The Erection Set

When we were back in the car I asked Sharon where Louise got the bit about Al. “Oh, she just heard her uncle and aunt talking about it, that’s all. Anything a Barrin does in this town is big news.”

“Think you could find Cramer’s place?”

“I guess so. Not many people live out there anyway.”

It wasn’t hard to do. Stanley Cramer was listed in the phone book and a light was on in the front room of the small cottage when we got there. Through the window, I saw him get up from in front of the television set when I rang the bell, a wizened old man with bowed legs and a shuffling walk. He had a full head of white hair and an old-fashioned handlebar moustache like the Polish papas wore when I was a kid.

The porch light flickered on and the door opened. Watery blue eyes blinked up at us and he said, “Well, well. Don’t usually get company out here. You people lost?”

“Nope. You Stanley Cramer?”

“All day long.”

“Then we came to see you.”

“Now, isn’t that nice.” He smiled toothlessly under the flowing whiskers and swung the door wide. “You come right on in.”

His place was a man’s house, tidy and orderly. A collection of odd lever and gear miniature contraptions decorated the mantel over the fireplace and several framed photographs were propped on the small tables. One of them was a picture of him and my grandfather in front of the original Barrin building and must have been sixty years old.

He poured wine from a cut-glass decanter and offered it before he finally sat down opposite us and said, “It’s so nice to see somebody I even forgot the introductions. Who may you be?” He squinted at us closely. “Don’t know either one of you, do I?”

“You knew my grandfather,” I told him. “Cameron Barrin. I’m Dogeron Kelly, the family secret.”

Laughter flashed across his eyes and he shook a finger at me. “Ah, yes, I remember you, all right. Big stink about it when you came along. Old Cam was fit to be tied.”

“This is Sharon Cass. She used to live here. In fact, her father worked at Barrin.”

Cramer reached for a pair of glasses beside his chair and hooked them over his ears, then leaned forward to look at her. “You Larry Cass’s daughter?” Before she could answer he nodded vigorously. “Yes, ma’am, you sure are. Damned if you’re not your mother all over again. Same mouth, same eyes. You even got your hair like she had it. Lovely woman, your mother.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure is nice of you, coming all the way out here to see an old fossil like me.” He smiled again, sipped his wine and looked at me. “Kind of think there’s more on your mind though.”

“I thought you could help me.”

“Nothing much I’m very good at anymore, son.”

“Just a case of remembering.”

“Oh, I can do that. About all I can do.”

“Remember the explosion in the Barrin lab?”

The moustache twisted down when his smile faded. “Before and after, but not the explosion.” He took his glasses off and scratched his head. “But I guess explosions are the things you’re not supposed to remember.”

“Once you told somebody that it wasn’t the blast that got you.”

He held out the decanter, refilled our glasses and poured another one for himself. “Did I?”

“Good wine,” I said.

The watery quality had left his eyes and he watched me sharply. “You know, son, you got something of old Cam in you. He was a spooky character too. Sometimes he reminded me of a snake, other times he was all cat, smart and deadly as they come. The others, there’s no part of Cam in them at all.”

“I’m the only direct relative he had.” Then I added, “Or rather, indirect. Nobody rang bells when I was born.”

“Guess not,” Cramer chuckled. “Cam, he didn’t like to be bucked.”

“About the explosion.”

“See? Just like Cam. Wouldn’t leave a thing alone.” He tasted his wine again, rolling it around his tongue. “The explosion,” he mused finally. “Must have been a little after midnight. I was working on a heat problem we had with an aluminum alloy. I thought I heard a noise and went to turn around. That’s when I got cracked on the head. Next thing I know I was in the hospital.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t get killed.”

“Beats me how I dragged myself out of there. They found me near the front door later, but I sure don’t remember getting there.”

“You said you saw Al’s car around earlier.’

“Well now, it could have been or it couldn’t have been. About ten minutes earlier I went down to the supply.room to pick up some solder. I thought I heard a car pull up and when I looked out there was a two-tone sedan something like Al had. He’d come down once in a while to go over the books and I didn’t think anything about it. Hell, it was his place, wasn’t it?”

“In a sense.”

“So I got my solder and went back to work.”

“That’s all?”

Cramer just nodded, but his fingers pulled at his moustache thoughtfully.

“What could have blown up?”

“I was waiting for that,” he said. “Nothing, I’d say, but I’m not a chemical engineer. Maybe those acids could have caused it.”

“Somebody theorized about an attempted robbery.”

“That’s right. The explosion was against the wall where the safe was.”

“Anything worth stealing?”