Physics Can Be Fatal (21 page)

     Edwina was quiet.

     “It’s possible,” she said at last.  “But it’s doubtful.  She’s not like that.  She doesn’t harbor grudges or live in the past.  She’s a real, old-fashioned existentialist––she lives each day as if it was the
only day
, and she makes her choices accordingly.  She would never want to finish her life as a murderer.  No way.”

     “What about as a hero?” asked Will.

     He thought Edwina was being sentimental, that her view of Nedda Cake lacked objectivity.  He decided it would be more practical to leave this avenue of speculation alone.  There was no arguing with sentiment.

     “Well, at this moment,” Will said, “I’m looking hard at Donald Gaylord.  Whether information about his private life would have hurt his career or not, I have no idea – but he definitely thought he had a lot to lose if word got out.  I’m thinking Donald saw Professor Sidebottom sometime between when you and Professor Sidebottom parted company after dinner on his last night alive, and the time he was found dead at the cottage the following morning.  Donald could have administered the fatal dose of digitalis easily enough in a drink.  He could have left Sheila Dubin at the Inn, after their cozy dinner, and gone over to campus for a nightcap with Alan Sidebottom at the cottage.”

     Edwina wanted to tell Will about seeing Mitchell Fender and Nedda Cake at the clinic on Saturday, but she hesitated.  She didn’t want to implicate Mitchell or Nedda, but the fact of Mitchell’s health problems was possibly relevant.  Edwina did not want to seem like more of a busybody than she already did.  But data is data, and it’s no good ignoring it.

     “There’s one other thing,” she said.

     “Uh-huh?”

     “I happened to be riding my bike on Saturday, and I saw Mitchell Fender and Nedda Cake at the College Clinic together.”

     “Uh-huh?”

     “Mitchell had an appointment with a neurosurgeon, and although I don’t know what his condition is, I was thinking that if it’s something serious––and I hope it isn’t––but if it
is
something serious, his illness might have an effect on his willingness to do something rash.  Like killing Professor Sidebottom.  If Mitchell is dying––and I hope to goodness he isn’t––maybe he felt he had nothing to lose, and so he decided to take revenge on Sidebottom for stealing his work.”

     Will regarded Edwina with curiosity.

     “Did you speak with Dr. Fender and Dr. Cake at the clinic?” he asked.

     “No, they had gone before I had a chance,” Edwina replied.

     “Then, how do you know his appointment was with a neurosurgeon?”

     “Right.  That’s a good question.”

    
Too late to turn back now.

     “Well, I thought it might be important to the investigation, so I went into the clinic and said I was his niece, and that I was supposed to meet him there, and asked if he was still in with the doctor.  When the lady at Information checked, she told me Mitchell had already left his appointment with Dr. Swisher.  So when I got home I looked up Dr. Swisher and found out she’s a neurosurgeon.” Edwina said.

     When Will was finished feeling annoyed by Edwina’s persistent snooping, he couldn’t help smiling.

     “Well done,” he said.

Chapter 17

     Edwina’s mind was racing when she left the station.  All she wanted to do was think––if only she could take the whole day off just to think!  It felt to her as if the facts surrounding the case were poised to fall into place, to distill themselves into greater clarity.  The prospect of teaching a class in introductory physics to a group of barely interested, non-science majors made her groan.

     As soon as class let out Edwina cycled to the Boat House.  There was a lot to think about, and it was no good thinking about it in dribs and drabs.  Connections needed to be made.  She needed an uninterrupted chunk of time to work them out, and paddling would be just the thing.  She was greedy for solitude. 

     She launched the kayak into the frosty water.  Despite the air being much nippier at river level, Edwina felt herself beginning to relax, felt the brain cylinders getting fired up.  She zipped up her fleece jacket, fished a wool hat out of one pocket and a pair of gloves from the other.  She took hold of the paddle and started downriver.

     Focusing on the river seemed to tame her jumbled thoughts.  The sunlight played leapfrog across the tops of the small waves, and the white noise of rushing water sounded a soothing balm.  Edwina gazed across miles of trees blazing with color, and breathed in whiffs of wood smoke in the cold, afternoon air. 

     She began to consider the murder of Alan Sidebottom.  She reflected on her conversations with Will, with Nedda Cake, and with Charlotte Cadell.  She thought about the mighty list of suspects.  Donald Gaylord, Mitchell Fender, Helen Mann, Charlotte, Seth and Sheila Dubin, Jimmy Lopez––even her beloved Nedda Cake.  According to Will, they all had motive and opportunity.  Was there anyone they were leaving out? 

     As she turned over scenario after scenario in her mind, pursuing all sorts of ideas, down a multitude of bunny trails, the facts of the case as she knew them would not add up.  She could not get the math to work.  If all the pieces of the equation did not fit perfectly, you had to keep digging.

     When dark clouds began to roll in from the west, Edwina became conscious of the afternoon growing colder.  After a while she decided she had better call it a day.  Finding a good spot to back paddle, Edwina turned the kayak around and headed back upriver toward the Boat House.

     Back at her office in Sanborn House Edwina picked up a piece of chalk from the desk and approached the chalkboard.  She spun the board on its axis to the reverse side.

    
In order to connect the dots you have to collect the dots,
she recalled one of her professors saying.  She wrote on the board:

 1. Alan Sidebottom.  Fatal heart attack brought    on by digitalis overdose + drunk. Alcoholic –academic celebrity – wealthy  –  philanderer    (men + women) – various ex-wives and children            (estranged)–has possibly or probably plagiarized from  at least Mitchell Fender and Frank Cake.  Affair with     Helen years ago.  Affair with Charlotte’s fiancé.  Last  movements – Monday afternoon tea (anyone could have          slipped a fatal dose of digitalis in his tea); dinner at New      World with me (the whole dept. knew about this);            haircut in town . . . back to the cottage.  Threatening to expose Donald Gaylord?  Did Donald follow him to the cottage?

