The Transcendental Murder (37 page)

“Oh, oh. Of course. Yes, I see.”

“So Howard begged and pleaded with Ernie. He tried bribery. He even threatened violence. That was what you overheard the night of the dinner party. Then, when everything else failed, he thought he had no alternative but to silence Ernie by killing him. Howard was a clever fellow and he sat down and figured out an intelligent and daring crime, as intelligent and as daring in its way as the arguments in his manuscript. And then look how everything played into his hands. First of all Ernie himself misbehaved dreadfully, providing both his sons publicly with apparent motives for murder. And next morning, although Howard didn't hear about it until afterward, Philip practically killed his father himself in full view of half the town. And even the mixup about the flintlocks turned out to work in Howard's favor. There
we
were, too stupid to find the planted gun in the cider press, and there was Tom Hand, too stubborn to make cider with the apples Howard spirited onto the place in May. But then Charley, the poor fool, had to go and bury that musket, and Ernie himself led us all astray by gurgling ‘musket' as he died.”

“All right. I can see why Howard thought he had to kill Ernie. But what about Alice? Why Alice, Homer, why, why?”

“Because she knew, that's why. In the first place she knew the same ‘secret' about Elizabeth Goss that he did, because she was an old and intimate friend of Elizabeth's. But
she
was too sane and sensible to believe it. And then Howard confided in her, too, this same secret, not knowing she already knew it. He told her, I suppose, because she was the closest thing to a fellow Thoreau scholar he had to talk to, and because as chief librarian she was guardian of all his precious sources. And of course Alice must have been appalled. Here was this good man dedicating his life to something she regarded as a false notion. Then along came Ernie with his cuckoo letters, and she must have seen as clearly as Howard did that they were a threat to Howard's theories. So then when Ernie was killed she couldn't help suspecting. I think she must have come right out with it, and accused Howard of it. That would have been like her.”

“Yes, and I know when it was. It was that day in church, way last spring. That was the first time I saw her looking frightened. Howard was an usher that morning and I'll bet when he met her in the vestry she looked straight at him with that honest clear look of hers and said, ‘Howard, it was you, wasn't it?'”

“Yes, and then he threatened her, no doubt, and made her swear to shut up about his book, or she'd get it, too. So she did shut up, until it became more and more clear to her that Charley Goss was going to lose his life if she didn't speak up. Poor old Howard. By the time he was so entangled in his own web that he had to kill Alice Herpitude, he was no longer defending his beloved manuscript, he was saving his own skin. Of course when Elizabeth Goss went out of her mind he must already have begun to lose hope that his theories about her glorious ancestry would ever hold water. And it must have become more and more evident to him that this very document would itself incriminate him by attaching to his name his own true and powerful motive for murder. He had killed for nothing, after all, and now he had to go on killing in order to keep from being suspected. Crime, they say, never pays. ‘I am in so far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.'”

“Tell me one more thing,” said Mary. “What in heaven's name was he doing on the island in the middle of the storm? Oh, I suppose he was afraid the water might rise and reach his manuscript and ruin it.”

“I suppose so. And of course it was still very dear to him. I know I'd rush into a burning house to save the stuff I've written on Henry Thoreau. Some of it, anyhow. I'm going to have to throw out a lot of it, but the new stuff is pretty good …”

“You know, Homer, if I hadn't stumbled all over Howard's manuscript like a great clumsy ass he might still have gotten away with it. No wonder he thought he had to …”

“Oh, Mary—”

Rowena Goss was driving past again, on her way out along the winding drives of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Good heavens, Homer was
still
necking. It was disgraceful, right there in broad daylight and in a cemetery, too, right beside the grave of Louisa May
Alcott.
Rowena's beloved, peeking through the chinks in his bushel basket, agreed with her completely.

“I'd better get home and mind the children so Grandmaw can take a rest,” said Mary.

In Monument Square the autumn color of the ravaged trees was at its height. The elm leaves that had not been torn off by the storm were a shopworn yellow, but the abandoned maples raged in red and orange fire. There was someone standing on the sidewalk in front of the Town Hall, looking around wildly.

