Chapter 4 spooky cemetery picnic
"This time, I promise to tell you a story about the graveyard." Dr. Sam Hawthorne poured us some brandy. "But there are no ghosts, no thunder, and no night in my graveyard story. It all happens in broad daylight." Below—but the story is just as weird..."
In the spring of 1932, the people of our country were having a hard time...recession, unemployment everywhere.As the presidential election looms, talk of drastic change grows.The situation in Beishan Township is slightly better than other parts of the country, but we have also had to retrench in all aspects, and even I have been affected.
After ten years in business at North Hills Town Center, Nurse Aibo and I decided to move.The eighty-bed North Hills Saints Memorial Hospital opened with grand opening in 1929.The scale of the hospital is too big for Beishan Town.So one wing of the hospital building—a room with about thirty beds—was converted into a doctor's practice clinic.The hospital board invited me to rent a room from them, and offered an attractive first-year rent.Many of the inpatients are my regular customers, and the clinic's debts are increasing day by day.Under multiple pressures, I couldn't refuse.
Aibo is very excited about the move, because the new office is twice the size of the old clinic.I'm not as sure as she is. "Now we're two miles from town. What if there are patients who can't drive, or are too old to ride a horse or buggy? How do they see a doctor?"
"Most of your patients don't live in town at all, and even if they don't move, they still have to travel long distances. You can still make home visits, can't you? Also, after moving to the hospital, it is much more convenient to see inpatients. "
"I think you're right." I reluctantly agreed.
The day we moved was a warm morning in April.Dr. Finshaw, one of the management staff of Saints Memorial Hospital, came to meet us. "Sam, the room has been painted according to your request." He was not tall and spoke in a high-pitched voice.And his tense attitude, which was appropriate in a boardroom, was not appropriate for caring for patients at the bedside.
"Thanks, David. Looks really nice. Clinic furniture coming soon."
"Look here, the scenery outside the window is really nice." He said enthusiastically.
I couldn't hide my sarcasm: "If you like the view of the cemetery, that's good. But some patients probably don't want to see this scene."
"Spring View of the Valley is more of a park than a cemetery," argued Finshaw.I must admit he was right.Sometimes, people even come here for a picnic.From my office window, all I could see were a handful of tombstones scattered along the woods and trails.The so-called "Yougu" in Yougu Chunjing is a small canyon with a meandering stream flowing at the bottom of the valley, which originates from the clear springs in the upper mountains.At this time of year, snow still melts on the northern foot of Cobo Mountain and pours into the stream, making the creek wider and deeper than usual.The stream rushes through the spring scenery of the valley, which is a bit like a small river.
For the rest of the day, Aibo and I were busy furnishing and getting ready to reopen.Aibo deliberately worked overtime for a few hours to get everything in order so that the door could be opened to welcome guests the next morning.Even Sergeant Lan Si came to visit and sent a flower basket for his wife. "There's a whole lot of fanfare going on in this town for the centennial this summer."
"Sheriff, we just had our tercentenary five years ago. How come there's another centenary?"
"Five years ago was the 300th anniversary of the settlement of the Puritans in this area. This time is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Beishan Town."
"I'll prepare when the day draws near."
He muttered, "Are you going to Matt Harvey's funeral tomorrow morning?"
"Tomorrow is the first day I open in my new place, and I can't go away. However, if I have a little leisure around noon, I can go to the cemetery." Harvey is a patient of Dr. Finshaw. At the age of ninety-two, he finally died Freed from disease.
The next morning, there were not many patients in the clinic.Most people come to my new office to watch the action, not to see a doctor.Towards noon, I saw Harvey's funeral moving to the cemetery and planned to walk to it.Matt Harvey was an important person in this town, and I couldn't afford to miss his funeral just because he was seeing other doctors.
The ceremony at the cemetery is relatively brief.After the ceremony, two gravediggers — brothers Cedric and Teddy Bush — stepped forward with shovels on their shoulders.Teddy Bush, the younger of the two brothers, was out of his wits and waved at me.I waved at him too.Then, I walked away along the path, looking around, observing the new environment.
