Murder Misread (17 page)

“
God. You’re right. Plain
old-fashioned proofreader’s error.”

“
Right.
We’re trying to find out what leads to those errors. Obviously
context is one important variable. This sentence is matched with
one that reads
WHEN DRUG USE
INCREASES IN A CITY, SERIOUS CRIMES SUCH AS RAPES AND BURGUNDIES
INCREASE TOO.
”

Maggie chuckled. “Must be
really bad wine to count as a serious crime.”

Charlie grinned. “Yeah.
Gary and I thought the departmental Christmas party served the
worst wine we ever had. But we decided even that stuff was only a
misdemeanor.”

Maggie’s attention had
returned to the screen. “So I misread that word because of the
context? But I remember noticing a few strange words as I
read.”

“
Right.
One thing we’re checking is whether the location of the eye
fixation is involved in misreading. Normally you’re seeing about
ten letters on each side of your fixation point, plus some
peripheral information on the general length of the words coming up
next. Let’s say your fixation point was somewhere in the
word
France
. Your clear span goes through
BUR
or
BURG
, and you know something about
the length of the word and the shape of it from peripheral
information.”

Maggie frowned. “When it’s
all caps, the word shapes are pretty similar.”

“
We also
have conditions with upper and lower case, and later this summer I
hope to run one with randomized upper and lower case. Anyway, back
to what you were just reading. You see the
BURG
, plus the
peripheral info, plus the meaningful context. And you may be
convinced you’ve read the word
BURGUNDIES
instead of
BURGLARIES
. On the other
hand, if you happen to fixate inside the word itself, the middle
letters
LAR
will
stand out clearly, and you’ll read
BURGLARIES
even if it’s not the kind
of word you hypothesized.”

“
I see.
I’m zipping along through the paragraph, hypothesize that a word
such as
BURGUNDIES
is coming up next, see some information that
supports my hypothesis, and go on without
double-checking.”

“
That’s right. After all,
most of the time, in most of the stuff you read, you’ll be right.
No sense in double-checking. Just slows you down.”

“
I see. So if I’m
following instructions, reading rapidly, I’ll misread a few of your
trick words.”

“
Exactly. Now, the next
question is, why? What are the general sources of misreadings? You
just explained my own theory: that a reader has a hypothesis about
what meaning is coming up next, and that hypothesis influences
reading. That’s the theory I like to emphasize.”

“
If I understand the
differences between you and Tal, he’d explain it another way,
right?”

“
Yes.
He’d stress the fact that the word shapes are similar when you
have
BURGLARIES
and
BURGUNDIES
.”

“
He’d
predict fewer misreadings in the lower case, right? Let’s see.
In
burglaries
the fourth letter is below the line and the fifth letter is
above it. In
Burgundies
the, what, seventh letter is above the line. Plus
a capital
B
to
start.”

“
That’s right. He’s much
more interested in the physical layout, on what’s really down there
on the page.”

“
So in fact, both of you
can explain the misreading I just did. Tal would say the physical
clues were poor, and you’d say that I was expecting something about
France and wines.”

“
Right. Of course it’s
really a matter of emphasis. Both things are going on at the same
time, and we both know that. But I just find it more interesting to
investigate higher mental processes instead of marks on a
page.”

“
I see.”

“
Naturally we’ve got other conditions. Some people see the
same sentences in lower case, so the word shapes aren’t so similar.
Or the same capital-letter words in random order, so there’s not as
much room for a hypothesis about meaning. We’re trying to tease it
apart, to find out as much as we can about what’s going on when
people read, how to help them read effectively.” He removed the
tape, switched off the apparatus, and waved his hand at it.
“Something as complicated as reading has to be investigated one bit
at a time. I vowed to myself early on that I wasn’t interested in
typography or lists of words. All my work involves paragraphs,
texts. Even if I’m asking about individual words like
BURGUNDIES
, it’s to see
what effect the context has on them.”

