chorus?” He didn’t wait for a reply before saying, “And meanwhile, Grant’s little games were creating real hostility among some of the other members. While any group has its share of such problems, they had never approached this degree of disruption before.
“And for it to all happen now, while we’re preparing for probably the most important concert we’ve ever given, goes far beyond inconvenient. It’s disruptive, and the chorus inevitably suffers.”
“So,” I said when he came to another pause, “if you had to pick anyone from the chorus who might have harbored a particularly strong grudge against Grant, who do you think it might be?”
He thought a minute, then said, “I’m really not comfortable even remotely implicating anyone in something this serious.”
“We’re talking purely hypothetically here,” I said. “What name or names popped into your head when I asked the question?”
He gave me a small smile, “Other than my own?” he asked.
I grinned. “Please.”
“It’s really hard to say what might be going on in someone else’s head, but going only on actions, the most obvious would be Jerry Granville, Tony Breen’s former partner. I understand he’s noted for having a bad temper, and I really was quite concerned when he showed up at rehearsal. While part of me would have rather enjoyed seeing someone beat Grant senseless, I simply could not have allowed that to happen on my watch.
“Fortunately, Eric and some others stepped in to prevent a fight and I had to ask Jerry to leave. We certainly neither wanted nor needed a rather nasty scene.”
“Understood,” I said. “Anyone else that you can think of?”
He shook his head. “Not really. As I say, one never knows what someone else is thinking. There was one other incident, however, that disturbed me.
“I mentioned that Grant took pleasure in playing little games and sometimes they could verge on the cruel. One of our members, Barry Legget—like several other members, he also sings with the M.C.C. choir—is almost painfully shy when he is not singing. Maybe because of that, he’s one of the members in whom I took special interest and have tried to help along. He had an almost unbelievably painful childhood spent in foster care after his parents abandoned him. He even spent some time in a juvenile correctional facility.
“He has been with us about two years now and has been making real progress. I think he’s come to look on his fellow singers almost as the family he never had. And then along came Grant, who decided it would be fun to play cat-and-mouse with Barry, teasing him, enticing him, leading him on. I wouldn’t have known anything about it if it had not been for Eric, in whom Barry confided.
“It seems that Grant had been leading Barry on for nearly a month. Eric had noticed it, as had several of the other members. Then Grant asked him on a date. Barry was ecstatic but said nothing to anyone, and it’s good that he didn’t because Grant, not surprisingly, never showed up.
“He then approached Barry with some sort of excuse as to why he hadn’t called to cancel and proceeded to set up another date. For the second time, he never showed up and he never called.
“At the next rehearsal, one of the members of Grant’s little clique teased him about it, which means that Grant had to have shared his little joke with his inner circle and probably had a good laugh over it. Eric knew something was wrong and asked Barry about it. It was only then that Barry told him. And when Eric told me, I was furious. It was only with a good deal of effort that Eric and I were able to convince Barry not to quit the chorus.”
“Eric seems like a really nice guy and really committed to the chorus,” I observed.
Rothenberger shook his head slowly. “You have no idea. I truly consider Eric to be the cornerstone of the entire organization. I’ve known him since he was a child, and it in fact was he who was instrumental in
“And for it to all happen now, while we’re preparing for probably the most important concert we’ve ever given, goes far beyond inconvenient. It’s disruptive, and the chorus inevitably suffers.”
“So,” I said when he came to another pause, “if you had to pick anyone from the chorus who might have harbored a particularly strong grudge against Grant, who do you think it might be?”
He thought a minute, then said, “I’m really not comfortable even remotely implicating anyone in something this serious.”
“We’re talking purely hypothetically here,” I said. “What name or names popped into your head when I asked the question?”
He gave me a small smile, “Other than my own?” he asked.
I grinned. “Please.”
“It’s really hard to say what might be going on in someone else’s head, but going only on actions, the most obvious would be Jerry Granville, Tony Breen’s former partner. I understand he’s noted for having a bad temper, and I really was quite concerned when he showed up at rehearsal. While part of me would have rather enjoyed seeing someone beat Grant senseless, I simply could not have allowed that to happen on my watch.
“Fortunately, Eric and some others stepped in to prevent a fight and I had to ask Jerry to leave. We certainly neither wanted nor needed a rather nasty scene.”
“Understood,” I said. “Anyone else that you can think of?”
He shook his head. “Not really. As I say, one never knows what someone else is thinking. There was one other incident, however, that disturbed me.
“I mentioned that Grant took pleasure in playing little games and sometimes they could verge on the cruel. One of our members, Barry Legget—like several other members, he also sings with the M.C.C. choir—is almost painfully shy when he is not singing. Maybe because of that, he’s one of the members in whom I took special interest and have tried to help along. He had an almost unbelievably painful childhood spent in foster care after his parents abandoned him. He even spent some time in a juvenile correctional facility.
“He has been with us about two years now and has been making real progress. I think he’s come to look on his fellow singers almost as the family he never had. And then along came Grant, who decided it would be fun to play cat-and-mouse with Barry, teasing him, enticing him, leading him on. I wouldn’t have known anything about it if it had not been for Eric, in whom Barry confided.
“It seems that Grant had been leading Barry on for nearly a month. Eric had noticed it, as had several of the other members. Then Grant asked him on a date. Barry was ecstatic but said nothing to anyone, and it’s good that he didn’t because Grant, not surprisingly, never showed up.
“He then approached Barry with some sort of excuse as to why he hadn’t called to cancel and proceeded to set up another date. For the second time, he never showed up and he never called.
“At the next rehearsal, one of the members of Grant’s little clique teased him about it, which means that Grant had to have shared his little joke with his inner circle and probably had a good laugh over it. Eric knew something was wrong and asked Barry about it. It was only then that Barry told him. And when Eric told me, I was furious. It was only with a good deal of effort that Eric and I were able to convince Barry not to quit the chorus.”
“Eric seems like a really nice guy and really committed to the chorus,” I observed.
Rothenberger shook his head slowly. “You have no idea. I truly consider Eric to be the cornerstone of the entire organization. I’ve known him since he was a child, and it in fact was he who was instrumental in
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