“It's the DA.,” said Homer. “For Christ's sake, he must have seen a cow.” He slowed down and waved his arm and shouted.

The District Attorney ran up to them, his face pale and per spiring. “Homer,” he said, “help me. I can't find my car. Where's my car?”

“It's all right,” said Homer. “There it is right over there.” He got out and helped the D.A. into it, and slammed the door. “How's the campaign coming?”

The District Attorney mopped his face with his handkerchief and wound the window down two inches. “Fine, just fine. Didn't you hear? My opponent just got caught in a raid on a private club across the state line in the company of his gorgeous blonde secretary. I'm sitting pretty.”

“Say, that's great. His secretary, well, well. You watch out for that Miss O'Toole of yours, now. These secretaries are murder.”

Chapter 61

	Romans, countrymen and lovers by the banks of the Musketaquid …
HENRY THOREAU

Mrs. Bewley was walking down Walden Street, swinging her pocketbook on its long chain strap. It was a big black patent-leather pocketbook that had once belonged to Isabelle Flower. She marched up to the door of the police station and walked in. Jimmy Flower was tapping away at a typewriter in the outer office.

“HELLO, THERE, MRS. BEWLEY,” he bellowed, “COME IN AND SIT DOWN. WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?”

Mrs. Bewley pushed open the swinging gate and sat down beside the desk. She put her pocketbook in her lap. Jimmy recognized it instantly. Only Isabelle would buy a fright like that. It had been missing since Town Meeting. “WHY, MRS. BEWLEY, WHAT A GOOD-LOOKING BAG. SAY, THAT'S JUST THE KIND MY WIFE LIKES, THAT SHINY BLACK STUFF THERE.”

“REALLY?” screamed Mrs. Bewley, highly flattered. She picked up the pocketbook by its long chain and thumped it on the desk. “TAKE IT, TAKE IT.”

“OH, I COULDN'T.”

But Mrs. Bewley's generosity soon overwhelmed Jimmy's modest scruples, and he gave her a paper bag to empty the contents into and put the pocketbook in the desk drawer. “NOW, WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU, MRS. BEWLEY?”

It was Priscilla, that was the trouble. Her hen Priscilla was missing. “MY BEST LAYER, AND SUCH A DEAR GIRL. NAUGHTY? I HOPE TO TELL YOU. BUT NICE. NAUGHTY BUT NICE. THAT'S PRISCILLA.”

“SURELY SHE'S JUST SITTING ON SOME EGGS OUTDOORS, MRS. BEWLEY? NO? WELL, EXCUSE ME A MINUTE. I'LL HAVE SERGEANT SHRUBSOLE FILL OUT A CARD.”

Jimmy got up and went out. Mrs. Bewley smiled seraphically and sat quietly in her chair, looking vaguely around the room. Her gaze fell dreamily on something that was lying on Jimmy Flower's desk. Why, it was that Jesus-message with the pretty flower. Mrs. Bewley remembered it very well. She had known it was meant for her the first time she had seen it, there in that box in Mrs. Goss's bedroom. So she had tucked it in her apron pocket. But then (she was so generous) she had left it as a present for Mr. Goss in exchange for that sweet letter-opener on his desk. And then the next time she had dusted his room she had seen the message again, right there in his desk drawer, and she just hadn't been able to resist it. So pretty! (Mrs. Bewley loved flowers.)

Sergeant Shrubsole came in then and patiently filled out a file-card on Priscilla. He wrote down a description of her appearance and her habits, and at Mrs. Bewley's shrill insistence, a transcription of her very distinctive soprano cluck. Then Mrs. Bewley went home, where she found Priscilla roosting naughtily on the rubber plant. She shrieked with relief and proceeded to give Priscilla a severe screaming-to and a whole bowlful of crushed graham crackers. Then she took her in her lap and scratched Priscilla's pinfeathers affectionately. Naughty she was, Priscilla, but nice.

