The Death of Perry Many Paws (48 page)

         
Franklin, Edmund and Hetty never went into Camden Woods the night of the ransom drop. Mr. Behrends had taken them to see Errol Flynn in
“The Adventures of Robin Hood”.
Franklin told me once that that night, at that movie, was the last time he had been happy. I saw the movie many years later and after that could never picture Robin Hood as anyone other than Franklin. If he had lived the life he was meant to live I believe he would have been an adventurer and a humanitarian. Such a waste
.

         
As I did many times, I spent the night at Claudia’s. Neither of us had a sister and we were inseparable. The Behrends’ had some friends over and they were playing cards in the solarium. I think there was a lot of drinking going on too. They were oblivious to two little girls who were supposed to be upstairs with Claudia’s nanny. But the
nanny was asleep and Claudia and I were wide awake and decided to go to Camden Woods and find that treasure chest with all the jewels. We took a flashlight and Franklin’s sled because we knew we wouldn’t be able to carry all the treasure in our arms. We had the replica of the map Franklin had made for Ernie and had very little trouble finding the spot. You can imagine how disappointed we were when there was no treasure chest but only a leather bag pushed into a hole at the base of a tree. Between the two of us we pulled it out and rolled it onto the sled and headed home, still convinced that there would be something good inside
.

         
On the way to find the treasure I had pulled Claudia on the sled because she didn’t want to walk in the dark. She wanted to ride back on the sled with the treasure on the way home and was put out when I couldn’t pull both her and the treasure. We both had to harness ourselves to the rope of the sled to get it back to the house. We pulled that sled for what seemed like hours, falling and getting dirty and tired. Claudia complained all the way back and wanted to abandon it, but I insisted we get it back to the house to show Franklin what we had found by following his map. As usual, Claudia won and we abandoned our treasure in the bushes on the edge of the property right after we dragged it across the road. We did unzip the bag and felt inside, still hoping to find some jewels to take back up to the house with us. We couldn’t identify what was inside but were incredibly disappointed to find only a bunch of paper. My dad was a businessman and no one in our family was allowed in his study because of all the important papers in there. So I knew papers were important and I wanted to take the bag back and put it in the hole. I think this is the first and last time Claudia and I had a fight. We were both tired and dirty and bruised from lugging the bag this far and she refused to help me take it back. I argued that someone was expecting to find these papers and it was wrong for us to take them. I knew how angry my father would be if
his important papers were missing. Claudia announced she didn’t care about anyone’s stupid papers or what happened to them and ran back to the house. I tried by myself to take the bag back but was only able to drag the sled across the street again and then no further. I couldn’t do it alone. I abandoned the canvas bag, covering it up with branches and leaves, and went back to Claudia’s house. I’ve been haunted ever since by the decision we made. Claudia never gave it another thought
.

         
I couldn’t sleep all night and around four in the morning I went into Franklin’s room to wake him up and tell him what we’d done. I told him that there were important papers in that bag and where I had hidden it and asked him to take it back to the hole so no one would be mad. He was surprised we had actually found something by following his map and was curious. Besides, I was crying hysterically and the only way to calm me down was to go and put that bag back. So he sent me back to bed and went to get it
.

         
That was the end of the whole thing as far as I was concerned. By morning Claudia and I had made up and I didn’t want to start fighting all over again by talking about the bag. Her mom took us shopping for new dresses that day because she said there was much too much confusion out in the woods and she wanted to get away from the house. I didn’t see Franklin but knew he was reliable so assumed all was well with those stupid papers. Never once that day, or for years to come, did I connect the kidnapping and murder with that leather bag. The innocence of childhood
.

         
I know Franklin changed drastically after that day. Franklin being sick just became a part of who he was and I never thought anything of it other than to miss the adventures he was always creating and telling us about. Hetty and Edmund drifted off into their own lives. Claudia and I were totally absorbed in our own world
.

         
When I was seventeen I was completely obsessed with the romantic poets—Yeats, Shelley, and especially Lord Byron. I used to imagine
that I too could “walk in beauty like the night” and inspire great poetry in handsome men. Franklin became a Byronic figure to me. He had a tortured and unattainable quality about him and he was very handsome although devoid of all the vigor and enthusiasm he had at fifteen. He was twenty-six but not really a man of the world as he never left his house. Whenever I was there with Claudia, he just wandered around with a book in his hand, his hair flopping over one eye, oblivious to everyone. Suddenly, at seventeen, that seemed the most romantic and sad thing in the world and I was determined to walk in beauty and bring him out of his malaise, no doubt caused by being too sensitive to survive in an everyday world
.

