“So, let me walk through the plan one more time and you tell me if I’m spot on, okay?” Meacham nodded and Grimsley continued, “Okay, you start interviewing Gantz and wear him down by rehashing everything we’ve already covered since the day we brought him in. He gets annoyed and cranky as it approaches noon when he normally gets his lunch. There’s a knock at the door and the deputy brings in a steak knife from Pappy’s with a tag on it. It’s in a transparent evidence bag so Rudy can see it. You then complain to the deputy that it is the wrong knife. That you need the one found in the lake.” Grimsley stopped and Meacham nodded yes. “At this point, Billy, you are predicting that Gantz will start to panic and I walk in the room with the second knife. He gets flustered and we put on the full-court press.”
“Nicely summarized, Sheriff. Are we good to go?” Meacham asked. Grimsley hesitate for a few seconds then smiled and gave his thumbs up.
Meacham pictured one final roll of the dice if Rudy didn’t wither under their questioning about the knife, the wounds on his hand and the evening on Hap MacQuarrie’s boat. He knew using this final ploy should have been shared with Grimsley but Meacham was gambling that the surprise factor, and the sheriff’s spontaneous reaction, would be most effective.
***
As Meacham had predicted, Gantz was exasperated and got fidgety as a result of his rapid fire, non-stop questioning. When the deputy walked in with the knife that had been buried behind Pritchard Cottage, Meacham feigned frustration and told him he needed the other knife – “the one from the lake.”
After a few minutes, the sheriff walked in and stood by the door with a grim look on his face. An evidence bag with another knife from Pappy’s was in his right hand and he was swinging it gently back and forth to ensure that Rudy couldn’t miss it.
“Why did you lie to me about your whereabouts on the night of Birdsong’s murder, Rudy?” Meacham asked calmly. Rudy looked confused so Meacham helped him along. “You said you were at Port Ryan that night with the Clintocks but we have a witness that puts you on the Happy Scotsman. Does that jog your memory? And before you say anything else that can be contradicted, you were seen leaning over the upper deck of the boat and it appeared that you might be tossing something into the water.” As Meacham finished, he looked back at Grimsley who now held up the bag with the steak knife and was letting it swing gently back and forth.
“That’s a goddam lie” Rudy burst out. “If you heard it from that fat captain, he’s out of his tree. Hey, I know what you’re trying to suggest. I’m nobody’s fool. I’ll bet there are a bunch of those knives from Pappy’s in the lake. It means nothing and you know it.” Rudy was determined to resist any pressure exerted on him regarding Birdsong but had not planned on being caught in a lie as to where he slept the night of the murder. As to the relentless badgering about the knife, he didn’t see that it was a classic technique of misdirection.
Grimsley interrupted Rudy’s thoughts by asking, “So which lie are you concerned about, Rudy? About sleeping in Port Ryan the night in question? About what you may have thrown off the boat that night? About being in Pappy’s and following the highly-inebriated victim as he staggered down toward the lake? What did he do, insult you in front of a bunch of people at the bar? So many lies to keep straight, it’s no wonder you are confused and frustrated.”
Rudy glared at Grimsley and then turned to Meacham as if he would somehow come to his defense. But Meacham was looking at Grimsley and smiling. “Thank you, sheriff, for laying it out so neatly. It pretty much wraps things up for today unless, of course, you have something to say, Rudy” Meacham said.
Rudy shook his head no and stood, hoping that the deputy would come in and escort him back to his cell. He was sick of the hounding and wanted the quietude of his cell to gather his thoughts. In his own mind, he held his own against the onslaught of questions and accusations. He could no longer be deceived that Meacham and Grimsley were more focused on connecting him to the Birdsong murder than drug dealing. Well, they have no case, he said to himself.
“Oh, there is one more thing, Rudy” Meacham said casually, motioning for him to sit back down and catching Grimsley by surprise. “As you know, we are awaiting Dr. Vreeland’s analysis of your teeth but we thought it curious that you still haven’t asked us why we put you through that uncomfortable ordeal. We want you to look at a photograph which we think you will find quite interesting.” Meacham turned to Grimsley who nodded and exited the room. Within seconds, he returned and laid an over-sized photograph on the table between Rudy and Meacham. “Do you know what this is, Rudy?” asked Grimsley.
