Scandal in the Secret City

by Diane Fanning

  After the conversation, I escaped to the kitchen where Ann pressed to know what her father wanted. Fortunately, Mrs Bishop gave me an easy out. ‘I imagine it was about work, Ann. You know scientists can’t share information about their work with the rest of us. That’s what it was, wasn’t it, Libby?’

  I was chagrined over how easy it was to say, ‘Yes.’

  TWENTY-NINE

  Walking out to the car for the drive home, I suppressed the urge to jump in the air and click my heels. It had been far easier than I thought it would be to turn the conversation away from Ann’s line of questioning and onto the Bishops’ trip at Christmastime. Ann washed, I dried and Mrs Bishop put away the dishes while memories of the family’s recent holiday trip rolled off the older woman’s tongue.

  That woman certainly was a talker. It was difficult to feign interest as Mrs Bishop talked about people I didn’t know: Aunt Flossie and her bunions, Uncle Freddy’s death, a cousin’s latest letter from the front and the two – or was that three? – new babies that were added to the clan in recent months. Fortunately, I was able to pay enough attention to ask the right question at the right time.

  ‘Mrs Bishop, I can’t help but wonder how you stretched your gasoline ration to travel around to all those households. Weren’t you worried you wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it back home?’

  ‘Land’s sakes no! It wasn’t a problem at all. The families planned it all out like a military campaign before we arrived. We went straight from here to my mother-in-law’s house on Christmas Eve. They delivered us to the next stop – and so on, down the line. Like a relay race. It was really lots of fun. We didn’t get back to Mr Bishop’s parent’s home – and our car – until the afternoon after Christmas. And that certainly put a big pout on my little Annie’s face.’

  Ann rolled her eyes. ‘Please, Mom,’ she said and turned to me. ‘I accidently left my tube of lipstick in the back seat of our car. I wanted to swing by and get it – we were awfully close when we went to Aunt Minnie’s. I couldn’t understand why it was out of the question.’

  Mrs Bishop crinkled up her nose and pinched Ann’s cheeks. ‘Isn’t she just the cutest thing? I tell her at her age she doesn’t need any face paint – she’s as pretty as she can be without it.’

  Ann lightly swatted at her mother’s arm. ‘Mother!’ she moaned, before grabbing my hands and dragging me out of the kitchen.

  After tonight, I could officially scratch Dr Bishop off of my suspect list. His name wasn’t Bill, and knowing he was out of town and unable to sneak back on Christmas night because he didn’t have access to his automobile made it scientific certainty. Who else on the list would have been away at Christmas under similar circumstances, unable to make a surreptitious trip back to Oak Ridge? It was satisfying to know, that without trying tonight, I’d actually made the list shorter. Somehow, I was going to find answers for Irene’s family. As I drove home, I thought I might smile through my dreams.

  That sense of well-being dissipated the moment I pulled up to the house. A large shape blocked the steps leading up to my home. It moved. It was alive. It was a man. Should I restart the car and zoom away? But where would I go? Who could I turn to for help?

  Cautiously, I stepped out of the car, standing for a moment by the open door. Then I shut it and walked toward the steps. I shuddered as a voice called out, ‘Libby!’

  It was a familiar voice but whose? ‘Who’s there?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s Teddy from Alpha – your fellow Walking Molecule, at your service.’

  What in heaven’s name was he doing here? ‘Hi, Teddy. What are you doing out here in the cold?’

  ‘I’m hoping you’ll let me inside before my jaw freezes shut. I learned some information tonight that I thought you’d want to know.’

  ‘I didn’t lock the door, Teddy. You could have gone right inside. In fact, I wish you had, you could have gotten the place toasty before I returned.’

  ‘Libby, don’t ever leave your door unlocked again.’

  ‘Nobody locks up here, Teddy. We’re not in a big city,’ I said pushing open the door and stepping inside.

  ‘Yes, but there is a killer on the loose and he could be looking for you. Promise me until he’s found, you will lock your door.’

  ‘Teddy …’

  ‘Please! If you don’t promise, I’ll have to camp out on your steps every night.’

