The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

Chapter Nineteen





BELGRADE LAKES, MAINE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1930



THE loons retreated before dawn. Stella lay in bed, window open, listening for their early-morning chatter: a warbling tremolo or a frantic honk, perhaps the long clucking wail. Ears strained for the sound along the shore; she imagined a small pocket of loons tucked happily into the reeds. Safe. And together. Chicks beneath their mother’s wing. Father standing guard.

She waited for the loons. But the lake was silent. The tip of her nose was numb, and she tasted autumn in the air. It was too chilly to sleep with the window open any longer. Stella pushed back the thin cotton blanket and rubbed her hands across her bare arms as she went to close it. She paused with her fingers on the frame. The lake, usually still this time of day, was peppered with dark spots. They seemed to float in the mist that hovered over the water’s surface. Gray, oblong things. Denser than shadows, but still indiscernible from this distance. Then she saw the ripples spread around them, and she recognized them for what they were. Boats. At least a dozen. Maybe more. Headed toward the small inlet where her cabin lay. Not too many minutes later, she heard the whine of a small engine buzzing in the distance. Soon she saw the poles and the nets and heard faint voices call out across the water.

A search party?

Stella grabbed her flannel robe and tore off down the stairs, slamming the kitchen door behind her. Her bare feet padded across the deck and down the pier, right to the edge. With fists planted on her hips, she stood there as the sun lifted over the horizon and turned the mist into translucent gauze. Eighteen boats crept along the shore and sifted through the inlet. First one nest of loons and then another burst into the air as searchers thrust their poles into the reeds and jabbed along the shore. The birds beat the air with long, pointed wings and squawked in outrage. Stella heard an occasional comment shouted from one boat to another as the men looked under logs and in pools of shallow water. And all the while, they crept closer to the pier, closing in like a net. Soon Stella could make out faces. Beards. Deep-set eyes and broad foreheads. The stoop of a back and the hook of a nose. The foremost boat loomed closer, the man at the helm staring at her. Stella could not meet his eyes at first, terrified that she might see suspicion. But she could feel his gaze, and finally she lifted her eyes, only to recognize a man she knew and trusted. He was just twenty feet off at that point, prodding the shallow water with a long pole while the man behind him rowed.

Her question rushed out in a quiet breath. “Irv?”

The storekeeper motioned to the rower to stop. The small boat slowed and drifted to the side, pushing a wave of water toward the pier. It hit the beams beneath her with a melancholy sigh. Irv had not shaved that morning, and his stubble gave him a glum and drowsy appearance.

He kept his greeting to a bare minimum, shifting his eyes between her feet and the cabin behind her. Anywhere but her face. “Stella.”

“What are you doing?” She pointed toward the flotilla around him.

Confusion was stressed into every syllable of Irv’s answer. “They think you killed him, Stella.”

“Who does?”

“Mr. Southard, the county attorney. And some of his friends back in New York. They’re saying Joe came back to the lake after his trip to the city. Someone says they saw him on the train. They think he died here.”

“And what do you think?”

“They asked for volunteers. I couldn’t very well refuse.”

Every head was angled her way, and the boats slowed to a drift, each of them bobbing on the surface as searchers turned to watch Stella flail her arms in anger. She should have been embarrassed or ashamed, but all she could evoke was rage.

“Well, I didn’t kill Joe. So go ahead. Search. Poke your stupid poles into every square inch of this lake. But you won’t find anything. Not a damn thing. You can come back to apologize when you’re done.”


Stella turned back to the house, and she saw Emma beckoning her from the kitchen door. Irv called out an apology, but she didn’t acknowledge him.

“There’s a man here,” her mother said before Stella could voice her outrage at the invasion. “He wants to search the house.”

“Surely you didn’t let him in?”

“Of course not.”

“Where is he?”

“At the front door.”

Stella pushed her mother aside. She tightened the belt on her robe and charged through the living room. She yanked the front door open so quickly that the man on the other side stumbled backward.

