by Liz Eagle
“Did they ever mention, maybe when they were drinking, or walking along with you, just where they got the wine?” Gus asked. “Or, if they even paid someone for it?” He was trying to be more specific with his questions to get the bottom of what had happened to the girls.
Harvey closed his eyes. “Well...now that I think more about it...I think they may have said they bought it from an old guy in town,” Mr. Harvey said. “Yes, I think that’s right. It seems like it might have been some house on a hill somewhere near downtown.” Gus noticed that Mr. Harvey looked like he was searching for the truth in his head. He sounded sincere. This was progress. Harvey finally said something he could work with.
Gus continued, “Did they happen to mention what they were celebrating or where this cash came from?”
“I don’t think they said. They seemed pretty excited about it, though. Now these two, they were loose and had the reputation to screw just about anybody, no matter how old. Rumor has it that both of them did it with some rich guy in town. Maybe that was where the money came from. I don’t know.”
“Interesting. I don’t suppose they offered up any names, by chance?” Gus hoped for a name or two, but Harvey did not know of any. “Now, tell me the truth,” he said. “Did you strangle those two girls?
“Hell, no,” Mr. Harvey said. “I did not strangle those girls or anyone else. This is what I kept telling my lawyer; I walked away when they passed out. I feel bad about that right now. I know it was selfish and all, since I wasn’t gonna get laid. If I would have tried to help them or stuck around, they would still be alive.”
“How do you think they died?” Gus wanted to know.
“You know, I think someone was watching me the whole time, though. Didn’t see anyone, just had this feeling,” Mr. Harvey said.
Gus asked if Mr. Harvey saw anyone approaching the girls when he went down the hill back to the fair. He said he didn’t see anyone, but that he had never really looked back at them because he was focused on finding his friend, so he wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to the hotel. Gus also asked Mr. Harvey if he saw any pictures of the girls after they were pronounced dead either at the trial or before. He indicated that he had seen one picture of them at the trial. Mr. Harvey said he told his lawyer, at that time, that the girl he was talking to the most, the one who got sick and passed out first, looked like she was in a different place than when he had left her. It was like she had been moved from where she was when he walked away. He told Gus that he thought the other girl, however, was in the same spot as when he left.
Now, he had something to run with. Gus was almost certain that the girls got the wine from Max. An old guy in town, a house on a hill, secret sales, jars: it all seemed to fit like a glove. Now he was really wondering whether or not some copper sulfate somehow got into the wine, it would make perfect sense. What a sneaky way to get rid of anyone who might put your family at risk. He could feel the anger rising up in him. These despicable people had also tried to poison his sweet Jackie. He needed to get to the bottom of this. Hopefully, the report he had ordered on copper sulfate from headquarters would come soon. He was still waiting on Jacqueline’s tests too. If copper sulfate did cause throat constriction, that could mirror strangulation with no visible marks on the necks, Gus believed that copper sulfate would then be ruled as the cause of death. Or, if the girls were already compromised from being sick, it might have accelerated their death. Gus quickly thought about his next step. If in fact, Max and Gynnie sold the girls some tainted wine and were responsible for their deaths, Mr. Harvey would be exonerated and the McDougals would be charged with murder or some variation of that. If he could prove Milton and Louise had poisoned Jacqueline, this would give him an even better case. He may have just opened up a can of worms.
All these thoughts were rolling around in his head as Gus drove back to Warsaw. He arrived at the inn, where Max greeted him at the front door with a package wrapped in brown paper and a letter as well. “Hi, Gus, I wanted to give these to you.” he said. “It just arrived by messenger. No return address was on this package, but this letter seems to be from the local doctor. They are both addressed to you. Here you are, I hope everything is alright.” Gus took the package from Max.
“Thank you, Max,” he said. “I have been expecting these.” Gus, mail in arms, took them and went up to this room.
Chapter 35
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Lil read another note written by her grandfather, Gus, from the large stack. He had written that he had some reservations about the marriage between Lil’s father and mother. Gus wrote that he asked her to postpone it until he did some more investigation. Though he did not specify his reasons, Lil knew what he meant. She wondered what was making him so concerned about the Chandlers when her phone rang.
“Hello, Lil speaking,” she said.
“Hi Lil, this is Judge Stone again,” he said.
“Oh, hi, Judge,” Lil said. “What can I do for you?”
“I hope you are still combing through your father’s papers and not working on a presentence report,” he said.
Lil thought that was ironic because she had just started to push away feelings of guilt about working so hard and spending so much time on a personal issue instead of working on her real job, even if it was her day off. She frequently went into the office on her off days just to stay on top of her reports. It was easier for her to focus when the office was guaranteed to be quiet. Lil remembered a time when she ran into one federal judge in a grocery store late on Christmas Eve night. He saw her in the dairy aisle and said that he hoped she had not been working on a federal holiday. But she had, and she did not lie. They knew how devoted she, and all officers were, and she did not mind going the extra mile for whom she referred to as, “her judges.” It was the best job she had ever had, albeit the hardest.