Directly in front of me, under a newly sprouting willow tree on the side of the road, parked a black Model T Ford.Fifty feet away, a couple are having a picnic on the grass.The place where they had their picnic was a pleasant place, not yet used as a cemetery.I can understand why they chose to have a picnic here.Both of them are not very old, probably about the same age as me.They were eating sandwiches when I saw them.However, just as I was about to step forward, the woman with her back to me stood up suddenly.She has long black hair draped over her shoulders, and is wearing a navy blue blouse and a blue polka-dot shirt.As soon as she stood firmly, she ran along the path and ran into the distance.
The man seems very angry.He jumped up too, and yelled, "Rose! Come back!"
But the woman didn't seem to intend to stop at all.I suddenly felt something was wrong, so I chased after him.Ten feet ahead of the path was a stone bridge over a swollen stream.When she ran to the middle of the stone bridge, she seemed to trip and fell from the bridge into the water.As soon as her screams came, they were drowned out by the sound of falling into the water.I watched helplessly as she was swept away by the rushing stream, and before I had time to jump down to rescue her, her figure had already disappeared from my sight.
"What's the matter?" Twenty minutes later, Sergeant Lan Si asked me as he received my emergency notification and staggered along the path.I told my distraught husband to call the sheriff while I headed down the stream to see if I could find her.
"A woman fell off a bridge and into the water," I replied loudly.
"Rose can't swim at all." Her husband hurried up after the sheriff.
"I'm driving further downriver," said the sheriff gravely. "I know there's a place where she might be found. There's a place downriver where a broken tree blocks the stream."
"Come on," I said to her husband, "we'll go with the sheriff."
"Ok."
"I'm a doctor," I said to the curly-haired young man as we headed to the sheriff's car. "My name is Sam Hawthorne."
"My name is Bob Dupree, and I live in Cape Sean." The town of Cape Sean is twenty miles away. "My God, if Rose dies, I don't want to! year--"
"We will find her." Sergeant Lansi assured the young man while starting the car.I don't think he considered the actual situation at all.
As we drove past Matt Harvey's cemetery, I found only one of the Bush brothers digging.Teddy had gone somewhere, perhaps to drink coffee, and to be lazy by the way.The sheriff drove expertly on the potholed road.Bob Dupree remained silent until we reached the dead tree cut-off.
"There she is!" he cried as soon as he reached the cut-off. "I see her."
I saw her, too—black hair and polka-dot shirt tangled in a branch.Dupree started crying as I jumped out of the car and ran toward the river.I was the first to jump into the icy water, climb up the dry tree trunk, and climb towards the woman's place with difficulty.The sheriff and Dupree were right behind me.We struggled to untangle her from the tangle of branches and carried her to the meadow by the river.
I tried to save her for twenty minutes, trying to force the water out of my lungs and get her to breathe again.But I knew in my heart that it was too late.Sergeant Lan Si stood aside silently, and her husband sat against a tree, weeping.I had to announce with difficulty: "No way. She's gone."
"If she can climb over this tree, maybe it will be all right," said the sheriff. "After the stream flows to the duck pond, it will be less urgent."
Bob Dupree whispered his wife's name behind us.
"Can you tell us what happened?" I asked him.He looked at her for a long time, silently wiping away his tears.
Sergeant Lan Si finally couldn't bear it anymore and repeated the question."She and I both thought a picnic might cheer me up," he replied. "We drove up from Cape Sien on purpose and arrived about eleven o'clock."
"Which of you two suggested a picnic at the cemetery?" I asked.The sheriff took a blanket from the car and put it over the body.
"Rose suggested it. We've heard friends say it's a good place. God—"
"Don't blame yourself," Sergeant Lan Si said.
"We were eating and talking. Suddenly, she stood up, as if startled by something, and started to run away. There was only one person in our sight at the time, and that was you, Dr. Sam Hawthorne. I thought at the time, she put Dr. Hawthorne came to drive us away as a cemetery custodian—but even so, she wasn't too frightened."
The sheriff turned to me and said, "What did you see, doctor?"
I described what I saw as accurately as I could: "She seemed to stumble and fall off the bridge. However, there was nothing on the bridge to catch her feet. The road was flat. I followed On the bridge, if there's a tripwire or something, I should be able to spot it."
