Private Life (46 page)

girl thought he was lost, and didn't want to "abandon" him. The girl didn't even know

what the
Panay
was--she thought he was saying "Panama."

Margaret said, "I thought he had forgotten about the
Panay
. But is he in some sort

of danger? Or is he a danger to others, stepping to the street suddenly? Is that the

problem?"

"Ma'am, it is that he is relentless in engaging people in conversation. He won't let

them turn away or refuse to answer, and when they do answer, he hooks his finger in

their buttonholes and won't let them get away. Then they complain to us. Personally,

ma'am, I'm afraid someone is going to pop him in the nose one day."

"Are his opinions that controversial?"

He said, "No, ma'am, it's not that. Here's an example. He flagged down Officers

Lugano and Moore, who brought him here the other day--you were out, ma'am. He sat in

the car with one foot in the street and the door open for forty-five minutes before they

could get rid of him."

Margaret chuckled and said, "They should have taken him to jail."

"Would that frighten him, ma'am?" Officer Napolitano looked very earnest and

young. She guessed he was about twenty-five or-six.

She shook her head, her tone still light. "From what you say, he would just engage

everyone at the station in conversation and ask for rides here and there."

"I don't doubt it, ma'am. But--"

"Do these young women seem to feel threatened in any way?"

"No, ma'am. Not in the usual way. They seem to feel that it is rather like being

with an elderly eccentric relative, but--"

"Captain Early has old-fashioned, courtly manners."

"All of the young ladies say that, ma'am. But one young woman had a job to get

to, and he made her two hours late."

"Oh dear." They were smiling, but making it clear that this could not go on. She

said, "Officer, I do apologize, but my husband is frustrated in his work."

"We know that, ma'am. We know that Albert Einstein has balked him at every

turn and now comes to Vallejo to spy on him."

Actual alarm displaced the confusion she had been feeling. "Einstein!"

"Yes, ma'am. He told Officers Lugano and Moore that he saw Einstein on Capitol

Street. He thought maybe Einstein had come to Vallejo to see him, but he wasn't able to

make himself known to Einstein on that particular occasion."

They all three sighed at the same time. Finally, she said, "I see what you mean,

Officer Kelley. I'll talk to him."

But first she called on Mrs. Wareham at the hotel. The Warrington was a good

business and a respected establishment. Over the years, with her multitude of boarders

and guests, many or most of whom were men, Margaret suspected Mrs. Wareham had

seen a great many things.

Andrew, it turned out, came in there every day and had a cup of coffee. Mrs.

Wareham said, "Margaret, I thought you were sending him to me. He's here promptly at

nine-thirty. He gives me your best greetings, then drinks a cup of coffee with a lump of

sugar and reads his paper. He stays about an hour, and then says goodbye and goes out.

Rain or shine, really."

"But haven't you heard about his activities?"

"Not at all, dear."

She told her friend what the police had told her, then said, "Does he talk all the

time and make people discuss the war in China?"

"He never says a word about anything. He just nurses his cup of coffee and then

pays and goes. He always leaves the girl a nice tip, too."

"But what should I do?"

"Well, Margaret, first you must inform him in no uncertain terms that these girls

aren't sailors, and he can't be commandeering their services as he once did those young

men. They all did that. It was part of being a captain."

"That's true. I should have remembered that."

"And you must say that it looks very strange to the
police
. That will catch his

attention. You and I know Captain Early. He is the most reticent of men, but he's very

large also."

This thought made her nervous.

Mrs. Wareham leaned toward her and said, "I see you are shaking your head, as

you always do."

Margaret hadn't realized that she was shaking her head. She made herself sit still.

"For once in your life, Margaret, you must take charge of the situation. Take

charge of
him
, I have to say. I--"

In spite of her best efforts, Margaret must have continued to look dismayed.

"I mean this kindly, dear. You are who you are...."

"Who is that? Who is that?" Margaret found herself saying.

There was a long pause; then Mrs. Wareham looked a little embarrassed. She said,

"Everyone knows you're a good woman, Margaret. Everyone knows that."

It sounded like an insult, but it had the desired effect. That evening, she cooked

Andrew's favorite supper dish and also made a pie, since there was some nice rhubarb in

the market. Not quite sure how to broach her subject, she hemmed and hawed about the

weather, but finally she said, "Andrew, I understand you have met Officers Lugano and

Moore of the Vallejo Police Department."

"Indeed I have. They were most interested in my investigations."

"I didn't know you were pursuing any investigations, Andrew."

"Well, of course I am. Into the
Panay
incident. Surely you haven't forgotten that?"

His tone was affable.

"You mean that boat that was sunk in China. The reparations were paid--"

He took a last bite of liver, set down his fork, and carefully wiped his mustache

with his napkin. He shook his head. "Yes, they were. A clever gambit, and cheap in the

long run."

"Do you think so? Mrs. Kimura told me how generous the Japanese people have

been."

"Yes, yes. No denying that. But, my dear, I am now free to tell you that I have

solved the mystery."

"You

have?"

"Yes, I have. And I have informed the Vallejo Police of my views, and I have sent

letters to the Commandant of the Base, to the Secretary of State, and, of course, to the

New York Times
. I mailed them yesterday. I feel that I can talk more freely about this,

even to you, having committed my ideas to paper. And I certainly hope, though I have no

assurance, that the
Times
will publish my conclusions. I believe that we would all be

safer in the end were they to do so."

"What did you, did you ... discover, Andrew?"