  ‘All right. I promise. Now let’s get that fire going,’ I said and reached for the poker beside the stove. Before I could secure it, Teddy had it firmly in his grasp.

  ‘I’ll take care of that,’ he said. ‘Think maybe you could make us something warm to drink like some coffee or whatever you’ve got around that you pretend is coffee?’

  ‘I still have some of the good stuff left from Christmas. I’ll fix us both a cup.’

  Was there something suspicious about Teddy’s presence here tonight? Or could I accept what he said at face value. I was on edge and startled when he spoke, nearly dropping the coffee cups I’d pulled from the cupboard. He stood in the entryway to the kitchen with the coal scuttle dangling from the fingers of one hand. ‘I used up all your coal in your stove. I thought I’d refill it for you so you’d have some for the morning.’

  ‘Oh, there’s no need, Teddy.’

  ‘Really, I don’t mind. And my mother will never forgive me if I didn’t act like a gentleman once in a while,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Well then, be my guest. Grab the flashlight by the door. The coal bin is that little thing at the foot of the stairs that looks like a dog house.’

  He walked back inside just as I was carrying a tray with a coffee pot, a small plate of cookies and two cups and saucers into the living room. ‘Sorry, but I don’t have any sugar. I used every last crystal to make these.’

  ‘I like it without, anyway. And cookies? What a treat. Thank you.’

  We sat down in chairs on opposite sides of the stove. ‘Well, Teddy, you sat out in the cold waiting for me. I have a hard time imagining what tidbit of information could possibly be so important that you’d risk frostbite.’

  Teddy sipped and sighed. ‘I’ll be honest, Libby. Now that I’m sitting here talking about it, I doubt that it’s all that important.’

  And just what did that mean? I forced a polite smile to remain on my face. What was he up to? ‘Really? Why not?’

  ‘You see, what I learned just made me nervous about where you were tonight and I don’t think I could have slept if I hadn’t made sure you got home safely.’

  ‘How did you know where I was tonight?’ I asked, my suspicions about his motivation strengthening.

  ‘Oh, golly, I didn’t mean to alarm you. I didn’t follow you or anything, I swear. It was Ann Bishop. I’m not carrying a torch for her or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve been hoping if I paid her some attention, she’d invite me to dinner at her house sometime. She doesn’t live in the dorm – she lives with her parents and it sounds like her mother’s a pretty good cook.’

  Ah, that’s a man for you. I couldn’t help but grin. ‘She most definitely is.’

  Teddy sighed. ‘I’ve been to her house once when I picked Ann up to go to a movie. I tried to charm her mother without coming right out and begging for a home cooked meal. So far, no luck, but I keep trying. I often asked Ann what her mother’s making for dinner. When I asked her today, she told me that you were coming to the house.’

  ‘You were worried about the Bishops?’

  ‘No, I didn’t think about them. I guess I should have but I didn’t. I wasn’t even worried until I went down to Joe’s and bumped into an engineer named Mike DeVries.’

  ‘Ugh, DeVries! I had the distinct misfortune of meeting him once and that was enough for a lifetime.’

  ‘Not exactly my favorite person either. He used to live down the hall from me in the dorm. When he got one of the cemesto houses, his wife moved down to join him. But that Mike is a real drugstore cowboy. Always making passes at every dumb Dora he
can find. Didn’t seem to matter that he was married when his wife was out of town but I thought that would change when she moved here. But judging by his conversation tonight, I don’t think it’s made any difference to him at all.’

  ‘When I met him before Thanksgiving up at the Calutron, he said he knew Irene.’

  ‘Well, that answers that. When he said that he had a regular dame up until Christmas and finally found a new one to take her place, I asked, Was your last regular girlfriend named Irene? He squinted, glared at me and said, What business is it of yours? Then he threw a buck on the bar and walked out.’

  ‘Yes, but just because he knew Irene doesn’t mean that he was her regular boyfriend. I can’t imagine what she’d see in a man like him. Why would what DeVries said make you worry about where I was tonight?’