2.   Helen Mann – revenge + jealousy.  Lonely, hoped to rekindle with Alan Sidebottom?  Slighted + rejected by him at the party.  Jealous of his celebrity status?  Possibly gave up her only child (+ now regrets it?), Sidebottom rebuffs Helen publicly (party).  Does a grown child of Helen + Alan exist?

3. Mitchell Fender – jealously + revenge.  Plagiarism.  Thinks Sidebottom ruined his career.   Mitchell’s wife left him around same time.  Blames Sidebottom for everything.  Makes a huge show of patching things up with Sidebottom, but is this just for show?  Mysterious illness.  If Mitchell is dying, would he feel he has nothing to lose and take revenge on Sidebottom?

4. Donald Gaylord – fear of being outed by Sidebottom and having his career ruined.  Protecting a double-life.  Hugely ambitious, wants to be Head of Dept.  Could he and Sheila Dubin be in cahoots?  Does Donald suspect his partner Jimmy of the murder?

5. Charlotte Cadell – revenge.  Payback for Sidebottom stealing her fiancé + ruining her life.  

6.  Nedda Cake – No real motive.  Sidebottom plagiarized from Frank Cake’s work decades ago.  Ancient history.

  7. Seth Dubin – revenge.  Sidebottom humiliates him at the party. Embarrasses him in front of the whole dept. for his stammer.  Sidebottom is Seth’s hero.  Did Sheila bully Seth into being her accomplice in getting revenge on Sidebottom?  Doubtful.

 8. Sheila Dubin – revenge.  She has high hopes for Seth’s career.  When Sidebottom humiliates Seth at the party,  Sheila vows revenge.  In cahoots with Donald?  Or is she possibly protecting Donald?  Don’t forget about her medical knowledge of poisons.

9. Jimmy Lopez – jealously?  Does Jimmy think Donald is having an affair with Sidebottom?  Or did Donald confide in Jimmy his worries about being outed by Sidebottom? Did Jimmy do Donald’s dirty work, and get rid of Sidebottom?

     Edwina stood back and looked at the board.  Something bothered her about the list she had assembled, but she could not put her finger on what it was.  There was no shortage of motive or opportunity . . . that wasn’t exactly the problem . . . She reread what was written on the chalkboard from top to bottom, then from bottom to top.

      Somehow this outline lacked
dimension.
  All the players had a connection to the Department––that’s what was bothering her.

    
This is a closed set,
she thought. 
What about Professor Sidebottom’s life before his visit to New Guilford?  It needs to be looked into.

     Wasn’t it possible there was someone else who belonged on the list?  She and Will had been assuming that Alan Sidebottom’s murderer had to be someone connected to the college, to Sanborn House, but was that necessarily true? 

     Edwina recalled how at dinner that night at the Old World Tavern Professor Sidebottom had joked about being married more than once.  That meant there could easily be neglected or vengeful ex-wives in the wings.  And Helen Mann had made a remark about Professor Sidebottom being estranged from some or all of his children.  Alan Sidebottom’s children could easily be college-aged.  What was to say one of them––or more than one––wasn’t currently attending Cushing?  Perhaps they killed him for the inheritance?  And what was to say there weren’t additional victims of plagiarism besides the ones Edwina knew about––Mitchell Fender and Nedda Cake’s late husband?  Maybe others had even tried to sue Sidebottom, and lost, as Mitchell Fender had.  That could be a motive.  Sidebottom was a wealthy man, and might stand to lose a lot of money if he lost a plagiarism suit.  That made him a good target.  What about Sidebottom’s colleagues at Cambridge?  The Distinguished Professor was known to be a serial philanderer.  Just as an angry husband had come after Theodore Sanborn and shot him in the arm, maybe another angry husband had come after Sidebottom, and done a lot worse damage.  Edwina could imagine a number of scenarios in which Professor Sidebottom’s outré behavior might have pushed people too far. 

     Opening up the closed set of suspects to the wider world brought in a flood of new possibilities. 

     Edwina wrote on the chalkboard.

10.  England.  Ex-wives? (revenge, greed)  Children? (greed) Legal altercations (plagiarism + other)?  Colleagues?  Girlfriends?

     Before she left her office she flipped the chalkboard back to the other side, so her notes about the investigation would not be out in the open.

*

     Over the course of the next few days, Edwina redoubled her investigative efforts, all the while managing to keep up with her academic duties, making sure she did not neglect preparing for class or any other matter related to school.  She loved her job and understood what came first.

     She set about looking into item # 10 from her chalkboard list, the investigation into Professor Sidebottom’s connections back home in England.  Beginning with Alan Sidebottom’s colleagues, she sat at the computer and typed in Cambridge University, then went to the Physics and Astronomy Department page.  From there she compiled a list of faculty members who comprised Professor Sidebottom’s academic colleagues. Edwina painstakingly began researching these names one by one on the Internet, looking for anything in their biographical information that might hold significance or trigger another line of inquiry.  She was keeping an eye out for legal imbroglios, messy divorce cases, custody battles.  Later on, Edwina would cross-reference these faculty members against names of people from other walks of Alan Sidebottom’s life––publishers, television producers, spouses, and children––and see if any sort of pattern emerged, if some names popped up repeatedly, or at least, more than others.