They want me to be able to write, too-they're very firm about that. Sears James said, "We didn't ask you here so that we could interrupt your career!" So they want me to give about half of my day to Dr. Rabbitfoot, and the other half to them. There's the feeling, definitely, that part of what they want is just someone to talk to. They've been talking to themselves for too long.
Not long after the secretary, Anna Mostyn, left, the dead man's housekeeper said that she wanted to lie down, and Stella Hawthorne took her upstairs. When she came back down, Mrs. Hawthorne gave us all large glasses of whiskey. In Milburn high society, which I guess this is, you drink whiskey English style, neat.
We had a painful, halting conversation. Stella Hawthorne said, "I hope you knock some sense into these characters' heads," which mystified me. They hadn't yet explained the real reason why they asked me to come. I nodded, and Lewis said, "We have to talk about it." That silenced them again. "We want to talk about your book, too," Lewis said. "Fine," I said. More silence.
"I might as well feed you three owls," Stella Hawthorne said. "Mr. Wanderley, will you please give me a hand?"
I followed her into the kitchen, expecting to be handed plates or cutlery. What I did not expect was for the elegant Mrs. Hawthorne to whirl around, slam the door behind her and say, "Didn't those three old idiots in there say why they wanted you to come here?"
"I guess they fudged a little," I said.
"Well, you better be good, Mr. Wanderley," she said, "because you're going to have to be Freud to deal with those three. I want you to know that I don't approve of your being here at all. I think people should solve their problems by themselves."
"They implied they just wanted to talk to me about my uncle," I said. Even with her gray hair, I thought she could be no older than about forty-six or seven, and she looked as beautiful and stern as a ship's figurehead.
"Your uncle! Well, maybe they do. They'd never deign to tell me," and I understood part of the reason for her fury. "How well did you know your uncle, Mr. Wanderley?"
I asked her to use my first name. "Not very well. After I went to college and moved to California, I didn't see him more than once every couple of years. I hadn't seen him at all for several years before his death."
"But he left you his house. Doesn't it strike you a little bit funny that those three characters out there didn't suggest you stay there?"
Before I could reply she went on. "Well, even if it doesn't, it does me. And not only funny, but pathetic. They're afraid to go into Edward's house. They just all came to a kind of-a kind of silent agreement. They've never entered that house. They're superstitious, that's why."
"I thought I felt-well, when I came to the funeral I thought I saw-" I stammered, not sure of how far I could go with her.
"Bully for you," she said. "Maybe you're not as big a blockhead as they are. But I tell you this, Don Wanderley, if you make them any worse than they are already, you'll have me to answer to." She put her hands on her hips, her eyes sizzling, and then she exhaled. Her eyes changed; she gave me a tight pained smile and said, "We'd better get busy or I suppose they'll start to gossip about you."
She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a platter holding a roast the size of a young pig. "Cold roast beef all right for you? The carving things are in the drawer to your right. Start cutting."
Only after Stella rather abruptly left the house for what she called an "appointment"-after the strange scene in the kitchen, I had a passing notion of its character, and the momentary expression of utter misery which crossed Ricky Hawthorne's face confirmed it- did the three men open up to me. Bad choice of words: they did not "open up" at all, at least not until much later, but after Stella Hawthorne had driven off, the three old men began to show me why they had asked me to come to Milburn.
It began like a job interview.
"Well, here you are at last, Mr. Wanderley," said Sears James, pouring more cognac into his glass and removing a fat cigar case from the inside pocket of his jacket. "Cigar? I can vouch for their merit."
"No thanks," I said. "And please call me Don."
"Very well. I have not welcomed you properly, Don, but I will do so now. We were all great friends of your uncle Edward's. I am, and I speak for my two friends as well, very grateful that you have come across the country to join us. We think that you can help us."
"Does this have to do with my uncle's death?"
"In part. We want you to work for us." Then he asked me if we could talk about The Nightwatcher.
"Of course."
"It was a novel, therefore in large part an invention, but was this invention based on an actual case? We assume you did research for the book. But what we want to know is whether in the course of your research you discovered any corroborating evidence for the ideas in your book. Or perhaps your research was inspired by some inexplicable occurrence in your own life."
I could almost feel their tension on my fingertips, and perhaps they could feel mine on theirs. They knew nothing about David's death, but they had asked me to expose the central mystery of both The Nightwatcher and my life.
"The invention, as you put it, was based on an actual case," I said, and the tension broke.
"Could you describe that to us?"
"No," I said. "It's not clear enough to me. Also, it's too personal. I'm sorry, but I can't go into it."
"We can respect that," Sears James said. "You seem nervous."
"I am," I admitted, and laughed.
"The situation in The Nightwatcher was based on a real situation that you knew about?" asked Ricky Hawthorne, as if he hadn't been paying attention, or could not believe what he had just heard.
"That's right."
"And you know of other similar cases?"
"No."
"But you do not reject the supernatural out of hand," Sears said.
"I don't know if I do or not," I said. "Like most people."
Lewis Benedikt sat up straight and stared at me. "But you just said…"
"No, he didn't," Ricky Hawthorne put in. "He just said his book was based on a real event, not that it recounted the event exactly. Is that right, Don?"
"More or less."
"But what about your research?" asked Lewis.
"I didn't actually do much," I said.
Hawthorne sighed, glanced at Sears with what looked like irony: I told you so.
"I think you can help us anyway," Sears said, as if he were contradicting a voiced opinion. "Your skepticism will do us good."
"Maybe," Hawthorne muttered.
I was still feeling that they had blundered into my most private space. "What does all this have to do with my uncle's heart attack?" I asked. There was a lot of self-defense in the question, but it was the right question to ask.
It all came out-James had decided to tell me everything.
"And we've been having unthinkable nights. I know that John did too. It is not exaggerating to say that we fear for our reason. Would either of you dispute that?"
Hawthorne and Lewis Benedikt looked as though they were remembering things they'd rather not, and shook their heads.
"So we want your expert help, and as much time as you can reasonably give us," Sears concluded. "John's apparent suicide has shaken us all very deeply. Even if he was a drug addict, which I dispute, I do not think he was a potential suicide."