Don Gutteridge - Minor Corruption

“But Tim got married and left himself, did henot, in the last week of July?”

A great commotion now halted Marc’sexamination. Burton Thurgood was standing up, pushing away the armstrying to hold him down. “I loved her!” he cried wildly. “I lovedmy little Betsy! And she loved me! There was no rape! None, I tellyou! You’re spittin’ on her grave, all of you! I’d’ve kept thebabe, too, and raised it as my own!”

The bailiff moved in, with help. Thurgood waspulled towards the back doors of the august courtroom. The judgebanged his gavel into the confusion and consternation that followedthis mad outburst.

“In view of what has just transpired,” heshouted, “this trial is suspended pending further investigationinto Mr. Thurgood’s ravings.”

***

It was almost four o’clock when Marc joined Cobb andthe Chief in Sturges’ office.

“Thurgood’s made a full confession,” Marcinformed them.

“Thank goodness for that,” Sturges said.“Saved you and the court a peck of trouble.”

“That’s right,” Marc said, sitting down andheaving a substantial sigh of relief. “Cobb here filled me in lastnight on what he’d found out about the Thurgoods. I figured I’dhave to put Whittle on the stand and grill him about trout fishing,then call Thurgood and try to break him down. His outburst andconfession have put the seal on it.”

“Then it’s over,” Cobb said, also muchrelieved.

“Tell us about the confession, Marc.”

“Well, he started with the admission that hehad in fact sexually interfered with his eldest daughter, Loretta,for many years – while his wife, poor soul, looked on, terrified tointervene.”

“Quite a bastard all round,” Sturgessaid.

“When Loretta ran away to Montreal, he becamedesperate to have a run at Betsy. But he waited until she wastwelve before trying. Then he suddenly had an insurmountableproblem. Betsy and Tim had shared a room during their childhoodyears, and were very close. Tim had also become a strappingteenager, bigger and stronger than his dad. Several tactlessapproaches apparently confirmed that Betsy was not likely to keepquiet if he made a move while Tim was nearby.

“So she was safe as long as Tim was in thehouse?”

“Right. But the lad had had enough of thefamily and his tyrant-ical father,” Cobb added. “He and hissweetheart moved out and away, gettin’ hitched in Toronto, thenskedadellin’ up to Thornhill. and changin’ their name to Kilbride,the wife’s mother’s name.”

“Fortunately, or unfortunately fromThurgood’s viewpoint,” Marc said, “Betsy was taken on steady atSpadina a few days before the elopement.”

“No fortune involved,” Cobb said. “It was Timthat arranged fer her to get on steady with the Baldwins, and hewarned her not to come home – ever – without some company.”

“He’s turned out to be quite a lad.,” Sturgessaid.

“Yup, it was him who persuaded Lottie totestify when I told them what happened to Betsy and what the trialwas about.”

“And Thurgood said he realized he was notlikely to get a chance to seduce her at home,” Marc continued. “Butin his twisted mind, he thought if he could get her alone for a fewminutes he could make her love him, and then they could be togetheras often as they could arrange it.”

“A sick man, that,” Sturges said, shiftinghis foot on the padded stool.

“So that malarkey about buyin’ a pony was alltrue?” Cobb said.

“It was. He had saved a little cashand did make a deal for the elderly beast in Whittle’s barn.Thurgood said he knew Betsy went to the barn despite hisdisapproval. Sitting near Sol Clift on the third of August, a weekafter Betsy went on steady at Spadina, he did see the girl turnnorth towards the barn. At twelve-thirty he and Whittle went up torepair the sluice at the weir. Once there, Thurgood announced thathe could fix the broken logs himself if the boss wished to slip upto the trout pool for a little illegal angling. Whittle jumped atthe chance. And, I gather, Thurgood routinely covered for Whittlewhen the miller went poaching and risking the nullification of hislease.”

“And went about lying on the witness-stand,”Sturges said, “givin’ Thurgood a perfect alibi.”

“Yeah,” Cobb said. “He had to lie because ifhe’d’ve told the truth, he was in danger of havin’ his lease provoked .”

“Right,” Marc said.

“So that’s what put you on to Whittle?”Sturges said to Cobb, mightily impressed.

“When I heard Edie Barr go on about UncleSeamus not allowin’ any poachin’ on Trout Creek, the bells startedringin’ in my noggin. I thought: maybe the miller wasn’t at theweir all afternoon. If so, that left Thurgood – ”

“Unaccounted for,” Marc said. “Right on.Thurgood waited until Whittle was out of sight – the pool there ishidden by bushes along the shoreline – and then scooted up to thebarn. Where he found Betsy feeding the pony.”

“And he raped his own daughter,” Sturges saidwith disgust.

“He still doesn’t see it that way in his ownmind, although he knows it is wrong and that he will go to jail forincest and corruption of a minor.”

“How does he see it?”

“He claims that the girl acquiesced and thatwhat they did in that stall was to make love.”

“Absurd!” Sturges said, and winced as hisfoot wobbled.

“Well, remember, Sarge,” Cobb said, “JakeBroom said he didn’t hear any scream or whimper or cry fer help,and her frock was hangin’ neat as a doe over the wall nearby.”

“Betsy was either too terrified to call outor resist,” Marc said, “or else she resigned herself to her fate inthe face of her father’s awful power and authority. I doubt sheknew what was happening to her.”

“Did he hear or see Broom come upon them?”Sturges asked.

“He heard a noise, he said, as Broom wasscampering away, but didn’t see anyone. Still, it was enough tomake him stop his outrage and order the girl to dress and hide outalong the creek until the coast was clear before heading home.Needless to say, she was warned never to tell: he told her that ifshe did, she herself, he and her mother, too, would all be ruined,and probably go to jail.”

“And she didn’t tell, poor brave soul,”Sturges sighed. “Not even when he gave her a chance to the night ofher death.”

“Thurgood himself went back down to the weir,certain that his daughter would now come to him and that they wouldbe lovers forever.”

“Enough to make a man puke, ain’t it?”Sturges said.

“But she never returned home again,” Marcsaid, “until three days before her death. And while she continuedto bring her father Mrs. Morrisey’s lunch, she never went near thebarn or gave him any opportunity to repeat his outrage. She was inmany ways a remarkable young woman. She tried to make a life forherself at Spadina, and thrived on Uncle Seamus’s friendship andtutelage.”

“How is Seamus?” Sturges asked Marc.

“Not well. He’s relieved, of course, that thetrial is over and he has been acquitted of all charges. But thisdreadful business may well have been the straw that broke thecamel’s back. At any rate, he’s to live out his days at Spadina inthe care of people who are truly concerned for him.” There wasrelief on another front as well. Hincks, at Robert’s suggestion,wrote to Louis LaFontaine in Montreal, conveying the good news and,probably, saving the political alliance.

“So,” mused Sturges, “Whittle and Thurgoodlied fer one another on the stand? Each givin’ the other an alibi -fer different reasons.”

“It was a happy arrangement and until Cobbferreted out the truth, it kept my mind away from either of them aspotential rapists.”