News From Poughkeepsie – Days 158

Great Detectives: Midwife

“I don’t know why you brought me here,” Sally said. She eyed the dead man uneasily. “I’m no good when they leave this world. I do my best when they come in.”

“You’re the only one I think of,” Charity said. “I would be cold myself without you. And now look. Two girls and a boy to call mine…and mine alone, now.” She touched the corpse’s cool knuckles.

“I am sorry for your loss. Your husband was a good man.”

“Thank you, Sally. It seems such a shame. To fight under General Washington, survive the war and the cold and all of that, and then just die here, at home? What sense is that?”

“No sense at all….” Sally began. She had barely looked at the body when she came in, but now she could not get close enough to it. There was a strange discoloration around the mouth, blue-black and sticky. “Charity, love? Did Bob here have any enemies?”

“Bob? Not that I…you don’t think someone killed him, do you?”

‘I’m not sure…and I won’t until we open him up. I’ll go get my tools….”