"Does your wife get dizzy a lot, Mr. Dupree?"
"Nothing, Sheriff. She never fainted, as far as I know."
"Has she had any enemies?" I asked, "a failed courtship, a disgruntled one, for example?"
"Of course not! Why do you ask that? She wasn't killed by someone!"
The sheriff took me aside: "He's right, Doc. It was an accident. There's no other explanation."
"The whole thing is too weird," I insisted.
"Look, I'm irritated enough with having to deal with Harvey's crazy nephew insisting that uncle died of murder."
"Okay." I didn't want to hear about Harvey's death right now, so I said quickly.I looked down at Mrs. Dupree's body under the blanket, and knew that I had either witnessed a mishap or the crime was impossible.However, I can't figure out what kind of situation this time is.
The next morning, Sergeant Lens came to my new clinic office again. "Have you got Rose Dupree's autopsy report?" he asked.
I nodded: "Just got it. Nothing unusual. The cause of death was drowning. Except for the bruises caused by falling into the water and hitting the river bank, there were no other trauma."
"Will she be drugged in advance?"
"Her autopsy results were normal, and there was no drug or alcohol residue in the blood. She was in good health. In fact, according to the autopsy, the deceased was two months pregnant."
"Pregnant!"
"Sheriff, this is normal for a married woman."
"That's right," he agreed. "Does her husband know about it?"
"You'll have to ask him that. Does she have any other family?"
"Parents alive, and a brother. All heartbroken."
Something else occurred to me: "You say Harvey's nephew thinks he died of murder?"
Sheriff Lan Si nodded: "Yes, his nephew Scott Harvey. You know him, right?"
"I saw him at an Agricultural Conservation Society meeting."
"In short, Dr. Finshaw is trying to cover up Scott's claim that his uncle was murdered."
"What did Finshaw say?"
"Scott's going crazy for Harvey's old age."
"What do you think, Sheriff?"
"There's something wrong with Scott, yes. Everyone knows it."
"Perhaps I should go and see him."
"You really want to catch a murderer, don't you, doctor?"
"I won't make trouble for nothing, don't worry," I assured him.
Scott Harvey was in his late fifties with graying hair.He made his living farming out of town until the Great Depression took his land away.The loss of the land hit him hard, and it made him cranky.When I found him at the town court later that morning, he was making a fuss demanding that his uncle's body, which had just been buried, be re-exhumed.
I pressed his shoulder reassuringly: "Remember me, Scott? I'm Dr. Sam Hawthorne."
He looked at me. "Oh, I remember you. You were a friend of Finshaw's."
"He's just my colleague. What's the trouble?"
"Uncle Matt was murdered. It was Finshaw who poisoned him."
"Do you have proof?"
"Of course not—the evidence was destroyed by him! That's why I want them to do a new autopsy."
"Scott, you can't accuse someone without a basis."
"I have a basis, as long as they re-examine the autopsy, they can find the evidence!"
"I saw you at the funeral yesterday. At the same time as the funeral, a young lady drowned in the stream that ran through the cemetery."
"heard."
"Do you know what's inside?"
"What can I know?"
There was no progress in continuing the conversation. "Forget about your uncle," I suggested. "His death was entirely natural."
"Like the drowned woman?" he said dryly.
After leaving the courthouse, I glimpsed the eldest of the Bush brothers, Cedric, leaning against the pick-up truck at the cemetery, waiting to load bags of compost into it.
"Hi, Cedric," I greeted. "How's your day?"
"Not bad, Dr. Sam."
"Where's Teddy?"
"Over there at the fast food joint, having your first drink of the day. If Roosevelt does become a presidential candidate, do you think he'll roll back Prohibition?"
"In my opinion, candidates of both parties will use this campaign strategy." Cedric has read books, unlike Teddy, who reads nothing but police bulletins at the barbershop, "Yesterday you dug Good Harvey's grave?"
"Of course, people spend money to let us do a good job."
"I was passing by around noon, and Teddy wasn't there."
"He went to relax in the woods." He laughed. "He's been away for a long time. I thought he was lost."
"But he's working hard, isn't he?"
"Sometimes it's okay."
