“Not addressed to your parents’ home up bythe mill?”
“No, sir. Never.”
“You didn’t want your parents to know whathad become of you since your leaving?”
“I did want my mother to know I was alive.Tim and I were always close. I knew I could trust him. When he lefthome to get married, he came and took me away from Montreal.”
“So it was your father whom you wanted tokeep in the dark about your whereabouts?”
“Yes.”
“Where do you live now?”
“With my brother and his wife nearThornhill.”
“Under what assumed name does your brotherlive?”
“Milord, this testimony is goingnowhere.”
“I agree, Mr. Cambridge. Counsellor, get tothe point – quickly.”
“Tell the court, Miss Thurgood, why you livedapart and estranged from your parents for nine years and why yourbrother has taken another name.”
Lottie hung her head briefly, then looked upand directly across at Marc. It seemed as if she were summoning upthe last of her meagre strength. “My father abused me . . . fromthe time I was twelve till I left home when I was seventeen.”
There was a stirring in the side-gallery tothe left. Burton Thurgood had leaned forward threateningly in hisseat and was refrained from moving further by a large man on hisright. He scowled across at his living daughter, but she was notlooking his way. His mouth hung open to protest, but no wordscame.
“You mean sexually abused, do you not?”
“Yes. I had my own room. Betsy and Tim hadthe other one. Father came to me almost every night. I didn’t knowwhat to do.”
“Until you ran away?”
“Yes.”
“To your knowledge, did your father sexuallyabuse your sister?”
“She was only six when I left. But Tim, whowas twelve, said he would protect her.”
“So Tim knew what your father was doing?”
“He only found out when I told him – before Ilit out fer Montreal.”
“But Tim got married and left himself, did henot, in the last week of July?”
A great commotion now halted Marc’sexamination. Burton Thurgood was standing up, pushing away the armstrying to hold him down. “I loved her!” he cried wildly. “I lovedmy little Betsy! And she loved me! There was no rape! None, I tellyou! You’re spittin’ on her grave, all of you! I’d’ve kept thebabe, too, and raised it as my own!”
The bailiff moved in, with help. Thurgood waspulled towards the back doors of the august courtroom. The judgebanged his gavel into the confusion and consternation that followedthis mad outburst.
“In view of what has just transpired,” heshouted, “this trial is suspended pending further investigationinto Mr. Thurgood’s ravings.”
***
It was almost four o’clock when Marc joined Cobb andthe Chief in Sturges’ office.
“Thurgood’s made a full confession,” Marcinformed them.
“Thank goodness for that,” Sturges said.“Saved you and the court a peck of trouble.”
“That’s right,” Marc said, sitting down andheaving a substantial sigh of relief. “Cobb here filled me in lastnight on what he’d found out about the Thurgoods. I figured I’dhave to put Whittle on the stand and grill him about trout fishing,then call Thurgood and try to break him down. His outburst andconfession have put the seal on it.”
“Then it’s over,” Cobb said, also muchrelieved.
“Tell us about the confession, Marc.”
“Well, he started with the admission that hehad in fact sexually interfered with his eldest daughter, Loretta,for many years – while his wife, poor soul, looked on, terrified tointervene.”
“Quite a bastard all round,” Sturgessaid.
“When Loretta ran away to Montreal, he becamedesperate to have a run at Betsy. But he waited until she wastwelve before trying. Then he suddenly had an insurmountableproblem. Betsy and Tim had shared a room during their childhoodyears, and were very close. Tim had also become a strappingteenager, bigger and stronger than his dad. Several tactlessapproaches apparently confirmed that Betsy was not likely to keepquiet if he made a move while Tim was nearby.
“So she was safe as long as Tim was in thehouse?”
“Right. But the lad had had enough of thefamily and his tyrant-ical father,” Cobb added. “He and hissweetheart moved out and away, gettin’ hitched in Toronto, thenskedadellin’ up to Thornhill. and changin’ their name to Kilbride,the wife’s mother’s name.”
“Fortunately, or unfortunately fromThurgood’s viewpoint,” Marc said, “Betsy was taken on steady atSpadina a few days before the elopement.”
“No fortune involved,” Cobb said. “It was Timthat arranged fer her to get on steady with the Baldwins, and hewarned her not to come home – ever – without some company.”
“He’s turned out to be quite a lad.,” Sturgessaid.
“Yup, it was him who persuaded Lottie totestify when I told them what happened to Betsy and what the trialwas about.”
“And Thurgood said he realized he was notlikely to get a chance to seduce her at home,” Marc continued. “Butin his twisted mind, he thought if he could get her alone for a fewminutes he could make her love him, and then they could be togetheras often as they could arrange it.”
“A sick man, that,” Sturges said, shiftinghis foot on the padded stool.
“So that malarkey about buyin’ a pony was alltrue?” Cobb said.
“It was. He had saved a little cashand did make a deal for the elderly beast in Whittle’s barn.Thurgood said he knew Betsy went to the barn despite hisdisapproval. Sitting near Sol Clift on the third of August, a weekafter Betsy went on steady at Spadina, he did see the girl turnnorth towards the barn. At twelve-thirty he and Whittle went up torepair the sluice at the weir. Once there, Thurgood announced thathe could fix the broken logs himself if the boss wished to slip upto the trout pool for a little illegal angling. Whittle jumped atthe chance. And, I gather, Thurgood routinely covered for Whittlewhen the miller went poaching and risking the nullification of hislease.”
“And went about lying on the witness-stand,”Sturges said, “givin’ Thurgood a perfect alibi.”
“Yeah,” Cobb said. “He had to lie because ifhe’d’ve told the truth, he was in danger of havin’ his leaseprovoked.”
“Right,” Marc said.
“So that’s what put you on to Whittle?”Sturges said to Cobb, mightily impressed.
“When I heard Edie Barr go on about UncleSeamus not allowin’ any poachin’ on Trout Creek, the bells startedringin’ in my noggin. I thought: maybe the miller wasn’t at theweir all afternoon. If so, that left Thurgood – ”
“Unaccounted for,” Marc said. “Right on.Thurgood waited until Whittle was out of sight – the pool there ishidden by bushes along the shoreline – and then scooted up to thebarn. Where he found Betsy feeding the pony.”
“And he raped his own daughter,” Sturges saidwith disgust.
“He still doesn’t see it that way in his ownmind, although he knows it is wrong and that he will go to jail forincest and corruption of a minor.”
“How does he see it?”
“He claims that the girl acquiesced and thatwhat they did in that stall was to make love.”
“Absurd!” Sturges said, and winced as hisfoot wobbled.
“Well, remember, Sarge,” Cobb said, “JakeBroom said he didn’t hear any scream or whimper or cry fer help,and her frock was hangin’ neat as a doe over the wall nearby.”
“Betsy was either too terrified to call outor resist,” Marc said, “or else she resigned herself to her fate inthe face of her father’s awful power and authority. I doubt sheknew what was happening to her.”
“Did he hear or see Broom come upon them?”Sturges asked.
“He heard a noise, he said, as Broom wasscampering away, but didn’t see anyone. Still, it was enough tomake him stop his outrage and order the girl to dress and hide outalong the creek until the coast was clear before heading home.Needless to say, she was warned never to telclass="underline" he told her that ifshe did, she herself, he and her mother, too, would all be ruined,and probably go to jail.”