Real Murders

Crandall, like Mr. Buckley, was no chair-bound retiree, but a pepper pot of a man, easily angered and easily appeased. His wife had always been called Teentsy, and was still, though now she certainly outweighed her husband by forty pounds or more.

Teentsy and Jed now said the proper things to Robin about their being neighbors, asking him to drop in, Teentsy saying since he was a poor bachelor (and here she shot me a sly look) he might run short of food sometime, and if he did, just to knock on their door, they had a-plenty, as he could look at her and tell!

“Are you at all interested in guns?” Jed asked eagerly.

“Mr. Jed has quite a collection,” I told Robin hastily, thinking he might need to be forewarned.

“Well, sometimes, from a professional standpoint. I’m a mystery writer,” he explained when the Crandalls looked blank, though the Buckleys were nodding with vigor, bless their hearts.

“Come by then, don’t be a stranger!” Jed Crandall urged.

“Thank you, nice meeting you,” Robin said to the table in general, and in a chorus of “see you soon’s” and “nice to’ve met you’s” we retired to our table.

The meeting nudged Robin’s voracious curiosity, and in telling him about the Crandalls and the Buckleys I began to feel more comfortable. We talked about Robin’s new job, and then our food came, and by the time we began eating, I was ready to talk about the murders.

“Jane Engle came by the library today with a pretty solid theory,” I began, and told Robin about the likeness of “our” case to that of Cordelia Botkin. He was intrigued.

“I’ve never heard of anything quite like this,” he said after our salad had been served. “What a book this would make! Maybe I’ll write about it myself, my first nonfiction book.” He had more distance from the case; new in town, he didn’t know the victims personally (unless you could term Mother a victim) and probably he didn’t know the perpetrator either. I was surprised that the crimes were so exciting to him, until he said after he’d swallowed a mouthful of tomato, “You know, Roe, writing about crime doesn’t mean you have direct experience. This is the closest I’ve ever come to a real murder.”

I could have said the same thing as a reader. I’d been an avid fan of both real and fictional crime for years, but this was my closest brush with violent death.

“I hope I never come any closer,” I said abruptly.

He reached across the table and took my hand. “It doesn’t seem too likely,” he said cautiously. “I know the poisoned candy-well, we don’t know yet if it was really poisoned or not, do we? That was scarey. But it was impersonal, too, wasn’t it? Your mother’s situation vaguely fit the Botkin case, even if not as well as Mamie Wright fit Julia Wallace’s profile. That was why she was picked.”

“But it was sent to my address,” I said, suddenly letting a fear overwhelm me that I thought I’d suppressed. “That was to involve me. My mother fit the pattern; though that wouldn’t have been any consolation to me if she’d died,” I added sharply. “But sending it to my place. That was a deliberate attempt to make me-die. Or at least a witness to my mother’s dying, or getting sick, depending on what was in the chocolates. That doesn’t fit any pattern. That’s about as personal as you can get.”

“What kind of person could do that?” Robin asked.

I met his eyes. “That’s the core, isn’t it,” I said. “That’s one reason we like old murders so much. At a safe remove, we can think about the kind of person who can ‘do that’ without remorse. Almost anyone could kill another person. I guess I could, if it came to being cornered. But I’m sure, I have to be sure, that not many people could sit back and plan other people dying as part of a game the killer decided to play. I have to believe that.”

“I do too,” he said.

“This really is someone who isn’t acting for any of the famous motives Tennyson Jessie wrote about,” I continued. “It must be someone acting out something he’s always wanted to do. For some reason, now he’s able to actually do it.”

“A member of your club.”

“A former member,” I said sadly, and told Robin about the Sunday night meeting.

We had to talk about something else; didn’t we have anything to discuss besides murders? Robin, bless him, seemed to see I couldn’t take any more, and began telling me about his agent, and about the process of getting a book published. He kept me laughing with anecdotes about book-signings he’d endured and I responded with stories about people that came to the library and some of the wilder questions they’d asked. We actually had a cheerful evening, and we were still at our table when the Crandalls and the Buckleys paid their bill and left.

Since the Carriage House was at the south end of town, we had to pass in front of our townhouses to turn into the driveway on the side. There was a man standing in front of the row of townhouses, on the sidewalk. As we went by, he turned his white face to us and by the light of the streetlamp, I thought I recognized Perry.

I was distracted though by the kiss Robin gave me at my back door. It was unexpected and delicious, and the disparity in our heights was overcome quite satisfactorily. Maybe his asking me out hadn’t been quite so impersonal as I’d supposed; his side of the kiss was delivered with great enthusiasm.

I went upstairs humming to myself and feeling very attractive; and when I slipped into my dark bedroom and peered out the window, the street was empty.

That night it rained. I was wakened by the drops pelting against my window. I could see the lightning flicker through my curtains.

I crept downstairs and rechecked my locks. I listened, and heard only the rain. I looked out all the windows and saw only the rain. By the streetlamp out front, I saw the water racing down the slight slope to the storm drain at the end of the block. Nothing else stirred.

Chapter 11

Getting up and going to work the next morning wasn’t too easy, but it was reassuring. I caught myself humming in the shower and I put on more eye shadow than usual, but my denim skirt, striped blouse, and braided hair felt like a comforting uniform. Lillian and I were mending books in a windowless back room all morning. We managed to get along by swapping recipes or discussing the academic prowess of Lillian’s seven-year-old. Though my part of this discussion consisted only of saying “Oh, my goodness,” or “Ooh,” at the appropriate moments, that suited me. I might have children myself one day-maybe stocky blond ones? Or big-nosed giants with flaming hair? And I would certainly tell everyone I met how wonderful they were.

It was good to get up from the work table and stretch before going home for lunch. I’d been so slow getting up I’d had a scanty breakfast, so I was pretty hungry and trying to visualize what was in my refrigerator as I twisted my key in the lock. When a voice boomed out from behind me, I wasn’t frightened, just aggravated that I wasn’t going to get to eat.

“Roe! Teentsy said you’d be coming in about now! Listen, we got a little problem in our place,” old Mr. Crandall was saying.

I turned around, resigned to postponing food. “What’s the little problem, Mr. Crandall?”

Mr. Crandall was not eloquent about anything but guns, and finally I realized that if I was to understand the problem Teentsy was having with the washer, I’d better go along with him.

It wasn’t right to feel put-upon; after all, this was my job. But I had been looking forward to eating without Lillian’s voice droning in my ears, and since it was Wednesday, there should be a new Time in my mailbox. I sighed quietly, and trudged across the patio in Mr. Crandall’s wake.

The Crandalls’ washer and dryer were in the basement, of course, as they were in all four units. There was a straight flight of rather steep stairs down to the basement, open on one side except for a railing. I clopped down the Crandalls’ stairs, Teentsy Crandall right behind me telling me about the washer catastrophe in minute detail. When I reached the bottom, I saw a spreading water stain. With a sinking feeling of doom and dismay, I knew I’d have to spend my lunch hour tracking down a plumber.

Despite all the odds against it, I struck gold with my first phone call. The Crandalls watched admiringly as I talked Ace Plumbing into paying my tenants a call in the next hour. Since Ace was one of the two plumbing firms my mother used for all her properties, perhaps it wasn’t totally amazing to find them willing; but to actually get them to