Slattery by Ralph McInerny

Author:Ralph McInerny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Five Star

11

Odds and ends, it has been said, are the essentials of history. Don't ask me who said it. My memory is beginning to go. There are things I myself have said and done that I no longer remember. Gwen, bless her shapeless body, functions as a memory for me.

"An external drive?"

"I don't understand."

"That is because you are computer illiterate."

"For the which, may God be praised."

"I hope you don't mean that witch, B. O. Wolfe."

It was Gwen's great regret that Beryl Olive Wolfe had not turned out to be Michael Whelan's killer. She could have taken satisfaction in seeing such a rutting beast (her phrase) brought to heel.

"She wasn't exactly innocent."

"That's what I mean. She was a one-woman sexual revolution. Shameless."

It seemed best to say nothing. The sinner feels an odd comradeship with his fellows. It is difficult to strike a righteous stance—difficult, not impossible.

"I meant the bullet."

"You heard Rochester."

The orthodontist, eager to confess, had told all. B.O. had indeed come upon the murder scene at an awkward moment and she had taken a shot. She was aiming at Rochester. She missed and hit the fallen body of Michael Whelan. He wrested the gun from her and eventually used it to silence her. The gun B.O. and I had buried in the planter? Police tests showed that it was not the weapon used either on Whalen or on B.O. herself.

I borrowed Gwen's Cherokee, telling her I needed to be by myself. I drove to B.O.'s apartment and let myself in with the key I had borrowed from Brunswick. From the living room, I looked out onto the patio. A squirrel was in the planter, digging away, spraying dirt everywhere. He scampered away when I came out. Five minutes later, I found the baggie, where B.O. and I had buried it. I looked at it for a time, a wry smile on my face, then leaned over the railing and dropped it into the river. Captain Ahab would have persisted, but look what happened to him. If you don't remember, call me. Ishmael.

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