Chapter 10
When William and Julia arrived at the scene the men had already secured everything and were now collecting evidence the way he had shown them. He helped Julia out of the carriage and ignored the knowing look George was throwing him. He was still in a bad mood because of their interrupted date and hoped that Crabtree would keep his mouth shut about the situation.
"What can you tell us, George?" he asked and followed him into the small, wooden house.
"A man found her this afternoon when he wanted to deliver a telegram. The door was open and he thought he heard something so he entered," George started telling the facts. "Her name is Louise Macintyre. She is married to a John Macintyre, but we found that he is out of the country on business. The telegram that was delivered came from him," George finished.
The house they entered was small and basically in the middle of nowhere. There was a small forest nearby and corn fields all around, although the family obviously wasn't into farming. The interior was simply but clean.
"Same injuries as the other victims, as far as I can tell," Julia observed and lifted the arms of the woman who was lying on the floors, her dress pushed up over her hips, her undergarments torn, her upper body trenched in blood. Her blonde hair was red and sticking to her head from the blood, her blue eyes were ghostly staring at them in horror.
"Any witnesses?" William turned back to George.
"No, none. And there are no neighbors around," the constable shrugged. William nodded and looked around, taking in the several things that seemed to be pushed off the table and thrown around. Plates were no longer on the small table, a knife lay on the floor, a vase with flowers was toppled over and the water had dripped down, drop by drop. A chair was lying on the ground as well and the chaos in the middle of the room stood in sharp contrast to the tidiness in the rest of it. Everything looked impeccably clean. The bed was made and some wooden children's toys were neatly stored into a shelf beside it.
"She must have put up a fight," he knew and walked further towards the kitchen area of the room. A small bowl with porridge was still sitting on the counter, a fire still warming the oven. It looked like the woman would pick up where she had left off any moment now, but instead she had been killed.
And then suddenly he heard something. He couldn't place the sound, didn't know if it was a thing, an animal or human. Confused he looked around, but couldn't make out another sound because of the men who were talking to each other while they processed the crime scene.
"Men, could you be quiet for a second?" he asked loudly and listened again. He heard another sound and found that it came from the basket that stood by his feet. Slowly he lifted the lid off and was surprised when he saw a little girl sitting in the basket. She looked at him with wide eyes, whimpered quietly, but seemed otherwise unharmed.
"Come here, you're save now," he told the small girl, who looked like she wasn't older than two years. She didn't react when he pulled her out and he turned around so she wouldn't see her dead mother.
"Doctor, could you take a look at her. I think something is not right," he requested concerned when she kept whimpering with that apathetic look on her face. Julia came over and tried to get the attention of the girl by waving fingers in front of her face and snapping her fingers, but the girl didn't react.
"I think she's in shock," Julia said after testing some more reflexes.
"You think she saw something?" William wondered.
"She was hidden in the basket so I doubt it, but she heard something. Considering the way her mother was slaughtered I think that might be enough to traumatize a child." Julia stroked over the blonde curls of the girl and that seemed to get the attention of the girl. She seemed to realize for the first time that she was no longer inside the basket. She looked at William and then at Julia and seemed to ponder if she could trust them or not.
"Can you check on her so we know she's alright?" William asked Julia and adjusted the blue dress of the girl slightly.
"Of course," she agreed. "Come here, girly," she cooed at the child and held out her arms. Without protest the child went to her and even rested her head on her shoulder, seemingly exhausted. "I will take her outside, William. The men can transport the body to the morgue. I will do the autopsy as soon as possible," Julia instructed.
"Alright, I'll meet you outside once we are done," he agreed and was somewhat glad when the child wasn't in one room with her murdered mother anymore.
"And? Is she alright?" William asked half an hour later when he joined Julia outside. There were only three men left with them, one of them being the driver of the police carriage they had arrived in.