  ‘I went back to the dorm and it hit me. I rushed over here to look for you. I thought about walking the roads you’d take if you walked home but then realized that if you got a ride home, I wouldn’t recognize the car. And until you pulled up tonight, I didn’t realize you had a car.’

  ‘Teddy, you’re still not making sense. What hit you?’

  ‘I remembered where Mike DeVries and his wife lived. They moved into a cemesto just across the street from the Bishops’ house. And I started thinking, what if “Bill” was a phony name? Maybe Irene didn’t know her boyfriend’s real name.’

  ‘And maybe it was Mike?’

  ‘Well, yes. But now that you’ve said it, I feel like I really stretched my chain of logic all out of shape.’

  ‘I can’t argue with that assessment,’ I said with a laugh, amused by his runaway concern. ‘But, you never know. Do you think we need to take a closer look at DeVries?’

  ‘Well, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it …’

  ‘Admit what, Teddy?’

  ‘I stole his cigarette lighter.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’ll give it back. It’s part of my plan. You see, tomorrow at lunch, I plan to run up to his house to return it and it’ll give me a chance to talk to his wife when he should be at work. Never know how much you can learn with innocent questions.’

  I laughed out loud. ‘That is an outrageous plan.’

  Teddy shrugged. ‘Desperate men – desperate times.’

  ‘Teddy, I think you are a bit too paranoid.’ Suddenly, my suspicions all felt normal in comparison.

  ‘It seems a natural state to me, considering all the secrecy in this place.’

  ‘And it is a sneaky plan – brilliant in its own way. But I really think it’s a waste of your time.’

  ‘Maybe. But I know I’ll feel better if I follow it up. Well, tomorrow should be a busy day and we’ll be meeting again after work. I better get going and let you get your beauty sleep – not that you need it.’

  ‘Don’t go all lounge lizard on me.’ I was flattered but still …

  ‘Wouldn’t dream of it. But you take good care of yourself. Be cautious even when it makes you feel stupid. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.’

  ‘It sure would destroy the reputation of the Walking Molecules. Experiment declared abysmal failure after death of one of the scientists,’ I joked.

  Teddy laughed and then looked into my eyes. ‘It’s more than that, Libby. Much more.’ Before I had a chance to respond, he was gone.

  As I prepared for bed, I wondered if I understood the meaning of his parting words. Was he interested in me? He certainly was interesting. Was he really as progressive in his attitudes about women as he seemed? I drifted of to sleep thinking about his smile.

  THIRTY

  The next evening, our fledgling detective group gathered again at Joe’s. When pitchers of beer and mugs arrived and the barmaid departed, I said, ‘I believe I have neglected to inform you of three bits of information that may have bearing on the issue at hand – variables in our equation as it were. I would like to rectify that right now. The first two had slipped my mind. First is the anonymous gift I received shortly after Irene’s death. It was left in a sack on my porch steps – a pair of mittens with a note that read: “I’ve got my eyes on you”. Now, while I realize that could have been interpreted as an admirer, it, nonetheless, felt threatening to me because of its timing. It frightened me enough that I tossed them into the fire. And who would think of hand-knitted mittens for a gift? My logic tells me it would be an older married man, a father, someone with a wife and kids.

  ‘Secondly, Ruth told me that Irene had always been open with her about who she was dating until this mysterious Bill came along. Never told her his last name. Ruth never saw her in public with him. When she confronted Irene and directly asked her if her Bill was a married man, Irene changed the subject. Ruth was certain he was a married man.’

  ‘So Irene was a home wrecker,’ Tom said.

  ‘Please, Tom, let me finish. The third piece of information, I deliberately concealed. Irene was dead. I saw no reason to spread the story around. But I realize now that it is a vital piece of information. Probably the one fact that leads more directly to a married man than any other: when Irene Nance was murdered, she was pregnant.’

  ‘What a floozie!’ Tom exclaimed. ‘I can’t understand why we are wasting all this time and energy on a tramp. She got what she deserved.’

  ‘You disgust me, Tom. Thoroughly. Your attitude towards women is deplorable,’ I said.

