MAYOR MACY STOP

HIGH ALERT STOP FRESH NEWS FROM NASHVILLE CONFEDERATE LEAGUE RAID STOP MULTIPLE SORCEREOUS AGENTS AT CIRCUS STOP POTENTIAL THREAT TO ENTIRE NORTHERN MISSOURI STOP

TRAVELLING TO HENSHAW POSTHASTE STOP DO NOT LET CIRCUS LEAVE BEFORE I ARRIVE STOP ONLY ENGAGE IF THEY PRESENT ACTIVE THREAT STOP DO NOT ENGAGE CIRCUS DIRECTLY UNPROVOKED REPEAT DO NOT ENGAGE CIRCUS DIRECTLY UNPROVOKED STOP

MARSHAL 24 STOP

Victor,

I’ve let Father know, and I kept your name out of it.

I think he already knew, at least part of it. He yells a lot when he’s surprised, or when he’s upset, or when mother’s cooked a whole turkey. He was calm and quiet and serious. He told me not to tell anyone, that he’ll take care of it, and not to worry.

Still, now that he knows what I’ve been doing for the past week, I’m no longer in trouble with my parents. He’s banned me from going anywhere near the circus, but I’ll be able to meet with you as needed. I’ve passed your message along to Mrs. Hane, and I’ll bring you her response by the end of the day.

Roger,

I understand if you’re hesitant to assist here. I know what it means to interfere with another man’s household, especially one so close to you. But I must speak up for the sake of my family. I will not go unheard.

When I married Lamentations Bean, I married a quiet, thoughtful man. Cold and haunted at times, but caring and pious, intelligent and good. When I came over from Indiana, some of the women in town warned me of his episodes in the past, but I went years thinking they were behind him. Then the Negro came, and he has driven my husband mad doing absolutely nothing. He’s becoming a menace. If he’s not preaching, he’s cooped up in the attic writing letters upon letters to a woman he tells me is dead. He let Charlie waste away to disease until the children hired the Negro behind his back, and he refused to even touch his own son after he was healed. For a while, he seemed to be at peace, but now he’s started been keeping an unwashed gorilla of a man in the cellar, mumbling under his breath about how he’s finally going to beat ‘her’. Every time I go down there to grab something, he breaks into tears at the sight of me. The children are frightened and I don’t know what to tell them.

You’re his oldest friend. You may be the only person who knows how to help him. I do not want him ending up in an asylum for lunatics while I and his four children survive off of charity. Do something.

Roger,

I’ve got it! I’ve got it, but I regret having it. Let me explain.

The circus strongman came to my doorstep, tormented and amnesiac. I granted him asylum; it was my Christian duty. But I suspected that Freestone was linked to his distress and decided to work with him to recover his lost memories. It has been a comforting experience in the midst of all this, praying with him, studying the Word with him. It’s good to remember that the Bible is a balm for the weary and broken, and that our faith empowers healers of the soul, regardless of the word of a murderess. And for my faith, God has blessed me. He has not remembered much, and he doesn’t want to remember much more. He was not a religious man before and he fears losing his newfound faith and regressing to his older, bitter self - as he was a Confederate sympathizer, I can’t in good conscience risk letting him revert. But he has confirmed that he saw Freestone the day before he came to me. Freestone broke this man’s mind, Roger. This man will attest to it under oath. I doubt it’s legally actionable on its own - the strongman was attacking Freestone and I’m sure Grant’s courts will buy an argument of self-defense. But I’m sure it’s grounds for a proper investigation, between this and what happened to my cow. You’ll be able to do something with this, I’m certain, and then we can get him out and get a proper doctor and Henshaw will be safe for our folk once again.

But I do have a regret. He says that he remembers a young, thin girl in gingham, flashes of her face in his memories between when he attacked Victor and when he came to me. I do not mean to raise aspersions against your own family; I know what it means to interfere in another man’s household. But Gigi has been acting unusual these past few months, hasn’t she?

I’ll say no more. I trust your judgment, old friend.