Murder at Plimoth Plantation by Leslie Wheeler

Author:Leslie Wheeler [Wheeler, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2001-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“... knowing our own weakness... and still lying open to all casualty, having as yet (under God) no other defence than our arms, we thought it most needful to impale our town....” Good Newes from New England

Back at the playhouse, I removed the card with Nan’s picture from my bag and stared at it. There was a story here, but I doubted I’d get it from Lowe or his wife. Nikki’s discovery of similar cards at McCarthy’s suggested his involvement. He’d worked as a security guard. He could’ve found the painting in the storage vault, noted the resemblance to Nan, and had the cards made up. Then he’d planted one where she was sure to find it. But why go to all that trouble?

I tried out a scenario featuring McCarthy and Nan as lovers and Seth as the jealous, murderous husband but quickly rejected it. Blackmail seemed more likely. If, as I suspected, McCarthy’d blackmailed Conor, he could’ve blackmailed Nan, too.

Then the painting on the card must be associated with a secret in Nan’s past. That was why it was no longer on view in Seth Lowe’s library. And that explained why Seth had “forgotten” the painter’s name. He had, however, mentioned that the artist was local. There might be someone around who knew the artist. I picked up the phone book and found a number for the Plymouth Art Association. I got an answering machine and left a message.

I drummed my fingers on the coffee table: 3:30 P.M. I could still get in a few hours’ work before joining Caroline and Eileen for dinner. I switched on my laptop and tried to summon the explorers of the New World, but questions about the painting and its possible connection to McCarthy’s murder swirled in my brain. I’d no sooner pushed them aside than other questions rushed in.

What to make of Conor’s sudden departure from the village in the seventies? Maybe his draft number had come up and he’d fled to Canada. But dodging the draft twenty-odd years ago didn’t make Conor a criminal now. He must’ve done something else McCarthy had found out about.

Maybe the trivia game contained a clue after all. I picked up McCarthy’s cheat sheet. Three rogues were mentioned here: Fells, Oldham, and Morton. Could one connect with Conor? Fells had impregnated a maidservant and run away with her. What was the contemporary equivalent of his crime—having sex with a minor and transporting her across state lines?

Oldham had plotted against the Pilgrims by attacking them in letters to England and stirring up other disaffected members of the colony. Could Conor have been involved in subversive activities?

Subversion figured in Morton’s story as well. He’d sold guns to the Indians, who’d used them against the English and Dutch colonists. Was Conor a terrorist on the lam?

His crime couldn’t be recent because he wouldn’t risk the public exposure of playing a Pilgrim at Plimoth. But how long ago had it occurred? Before his stint at the village in the seventies? Or after? He’d attended St.

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