Judith nodded. “I suppose there’s no harm in saying that now,” she said. “I doubt anyone’s going to lock up an old woman after eighty years.”
“What are you talking about?” Gloria asked.
“Oh, hush,” Judith said to her. “I’ll explain it all later.” She looked at Oliver, then me. “How did you know? Did Jesse say something?”
“I never met Jesse,” I said, “but in his will he asked that I be the one to restore the mural, and I—”
“Ah,” she interrupted. “You were one of his projects?”
I smiled. “Apparently, though I have no idea how he even knew I existed,” I said. “Anyway, Jesse kept the mural in his studio for many years, and—”
“Here? In Edenton?” Judith looked stunned, her eyes wide.
“Yes,” I said.
“All those times I visited him here, and he never told me he still had it.” She looked bewildered. “I knew he…” She seemed to catch herself, then continued. “I just didn’t know he still had it,” she said.
“It was in terrible shape when I started working on it,” I said. “But I gradually discovered some strange things about it. A lot of … disturbing images, and—”
“Yes, yes.” She nodded. “I was going through a … a rough patch when I worked on it. It was a difficult time for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Gloria asked again.
“I understand that now,” I said. “I understand it because I read your journal.” Across from me, I could almost feel Oliver tense. We were heading into delicate territory.
Judith frowned, the paper-thin skin of her face suddenly full of new lines and her eyes cloudy with confusion behind her sparkly glasses. “My journal?” she asked.
“Do you remember keeping a leather-bound journal?” I asked. “Your mother gave it to you?”
She looked into the distance, then slowly nodded. “What did I do with it?” she asked. “How did you find it?”
“Do you remember Mama Nelle—”
“Nellie,” Oliver corrected me.
“Right,” I said. “Nellie. Jesse’s little sister? You stayed with them when—”
“The cutest little girl.” Judith smiled. “Of course I remember her.”
“She passed away recently, and she and I … we’d gotten to know each other and she knew I was working on the mural and she left me your journal.”
“Nellie had my journal?” Judith looked perplexed, and I guessed she didn’t remember leaving it behind when she ran.
“Her family—Jesse’s family—kept you safe,” Oliver said. “Do you remember that? You stayed with them, while Jesse drove off with the mural in your—”
“Oh, yes, I remember that very well.” She chuckled. “Years later, he told me he stowed it in one of his cousin’s haylofts before he went in the army. He never told me he found it again, though.” She looked at me. “Do you know about the … the man? The Edenton portrait artist?” Her expression was wary, as though she wasn’t certain she wanted to go there.
I nodded. “Martin Drapple,” I said. I thought the name made her wince, but I couldn’t be sure. “I’m sorry all that happened to you.”
“What happened to you?” Gloria asked.
“Later.” Judith held up a hand to hush her. She looked from Oliver to me. “I was scared when Jesse moved back to Edenton in … when was it? The late seventies. Early eighties? I didn’t know who they thought killed that terrible man. I felt safe, hidden away with a new name in New York. But for Jesse to come back here then? A black man? And he kept his same name? I knew there was no … what do you call it? The statute…”
“Statute of limitations,” Oliver said.
“Right,” Judith said. “No statute of limitations on murder, and—”
“Murder!” Gloria exclaimed, and we all ignored her.
“And if they suspected he might have done it…” Judith let her voice trail off.
“We wondered about that,” I said. “How could he have come back safely?”
“It was that boy…” Judith looked into the distance, as if trying to remember. “A boy who helped Jesse and me in the warehouse. Blond hair. I don’t—”
“Peter?” I asked.
“Was that his name? I believe it was.” She nodded. “By the time Jesse had some fame as a New York artist, twentysome years had passed. Peter was high up in the police force here by then. I don’t know exactly how, but he swept things under the rug. And by the time Jesse actually moved back to Edenton, Peter was chief of police. Plus forty years had passed. No one remembered what had happened, and if they did, they didn’t care. By then, it was ‘keep your hands off Edenton’s claim to fame, Jesse Jameson Williams.’”
“How did the two of you ever meet up again?” Oliver asked the question I was wondering.
Judith had her eyes on the mural, but I thought she wasn’t really seeing it. She was lost in her memories. “Well,” she said, “I knew the best place for me to disappear was New York City, so I went there as Judith Shipley, and—” She suddenly laughed and looked at me. “Want to hear how I got that name?” she asked.
“Yes!” I smiled, more at the enthusiasm in her face than the question. I thought I could see the younger woman—Anna—in her face when she laughed.
“Well … you must know from the journal that I had a baby, right?”
I nodded. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”
“Yes, it was a hard—”
“Was that your daughter Debra?” Gloria interrupted.
“No, no,” Judith said. “Debra was born much later. No, that baby was … not conceived in love, shall we say. And my labor seemed to go on forever. And I was in Jesse’s aunt’s room, in her bed—”
“Aunt Jewel,” I said.
“Yes, that’s right!” She seemed delighted to be reminded of the name. “Aunt Jewel. Saint Jewel, I came to think of her. What I would have done without that woman, I don’t know.” She waved a hand through the air, brushing away the thought. “Anyhow, I knew I’d be leaving soon after the baby was born and I had to think of a new name for myself. Aunt Jewel had a bookshelf in her room, and the whole time I was in labor, I could see those books. And there was one by a Judith Somebody, and the one next to it was by a Somebody Shipley. And I just took those names and threw them together, and that’s who I’ve been ever since.”
Gloria’s mouth hung open. “I’ve known you eight years and you never said a word about any of this!” she said. I couldn’t tell if she looked more shocked or hurt.
“Because it’s ancient history,” Judith said. “It’s as though it happened to someone else. I made peace with all of it long ago. You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future.”
“So how did you and Jesse reconnect?” Oliver gently reminded her of the original question.