an accident while she examined the weapon.
When she was finished with the revolver she turnedher attention to the sword. Since sheâd miraculously inherited Joan of Arcâs famous sword, bladed weapons had become a passion for Annja and she immediately recognized this one as a Shelby cavalry sabre, named after General Joseph O. Shelby, leader of the Iron Brigade. When the Confederacy fell, Shelby, one of the few Confederate generals who had never been defeated in combat by Union troops, took his entire command to Mexico rather than surrender. The cavalry sword heâd carried throughout the war, a common enough model produced by the Ames sword company, was renamed in his honor after the war.
The blade was about forty inches in length and bore the CSA, or Confederate States of America, inscription, as did the brass guard. The grip was leather, wrapped with twisted brass wire. The entire weapon seemed to be in excellent shape and Annja gave it a few experimental swings through the air to get the sense of it. It was well-balanced, though shorter and lighter than the weapon she was used to using.
Putting the weapon back down on the examination table, she moved over to the rest of Parkerâs clothing.
Heâd been wearing leather cavalry boots rather than the usual leather brogans, but Annja wasnât surprised by this, as Confederate footwear had been notoriously bad. The boots were in fairly good shape, but didnât tell her anything new about their owner. The same was true for the regulation trousers that she examined next.
The shirt was a bit more interesting, if only because it held the evidence of the gunshot that had ended Parkerâs life. There was a bullet hole in the front of the shirt, just to the left of the sternum, but no corresponding hole on the back. This meant the bullet hadnât passed completely through his body, as she might haveexpected at such close range, but had remained lodged somewhere inside his chest. It was a good reminder that modern weapons were far more powerful than those of a hundred years ago and she told herself to keep that in mind as she examined the evidence of Parkerâs demise.
Annja wished they had the bullet to examine, as it might have been able to tell them something about the gun that had been used. That could have narrowed their avenues of inquiry a bit, but sheâd been unable to find it among Parkerâs remains.
Itâs probably on the floor of the antechamber. Maybe Iâll go back and try to find it later, she thought.
Annja was about to put the shirt aside when she noticed an odd double stitch along one of the seams. She ran her fingers over the cloth at that point and felt something there, just beneath the surface.
It was small, no more than an inch long and less than a quarter-inch thick, and it hadnât gotten there by accident. Whatever it was, someone had taken a bit of trouble to hide it inside the seam of the shirt.
âI think Iâve got something,â Annja said, and when Bernard came back over to her station as he had done before, she showed him what she had found. They both agreed that it merited further investigation. They photographed the shirt from a variety of angles, wanting to preserve a record of its condition before they altered it in any way, and then they x-rayed it, as well. The latter was inconclusive, however; it showed the object and confirmed its rectangular shape, but it didnât provide any information as to what it might be.
They were going to have to take a look for themselves.
Scalpel in hand, Annja carefully cut each of the threads that held the seam closed and then, using theflat of the blade, she lifted the edge of the cloth, revealing what was hidden insideâa folded piece of paper. Annja held the pocket of cloth open with the scalpel while Bernard used a pair of tweezers to tease the paper free of its hiding place and move it onto its own examination plate.
With the aid of a
When she was finished with the revolver she turnedher attention to the sword. Since sheâd miraculously inherited Joan of Arcâs famous sword, bladed weapons had become a passion for Annja and she immediately recognized this one as a Shelby cavalry sabre, named after General Joseph O. Shelby, leader of the Iron Brigade. When the Confederacy fell, Shelby, one of the few Confederate generals who had never been defeated in combat by Union troops, took his entire command to Mexico rather than surrender. The cavalry sword heâd carried throughout the war, a common enough model produced by the Ames sword company, was renamed in his honor after the war.
The blade was about forty inches in length and bore the CSA, or Confederate States of America, inscription, as did the brass guard. The grip was leather, wrapped with twisted brass wire. The entire weapon seemed to be in excellent shape and Annja gave it a few experimental swings through the air to get the sense of it. It was well-balanced, though shorter and lighter than the weapon she was used to using.
Putting the weapon back down on the examination table, she moved over to the rest of Parkerâs clothing.
Heâd been wearing leather cavalry boots rather than the usual leather brogans, but Annja wasnât surprised by this, as Confederate footwear had been notoriously bad. The boots were in fairly good shape, but didnât tell her anything new about their owner. The same was true for the regulation trousers that she examined next.
The shirt was a bit more interesting, if only because it held the evidence of the gunshot that had ended Parkerâs life. There was a bullet hole in the front of the shirt, just to the left of the sternum, but no corresponding hole on the back. This meant the bullet hadnât passed completely through his body, as she might haveexpected at such close range, but had remained lodged somewhere inside his chest. It was a good reminder that modern weapons were far more powerful than those of a hundred years ago and she told herself to keep that in mind as she examined the evidence of Parkerâs demise.
Annja wished they had the bullet to examine, as it might have been able to tell them something about the gun that had been used. That could have narrowed their avenues of inquiry a bit, but sheâd been unable to find it among Parkerâs remains.
Itâs probably on the floor of the antechamber. Maybe Iâll go back and try to find it later, she thought.
Annja was about to put the shirt aside when she noticed an odd double stitch along one of the seams. She ran her fingers over the cloth at that point and felt something there, just beneath the surface.
It was small, no more than an inch long and less than a quarter-inch thick, and it hadnât gotten there by accident. Whatever it was, someone had taken a bit of trouble to hide it inside the seam of the shirt.
âI think Iâve got something,â Annja said, and when Bernard came back over to her station as he had done before, she showed him what she had found. They both agreed that it merited further investigation. They photographed the shirt from a variety of angles, wanting to preserve a record of its condition before they altered it in any way, and then they x-rayed it, as well. The latter was inconclusive, however; it showed the object and confirmed its rectangular shape, but it didnât provide any information as to what it might be.
They were going to have to take a look for themselves.
Scalpel in hand, Annja carefully cut each of the threads that held the seam closed and then, using theflat of the blade, she lifted the edge of the cloth, revealing what was hidden insideâa folded piece of paper. Annja held the pocket of cloth open with the scalpel while Bernard used a pair of tweezers to tease the paper free of its hiding place and move it onto its own examination plate.
With the aid of a
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