The Chatham School Affair (20 page)

The testimony of those witnesses was dutifully recorded in Mr. Parsons’ book, but even had I never read it, I would have remembered what they said, a catalogue of random sightings that stretched through the winter and nosed into the following spring, a scattering of words snatched from longer conversations, often innocent in themselves, but within the context of what later happened on Black Pond, as profoundly sinister and unnerving as a trail of bloody footprints around a scene of slaughter.

Trial Transcript, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Elizabeth Rockbridge Channing, August 16, 1927
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Witness: Well, I was sitting on one of the dunes there on First Encounter Beach. That’s when I saw two people coming up the beach, a man and a woman
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Mr. Parsons: Is it unusual for people to be on the beach in late January, Mr. Fletcher?

Witness: Yes, sir. The cold pretty much keeps people in. But I probably wouldn’t have made much of it, except that the man had a cane, and you don’t usually see a cripple like that out on the beach no matter when it is
.

Mr. Parsons: What did these two people do on the beach that morning?

Witness: They walked on a little ways, then they sat down at the bottom of one of the dunes
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Mr. Parsons: And what did you observe at that point?

Witness: Well, they talked awhile, but I couldn’t hear what they said, of course. They were sort of snuggled up together, with the man’s arm around the woman’s waist, pulling her up against him. They sat that way awhile, then I saw the man take a piece of paper out of his coat pocket. It was all rolled up, but he unrolled it, and they both looked at it. The man was talking and pointing out things on the paper
.

Mr. Parsons: Do you remember the color of that paper?

Witness: It was greenish looking. Sort of light green
.

Mr. Parsons: Did you recognize either the man or the woman you saw that morning?

Witness: No, I didn’t recognize them until later. That is, when I saw their pictures in the paper
.

Trial Transcript, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Elizabeth Rockbridge Channing, August 17, 1927
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Mr. Parsons: Now, as the harbor master of Chatham harbor, Mr. Porter, you’re in charge of maintaining various buildings and storage areas that are rented to people who use the harbor, are you not?

Witness: Yes
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Mr. Parsons: Do you remember renting such a building to Mr. Leland Reed in November of 1923?

Witness: Yes, I do. He planned to build a boat
.

Mr. Parsons: Did he subsequently build that boat?

Witness: Yes, he did. He finished it toward the end of this last May
.

Mr. Parsons: During the last weeks of the boat’s construction, did you sometimes have occasion to step inside the building Mr. Reed rented?

Witness: I went in sometimes. To see how things were going
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Mr. Parsons: Did you ever happen to see a piece of paper unfolded on the desk inside that building?

Witness: Yes, sir. It was a nautical map is what it was. Of the East Coast, and down through the Caribbean
.

Mr. Parsons: Did you notice anything about the map that struck you as unusual?

Witness: Well, I noticed that somebody had drawn a route on it. In red ink
.

Mr. Parsons: Now, this route, this nautical route, it went from where to where?

Witness: From Chatham to Havana, Cuba
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Mr. Parsons: Do you remember the color of the paper?

Witness: It was the usual color for nautical maps. It was pale green
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Mr. Parsons: Now, Mr. Porter, did you ever see the defendant, Elizabeth Channing, with Mr. Reed in the building where he was building his boat?

Witness: Not in the building, no, sir. But I saw them out walking through the marina one time
.

Mr. Parsons: And when was this?

Witness: Around the same time I saw the map, I guess. Early February, I’d say. Mr. Reed was pointing out into the bay there, sort of wheeling his cane around, like he was telling Miss Channing directions
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Mr. Parsons: And if a boat followed that route out of Chatham harbor, where would it go, Mr. Porter?

Witness: Into the open sea
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Mr. Parsons: On that occasion, did you notice anything else about Miss Channing and Mr. Reed?

Witness: Only that when they turned back toward the boathouse, Miss Channing sort of threw her head back and laughed
.

Trial Transcript, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Elizabeth Rockbridge Channing, August 19, 1927
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Mr. Parsons: What is your occupation, Mrs. Benton?

Witness: I teach Latin at Chatham School
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Mr. Parsons: Are you familiar with the defendant?

Witness: Yes, sir. Her place … her room at the school, I mean … it’s just across the courtyard from mine
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Mr. Parsons: So you have a good vantage point to see what goes on in that classroom, is that correct?

Witness: Yes, sir
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Mr. Parsons: Did you ever see Mr. Leland Reed in that room?

