A Death in a Town by Waugh Hillary

Author:Waugh, Hillary [Waugh, Hillary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Police Procedural
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 1988-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

(Enter Walter Wallace, minister of St. Bartholomew’s Church)

WALTER WALLACE

Sorry if I’m late. I was attending the choir rehearsal. I wanted— It’s different now. I’m afraid a joyfulness is gone. You understand what I mean.

DOROTHY MESKILL

Sally’s was the best voice. You seldom get a voice like hers.

WALTER WALLACE

She and Peggy. The two together. It was an experience. I’ve never heard two voices more in tune. Like the girls themselves! Those are rare occurrences. I’m sure . they didn’t realize themselves how rare such relationships are.

CAROLE WAYNE

Was Peggy at rehearsal?

WALTER WALLACE

No. She’s resigned from the choir, I’m sorry to say.

JESSIE MUND

We’ve been talking about…what happened. What’s your view, Father? There’s talk…Phil Croft’s editorial. Do you think Sally was killed by somebody here in town?

WALTER WALLACE

I find I don’t know what to think. It’s easy to lay the blame for what happened on strangers. That’s why we do it. It’s so easy! But the evidence indicates— Well, I don’t know what to say. I’ve talked to Chief Hickey. The police are working on it, but they’re in the dark. We’re all in the dark.

ROBERT SALTZER

Clyde Worth’s been mentioned as a possibility. You know him. Could he have done such a thing?

WALTER WALLACE

Clyde? Hmm. I hadn’t really thought about anybody. I suppose it’s possible. I’ve talked with him from time to time, but I confess I don’t understand him. He doesn’t strike me as the type, to tell the truth. But how well do I know him? I sense areas in Clyde that I can’t probe. He’s not quite like the rest of us.

CAROLE WAYNE

Can you think of anybody else who isn’t “quite like the rest of us’?

ROBERT SALTZER

Can you see Clyde Worth doing such a thing?

WALTER WALLACE

I wish I could give you an answer. Who knows the blackness of the human soul? I think I understand a little about God. I think I grasp His message for the world. I know I understand what He wants from us. I know how we are to respond to His will. But His methods, His means of making His designs manifest are very subtle and very deep. Even the scholars cannot fully understand the significance of His doings.

DOROTHY MESKILL

Well, now, like what?

WALTER WALLACE

Like what happened to Sally Anders. In what way was this a part of His Design?

JESSIE MUND

That was the work of the Devil. The Devil got the upper hand there.

CAROLE WAYNE

Is that what you believe, Father? That Sally’s death was the work of the Devil?

WALTER WALLACE

I think whatever devil exists, exists within our own souls. No, I don’t believe Sally’s death was the work of the Devil.

CAROLE WAYNE

Then what? Why did such m thing happen?

WALTER WALLACE

My own personal belief is that it was m part of God’s Scheme of Things, a scheme the Purpose of Which is for Good, but a scheme, by means of which this Purpose is advanced, I cannot truthfully say. All I can promise you, my friends, is that whatever happens in this world is by the Will of God,

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