Rudy was dumbstruck and his confidence of just a few minutes earlier evaporated. He could tell it was a magnified picture of someone’s arm with red markings on it but he was not making the connection. Meacham began in a soft voice. “That’s okay, Rudy. You probably don’t recognize your handiwork, do you? What you’re looking at is a magnified image of Ralph Birdsong’s forearm. Those red areas are puncture wounds made by someone biting down ferociously on the victim’s arm. That’s right, Rudy, someone didn’t just repeatedly stab the victim. Oh no, that wasn’t enough. Whoever did this was angry enough to sadistically bite this helpless victim. Now, Dr. Vreeland is a specialist, some people would say a genius, at matching bite marks to the teeth that caused them. Did you know that tooth marks are almost like fingerprints, Rudy?” Meacham was animated and Grimsley looked almost savage. “Anything you want to add, sheriff?” Meacham said.
“Only that it will not sit well with the jury, Chief. It might even convince them that there was premeditation which, of course, adds to the severity of the charges. And then there’s the presumption that the biting occurred after the victim was already dead, making this final, vile act particularly degrading. Whoever committed this crime could be facing the chair – unless there were mitigating circumstances, of course.” Grimsley looked at Meacham quizzically, as if he were looking to him for a solution to a problem. Meacham just shook his head and looked at Rudy.
It seemed like a long time but the tape recorder indicated that it was only 45 seconds before Rudy Gantz broke down and blurted out, “He called me an ugly little faggot. I’m nobody’s bitch. Then he started laughing and said the drugs were in DC and he would be gone by morning. He was staggering around and wouldn’t stop laughing. Then, he lunged at me and all I was trying to do was defend myself. Guess I could have bitten him but I don’t remember.” At this point, Rudy went silent and put his head down between his legs. Grimsley looked at Meacham who said so softly that it was difficult to hear, “I think that’s enough for today”.
***
Thirty minutes later, Rudolph Gantz was booked for first degree murder in the death of Ralph Waldo Birdsong.
EPILOGUE
After the charges were officially dismissed against Woody, the Meachams returned home from Parlor Harbor, all of them mentally exhausted by the experience at their vacation getaway that had always been a respite from life’s daily toils. The rest of the summer would have been anti-climactic - if the Vietnam War wasn’t raging and Woody wasn’t waiting for his fateful letter to arrive from the local draft board. The Army was running out of eligible candidates in and around Parlor City to meet quota from the 23 to 25 age group and Woody felt certain that they were quickly working their way toward him. He knew he couldn’t procrastinate much longer.
There were several family meetings to discuss what Woody should do but all acknowledged that there really was no “safe” option except for him to enlist and have a choice of assignments after basic training. By waiting for the dreaded letter, Woody would have to gamble that he would be one of the fortunate few who were lucky enough to get a duty assignment stateside or be sent either to South Korea or to Germany.
One evening, Billy and Woody looked at pictures and talked about flying jets. Billy had never opened up about his experience in the Korean War and Woody pressed him to describe what it was like to fly the F2H Banshee. Billy was purposely vague and did
not want to give Woody the impression that it was a glamorous, carefree adventure. Comparing the Banshee to the pictures of the modern F-4 Phantom that Woody would possibly fly, Meacham marveled at the newer plane’s advanced capability and half-wished he could climb into the cockpit – at least just to feel what it was like.
When Woody finally announced that he didn’t have the passion to fly jets, Billy was not surprised and Gwen was relieved. Through all the suspense-filled waiting that followed, Woody was non-committal and kept his own counsel except to insist that his father use none of his influence with the draft board to affect his eligibility status. All Meacham would say was, “time is running out, son.”
As Woody pondered his future, life moved inexorably on for the cast of characters connected directly or indirectly to the Parlor Harbor murder of Ralph Waldo Birdsong.
