Gone Away

0:00 Firecracker Paper and a Radio Call-In

0:04 Watson: From the case log. July, nineteen ninety-two. Brooklyn. Sunday evening, the twelfth, a week past the fireworks, the heat unbroken and the whole street still smelling of gunpowder. Our consulting rooms take the parlor floor of a brownstone, a fan in each window. I was quarrelling with my radio; Holmes sat sorting spent firecracker paper from the stoop, by maker.

0:29 Watson: Can't catch? He's the best-hitting catcher alive, you lunatic! Holmes: He can't hear you, Watson. It's a radio.

0:38 Watson: Some fellow from Orrin Bay wants Cardoza traded. We only just got him! Holmes: Is Cardoza the one who throws, or the one who waits?

0:47 Watson: I can never tell when you're joking. Wait, those are my forceps! Holmes: The only clean pair in Brooklyn. Black Cat left, red wrappers right.

0:57 Watson: I use those on patients, Holmes, I— Holmes: Then boil them. The red came up from Pennsylvania in somebody's trunk.

1:04 Watson: Thrilling. Phone it in to Orrin Bay. Holmes: That's the bell. Someone is leaning on it, Sunday or no Sunday.

1:13 Watson: I'll go. Marta: Good evening. My name is Marta. I keep house for Mrs. Thorne.

1:19 Watson: Come in out of this heat. Holmes, kill the radio, we have a visitor. Marta: Mrs. Thorne isn't in her house on East Seventy-Third Street. The police sent me home.

1:30 Holmes: Yet here you stand in your Sunday hat. What is in the handkerchief? Marta: A tape, Mr. Holmes. From my answering machine. The precinct, they would not— they wouldn't listen. Will you? Somebody must listen tonight.

1:44 Holmes: Wait in the hall, Marta, while the doctor and I quarrel. Marta: Waiting I know how to do. Holmes: A grown woman absent from her own house in July is no crime, Watson.

1:57 Watson: That's your verdict? From behind my forceps? Holmes: The precinct is likely right. And a housekeeper can't pay our rent.

2:05 Watson: Nobody else is paying it either. And the police sent her home, yet she came all the way out to Brooklyn. Holmes: Stubbornness isn't evidence.

2:14 Watson: No letter, no photograph, Holmes. Only the tape from her own answering machine, knotted in a handkerchief. Holmes: Nobody ties such a knot around a thing she can afford to lose. Get your bag.

2:26 Watson: Just like that? And your wrappers? Holmes: They'll keep. So will the Mets. Marta! We're coming.

2:34 Watson: Case log, same evening: no fee, no crime, and my forceps still smelling of gunpowder.

2:42 Mrs. Thorne's Bedroom by Full Dark

2:45 Watson: By full dark we stood with Marta in Mrs. Thorne's bedroom on East Seventy-Third Street. Marta: Nothing is moved. The bed as I made it. Her handbag there on the chair...

2:57 Holmes: Keys, wallet, spectacles, all inside. Nobody of eighty-two goes away without her spectacles. Watson: Or these, from the nightstand. Digoxin, the bottle nearly full. That's her heart, Holmes. A few days without it and she's in real trouble.

3:13 Holmes: Then telephone someone with a badge in the morning. Marta, when did you last see her? Marta: Noon, Sunday the fifth. She sat in that chair, cursing the firecrackers. I went to my sister in Greenpoint for my three days.

3:28 Holmes: And came back Wednesday to an empty house and a message. Marta: Wednesday, yes. I told the precinct— I told them the message says she has gone away. That's all I told them. The sergeant closed his book.

3:42 Watson: He would. Holmes: You gave him the short of it and kept the rest in a handkerchief. You don't trust that message.

3:49 Marta: He didn't ask for the rest. And that little tape plays only on my machine, in Astoria. Holmes: Tomorrow, then. It's a tape, Marta, it'll keep.

3:59 Watson: It's past eleven. Go home and sleep. Marta: I lay her tray at night, for the morning. Twenty-six years, Doctor.

4:09 Watson: There's no one to— Marta: One egg. She takes one egg.

4:14 The Next Morning's Stairs

4:18 Watson: The next morning's stairs brought us to the lodger's floor, and a typewriter going behind a half-shut door. Holmes: Mr. Lyle? Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson. Those picture crates on your landing still have their shipping nails in.

