Emerald Aisle (20 page)
MRS. TORRE WAS GLAD THAT the manager of The Morris Inn seemed not to notice that the name of the groom had been changed. Dolores thought that balanced the fact that she and Larry were now claiming the reservation at Sacred Heart Basilica as originally made. In any case, with the reception already scheduled, Mrs. Torre had lots of time for the Warren Golf Course.
When the Knight brothers received their invitation to the wedding, it created a difficulty.
“It would be disloyal to Nancy,” Phil said.
“You just don't like to go to weddings.”
“June 17 was the day Larry Morton was going to marry Nancy. Now he's going to marry Dolores on that day. And in Sacred Heart.”
Roger was amused by Phil's suddenly sensitive conscience. “I'll talk to Nancy.”
“I'm going myself; I wouldn't miss it.” Nancy was more animated than Roger had ever seen her.
“You're not at all bothered by the way things have turned out?”
“Good heavens, no. Obviously he never really loved me.”
“That's going pretty far.”
“Maybe what I felt for him was less than love too.”
Onto the unfathomable ocean of male/female relations Roger was
unwilling to embark. But the truth was that Nancy did seem relieved that it was Dolores Larry would marry on June 17 and not herself. “Frailty thy name is woman?” Then what of Larry?
unwilling to embark. But the truth was that Nancy did seem relieved that it was Dolores Larry would marry on June 17 and not herself. “Frailty thy name is woman?” Then what of Larry?
If Nancy was forgiving, her mother was incensed. “He sat in this house, he ate at this table, he was smooth as butter, and all the time ⦔
“All the time he wanted margarine,” grumped Professor Beatty. But he was quite content with the way things had turned out.
“Imagine turning down scholarships that will carry her through to her doctorate! I felt like disowning her when she told me she wanted to marry thatâthat lawyer.”
“Now she'll become a professor like her father.”
Beatty tried not to show the pleasure the thought gave him. “It's no longer a full-time job, as I can admit to you. She can marry as well. Later.”
There was no question of the Beattys attending the wedding, of course, so Nancy went with the Knight brothers.
The day of the wedding the weather was glorious. Sun streamed through the campus trees, glinted off the golden dome, made the bride's dress seem even whiter than it was. After the nuptial Mass, the couple came squinting into the sunlight and stood on the steps of the Basilica to receive one more round of applause from their friends and guests.
“She looks beautiful,” Nancy said.
“At least he's marrying someone his own age.”
She punched Phil in the ribs. “Watch out or I'll marry you.”
Joshing about a discrepancy of ages sent Roger's mind back to the ill-fated Dudley Fyte and Bianca Primero. Dudley had disappeared
from the Minneapolis scene; his vindication of all charges had not smoothed his way back into the good graces of Kunert and Skye. There was the public scandal of his affair with Bianca. And there was his name. Dudley Fyte had been a fanciful name to adopt, but the media had made his real name knownâDungman, Francis Dungman. The country had moved far from its rural roots but not far enough to erase the associations of that name.
from the Minneapolis scene; his vindication of all charges had not smoothed his way back into the good graces of Kunert and Skye. There was the public scandal of his affair with Bianca. And there was his name. Dudley Fyte had been a fanciful name to adopt, but the media had made his real name knownâDungman, Francis Dungman. The country had moved far from its rural roots but not far enough to erase the associations of that name.
Phil took Nancy on to the reception, but Roger begged off. He wanted to stop by Holy Cross House and talk with Father Carmody. As he directed his golf cart along the road to Moreau Seminary and continued on to the retirement home, Roger thought of the strange events that seemed to have reached their end in the wedding he had just attended.
“Waldo thinks he might stay at New Melleray,” Greg Whelan had confided to Roger.
“And become a monk?”
“The library there sounds amazing. They need someone to look after it, and the librarian has to be a monk. Of course he would only be on probation at first.”
“As librarian?”
“That's what I said.”
If Greg had any deficiency, it was a less than lively sense of humor. Or was he relieved at the permanent removal of a threat to his presiding over the Primero Collection? In the new building that was planned, he would have a whole floor to himself. Notre Dame turned out to be the major beneficiary of Joseph Primero's conviction for the murder of his wife. He had signed over 90 percent of his wealth to the university.
Father Carmody was sitting in a lawn chair, scowling across the lake at the university. “It's a regular skyline now,” he groused. “There won't be a foot of free land if they keep this up.”