"Well, my dear, there has been a terrible massacre at Nanking, beginning the day

after the
Panay
was attacked, and the
Panay
attack was cynically designed by authorities

in the higher echelons of the Japanese military, and, I believe, the Foreign Service, to

drive off the Americans and the British from the area, and to divert official American

attention from the atrocities that the Japanese intended to commit. Not to mention, of

course, the attention of the American public."

"But I read the paper every day, Andrew, and there hasn't been any mention of

Nanking or anything--there's a war in China, but I don't quite understand what you

mean."

"According to those I've talked to, many tens of thousands may have been killed

by such methods as drowning and decapitation and bayoneting and, of course, shooting,

and others have not been so lucky, I may say, especially the women and girls, thousands

of whom have suffered the most terrible sorts of degradation before being murdered in

cold blood." He said this with a grave and sorrowful demeanor, but his words were

measured, as if he were giving a report. These phrases were the very ones that he must

have used in his letters.

She said again, "But there hasn't been a thing about it in the paper."

"Precisely, my dear. Who is there to report it? Some missionaries and a reporter

from England, but the Japanese control the mails and the cables, and very little has gotten

out."

"How do you know about it?"

"Surely you remember that our former home across the causeway is a beehive of

information and gossip? This man has a cousin on a ship who has heard things, and this

other man has an aunt who is with the Presbyterian Mission in Shanghai, and this other

man has a friend who works in the Japanese Embassy in Washington. A picture of events

can be shadowed in."

"Mrs. Kimura has heard nothing about this. She hears from Joe, and Joe was

terribly upset about that boat in China, and went to the embassy and gave the equivalent

of two weeks' pay of his own money. His friends went with him. They had no link to

America at all, except through him."

"I'm not entirely sure, my dear, that the populace in the home islands knows what

the army has done in China."

"You're telling me that terrible crimes have been committed by the Japanese in

China in a more or less wholesale way and no one knows about it other than you?" She

tried to make her voice sound genuinely questioning, not merely skeptical. Andrew

seemed fooled by her attempt. He said, "A massacre, my dear, and more than that, more

than, let's say, thousands of people lined up and shot. I am not sure exactly what the term

would be. Perhaps 'extermination.'" He sighed.

The word lingered in the air. Perhaps in order to chase it off, she said, "And the

police also told me you've seen Einstein."

"Yes, indeed. Twice now." He seemed happy to talk about it. "He's surprisingly

short. He wears glasses, and his suit was rumpled, but of good twill." He coughed and

went on. "He does wear nice shoes. His feet are small. Looked to me like he has his shoes

made in England. And his hair isn't as wild as it looks in pictures."

She said, "You noticed his shoes? Were you staring at him?"

"I am a naturally observant person."

"I've never seen him in glasses in the newspaper."

"That surprised me, too. He looks older than he is."

"He must be sixty."

"Looks seventy if a day."

"Maybe it wasn't Einstein."

"Maybe,

indeed."

She ventured, "Why do you think he's here?"

"I had thought, the first time, that he was here to see me, and I was prepared to

extend the olive branch, I must say. But I'm more suspicious now. I'm glad I did not

reveal myself to him the first time, as I had thought to do."

She got up without saying anything and began to clear the dishes from the table.

How to proceed was a mystery to her. He was evidently delusional, about both the

Japanese and Einstein, but also, she thought, harmless. She took the dishes to the kitchen

and set them beside the sink. When she came back into the dining room, fortifying herself

with thoughts of Mrs. Wareham's very earnest instructions, she sat down, not across from

Andrew, but beside him, and she put her hand on his knee. She leaned forward and said,

"Andrew, I'm sure that those whom you contacted will read your letters with utmost

interest and respect, and I hope that what you've concluded shows them what they must

do. But at the same time, the policemen here today told me that you have been waving

down automobiles, and then getting in and telling the drivers that they must take you here

and there."

"Young people don't mind--"

"Maybe not, but if these young people are young girls, I am absolutely certain that

their parents would object to you"--what was the phrase here?--"diverting them from their

regular business. If you want to get around, you have to use the streetcar, or I will drive

you myself."

"My dear, what I need to do is not always systematic or well organized. I am led

here and there by my investigations."

"But your investigations seem to be over."

"In

part."

"The

police
made it clear to me." Here she caught his gaze and held it. "You must

not impose yourself upon any women. You must not. Doing so after the police have

asked you to stop could seriously compromise your reputation in Vallejo and on the

island."

He looked genuinely startled, and said, "I hadn't thought of that. I was only--"

"Yes, Andrew, I'm sure that you were only thinking of the next step in your

investigation, but it looks different to others."

"People know I am enthusiastic."

"They do, but not everyone knows you in town the way they did on the island."

This he seemed to accept.

The next day, she went to the police station and talked to Officer Kelley's

superior. She explained that her husband saw himself as a sort of detective, and that he

wasn't meaning harm to anyone, and was, in fact, incapable of committing any sort of

harm. The policeman seemed to agree with her, and he agreed that, since Captain Early

was such a recognizable figure about town, the police would treat him more or less as a

nuisance--keeping an eye upon him and sometimes guiding him in one direction or

another, but not threatening him.

THE next time she had tea with Dora, Margaret told her the story--lightly, as if it

were funny. Dora said, "Einstein does travel a lot."

"Why would he come to Vallejo?"

Dora

shrugged.

Margaret said, "When Andrew's in the house, I can't wait for him to leave."

"He is very large, darling."

"Whenever something comes in the mail, even to me, he asks me who it's from,

and then asks me if he can read it. When the telephone rings, he rushes to answer it, just