Diana and the Three Behrs
Page 8
“Did you get all that?” Dr. King interrupted her distracted contemplation.
She glanced down at her notes, relieved to see she had. “Yes, of course. Are you ready for me to transcribe this, or shall we wait for Dr. Elmsford?”
She didn’t need to hear the answer. Trey and Pamina came in, Trey with a cumbersome bundle in his hands, followed by Pearce and Elmsford.
“I believe we have everything we need. At least, enough to carry on.” Elmsford came to the chair where King was re-reading a faded legal document. “What about the troops here? Did you manage to obfuscate an otherwise straightforward letter between attorneys?”
“Our secretary was about to produce our results. I think you’ll find it satisfactorily obscure.”
Diana heard Elmsford ask about the others as she whirled paper into her machine and began transcribing the letter she and King had put together from all their various texts.
“In your room, or I suppose they’re still there. Between Holmes shouting to make Getty hear and Withers bleating about his perfect files being disarranged, we couldn’t get anything done.” King glared over his half-moon glasses and pounded the thick book beside him to reinforce the situation. “I sent them out.”
Trey laughed. “I hope there hasn’t been war declared in the interim. I’ll go get them.” He put the twine-tied bundle on the table, dropped his hat beside the awkward mass of brown paper, and went to fetch the absent members of the group. Diana had almost finished her work before the four men returned. Trey passed three loose sheets to King.
“Here it is, an academic exercise in verbal embroidery. I skimmed through it, and it sounds a little, oh, not quite right somehow. Not totally convincing.”
Elmsford took the pages and read through them. “No, not exactly the right tone.” He turned to Diana. “Read this, young lady, and see if it sounds like something one woman would write to another.”
“I’m not quite finished with Dr. King’s letter. Give me just a minute more.”
“I can do it, Di. Your shorthand isn’t too different; I can read it if I go slowly. You can help El, and I’ll take care of the letter.”
Diana agreed. “Thanks, Pam. There’s just this one last paragraph. It’s pretty straightforward, no legal terms.” She moved away from the worktable and accepted the pages Elmsford handed her. Immediately she saw the problem. The letter lacked any touch of wistful longing, any hint of the need to reclaim connection to distant kin, no warmth. It was not likely to endear the writer to a long-lost family.
“May I do a little polishing here, Dr. El? The words are here, but the sentiment isn’t.”
“Please, Diana. See what you can do.”
She took the pages and settled herself in one of the armchairs. She tried to put herself into the mind of an elderly woman, a woman facing the last of her days alone. Words seemed to come, as if the unknown woman were actually dictating. Nights are long now, and the house is empty. I remember when little girls giggled as they ran up the stairs. When your mother and her friends would come by to call on ‘Auntie’ and have cookies in the kitchen. It was my fault, that dreadful quarrel, but I was too proud to admit I was wrong. Now I have no one, and I’m no longer proud. It’s too late to make up with my sister. Too late to go to your mother’s wedding and celebrate the marriage I opposed so bitterly. I can but hope it’s not too late to meet you, the daughters of my beloved niece. Will you come? Let me make amends before time takes away the chance?
Diana wiped away a tear that slipped down her cheek as she read over the words. They said what she thought the elderly woman would feel. With a fresh sheet of paper, she combined the archaic spelling of the owls’ version with the sentiment of her own notes and wrote out a fair copy. “I think this is how the lady would do it. A simple request to let the quarrel end and a hope to see her only relatives before she’s gone.”
Elmsford took the paper. He started reading quickly, then went back to the beginning and read more slowly. “Yes, that’s it exactly.” He whirled around. “Withers! Come here.”
The little man, the circles under his eyes deeper than ever, scurried across the room.
“Yes, El? You need for me to do something?”
“I do.” He pointed at the package on the table. “There’s a packet of writing paper in there. Take it and go to your room. Copy this. You write a hand that’s so old-fashioned it’s almost antiquated. Write up this letter and bring it back to me.” He started to hand Diana’s letter over, then took it back. “No, add this to the end.” He took Diana’s pencil and scribbled a few lines at the end. “Oh, we need a name for the lady.” Turning back to Diana, he stared over his glasses. “Well, she’s your invention. What do you call her?”
Hesitating only a second, Diana answered, “Aunt May.”
“May? First name or last?”
“I don’t know. I just know she’s Aunt May, spelled M-A-Y. It could be either, a first or last name.”
“Fine. She’s Aunt May.” He wrote the words on the bottom of the page. “Here, Withers, go turn this into a real letter. Pamina, is that thing of King’s readable yet?”
“Pos-i-lute-ly, El.” She rolled the sheet out of the typewriter.
“Very good. Bring that package over here, and I’ll explain exactly how this is going to work. Having had a long, if not particularly exciting, association with college students, I’ve seen just about every fiddle and fix that can be pulled by a determined plagiarist. What I propose is a small variation on a thing called ‘the doctored document,’ a ruse used to validate an argument based on totally fictitious evidence that substantiates events which never occurred.”