4:33 Lyle: Lyle, yes. Consignment pictures, insured to the door. You've got one minute.

4:39 Holmes: A dealer who never opens his stock. Lyle: Or one who doesn't hang it for the neighbors. Della: Honestly, let the man breathe. I'm Della, his secretary. Doctor, you look like you slept in a chair. Coffee. No arguments.

4:55 Watson: Thank you, Della. Black. Do you know Mrs. Thorne well?

4:59 Della: She's the kindest soul in New York. Had me down to tea my first week. I keep listening for her on the stairs, eighty-two and light as a girl, and I—

5:08 Lyle: Della. They're leaving. Della: Not with your collar like that. Hold still.

5:14 Holmes: A secretary who straightens a collar unasked. Long service. Della: Long enough to know he won't do it himself.

5:22 Lyle: That's your minute. Della, the letters. Watson: Pleasant woman. Wasted on him.

5:29 Holmes: Mm.

5:31 Noon in a Crowded Front Hall

5:35 Watson: Noon found the front hall crowded: Captain Arroyo of Homicide with a folder, and the lodger and his secretary on their way out to lunch. Arroyo: Doctor, you pulled a homicide captain off his sandwich for one bottle of— Watson: Digoxin, Captain, left behind by a woman with a bad heart. Would you leave yours?

5:53 Arroyo: So I called the City Register. Deed dated June, filed last week. She signed this whole townhouse over to a paper company. House is worth nine point two million dollars.

6:06 Holmes: Did she, now. Watson: Signed it to whom? Arroyo: Front of the filing's a hired agent and a box on Madison Avenue. Way I read it, the lady's selling up, calling in her debts, gone off somewhere—

6:16 Holmes: With the money coming and no handbag to put it in. Lyle: Debts fits, Captain. She was— she grumbled to me last month about a friend's loan. Years old, never paid back.

6:27 Arroyo: This friend got a name? Lyle: Not to me. But that's where I'd look, not up my stairs. Nobody walks through those pictures without paper.

6:36 Arroyo: Who said anything about your stairs? Lyle: Saving you the climb. Arroyo: Uh-huh.

6:42 Della: He's like this before lunch, Captain. Come on, you. Let the man work.

6:47 Arroyo: Who owns those shares, Albany will take days. Meantime the sergeant's note says a message: gone away. Holmes: A sergeant's note. I want to hear that message, Captain, from Marta's own machine.

7:02 An Answering Machine on a Lace Doily

7:06 Watson: After dark we sat in Marta's kitchen in Astoria, under the elevated line, her answering machine on a lace doily. Marta: Forty times I've played this. Now you.

7:18 Voice: Marta, it's Mrs. Thorne. I've gone up to Mrs. Bo-shomp on Riverside Drive for a rest. I'll be home the twentieth. Don't fuss over the house.

7:28 Marta: So Madam is up on Riverside Drive for a rest, the machine tells me, with no handbag and no pills. That friend, she owes Madam— she owes Madam dearly, Mr. Holmes. Years, and not a dollar back.

7:43 Watson: So that's the friend Lyle was grumbling about. Holmes: The twentieth. She forgets her heart and remembers to name a date. Either she's in a hurry, or somebody's hurrying her. Marta, who has had that date from you?

7:56 Marta: No one. The sergeant never asked. Upstairs never asked, and I don't carry Madam's calendar to lodgers. Not even to my sister.

8:05 Holmes: Keep it so. The tape goes to Captain Arroyo tonight, machine and all, under his key. That day stays among the four of us.

8:14 Watson: Forty plays, Marta. Nobody does that with good news. Holmes: What do you hear? The voice? The words?

8:21 Marta: I don't know. I know that voice better than my own mother's. I play it only to hear her, every night I— Watson: Take your time.

8:29 Marta: It sounds like her, Mr. Holmes... and something in it's wrong.

8:35 Five Flights Up on Riverside Drive

8:39 Watson: Tuesday took us up to Riverside Drive, five flights, to rooms that answered every footstep, and the old friend the tape had named. Thank you for seeing us, ma'am. It's about Vivian Thorne.

8:53 Beauchamp: Vivian's not here, Doctor. Look around, there's nowhere to hide her. One chair, and it's mine.

