The Four Johns

Except

Mervyn Gray sat in a booth at the rear of the Parnassus Coffee Shop, near the University of California in Berkeley. He was studying a sheet of paper on which he had written four names. Hours ago he had ordered coffee. From time to time he reached out, groped for his cup, and made the rediscovery that the coffee was cold.

The waitress had already served him two refills. The hour was late and closing time was at hand; she was eager that he take his troubles elsewhere. A student at the university in the process of flunking his finals, she assessed him — sleepless, undernourished, haunted by worry. Students had flunked before, students would flunk again; this young man, for all his despair, undoubtedly would survive.

The waitress was wrong on all counts. Mervyn Gray was not a student; he was a teaching assistant. And he felt not at all confident of survival. Two days ago he had been almost poisoned; yesterday a bullet had missed his head by inches; tomorrow, if his unidentified enemy was to be believed — and Mervyn believed him — Mervyn would be dead.

The obvious recourse, a complaint to the police, could not be considered for just as obvious reasons. For better or worse, the issue lay between himself and his enemy — an enemy who, so far as Mervyn could see, had every advantage.

He rubbed his temples. Four names; four men. Which? He stared at the paper, hoping desperately for inspiration.

But he had to shake his buzzing head. He reached for his cup, and at last took note that the coffee was cold. He drank it anyway, and closed his eyes. The lids felt stiff and harsh; he raised them. Which?

With infinite care he arranged his thoughts. A problem existed, so a solution must exist. He reviewed his chain of logic, tracing it from the events of Friday, June fourteenth, across a week and a half of time and a sizable area of space, to June twenty-fourth, back at Berkeley. The weakest link of the chain, deriving from Harriet Brill and Susie Hazelwood, lay at the very start. Still he must begin somewhere, no matter how confusing the source. In which case the chain once more led to the four names on his list — where it stopped.

He stood too close to the problem: this was the main difficulty. Somehow he had to move back, disengage himself, achieve a perspective. Easier said than done. Or if there were a way of defining the variables, so that he might cope with them one by one... Mervyn felt as if he were being smothered under an ocean of dandelion fluff.

He drew a deep breath, once more hunched forward over the list. Someone, methodically, with infinite malice, was attempting to destroy him, one of four men: which? Was there no means to isolate him from the innocent three? A reagent to dye him with the color of guilt? If I were a psychologist, God forbid, Mervyn thought, I might conceivably devise a series of tests: ink blots that had the look of faces with dead eye sockets, or mint-green Chevrolet convertibles... Or word associations:

Multiple-choice questions:

Your name is X. You hate a man named Mervyn Gray (M.G.).

You therefore:

 (a) go to M.G. frankly, explain your grievances, and try to arrive at an accommodation.

 (b) reveal your feelings to mutual friends, so that they will know M.G. for the villain he is.

 (c) revenge yourself upon M.G. by a series of harassments.

 (d) decide that it’s best to live and let live, and thereafter ignore M.G.

 (e) kill M.G.

Mervyn grinned a crooked grin. Devising the tests was simple enough; it was what was down back that counted.

Now he listlessly sketched out a chart, rating the four names against a list of attributes, on a scale of 0 to 10:

Mervyn was not displeased with the chart. The method was arbitrary, the headings vague, the estimates subjective, but the summations approximated his own intuitive judgment. His amusement, sad as it was, soon drained to a trickle and disappeared. Charts, guesses, intuitions: useless. Everything was useless. He was fighting a shadow. He clenched his fists, filled with a sudden anger.

Problem: solution.

John.

John who? Which John?

Into the coffee shop came a blond girl of twenty wearing a gray skirt and a heavy dark-brown sweater. In a group of high-school freshmen she would have gone unnoticed: she was not tall, and her figure just evaded boyishness. But her features were mercurial, now fey, now mischievous, now guileless as a baby’s, now cunning and wise, even sly.

At sight of Mervyn Gray she hesitated, instantly pensive. Then she walked along the line of booths and slid into the seat opposite him.

Mervyn looked up blankly. “Susie.”

“You’re out late,” said Susie Hazelwood. She glanced down at the sheet of paper on which Mervyn had constructed his chart. He folded it and tucked it in his pocket. Susie said derisively, “Secrets?”

Mervyn spoke from the depths of his soul. “I wish I hadn’t any.”

“My secrets are all so trivial. I hardly think I’d miss them.”

