Chapter 44

Monday, December 7, 1964

Pearl Harbor Day. I had assigned students to write a short story, somehow related to the event. Volunteers read their version in class, which was relatively successful. The project got them into the human aspects of the tragedy. 

I had two things on my agenda, finding out about the school's secretary—ex secretary—and seing what else I could pry out of Brother Rufus. For the first, I spoke to Hank, with some trepidation, asking him if it wasn't odd that Judy—the secretary—had left shortly after Father Fox left us in an untimely manner.

"Not at all," he said. "At least I didn't think so at the time. She couldn't concentrate after Bernie's death, especially the possibility that it was murder. I rather expected something like that, the nuns the same thing. They were spooked. Are you still on this thing?"

"I'm bothered, that's all. We didn't really talk about Judy as a suspect, especially for that threatening message left in your mailbox."

At that point, I had dug myself a hole and felt compelled to tell him what I had learned from Dingo Dave's mother and how that had played out—or seemed to."

"You are still working it," he said, for what passed as anger from him. 

"I'm just not satisfied, that's all. Clearly, Dave made a mistake. He was an unwitting accomplice in the threatening note, or seems to have been, and in the collage. Even that had more to do with his brother. But I don't like him for the poisoner. I think he—or she—is still out there."

"Really." Hank didn't know where to go with this.

"Look, you want it to be over. I get that. But I know you too well to think you'd be satisfied with a convenient untruth. So yes, I'm still trying to do the job you hired me for. But I'm trying to be discreet. I promise." 

"You better be."

I left the room, thinking that talking to Rufus was not a good idea, not if I wanted to be discreet.

After classes were over, I walked over to the ND library, checked at the desk for Sarah's whereabouts, and found her on the seventh floor. I didn't need a meeting. I just gave her the name of the school's former secretary and asked her if she could find her address. It was a bother for both of us, but it was better to not go through channels.