9:00 Holmes: A message says she came to you. Beauchamp: Then the message is lying. She never came. Not this month, not last.

9:08 Watson: Ah. Holmes: Pale squares on the wallpaper. Fresh gouges where a sideboard left by the door. You're selling up, ma'am, a piece at a time.

9:17 Beauchamp: I'm decorating. Empty's all the rage. Holmes: Yet you kept one poster. Rosie Lerner, at the Regal. Your own name, before the husband's.

9:27 Beauchamp: Delancey Street's finest. Nobody'd give me a nickel for her, that's why she's still up. Holmes: And the loan from Mrs. Thorne, ma'am?

9:37 Beauchamp: Who's been talking, the housekeeper? You're letting in the heat, gentlemen. Mind the stairs.

9:43 Watson: No furniture, no answer on the money, and she swears the woman never came. Holmes, did Mrs. Thorne reach that door and never leave?

9:53 Cedar and Old Programs in the Study

9:57 Watson: Back on Seventy-Third Street that afternoon, the study smelled of cedar and old programs. Marta had the desk open; Captain Arroyo kept his hat on. Arroyo: I heard your tape, and it's locked away. My key, my log. So why are we in a drawer?

10:13 Holmes: Because the lady swears Mrs. Thorne never came. I want to know if they were even on terms. Has Mrs. Thorne asked her to anything lately, Marta?

10:23 Marta: The party in June. Here, her invitation, the Riverside one. The post office brought it back, short a stamp.

10:31 Holmes: So she was asked. The card has Mrs. Thorne's own shaking signature. The envelope has a brisk round hand, nothing like it. Who wrote these?

10:42 Marta: Madam's fingers are bad now. Miss Della came down three evenings, sat here with Madam's address book, and addressed every one for Madam, after Madam signed. Watson: That sounds like her. She'd carry your groceries and scold you for buying them.

10:57 Arroyo: Penmanship, Holmes. I got one real lead, and it's on Riverside Drive. I'll have a man across the street by tonight, and—

11:03 Holmes: On the strength of a debt and a denial? Arroyo: It's enough for a parked car. Mr. Lyle and his stairs can keep.

11:12 Arroyo: This comes with me. She owes, she denies. Watch her door.

11:18 A Furniture Van at the Curb

11:16 Holmes: As you like.

11:22 Watson: A furniture van blocked the curb on Riverside Drive that Wednesday morning, Captain Arroyo at its fender, our lady from the top floor counting a dealer's money. Arroyo: Nice table, ma'am. That the last of it?

11:35 Beauchamp: The chair goes Friday. Your boy in the parked car can have first refusal, Captain. Arroyo: Sunday the fifth, ma'am. Where were you?

11:44 Beauchamp: I was home all that Sunday, and nobody came. Vivian hasn't— she hasn't climbed my stairs in six years, not with that heart. Arroyo: Neighbor see you? The super? Anybody—

11:55 Beauchamp: At my age, Captain, nobody sees you. That's the whole trouble... Holmes: You joked about the furniture, ma'am. At the word Sunday you counted that money again.

12:05 Beauchamp: It's short. Dealers. Mind the ramp, gentlemen.

12:10 Arroyo: Sold to the walls, no witness, no answer. That lady looks ready to run.

12:18 A Path Worn in the Study Rug

12:16 Holmes: Does she.

12:22 Watson: The Captain was wearing a path in the study rug by two o'clock, with Marta at her mistress's files and Holmes at the window. Arroyo: Lyle called my desk this morning. Monday he had no name for that friend. Today he's got Riverside Drive and her furniture.

12:40 Watson: Funny timing. Holmes: Someone who hands you an address wants you standing at it. Arroyo: So what's he keeping me from? Nailed crates, right over a missing woman's head. I'm thinking warrant.

12:52 Marta: You like paper, Captain? Here's his. Watson: The lease. Upstairs rooms, one year from April, in his name alone. Not a word about a secretary.

13:04 Arroyo: Huh. Marta: She came with the typewriter, Madam said. And he's slow to answer to it.

13:10 Arroyo: Answer to what? Marta: His name. I call up the stairs, Mr. Lyle, Mr. Lyle. Three times, then he jumps.