Witness: Yes, sir
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Mr. Parsons: Often?

Witness: Just about every day. He would come there and have lunch with Miss Channing. Then he’d come again in the afternoon
.

Mr. Parsons: Tell me, Mrs. Benton, situated as you were, so close to Miss Channing’s room, did you ever hear any conversation pass between the defendant and Mr. Reed?

Witness: Yes, I did
.

Mr. Parsons: How did that come about?

Witness: Well, I was coming along the side of Miss Channing’s room, and I heard voices
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Mr. Parsons: Do you recall the approximate date when you heard the voices?

Witness: It was March fourth. I know because I had bought a birthday present for my son, and I was taking it home that afternoon
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Mr. Parsons: And the voices you heard that day, they were coming from Miss Channing’s classroom?

Witness: Yes, they were, and so I looked in, just as I was passing, and I saw Miss Channing sort of turned away, facing the wall over there by the cabinets, and Mr. Reed was standing behind her
.

Mr. Parsons: Did you hear any conversation at that time?

Witness: A little. “We’ll find another way.” That’s what Mr. Reed said
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Mr. Parsons: And that was all?

Witness: Yes
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Mr. Parsons: Did Miss Channing reply to that?

Witness: Well, she kept her back to him, but I heard her say, “There is no other way.”

Trial Transcript, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Elizabeth Rockbridge Channing, August 20, 1927
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Mr. Parsons: Now, Mrs. Krantz, you’re a clerk in Peterson’s Hardware, is that right?

Witness: Yes, sir
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Mr. Parsons: I want to show you a receipt for a purchase made at Peterson’s Hardware on March 15, 1927. Do you recognize this receipt?

Witness: Yes, sir
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Mr. Parsons: What items were purchased, according to the receipt?

Witness: Well, the first one is a bottle of arsenic
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Mr. Parsons: Do you recall the person who purchased that arsenic on March fifteenth?

Witness: Yes, I do
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Mr. Parsons: Who was it, Mrs. Krantz?

Witness: Mr. Leland Reed
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Mr. Parsons: Could you read the other items that Mr. Reed purchased that day?

Witness: It says here, a knife and twenty feet of rope
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Trial Transcript, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Elizabeth Rockbridge Channing, August 20, 1927
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Mr. Parsons: What is your job, Mrs. Abercrombie?

Witness: I’m Mr. Griswald’s secretary
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Mr. Parsons: By “Mr. Griswald,” you mean Arthur Griswald, the headmaster of Chatham School?

Witness: Yes, sir
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Mr. Parsons: Mrs. Abercrombie, did you ever see or hear anything transpire between the defendant and Mr. Leland Reed that indicated
to
you
that the nature
of their relationship was somewhat beyond what might be expected of two professional colleagues, or even two friends?

Witness: Yes, I did
.

Mr. Parsons: Could you tell the court, please
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Witness: One afternoon—this was during the last week of March, I think—anyway, I was walking through the parking area. It was late. I mean, it was night already. Everybody had gone home. But Mr. Griswald had been preparing next year’s budget, so I’d stayed late to help him. Anyway, I saw that Mr. Reed’s car was still parked in the parking area, there beside the tree, where he usually put it, and as I went on by, I saw that he was sitting behind the wheel, and that Miss Channing was in the car with him
.

Mr. Parsons: Miss Channing was sitting in the front seat, was she?

Witness: Yes, she was. And she had her hands sort of at her throat, and I saw Mr. Reed lean over and take her hands and pull them away
.

Mr. Parsons: Now, Mrs. Abercrombie, in your capacity as assistant to Mr. Griswald, did you ever have a conversation with the headmaster about the behavior of Miss Channing and Mr. Reed, the very scene that you witnessed that evening in the parking lot of Chatham School?

Witness: Yes, I did. I felt like it was something he needed to know about. So I told him about what I’d seen that night in Mr. Reed’s car, and I also told him that there was a lot of talk about Miss Channing and Mr. Reed among the other teachers
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Mr. Parsons: How did Mr. Griswald respond to what you told him?

Witness: He said he wasn’t much for gossip
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Mr. Parsons: And that was the headmaster’s only response to what you reported to him?

Witness: The only one I know of, yes
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But it had not been the only response my father made, as I had known long before Mrs. Abercrombie took the stand. For one day during the very next week, he dropped in on Mr. Reed’s afternoon class.