Part 12 (2/2)
”I'd say so, yes, though there was twenty years' difference in their ages. Dolly confided in her, poured out everything, and Miss Haggerty reciprocated. Apparently she'd had severe emotional problems involving her own father, and she couldn't resist the parallel with Dolly. They both let down their back hair. It wasn't a healthy situation,” he said dryly.
”Does she have anything to say about Helen's father?”
”Dolly seems to think he was a crooked policeman involved in a murder, but that may be sheer fantasy--a kind of secondary image of her own father.”
”It isn't. Helen's father is a policeman, and Helen at least regarded him as a crook.”
”How in the world would you know that?”
”I read a letter from her mother on the subject. I'd like to have a chance to talk to her parents.”
”Why don't you?”
”They live in Bridgeton, Illinois.”
It was a long jump, but not so long as the jump my mind made into blank possibility. I had handled cases which opened up gradually like fissures in the firm ground of the present, cleaving far down through the strata of the past. Perhaps Helen's murder was connected with an obscure murder in Illinois more than twenty years ago, before Dolly was born. It was a wishful thought, and I didn't mention it to Dr. G.o.dwin.
”I'm sorry I can't be more help to you,” he was saying. ”I have to go now, I'm already overdue for my hospital rounds.”
The sound of a motor detached itself from the traffic in the street, and slowed down. A car door was opened and closed. Men's footsteps came up the walk. Moving quickly for a big man, G.o.dwin opened the door before they rang.
I couldn't see who his visitors were, but they were unwelcome ones. G.o.dwin went rigid with hostility.
”Good morning, Sheriff,” he said.
Crane responded folksily: ”It's a h.e.l.l of a morning and you know it. September's supposed to be our best month, but the b.l.o.o.d.y fog's so thick the airport's socked in.”
”You didn't come here to discuss the weather.”
”That's right, I didn't. I heard you got a fugitive from justice holed up here.”
”Where did you hear that?”
”I have my sources.”
”You'd better fire them, Sheriff. They're giving you misleading information.”
”Somebody is, doctor. Are you denying that Mrs. Dolly Kincaid ne McGee is in this building?”
G.o.dwin hesitated His heavy jaw got heavier. ”She is.”
”You said a minute ago she wasn't. What are you trying to pull, doc?”
”What are _you_ trying to pull? Mrs. Kincaid is not a fugitive. She's here because she's ill.”
”I wonder what made her ill. Can't she stand the sight of blood?”
G.o.dwin's lips curled outward. He looked ready to spit in the other man's face. I couldn't see the Sheriff from where I sat, and I made no attempt to. I thought it was best for me to stay out of sight.
”It isn't just the weather that makes it a lousy day, doe. We had a lousy murder in town last night. I guess you know that, too. Probably Mrs. Kincaid told you all about it.”
”Are you accusing her?” G.o.dwin said.
”I wouldn't say that. Not yet, anyway.”
”Then beat it.”
”You can't talk like that to me.”
Codwin held himself motionless but his breath shook him as though he had a racing engine inside of him. ”You accused me in the presence of witnesses of harboring a fugitive from justice. I could sue you for slander and by G.o.d I will if you don't stop hara.s.sing me and my patients.”
”I didn't mean it that way.” Crane's voice was much less confident. ”Anyway, I got a right to question a witness.”
”At some later time perhaps you have. At the present time Mrs. Kincaid is under heavy sedation. I can't permit her to be questioned for at least a week.”
”A week?”
”It may be longer. I strongly advise you not to press the point. I'm prepared to go before a judge and certify that police questioning at the present time would endanger her health and perhaps her life.”
”I don't believe it.”
”I don't care what you believe.”
G.o.dwin slammed the door and leaned on it, breathing like a runner. A couple of white-uniformed nurses who had been peeking through the inner door tried to look as if they had business there. He waved them away.
I said with unfeigned admiration: ”You really went to bat for her.”
”They did enough damage to her when she was a child. They're not going to compound it if I can help it.”
”How did they know she was here?”
”I have no idea. I can usually trust the staff to keep their mouths shut.” He gave me a probing look. ”Did you tell anyone?”
”n.o.body connected with the law. Alex did mention to Alice Jenks that Dolly was here.”
”Perhaps he shouldn't have. Miss Jenks has worked for the county a long time, and Crane and she are old acquaintances.”
”She wouldn't tattle on her own niece, would she?”
”I don't know what she'd do.” G.o.dwin tore off his smock and threw it at the chair where I had been sitting. ”Well, shall I let you out?”
He shook his keys like a jailer.
chapter 12.
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