13:20 Watson: Really? Holmes: Slow to his own name: deaf, rude or new to it. He isn't deaf.

13:26 Arroyo: New to it. There's my warrant, right— Holmes: There's a fraud on a landlady. A slow ear and a nailed crate, Captain; no judge signs that. Riverside first.

13:36 Marta: He sleeps over her bed. Holmes: The stairs will keep. The friend has a van.

13:42 Arroyo: No warrant, then. The stairs stay shut, on your word.

13:48 One Card to a Fact

13:52 Watson: That night in Brooklyn I dealt my notes across the table, one card to a fact, with Holmes flat on the sofa, eyes shut. Holmes: Read them again. Watson: The tape puts her on Riverside Drive. The friend swears she never left her rooms that day, and no caller.

14:10 Holmes: Next. Watson: The friend owes her, years of it. And the house signed away, nobody knows to whom.

14:17 Holmes: You put that last card down harder than the others. Out with it. Watson: Five flights, Holmes, on digoxin, with the bottle on her nightstand. I wouldn't let her climb them with—

14:26 Holmes: Anger climbs. So does a summons. Deal them again.

14:30 Watson: I can deal them till morning. She went there, or she never came. It can't be both...

14:38 Candlesticks Nobody Would Light

14:42 Watson: Thursday I took my log to Mrs. Thorne's long dining table, where Marta rubbed down candlesticks nobody would light and Holmes prowled the sideboard. Holmes: You pack for her when she travels, Marta? Marta: Always. The small blue case, top of her closet. It is still there. I looked, before I took off my coat.

15:02 Holmes: Then she went as she stood. No case, no bag, no pills. That's a summons, Watson. Nobody takes a holiday like that. I'll go and be rude to Albany by telephone.

15:13 Watson: Marta, help me with the log. That friend: I have her as Bo-shomp, B-O. Marta: No. Here, Madam's book. B, E, A, U, C, H, A, M, P. It looks French, yes?

15:29 Watson: Very. Marta: But Madam always says Beecham, every Christmas at this table. Nobody gets that from the page.

15:38 Watson: Beecham. Well, I just write what comes down the line, Marta, and a telephone chews up every— Marta: Twenty-six years, Doctor. I know what she said.

15:47 A Last Loose End Before Uptown

15:51 Watson: Captain Arroyo reached the townhouse that afternoon with a charge sheet under his arm. Della met us in the hall with the coffee pot; Lyle held the bottom stair. Arroyo: Last loose end, then I go uptown. Either of you hear Mrs. Thorne mention plans?

16:06 Lyle: You should be uptown now, Captain. That woman owes the old lady and she's hocking her tables. Charge her, and quit looking at my landing, and—

16:14 Della: Drink this and hush. Plans? Why, yes, Captain. She told me herself that Sunday, when I took her down some cake. Off to Mrs. Bo-shomp for a rest, back on the twentieth.

16:25 Holmes: The day she named. You're certain of it? Della: I'm a secretary, Mr. Holmes. Dates are what I'm for.

16:32 Arroyo: Nobody thought to mention this? Della: Nobody asked. I've been pouring coffee.

16:37 Arroyo: Write it as you said it, miss. Sign at the bottom. Della: Happy to.

16:42 Della: There you are. Upstairs, you. Letters.

16:46 Arroyo: They're up? That's the tape confirmed, Holmes. Same friend, same rest, same day.

16:52 Holmes: From someone who never heard it. That date never left the four of us, so she has it from Mrs. Thorne. First honest witness in this case.

17:00 Watson: So she did go up there. Holmes: She did. She went, and the friend lies. One of your cards just fell, Watson, so now—

17:09 Della: Only me, for the cups. Yours has gone cold. Holmes: Then I have been rude. Thank you for the coffee.

17:16 Back Up the Five Flights Toward Evening

17:20 Watson: We climbed the five flights again toward evening, the sworn charge in the Captain's coat. She sat in her one chair under the poster. Holmes: You owed Vivian Thorne for years, ma'am, and had nothing left to sell. She told a witness she was coming here. She climbed your stairs that Sunday to collect, and she never came down.

17:41 Beauchamp: Vivian? You think I— me? With what, the chair?

17:46 Holmes: Where's she, ma'am? Beauchamp: She never— I can't— she never came— Watson: Stand back. Ma'am, look at me. Breathe. Stay on the floor.

