The Shut Mouth Society (30 page)

Evarts got right to business. “Why did you say the union isn’t looking for you?”

Mr. Greene replied, “Because we aren’t part of the Mute Circle within the Shut Mouth Society.”

“
Please explain,” Evarts said impatiently. Benjamin Greene took far too much pleasure in doling out information.

“
The Shut Mouth Society is composed of three degrees. The highest and innermost degree is the Mute Circle, which keeps the Society secrets and makes most of the decisions. There are three voting members in the Mute Circle. The next degree is the Mute Council, which advises the circle and communicates to the rest of the Society. That’s how we keep general members from discovering the identity of circle members.” He looked at his wife. “We’re members of the council.”

“
And the general members?”

“
Their job is to secure positions in government, business, or foundations so they can promote our agenda and advance themselves up to council membership.”

“
How many people are in the Society?”

“
Now … only about forty. At the turn of the last century, there were as many as two hundred, but the children lost interest and fell away.”

“
Who are the members of the Mute Circle?” Evarts asked.

Mrs. Greene answered. “Patricia’s parents, Abraham Douglass, and a fourth person we presume dead.”

“
Why?”

“
Because the union killed the other three.”

Baldwin interrupted. “Douglass told us he didn’t belong to the Shut Mouth Society.”

“
Members are disciplined to never admit membership.”

“
How did the union discover the identities of the Mute Circle?” Evarts asked.

“
We don’t know,” Mrs. Greene said.

Evarts knew. The Society had been infiltrated. Which led him to his next question. “How do you know the members of the Mute Circle?”

“
We know only the Baldwins for sure, because they sponsored us into the council and they were our contact with the Mute Circle. Council members never discussed their sponsors, so we don’t know for sure, but … well, Douglass’s death confirmed his standing.” Mr. Greene looked at his wife. “I guess we’re the Mute Circle now, but we never went through the ceremony, so we don’t know the location of the documents. That’s why we’re not hunted.”

Evarts thought there might be another reason. “Earlier, you said there were three voting members of the Mute Circle, but you listed four people.”

“
Married couples only have one vote between them.” He patted his wife’s knee. “As would we, if we had been elevated as a couple.” The prissy man tried to smile, but it looked more like a smirk to Evarts. “That is, if we’re both alive at the time of our elevation.” He shifted his attention to Baldwin. “Your parents also held the additional honor of being the Keepers.”

“
Meaning the Keepers of the documents?” Evarts asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Did the other two members know the hiding place?”

“
No. We were told during our indoctrination that only the Keepers knew.”

“
Sounds risky,” Evarts said.

“
That why the Keeper designation always went to a married couple. It’s worked for a hundred and fifty years.”

Evarts thought a minute. “Did the Mute Circle recruit new members?”

“
Of course. We all did. Douglass meant to recruit you as his disciple.”

Evarts had guessed that would be his answer. He contemplated his next move and came to a decision. He leaned forward in the love seat and reached behind him. In a flash, he had his SIG pointed at the Greenes. “Who was the fourth member of the Mute Circle?”

“
What are you doing?” Mr. Greene asked, but his voice remained unconcerned.

“
Please, answer my question. Who was the fourth member of the Mute Circle?”

“
Or what?” Mr. Greene seemed amused.

Evarts suddenly felt woozy. He glanced at Baldwin and saw her eyes roll up. Damn. They had been drugged.

He had only seconds. As he leaped from the love seat, Evarts flipped his SIG to hold it by the barrel like a club. With all the strength he could muster, he pistol-whipped Benjamin Greene on the side of the head. Without hesitation, he swung the pistol at Nancy Greene, aiming for her nose. With his last moment of consciousness, he glanced back at Baldwin and saw her head lolling against the back of the easy chair. He meant to go to her but instead collapsed onto the floor.

Chapter 34

Evarts felt an awful throbbing in the back of his head. He rolled over onto his back, confused and bewildered. Who hit him? Then he became conscious enough to remember he had been drugged. The Greenes! He bounded up into a sitting position and fell back immediately. He tried again, slower this time. Damn, his head hurt. He suddenly realized he hadn’t yet opened his eyes. Forcing them open, he saw that the Greenes and Baldwin were still unconscious.

With a determined effort, he picked up his gun and tucked it inside his waistband as he rose up onto wobbly legs. He willed enough concentration to walk to the kitchen to look for something to bind the Greenes. Leaning heavily against the counter, he rummaged through drawer after drawer until he found a roll of duct tape. He returned to the sitting area and gently pushed Benjamin Greene forward, so he could tape his hands together behind his back. When he tried the same thing with Nancy Greene, she slumped forward like a tipped bag of potatoes. Moving around to examine her from the front, he saw that she was dead. He had aimed for her nose, but his disequilibrium caused him to smash her throat and crush her windpipe.

Before checking on Baldwin, he went into the bathroom and searched the medicine cabinet until he found aspirin. He popped four into his mouth and used cupped hands under the faucet to capture some water to wash them down. After he swallowed, he splashed handfuls of water onto his face. He felt only marginally better as he carried the aspirin bottle and a wet washcloth back into the great room.

Baldwin hadn’t moved. He checked her pulse and sighed in relief when it throbbed with regularity. He laid the cold washcloth across her forehead but did nothing more to revive her. Time would bring her around, and he had things to do that she probably shouldn’t witness.

He threw the remains of his almost-full cup of coffee and Baldwin’s near-empty wine glass down the kitchen sink, thoroughly washing cup and glass. He searched the inert body of Benjamin Greene and then his dead wife. Other than keys and wallets, he found nothing of interest, not even a cell phone.