         
One afternoon when I knew Franklin was home alone and I could see him reading in the solarium, I went over to see if my love and beauty could rouse him from his melancholy. I entered the solarium and he was so absorbed in what he was reading that he never knew I was there until I was close enough to touch him. I didn’t dare be quite that bold so I coughed and he looked up at me as if trying to remember who I was. I was imagining how the sun was catching my hair like a halo around my face. I knew my dress was very flattering to my womanly figure and that the color accented my eyes and made my skin glow. I stood there in expectation that suddenly I would see the light come into his eyes and that he would reach out his hand to me and draw me close, realizing that I was everything he had been waiting for. I was the lifeline he needed to return to the person he had been. I remember thinking that this was probably the most important moment of my life and I stood there, drinking it in
.

         
“Claudia must never know!” he yelled at me. I took a couple steps away from him. He wanted a secret romance? Of course, they were the best kind. But what about when we got married, wouldn’t she have to know then? I was confused. “No matter what it takes or what you have to do, she must never know.”

         
“Never?” I whispered
.

         
“Never. You and I must take this to our graves. As long as Claudia is alive she can never know. There are secrets that do not permit themselves to be told. We must take up this burden, heavy in horror, and carry it with us to the grave.”

         
I thought his poetic way of stating things was romantic but I was fairly sure that a burden heavy with horror was not the romance I had pictured. I was afraid. “Burden?”

         
“Claudia’s childish selfishness killed a man. She must never know. The horror of it, the burden, it would ruin her life. We can’t let that happen. Swear to me.” Then he reached out and grabbed my hand, holding it so hard I was afraid the bones would break. “Swear to me!”

         
“Yes, yes, I swear,” I told him, the tears running down my face. “I swear she’ll never know.”

         
He abruptly released my hand and turned away from me. “I took the money back but it was too late. Ketchum was already dead, lying there soaked in blood by the hole where the money was supposed to be. I just stood there and stared at him. His eyes were open and he stared back, asking me why he had to die. I kept telling him I was sorry. I explained to him that Claudia was a little girl and she was too tired to bring the money back. He didn’t understand. He didn’t forgive me. Now that we had all handled the bag I was afraid there might be clues on it that would make the police think I killed him, so I took the money back home. It was too late for it to help him now. Claudia must never know. We must protect her. It would ruin her life.”

         
I stood there a while longer but Franklin never turned around, never looked at me again. I quietly left
.

         
If Claudia had let us take the money back right away Raymond Ketchum wouldn’t have died. And that is what really happened in Camden Woods. Franklin and I kept the secret for seventy years. And
then, for some reason, he decided to write all about it. He had made me swear and now he was going to tell people. I couldn’t let him do that to Claudia. I’ve always protected her. I couldn’t let Franklin stop me now. So I killed him and took the papers, his important papers, to keep the secret we had sworn to keep. In the end, I know he was grateful
.

Once again sobbing with pity for the brave and valiant boy who had devoted his life to saving his sister’s peace of mind, and for the beautiful young girl who had dedicated her life to protecting her best friend, I gently folded up the letter for the last time and slipped it under the carpeting on the stairs. Then I slowly closed the door to the bedroom and, alone on the stairs of the secret passage, with no one in the house but me, I screamed and berated the selfish little girl who had refused to take the ransom back into the woods and who had spent her whole life being protected by everyone around her, even at the cost of their own happiness and peace of mind. And as much as I wanted her to know, as much as I wanted to hurt her with the truth I knew, for the sake of Franklin and Sybil and all they had sacrificed, I would carry this burden, heavy in horror to my grave.

appy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary, dear WOACA. Happy anniversary to you.” Bing gingerly set the three-tiered chocolate wedding-style cake on the wicker table, beaming like a proud papa. “Okay everyone, blow out the candles and make a wish! WOACA is four years old today!”

We gathered around the table, arms around each other, and blew out the four candles. “A groom and four brides?” I asked. “We seem to be celebrating an anniversary, a birthday and a wedding all at the same time.”

“I’ve never made a wedding cake. I wanted to try something new. I couldn’t find any cake toppers of just regular men and women so I had to settle for the groom and four brides,” he answered.

“They’re cute. Where did you get them?” Grace asked plucking one of the brides off the cake and licking the frosting off her feet.

“Online, of course,” Bing laughed. “Even if I ever left the house to go shopping I wouldn’t have the nerve to buy one groom and four brides. People would think I was some kind of polygamist.”

The first Tuesday in May meeting of WOACA is always special. It’s our anniversary meeting. We were meeting in the solarium on a glorious spring day. The tulips were in full bloom and the view out the solarium windows exploded with color. It was impossible to be
anything but happy and content, surrounded by beauty, special friends and a three-tiered chocolate wedding cake.

If someone took a picture of the five of us gathered around the cake it would look like a poster for friendship. Five friends, each unique, yet each bound together by common threads. A moment frozen in time. Yet over the past eight months we had all suffered through personal problems as well as doubts about each other.

We all were still struggling. Diane’s family wanted to take a four-week trip out west; Diane wanted time to be alone. Syra had desperately wanted to enter the Boston Marathon; her stamina gave out after a mile. Grace wanted a quiet, loving home life; Ryan wanted nothing to do with her. I was worried that the secret I carried would come between Cam and me; I had made Sybil a promise.