Roger sat on the bench he had dragged up beside Carmody's chair. There was a sweet scent in the air; there was the constant twitter of birds. On the lake below them, the sail of a small boat caught the breeze and moved hypnotically from east to west.
“Joseph Primero was sentenced yesterday,” Roger said.
“Do they have the death penalty in Minnesota?”
“Oh, there was never any danger of that. He may be a free man before you know it.”
Carmody looked at Roger. “He asked me once if there were provisions for people like himself retiring at Notre Dame.”
“Maybe he'll come here when he gets out.”
Carmody lost interest in the subject. If that happened, he would have already claimed his place in the community cemetery. But he perked up when Roger told him the details of the death of Bianca Primero. It posed the kind of problem in moral theology Father Carmody liked.
“He thought she was already dead?”
“He thought she had committed suicide. It was to cover that up that he strangled her.”
“Thinking he was strangling a dead woman?”
“To save her reputation.” Carmody looked sharply at Roger. Bianca Primero's reputation had hardly been all it should be.
“How did he react when he learned what had actually happened?”
“I think he prefers his own version.”
Again the old priest gave Roger a sharp look. “He would rather be a murderer than have his wife be a suicide.”
“But he isn't a murderer, not morally. Not if he did what he did simply to prevent a judgment of suicide.”
“That doesn't help, legally.”
“But surely the sentence was less severe because of the circumstances.”
“He didn't tell his lawyer what he thought he was doing.”
Father Carmody sighed. “So he will go on suffering because of that woman.”
“Any suffering he feels is relieved by knowing that she did not kill herself. He did.”
“But if she intended to kill herself ⦔
“That's unlikely, Father.” The ironies continue. Swenson had gathered evidence against Dudley Fyte that suggests Fyte had dosed Bianca's drink with what, in conjunction with the alcohol, should have been enough sedatives to kill her.
“You mean the real murderer gets off free.”
“He tried but failed to murder her.”
“But attempted homicide is a crime.”
The conversation went on, as such conversations will. Later, whenever Roger Knight thought of the Primeros, he was put in mind of the moral maxims Father Carmody kept repeating there on the lawn overlooking the lake. A person can be guilty of something he did not do. And innocent of what he did.
MYSTERIES SET AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
On This Rockne
Lack of the Irish
Irish Tenure
Book of Kills
Emerald Aisle
Lack of the Irish
Irish Tenure
Book of Kills
Emerald Aisle
FATHER DOWLING MYSTERY SERIES
Her Death of Cold
The Seventh Station
Bishop as Pawn
Lying Three
Second Vespers
Thicker Than Water
A Loss of Patients
The Grass Widow
Getting a Way with Murder
Rest in Pieces
The Basket Case
Abracadaver
Four on the Floor
Judas Priest
Desert Sinner
Seed of Doubt
A Cardinal Offense
The Tears of Things
Grave Undertakings
Triple Pursuit
The Seventh Station
Bishop as Pawn
Lying Three
Second Vespers
Thicker Than Water
A Loss of Patients
The Grass Widow
Getting a Way with Murder
Rest in Pieces
The Basket Case
Abracadaver
Four on the Floor
Judas Priest
Desert Sinner
Seed of Doubt
A Cardinal Offense
The Tears of Things
Grave Undertakings
Triple Pursuit
ANDREW BROOM MYSTERY SERIES
Cause and Effect
Body and Soul
Savings and Loam
Mom and Dead
Law and Ardor
Heirs and Parents
Body and Soul
Savings and Loam
Mom and Dead
Law and Ardor
Heirs and Parents
EMERALD AISLE. Copyright © 2001 by Ralph McInerny. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
eISBN 9781429977760
First eBook Edition : March 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McInerny, Ralph M.
Emerald Aisle / Ralph McInerny. p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-26938-2
1. Knight, Roger (Fictitious character)âFiction. 2. Knight, Philip (Fictitious character)âFiction. 3. Private investigatorsâIndianaâSouth BendâFiction. 4. University of Notre Dameâ4. Fiction. 5. South Bend (Ind.)âFiction. 6. College teachersâFiction. 7. WeddingsâFiction. I. Title.
PS3563.A31166 E4 2001
813'.54âdc21
2001041945
First Edition: November 2001
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