Witherspoon pulled up a chair and said, “Are you able to tell me what happened?”
“That’s still unclear,” said Milo. “She was found in an alley just a few blocks away. Behind the Pentecostal church.”
“The church… she wasn’t religious,” said Witherspoon. “That’s one thing I can tell you.”
“Resistant?” I said.
He nodded. “Very. Not that we lean hard on them. But we do try to get through to them. Ernie had no desire to embrace the Lord. She really wasn’t one of our regulars, just checked in from time to time when things got bad for her. We never turn anyone away unless they’re violent.”
“Was she ever violent?”
“No, never.”
Milo said, “What made things go bad for her?”
“It all came down to alcohol. She was drinking herself to death. We’ve known her off and on for the last couple of years, and lately, we could see significant deterioration.”
“Such as?”
“Health problems- persistent cough, skin lesions, stomach problems. One time she slept here and the next morning her sheets were splotched with blood. At first we figured it was… you know, the time of the month. There’s no shortage of tampons here, but some of the women forget. As it turned out, Erna was bleeding from…” Witherspoon flinched… “her rear end. Internally. We called in one of our volunteer doctors and finally convinced Erna to be examined. She said it was nothing critical, but that Ernie did have some fissures that should be looked into. She also said there were probably intestinal problems that should be looked into. We offered to send Erna to a specialist, but she left and didn’t return for months. That was her pattern. In and out. For a lot of them, we’re a depot.”
“What about mental problems?” said Milo.
“That goes without saying,” said Witherspoon. “For most of our people, that’s a given.”
“What kind of specific mental problems did Ernadine Murphy have?”
“As I said, it all came down to drink. I figured she finally went too far- organic brain syndrome they call it. Going dull. And when she’d sleep here, she’d sometimes wake up and hallucinate. Korsakoff’s syndrome, it’s a vitamin B deficiency they get.” He frowned. “Folks joke about pink elephants, but there’s nothing funny about it.”
I said, “What was she like before she deteriorated?”
“Hmm… I can’t say she was ever really… normal. I’m not saying she was stupid. She wasn’t. Once in a while, when we could dry her out long enough and she talked, you could see she had a good vocabulary- our sense was she’d once been educated. But when we tried to ask her about it, she’d clam up. Lately, those dry periods were few and far between. For the last year or so she was still pretty dysfunctional.”
“Aggressive?” said Milo.
“Just the opposite- passive, spaced-out, slurred speech, trouble focusing. Her motor skills were affected, too. She’d stumble, trip- is that what happened to her? Did she fall and hit her head?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” said Milo.
“Someone did this to her.”
“We don’t know yet, sir.”
“Oh, Lord,” said Witherspoon.
Milo took out his pad. “Who’s the doctor who evaluated her when she bled on the sheets?”
“We use several, all volunteers. I think this time it was Hannah Gold. She’s got an office on Highland. It was only one time, she never established a relationship with Erna. No one did. We could never reach her.”
Witherspoon’s shoulders rose and fell. “God gives and takes away, but there’s plenty we humans do in the interim that affects the journey.”
“What do you know about Ms. Murphy’s family history?”
“Nothing,” said Witherspoon. “She never opened up.”
I said, “Did she have any friends? Connect with any of the other residents?”
“Not that I saw. To be honest, most of the other women were afraid of her. She was large, could come across threatening if you didn’t know.”
“How so?”
“Lurching around,” said Witherspoon. “Mumbling to herself. Seeing things.”
“What did she see?” said Milo.
“She never put it into words, but from the way she behaved- standing there and pointing and moving her lips- you could tell she was frightened. Was seeing something that frightened her. But she wouldn’t accept comfort.”
“So the other women were afraid of her.”
“Maybe I overspoke,” said Witherspoon. “More nervous than afraid. She never caused a problem. Sometimes she’d go off in a corner, get agitated, start mumbling and shaking her fist. When she did that, everyone gave her space. But she never aggressed against anyone. Sometimes she’d punch her own chest, rap her head with her knuckles. Nothing serious, but you can see how that would be scary. A woman of her size.”
“Those lucid periods,” I said. “What made you think she was well educated?”
“Her vocabulary,” said Witherspoon. “The way she used words. I wish I could remember a specific example but I can’t. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her.”
“How long?” said Milo.
“Maybe three, four months.”
“Could you please check your records and be more specific, sir?” said Milo.
“Sorry. The only records we keep are for the government. Tax-exempt status and all that. Shuffling government paper takes up a lot of my time, so I don’t add to my burden.”
“A good vocabulary,” I said.
“It was more than that- good diction. Something about the way she talked could be… sophisticated.”
“During her clear periods what did she talk about?”
Witherspoon fingered a cornrow. “Let me ask Diane.” He strode to his desk, punched a phone extension, talked in a low voice, said, “She’ll be right down.”
Diane Petrello was in her sixties, short and stout with clipped gray hair and big, round, tortoiseshell glasses even wider than her face. She wore a pink sweatshirt that said Compassion, a long denim skirt, and sneakers.
When Milo told her about Erna Murphy, she said, “Oh my God,” in a soft, high voice. Tears rolled down her cheeks as he added a few details. As she sat down opposite us and wiped her eyes, Daryl Witherspoon fixed her a cup of tea.
She warmed her hands on the cup, and said, “I hope the poor thing finally finds some peace.”
“Tortured soul,” said Milo.
“Oh, yes,” said Diane Petrello. “Aren’t we all?”
He went over some of the same ground we’d covered with Witherspoon, then repeated my question about Erna Murphy’s lucid periods.
“What she talked about,” said Petrello. “Hmm, I’d say mostly art. She could spend hours looking at pictures in art books. One time, I went out and bought some old art books for her at a thrift shop but when I brought them back, she was gone. She was like that. Restless, wouldn’t stay put. In fact, that was the last time I saw her. She never got to see the books.”
“What kind of art did she like?” said Milo.
“Well… I guess I couldn’t tell you. Pretty pictures, I suppose.”
“Landscapes?”
Julie Kipper’s pretty pictures.
Diane Petrello said, “Anything pretty. It seemed to calm her down. But not always. Nothing really worked when she was all wound up.”
“She could be pretty agitated,” said Milo.
“But she never caused problems.”
“She have any friends here at Dove House?”
“Not really, no.”
“Anyone on the outside?”
“Not that I ever saw.”
“She talk about any outside friends?”
Petrello shook her head.
Milo said, “Specifically, ma’am, I’d be interested in a young man in his early twenties. Tall, thin, dark hair, bad skin, eyeglasses.”
Petrello looked at Witherspoon. They both shook their heads.