17:58 Arroyo: You told me home all that Sunday, ma'am. The Doctor gave me the name on your poster, so I ran it. The sheet caught me leaving. Lerner, Rosie. Booked and printed, and—

18:08 Watson: Captain, I'm on my knees here. Put that away. Arroyo: Sixth Avenue flea market, peddling silver, no license. Jailed Sunday morning at ten. Prints turned up an old warrant, nineteen sixty-one, a hotel bill. Holiday court, no bail, held until Thursday the ninth.

18:26 Beauchamp: Don't— don't read it out. They were my mother's forks, on a card table. I was paying Vivian back, a fork at a time.

18:35 Watson: Easy. Beauchamp: I gave them Rosie, so Vivian would never... Four nights in my good shoes, Doctor. I'd sooner you thought I killed her.

18:46 Holmes: Captain. The hour again. Arroyo: Ten in the morning. What's it matter, she—

18:50 Holmes: Ten. Marta left Mrs. Thorne alive at noon. Arroyo: But then...

18:58 Watson: I have her pulse, Holmes. That's all I have.

19:02 Mid-Morning in the Study

19:06 Watson: By ten on Friday the study held Holmes, Marta and me, and Captain Arroyo with one useless sheet of paper. Arroyo: There's my charge. A woman jailed Sunday morning at ten doesn't meet anybody at noon. They held her till the day after you reported, Marta.

19:23 Holmes: And the message was waiting a day before she got out. That cell covers all of it. Arroyo: Lab called on the deed, too. Signature's traced, pen lifted where a hand don't lift. Forged.

19:37 Watson: Of course it is. Holmes: Then nobody was selling up or calling in debts. A forged deed holds only if she never comes home to deny it. There goes your theory, Captain, and mine.

19:51 Beauchamp: Six hundred and forty dollars, Marta. The forks, the table, and my chair went at nine. That's Vivian's. Count it.

20:00 Holmes: One question, ma'am. The message has Mrs. Thorne visiting Mrs. Bo-shomp for a rest. Was it arranged?

20:07 Beauchamp: Not one word. No call, no card, nothing. I know what my oath's worth this week, but I swear—

20:15 Arroyo: You swore you were home, ma'am. Watson: She's in a cell from ten, Captain; she can't swear to plans made at lunch. Forget her oath. Handbag, pills, blue case, all still here. Who takes a rest like that?

20:27 Holmes: Nobody. I said so myself over the candlesticks, then I stopped saying it. Marta: Take it back. She never counted it, Mrs. Beecham.

20:37 The Evidence Cage in the Basement

20:41 Watson: The Nineteenth Precinct kept its evidence in a basement cage, and Captain Arroyo signed us in himself, Marta first, Holmes close behind. Holmes: You called her Beecham this morning, Marta. That's not the name on this tape.

20:56 Marta: I told the Doctor yesterday. Holmes: Did you. Watson: She did, and I— I blamed a telephone line. I never carried it to you.

21:05 Arroyo: Play it, Marta. Voice: Marta, it's Mrs. Thorne. I've gone up to Mrs. Bo-shomp on Riverside Drive for a rest. I'll be home the twentieth. Don't fuss over the house.

21:17 Marta: There. Bo-shomp. Madam never once— twenty-six years, she never— That's not her mouth, Captain. I swear it. That's some other woman.

21:28 Watson: Marta— Marta: Every night I played it, to hear her. Forty times. And it was never— it was never her...

21:37 Holmes: Read the other paper, Watson. Watson: Della's statement, signed, written just as she said it in the hall. "She told me herself that Sunday, when I took her down some cake. Off to Mrs. Bo-shomp for a rest, back on the twentieth."

21:51 Marta: Miss Della says this? Who— who gave her that day? I told no one. Not the sergeant, not my sister, not upstairs, not—

22:00 Arroyo: And my log's got four names. You, me, Holmes, the Doctor. Nobody else ever heard this tape.

22:07 Holmes: The same wrong sound, the same day, and she's never heard this tape. Watson: Good grief. Holmes: Then who's that woman on the tape?