  Tom jerked to his feet, his eyes angry, his fists clenched. ‘No woman talks to me like that.’

  Teddy jumped up, mimicking Tom’s stance. Gregg tried to defuse the situation with a chuckle. ‘Looks like this one just did, Tom. There is a first time for everything.’

  Tom took a step in Gregg’s direction. ‘Why, you—’

  I jumped to my feet. ‘And I’ll say it again: you disgust me. Whatever did your mother do to you to make you so hostile to women?’

  Tom raised one fist in the air and shook it. ‘I’m warning you, girl. You leave my mother out of this.’

  I defiantly thrust out my chin. ‘Or what? Are you going to hit me, big man? Go ahead. I dare you.’

  ‘Don’t think I won’t!’

  Gregg shouted, ‘Shut up, Tom, and sit down. Teddy, unclench your fists and get back in your seat. Libby, you sit down, too. You’re not helping matters here.’

  The three of us all glared at Gregg. Slowly I lowered into my seat careful to do so at the same time as Tom, to prevent him from getting the upper hand.

  ‘First of all, Tom, Libby is right,’ Gregg said.

  Tom clenched his jaw so hard it throbbed. Several of the group murmured their agreement – but not Gary and Rudy, they stared at the floor. They probably agreed with Tom’s philosophy even if they didn’t agree with his methods of expressing it.

  ‘You’ve forgotten why we are here,’ Gregg continued. ‘We are here because we wanted to do vital war work. We wanted to play a part in our victory. We wanted to ensure freedom and protect the American way of life – and that’s for all Americans, not just half the population. For women, too.’

  Teddy added, ‘Where have you been the last couple of years, Tom? You’ve seen the change. Women in factories. Women doing what we always called men’s work – and they’re doing it well. The only reason they hadn’t been doing it before is because we wouldn’t let them. Out of misguided chivalry and an unhealthy dose of fear, we’ve wanted to keep them in their place – under our thumb. And we did it not because we are smarter or more capable but simply because we’re bigger and stronger.’

  Tom looked from face to face around the room, shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands. ‘I give,’ he said. ‘I concede to the opinion of the majority. I’d hate for this group to break up over some woman.’

  ‘Tom!’ Teddy and Gregg exclaimed in unison.

  ‘OK, sorry,’ Tom said. ‘So what’s the plan? How are we going to find the guy who bumped off Irene?’

  ‘The theory I propose is that a married man took Irene’s life,’ I said. ‘He would have the most t
o lose. It puts both his personal and professional life at risk. A single man would have far less need to resort to a drastic, fatal solution to the problem of a pregnant girlfriend.’

  ‘Just as long as we don’t totally eliminate the single men and only rank their priority a bit lower, I’m fine with that approach,’ Tom said. Murmured agreement circled the table.

  ‘OK, I have a list of all the scientists here. I think we should look at all of them – not just the men named Bill. Irene’s boyfriend could have lied about his name to her. Or he could have an official code name and Bill is his real name. We just don’t know. I’ve gone through the list and put a check mark beside all the names that I know aren’t married – and that includes everyone at the table. I’d like to pass it around and have all of you check off anyone I missed.’

  Tom reached across the table and snatched the list out of my hands. I did not like that man and could not understand why the others invited him into the group in the first place. He seemed to be fueled by anger and his attitude was so negative. But he was a part of it. And I was the new one here. I had to find a way to smooth things out between us for the good of the group and the investigation. I doubted, though, that Tom would make that easy.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Tom said. ‘I thought we were checking off the single men but you’ve checked Dr Bishop. I know for a fact that he’s married.’

  ‘You’re right, Tom. I neglected to mention that – it slipped my mind. The Bishops were out of town and on the night of Christmas Day, Dr Bishop did not have access to his automobile so he couldn’t have slipped back here on the sly. If anyone else knows a married man who’s on the list who could not have been here when Irene was murdered, please check him off, too.’

  ‘No. That’s not adequate,’ Tom objected. ‘We need to distinguish between the two. Say we make a check for “not married” and an x for “not here”.’