He straightened his hat. “Mrs. Crater.”

“Who are you?”

“Frank Southard.” He extended his hand, but she didn’t take it. “County attorney.”

“You sent those men?”

“I did.”

“Under whose authority?”

Frank Southard reached inside his suit and took out four sheets of paper, folded lengthwise. “District Attorney Crain asked me to look into your husband’s disappearance. He doesn’t have jurisdiction here.” He paused to give her an incredulous look. “As you well know.”

Stella glared at the papers before plucking them from his hand. By now she was quite familiar with Thomas Crain’s stationery. A letter of introduction and the same three pages of questions that Jude had given her. The letter was verbose but she skipped to the end where Crain spelled out his request:

Some of Judge Crater’s associates think that he has been the victim of foul play and that this possibility might have happened in your jurisdiction. I believe that Judge Crater disappeared after he arrived near his summer home the morning of August 7th. I would like to emphasize that any crime committed in that area would fall under your jurisdiction, and I expect that you will investigate the case with the possibility that there has been a crime.

I suggest you question Mrs. Crater concerning reports that she might have seen her husband after he left New York. A complete search of her Belgrade Lakes home would be prudent under the circumstances. In addition I’m attaching a list of questions I put to her in writing and request that you obtain more complete and definite answers than the ones she wrote for me. You may find it beneficial to question Mrs. Crater’s mother, Emma Wheeler, and her chauffeur, Fred Kahler, as they are the two individuals most familiar with her whereabouts during the days in question.

Stella folded the papers and ran the crease between two fingernails. She handed them back to Mr. Southard. “You’ve come to search my home?”

“I have.”

“I expect you brought a search warrant along with that offensive letter?”

Frank Southard rubbed beneath his nose with the edge of one finger. “I didn’t think it necessary, you being a judge’s wife and all.”

“If you intend to step one foot over this threshold, I’m afraid it is.”

“Now, Mrs. Crater—”

“Do not patronize me. I have already answered those questions in front of a witness. Thomas Crain makes serious accusations in that letter. And you want to enter my house without court approval or my attorney present?”

“It’s a simple interview and a quick search.”

“It’s a violation of my rights. Good day.”

Stella moved to shut the door, but Frank Southard propped it open with his foot. “Please be reasonable.”

“Reason has nothing to do with this. Rule of law does. You may remove yourself from my property until you have a court order.”

“Take a moment and consider how this looks. You’ll heap suspicion on your head by refusing.”

Stella kicked his foot out of the way, wincing as she stubbed her big toe against his dress shoe. “I am well versed in my Fourth Amendment rights … being a judge’s wife and all.”

Frank Southard took a step backward. “Very well, then. I’ll be back. With papers.”

Stella pushed the door shut so hard the glass rattled in the frame. Frank Southard stood there and they glared at one another through the pane. She waited until he retreated down the steps and got into his car before she ran up the stairs. Stella caught a brief glimpse of Emma, mouth carved into a disapproving line, as she bolted toward her bedroom. Once inside, she locked the door and crossed the room in three strides. Stella lifted one edge of her mattress, wedged a shoulder underneath, and then carefully tipped it onto the floor. In the space between mattress and box spring rested the four manila envelopes.

Had she let Frank Southard in, and had he found these papers, Joe’s shifty business relationships would be front-page news, and her knowledge of them revealed. She couldn’t allow that to happen. Not yet. She had to hide the record of those bribes until they found Joe.

Stella settled to the floor beside her bed and laid her forehead against the frame. The wood dug into her skin and offered a momentary distraction from the thoughts that tumbled through her mind. She sat there, eyes squeezed shut and hands limp in her lap, as she tried to subdue the reality that assailed her. It was no use. The townsfolk were dragging the lake for Joe’s body, and she had refused entry to an official who wanted to search her home. To the casual observer, she looked guilty as hell.