The judge continued, “I won’t keep you, but I had a chance to talk to one of my acquaintances in the FBI lab. After reading some of your grandfather’s notes and his suspicions about a possible copper sulfate poisoning, I wondered if it was possible to die from the chemical. It has been so long since I practiced law in state court that I thought I had lost all my contacts, but I happened to remember an FBI agent who testified in federal court a few weeks ago. He was a field agent, but while on the stand he mentioned another agent in the FBI lab, so I called him to get the name of his contact. He was happy to refer me to the toxicologist. My contact thought this person in the lab would probably know about poisons, as well as controlled substances.”
Lil was starting to feel even guiltier that a federal judge would go so far out on a limb just for her family dilemma. She was even more impressed with the judge that ever before. The judge continued. “I also wanted to know if the poisoning would leave any latent marks resembling strangulation. Lil are you still there?” Judge Stone asked when he heard nothing on the other end.
“Yes, Judge,” Lil said. “I am just so impressed that you did all that for me. I am sorry to drag you into this. I can’t tell you how much I value your friendship and your help with this.”
“Hey, I’m glad to do it,” he said. “You work very hard, and we all recognize it. I am just thankful I remembered the agent’s name. Usually, after the sentencing phase, all the testimony and witnesses’ names just flee from my brain until the appeal process. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. The toxicologist said that copper sulfate was a popular chemical used in that period, the 1940s. It was commonly used to prevent mold in cellars and basements. The agent told me that if someone ingested just 11 milligrams, it would have a toxic effect. She then went on to say that one to two grams would certainly poison someone. I venture to guess that in the 1940s, no one would be able to actually look for that as a cause of death,” Judge Stone said.
“Wow!” Lil said. “That is incredible information. So, even if those girls drank some wine that had the copper sulfate in it, no on
e would know, and no one would even look for poisoning?”
“That is correct,” Judge Stone said, “she also explained that copper sulfate is an irritant, and any person who ingested it would experience burning in the throat, and more than likely, would become violently ill and regurgitate almost immediately. Sounds like some really bad stuff to me.” he added.
“What a minute,” Lil said. “I think I did see one report that mentioned something about the girls having some regurgitated stomach material around them. And Gus wrote about the victims throwing up or something. I do remember reading that part. He also wrote about Max and Gynnie using that chemical in their cellar to keep mold off the fruits they used for making wine. You may be onto something, Judge, but it doesn’t look too good for my relatives, does it?” she asked.
“Well, don’t get too far ahead of yourself,” Judge Stone said. “Remember we are in the fact-finding stage right now. You and I have a lot more documents to comb through before we can make definitive conclusions. Here’s something else, I also asked her about the latent signs of strangulation. She told me that it only takes about four minutes to strangle someone to death, and to me, that does not seem like very long at all. If someone was already in a compromised state, it would not take much to cause death.” The judge cleared his throat before continuing. “Oh, I forgot to mention that that’s with manual strangulation, like using your hands versus using a rope or some ligature. But here is the kicker, she indicated that someone who knew about such things could strangle someone to death and not leave a mark or any outward signs. There might be bruising under the skin if the muscle strap in the neck was damaged, but again, a professional would have to conduct an autopsy in order to spot that. And we both know that the problem is that those were rarely conducted in the 1940s,” the judge said. He wanted to mention that AUSA Harris took a look at Lil’s documents in his office, but hesitated. He did not want Lil to feel she could not trust him or anything she left in his custody.
Lil felt, at the start of the conversation, that she was on the verge of a revelation of sorts, but after hearing the information about the strangulation, she felt even more confused than before he called.
“So, now, what does all that mean? What do I do?” she asked Judge Stone. “The doctor who pronounced the cause of death is deceased, along with all the other players, and I am not even halfway through all these notes and documents.” Lil suddenly felt exhausted. “I guess I had better get back to reading and see what else my grandfather Gus comes up with. Maybe he will give us a clue, and we can go from there. I think I also saw a report from the Warsaw Hospital showing the cause of death in this stack of papers, too.
Lil could not believe how much Judge Stone was helping her. “Thanks so much, Judge,” Lil said. “I really appreciate it.” She hung up the phone and leaned back on the couch, wondering why she had even begun this witch hunt. It was way too time consuming and frustrating. The only thing that kept her going was the idea that an innocent man may have served a prison sentence for two murders he didn’t commit, and the unfortunate flip side was that perhaps her family was responsible. If she made that determination, she wondered what she would do with the information. Everyone involved in the case was dead and buried. She kept reading, reminding herself that she was in search of closure, if nothing else.
Chapter 36
1945 Warsaw, New York
Cynthia Lewis was concerned about what her husband had mumbled when he was drunk. The next morning, she thought about how, or if, she could help him. Her husband had alluded to one of the Chandlers, but he did not say which one. He talked about a killer. She was very confused and made up her mind to contact Phillip and discuss it with him. He must know what was going on, and he would tell her. He had no problem confessing all kinds of things to her in bed. After all, his father was a hot-shot lawyer, and he knew everyone’s business, the apple probably did not fall far from the tree.
