The Cabinet of Curiosities

“Oh yes,” she said. Her voice was kind, but there was a no-nonsense edge to it that told Smithback this was no pushover granny. “I remember Tony Fairhaven well, because he was in my first twelfth-grade class, and he was one of our top students. He was a National Merit Scholar runner-up.”

Smithback nodded deferentially and jotted a few notes. He wasn’t going to tape-record this—that was a good way to shut people up.

“Tell me about him. Informally. What was he like?”

“He was a bright boy, quite popular. I believe he was the head of the swim team. A good, all-around, hardworking student.”

“Did he ever get into trouble?”

“Sure. They all did.”

Smithback tried to look casual. “Really?”

“He used to bring his guitar to school and play in the halls, which was against regulations. He played very badly and it was mostly to make the other students laugh.” She thought for a moment. “One day he caused a hall jam.”

“A hall jam.” Smithback waited. “And then?”

“We confiscated the guitar and that ended it. We gave it back to him after graduation.”

Smithback nodded, the polite smile freezing on his face. “Did you know his parents?”

“His father was in real estate, though of course it was Tony who really made such a success in the business. I don’t remember the mother.”

“Brothers? Sisters?”

“At that time he was an only child. Of course, there was the family tragedy.”

Smithback involuntarily leaned forward. “Tragedy?”

“His older brother, Arthur, died. Some rare disease.”

Smithback abruptly made the connection. “Did they call him Little Arthur, by any chance?”

“I believe they did. His father was Big Arthur. It hit Tony very hard.”

“When did it happen?”

“When Tony was in tenth grade.”

“So it was his older brother? Was he in the school, too?”

“No. He’d been hospitalized for years. Some very rare and disfiguring disease.”

“What disease?”

“I really don’t know.”

“When you say it hit Fairhaven hard, how so?”

“He became withdrawn, antisocial. But he came out of it, eventually.”

“Yes, yes. Let me see . . .” Smithback checked his notes. “Let’s see. Any problems with alcohol, drugs, delinquency . . . ?” Smithback tried to make it sound casual.

“No, no, just the opposite,” came the curt reply. The look on the teacher’s face had hardened. “Tell me, Mr. Smithback, exactly why are you writing this article?”

Smithback put on his most innocent face. “I’m just doing a little biographical feature on Mr. Fairhaven. You understand, we want to get a well-rounded picture, the good and the bad. I’m not fishing for anything in particular.” Right.

“I see. Well, Tony Fairhaven was a good boy, and he was very anti-drug, anti-drinking, even anti-smoking. I remember he wouldn’t even drink coffee.” She hesitated. “I don’t know, if anything, he might have been a little too good. And it was sometimes hard to tell what he was thinking. He was a rather closed boy.”

Smithback jotted a few more pro forma notes.

“Any hobbies?”

“He talked about making money quite a bit. He worked hard after school, and he had a lot of spending money as a result. I don’t suppose any of this is surprising, considering what he’s done. I’ve read from time to time articles about him, how he pushed through this development or that over a neighborhood’s protests. And of course I read your piece on the Catherine Street discoveries. Nothing surprising. The boy has grown into the man, that’s all.”

Smithback was startled: she’d given no indication she even knew who he was, let alone read his pieces.

“By the way, I thought your article was very interesting. And disturbing.”

Smithback felt a flush of pleasure. “Thank you.”

“I imagine that’s why you’re interested in Tony. Well, rushing in and digging up that site so he could finish his building was just like him. He was always very goal-oriented, impatient to get to the end, to finish, to succeed. I suppose that’s why he’s been so successful as a developer. And he could be rather sarcastic and impatient with people he considered his inferiors.”

Right, thought Smithback.

“What about enemies. Did he have any?”