After an unproductive search of the kitchen, he moved to the single bedroom. He discovered a floor safe in the closet, and despite his headache, fumbled around until he found the right key. The safe contained more money and another .45, something the Greenes evidently didn’t feel obliged to carry. He took all the money out to see if it covered any papers but discovered nothing more. Next he searched the pockets of all the suits, pants, and dresses hanging in the closet. Nothing. After a further search of the single bathroom, he decided that anything of interest to their predicament must be hidden in the great room.

When he returned to the living quarters, he stuffed the brick of currency he’d found into Baldwin’s purse. Then he leaned over to check her breathing and listened for moans or other signs of her coming out of her stupor. She was still out cold.

Benjamin Greene, on the other hand, had started to revive, but his eyes said he wasn’t quite aware of his surroundings. Evarts pulled over an ottoman and sat directly in front of Greene so that their knees touched. Then he slapped him. Hard. When he saw his eyes show some recognition, he said in a gentle voice, “Tell me about the union.”

“
I know little.” He struggled only momentarily against his bounds.

“
Tell me what you do know.”

Greene still looked disoriented and didn’t even throw his wife a glance. “They were formed during the Grant administration. At least, that was when they were formally organized along lines similar to today. They actually extend back to before the Civil War, but prior to Grant, they were just people connected because of money interests in the antebellum South: for the most part, New York financiers and big plantation owners.”

He finally looked over at his spouse. “What’s wrong with my wife?” he asked in a most matter-of-fact tone.

“
She’s dead. How long have you worked for the union?”

“
Pity. She ran the inn fairly well.” His eyes grew steadier. “Why should I tell you anything?”

“
Because you’d just as soon avoid pain. You’re narcissistic, are you not?”

“
Unrepentantly so, but I don’t believe you’ll harm me.”

Without preamble, Evarts threw a cushion onto Greene’s lap, pulled out his gun, and using the cushion as a muffle, shot the old man in the fleshy part of the thigh. Before his scream left his throat, Evarts used his hand to cover his mouth and force his head back uncomfortably. “I thought you said you knew all about me.”

After the old man appeared to regain some control, Evarts grabbed the duct tape and made a crude tourniquet. He sat back on the ottoman and stared at Benjamin Greene.

Breathing hard, Greene wheezed, “Perhaps I underestimated some of your more brutal traits.”

“
That was warm-up. If you’re not going to use that mouth to tell me what I want to know, then I’ll duct tape it and introduce you to serious pain.” When he didn’t respond, Evarts added, “Do you believe me?”

Greene actually seemed to contemplate the question. Wilting under Evarts’s silence, he said, “I’ve been feeding information to the union for over two years.”

“
How?”

“
Email. I’ve never met anyone in person.”

“
Why?”

He winced. “In the beginning, because they promised to make room for us in the Mute Circle.”

“
Meaning they would murder the Baldwins?”

“
I prefer to think of it as just arranging their death a bit prematurely. We’d not only be elevated to the Mute Circle but also become the Keepers.”

Evarts had interrogated dozens of men and women in both the army and the police force. Greene had broken faster than most, but Evarts had only used such drastic tactics once before. That time, the lives of his infiltration team depended on immediate answers. This time, his own life and that of Patricia Baldwin depended on truthful answers, and again he didn’t have time to waste. The preliminary questions confirmed that Greene had broken, so he proceeded to his most urgent question. “How long before the union arrives?”

Greene looked at a clock on the opposite wall, which partly answered Evarts’s question. “They land in forty-seven minutes.”

“
How long from the airport?”

“
Fifteen minutes. Maybe another fifteen to deplane and exit the airport.”

Evarts looked at Baldwin. When he turned back, he caught Greene wiping a smirk off his face. “How long will she be out?”

“
Hours. She drank most of her wine.”

Evarts knew how to accelerate her recovery from the drug, but if he turned his attention to her, he wouldn’t get all the answers he wanted from Greene. He decided to spend fifteen minutes with the old man and then try to revive Baldwin. He calculated that it would be close, but the union men would either be unarmed or delayed because they stopped to pick up weapons en route … unless someone met them at the airport terminal with weapons at the ready. Damn. He had to hurry.

Evarts decided that Greene needed a reminder, so he smacked his wound with the butt of his gun. He made no attempt to stifle Greene’s scream. Evarts relied on their description of the floor as nearly empty and on the industrial sounding between the lofts. Mostly, he wanted Greene to see him as desperate and crazed.

When Greene recovered some composure, Evarts asked again, “Who was the fourth member of the Mute Circle?”

“
Jennifer Hathaway.”

“
Dead?”

“
Yes. Virginia.”

“
How did the union expect to find the documents if they killed everybody?”

“
The Baldwins were the only ones that knew the hiding place. The union didn’t kill them. It was a real accident.”

He remembered that Baldwin said her parents always traveled separately but evidently not by car. That had proved to be a mistake. Evarts put his hand lightly on the wounded leg. He saw the fear in Greene’s eyes. “Tell me what the union is after.”

“
Your great grandfather’s documents. The ones the Keeper protects.”

“
Where are they?”

The old man shook his head back and forth, and his fear became terror, confirming for Evarts that he didn’t know. He squeezed the leg ever so slightly. “
What
are they?”

Relief suffused Greene’s face and the words tumbled out. “Evidence. Proof that the union plundered the South after the Civil War. They stole millions, tens of millions. Shut Mouth estimated it could have been as much as sixty to a hundred million. Now, nearly a hundred and fifty years later, we estimate their assets at over two hundred billion dollars. Your great grandfather put some of the evidence together during the Johnson impeachment. He wanted to use it against the Radical Republicans. He collected more when Johnson made him attorney general. The Keepers have it all: criminal investigations, affidavits, and confessions from bribed officials.”