“Oh. So it was sitting in one of the drawers.”
“Not exactly. It was in an envelope with tape on it.”
“Tape.”
“Duct tape. I reached into the drawer and I felt something rubbing the back of my hand. It was tape. It was sticking something to the bottom of the drawer on top of it. That seemed dumb to me.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That is kind of weird.”
“It was an envelope and that piece of paper was inside. It only had writing on one side, so I was able to use the other.”
“Did you read this?” I asked her.
Crystal shook her head.
“Why not?”
“I wasn’t interested,” she said. “I’m only interested in blank pages so I can use them.”
“All you cared about was that one side was untouched.”
“Yup,” she said.
“I was going to give this back to you, but I wonder, would you let me take this one page out? So I could keep this letter?”
“That’ll ruin the book,” she said. “Maybe they’d let you copy it.”
She hopped off the chair, taking the book with her, and called over to the secretary, “Mrs. Simms, I need you to copy something for me. It’s just one page.”
Mrs. Simms came over to the counter. “Darling, for you, anything.”
“This page here,” she said, pointing.
Mrs. Simms, without even looking at the letter, put it on the office printer, closed the lid, and hit the button. She returned with the book, and the single sheet, which Crystal handed to me.
“Can I go to lunch now?” she asked me, gathering the package of paper and markers in her arms.
“You sure can,” I said.
She stifled yet another yawn.
“You’re going to need a big nap when you get home,” I said.
“I hope Mom doesn’t wake me up again tonight,” she said.
“Why did she wake you up? Were you having a bad dream?” Given the nature of her drawings, she seemed a natural for nightmares.
Crystal shook her head. “No. I heard her leave, and the car starting. I stood at the window and watched until she came back home. And then I heard you come, too. And then I heard you and Mommy in the guest room. So I had a bad sleep.”
If I hadn’t already been rendered speechless, what happened next would have done it.
Crystal, almost eye level with me, since I was still seated, gave me a hug.
“I like you,” she said, then left the office with her bag of paper and markers.
Sixty-six
“Professor Blackmore has indicated to me he wishes to waive all his rights and is willing to answer any of your questions,” Nate Fletcher said. “As the professor’s attorney, I have strongly advised him against this, but I’m afraid I’m not able to change his mind. Just the same, I’m going to remain here to look after his interests, as best I can.”
“Sure,” Barry Duckworth said.
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Peter Blackmore said calmly.
The three of them were sitting in an interrogation room at the Promise Falls police headquarters. Duckworth was recording the interview. Audio and video.
Once the formalities were over — a statement of when and where the interview was being conducted and the names of everyone in attendance — the detective kicked things off.
“Mr. Blackmore, did you arrange to meet Mr. Duncomb today out front of his bank on Claymore Street?”
“I did.”
“Did you call him?”
“I did. I said I wanted to meet with him, and he told me where he was.”
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him I was going to come by, that he should stand out front.”
“That’s what you asked him to do? To stand out front?”
“That’s correct,” Blackmore said.
“Why did you ask him to do that?”
“Because I wanted to run him down.”
“You’d already decided that.”
“Hang on,” said Nate Fletcher.
“It’s okay,” the professor said. “Yes, I had already decided that. I had decided to kill Clive if I had the opportunity. He’s a more powerful man than I am. Stronger than I am. I figured I’d be more successful using my car.”
“Why did you kill Mr. Duncomb?” Duckworth asked.
“He was a bad person.”
“Had he threatened you?”
“Yes. He said if I told anyone about our activities, that he would kill me.”
“What activities are you referring to?”
He paused. “The sex.”
“You’re talking about that room in the basement of the Chalmers home, the multipartner sex parties.”
“That’s right. Georgina and myself, Clive and Liz, and Adam and Miriam.”
“And sometimes, others.”
Blackmore nodded. “That’s right. Sometimes Thackeray students. Girls excited about meeting an author. Clive would set it up. They’d come out for dinner. Have a little wine—”
“The drinks were spiked. With the roofies.”
“Sometimes. Sometimes not.”
“So you’re saying you ran Clive Duncomb down with your car out of fears for your own safety?”
“Only partly. I’ve stopped being concerned for myself. You could take your gun out now and shoot me in the head and I wouldn’t try to stop you.”
“I’m not going to do anything like that,” Duckworth said.
“I know. I’m just saying there’s a part of me that would welcome it. My wife is dead. I’m overwhelmed with shame. I know you’ll have people watching me, but I will probably try to kill myself at the earliest opportunity. But I’m happy to answer your questions first. I killed Clive because he was an evil man.”
“Did he kill Miriam Chalmers?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Blackmore said. “He said he didn’t, but...” He shrugged.
“What did he say exactly?”
“He just said he hadn’t. He tried to turn it around. He accused me of killing her.”
“Did you?”
He shook his head wearily.
“When I found you this morning, you had blood on you,” Duckworth said.
The professor nodded. “That’s mine. I stumbled last night, and then Clive hit me. I have no reason to lie. You’ve arrested me for killing Clive. I was of totally sound mind when I—”
Nate Fletcher held a hand up. “Peter, hang on, we don’t know that. We need a psychiatric assessment to determine—”
“Stop,” he said. “I was of sound mind when I ran Clive down with my car. It’s the most sane thing I’ve ever done. I know I’ll go to jail for that. So if I’d killed Miriam, I’d have no problem admitting it.”
“So you think Clive did.”
Another shrug. “I just don’t know. But if he did it, I think maybe it’s okay. Almost all the people that should die have died, one way or another. Clive, Adam and Miriam, and Georgina. The only ones left are me and Liz.”
“Mr. Duncomb’s wife.”
Blackmore nodded. “She might be the worst of all of us.” He leaned toward Duckworth and whispered, “She’s a snake.”
“We’ll be talking to her.”
“Liz isn’t beautiful, but she makes up for it. She knows every trick in the book. Georgina and I, we’d been having troubles. Our... our sex life wasn’t what it once was. Clive had hinted around that he and Liz were into something a bit different, and finally he invited us to be part of the group. It changed things for Georgina and me. It made her feel more alive, at first anyway. She was very taken with Adam.”
“She saw him outside the group,” Duckworth said. “Wasn’t that against the rules?”
He nodded. “Yes. I don’t know if she saw him many times before they were killed at the drive-in. But Adam... I don’t know how to explain Adam. I think he was a true psychopath. He could be anything you wanted him to be. He could lie to you so convincingly. He could pretend to care about you while betraying you. He wanted you to love him in the moment, but didn’t care what you thought of him later. Even his own daughter, and granddaughter. Lucy, and Crystal. He loved them, and he wanted them to love him, but I bet he couldn’t have cared what they’d have thought of him once he was gone. Georgina was caught up in his spell.”