Detective (49 page)

DETECTIVE 409

as possible. The room was little
more than a cupboard with a table,
two chairs, and a phone, but it
would do.

"We'll go down to Property," he
told her, "and I'll authorize you to
remove the Ernst boxes as you're
ready for them. The whole thing
shouldn't take more than a few
days."

A prediction that, as it turned out,
was wholly wrong.

At the end of two weeks, with some
impatience, Ainslie went to visit
Ruby for the third time in her
temporary quarters. As on the two
previous visits, he found her sur-
rounded by piles of paper, much of
it spread around the floor.

On the last occasion she had told
him, "I don't believe either of the
Ernsts could bear to throw away any
piece of paper. They squirreled
everything letters, bills, hand-
written reminder notes, news
clippings, canceled checks,
invitations you name it and most of
it's here."

Ainslie had said then, "I've talked
with Hank Brewmaster, who had the
case at the beginning. The problem
was, there was an enormous quantity
of papers in the house box after
box, stored in almost every room.
Well, because we were so swamped at
the time, no one could be spared to
go through everything, though it had
to be preserved in case there was
important evidence. So what happened
is all that stuff was scooped up
from the Ernsts' house, then
afterward no one got around to going
through it."

Today, Ruby had a tattered exercise
book open in front of her and was
making notes on a pad alongside it.

Gesturing to an open cardboard
carton, he asked, "Is it more of the
same?"

410 Arthur Bailey

"NO," Ruby said, "I may have found
something interesting."

"Tell me."

''Mrs. Ernst was the one who
accumulated the most paper, and a
lot is in her handwriting spidery
and hard to read. All innocuous, I
thought, until two days ago, when I
found what's turned out to be a
diary. She wrote it in exercise
books lots of them, going back
years."

"How many?"

"Could be twenty, thirty, maybe
more." Ruby motioned to the
cardboard carton. "This was full of
them. My guess is, there'll be more
in others."

"What do they say?"

"Well, that's a problem. Apart
from the difficult handwriting, it's
in a kind of code a personal
shorthand, you could call it for
privacy I suppose, especially from
her husband; she must have concealed
her diary from him over all those
years. If anyone's patient enough,
though, they can learn to read it."

Ruby pointed to the tattered pages
in front of her. "For example,
instead of using names, she uses
numbers. After a while I realized
'5' stood for herself and '7' for
her husband. Then I caught on 'E,'
for 'Eleanor,' is the fifth letter
of the alphabet; 'G.' for 'Gustav,'
the seventh. A simple code. Two
numbers with a hyphen between is two
names. I figured that '4-18-23'
meant 'Dr. W.' whoever he is, or
was. And she compresses words, skips
the vowels mostly. I'm getting the
hang of it, but wading through all
these will take time.''

He must make a judgment, Ainslie
knew. Was it worth keeping Ruby on
this tedious search, which could
drag on much longer and most likely
produce nothing? Other matters in
Homicide were, as usual, pressing.
He asked, "Is

DETECTIVE 411

there anything at all you can tell me?
Anything important?"

Ruby considered. "Okay, maybe there
is, and I guess I was holding back,
wanting to have more." Her voice
took on an edge. "Try this for size.
What the diaries show already is
that our late, high and mighty City
Commissioner Gustav Ernst was a
wife-beater of the worst kind. He
beat his wife from the beginning of
their marriage, sending her to the
hospital at least once. She kept
quiet because she was ashamed and
scared, and thought no one would be-
lieve her, which is what her bastard
of a husband told her. In the end
all she could do was transfer the
pain and torment in her lonely
private code to these miserable
pages. It's all in here!"

Abruptly, Ruby flushed. "Oh fuck! I
hate this shit." Impulsively she
seized one of the exercise books and
flung it wildly across the tiny
room.

After a pause, Ainslie retrieved
the book and returned it to the
table. "She was probably right; she
might not have been believed,
especially all those years ago, when
no one ever talked about battered
wives; people didn't want to know. Do
you believe it all?"

"Absolutely." Ruby was calm again.
"There's too much detail to have
invented it, and every bit rings
true. Maybe you should read some."

"I will later," Ainslie said,
confident of Ruby's judgment.

