J6

J6

There was no radio,  no record collection,  and no  Victrola to play them on. Roddy marvelled how religious folk were so keen on a hereafter when life here on Earth was so miserable, by choice.

"I see you don't have a radio, Mrs. Bergin."

"There's only one station in town, Sheriff, and more often than not they  play race  records. Paul says  that's the  devil's own music.  Why, even  the children  in the  Temple high  school are playing that garbage these days, if you can imagine."

"The girl who  was attacked  sang in  the Temple  school band," revealed the sheriff. "It'd be a terrible  thing to  find out somebody stabbed her simply because she sang race music."

Ruth's face was impassive but her eyes darted at those words.

"It was very generous of you to allow us  to come indoors, Mrs. Bergin," Felt  said. "I have no right to  ask this of  you, and don't  believe for  an instant  that we  think you  attacked the girl, but if  I could just get  one print of your  thumb I could compare  it  to  what  we  found on  the  knife  and  completely eliminate you as a suspect in this case."

The sheriff had to restrain himself from whistling in admiration at Agent Felt's performance right there. It was so beautifully done. Ruth would be thinking of self-preservation in the face of her own husband framing her for the crime.

"Will you have to take me down to the station for a thumbprint?"

"Not at all," said Felt, and he used his pencil to make a thick dark spot on a  page in  his notebook. "Are you right  or left handed?"

"Right, of course," Ruth said. "Southpaws are cursed by God."

And so with Ruth Bergin fully and freely willing, Special Agent Mark Felt rubbed her right thumb in the spot  of graphite, then flipped to a fresh page  in his  notebook and rolled  her thumb across it to get a perfect print. Then he carefully closed the book to preserve the print until it could be photographed.

"This schoolgirl, she was Erik Zinter's kid, wasn't she?"

Felt stood  up  from  the  couch  still  holding  his  notebook carefully open. He said, "I've been careful not to say too much and upset you, Mrs. Bergin."