Read The Whole Megillah Online

Authors: Howard Engel

Tags: #toronto, #judaica, #jewish private detective, #canadian mystery fiction, #antique books, #benny cooperman, #jewish crime fiction

The Whole Megillah (11 page)

BOOK: The Whole Megillah
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‘I found the door open. Tony was dead.' His voice had become hoarse and tired. The courtroom was gone from his manner. ‘I did what I could about fingerprints. I put the printing-press handle back on the table. I don't know why. The room was a mess, but I didn't throw open any cupboards or drawers. Some were open already. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I took the ashtray and the glasses they'd been drinking from with me. I wasn't there more than five minutes. Leaving, I locked the front door. Then I kicked in the french window from the garden and left that open so that it would look like a break-in. When I got back to Walmer Road, I put the glasses and ashtray into the incinerator. Then I poured myself a stiff drink. I forced myself to watch the video I'd rented just so I'd have an alibi that would stand up. God, I hated watching that film!'

‘I'll have to ask you both to come down to the station with me,' Pepper said. He told Dalton that he would speak further to him in the morning. When they were gone, I was alone in the room with Wells Dalton. Neither of us said anything. We went back out on Bloor Street just as the store was closing and into the first place we came to that served strong drink. I don't remember what I ordered. Whatever it was, it wasn't strong enough. Dalton paid and I let him. It wasn't until I was walking up the steps of my brother's Brunswick Street house that I remembered that I'd forgotten to pick up the Gerson Soncino Megillah at the check-out counter at Book City. It was an uneasy night, but I was pretty sure they'd still have it for me in the morning.

 

 

 

Chapter Twelve

 

I'd been expecting a call from Sergeant Pepper for a few days when it finally came the following Wednesday night. He asked me to meet him at the doughnut shop at the corner of Walmer and Bloor. With coffee and a kreuller in front of me, I was ready for Pepper and the last installment of the story.

‘Well?' I asked as soon as he'd taken a first sip from his cup.

‘Well, what?' he said. ‘Nothing gets tidied away quickly. Honour is out on bail. Lowther is on the street too. That's middle-class crime for you; nobody spends any time in the lock-up. Oh, when it comes to trial, we'll hear a lot about manslaughter. Lowther's in more trouble as an accessory than she is. Even Dalton could do more time for having had Kurian beaten up. It's not a case that leaves me with a satisfied feeling of a job well done. You know what I mean?'

‘Would it be better if it had been cold-blooded murder?'

‘That's cleaner. Fewer loose ends. Not so much worrying.'

‘Crime doesn't come in black and white any more. You have to get used to seeing everything in all the colours. Nobody wears white hats any more. There are no black hats for the bad guys. You just have to take things as you find them.'

‘I reckon,' he said. ‘I reckon. Too bad about Lowther, though. He had a brilliant career. Now he'll be lucky to keep his shingle to practise law anywhere.'

‘He was a man in love, Sergeant. You know what it's like?'

‘I reckon.'

‘”I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honour more."‘

‘Huh?' Pepper said.

‘Let it pass,' I said. ‘A far-away echo of a high-school English class. Let it pass. Want to do some browsing over at Book City? They've got some new mysteries in.'

‘Sure,' Pepper said. ‘Why not?' So we did that.

Half an hour after Pepper had bought four paperbacks, I was sitting with Anna at her place on Prince Arthur. ‘What are you going to do with your time now?' she wanted to know.

‘Hell, Anna, I've got responsibilities on Brunswick Avenue.'

‘A few plants and a couple of gerbils?'

‘Sam didn't tell me that his grass was drying out. It needs to be watered. August is a killer month for gardens, Anna. And I've got all the day lilies to do.'

‘Are you two timing me with some lilies?'

‘I've got to pinch off the seed pods from the dead blooms,' I said. ‘Then there's a lot to be done in the clippings. There's a whole world to be discovered in compost, Anna, a whole world.' That's when she threw a pillow at me and I learned to shut up.

 

 

About the Author

 

The appearance of Howard Engel's lovable sleuth Benny Cooperman in 1980 is a landmark in detective fiction. For the first time, there was a Canadian private detective from a small town, and a member of an ethnic minority, who took its place in international literary scene. Engel's books were hailed by such writers as Ruth Rendell and Julian Symons, translated into more than a dozen languages and were adapted for two TV movies. Engel's graceful, witty prose also garnered literary prizes which made him remark that he now felt he could “sit at the grownups table.”

The Whole Megillah
, a Benny Cooperman novella, was never published commercially. It was commissioned by leading Toronto bookseller Frans Donker to celebrate the 15
th
anniversary of his Book City stores.

 

Benny Cooperman Mysteries by Howard Engel

 

The Suicide Murders

The Ransom Game

Murder on Location

Murder Sees the Light

A City Called July

A Victim Must Be Found

Dead and Buried

There Was An Old Woman

Getting Away with Murder

The Cooperman Variations

Memory Book

East of Suez

 

Also by Howard Engel

 

The Man Who Forgot How to Read: a Memoir

Mr. Doyle and Dr. Bell

Murder in Montparnasse

 

Praise for Howard Engel

 

"Mr Engel is a born writer, a natural stylist...This is a writer who can bring a character to life in a few lines."

--Ruth Rendell

 

"Engel can turn a phrase as neatly as Chandler...Benny Cooperman novels [are] first-class entertainment, stylishly written, the work of an original, distinctive, and distinctively Canadian talent.”

--Julian Symons

 

"Benny Cooperman is a lot of fun to hang out. I'm delighted to see him getting into trouble again."

--Donald E. Westlake

 

"The great Canadian detective did not exist until Howard Engel invented Benny Cooperman."

--Andrew Ryan

Globe and Mail

 

 

 

 

BOOK: The Whole Megillah
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