Back at the police station, Jimmy Flower was entertaining Charley and Philip Goss. Released from captivity, Charley was as amiable as ever and he meant to show that he harbored no hard feelings. It was apparent that the brothers were enjoying one another's company. The revelation of the truth had freed them of a burden of mutual suspicion that had been heavier, even, than the fear of death. But Jimmy looked at them and wondered if things could ever be altogether the same. After all, Charley had jumped to take the blame, and Philip had not. But perhaps Philip's reluctance could be explained away—he must have known from his legal experience that lies on his part wouldn't help a guilty Charley, and that only a good trial lawyer could be of any use at all.

They were putting a good face on it, however it was. Charley had come to say goodby. He was on his way to school. “I've got a few credits to finish up and then (don't laugh) I'm going to take a crack at law school. I can't think why the legal profession should suddenly interest me so much. It's not as if I'd ever had any contact with it or anything.”

“We're saving Charley a blank space on our shingle,” said Philip. “Some day it will be Goss, Jarvis and Goss.”

“Say, that's great,” said Jimmy. “Oh, by the way, Charley, look here. That fingerprint expert, Mr. Campbell, has sent back that other letter you wrote. You know, the one Thoreau was supposed to have written to Emily Whatsername. I had it right here. I was just about to look over his report on it. You want the letter back? (Where in heck did I put it?)”

“For sentimental reasons? Good God, no. Which letter did you say it was?”

“You know, the one that turned up in Mrs. Bewley's trash collection. Or didn't you know about that? It's the one Thoreau was supposed to have written to Emily Dickinson. It was right here on this desk a minute ago.”

“You must be wrong there. I never wrote one like that.”

Charley and Philip said goodby, then, and Jimmy got down on his hands and knees and looked under the desk. The letter wasn't there either. Shaking his head, Jimmy got up again and unfolded Campbell's report. He read it to himself. “Well, I'll be damned. Hey, Shrubsole, come here. Look at this. Campbell says that last letter we sent him had a couple sets of old prints on it. They turned up when he tried this ninhydrin test. He thinks they're very old prints indeed. And the lab says it's old paper and old ink.”

“Well, say, then, it must be real. A real letter from Henry Thoreau to that lady poet. Where is it?”

“That's just the trouble. I can't find it. It was right here on my desk. Of course there weren't any last names on it, it was just ‘Emily' and ‘Henry,' so who knows if it was really.… Still, holy horsecollar, the thing could be worth thousands of dollars. Come on, let's turn this place upside-down.”

Together they stirred through the wastebasket and looked all over the office and then all over the building. Jimmy ransacked his drawers, scrabbled through the files, went through his pockets and bawled out three sergeants. But they couldn't find the precious letter anywhere.

Jimmy had a doleful conversation about it on the phone with the D.A. “How'll we tell Kelly?” he said. “He was awful interested in things like that.”

“Look, Flower, take my advice. Don't tell him nothing. The first thing I learned at my blessed mother's knee was when to shut my trap. Say, I'm glad you called. Did you ever run across a loony kind of pervert out there in Concord, called himself Granville-Galsworthy? He turned up in the jail the other night here in Cambridge for attacking a schoolteacher. Turns out he's wanted all over the map from London to L.A. for crummy offenses like that. The scholarly type. Specializes in librarians and schoolteachers. His last stop must have been out in your territory. You had any complaints out there? I mean he's got four stranglings on his record, not to mention rape and——”

“Kee-
rist
, no kidding? No, thank the Lord, no complaints that I've heard of. But it's a mercy that Morgan girl is all in one piece though. He took a real shine to her. Say, that's something else Kelly better not hear about, or he'll tear us all limb from limb, himself included. He's sweet on Mary himself.”

“Attaboy, Flower, you're learning fast. Plenty of times the only thing to do is clam up. Keeps you out of all kinds of hot water.”

The letter never did turn up. Its disappearance continued to bother Jimmy, and for weeks he kept poking absentmindedly around his office for it. After all, a thing like that must be worth thousands of dollars … It was a shame they couldn't find it and give it back to Mrs. Bewley, so she could get the cash. Of course, she had probably swiped it from Ernie in the first place, but what the heck, the Gosses didn't need the money. And there it had been, that letter, right in Mrs. Bewley's paper bag.