take care of them.”
“Thank you.”
She led them back downstairs so he could get the traps from his wagon and left them to their work. She was anxious to get to the market and tell her mother the good news, but knew she couldn’t leave before Mr. Samson was done, so she prayed he would be quick. She was eager to return home to New Orleans and if her luck held, her mother would be at the market and she and Brax would be gone from Helen’s house by dark. As yellow fever had overrun New Orleans again, she prayed the trains were still going through so she could check on the aunts, Dorrie, and the rest of the family. She tried not to think about how much she’d miss Brax.
He was outdoors handling landscaping duties, so she went upstairs to begin working on preparing the other bedroom for Helen’s return, since they were temporarily having to put offthe trip for the market. Their plan to leave later made the work in the room unnecessary but helped pass the time while Mr. Samson and his son did their job. She was stripping the bed to put on fresh sheets when Brax appeared in the doorway.
“There’s a man downstairs representing Montgomery Ward. Do you want a catalog?”
Her jaw dropped. “Yes!”
“Really?”
“It’s Renay. A salesman from Montgomery Ward is one of his disguises.”
He looked confused.
Shaking her head, she hurried past him and he followed her down the stairs. Sure enough, beneath the lifelike, but false russet eyebrows, mustache, and goatee was her cousin Renay. She let him inside and gave him a big welcoming hug. He and Brax shook hands.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Doing well. Aunt Hazel sent me to check on you and Brax.”
“We’ve found the prize and are ready to leave.” He was posing as a salesman, so that meant she couldn’t have him in the house more than a few minutes, so she got to the point. “We want to leave tonight. Can you and Mama arrange it?”
“Of course. Sun sets around eight-thirty. I’ll be lurking nearby. Use the matches to signal me and I’ll pick you up.”
“I also need to hand the package off to Welch. Do you have a pencil and paper?”
He did.
She recited the address and he wrote it down. “Go by the boardinghouse and let her know I’ll be stopping by tonight. You don’t have to tell her who you are.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Where was the thing hidden?”
She gave him the details and told him about the IOUs.