“There are some trees, Watson, which grow to a certain height, and then suddenly develop some unsightly eccentricity. You will see it often in humans.”
SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE
ONCE A PARADIGM SHIFT OCCURS, you see everything differently. In Palatine’s living room, Clarence had commented how brothers sometimes fight. Looking back, I could see in my mind’s eye how Noel had chuckled and nodded his head, like someone who’d experienced it. Yet he claimed to be an only child.
Was it really true that the Noel Barrows I knew was not the boy who grew up in Liberty Lake, Washington? And if he wasn’t, then who was he?
But no, I told myself. What about Linda Glissan’s testimony that Noel refused to cooperate with the murder? And what about his airtight alibi?
I sat in Linda’s living room, me in Jack’s chair, her on the leather couch nearby. This time she offered coffee, and I took it. Nice and dark. Jack and I both liked it that way. Sometimes I add cream, but Jack always took it black, no compromise.
“I was looking through Melissa’s case file,” I said.
“Why?”
“I’m digging. If Jack didn’t kill those other men, somebody did. Who had a motive? I interviewed Melissa’s old roommate, Cherianne Takalo.”
“Cherianne? I haven’t thought about her for years. Where is she?”
“Outside Detroit. She told me about the professor. And she claims Melissa had a boyfriend named Donald, who came and stayed with you and Jack. Then when she broke up with him, he came back to talk her out of it.”
“No,” Linda said. “He only came out once, when he stayed with us. Next time he came to Portland was for the funeral.”
“Where’d he live?”
“I don’t remember exactly. We didn’t have much of a chance to know him. I picked him up at the airport the night before the funeral.”
“What time did Noel arrive?”
“I don’t know. It’s been ten years. I just remember picking him up … Wait. You called him Noel.”
“Donald changed his name to Noel Barrows, didn’t he?”
“Why were you hiding it?”
She stood, wringing her hands, pivoted, then fell back on the couch. “Noel … Donald, was crushed by Melissa’s death. He’d stayed with us three weeks that summer. No one out here knew him. After the funeral, he didn’t want to go home. He had an abusive mother and some troubles. He needed a fresh start and wanted to change his name. He even asked if he could take our name, but that seemed a little … premature.” She smiled. “Jack helped him out. Noel got his name changed and entered the police academy.”
“He assumed the name of a dead kid from Liberty Lake, Washington.”
“He was about his age and didn’t have family. Donald wasn’t hurting anybody.”
“Look, Linda, I’ve read Melissa’s investigation files. There isn’t anything about a boyfriend named Donald. They interviewed you and Jack. Why didn’t you tell them?”
“Why? Noel had nothing to do with her being on drugs. Or the suicide. That was the professor’s fault. Melissa and Noel had broken up. We were sorry because we really liked him. They were good for each other. I think sometimes how Melissa could have stayed with Noel and married him. We’d probably have grandchildren now and …” She kept swallowing but appeared to be out of tears.
“You really thought Noel wasn’t in Portland until the funeral?”
“He wasn’t. He stayed with us three weeks that summer. That’s when we got to know him. Jack was on vacation two weeks. They played golf all the time. But like I said, he didn’t come back until just before the funeral, maybe four days after Melissa died. I’m the one who called Noel to tell him. He was in … well, he wasn’t in Portland.”
“Cherianne Takalo says he was here before Melissa died.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Why would she lie?”
“Ask Noel. He’ll tell you he just came for the funeral.”
“How about you call him and invite him over right now?”
Forty minutes later Noel showed up at Linda’s. They hugged. She offered him a pop. Not a soda. Not a Coke.
“What are you doing here?” Noel asked me.
“When you came for Melissa’s funeral, you flew to Portland straight from Pennsylvania, right?”
“Pennsylvania?” Noel looked at Linda.
“He’s fishing,” Linda said. “I wouldn’t tell him where you’re from.”
“I’m from Liberty Lake, Washington,” Noel said.
“No, you’re not, but we’ll get back to that,” I said. “Melissa’s funeral was Saturday, November 26, two days after Thanksgiving. When did you fly in?”
He looked at Linda. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on, Noel,” I said, “is that your real name is Donald.”
“That’s a lie.” His sideglance at Linda showed he thought she’d betrayed him.
“He already knew,” Linda said to him, putting her hand on his arm. “He called you Donald.”
Noel paused. “It’s not illegal to change your name.”
“It’s illegal to assume an identity.”
“I had my reasons.”
“Yeah, your previous girlfriend had died too.” It was a shot in the dark. I watched both their faces.
“It was an accident,” he said, making my bluff pay off.
“One girlfriend dies in an accident, next girlfriend commits suicide. What a coincidence.”
Linda gave Noel a vacant, eerie stare.
“But you called me … back home,” Noel said to her. “To tell me Melissa had died.”
“That’s right,” Linda said, her voice lifting.
“Think back,” I said. “I’ll bet you got his answering machine, didn’t you?”
“It’s been ten years. I can’t remember some things ten days ago. But it’s like that terrible time is engraved in my brain. I do remember—when I left the message, I decided I couldn’t say she’d died. But,” she looked at Noel, “you called me back just a few hours later. I broke the news to you. You were devastated.”
“I returned your call as soon as I got home from work.”
“You called from Portland and checked your messages back home,” I said. “It isn’t hard.” Okay, it was hard for me, but I figured it wasn’t for him.
“No way.”
“How could you know where he called from?” I asked Linda. “You didn’t have caller ID back then, did you?”
She shook her head. She turned to Noel. “You told me you’d fly in for the funeral. You called me back and gave me details. I picked you up at the airport.”
“Not where you could see him coming from the gate,” I said.
“Outside baggage claim,” she said to Noel. “Curbside. That’s where you asked me to come.”
“Right,” he said. “I was there with my bags. You remember.”
“Probably took a taxi to the airport,” I said. “Just stood curbside with your bags, as if you’d just flown in. Piece of cake.”
“You stayed with us, at our place,” Linda said. “But … you were already in Portland?”
He coughed, from his waist. “I flew in Friday night, like I said. Just before you picked me up.”
“Well, Donald, I have a sworn statement from Melissa’s roommate that you were in Portland a few days before she died.”
“My name’s Noel.” He looked at Linda. I saw his wheels turning, wondering if now was the time to give up part of the lie. He sighed. “Okay, I flew in early to talk with Melissa. It was private, so we didn’t announce it to you and Jack. I’m sorry.”
Linda’s eyes sank. She didn’t move, but she’d been leaning toward Noel and now leaned away.
“If your point was to visit Melissa,” I said, “why wouldn’t you want her parents to know? Why wouldn’t you stay here like you did before, have a good time, play some golf?”
“Melissa was upset. She told me about the professor. I tried to talk her out of suicide.”
“She told you she was suicidal?” Linda jumped off the couch.
“Palatine had messed up her mind.”
“No one told me she was suicidal. I’m her mother. I might have been able to stop her.”
“Linda …” He reached out to her, and she backed away. “Jack knew I was here. He just thought it might look awkward if …”
“Jack knew you were here? I don’t believe you. You’re lying. And awkward? Melissa died that night. You acted shocked when I told you on the phone. You were in Portland? You knew she was dead?”
“I heard it on the news that morning. I was shocked.”
“You pretended you were hearing it from me.”
“I thought you should be the one to tell me. I owed you that.”
“You owed me that? You owed me the truth!” She slapped him. “Get out of my house!”
He looked at her sadly, apologetically. As he walked to the door, his gaze fell on me. What I saw took my breath away.
It wasn’t irritation. It was murder.