The Night They Hung My Brother - John Reeves (i can read with my eyes shut .TXT) 📗

"Come in young man" Said Carmen Brody Wilson.
Daniel Clarke had driven for two hours from Atlanta, he was more than ready to come inside and sit down.
"It's awfully hot today, I'm Daniel Clark." He made small talk as he entered the mansion.
"Did they tell you why I was coming here today?" Daniel asked as he looked around at the lavish interior in the southern style home.
"Yes, I know why you're here. You want to know the truth about what happened."
Daniel realized despite her age she knew what was going on. Through her wrinkled face he could see she wasn't comfortable with this meeting. His years as a journalist told him she had something built up inside her. She was looking out the window when she said "Sit down young man." motioning Daniel to sit with her hand.
Daniel sat down pulling his note pad from his briefcase. He scribbled with his pen on the page to get the ink flowing. He then jotted the current date on the pad Sept.15, 1955. Then looked over at the lady to see her holding a picture in a decorative frame.
"This is him." She said with a shaken voice.
"That's Raymond?" Daniel asked her.
"Yes, he was a handsome man." She replied.
"Who is that lady with him?" The woman was quit attractive.
"She's the reason you're hear today. I tried to tell him she was no good." Her eyes began to tear up. Then she began to tell the story.

Raymond Brody had just arrived back in Candle Top, after his being up in Tennessee working. He was helping bring the new railroad through north east Georgia. Having just been married before leaving town, he wanted to go see his wife.
Before he went home he decided to stop in a Webb's for a beer, and perhaps some conversation with his best friend Andy Wolloe. When he entered the bar he realized it wasn't full for a Saturday night. Andy walked over to Raymond who was getting a beer.
"Raymond, have you been home?"
"No, what you been doing Wo?
"I think you should sit down, I've got some bad news you ain't gonna like." Andy said.
The look of Raymond's face had changed. The look of a man who'd just gotten home from being two weeks gone, had turned into a face of uncertain concerns. The two of them sat down at a table.
"Listen Ray, your new bride ain't home tonight. Since you been gone, she's been seeing the Amos boy Seth." Andy watched the rage build up in his face.
"Listen Ray, don't do nothing crazy, them Amos boys are cold hard outlaws." Andy knew they were bad business.
"I don't care who they are." Anger had consumed Raymond's body.
"Boy don't lose your head, she ain't no good because, to tell you the truth, I've been with her too." Raymond looked at him as if he could kill him. Then walked out of Webb's bar.
When Raymond got on his horse he rode off into the night, thinking about what had just transpired. Still missing his dad who'd not been dead over a year yet, now the bride he thought would have made him proud turned out to be a whore.
The rage seemed to go deeper when he discovered his unfaithful wife had given it to his best friend. Raymond kicked the door wide open, into the dark.
"Trudie?" He shouted, but she wasn't there.

Hours had passed while the candle flickered on the table top. Raymond thought about what he intended to do. His eyes locked on the leaver action 30-30 hanging on the gun rack. It was the only thing he'd had to remember his father by, it only seemed fitting that he should use it to justify his being wronged.
"Dear God, please for give me for what I'm going to do." Raymond's hands were folded in prayer.
He arose from the table grabbing the gun off the wall. Wishing he didn't have to do what he was going to do. There was really no way around it, the pain of being hurt and made a fool of, was more than he could stand. His first thoughts were that upon finding out she'd been with Seth Amos, Andy had taken her in.
So he got on his horse to ride over to Andy's house. He rode the beaten path as aggressively as the horse would run. The truth is though his thoughts moved even quicker. His mind had changed as quickly as he could stop the horse.
He had every intention on killing Andy, however he has a pretty good idea where he might find Seth Amos. He rode out to the barn on the edge of Signal mountain, where the rustlers gathered to play seven card poker with their dirty money. A steady supply of shine and no rake from the local sheriff, the game could be lucrative.
Raymond had tied his horse to a tree where he walked up to the barn. Between the planks of wood he could see them sitting around the table playing poker. He couldn't pick Seth Amos out of the bunch sitting there. He sat there waiting to get a better view or, hear someone shout his name. With that many men sitting there he felt Amos was one of them.
When shots were fired inside the place everyone scattered. As the guys ran out of the barn, Raymond ran for his horse. The men had gotten the jump on him but, he didn't know who fired the shot, or if they'd seen him running across the pasture. The gang had went in the direction of the mountain road.
Raymond rode his horse around the backside east side toward Candle Top. The direction he'd gone to circled back around, it wasn't quicker but, he felt he could beat them to the main road leading into town.

