Needless to say, the Lofton County Free Voice kept on digging and revealed everything that was to be known about Mr. Braxton. Many people came forward with information, and Mr. Nathan Turner of the Free Voice ran by the Blue Ridge precinct and picked up some information from its new commander.
“A concerned citizen made this scrapbook of information going back 67 years,” Captain Henry Fitzhugh Lee said with his usual marble composure, “and wanted your paper to have it.”
“Any chance that I can get the name of the citizen – we'd love to talk with her,” Mr. Turner said, adding “her” on a hunch … Mrs. Slocum-Lofton's youthful picture was on the first page of the scrapbook, in that article from 1952 where the scrapbook began.
Captain Lee's impassive face never so much as twitched a muscle.
“No, sir, there is no possibility.”
“Was I even right on the pronoun?” Mr. Turner said.
“We protect our sources in this precinct as your profession protects its sources,” Captain Lee said.
“I figured digging into you for an extra clue would be like trying to dig into granite,” Mr. Turner said. “But you cannot blame a man for trying.”
“Mr. Turner, I would have been surprised if you had not tried it. Far be it from me to not leave you in the disappointment you expected.”
“You could have disappointed me by not disappointing me.”
“Too much complication to an already interesting association, sir.”
By the end of 2019, the nephew of Nat Turner and the nephew of Robert E. Lee had worshiped together many times as part of the Good Neighbors Fellowship, but also had shared many intense professional moments of being – as one would expect – on different sides of an issue. So – also as one would expect – the two men were not friends, but a warm bond of respect had grown up between them. Because this matter was not that serious, they could enjoy the ironies of the bond even while at cross-purposes, and so Mr. Turner started chuckling.
“You're not going to even tell me after work and off the record, are you, Captain Lee?”
Captain Lee smiled gently.
“Good morning, Mr. Turner. Granite, even after 5:00, will ever remain granite.”
Oh, well, there was plenty of other drama to be had – as much as the Free Voice would have loved to get Mrs. Slocum-Lofton on the record, they had something even better that very day. The families of Zed Jones, Burt Brown, and Tom Johnson showed the checks they had received from Mr. Braxton and his club and tore them up, publicly.
“We are not for sale – who do these people think they are?” Mrs. Jones cried.
The Free Voice showed who they were, in terrible detail, again drawing the parallels between the people who had been involved in the Tinyville Massacre of 55 Black citizens peacefully protesting and the elites of Lofton County – and now, they were able to expose how Isaiah Hamilton and his wife were victims of the long campaign of domestic terrorism against all people in Lofton County who were for the rights of all people to live freely and in peace.