Cliff

Chapter 3 -- At the Library

Mrs Templeton opened the library on time at 10 am. Two minutes later, Mrs. Teabody walked in for the news. She would have been earlier than that but she didn't want anyone to think she was eager to gossip.

Mrs. Templeton does not gossip. One goes to the Coffee House to hear and spread scandal, not the library, but today was an exception. Mrs. Tea had not been there for the discovery of the body. She was rarely up at that hour. That helped explain why Mrs. Templeton did her walking early. Mrs. Tea considered herself the town newspaper and had to hear what she could as soon as she could. This meant talking to Mrs. Templeton, although that wasn't the easiest thing to do either. Mrs. Templeton spoke very sparingly, and wasn't given to embroidery. Mrs Tea would have to add a lot of filler material to make a worthwhile story out of the spare facts Mrs. Templeton was disposed to give her.

One could wait a long time for Mrs. Templeton to come to the Coffee House, and when she did it was only for fresh bread or pastry, and then only for a minute. She never went to the Coffee House for conversation. When she wasn't in the library she was at home, in her garden.

If you wanted to hear first hand about the body on the beach, you would have to make up an excuse to go to the library. If you didn't have a library card, you could apply for one. They were free to residents and made an excellent excuse for a visit. Mrs. teabody couldn't imagine why she would want a library card, she did not read books, but it was still a plausible reason.

"Good morning, Mrs. Teabody. What can the library do for you this morning?" Mrs. Templeton kept her face neutral as she said this, but this was far as she was willing to go to pretend she didn't know exactly what Mrs. Teabody wanted.

"I was just passing by, and wondered if you knew what all the commotion was this morning", Mrs. Teabody lied. She had heard pieces of this already, and knew that a dead body had been found, and that Mrs. Templeton had found it. With a small sigh, Mrs. Templeton told what she knew for sure, trying to keep it as unsensational as she could. It wouldn't stay that way with Mrs. Teabody in charge of distribution, she knew, but she felt she had to do her best.

"Who was it?", Mrs. Teabody wanted to know.

"The Constable found his wallet in his trouser pocket, and went off to the research station. I suppose he was a student there."

That was all Mrs. Teabody needed. She was off and running. "That's what we get, letting all those so-called students take over the town. Wild parties, drinking, and I don't know what-all all night. The town isn't safe any more."

Mrs. Templeton went over all she had said, and reassured herself that anything about drinking or wild parties was part of Mrs. Teabody's version, not her own. She said as much, quietly, without success.

"We used to have a quiet, respectable small city, good for business. Now we have young hooligans everywhere playing their radios and carrying on all day and all night like I don't know what. Ruining property values, now getting drunk and falling off the cliff. What will people think, I ask you? She hadn't, really, and Mrs. Templeton didn't answer. Eventually, Mrs. Teabody decided that no more was to be obtained from Mrs. Templeton and she had a newspaper to get out."

A steady stream of townspeople entered the library until noon, by which time the news was no longer new.

Mrs. Templeton would probably not have told anyone very much on her own, but she couldn't keep it secret and still get along with her fellow townspeople. After all, several people had seen the flashing lights of the town patrol car and some had visited the scene personally. Mrs Templeton told what she saw. She hadn't recognized the body and didn't remember knowing the deceased, when she did hear his name.

The identity of the body emerged from the Constable's conversation with the Dean, transmitted in turn by the Dean's office staff. Bob became drunk on Mrs. Teabody's walk back from the library to the coffee house. The Constable said he fell off the cliff. The Constabledidn't know why. Mrs. Teabody knew why. The story made no sense unless he had been drinking, so he must have been drinking. She was sure of it.

The body turned out to be one Robert T. Smith. There really was a Bob Smith, it seemed. He was a graduate student at the State University, and was doing research at the research station here in the village. Something about fish. Beyond that no one was very sure. Mrs. Teabody seemed to think that he had been drinking and fell off the edge. On closer inspection, however, it seemed that Mrs. Teabody had no reason to think he had been drinking, other than the fact that he fell off the cliff. Why else would someone fall off the cliff?

Sometime during the morning news rush at the Library, the mayor visited. He was always very careful when introducing himself to strangers, to explain that he owned the local Texaco Station, which was true. It sounded more prosperous and businesslike than to say that he worked at the local Texaco station, which was also true. He had to ask Mrs Templeton what she had seen, and to tell her in turn what he knew about it. It seemed that he had known Bob slightly, since Bob bought gas from His Honor. Bob didn't buy much gasoline, because he didn't go far, and drove a ratty old foreign car when he did.

Turns out later that the car wasn't even his. It belonged to a young woman named Sally McDougal.