In the Heat of the Night

you could know that.”
    “You’re extremely generous, sir,” Virgil said to him.
    “Go on, please,” Duena asked.
    “To continue confessing my sins,” Virgil picked up again, “as soon as I was fixed on Mr. Kaufmann, I promptly failed to notice what was going on about me.”
    “The devil you did,” Sam Wood interrupted. “You noticed how much dust there was on my car and made a considerable point of it.”
    Bill Gillespie would not be outdone. “You noticed that Harvey Oberst was left-handed,” he added.
    “Yes, but the important things I missed completely,” Tibbs said. “While I was chasing Mr. Kaufmann, everything that actually concerned the case was taking place in a totally different direction. I kept trying to pin Mr. Kaufmann down and made a fatal mistake. I tried to make the evidence fit the suspect instead of the other way around. That sort of thing is inexcusable.”
    “Go on with the story,” Grace Endicott invited. “I’ll finish my confession by saying that I went after the murder weapon and eventually it was delivered to me.” Tibbs took another deep breath and then plunged into the statement he felt he had to make. “It was discovered at the edge of the concert bowl, and while it did not point directly, it suggested Mr. Kaufmann again. I had, I thought, considerable evidence, but none of it would jell enough to hold water for five minutes in a court of law. The more I looked, the less I could find to aid my case because Mr. Kaufmann was, of course, entirely innocent.
    “When Harvey Oberst was brought in on suspicion, I learned from him that there was a girl in Wells of the kind who makes trouble for almost everyone she contacts—Delores Purdy. I stored the fact away, but had no idea that the whole thing actually revolved around her. Then Ralph, the diner man, seriously accused an innocent and responsible missile engineer who simply happened to be driving through the city. It was extremely thin grounds for suggesting an arrest; it looked more like an attempt to muddy the waters, as indeed it was. So for the first time I began to wonder about this young man. But I saw no link between him and Delores Purdy.”
    “Was there one?” Duena asked.
    Tibbs nodded. “Mr. Purdy works nights. Ralph knew about Delores and began to call on her when her father wasn’t there. Mrs. Purdy apparently paid little attention to her children and cared less. Ralph and Delores had much in common. They were both unschooled, prejudiced, and of a low level of intelligence. And they were both in search of what they considered thrills. About six weeks or two months ago they became intimate; within the past few days Delores believed herself to be pregnant and when Ralph came to see her, she told him of her supposed condition and demanded that he help her.
    “Ralph was frightened; he believed Delores to be sixteen and he knew enough to realize that was under the age of consent. And he feared her father. So, like an unlimited number of others like him, he began frantically to look around for a way out. He knew that it would be hard to find a reputable physician to perform an abortion for him, but he thought that he could find one somewhere who would do it for him if he had enough money.
    “I begin to see the light,” Mayor Schubert commented.
    “While Ralph was doing this, Delores had an idea of her own. Ralph was not much of a catch, but she thought she knew a man who would be.”
    DuenaMantoli, whose composure remained unshaken, looked across at Sam Wood. To Sam it was like an electric shock; he took a good hold on the arms of his chair and tried to compose the expression on his face.
    “Almost every night Mr. Wood patrolled past her house, often at about the same time, since it was on his way to the diner, where he customarily stopped for a short break. She arranged, therefore, to allow Mr. Wood to see her naked. She felt confident that he would take notice and probably stop to speak to her, possibly to warn her that she was visible from the street. In either event, she felt that her physical charms, when revealed that way, would be irresistible. Once Mr. Wood had compromised himself with her, she could claim him to be the father of her child and expect thereby to take a considerable step up the social ladder. But Mr. Wood was both intelligent and morally responsible: he obviously realized fully that if he even stepped to the door to caution her, he would place himself in jeopardy, so he very wisely