Chapter 7
Dr. Elmsford took a small package from the bundle on the desk and pulled out sheets of heavy bond paper. “Sit down, everyone. We’re going to add the last element of this formula. I’ll tell you how I propose to make it work.” He spread an array of paper, businesslike letterhead, across the table. “This is the result of some scavenging Pearce and I did while the rest of you created our letters. The letters are good, but they need to be on the correct paper to be convincing. You will remember we visited with the widow of an attorney who recently died. I’ve rarely come across a more comprehensive accumulation of the detritus of a professional life. When we first surveyed the reams of files and piles of books hiding under that gray coat of dust, I thought there might be something of historic value, but as we began sorting, it became obvious it would take years to find anything worthwhile. I wasn’t interested in investing the time we would need for a complete examination.”
“But you changed your mind? You went back there today.” Pamina left her chair behind the work table and came to sit on the arm of her sister’s chair, closer to the speaker.
“You are correct, Miss Pamina.” He held out an envelope and two sheets of the stationery. “You’ll note we have here virgin sheets from the stores of a small firm of attorneys, Oliver and Spears of Denver, Colorado, to be specific. We also have an envelope from the same firm, one that has been through the mail. It is addressed to Horace Bates, Esq. of this city. Our excellent secretary will take the letter King has created for us and copy it to the Oliver and Spears letterhead. We will then have a letter from one attorney in Denver to another here, telling him that his former client, Miss May, after a long breach in family relations is seeking to correspond with her great nieces, whose last known location was this city. The letter implies the nieces will likely benefit financially if they can be located and put in touch with the aging aunt, a wealthy woman with little time to live.” He picked up another envelope. “We will put it into this, previously used by the Denver firm to correspond with Bates. It has the proper postmarks and is of the same paper stock as the stationery. Thus, we have set up the premise that the local attorney has searched for the missing heirs.”
“The letter Dr. Getty and Dr. Holmes created, the one from ‘Aunt May’? Where does that come in?” Diana thought she saw the plan but wasn’t certain.
“A bit elaborate, but on the whole, a clever plan, Elmsford.” King rubbed his chin as he considered the strategy.
“It’s so intricate, Dr. El.” Pamina folded her arms, a stubborn line narrowing her mouth. “It looks like an awful lot of finagling for what amounts to Di and me jumping on a train to scram out of town. Why go to Denver? We don’t know anybody there. Can’t we pick a place and just go? Not in a couple of days but tomorrow?”
“My dear girl, do you realize that your only chance of getting out of this mess is to be able to show a perfectly logical and pressing need to be elsewhere with no connection to that incident at Mr. Gunn’s establishment? If that body is identified, the bit of gossip in the paper is connected to you, and if you’ve left the city just as the victim is identified, both the police and Mr. Gunn’s associates are going to be most concerned about your health and location. We must manage to give you a strong reason to depart, before a name can be put on the victim, so you will be out of the picture before anyone has reason to connect your presence at the nightclub with the violent end of two lives.” Elmsford put down his pipe and leaned over the table, his glasses slipping down his nose. “If you just up and leave suddenly, it will draw attention, not only to you and your sister, but to Trey and Pearce, and by association, all of us.”
“He’s right, Pam. Dashing off with no explanation would create questions.” Diana clasped her sister’s hand. “I don’t want to go to Denver either. Can’t we find some place a little closer? We don’t actually have an aunt in Colorado, you remember.”
Elmsford tapped his pipe into his palm. “Of course, you won’t be going to Denver, my dear. I would hardly send you off to terra incognita and abandon you to a place where you had no friends or family. I have a much better destination in mind.”
“Some place closer?” Pamina sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter as long as we’re together.”
Elmsford cleared his throat. “As to that, I think it’s better that you separate.” Before Pamina could protest, he held up both hands. “No, let me explain.”
“I don’t think we could be apart, Dr. El, not at a time like this.” Diana spoke up, her dismay overriding his words.
“Hear me out, Diana. I know the idea of going separate ways right now is frightening, but think about it. If, indeed, the body is identified as Haver, and Gunn or the police discover the connection to either of you, they will investigate, quickly learning you are sisters and believed to be traveling together. You are both young and pretty and apt to draw attention, especially with your sister’s very noticeable red hair. If you part ways, go in different directions, you are less likely to be associated with two women suspected of having witnessed a crime. It’s practical, and safer for both of you, to travel independently.”
Trey stepped out of the shadow beside the window and put an arm around each girl. “I know this is a tough choice, but I think El is right.” He glanced across at his older colleague. “But they won’t be separated very long, will they? I mean, they travel different roads but they will wind up in the same place. Is that what you’re thinking?”
