two days after taffy’s and geraldine’s visit to ted tenner, jonah james decided to go for a walk after dinner.
there was nothing remarkable about this. the old man liked to get away from his family and servants, and he found an after dinner walk, especially at the time of year when dusk came early, was the best occasion to do so.
on this night, as on many others, he took a stout stick, and accompanied by his wolfhound that he called woodrow wilson, he sent out on a walk to the outskirts of town.
the town at this time was a peaceful one, and had only recently enjoyed one of its periodic sweeps of hooligans and riffraff, so that it should have been even more peaceful than usual.
the night was dark and windy, but not particularly cold.
jonah had dined with taffy, and with his daughter-in-law alice, the wife of his least worthless son, alexander, and two of alexander’s and alice’s children.
the children had been put to bed, and taffy and alice sat knitting peacefully by the fire to await jonah’s return.
as jonah proceeded on his walk, a fog began to come in across the river and into the outskirts of the town.
suddenly a figure loomed out of the mist.
woodrow wilson growled. jonah commanded the hound to be quiet, and gripped his stick tighter and held it at the ready.
the figure came closer.
it was ted tenner.
“oh, it’s you,” said jonah.
“yes, father, it is i,” ted answered.
“how disappointing. i thought you were some rascally robber i would enjoy giving a good thrashing to. so - what do you want? nothing, i hope. or i might give you the sound thrashing. eh, woodrow, what do you think?”
ted listened patiently to jonah’s harangue, and replied mildly, “no, i don’t want anything . i came here to give you something.”
“nothing of any value, i assume.”
“just some information.”
“about what?”
“i just thought you would like to know that a gentleman involved in the enquiry business - “
“meaning yourself,”
“ - a gentleman involved in the enquiry business, “ ted continued, “has been approached by a party interested in your dealings with buck gray.”
jonah snorted. “is that all? i haven’t talked to buck gray in twenty years.”
“i just thought i would let you know.”
“who is this person?”
“i am not at liberty to say.”
jonah laughed and shook his head. “if you say so. i really don’t care.”
ted knew jonah well enough to know he was incapable of suspecting that his own legitimate daughter - and favorite child - would go behind his back for information to ted or to anybody else.
the fog had been increasing as they talked.
“is that all?” jonah asked.
“that is all.” ted answered.
suddenly a shot rang out.
the wolfhound gave a terrible howl and collapsed as it started to leap at ted.
another shot was fired.
jonah fell at ted’s feet.
then a third shot. each shot seemed a little louder than the one before. they echoed in the fog and darkness and ted could not tell the direction they came from.
ted ran.
jonah was found the next morning out beyond the city limits, beside the railroad tracks, shot in the back.
jonah was in the habit of carrying unnecessarily large amounts of cash in his pockets at all times. although he understood well enough that he did not need to do so in his respectable old age when his credit was good wherever he went, he never relinquished this practice from his youth.
despite jonah’s affection for taffy, he had never made any special provision for her in his will, and most of his estate went to raymond, his oldest and most dissolute son.
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