The Letter Killeth by Ralph McInerny

mean?”
    â€œDo your colleagues get their exercise this way?”
    â€œHey, this is my little secret. Can you imagine what they’d say if they saw me jumping up and down on that thing? But why would anyone take that?”
    When they left Izquierdo’s office, the door of Wack’s office was cracked slightly. Phil gestured him out, and on the second invitation Wack emerged.
    â€œI just want to confirm something, Professor.” Phil took Izquierdo to the door of Wack’s office and pointed to the corner. “Is that the sort of thing you’re missing?”
    With a cry, Izquierdo sprang into the office. When he came out he was flourishing a pogo stick.
    â€œYou thief!”
    â€œWhat is that? I never saw it before!”
    â€œSo you steal unconsciously?”
    Wack took hold of Jimmy Stewart’s sleeve. “He must have left it there last night. The investigator.”
    â€œWant to show us how that works, Professor?” Phil asked.
    This flustered Izquierdo. A door across the hall opened and a lovely young woman appeared. “What on earth is going on?” She smiled when she said it.
    Introductions all around. But it was the pogo stick that fascinated her.
    â€œI haven’t used one of those in years. Can I try it?”
    â€œWatch the ceiling.”
    When Phil and Jimmy left, Professor Goessen was hopping up and down, with others who had emerged from their offices applauding the performance.
    In the elevator, Jimmy asked, “Is everybody nuts?”
    â€œCompared to what?”

6
    At his son Bill’s insistence, Fred Fenster had given Roger Knight a call and invited him to lunch at the Morris Inn. The description his son had given him did not prepare him for the apparition that needed both doors opened in order to come into the lobby. A fur cap was pulled down over his ears; he seemed to have several layers of clothing beneath the massive blue parka with NOTRE DAME emblazoned in yellow across the back. His trousers were stuffed into unbuckled galoshes, which made his passage that of a tinkling Santa. His glasses fogged up immediately, and he removed them and looked myopically around. Fred went to his guest and introduced himself.
    â€œFred? But isn’t it Manfred?”
    â€œI’m afraid it is. My mother had no sense of humor. Or maybe she did.”
    â€œOf course you wouldn’t remember Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog.”
    â€œTom Terrific! Of course I do.”
    â€œSo we must have similar misspent youths.”
    Fred helped remove several layers of clothing of his guest’s and pass them over the Dutch door to the attendant. Roger’s entry into the dining room commanded everyone’s attention as he maneuvered carefully between the tables, attended by the hostess, several waitresses, and the amused gaze of the assembly. Roger’s smile seemed meant indifferently for them all. At table Fred mentioned that his mother had mistaken Manfred for Buonconte in the Purgatorio when she named him.
    â€œSaved by a single tear.”
    â€œIt is my hope.”
    â€œThat is the CSC motto, you know. Spes Unica. An anchor and cross. I think the motto has Marian overtones as well. That’s clear enough in the university’s motto. Vita, Dulcedo, Spes. ”
    â€œYou’d be surprised how little I know about my university.” He had known what Roger said, but it seemed humble to pretend he didn’t.
    â€œNo I wouldn’t. Lack of curiosity about the past of the place seems widespread. Maybe we look ahead too exclusively. What do you do, Fred?”
    This was always the difficult question. He could say what he was doing at the time, as if it were a profession or a job, but he found he did not want to mislead Roger Knight. He was beginning to understand Bill’s devotion to this improbable personage.
    â€œI’m afraid I am one of the idle rich.”
    â€œRetired?”
    â€œWell, you see, I never had to