Elmsford paused a moment. “Yes, that’s exactly what I have in mind.” He looked around at the other men in the room. “All of us must leave, you know. Pearce saw the same thing Diana did. His vision is perhaps not as sharp, but neither the police nor Gunn, if they learn of his presence, will care about that detail. They will only be interested in the fact that he was there, and he was witness to the incident behind the establishment. It is likely one or the other, probably both, would mount a search for him as well as the woman with him. Therefore, he is vulnerable, and by extension, so are we. Ergo, we must depart as well.”
“I suppose you’ve thought out a plan for us, a safe haven where we can continue to work?” Pearce, his hands in his pockets, lounged in one corner as if he weren’t deeply concerned about the discussion.
“We said we’d move on to San Antonio to look at the Spanish influence on Western migration, if you remember, Archibald. I propose we continue with that plan, at least as a starting point.” He turned to Trey. “I seem to recall your friend Adler Behr suggested we might find a visit to his area productive. Working cowboys still tending herds, the German impact on early settlements, and the blending of cultures could all be areas worthy of examination. Leaving here to study other social and cultural effects seems like a logical move, one that shouldn’t bring us unwanted attention.”
Feeling suddenly adrift in currents she couldn’t control, Diana moved away from Trey and Pamina. She could see Elmsford had given careful consideration to the arrangements he proposed, but the thought of leaving not only her sister but her bickering owls, dear friends for all their eccentricities, wounded her.
“What about the girls, El?” Trey asked the question foremost in Diana’s mind. “Where do they go?”
“Dear boy, we will continue to need a secretary, will we not?”
Diana was ashamed to feel relief. The professors would still need her skills, and of course she’d be happy to continue working with them, but what about Pamina? Where would she go? How would they get back together?
“We do need someone to take notes and make clear reports out of our varied studies,” Pearce agreed.
“I’m glad that you agree, Archibald.” Elmsford nodded in affirmation. “We’ve benefitted from having someone keep order for us. We’ll take Miss Pamina with us to cope with those details. She can manage the typewriting and note taking in her sister’s place.” He tucked his pipe back into his pocket. “It is possible to drive from here to San Antonio, isn’t it, Trey? We can manage with the car?”
Trey, his arm still across Pamina’s shoulder, agreed. “The roads aren’t wonderful, but they are passable as long as we don’t have heavy, prolonged rain. No word of rain that I’ve heard; we should be all right.”
“But what about Di, Dr. El?” Pamina raised bewildered eyes to Elmsford. “Where is she going? What will she do? She’ll have to find work.”
Diana tried to think beyond Elmsford’s words. They need a secretary, but they’ll take Pam, not me. It makes sense, I guess. I’m the one who saw those men who took Haver. I could identify them. If I’m with my sweet owls, I put them all in danger. It’s better if they take Pam. But what will I do? Where can I go that I can find a job quickly? What will I do without Pam? We’ve never been apart.
“It’s all going to work out, Miss Pamina. I’ve planned for every contingency.” Elmsford stacked the stationery and envelopes in a tidy pile. “Diana, you know us and you know how we work. You’ve been most patient with our chaotic way of doing things. Now, with that background, I think you can be our ambassador. You will be of invaluable help assembling sources, documents, and even finding people for us to examine. Not unlike what Trey does for us, you know, but in a different area. We won’t have a great deal of time for finishing up our inquiries once we leave San Antonio. Just ten days or perhaps two weeks. It would be of great help if you could go ahead of us, have things organized so we can make the most of the time we have.”
A terrible suspicion flooded Diana.
“You’d like for me to go where?”
“Why, to that little town, the German settlement, where Trey’s friend lives. Behr, he’s the banker there. He’ll know everybody. His family’s been there for at least two generations Trey tells me. He’ll be a gold mine of information. When we get down the road, we’ll send him a wire, to let him know you’re coming. By the time your train gets there, he’ll be ready for you.” Elmsford smiled, pleased with himself for coming up with a solution that helped the scholarly investigation forward but neatly took Pamina and Diana out of the city. “Then, in a few weeks, we’ll join you there. You and Miss Pamina will again be together and, I believe, out of danger.”
Adler Behr? I’m to go into his town and ask him to help me with the professors’ project? A man who despises the idea of women in the office? And thinks females are as brainless as guineas? Elmsford, you are out of your mind!
****
Try as she might, Diana was unable to come up with a convincing scheme to replace the history professor’s plan. She could see the logic of Pamina taking her position as the group’s secretary; her presence multiplied the possibility of someone connecting them to the events at the nightclub. But to work with Adler Behr? To spend days, even weeks with him, when he regarded women in the workplace as a catastrophe? How could Dr. Elmsford even suggest it?
Though she’d argued with Trey, even begged him for another solution, he’d not taken any steps to change Dr. El’s agenda. In fact, he approved the plan. Likely, Diana decided, he was as pleased to have Pamina close at hand as Elmsford was to have Diana at a distance.