The next morning, after a fitful night’s sleep, John stepped into Booker & Stewart’s Tonsorial Parlor. Charlie Wood, the most in-demand barber in town, stood at his chair giving one of his well-reputed shaves and haircuts to John Wilkes Booth. Michael O’Laughlin and a bearded man hovered around him.
“Mornin’, John,” Booth called out. John approached the men and they exchanged greetings.
“Say, Charlie, did you notice a scar on Booth’s cheek when you put the chair cloth on him?” O’Laughlin asked in a seriocomic tone.
“Yea, now that you mention it, I did.” Wood peeked under the steaming towel around Booth’s face.
“They say that it was a boil that had to be lanced,” John chipped in. “But I have it on good word that it really was a pistol shot.”
“Nah, he must have got a little too far up f