She looked over at the
exercise-book diary and added
thoughtfully, "I think Mrs. Ernst
knew, perhaps even hoped, that what
she was writing would be read some-
day."

"Have you come across any reference
to " Ainslie stopped, realizing the
question was unneeded. If the answer
was yes, Ruby would have told him.

412 Arthur Halley

"You're wondering about Cynthia,
aren't you?"

He nodded without speaking.

"I'm wondering, too, but there
hasn't been anything yet. The books
I've had are from the Ernsts' early
marriage years; so far, Cynthia
isn't born. When she is, she'll be
in there as '3.' "

Their eyes met directly.

"Keep going," Ainslie said. "Take
whatever time you need, and call me
when there's something I should
see." He tried to dismiss that
gnawing apprehension, but did not
succeed.

It was almost two more weeks
before Ruby Bowe telephoned again.
"Can you come down? I have some
things to show you."

"What I've found," Ruby said,
"changes a lot of things, though I'm
not sure how."

Once more they were in the tiny,
windowless room, still crammed with
papers. Ruby sat at her small table.

"Let's get on with it," he said,
aware of having waited long enough.

"Cynthia has come on the scene,
and within a week of her being born,
Mrs. Ernst found her husband playing
with the baby sexually. Here's what
she wrote." Ruby pushed an open
exercise book across the table and
pointed partially down a page.
Peering closely, Ainslie saw:

End 7 tdy tchng 3, cd only b sxL He had rmvd hr diapr

& ws peerng at hr. Thn nt knwng I hd sn hm, he tent

dwn & dd smthng unspkbL Ws so dsgstd & fraid for 3.

Is ths prvt, hr fthr, wht sh mst fee thru chldhd ? Tld hm

ddnt cre whtvr he dz to me, bt mst nor do tht agn to 3,

& if he dd wd cll chid prtctn ppl nd he wd go to jL He

DETECTIVE 413

ddnt sm shmd bt prmsd nt to do it ny
mre. Nt see if blv

hm, knw hs dpravd. Cn I prtct 3? Agn
nt sre.

"Read it to me," he said. "I get
the idea, but you'll be faster."

Ruby read aloud:

" 'Found Gustav today touching
Cynthia, it could only be sexually.
He had removed her diaper and was
peering at her. Then, not knowing I
had seen him, he bent down and did
something unspeakable. Was so
disgusted and afraid for Cynthia. Is
this pervert, her father, what she
must face through childhood? Told
him I didn't care whatever he does
to me, but he must never do that
again to Cynthia, and if he did
would call child protection people
and he would go to jail. He didn't
seem ashamed but promised not to do
it any more. Not sure if believe
him, know he's depraved. Can I
protect Cynthia? Again not sure.' "

Without waiting for a reaction,
Ruby said. "There are bits and
pieces like that over the next two
years, and despite Mrs. Ernst's
threat, it's clear she did nothing.
Then after a year and a half,
there's this." Reaching for another
exercise book, she pointed to a
passage:

Hv wrnd 7 so mny tins bt sill he gs
on, smtms bring 3

so sh crs out. Whn I trd to rgu wth
hm he sd, "Its nthng.

Jst a Ittl fectshn frm hr dad. "
Tld him . . .

With a gesture, Ainslie indicated
that Ruby should read it. She did
so.

" 'Have warned Gustav so many times
but still he goes on, sometimes
hurting Cynthia so she cries out.
When I tried to argue with him he
said, "It's nothing. Just a little
affection from her dad." Told him,
"No, it's sick. She hates it and she
hates you. She's afraid." Now every
time

414 Arthur Halley

Gustav comes near Cynthia she cries
and curls up defensively, shrinking
away. I keep threatening to call
someone, child welfare people or
police or even our own Dr. W., and
Gustav laughs, knowing when it comes
right down to it I can't, and that's
the truth. The shame and disgrace
would be too awful. How could I face
people afterward? Can't even speak
of this to anyone, not even for
Cynthia's sake. I have had to bear
this burden alone and so will
Cynthia.' "

"Does this shock you?" Ruby asked.

"After nine years in Homicide
nothing shocks me, but I'm worried
about what's to come. There is
more right?"