"Yes. She was in desperate need of a change, but otherwise she's perfectly fine. Aren't you, little one?" she asked the child and tickled her belly what made her laugh. "What's going to happen to her?" Julia then asked. Beside the gruesome circumstances it was a nice sight, seeing Julia so comfortable with a child that could very much be her own and William found himself wishing for a second that she was. With her blonde hair, her fair skin and the bright eyes she looked a bit like what he could imagine a daughter of Julia could look like. If she were still able to have children. Which she wasn't…
"I instructed George to send a telegram to the husband in Europe. Once he will get back he will care for the child. Until then we will need to find someone to take her," William said helplessly and snapped out of his thoughts, reminding himself that it wouldn't happen. They wouldn't have children of their own.
"Oh William, we can't just give her to the orphanage. First the shock of hearing her mother being murdered, then the orphanage… I fear she might not recover from it," Julia protested vehemently.
"Do you have a better idea?" he wanted to know and had the feeling that Julia already knew what should happen with the child. He stepped a bit closer without realizing it and pulled a sock of the girl up which had slid down her leg.
"Well, yes, I do," she nodded convinced. "I will let her stay at my house until her father gets back or we find other relatives."
"Julia, you're working all day and you can hardly take her to the morgue with you," he disagreed, although he was touched by the idea of Julia looking after the child.
"Of course not," she shook her head. "But I think Dawson will be delighted to have someone to look after," she knew. "And I would find it very refreshing not be alone every night," she went on much quieter.
"Alright then. We will give you a ride back home so you can hand her over to Dawson." Murdoch finally agreed and decided that he would stop by from time to time to see how they were doing. And of course to spend time with Julia when no one could gossip about it.
"Very well, detective. Your men found some spare clothes for the child?" she asked with a small smile.
"Yes, I will get her bag," he nodded and went back into the house.
"She's such a beautiful child," Dawson gushed over the temporary new addition to the household a while later when they had arrived at Julia's place after he had packed all the things of the child that he could find.
"Yes, she really is," Julia agreed. "Could you make her something to eat? I will stay until I see that she's alright." Ms. Dawson just nodded and then left the room so William, Julia and the toddler were alone for the first time.
"I hope you will like it here," Julia said to the girl and sat down.
"Of that I am sure," William reassured her and sat down next to her. The girl looked curiously at him as he spoke and then leaned over in his direction and held her arms out to him. "Oh, you want to come to me?" he asked her and smiled. "Alright then," he went on and took her from Julia. He sat her on his knees so she was facing him.
"If only we knew her name," Julia sighed.
"Name," the girl repeated and grinned happily.
"Can you tell us your name?" Julia laughed with her. "I'm Julia," she said and pointed to herself.
"Lia…" the girl repeated.
"And this is William," the doctor went on.
"Will," the toddler giggled again.
"Julia and William and?" Julia said and pointed to the girl, hoping she would understand what she was getting at.
"Eva," the girl told them and they exchanged a relieved look.
"You're Eva. That's a pretty name," Julia complimented her.
"Will, daddy ridin'," she babbled and started bopping up and down on his knees.
"Your daddy lets you ride on his knees. Then let's see if I can do that, too," he laughed and moved his knees. The girl started laughing and squealing with joy.
"Oh, she's adorable," Julia gushed and hugged Williams arm and rested her head on his shoulder after she had taken off the hat he still wore.
"The porridge, mam," Dawson came in a moment later and handed a bowl to Julia, which meant she had to sit upright again.
"You're hungry Eva?" Julia asked the still laughing toddler.
"Yes," the girl decided after a moment of thinking about it. Julia fed her the first spoon and she took it without protest.
"Then you stay with Dawson here and William and I go back to work, alright?" Julia explained to her and William wanted to hand her over to the housekeeper. But as soon as the words were out the girl clung to William and refused to let go.
"Come on, darling, I don't bite," Dawson took the situation with humor as she and Julia pried the fingers of the little girl off William's jacket. Under the heartbreaking cries of the little girl they left the house and their temporary good mood was gone once more on this day.
TBC