Cliff

Chapter 22 -- Revelations

A really bright guy from the County Sheriff's Office came to Goose Cove Monday morning to learn all he could about the insane professer they had locked up in the county jail. They met in the Constable's office. Extra chairs and tables had been brought in to seat all of the interested parties. The detective from the County Sheriff's office was asking questions and a sergeant from the same place was taking it all down in shorthand. The detective explained that usually the investigation took place at a more central location, meaning the County Seat, but that under the circumstances it was his decision to make everyone as comfortable as possible by coming here. There would be quite a story to tell, and at long last someone was actually listening.

The detective began, "We have Lockridge locked up on assault and attempted murder. That will keep him locked up for quite a while, and I don't think there will be any bail. The circumstances of his attempt on your life, Ms. McDougal, will see to that, I'm sure. Now we would like to know whatever you can tell us about Mr. Widman's death."

"As I explained to the Constable once before," Sally began, without the slightest hint of irony in her voice, "Bob, Mr. Widman, found out that Professor Lockridge had stolen someone else's dissertation and turned it in as his own. Well, Bob hadn't actually gone so far as to say that, but he did want to talk about the strange dissertation draft he had found on his second-hand computer. It was so nearly the same as the one of Professor Lockridge's. Bob greatly admired Professor Lockridge, as many students did, and wanted to talk about it. Professor Lockridge met him by appointment, probably drugged him, and surely shoved him off the cliff. Then he removed everything incriminating he could find from Bob's room and dumped all he could find into the harbor, I suppose. He even returned the books Bob had on loan from the library so that nobody would know what Bob was researching when he died."

As the rest of the story came out, the Detective became more attentive to the details. At the end of the story he said, "We'll check this out, of course, but it looks like a very solid case to me, at least as to the motive and opportunity. You are to be commended for the careful research you and Mr. Sullivan here did. Why didn't you go to the police? We could have done everything that you did with a little bit more authority than you had to work with."

"I did go to the police," Sally said, bluntly. "The Constable will have his report of my visit with him, including my statement, I'm sure. He assured me that there had been no crime committed, and that I was a foolish and silly girl, if not clinically hysterical. In any case, it was obvious that he intended to do nothing whatever. Tom and I were the only ones interested in Bob's death."

The Constable's was then asked to produce his report of the event described by Ms McDougal. The report was sketchy in the extreme, serving only to establish the date and time of Sally's statement. It contained nothing whatever of what Sally said on that date. She had to repeat the entire conversation once more to the detective. This she did with relish, quoting the scene almost verbatim. She would not soon forget that humiliating episode.

[Goose Cove gets over it] [Sally and Tom get over it]