Coming to the point quickly, the Coroner asked:
“Mrs. Rickey, what do you suppose caused your boy’s death?”
“He committed suicide, I guess.”
“But it doesn’t look like suicide to me, Mrs. Rickey.”
“You think . . . “ she began in a startled voice.
“Yes,” said Henderson. “I think it’s murder. You know, it’s rather unusual for a boy his age to commit suicide.”
“Well—Mr. Henderson, he was an odd child.”
“You mean you think he committed suicide because he was odd?”
“No, but he took things different from other kids. He was afraid of his pa and his pa was always whipping him. He whipped him something awful just a few days ago.”
“What for?”
“I dunno. Sometimes I thought his pa liked whipping him. Then Wednesday, he stole a watermelon and when I told him what a beating he was going to get when his pa heard of it, I reckon he just got s cared and hanged himself.”
“When did you last see Roy, Mrs. Rickey?”
“About five o-clock Wednesday.”
“And you looked for him when he didn’t come back?”
“Yes, we looked everywhere, and when Jim Andy and me couldn’t find him, we thought he’d run away.”
“How long has Jim Andy Day been staying here?”
“About a month.”
“Do you have any other boarders, Mrs. Rickey?”
“Nobody but him.”
“And you can’t suggest any other reason for the suicide than that the youngster was afraid of his father?”
“No, Mr. Henderson.”
Convinced that there was nothing more to be learned for the present from Mrs. Rickey, he instructed her to follow him so she could testify at the inquest. Then he returned thoughtfully to the scene of the tragedy.
“Learn anything, Henderson, about this boy’s suicide?” asked the County Attorney, John R. McGill, who had arrived and viewed the body.
“No,” the Coroner replied. “Nothing—except that it wasn’t a suicide.”
“What makes you say that?”
“That youngster was dead, Mac, when he was strung up. Of that I’m sure. If someone had hanged him there he would have struggled. If he had struggled, there would be marks on his neck, and the bark of the limb would show signs of rubbing. Besides, I doubt if any youngster could have hanged himself in that way.”
“That’s the way it struck me,” agreed the County Attorney, “but everybody in that crowd is talking suicide.”
“It’s a good thing they are,” commented the Coroner. “Otherwise we’d have a lynching party here, and they might hang the wrong person.”
“Guess you saw those bruises on little Roy’s face?” queried McGill.
“Yes”, answered Henderson. “They’re further evidence to me that the youngster was killed, either purposely or accidentally. And we’ll have to find out which. I understand his father is rather brutal. Perhaps he doesn’t know his own strength. They tell stories of him beating the kid up just for the hell of it. The youngster, I guess, was a queer, sensitive boy, and from what I have heard, he probably said and did things that angered his father because he didn’t understand him. “
“What does Mrs. Rickey say, Henderson? That was where you went, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but she doesn’t seem to know anything. She thinks the youngster hung himself through fear. She says he stole a watermelon Wednesday and having been beaten up badly for doing nothing, he was afraid he’d get a severe whipping since he really had done something wrong.”
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