"Did you hear about the drowning of a young woman in the park?"
"Everybody heard about it. Guy from Cape Sean, right?"
I nodded: "You and Teddy didn't see what happened?"
"At least I didn't see it."
He was still leaning against the car as I walked away from him.I walked down the street towards the fast food restaurant.For some reason, I am becoming more and more convinced that Rose Dupree's death was not an accident.Some facts, still hidden in my subconscious mind, are leading me step by step in the right direction.But what is the murderer's method?What is the motivation?
Teddy Bush wasn't at the fast food restaurant.However, the clerk said he had just left.Just as I was about to drive back to the clinic, Sergeant Lan Si hurried towards me: "I need your help, doctor!"
"What's wrong?"
"Teddy Bush just tried to kill a girl. I have to arrest him."
The victim girl was terrified, but other than a few bruises, she was unscathed.The girl was in her early twenties, with red hair, and was very pretty.Her name was Susan Grigg, and she was on her way to Cape Sean from Cabin Road.She drove the Hudson family car alone into town to do some shopping.She was walking through the parking lot behind the fast food restaurant when the incident occurred.Just then Teddy Bush came up to her.
"I can smell he's been drinking," Susan said to me after I had examined her in the back room off the sheriff's office. grab my skirt. Immediately I scream—"
"Get dressed," I said. "You're a lucky girl."
After returning to the sheriff's office, the sheriff told me the whole story: "I heard her scream and ran over. When I arrived, Teddy had already pinned the girl to the ground. I quickly pulled him up , handcuff him."
"I can't believe Teddy would do something like this," I said, "let me talk to him."
We went upstairs to the cell.Teddy lay on the crib with his eyes closed.Hearing us come in, he looked up and said, "Hello, doctor."
"What's the matter, Teddy? What on earth do you want?"
"Nothing, doctor. I've had a drink—something's off my head."
"So, you just run outside and grab the first woman in sight? Teddy, that's not like you."
"I don't know, doctor. I don't want to talk about it."
"Teddy—"
"I'm drunk, that's all!"
I sigh and leave him. "What are you going to do with him?" I asked the sheriff as we went downstairs.
"He didn't hurt the girl very much. It all depends on whether she tells him or not."
I suddenly remembered that Cedric was still waiting for his brother by the truck, so I said to the sheriff, I'd better let him know.
I went to Cedric and told him what had happened.He listened without saying a word. "That damned idiot." He said angrily after listening to me.
"Come on, Cedric," I said, "I'll take you to meet him in jail."
At noon, I stayed with Sergeant Lan Si, feeling very frustrated: "Sheriff, I can't help it, I have no clue about this case."
"Maybe there's no case at all, doctor. Not every unexplained death is a homicide. You like everything to be in order. You want Matt Harvey's funeral, Dupree's death, and Teddy's attack on the girl to be okay." Relationships, can be perfectly connected by a set of reasonings, but life is not like that."
"Maybe," I said.
"Listen, I'm waiting for the deceased's husband, Bob Dupree. He says he'll be here at one o'clock. Do you want to stay and wait for him? You can talk to him."
"What is he here for?"
"Come to get the body so we can arrange the funeral. They plan to have her funeral tomorrow morning in Springview, Glen. I have to return the body to him. There's no reason not to."
"There's really no reason," I agreed.
Dupree arrived pale and nervous, still not fully accepting the unfortunate fact. "I didn't expect that you planned to bury her here." Sergeant Lan Si said after signing the body handover document.
"She has always liked Yougu Chunjing."
"Mr. Dupree, do you know that your wife is pregnant?" I asked.
He nodded. "Dr. Finshaw just told her last week."
"Is she happy about the baby coming? Is she nervous, blues or something?"
"Not at all. We're all looking forward to the baby."
I took a deep breath. "Have you ever heard of a man named Teddy Bush?"
"No."
"Will your wife know him?"
"I doubt it. What on earth are you trying to say?"
"Before the tragedy happened, she seemed to be running away. Bush was digging graves in the cemetery that day. I wondered if she was trying to run away from him?"
"In our line of sight, we can only see you alone."
"I know. She's not looking my way, though."
