rush to wrap things up. To be fair, this same standard often applied to poor whites, as well.
Professor David Cromwell's Indian Journal
N ot until 3:A.M. was Tall Tree brought out from his room atop the livery stable.
When Chief Ryan and Anna first knocked on his door, the Indian responded by climbing out his window and scaling the wall so that he could stand on the livery roof, where he proceeded to hold off twenty armed men until he was wounded in the shoulder by a sharpshooter and finally surrendered. He was very intoxicated and belligerent but denied knowing anything about the death of the young Indian woman he'd loved.
F ollowing dinner the next night, Anna and Mrs. Goldman sat at a table in the parlor, Mrs. Goldman's new electric lamp burning fiercely in the shadows. For a time, they discussed the weekly shopping they did together downtown, when wagonloads of fresh produce were brought in from farms surrounding the city, and when all the shops filled their windows with the latest in picture hats and dresses. This Saturday there were to be several sales. Anna had saved two dollars for a new skirt.
Then Anna changed the subject and started talking about Tall Tree.
"He's innocent, Mrs. Goldman, I'm sure of it."
"The Chief won't listen to you?"
Anna shook her head. "Sometimes he will but not this time. He just sees it as open and shut."
"If he's really innocent, Anna, then you'll have to keep pushing the Chief."
She looked fondly at Mrs. Goldman and smiled. "I will. I just hope he doesn't fire me."
A nna sat up late in the parlor, examining the things she'd found while combing the crime scene that night.
1. She'd made some casts of boot prints she'd found. There were several styles. There were no moccasin prints.
2. She'd found three buttons — two belonged to an expensive male vest; one to a woman's dress.
3. She'd found a tortoiseshell comb that fashionable ladies wore in their hair these days. The comb might have belonged to the victim.
4. She'd found a scrap of paper torn in half. The remaining letters were
ay
ouse
She had no idea what this meant.
5. She'd snuck into the funeral parlor and taken a look at the dead girl's wounds. The killer must have stood too close to her to get much sweeping force because the wounds were curiously shallow, even the fatal one in the heart.
6. She'd found three different sets of ladies' shoeprints but had run out of material for casting.
7. She'd found a strange fishing lure — one in the shape and color of a black moon.
8. She'd found a cravat stickpin that was gold-painted.
She was frustrated that none of these things pointed her in any particular direction.
What good was "scientific detection" if it didn't offer you a road map?
M rs. Goldman, regal in her rustling robe, came down just after midnight and woke Anna from sleeping at the parlor table.
She helped Anna gather up her crime-scene evidence and then assisted her yawning young boarder up the stairs to bed.
Chapter 8
T here was somebody in my room.
I walked back to the motel office and went up to the desk, where a fifty-ish woman in a flowered blouse and a beehive hairdo (I think she was doing a one-woman salute to some of the Motown girl groups) read a Janet Dailey novel while occasionally glancing up at Jay Leno through her pinkframed eyeglasses.
"Hi," I said.
She took a long moment to raise her eyes from her book.
"Hi."
"There's somebody in my room."
"Somebody?"
"Umm-hmm. A thief or somebody. I wondered if you'd call the police."
She gave me a good, hard look. She was searching, I think, for evidence that I'd been partaking of the grape.
"Why do you think somebody's in your room, Mr. Payne?"
"I heard them."
"They were talking?"
"No. They were knocking things over."
She hooted, then. That was the only word for it. She threw her head back and made a hooting noise.
"That little pecker!"
"What little pecker?"
"Ralph."
"Who's
Professor David Cromwell's Indian Journal
N ot until 3:A.M. was Tall Tree brought out from his room atop the livery stable.
When Chief Ryan and Anna first knocked on his door, the Indian responded by climbing out his window and scaling the wall so that he could stand on the livery roof, where he proceeded to hold off twenty armed men until he was wounded in the shoulder by a sharpshooter and finally surrendered. He was very intoxicated and belligerent but denied knowing anything about the death of the young Indian woman he'd loved.
F ollowing dinner the next night, Anna and Mrs. Goldman sat at a table in the parlor, Mrs. Goldman's new electric lamp burning fiercely in the shadows. For a time, they discussed the weekly shopping they did together downtown, when wagonloads of fresh produce were brought in from farms surrounding the city, and when all the shops filled their windows with the latest in picture hats and dresses. This Saturday there were to be several sales. Anna had saved two dollars for a new skirt.
Then Anna changed the subject and started talking about Tall Tree.
"He's innocent, Mrs. Goldman, I'm sure of it."
"The Chief won't listen to you?"
Anna shook her head. "Sometimes he will but not this time. He just sees it as open and shut."
"If he's really innocent, Anna, then you'll have to keep pushing the Chief."
She looked fondly at Mrs. Goldman and smiled. "I will. I just hope he doesn't fire me."
A nna sat up late in the parlor, examining the things she'd found while combing the crime scene that night.
1. She'd made some casts of boot prints she'd found. There were several styles. There were no moccasin prints.
2. She'd found three buttons — two belonged to an expensive male vest; one to a woman's dress.
3. She'd found a tortoiseshell comb that fashionable ladies wore in their hair these days. The comb might have belonged to the victim.
4. She'd found a scrap of paper torn in half. The remaining letters were
ay
ouse
She had no idea what this meant.
5. She'd snuck into the funeral parlor and taken a look at the dead girl's wounds. The killer must have stood too close to her to get much sweeping force because the wounds were curiously shallow, even the fatal one in the heart.
6. She'd found three different sets of ladies' shoeprints but had run out of material for casting.
7. She'd found a strange fishing lure — one in the shape and color of a black moon.
8. She'd found a cravat stickpin that was gold-painted.
She was frustrated that none of these things pointed her in any particular direction.
What good was "scientific detection" if it didn't offer you a road map?
M rs. Goldman, regal in her rustling robe, came down just after midnight and woke Anna from sleeping at the parlor table.
She helped Anna gather up her crime-scene evidence and then assisted her yawning young boarder up the stairs to bed.
Chapter 8
T here was somebody in my room.
I walked back to the motel office and went up to the desk, where a fifty-ish woman in a flowered blouse and a beehive hairdo (I think she was doing a one-woman salute to some of the Motown girl groups) read a Janet Dailey novel while occasionally glancing up at Jay Leno through her pinkframed eyeglasses.
"Hi," I said.
She took a long moment to raise her eyes from her book.
"Hi."
"There's somebody in my room."
"Somebody?"
"Umm-hmm. A thief or somebody. I wondered if you'd call the police."
She gave me a good, hard look. She was searching, I think, for evidence that I'd been partaking of the grape.
"Why do you think somebody's in your room, Mr. Payne?"
"I heard them."
"They were talking?"
"No. They were knocking things over."
She hooted, then. That was the only word for it. She threw her head back and made a hooting noise.
"That little pecker!"
"What little pecker?"
"Ralph."
"Who's
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