Dark Nantucket Noon by Jane Langton

Author:Jane Langton [Langton, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780140058369
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 1975-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

23

“Ahab has that that’s bloody on his mind.”

Moby Dick

Bob Fern was leaning over Jupiter’s fence when Homer drove up to the house after his interview with Mrs. Magee.

“He’s looking a little better,” said Bob. “Those wounds on his breast are healing up nicely.”

“Do you think he’ll ever fly again?” said Homer.

“Can’t tell until we see if his feathers grow in again after he molts. If all those primaries come back, I don’t see why he shouldn’t fly. But if they don’t, well, that won’t be so good.” Bob looked up from the scarred white shape of the great bird in the pen and turned to Homer. “I’m afraid I’ve got a little piece of bad news,” he said.

“Just a little piece? Well, come on in and let’s have it. Hold on there, you pooches. You’re not supposed to come in till your mammy comes home from the bank.”

Homer held the door slightly ajar, shoving at muzzles and paws, making room for Bob Fern. Bob squeezed inside the house, took a scrap of paper out of his pocket and put it down on the table next to a bird’s nest, a bag of thistle seed, the marble paperweight with Alice’s and Alden’s initials on it, a jar containing regurgitated mouse bones from an owl’s stomach, and Alice’s field glasses. “It’s a poem,” said Bob.

“Oh?” Homer took a look at the scrap of paper. “Oh, that,” he said. “ ‘Joseph’s Coat.’ We know all about that. It’s that ballad of Kitty’s. They clipped that from her apartment.”

“Not the one I copied, they didn’t. A lady brought it in. A Mrs. Wilkinson. Rich old lady, lives in ‘Sconset. She brought it to Chief Pike after she read about the case in the paper. Said she thought it might mean something.”

“Mrs. Wilkinson? Where have I heard of Mrs. Wilkinson before? Oh, I know. The Property Owners Rights Association. They’re going to have their first meeting at her house. Where in God’s name did Mrs. Wilkinson get hold of the damned thing? Not that it matters. The district attorney already has Kitty’s own copy.”

“But the one I saw is Joe Green’s.”

“What?” Homer stared at Bob Fern. “Kitty never gave one to Joe Green.”

“Well, he had it. Anyway, this woman says he did, because he came to her house and asked for it back. The day of the eclipse. He told her he had lost a piece of paper on the beach the night before. She found it, all right, but instead of giving it back to him she brought it to us.”

“So that’s what he lost. He told me he lost a piece of paper. It means he knew—he knew how Kitty still felt about him. Maybe that was why he couldn’t sleep. He was walking around with it. He was restless with it.” Homer read the poem again. It took him a moment to feel his way through Bob Fern’s rounded penmanship to the grim images of Kitty’s language.

Drag the hem of Joseph’s coat

Through the bloody cloven throat.

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