SON TAI'S MURDER-Excerpt

Son Tai’s Murder by Austin Mitchell Somebody was knocking on the station’s door. “Mr. Roy, open up, they’ve killed Son Tai.” The voice sounded like Rapley, the station’s messenger. I opened the door. “What did you say, Rapley?” “I’m just coming from Bamboo Corner. They went in on Son Tai and his family and chopped them up.” “We have to go for the Corporal. Are you sure about what you are saying, Rapley?” “I heard Miss Eunice crying out for murder and I rushed down there to find out what had happened.” We locked up the station and headed for the Corporal’s house. “Roy and Rapley, I am going to put on some clothes. I’ll soon be with you. I can’t believe that somebody would want to kill a man like Son Tai, a man who helps everybody in the community.” Both myself and Rapley bowed our heads at what the Corporal had just said about Son Tai. In another two minutes he was dressed and ready. “How many of them are dead?” he asked Rapley, as we headed out. “Only Mr. Tai but Miss Eunice, two of the daughters and one of the sons were wounded too.” “What time did it happen?” the Corporal asked as we came out of the fording at St. Faiths. “About two hours ago.” We topped a rise and came down to Bamboo Corner. We rode down into a group of about a dozen people, dismounted and tethered our horses. “Son Tai’s body is in that room on his bed,” a man called Drop-Short told us. His wife, Eunice, had bandages on both hands and Chulky, their eldest son, had a bandage around his head. “What happen, Miss Eunice?” the Corporal asked. Eunice Prescott was a local woman whom Son-Tai married soon after he came into the area to set up shop. The union had produced six children, three boys and three girls. “We were sleeping when I heard Son Tai bawling out for murder. I woke up and the man chopped me on my hand.” “Did you see who it was?” “It was dark and I couldn’t see anything. I started to bawl out for murder too, and he chopped after me again, but I dropped off the bed and rolled under it. Then I heard him in the children’s room and I crawled from under the bed and went into their room, but by that time he was gone.” The shop and bar were connected to the three bedroom house. We went past Miss Eunice into the room where Son Tai lay. Although there was a lamp the room was dark causing shadows on the wall. The Corporal shone his flashlight on the bed. Son Tai lay flat on his back, his head had been severed and the bed was full of blood. We went into the children’s rooms which had bloody smears on the walls and on the floor. The door leading from the kitchen to the shop was open. The Corporal called Miss Eunice and pointed it out to her. We noticed that it could be opened from either the shop or the house. The locks had no marks on them to suggest that they had been forced open. “We always keep it locked. It must be the robber who opened it,” Miss Eunice said. We came out to the verandah and the Corporal took out his notebook and scribbled some notes. “Where’s your yard man, Miss Eunice?” he asked. “Reginald must be at his house.” Enos Creary, a neighbor of the Tais and who owned the only motor car in the area agreed to go and fetch Reginald. “When Enos returns, he will have to go for Dr. Reid,” the Corporal said and I nodded. Day was breaking and I guessed the time to be about four thirty. The breeze from the nearby river was making me shiver. The news had obviously spread as a bigger crowd had now gathered. We went around to the back of the shop and saw that the back door was slightly open. The Corporal called Miss Eunice and she came around the back as did some other people. If you enjoyed reading this excerpt why not hop on over to the Austin Mitchell's pages at Amazon. Note that my books are also on payhip.