After he left, Chief Lan Si said, "Don't you think he killed his wife?"
"Her husband was always the prime suspect. But he was in my sight at the time. He didn't throw anything, he didn't pull strings or anything. If she died of murder, someone else must have done it. "
"Maybe the murderer used a fishing gear and threw a line at her and pulled her off the bridge?"
"If that's the case, I can definitely see it. It was sunny and well lit. Also, she didn't get pulled down, she seemed to trip over something and fell."
"There's no drug in her--you said it yourself. Damn, don't hang on to the case, doctor. Maybe she fell down because she was dizzy with the pregnancy. You're acting more and more like Scott Harvey. Yes. There is no murder case, but I still insist on it."
"I think you're right," I admitted. "I guess I'd better go back to the clinic first."
"By the way, the girl decided not to sue Teddy. I'll lock him up for a few more hours, scare him, and then let him out."
"That's good news, anyway. I wish I knew why he did what he did."
"Also, will he make this mistake again."
When I got back to the clinic, I found David Finshaw waiting for me in his office.I began to realize the disadvantages of having a clinic in a hospital.
"I have to talk to you." He said to me, sitting in the corner of my desk.
"Say what?" I asked while flipping through the words Aibo left on the notepad.
"I heard you had a chat with Scott Harvey outside the courthouse this morning. You know, the man is a complete lunatic."
"Is this the result of your medical diagnosis?"
"Listen, Sam—Harvey's an old man. His death was entirely natural."
"You're overreacting, David. But I believe you."
That seemed to satisfy him: "I just don't want to get in trouble with Scott Harvey."
After he left, I began to reason wildly.If David Finshaw was Harvey's killer, Rose Dupree somehow found out—she was Finshaw's patient, after all.She suggested a picnic at the cemetery, precisely to observe Harvey's funeral.After Finshaw found out that she was also there, he kept doing nothing and killed her to silence her.However, if Finshaw was the killer, there may have been other motives as well.
But how on earth did he do it?magic?Hypnotism?Does hypnosis work that much?Make a person who can't swim jump off a bridge into the water?
I gave up and concentrated on reading the news left by Aibo, and there were still patients waiting for me to see.
Later that afternoon, just before five o'clock, Ib told me that Teddy Bush was waiting outside and wanted to see me.Let him in after I'm done with the last patient.Teddy, visibly embarrassed, came in with his head down, refusing to meet my eyes.
"So you're out of jail, Teddy?"
"That's right, doctor. She—the girl decided not to sue me. I don't know what has happened to me. I don't know. Is it a sudden convulsion in my head?"
"Sit down and talk to me. You had a few drinks this morning, didn't you?"
"As usual, I drank some from a coffee cup."
"An empty stomach is enough to make people drunk."
"I suppose so," he agreed.
"So, when you went outside and saw that girl, you rushed towards her?"
"I—I wouldn't have—but, doctor, I saw her swimming in the duck pond yesterday, naked. Suddenly, I saw her again, clothed. I was a little drunk again, so I just wanted to pounce on—"
"Teddy, she's not from this town. You must be mistaken."
"No way, absolutely right, I recognized her with her red hair. I was in the woods on top of the hill, near the cemetery we dug. I looked down the hill and there she was, in the pond Swimming. I also saw her walk up to the bank naked and get dressed."
"So, when Cedric was looking for you, you were peeping at the girl."
"I suppose so," he admitted. "I've been staring at her and I can't take my eyes off her."
"Teddy, I want you to stop drinking. You know in your heart that drunkenness is no good for you. If you do it again, you will not be so lucky. Sheriff Lens will definitely lock you up, next time will not So easy to let go."
"I know." He lowered his head.
"That's all right. Now you can go out and stay out of trouble."
"Won't you give me some medicine?"
"You don't need medicine, you just need some brains, Teddy."
After he was gone, Aibo walked in. "Do I have an appointment tomorrow morning?" I asked her.
"There's only one, going to see Mrs. Venice's house."
"Call up and tell her I'll be there after lunch. I'm going to Rose Dupree's funeral in the morning."
I rushed to Cape Sean with Sergeant Lens to attend the funeral.He and I sat in the car for a long time before the ceremony. "You have no proof, doctor," he insisted.
