Holmes said about theories?â
ââIt is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data,ââ I rattled off. And as I continued, Dad chimed in so we were reciting in unison. ââInsensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.ââ
Sherlockian trivia had been as much a part of my childhood dinner table conversations as fascinating medical facts.
âPrecisely.â The chief looked only mildly startled by our Holmesian duet. âItâs much too early to speculate on whether Mr. Henson was himself the target or whether he was merely the victim of an unfortunate physical resemblance to the killerâs real target.â
âDid Randall mention that one of his cousins saw Biff having a fight with one of the Pruitts?â I asked. âAnd he didnât mean just an argument; they had to be pulled apart. I only got it third hand, but it stuck in my mind.â
âIâll look into it.â The chief made a few more notes. âDid Randall happen to say which cousin? Or which Pruitt?â
âHis cousin Cephus, and I donât know which Pruitt, but probably one whose kid is on the Yankees.â
The chief nodded and scribbled.
âMy moneyâs on Biff as the target,â Dad said. âAfter all, people donât very often yell âKill the umpireâ in real life.â
âAnd when they do, theyâre usually just venting,â Horace added. âHas anyone ever really killed an umpire?â
âNot since 1927, to the best of my knowledge.â Yes, the chief would know something like that. âAnd baseball was a much rowdier game in the late eighteen-hundreds and early nineteen-hundreds. I doubt if this murder has much to do with baseballâhistorically, most of the violence against umpires, or for that matter players and coaches, has been committed in the heat of the momentâduring the game or shortly thereafter.â
âYeah,â Horace said. âAnd thereâs not much baseball going on around here between ten p.m. and two a.m., so heat of the moment wonât fly as a mitigating circumstance.â
âAnd remember,â the chief added, âLem Shiffley didnât use Mr. Henson as an umpire in the fall season, so to my knowledge, Mr. Henson hasnât officiated at a game since the end of last yearâs spring Little League season, a good nine months ago. Iâm sure a few parents are still complaining about some of his more egregiously bad calls in the playoffs, but I have a hard time believing that any of them would still be in the throes of homicidal rage. Iâm not discounting Shepâsâor Biffâsâinvolvement in baseball as a possible motive, but I suspect weâll need to look off the diamond for the killerâs motive.â
And I suspected heâd be relieved to find the motive outside baseball. After all, the chief was such a passionate Baltimore Orioles fan that heâd named his sons after his favorite ballplayers. And at least one of his sons had followed suitâthe one whose untimely death, with his wife, in a car crash had made Henry and Minerva the custodial grandparents of Frank Robinson Burke, Jr., Calvin Ripken Burke, and Adam Jones Burke.
âWell, idle speculation wonât solve this,â the chief said. âHorace, if youâre finished here for the time being, why donât you head over to Mr. Hensonâs place to search there?â
âYouâve made arrangements with Sheriff Whicker, then?â Horace slid out of the banquette and picked up his forensic kit.
âNo,â the chief said. âIf at all possible, Iâd like for you to see it exactly the way he left it, not the way it will look after some nosy Clay County deputy finishes contaminating anything that might have evidentiary value.â
âYeah,â Horace said. âTheyâre not so good on subtleties
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