“
I see. Well, thanks for
the subject’s-eye view of this study.” She followed him into the
hall. “Was Tal’s work similar to yours? I mean, the way he did
experiments?”

“
In some ways. Of course
he didn’t have video techniques available. But a lot of his
questions were similar. In fact, several years ago he did a study
with pairs of sentences similar to the ones you just saw. But his
subjects sat down at a table with a pencil. He told them they’d get
a point for every correct answer on content questions at the end,
plus a five-point bonus if they finished in under ten minutes. And
by the way, he said, draw a line under any typos you happen to see.
No reward for finding mistakes, though.”

“
I see. And he tried to
find out if meaningful context or word shapes made people miss
typos?”

“
Yes. Also, he had kind of
an interesting condition where words were spelled with random upper
and lower case letters. Like ‘New York’ would have, say capital E,
Y, R instead of—”

He broke off as a door
opened almost in his face. “Sorry, didn’t mean to ram into you,”
muttered Bart Bickford, shepherding out a little girl who wore a
too-large pink T-shirt. Next to Bart’s huge frame she looked tiny,
a little stick figure.

“
And you know who else I
like?” she was saying to him. “Cher!” She gave a clumsy, innocent
imitation of a wanton wriggle. Charlie smiled. Children still
amazed him, their voracious hunger to learn. Look at this awkward
sexless child playing vamp. Or little boys playing war, or cops, or
hockey superstars. Or reading. It took a major effort to discourage
a child from learning to read, not that adults didn’t succeed from
time to time… Aunt Babs. But most kids struggled on with the
letters, the words, the meanings, long after most adults would have
quit in despair. As Charlie learned more about the complexities of
the feat, he respected children more and more. That tenaciousness,
that willingness to work hard. He couldn’t remember learning to
read, just that he’d always loved it. But he remembered learning to
play ice hockey. Just about the age of this girl. He’d spent hours
and hours teaching his scrawny legs speed and turns, chasing the
elusive puck in the bitter cold, distressing Aunt Babs with his
constantly bruised knees and twisted ankles. Not that he’d ever
gotten to be good. Only twice, in real games, had he reached that
overheated glow, skating through a haze of red alone with the puck,
the way past the goalie shining before him, his teammates screaming
approval. But for the most part his rewards had been the tiny
increments in his own performance and Coach Wilhelm’s enthusiastic
praise. Dad hadn’t even come to the playoffs. Just as well, maybe.
Kindly as he was, the coach had kept him on the sidelines most of
the time. By high school Charlie had given up and concentrated on
being a brain. But he still remembered those years of dogged
practice.

“
And, well, that’s all the
people I like!” the girl finished enthusiastically.

“
That’s great!” Bart
seemed sincere. He smiled at Maggie and Charlie. “Shelley just told
me some great stories. But we have to go now. Her mom’s waiting in
the parking lot. Come on, Shelley.” They headed for the
exit.

Maggie pulled open the
door to the stairwell, then slowed. Behind her, Charlie almost
bumped into her. Then he too heard the low, heated voices. “Look,
Wayne, you must have known! Even Cindy Phelps knew! And she says
the whole department knew!”

“
It was a judgment call,
right?” Walensky sounded exasperated. “No need for you to butt in.
You’ve got to understand, Reggie, these academic types are
different! Not your average skells that you see downtown. You’ve
got to use a different kind of interrogation or you end up with the
dean’s office on your back. To say nothing of the ACLU.”

“
Look, I’m not talking
about the third degree, I’m talking about getting the damn
information! And if you already know something and decide not to
embarrass your academic charges by asking them, at least drop me a
hint, all right?” There was a deep sigh, as though Hines was
pulling back, trying not to lash out. “Look, Wayne, it’s no big
deal. They’ll have a report for me this afternoon. If the Phelps
story seems relevant, I’ll have time to talk to
everyone.”