The waitress came to the booth. “We’re closing in five minutes.”

“Just coffee,” said Susie. “With cream.” Mervyn was scowling past her at the door. Susie glanced over her shoulder. “Somebody you know?”

“Our friend and neighbor, Harriet. Weird woman. She started to come in and changed her mind. Possibly because she saw me.”

“Harriet thinks you’re mad. You and your idiotic game.”

“Which idiotic game?”

Pursing her lips, Susie mimicked his voice. “‘I really do wish the moon were made of green cheese. There was never enough cheese at home; we used it for prizes in our Monopoly games, which my father always won. He used loaded dice, which is why I hate my father.’”

“That game.”

“You underestimate Harriet,” said Susie. “She knows exactly what you’re up to, and considers you a lunatic anyway.”

“Harriet is very discerning.”

“I think you just hate psychologists.”

“Just psychologists named Harriet.”

The waitress brought Susie a cup of coffee. Mervyn watched while Susie poured in cream. Then he leaned forward. “Speaking of secrets, tell me one of yours.”

Susie, stirring the coffee, smiled. “I have so few.”

“Why did your sister Mary leave for Los Angeles?”

Susie reflected. “I might tell you,” she said presently, “if I really knew, which I don’t. Not really.”

Mervyn looked politely incredulous. “Your own sister?”

“Or I might guess,” said Susie with a shrug, “if I knew why you were interested. Of course, you were — you are — in love with her. I suppose that’s reason enough.” There was a suggestion of hostility in Susie’s voice. “You do love Mary, don’t you?”

Mervyn smiled the crooked smile. “What do you mean by love? It occurs on so many levels. Worshipful love. Puppy love. Carnal love. The love of a cowboy for his horse. Mother love.”

“Mary is not a church, or a puppy, or carnal. She’s neither a cowboy nor a horse. Or a mother.”

“In all likelihood I love you. Do you love me? Honestly, now.”

“You’re evading the question. Please answer me. It’s important.”

Mervyn considered. “Let’s put it this way,” he said at last. “If I were shipwrecked on a desert island and Mary arrived on a life raft, I wouldn’t order her back to sea.”

“Are you or are you not in love with her?”

“You’re a persistent little cuss.”

“Are you going to answer?”

“It’s a silly question. Everybody loves Mary. She’s a local institution.”

Susie made an extravagant gesture. “Don’t think I’m offended. Why should I be? Everybody’s nice to me. I’m Mary’s mousy kid sister, happy for even a blind date. Sick with joy when a Mervyn Gray asks me to go out.”

Mervyn laughed uneasily. “Mousy. This is how you think of yourself?”

“How do you think of yourself?”

“Oh, a modern-day Quixote. Or the fellow A. E. Housman wrote about, the one who left his necktie God knows where.”

“Literary, as usual.”

Mervyn raised an eyebrow at the unexpected attack. “I teach English literature. I read books.”

“Don’t apologize; it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Mervyn sighed. “You’re completely perverse.” He thought of his chart and the ratings. “A clear score of ten.”

“Is that good? Or bad?”

“It’s as perverse as you can get. How about telling me whom Mary went off with?”

Susie sat back, surveying Mervyn through narrowed eyes. “Are you jealous?”

“Of course not.”

“Why the fever, then?”

“Someday I’ll explain.”

“Very well,” said Susie. “I’ll tell you everything I know for sure. On Friday, June the fourteenth, Mary finished her finals.”

“This I know. I wound up mine the same day.”

“Whereupon she arranged to meet John.”

“This I know, too. But which John?”

“Harriet, the source of the information, claims to have no clue. Neither do I.”

“It’s the first time Harriet hasn’t known everything about everything.”

The waitress stood by the table. “Twelve o’clock. We’re closing.”

Susie insisted on paying for her own coffee. At the cashier’s desk Mervyn, reaching for his wallet, drew out the chart. He started to crumple it, changed his mind, stuffed it back in his pocket. A conceit crossed his mind. He pulled the chart out once more and glanced down the headings. Interesting. Highly. Enlightenment... If he dared take it seriously?

He accepted his change and joined Susie in the street. She looked at him curiously. Mervyn drew a breath. “So much for that.”

“So much for what?”

“For June twenty-fourth. It’s now June twenty-fifth.” The day he had been promised death.

“For me it’s the twenty-fourth,” said Susie. “Till I go to bed.”

