Chapter 24 first quarter

The Atlantic Ocean stretched out a small horn quietly, forming a small bay between Connecticut and New York in the eastern United States. Deep in the bay, there is a peninsula with beautiful environment and charming scenery. This is Belhaven in Greenwich City, which means beautiful utopia.But when it comes to Belheven, it's the scenery that comes second.There are more than forty families on the island who are either official or rich, including federal justices, company chairman, Wall Street bankers, famous athletes, doctors, lawyers and so on. In the 1970s when this case happened, the richest man on Belhaven Island, the Dontskacker family, got its source of income from the Great Lakes Mining Company, which operates industrial charcoal and other minerals.For a brief period, the company was one of the largest privately held companies in the world.The family's grandfather, George Scarker, started out as a $8-a-week Chicago railroad employee who started Great Lakes Mining with two other partners in 1919 and soon became the company's sole owner.During the Great Depression in the late 1920s, the first generation of the Scarkel family moved into a sprawling home on Otoro Road on Belhaven Island.George and his wife Anna had seven children: Georgiana, James, George Jr., Rolston, Patricia, Isael and Anna.

In 1950, when the wedding of Isael Skackle and Robert Kennedy became social news, some uninformed people asked: "Who is the Skackle family?" The answer was: "They are older than the Kennedy family." Rich.” Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of the 35th President of the United States of America John F. Kennedy, was a senator and president of the Supreme Court before he was assassinated while running for president. After the death of his parents and elder brother, in 1960, the youngest son of the Scarker family, Rolston, took over the family business, including the Great Lakes Mining Company and the Belhaven mansion.But this alcoholic who "lives in a bottle" never cares about government affairs, and only has the title of chairman.

Roston also had seven children whose ages in 1975 were: Roston Jr., 19; Julie, 18; Thomas, nicknamed Tony, 17; John, 16; Mike, 15; David, 12 and Steven, 9.Two years ago, Mrs. Scarker, Anne, died of cancer. The unmanageable Roxton hired a group of tutors and nannies to look after the children.This sounds a lot like the beginning of another familiar "Sound of Music" story.actually not.The young men of the Scarker family, who thought they were "all over the sky", were defiant at all, and they were well-known for their lawlessness and misconduct. In the summer of 1974, a new neighbor moved in on Welsh Street diagonally across from the Scarkers’ house, and that was the Mockley’s family from Southern California.David, the man of the Mockley family, is a partner and general manager of the New York branch of Tochilos, one of the eight largest accounting and auditing companies in the United States. middle school.

In every way Martha Mockley was a remarkable, striking girl.She is cheerful, enthusiastic, slightly frivolous, and her innate social skills have enabled her to make countless friends in just one year, and she was also elected as the "girl with the best personality" in the class.This summer, she finally took off her braces, and she often went to Belhaven Beach Club to swim and play tennis, making her figure slimmer.When summer break ends and school starts, the friends discover that Martha has transformed from a sweet little girl into a beautiful mature teenage girl. Martha was murdered on the night of October 30, 1975.That day is the eve of All Souls' Day, also known as "Hacker's Night".Children usually play tricks and make trouble for adults on this night.Martha and a few friends agreed to do some harmless bad things after dinner, such as throwing eggs at passing cars, spraying shaving cream on the neighbor's window, or wrapping white toilet paper on the tree. up, to create a chill atmosphere, etc., and then go to the Scarker's for a party.Mr. Ruston Skackle was not at home that day, and the children were free to play as much as they wanted.All Souls' Day falls on a Friday the next day, and the school holidays make the three-day long weekend feel like another holiday for the children.

Martha's father, David, was also away that day, having gone to Atlanta for a conference.Brother Jon had already gone out with friends.Martha hurriedly finished her mother's cheese sandwich at 6:30, and hurried away with two friends, Helen Ickes and Jeffrey Byron, who came to meet her. It is already late autumn, with heavy frost, cold dew, and fallen leaves everywhere.Martha wore a blue parka over a white printed turtleneck and jeans. The Mockley family's tutoring is fairly strict.Compared with Jon, Martha is more obedient at home, and she usually doesn't stay out very late.

However, just last weekend, Martha went to a neighbor's party and didn't come home until after two o'clock in the morning.This "infraction" should have been in solitary confinement, but Martha convinced her mother to let her hang out on "hacker night".Martha herself had a party on All Souls' Day the next day, and there were a lot of things to do. Duris thought she would not play too late today, so she didn't specifically tell her to come back early when her daughter went out. Like all peninsulas, Belhaven is surrounded by water on three sides.There are sentry boxes at the two intersections connecting with the mainland, and private security teams patrol 24 hours a day and night.Quiet, safe, self-contained system, so rich people have a soft spot for this geomantic treasure.The residents of the island have set up their own beach clubs, and the neighbors know each other.The door does not need to be locked, the car keys are hung on the ignition, and the children's tennis rackets, baseball bats, golf clubs and bicycles are just thrown on the lawn or in the woods outside the house. "Utopian style.Unlike the general residential areas in the city, almost none of the houses on Belhaven Island had fences or walls, and children were allowed to walk through the backyards and front yards of each house on weekdays.