***
Adelbert Wattle was persona non- grata upon his return to Parlor City upon his parole from prison. No invitations to political fetes were forthcoming and young politicos did not seek him out for advice. When he tried to arrange a reunion at his lakeside retreat, he was shattered when no one even bothered to RSVP. Even Cecil Ainsworth, his one-time protégé, eschewed him.
The family chain of funeral homes that bore his name for years now showed the name of his son-in-law. It was as if the Wattle name had been erased from the history of Parlor City. Shunned by his daughter before he went off to prison, she avoided him upon his return. Before the first winter frost, he sold his lakefront property and left town, never to be seen in Parlor City again.
***
The notoriety of the Birdsong murder and Hap MacQuarrie’s role in helping to solve it, made him a local celebrity. Perhaps coincidentally, the rotund captain started to get some good luck – but not the kind found so infrequently at the track. His ex-fiancé’ returned and their romance blossomed once again. And to top things off, an anonymous member of the bank’s board of directors bought out Rudy’s partial ownership in Hap’s boat and promptly gifted it to the gregarious Scotsman.
***
Earl Melmotte pled guilty to one count of money laundering and was sent off to a minimum- security prison camp outside of Philadelphia. There was no polo team there but he would have ample time to work on his tennis game. During his absence, Mrs. Melmotte filed for divorce. It turned out that she had been cavorting with one of the polo players in Palm Beach for over a year and had been looking for a convenient opportunity to switch riders.
***
Nellie Birdsong wanted to but never accepted an invitation to Pritchard Cottage. She returned to college somewhat of a reluctant heroine, wise beyond her years. Perhaps, in their snootiness and excessive pride, Birdsie’s parents, oblivious to their son’s recent erratic, hedonistic behavior, could not face the fact that they had been wrong in thinking the worst of Woody and in resisting Meacham’s efforts to exonerate his stepson. As eager as she was to spend time with Woody and Jerry, she was equally determined not to stoke an internecine feud. Instead, Nellie sent a congratulatory letter to the Meachams and included a light-hearted note to Jerry saying she would be watching for his photographs to appear in Life magazine.
***
The Mexican crew that had been dispatched to Parlor Harbor, Parlor City and Washington, DC had to report back to their bosses in Chihuahua that, despite their bloody work, all they had to show for it, besides a modest supply of marijuana recovered from Drebek’s car, was the four suitcases stuffed with worthless weeds taken from the Clintocks’ house. Realizing that they had been conned, they were determined to exact revenge.
***
If Lt. Fogarty could see Stella Crimmons, his idealized image of her standing outside Wattle’s cottage in the white dress back in 1957 would be shattered forever. After her Aunt Mildred died and left her the remaining part of her meagre assets not purloined by Winston Siebert back in 1955, Stella used her undeserved largesse to sustain a threadbare subsistence in a rundown tenement building in South Boston. The ordeal of being Siebert’s lover, followed by a lengthy prison term as the con man’s accomplice, had drained her of any remaining portion of humanity that she possessed. Whenever she went out, usually under the cover of darkness, she chose a seedy bar that bore a striking resemblance to Devil’s Corner. Her vacant eyes repelled even the most ardent suitor. When Fogarty saw the picture of Nellie Birdsong that made it into the paper during the trial of Rudy Gantz, he had a worthy replacement for the false goddess from Boston.
***
When Reisman’s picture appeared in the local newspaper, Sheriff Grimsley received a call from a landlord over in Port Ryan. He remembered a newly-married couple that rented one of his bungalows. They kept to themselves but the landlord was certain that the husband looked just like Reisman. He thought it odd that they left without notice one day and never asked for their deposit back.
Jakob and Brenda were not in Canada for long. Traveling as Nicholas Epp and wife, they boarded a flight from Montreal to Paris and were soon ensconced in a village on the coast of Brittany, dropping the Epp name upon their arrival. The bank account in the Cayman Islands had been closed and its deposits wired to a numbered account in Switzerland.
Nicholas Epp was amply rewarded for making several runs from Waterloo to Buffalo where he would meet Jakob or Brenda to drop off portions of the drugs hidden on his family farm. Near the end, he brought loads of spider flower and skunk cabbage to fill up several suitcases.
