WD: Well, anyhow, I tossed the hammer right through the car window into the river. And then I drove right on home and met you. And I decided that it was time to tell the truth about everything. Time for everything to come out into the open.
PF: Well, we're grateful for your cooperation, Walter. I want to ask you about one detail before we break. You say that your mother's friend, her name was, let's see, her name was Budge Dewdrop, stopped talking to you after your mother's death. Do you have any idea why she did that?
WD: No.
PF: None? No idea at all?
WD: I told you. I don't have any idea.
PF: How did your mother die, Walter?
WD: She just died. In her sleep. It was very peaceful, the way she would have wanted it.
PF: Your mother would have been very unhappy if she had discovered some of your activities, wouldn't she, Walter?
WD: Well. I suppose you could say that. She never liked it about the animals.
PF: Did she ever tell her friends about the animals?
WD: Oh, no. Well, maybe Budge.
PF: And she never knew that you had killed people, did she?
WD: No. Of course she didn't.
PF: Was she ever curious about anything that made you uneasy? Did she ever suspect anything?
WD: I don't want to talk about this.
PF: What do you think she said to her friend Budge?
WD: She never told me, but she must have said something.
PF: Because Budge acted like she was afraid of you.
WD: She should have been afraid of me.
PF: Walter, did your mother ever find one of your trophies?
WD: I said, I don't want to talk about this.
PF: But you said it was time for everything to come out into the open. Tell me what happened.
WD: What?
PF: You told me about the mother who was dead on the riverbank. Now tell me about your mother.
WD: (Inaudible.)
PF: I know this is hard to do, but I also know that you want to do it. You want me to know everything, even this. Walter, what did your mother find?
WD: It was a kind of a diary. I used to hide it in a jacket in my closet—in the inside pocket. She wasn't snooping or anything, she just wanted to take the jacket to the cleaners. And she found the diary. It was kind of a notebook. I had some things in there, and she asked me about them.
PF: What kind of things?
WD: Like initials. And some words like tattoo or scar. Stuff like red hair. One of them said bloody towel. She must have talked to Budge Dewdrop about it. She shouldn't have!
PF: Did she ask you about the diary?
WD: Sure, of course. But I never thought she believed me.
PF: So she was suspicious before that.
WD: I don't know. I just don't know.
PF: Tell me how your mother died, Walter
WD: It doesn't really matter anymore, does it? With all these other people, I mean.
PF: It matters to you, and it matters to me. Tell me about it, Walter.
WD: Well, this is what happened. It was the day after she found my diary. When she came home from work, she acted a little funny. I knew right away what it meant. She'd been talking to somebody, and she was guilty about that. I don't even know what she said, really, but I knew it had to do with the diary. I made dinner, like I always did, and she went to bed early instead of staying up and watching television with me. I was very distressed, but I don't think I showed it. I stayed up late, though I hardly understood what was going on in the movie, and I had two glasses of Harvey's Bristol Cream, which is something I never did. Finally the movie was over, even though I couldn't remember what happened in it. I only watched it for Ida Lupino, really—I always liked Ida Lupino. I washed my glass and turned off the lights and went upstairs. I was just going to look in my mother's room before I went to bed. So I opened the door and went inside her room. And it was so dark in there I had to go up next to the bed to see her. I went right up next to her. And I said to myself, if she wakes up, I'll just say good night and go to bed. And I stood there next to her for a long time. I thought about everything. I even thought about Mr. Lancer. If I hadn't had those two glasses of Harvey's Bristol Cream, I don't think any of this would have happened.
PF: Go on, Walter. Do you have a handkerchief?
WD: Of course I have a handkerchief. I have a dozen handkerchiefs. It's okay, I mean, I'm okay. Anyhow, I was standing next to my, ah, my mother. She was really asleep. I didn't intend to do anything at all. And it didn't feel like I was doing anything. It was like nothing at all was happening. I leaned over and pulled the extra pillow over her face. And she didn't wake up, see? She didn't move at all. So nothing at all was happening. And then I just pushed down on the pillow. And I closed my eyes and I held the pillow down. And after a while I took it off and went to bed. In my own bedroom. The next morning, I made us both breakfast, but she wouldn't come when I said it was ready, so I went to her room and found her in her bed, and I knew right away that she was dead. Well, there it was. I called the police right from the bedroom. And then I went into the kitchen and threw away the food and waited until they came.
PF: And when the police came, what did you tell them about your mother's death?
WD: I told them she died in her sleep. And that was true.
PF: But not the whole truth, was it, Walter?
WD: No. But I hardly knew what the whole truth was.
PF: I can see that. Walter, we're going to take a break now, and I'm going to give you a couple of minutes to be by yourself. Will you be all right?
WD: Just let me be by myself for a while, okay?
12
Fontaine pushed back his chair and stood up. He nodded twice and turned away from Dragonette.
"Were you satisfied with that, Mr. Ransom?" Wheeler asked. "Is there any doubt in your mind as to the identity of your wife's murderer?"
"How could there be?" John asked.
Paul Fontaine saved me from speaking by opening the door and stepping inside the booth. "I think that's all you'll have to watch, Mr. Ransom. Go home and get some rest. If anything else turns up, we'll be in touch with you."
"At least," Wheeler said, "you know why he killed your wife."
"He killed her because he liked her," Ransom said. "She had the office next door to his broker's." He sounded dumbfounded, almost stunned.
"That was good work, Paul," Wheeler said, standing up.
We all stood up. Fontaine stepped out of the booth, and the rest of us followed him out into the light of the corridor.
"You did a number on him," Monroe said.
Fontaine gave him a sad smile. "I figure we'll have our charges ready by the end of the day. We have to get this one wrapped up with something more than our usual blinding speed, or the brass is going to have us cleaning toilets. I hate to admit this, but my getting Walter to admit that he killed his mother isn't going to mean anything to the lieutenant."
"Well, McCandless didn't actually have a mother," Monroe said. "He came into the world via the Big Bang Theory."
Fontaine stepped backward and regarded Wheeler and Monroe with mock horror. "You two must have a couple of unsolved murders left to mull over."
"There are no more unsolved murders in Millhaven," said Monroe. "Haven't you heard?"
He grinned at Ransom and me and turned away to walk back through the corridors to the Homicide office. Wheeler went with him.
"Seems you have another fan in Mr. Dragonette," Fontaine said to me.
"It's too bad he couldn't tell us who the original Blue Rose was, while he was telling us who he wasn't."