Martha and her party stopped by and called Kitty Wettenhall again. Around 7:30, after they finished throwing eggs and spraying shaving cream, the four children knocked on the Skakels' door together.The gardener, Franz Widdin, told them that a new governess, Ken Littleton, had arrived at the Scarkers' house today, and that, as Mr. Scarkel had ordered before he left, he took little Scarker with him. The Kerrs went to the beach club for dinner.The four of them, including Martha, went to a nearby neighbor's house and had a meal of ice cream there.When they went to the Scarkers' house again at 8:30, the hosts had not returned.Kitty Wettenhall had to go home before 9 o'clock, and Martha, Helen and Jeffrey walked Kitty back together.

At 8:45, the little skakers who were full of wine and food finally came back.In addition to Ken Littleton, they were accompanied by their cousin, Jem Tellion, the son of their great aunt Georgiana, and Julie's friend Andia Sharkbill. Ten minutes later, Martha and the other three also arrived.They met Mike Skackle in the driveway, and the four of them got into the Lincoln parked there to listen to music, Helen and Jeffrey in the back, Martha and Mike in front. At 9:15, Tony Skackle came out of the house wearing a red cowboy hat. He opened the door of Lincoln's car and said he wanted a cassette, but he didn't take the cassette and walked away. Squeeze into the front row and sit next to Martha.

Ordinarily, Martha and Little Scarkers should not be very familiar with each other.She went to Greenwich Secondary School, and the Skackle boys went to their grandfather's school, Brownwick Private High School for Boys.But in fact, Miss Mockley had been in contact with the two brothers Tony and Mike for a long time. This was what her mother Doris read in her diary later.Although it has been more than a year since the Mockley family moved to Belheven, despite the rumors of the Skackle family, and despite the rich old Skackle sponsoring the Mockley family's beach club membership, the Mockley couple Friendship with the Schuckles was limited to a few pleasantries at neighbor's parties, perhaps due to the Schuckle children's notoriety for being headstrong, wanton, and rough.But no matter what, both Tony and Mike were interested in Martha.And Martha, like all vain girls, liked to have a lot of boys chasing her, preferably to be jealous of her.

Now Martha sat between the Skakel brothers.Tony began to flirt with her without hesitation. He put his hand on Martha's thigh, and Martha said loudly, "Get your hands off!" Tony obediently moved his hand away, but continued to play with Martha.Mike originally thought that Martha belonged to him tonight, but he didn't expect Tony to get in a stick.Tony, a head taller than his brother, was top-heavy and foggy after a couple of scotches and a few cans of beer at the beach club and a few more after he got home. It was almost 9:30, Julie and Andia finished watching TV, and Julie was going to send Andia home.At about the same time, Rolston Jr., John, and Jem Tyrion came up to the Lincoln and told everyone to get out of the car, and they were going to take Jem home.Mike asked Martha if he wanted to go to Tyrion's house together, and Martha said it was too late to go.Tony immediately said he didn't want to go either.Mike and the other three get into Lincoln, and as they drive away, they see Tony and Martha flirting and kissing again.