***
Rudy Gantz was a broken man. He never realized until they were gone how much he relied on the silent, protective presence of the Clintocks. He used the money from selling his interest in the Happy Scotsman to hire a lawyer with the sole purpose of negotiating a lesser sentence than first degree murder. The “blame Reisman” defense was quickly rejected by his attorney and mid-trial, Rudy finally caved and agreed to plead guilty to second degree manslaughter right before Dr. Vreeland was slated to testify.
When he left Parlor Harbor for Strathmore, he was unaware that Reisman’s Mexican handlers had sources within the prison waiting for him. The Mexicans, not knowing the fecklessness of the redhead, were convinced that Gantz was the Mennonite’s shrewd partner. They assumed that he was still be in cahoots with Reisman and knew the whereabouts of the missing drugs. If Rudy stonewalled them, the Mexicans had already decided that the redhead’s second stay at Strathmore would be short-lived.
***
Sheriff Harold Grimsley was a different man after Billy Meacham left town. The Chief had brought out the best in the sheriff and the change was palpable. They both knew they would never form an enduring friendship but the temporary bond they formed was genuine and both of them acknowledged it, not verbally but in how they worked together in those last few days. Grimsley had discovered something about himself which had enabled him to shed the heavy emotional baggage that had been weighing him down for years. When he did think of his nephew, it was with sorrow over what could have been. The feelings of bitterness and the thirst for revenge against Billy Meacham, Jr. had been finally expunged.
***
The Patchetts followed the news in Parlor Harbor from across the pond, as their English friends referred to the Atlantic Ocean, and waited for the trial of Rudy Gantz to be completed before sailing home. Intent on slipping back into the family compound unnoticed, they were thwarted when one intrepid reporter from an out of town newspaper got tipped on their arrival and approached them as they exited the train in Parlor Harbor. Miss Henrietta strutted out of the station, head high and posture erect while her grandson slunk behind a burly security guard.
The matriarch knew that if Ned Taggart ever returned, she could be charged with suborning perjury as well as other crimes. In the end, it didn’t matter that Taggart had failed to nick himself and add his own blood to the steak knife before he buried it behind Pritchard Cottage. Nonetheless, the matriarch was still indignant that her instructions had not been followed precisely. She learned through back channels that Judge Rozelle had spoken to th
e acting D.A. and that no charges would be filed against Ozbert if he quickly resigned and went into seclusion.
“The Oz”, reverting to his puerile nature, did exactly as instructed and spent his days traversing the many acres of the Patchett estate, gazing out with a blank look on the shimmering lake but never looking inward.
***
Before returning home, Doc Sauer felt compelled to apologize to Woody about the deception regarding his deceased wife. Woody brushed it off as insignificant, underscoring the magnanimous nature which made him so endearing to almost everyone. After his adventurous interlude in Parlor Harbor, Sauer was almost forlorn as he watched his first patient in over a week plop down in his dentist chair and heard himself say “okay now, open wide”.
***
Jerry Kosinski vanished the day after Nellie Birdsong’s letter arrived. While it was coincidental, Gwen felt it might be the result of the note he received from her. Woody’s first reaction was that he had fled to Canada but when he talked to Doc Sauer, he started to see things differently. “He’s a dreamer with keen intellectual insights beyond his years, Woody. You know that better than anyone. Can you imagine him traversing a jungle lugging an M-16 and trying to stay focused on the lurking enemy? Hell, he’d find some lizard on the ground and examine it, thinking about its place in the evolutionary chain. He’s no coward running away from the war and will no doubt face danger at some point but it will be on his terms. It is better this way. I believe that you will come to see that in time.”
Two weeks after Woody returned home to Parlor City, still contemplating his own future, a postcard arrived from Nepal with an imposing picture of a Buddhist monk atop a temple outside Kathmandu. There was no message and no signature but Woody gazed at the postcard with a smile on his face. His friend was alive and safe.
A Murder In Parlor Harbor Page 21