"Did your brother kill Seth Amos that night?" Daniel asked.
"Seth Amos died that night, that's all I know." Her voice seemed weak but, sure.

Raymond's horse ran through the night towards Andy's house. Sheriff Brown was leaving the station to do his nightly rounds through the town. With his shinny badge, and his fully loaded revolver, Brown intended on keeping the peace in Candle Top.
Brown was also the guy who looked over the Amos gang's activities in the town, because he knew old man Cecil since they were both kids. While everyone in the mountain top town was held to the law, the Amos gang were allowed to terrorize the locals.
The judge waived Sheriff Brown over to the court house square. Brown could see the tension in the judges face.
"We have ourselves an issue." Judge Watson said with reluctant tone.
"What's the problem?" Brown was hoping it wasn't the Amos clan.
"Raymond Brody rode back in town earlier today. While he was out of town, his buddy Andy was shacking up with his new wife. I think you should check on them both tonight." Judge Watson gave him every reason to believe there might be a problem between the two men.
As Raymond had gotten close to Andy's house, he again tied his horse up to walk up quietly. As he approached the house he saw footprints in the dirt, they looked small to be made by Andy. The screen door on the back porch was wide open. Raymond moved along the side of the brush line running beside the house.
Sheriff Brown had just left Brody's house where he found him not there. At that point he was sure there was something going on as the judge had said. Judge Watson had seemed to be knowledgeable about the possibilities of violence. Brown knew that he had more information than he'd given up. Facts were facts, and he had suspected that young lady was messing around, he didn't know she'd just married Raymond Brody. He'd seen her ride away from Webb's on the back of Andy's horse.
Raymond had made his way on the back porch where blood was all over the floor. With the lightning occasionally illuminating the macabre scene, he could see someone had been pulled, leaving drag marks through the blood. Someone had pulled Andy from his house badly bleeding. Raymond went inside the house, he noticed the same small footprints in the blood that had been outside. The heavy amounts of blood was the reason he'd been able to see those prints in the dirt outside.
When he entered Andy's bedroom, there was Andy dead from a gunshot wound to the forehead. Raymond bolted out the back door with his rifle loaded. When he saw the sheriff riding the road just behind the brush, he was still in shock, probably still shaken from the find. He fired a shot in the air to alert the sheriff.
"Raymond, drop that rifle." Sheriff Brown demanded.
When the rifle hit the ground Brown moved in on him. Pulling his hands behind his back, "What have you done here boy?"
"Sheriff, I didn't do this." Raymond pleaded.

"So your brother didn't shoot Andy Wolloe?" Asked Daniel.
"No he didn't shoot Andy, he would have killed him that night." Carmen assured him.

Sheriff Brown escorted Raymond back into town with his weapon draw on him riding out in the front. When they arrived back into town, Raymond was locked into the jail cell where he shouted for his release.
"Let me out of here, I didn't kill Andy. You've got the wrong man here." His voice echoed through the building.
Judge Watson and Sheriff Brown were discussing the circumstances involved with the shooting.
"When you catch a man with the murder weapon, why waste the time with a trial?" Watson asked.
"Judge, I'm not saying he wasn't involved or, that he didn't do it. I am telling you there was someone else killed in that house, and the rifle I took off Brody didn't wasn't the murder weapon." Sheriff Brown explained the scene of the murder.
The two men came to an agreement that Brody must have been the killer. The judge declared that the jury be brought in immediately to determine the the fate of Raymond Brody.
The towns people gathered around the square getting the story, not the truth. They got the story that Judge Watson had conjured up with Sheriff Brown. They were told the crowd of people what his motive for murder was, they didn't mention the fact their accusation held little to no proof he was the gunman.
The people wanted to know how a mild mannered guy could do something like that.
"Listen everyone, this guy found out his newly married wife was with his best friend, in an act of rage he went to Andy Wolloe's house and murdered him. Shot him in his own