“
Easy for you to say no
big deal! You don’t have the dean whispering in your ear. ‘You got
it solved yet? No? Well, hurry up. But for heaven’s sake don’t ask
anyone any questions!’”

“
Yeah.” Hines chuckled
humorlessly. “Downtown we’ve got a few politicians exactly like
that. Well, tell your dean whatever you want, but I’m talking to
them.”

“
But take it
easy.”

“
Look, I’ve got my
problems too. Like getting this solved. Don’t worry, I know civil
rights law, probably better than you. And I’ve been to college too,
just like your dean. So I won’t ruffle any feathers that don’t need
ruffling. Meanwhile, you know these folks, I’m counting on you for
insider information, okay? The sooner we clear up this case, the
sooner we’ll all be—”

Maggie pulled Charlie into
the stairwell and let the door slam behind them as she started up
the stairs. She said brightly, “Random upper and lower case
letters. I see. That would destroy the familiar word shapes,
wouldn’t it? Oh, hi, Sergeant Hines, Captain Walensky!”

The two policemen, faces
impassive as masks, watched as Maggie and Charlie rounded the turn
and climbed toward them. “Hello,” said Hines. “I was just on my way
to look for you, Professor Fielding. Gary Kramer said you were
downstairs. Just a couple of questions.”

“
Yeah, sure.” Charlie
stepped up to the landing and forced his shoulders to relax. The
police were trying to find the killer, after all. Walensky had been
around for years, and even this pushy newcomer Hines wanted to
catch the murderer and bring this nightmare to an end. Still, it
was a nightmare, knowing that the police were inspecting every word
he said, every move he made. And he worried about the friction
between them.

Hines opened his notebook
civilly enough. “Professor Fielding, you’ve told me that you were
not on the lower path yesterday until after Professor Chandler was
shot.”

“
That’s right.”

“
You suggested that
someone might have obtained your memo book, and dropped it nearby.”
His voice was friendly, almost too hearty, and Charlie realized he
was playing to the other policeman.

He nodded, hoping he
looked relaxed and confident. “Had to be that way, unless I dropped
it from the bridge earlier.”

“
Now, how would this
person be able to get your book?”

Charlie glanced at Maggie.
“We were talking about that. I looked at the book at home. By the
time I arrived here I was late, so I ran from my car to the office.
The whole length of Van Brunt. We thought it might have fallen out
of my pocket then. Anyone could have picked it up.”

“
Anyone who happened to be
around Van Brunt Hall,” Maggie said.

Hines glanced at her, then
back at Charlie. “We’ll check into it. Can you think of anyone who
might want to cause trouble for you?”

Charlie shook his head.
Walensky was frowning now, and Hines seemed to be addressing him
instead of Charlie as he explained, “I’m asking because if someone
took the trouble to leave the memo book there, there may be
animosity toward you.”

“
Yeah, I know,” Charlie
said. “My best guess is that it was lying on the floor and someone
just took advantage because it was handy.”

Hines nodded. “Now, what
time did you leave Van Brunt to walk to College Avenue?”

“
About twenty of twelve.
Maybe a few minutes earlier.”

“
Did you pass the main
office?”

Charlie saw interest
kindle in Maggie’s expression. “Yes,” she said. “But the door was
closed.”

“
That’s right,” Charlie
said. “I figured Cindy and Bernie were both off to
lunch.”

“
Why did you think that?”
Walensky asked sharply.

“
Because if either one is
there, the outer office door is open.”

“
Always?”

Why was Walensky asking
about this point? Did he know something about Cindy? Possibly even
Bernie? Charlie answered carefully, “Almost always. Occasionally
Bernie will close the door to his inner office when he’s there, if
he has the budget to get out and doesn’t want interruptions, or if
he’s giving a graduate exam, that kind of thing. But usually when
he’s there both doors are open. And if Cindy’s in the building
anywhere, the outer door is open. So if it’s closed it means
they’re both gone.”