"Anyway, let me try."
He sighed under his breath.He refused to talk about the case when we were on our way from the church in Cape Sean to Springview. "It's all guesswork," he said over and over again, "you can't crucify a murderer by guesswork alone."
Today is still a beautiful day in April, sunny.About the same day Rose Dupree died.The funeral procession slowly walked towards the selected cemetery.I saw Teddy and Cedric Bush standing by with shovels on their shoulders.
Rose came from a large family, and her large family followed Bob.Bob walked alone at the head of the line.I turned to look at the other spectators and was surprised to see Dr. Finshaw in the line.Apparently he was walking straight from the hospital, the same way I was at Matt Harvey's funeral the other day.
The priest stood by the coffin and said something, we could hardly hear him.Once the ceremony was over, Teddy and Cedric got to work. "Satisfied?" Sergeant Lan Si asked me when the brief ceremony was about to end.
"Soon." I said.Just then, I saw something flash through the bushes. "Follow me!" I yelled, running away.
"Doctor, hell, what's going on—"
We were not far from the woods, and it didn't take me long to rush through. "The murderer is back at the scene of the murder." I said, grabbing the thin wrist of the person hiding behind the tree and pulling her out, "Sheriff, please allow me to introduce the murderer who killed Rose Dupree." The murderer—she was Susan Grigg."
"You're probably out of your mind!" she cried. "Let me go!"
Sergeant Lan Si looked unhappy: "Doctor, I—"
But I hurried on, "Susan, you're good at swimming. How else would you jump off the bridge and swim to the duck pond? You're wearing a black wig and something like Rose. The whole time, I didn't see your face, so it was natural to mistook you for the dead. After you swam to the pond, you took off your wet clothes and put on the dry clothes that were hidden on the bank, your own Clothes. Teddy Bush caught sight of you during this process. Let me ask you, how did you feel when you swam past Rose's body, which is the dead wood downstream?"
"I didn't kill her," she insisted. "You don't have any proof."
I pointed at her and counted the evidence: "Number one, Teddy Bush saw you swimming naked in the duck pond downstream of the creek. I can testify that the creek was very cold that day—the snow from the mountains upstream melted and poured into the creek. Medium. No one would play naked in ice water at that temperature. Second, your good friend Bob Dupree said that maybe my presence startled his wife. However, she went from head to The tail face didn't look at me - I couldn't see her face. Because you are not her, you dare not take the risk to face me. You can't even see me, how could you be frightened by my appearance?
"Third, when I approached you, I saw Dupree and his so-called 'wife' had just finished eating a sandwich. But the autopsy revealed that Rose Dupree had nothing in her stomach. That is to say: I watched the The woman who got off the bridge was not dead at all. Fourth, I did a medical on you after Teddy attempted to hurt someone, and I noticed some bruises on your body. However, it was only a few minutes after you were attacked, and the bruises are impossible So, the bruises are from the first day you swam in the creek. Fifth, if Rose was really carried that far by the stream, why were there so few wounds on the body? The answer is simple, she wasn't Go that far. The few scars on her body are from when you knocked her unconscious and then drowned in the stream—probably where the body was found later."
I saw Bob Dupree hurrying towards us, and Susan Grigg saw him too. "No," she said, "I don't want to take the blame. Bob killed her. He knocked her out. He drowned her. All I did was jump into the water in front of the witnesses." .He wanted to divorce his wife and marry me. However, she found out that she was pregnant and refused to leave."
Bob Dupree was close enough to hear us.His face contorted with anger. "Shut up!" he yelled. "Shut up! You fool, you're giving us both away!"
Inspector Lens is finally satisfied with the evidence.He took out the handcuffs and handcuffed them both before Dupree threw Susan down.
"So, you see," said Dr. Sam Hawthorne at last, "I'm still linking Rose Dupree's murder with Teddy's assault on Susan Grigg. You ask Matt Hawthorne What happened to Wei's death? Well, as far as I know, it was indeed a natural death. Next time I will tell you what happened during the centennial of Beishan Town. During the celebration, there was a weird secret room murder, Almost ruined the whole celebration."
Notes:
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