"Lots. Too much to cover now, so
I'll skip ahead and we can come back
to the other stuff later." She
consulted notes. "Cruelty came next.
When Cynthia was three, Gustav began
beating her 'slapping her hard for
trivial reasons or sometimes for no
reason at all,' the diary says. He
hated her crying, and once, as
'punishment,' put her legs in
steaming hot water. Mrs. Ernst took
Cynthia to a hospital, reporting the
burn as an accident. She says in her
notes that she knows she was not
believed, but nothing happened.

"Then, when Cynthia was eight,
Gustav had sex with her for the
first of many times. After that,
Cynthia shrank from anyone who tried
to touch her, including her mother,
showing terror at the idea of being
touched." Ruby's voice faltered. She
drank water from a glass and pointed
to a pile of exercise books. "It's
all in there."

Ainslie asked, "Do you want a
break?"

"I think so, yes." Ruby went to
the door, murmuring as she left,
"I'll be back soon."

Left alone, Ainslie found his
thoughts were in tumult. He had not
erased from memory the fervent
excitement of his affair with
Cynthia, nor ever would. Despite her
bit

DETECTIVE 415

terness at his decision to end it,
and afterward her deliberate
sabotage of his own career, he still
cared about Cynthia and would never
wish to harm her in return. But now,
with this new knowledge, his
thoughts and pity went out to her in
waves. How could supposedly
civilized parents abuse and violate
their own child the father with
degraded lust, the mother so
spineless that she took no action
whatever to aid her daughter?

The door opened quietly and Ruby
slipped in. He asked, "Do you feel
like going on?"

"Yes, I want to finish, then maybe
I'll go and get drunk tonight and
put this out of mind."

But she wouldn't, he knew. Ruby,
because of her father's tragic
shooting death by a fifteen-year-old
junkie, strictly abstained from all
drugs and alcohol. This experience
would not change that.

"The inevitable happened when
Cynthia was twelve," she continued,
returning to her notes. "She got
pregnant by her father. Let me read
you what Mrs. Ernst wrote."

This time Ruby did not show the
diary version in code, but read
directly from her transcribed notes.

" 'In this terrible, shameful
situation, arrangements have been
made. With the help of Gustav's
lawyer, L.M., Cynthia was spirited
out of town to Pensacola under
another name and to a discreet
hospital where L.M. has connections.
Medical advice is she must have the
child, pregnancy too far advanced
for anything else. She will stay in
Pensacola until it happens. L.M.
also arranging to have baby
immediately adopted; I told him we
don't care how, where, or to whom,
as long as all is kept quiet and
never traceable. Cynthia will not
see the child or hear of it again,
and neither will we. Thank goodness!

" 'Something good may even come out
of this. Before L.M. agreed to
handle the case, he gave the biggest

416 Arthur Halley

dressing-down to Gustav I ever
heard. He said Gustav sickened him
and used words I won't repeat. Also
he gave an ultimatum: Unless Gustav
gives up for all time his abuse of
Cynthia, L.M. will inform the
authorities of his actions and
Gustav will go to prison for a long
time. L.M. said he really meant it
and, if he had to do it, "the hell
with client privilege." Gustav was
truly frightened.'

"Some time after that there's a
reference to Cynthia's baby being
born," Ruby said. "No other
information, not even the child's
sex. Then Cynthia came home and,
soon after, there was this in the
diary:

"'Despite all our precautions,
somehow something must have leaked.
A child welfare person came to see
me. From her questions I could tell
she didn't know everything, but did
have information that Cynthia had a
child at age twelve. Was no point in
denying that, so I said yes she had,
but about the rest I lied. I said we
had no idea who the father was,
though Gustav and I had been
concerned for some time about
Cynthia mixing with undesirable
boys. From now on we would be more
strict. Am not sure she believed me
altogether, but there's nothing she
can do to disprove what I said.
Those people are such busybodies!

" 'Just as the woman left, I
discovered Cynthia had been
listening. We didn't say anything to
each other, but Cynthia had a fierce
look. I think she hates me.' "

Ainslie said nothing, his thoughts
too complex to express. His disgust
was overwhelming, particularly that
neither Gustav nor Eleanor Ernst had
given the slightest thought to the
welfare of the newborn child her
grandson or granddaughter, his son
or daughter; apparently neither had
cared which.