22:17 Back to the Front Hall

22:21 Watson: Della was crossing the front hall with her coffee pot when we came in: Holmes, the Captain with one signed sheet, Marta last. Arroyo: Your signature, miss. Mrs. Thorne told you herself, over cake. That stand?

22:36 Della: Of course it stands, Captain. What's happened? Is it the poor lady?

22:41 Holmes: You said Mrs. Bo-shomp in this hall. Is that what Mrs. Thorne said? Della: Well, I read the name, Mr. Holmes. Three evenings with that address book. I say it the way I read—

22:51 Marta: Madam said Beecham. Bo-shomp, only a stranger gets that from the page. Della: Honey, I never met the woman. So I read it wrong. Is that a crime now?

23:04 Holmes: No. The name alone hangs nobody. But a woman telephoned Marta's machine as Mrs. Thorne, and she read it wrong too. Della: Oh?

23:13 Watson: Which makes that voice an impostor. Mrs. Thorne never said Bo-shomp in her life. Holmes: So that woman made up the visit. No case, no handbag, no pills. Mrs. Thorne planned no such trip, so she told nobody about it.

23:28 Arroyo: Not over cake, miss. Della: Then I've— I've mixed up who told me. I heard talk. A house like this, people talk—

23:34 Holmes: You have her back on the twentieth. No page gave you that: no book, no card. Marta: And no talk. I told no one.

23:44 Arroyo: Four people ever heard that tape, miss. You're not one. Della: Now, wait, I—

23:49 Holmes: That day was made up once, by the woman on the call. Only she could sign her name to it. Della: The rooms are his, Captain. Ask him.

23:59 The Captain Leads the Way at Dusk

24:03 Watson: The warrants were sworn by dusk. The Captain led us up the stairs that had stayed shut, to Lyle, Della and the crates. Arroyo: Empty. Some pictures, Mr. Lyle.

24:15 Lyle: You've got your— you've got your paper. Look and go. Holmes: Albany has answered, Mr. Lyle. Mrs. Thorne's house went over to a paper company, and the one officer on its return is you.

24:27 Lyle: So I sign things. Della hands me papers, I sign. Holmes: Note the pattern, Watson. Upstairs rooms in his name alone. Company officer, same name. Every paper a policeman reaches says Lyle.

24:41 Arroyo: So I went behind it. The hired agent on Madison kept a stock book. He gave it up to my warrant an hour ago.

24:49 Holmes: Every share, transferred in June, to Della. Not one to you. Lyle: That's— no. Half. She said half, she—

24:58 Della: He's overwrought, Captain. Hold still, your collar's— Lyle: Don't touch me!

25:03 Holmes: You rented, you signed, you'd take the fall. She'd be pouring the Captain's coffee. Arroyo: Lyle's new to you, the housekeeper says. What's your name?

25:12 Lyle: Hollis. It's Hollis. Three calls up the stairs, every morning, and she laughed at me for it—

25:19 Della: Hush, now. Not one more word, you hear? Arroyo: Where's Mrs. Thorne, Hollis?

25:24 Lyle: I only— I only drove to Marlow Landing, Mother. You strangled her alone that Sunday.

25:31 Brooklyn Again, the Fan Still Going

25:35 Watson: From the case log, the last card: Brooklyn again, the fan still going, Holmes by the window, Marta with Mrs. Thorne's address book in her lap. Holmes: The Captain's invitation, on the deed's photograph, against the glass. Every tremor falls exactly on its twin.

25:54 Marta: From the card, then, and the name from this book. She addressed every one for Madam, and I brought her tea for it. Watson: Murder for her, accessory for Hollis, the deed void. But "gone away" would have done, Holmes. Why name a friend at all?

26:11 Holmes: To buy two weeks and send us to Riverside. One sentence too many, on your machine, Marta, read off a page. Marta: And I played it...

26:20 Watson: And the son? I took that secretary business for their shared cover. Holmes: Her shield. You read the lease aloud in the study, no word of her. He got the false name and the drive; she kept the shares.

26:34 Watson: And you thanked her for the coffee. Holmes: I did. Log that too.

26:39 Marta: Marlow Landing, the Captain says, and no more. No grave. Last night I didn't lay the tray, Doctor. Twenty-six years... I didn't know where to put my hands.

26:53 Watson: One line for the log, Holmes. Holmes: House recovered. Lady never found. Killer undone by reading.