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10. Monday Morning
- University of Wisconsin Press
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96 10 Mon day Morn ing Cu biak crawled out of a soft can yon of sleep and for a long while re mained mo tion less as if stitched to the bed by threads of slum ber. He had for got ten the weighty lux u ri ous ness of such in tense re pose. When the final rem nants of in er tia dis si pated, he rolled onto his side, swung his feet to the floor, and pushed up right. The room took a mo ment to set tle, but even in the dim light and with out his glasses, he was able to make out the two empty quart bot tles that leaned against the wall under the win dow. For a mo ment he feared that he had drunk them dry and thought that the sleep he had so en joyed had come as a re sult, but then he re mem bered pour ing out the con tents the pre vi ous eve ning after the long climb back from Eph raim. After re unit ing Mara and her mother, he’d hiked the village’s shore line and hilly ter rain in search of Ben Macklin’s elu sive drink ing pal. The fes ti val drew ven dors from through out the re gion, and al though many worked the event every year, most had never en coun tered Buddy Ent whis tle. Even many local busi ness own ers didn’t rec og nize the name. Three hotel man ag ers re mem bered hir ing the old drunk for odd jobs the pre vi ous fall and in late win ter but none had seen him since. The 97 board ing houses that pro vided cheap tem po rary rooms were filled with sum mer staff from area re sorts. Maybe Beck was wrong about Ent whis tle liv ing in Eph raim. If he was around, he was keep ing a very low pro file. A smart move, thought Cu biak, as he mas saged his right knee. Mack lin died after tell ing his friend about a mys ter i ous sec ond per son on the tower with Wisby. Maybe Ent whis tle fig ured he knew too much and went into hid ing. Or he fled, scared for his life. Which meant he could be any where. Cu biak looked out the win dow. The view was all for est. He en vi sioned Fal con Tower loom ing above the tree line. At that early hour its upper reaches would ap pear smudged and black against the bright blue of the sky. That’s where it all began, he thought. But why and how had Wisby died? And what about the oth ers? Cu biak craved cof fee, but even more ur gent was the need to or ga nize his thoughts. On a dresser mounded with books and clothes, he pulled a yel low note pad from under a pile of socks. Perched on the edge of the bed, he flipped to a blank page and jot ted the names of the dead across the top, list ing them in chron o log i cal order: Wisby, Mack lin, Jones, De lac roix, and And ers and Pithy. Down the left mar gin, he noted five top ics—PI or per sonal in for ma tion; LC, local con tacts; COD, cause of death; Op por tu nity; and Mo tive. Sep ar at ing the head ings with ver ti cal and hor i zon tal lines, he fash ioned a crude chart and started to fill in the blanks. Other than Wisby, Cu biak knew very lit tle about the peo ple who’d died or why any one would want them dead. In itially, Hal ver son in sisted that Wisby had leapt off the tower plat form, but Bath ard had ruled the death ac ci den tal. Not just be cause of the prox im ity of the body to the tower, al though John son ad mit ted he might have moved the vic tim in the in itial con fu sion of try ing to re vive him. But be cause, ac cord ing to the fam ily phy si cian, Wisby was fear ful of heights. The cor o ner under stood that sui cides val ued con trol and chose a method of dying that...