Mervyn looked up at the sky. “What a beautiful night. Notice the moon. And all those feathery clouds.”

“Is that what they call a mackerel sky?”

“Imagine a night like this at sea.”

“You’re a romantic.”

“Some people call me a brutal realist. To Harriet I’m a madman. I wonder why.”

“Perhaps because you’re half romantic and half brute realist.”

They walked down Telegraph Avenue and presently came to Mervyn’s dark-blue Volkswagen. He opened the door; Susie hesitated an instant, then got in. Mervyn slid into the driver’s seat, looked sidewise toward Susie. “I think I’ve learned something. It just came to me.”

“What?”

Before answering, Mervyn started the car, pulled out into traffic. “It’s a complicated business. Do you have to get home right away?”

“No.”

Mervyn looked at her with his twisted grin. “Let’s drive to Reno and get married.”

“Not on June twenty-fourth. That’s bad luck.”

“But it’s June twenty-fifth.”

“For me it’s still June twenty-fourth, I told you.”

“So you refuse me.” He reached in his pocket and brought out the chart. He switched on the map light, handed the chart to Susie. She studied it with care. “What do you think of it?”

“It seems, on the whole, haphazard. Some of these headings are sinister.”

“Something sinister has taken place. You’ve had no word from Mary?”

Susie’s face became impassive. “No.”

“It’s been a week.”

“And a half.”

“Has it occurred to you that she might have had an accident?”

Susie made no response.

“That she might even be dead?”

Susie sat like a statue. They were driving through a long tunnel; the overhead lights lit her face in quick, recurrent flashes.

“Well?” asked Mervyn. “Has the thought occurred to you?”

“Naturally.”

They came out of the tunnel, coasted down the road between dark-firred mountains. Mervyn chose his words carefully. “I’ve been thinking about this situation.” He paused. “I really think Mary is dead.”

Susie was silent. Then she said, “Why haven’t you gone to the police?”

Mervyn looked pained. “I’m a member of the faculty. That means I’m like Caesar’s wife — I can’t just avoid evil, I shouldn’t even know what the word means.”

Susie blew a skeptical sound through her teeth.

“You think I’m overcautious?” he asked.

“Some such idea had occurred to me, among others.”

“The perquisites of the teaching assistant are few. If I keep my nose clean I get an instructorship in the fall semester. And that’s only half the story. My thesis is a translation of a Provençal geste, cum commentary. It happens to be old Burton’s specialty, and he’s as good as promised me an assistant professorship as soon as my Ph.D. comes through. This is absolutely meteoric promotion, the break of a lifetime. Now consider the headlines: ‘Instructor at Cal Questioned in Sex Slaying.’ I might as well learn a new trade.”

“So it was a sex slaying.” Susie’s voice was brittle.

“That’s what the newspapers will call it.”

“Tell me more about my sister’s sex slaying.”

“Don’t be obtuse, Susie. I merely foresaw the headlines in the hypothetical event that I were involved in a hypothetical crime.”

Susie tapped the chart. “If it’s all so hypothetical, why this?”

Mervyn spoke slowly and patiently, as to a child. “According to Harriet, Mary made arrangements with ‘John.’ In which case, it would seem that ‘John’ came to meet Mary.”

“You don’t have a heading for lust or lechery or whatever you’d call it. Isn’t that an important element of a sex slaying? Almost indispensable, I’d think.”

“If a sex slaying occurred. Naturally, there are wheels within wheels.”

“Naturally.” Susie nodded at a private, rather grim, joke. She studied the chart. “Am I supposed to take this seriously? Perhaps we’re on our way to hang John Pilgrim now. Or better, let’s get John Boce. His score is almost as high, and he lives closer.”

“My chart doesn’t seem to impress you.”

“It’s silly. The headings all overlap.”

“If you arrange them in a circle, like a color wheel, they all blend smoothly together. For instance, Imagination, Ingenuity, Drive and Persistence come in sequence. Imagination and Drive are equivalent to Ingenuity. Ingenuity and Persistence equal Drive. What I’m trying to say is, these headings are just points around a circumference. The chart indicates the shape of the circumference — I won’t call it a circle. The totals indicate the extent of the enclosed area.”

“Clever.”

“You’re still not taking me seriously.”

“To think that ten minutes ago you were insulting Harriet because she’s a psychologist.”

“I see I’ll have to explain.”

“I wish you would. I’ve been wondering whether my sister is alive or dead.”

“She’s dead.”