All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred fifteen)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Eight

Things Relative

(part two hundred fifteen)

“It’s a heck of a case, I’ll say it,” Weem said.

They were in the sunny parlor, Élucide’s work office; Mrs. Frame was in her room. Daylight, reaching these windows from the south and east, was dim at this hour, lamps not yet necessary, neighbors—the Kelvins, who had spotted the mouse trouble—able to see two innocent profiles in speech…if need be. She had given up disguising that Weem called. He would stay an hour, and when darkness grew imminent, leave for his hotel.

“She was murdered. I don’t see two ways, there. And if you look for why, how do you not come to Demrose?”

“Well, don’t look at me as if I were arguing.”

He eyed the coffee in his cup. “What do you feel…”

“Monaghan,” she cut him short, “was staging all his…revelations, I suppose. Do you think he and Phelan rehearsed the choreography?”

“Now listen. Take me seriously for ten or fifteen minutes, and I’ll lay out what’s on my mind. Do you understand what the job of the police is?”

“I’m sure not. But, like a good newspaper reader, I’ll say ‘keeping the peace’.”

“The law requires an inquest over a suspicious death. You have this pending thing, a woman’s been murdered. Monaghan knew that, prior to the inquest…why he was rowed out to the Chief, why he conducted interviews before the passengers could take themselves off. But the public didn’t know it. Now, once the inquest is called, you have a public situation…if the verdict is foul play, you have a murderer at large. That pressures the police to make an arrest. Monaghan doesn’t determine whether his evidence is good…good, I mean, for the clincher. That’s lawyers’ business. He just knows the difference between evidence and not evidence. He produces it. If he produces a persuasive amount, his commissioner sends the case to the district attorney. That is, a felony case. Fine for Monaghan if he can browbeat Demrose into a confession. Would he do it?”

“Yes he would,” she said…not taking Weem altogether seriously. “But is it fair to assume he didn’t interview Myra or Manfred en voyage? They were the immediate bereaved. Or do the policemen you’ve known bull right in?”

“One of those not-if-I-see-you-coming-first situations, between the reporter and the cop. I figure Monaghan’d see how the money stood, not approach til after the burial.”

“Then Gorman didn’t exist for the police, until Myra told her story.”

“I’m no fan of Gorman. But, speaking of…”

“I’ve got something.” Keeping an index finger raised, she rummaged a drawer. “Manfred’s letters. I thought of them exactly now. Monaghan would like his hands on these, wouldn’t he?”

“He can have them, too, by force of law. But tricky matter, going from Illinois to Indiana.”

227

Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred sixteen)

(2025, Stephanie Foster)