She remembered sitting outside the courtroom when the murder trial was going on. Since she didn’t have to work, she made a point to go to all the fascinating events in the small town. It was her entertainment. She could only listen to so much on the radio. This was much more exciting than those soap operas. She watched everyone who was there in court, they all looked like they were capable of murder. From her point of view, they were all beneath her. Cynthia remembered one day Milton Chandler walked out of the courtroom during a break and just stood there looking at the tile floor with his hands inside his pants pockets and shook his head. She wanted to ask him if something was wrong because something was definitely bothering him, but she just stood there watching him. Milton was always in control of his emotions, but on this day, he appeared to be having a hard time exuding his usual confidence.
When the trial resumed, the district attorney brought up a lot of physical evidence against the defendant and subpoenaed several witnesses to testify. After each one, the judge asked Milton if he had any questions for cross-examination, and he just stood, buttoned his coat, and said that he did not. She had noticed that his client would nudge his arm and look at him in a questioning way, and that Milton never even looked up from the table when he said that to the judge. She thought that was odd. He was supposed to be the best defense attorney in town, but then again, he was, of course, the only defense attorney in town.
Cynthia thought that all of that would change once Phillip joined his father’s practice. She bet that Phillip knew just what his father was doing at the trial. Maybe it was some grand plan for delayed defense or to guarantee a successful appeal. But, he never called a single soul to the stand to testify on behalf of his client. Yes, she needed to talk to Phillip about all this. Maybe the situations were related: what her husband had mumbled and the murder trial. She decided to discuss it with him.
It took a lot of nerve to call the Chandler home, but Cynthia did not have another way to reach Phillip. She was not about to walk the streets of Warsaw or the university hoping to run into him. It would be her luck he would be with that fancy big city girl he was after. So, she made the call.
“Hello Louise, this is Cynthia Lewis,” she said. “How are you, darling?”
“Well, hello, Cynthia,” Louise said. “It is so good to hear from you. We are just fine. How are you and Dr. Lewis?” Louise really didn’t like Cynthia. She was well aware of the stories going around about the doctor and all his affairs. She had heard that Cynthia also stepped out on her husband. She wondered what would have prompted this call to their home. Louise was going to find out. “We have missed seeing you both at the country club. I suppose it is because there is too much of a demand for his expertise at the hospital these days.” Louise lied, knowing good and well that the Lewis’ marriage was on the rocks and the good doctor was having sex with a certain head nurse and quite possibly every other single woman who came to town or stayed at the local hotel.
“Yes, he is much in demand up there,” Cynthia said. “I suppose there are more people needing surgery than the hospital can handle. The reason I am calling is because I wondered if you could do me a favor, dear.”
“Why, certainly,” Louise responded. “You name it, darling. What could I possibly do for you?”
Cynthia had to make up a reason to ask for Phillip without raising too much suspicion with his mother. Louise was very protective of her only son, and everyone in town knew that. She was like a mother bear protecting her precious cub. It was a shame, but Phillip was no innocent cub and she did not have a clue.
“Well, the last time I saw Phillip at the horse races, we engaged in a conversation and left it unsettled,” Cynthia said. “I was just wondering if he was available because I have more information for him on the subject we were discussing.” That was lame, but Cynthia hoped that would keep Louise from probing any deeper.
“Of course,” Louise said, “but sadly no, he is not here at the moment, darling. I believe he is visiting his aunt and uncle for a few hours. I w
ill be certain to give him your message and ask him to call you as soon as he can.” Louise wondered when Phillip had found time to go Batavia to the horse races when he was supposed to be studying to take the New York bar exam in a few months. She would have a talk with him about that as soon as he came home.
Cynthia hung up the phone and started to become a little jealous. She wondered if Phillip was actually visiting that New York City girl at the home of his aunt and uncle. There was no other good reason for him to visit relatives that she knew he did not particularly like. He had mentioned that little fact one time when they were in bed together.
The thought of Phillip marrying her was very upsetting. If he marries that New York City girl, it will be over between them. She dreaded having to hunt for another eligible man to satisfy her needs. That is pretty difficult in a small town. Cynthia was not as attractive as she used to be, and Phillip had been so kind to her. She knew he used her just to be satisfied, as well. That’s why it was such a good arrangement. There was a possibility, she thought, that he would continue to meet with her even if he was married. That thought made her excited. She hoped he would call again soon. One or two flings before his wedding would be very exciting, she fantasized.
Chapter 37
1945 Warsaw, New York
Phillip took the long way back to his house. He strolled down Court Street to Main, then turned beside the bank into the large parking lot behind the Main Street stores. After that, he cut through the parking lot to Perry Avenue and to his house. Phillip let himself in the back door and walked into the kitchen where he saw his mother doing something over the sink.