Helen Ickes and Geoffrey Byron later said they were so embarrassed by the excessive intimacy between Tony and Martha that they soon said goodbye and went home.As they walked through the Skackles' backyard together, they saw Tony and Martha jostling each other, and Martha collapsed behind the fence next to the swimming pool.This was the last time Helen and Jeffrey saw their friend Martha Mockley. The Mockley house at 38 Welsh Street is an English-style mansion with a three-acre yard and a sloping back garden.When the Mockleys bought the house, it looked dated due to its age.But like many housewives in the United States, Du Lisi's greatest hobby is to turn decay into magic. This sentence is more direct in English, called "turning a doghouse into a palace".With the help of a do-it-yourself home improvement shop, such a project isn't too difficult to complete, and Mrs. Mockley has done it successfully more than once. At around 9.30pm on October 30, Doris was painting the windows in her second-floor bedroom.Martha's room is at the same location on the third floor.Although the paint instruction manual required good ventilation, the weather was so cold that Du Lisi closed the windows anyway.Not long after, she heard a commotion outside, mixed with the voices of one or two boys.Mrs Mockley later said that in normal circumstances she would not have cared much, for there were always little children walking about in her garden.But the sound was too loud that night, and it sounded very loud through the closed windows, and it was not an ordinary voice, it seemed to be roaring, and it seemed to be a little angry.Du Lisi hurried to the bathroom next to her and looked in the direction of the sound.It was pitch black outside the window, and she saw nothing. It was also at this time that the dogs of several households started barking almost at the same time.In the dead of night, the barking of the dog was particularly sharp, so that the owners went out to check.Nanny Sweeney, the Skackles' housekeeper, also sent Ken Littleton out to have a look.Ken went outside, heard some voices, and after a few minutes, everything was quiet again.According to one account, the Skakels' dog, Max, didn't bark that night and was "surprisingly quiet." Around 10 o'clock, Du Lisi finished painting the windows.She packed up tools and other things, then took a shower, changed into her nightgown, went to a small room on the first floor and turned on the TV, waiting to watch the news at 11 o'clock.If there was any movement outside during this time Mrs Mockley could not hear it. It wasn't until 11:20, when her son Jon arrived home, that Doris realized that Martha hadn't returned.She was a little angry, how could she make the same mistake twice in a row?Jon quickly comforted his mother and said that he would look for it right away.Jon drove back and forth in the streets and alleys of Belheven for half an hour, only seeing a little drunk. Du Lisi fell asleep lying on the sofa in front of the TV, and suddenly woke up after 1 o'clock in the middle of the night.She immediately went to Martha's room on the third floor, but her daughter hadn't come back yet.Du Lisi returned to the library on the first floor and started calling Martha's friends' homes one by one.Helen Ickes told Mrs Mockley that she had last seen Martha with Tony Scarkel.Du Lisi asked Helen for the phone number of Scarker's house, and Julie Scarker answered the call.While answering the phone, Julie went upstairs and opened the door of Tony's room.Tony didn't turn on the light, and lay on the bed and said that he and Martha broke up at the back door around 9:30 because he had to go back to the house to do his homework. Doris made several phone calls to the Scarkers' house later, but each time Julie answered the phone, and every time Julie went upstairs to ask Tony, she always got the same answer.Once Doris insisted that Tony answer the phone in person, and Julie finally pulled him out of bed. "I'm very anxious, can you tell me where she might be?" Mrs. Mockley said eagerly on the phone. "I really don't know." Julie suggested that Mrs. Mockley call Tyrion's house and ask.Du Lisi dialed the number given by Julie, and Jem Tyrion's mother, Georgiana, said that she didn't seem to see Jem either. At 3:35 in the morning, Doris woke Jon up.The young man really didn't dare to be sloppy this time. He not only drove around Belhaven, but also went to many places in Greenwich, and didn't come back until dawn. According to police records, the Greenwich Police Department received a call from Mrs. Mockley at 3:48 a.m. on October 31, and immediately dispatched Patrolman Daniel Moncha to Mockley's home, and at the same time dispatched two police cars to blink. Search Belheven with emergency lights. Mrs. Mockley replied to Daniel Moncha's questioning that it was impossible for Martha to run away from home, and that she occasionally came back after midnight, but never stayed out all night.Together, Daniel and Duris searched up and down the main building of Mockley's house, and went to another small house of Mockley's house not far from the main building. There was no sign of Martha there either.Daniel Moncha returns to the police station. At 6:35 in the morning, Daniel Moncha called before leaving the night shift to ask if Miss Mockley was back, and Doris said she hadn't.Du Lisi called Martha's friend's house again, and then lay down on the window seat of the library with all her clothes on and slept for a while. It was 10 o'clock in the morning when she woke up, and she still didn't see her daughter, so Duris decided to go to Scarker's house in person.It was her first visit to the distinguished neighbour.Doris crossed Welsh Street to the back door of Skakel's house, and Mike Skackle opened the door.Doris later recalled that Mike looked pale and haggard, as if he hadn't slept all night. "I'm Martha's mother. Martha hasn't come home all night, do you know where she might be?" Mrs. Mockley asked Mike. "have no idea." "Is Martha still here?" Du Lisi still did not give up. "Not here." "Will she be in the camper?" Doris knew that Martha liked to drink beer.Once Jon joked that Martha would be very happy when she gave her a case of beer instead of a present for her birthday.Du Lisi wondered if her daughter was drunk and fell asleep somewhere.Just then the gardener Franz Weiding came over and said he had packed the camper early in the morning and there was no one in it.But if Mrs Mockley wished, he could go and see it again. Mrs. Mockley returned angrily. At this time, Du Lisi's friends came to Mokley's house after hearing the news.Among them were Marilyn Robinson, the wife of David Mockley's colleague Louville Robinson, and Jing Wilke, whose daughter was Martha's best friend.Marilyn called Duris's hotel room in Atlanta and left a message saying: Martha is missing and come back soon. At 12:15 p.m., 15-year-old Xena Megall was walking through the Mockley garden.Xena and Martha knew each other, but not very well, so Mrs. Mockley never called the Megalls.Although the news of Martha's disappearance had been spread in an uproar, Xena Megall didn't know a little bit.Walking and walking, Xena felt that there seemed to be something under a big pine tree in the backyard of Martha's house.A pine branch hanging down to the ground hides a big blue, blue and white mass, which looks like a blue sleeping bag piled on a milky white foam cushion from a distance.It was only when Xina got closer that she realized that it was a person, a dead person.Despite the blood and the grass, leaves, and dirt, Xena recognized Martha Mockley. Xena was terrified.She cried and ran to Martha's house. "I saw Martha..." "Where?" "Outside, under the pines." "how is she?" "I—I dare not say." Du Lisi was dizzy for a while, but she still managed to stand up and walk outside.Jing Wilke stopped her: "Let me go and see first."