Seven American Nights Forgery

Dave Tallman · 11 May 2008, 09:51 · from 2008-May.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Sun, 11 May 2008 03:51:25 -0600
Subject: (urth)  Seven American Nights Forgery
Message-ID: <4826C19D.5080501 at gmail.com>

Roy. C. Lackey wrote:
> As the first two sentences of the story make absolutely clear, the private
> investigator hired by Nadan's family had already unearthed sufficient
> evidence to lead him to believe that Nadan had left D.C. to travel northward
> to the region of the Bay of Delaware *before* the notebook had even been
> "discovered" in said region. In other words, no matter what happened to
> Nadan after the concluding events related in the notebook, whether forged or
> not, the notebook had no bearing on the investigator's previous sleuthing.
> The discovery of the notebook only served to lend a certain amount of
> credence to his previously communicated conjecture that Nadan had left D.C.
> for points north.
Yes, there has to be evidence beyond the notebook that Nadan has gone to 
the Bay of Delaware. But if the ending of the journal account has been 
faked, then so could that evidence. In my view, the notebook is just one 
piece of a false trail.

> If Nadan killed Ardis and, as you suggest, he was being intensely monitored
> by the U.S. government, they would have known of the killing and had a
> perfectly legitimate excuse to arrest him openly for murder. There is no
> indication that any such thing happened, and if it had, there would have
> been no need to fabricate a diary in order to insinuate that he left the
> city voluntarily to adventure in the interior of the country, much less
> plant that diary so far away from D.C. If the government killed Ardis and
> attempted to frame Nadan for the murder, as you contend, the result is the
> same.
>   
I don't see that the "result is the same" if the government killed Ardis 
and framed Nadan for murder. Openly arresting him on false charges 
wouldn't have served their purposes. The family and their lawyers would 
visit him in jail and details of the plot might be revealed. The 
authorities wanted him silenced, so they framed him as a fugitive wanted 
for murder. That way the family would be afraid to demand the full 
co-operation of the police in finding him.
> Further, with Ardis dead and without the information contained in the
> notebook, how was the investigator able to conclude that Nadan had left the
> city and traveled northward?
So your contention is that Ardis isn't dead? The account we have, if it 
were genuine, seems to imply very strongly that Nadan killed her. We 
have him, gun in hand, faced with what has been revealed to him as an 
"it." In his hallucination he refers to her as "my dead Ardis." He 
imagines the word "police" spoken loudly, probably because he fears they 
will be after him soon.

A possible start for the investigator would be the hotel manager saying 
that Nadan checked out, porters who put his luggage in a wagon, etc. 
Such witnesses could be lying, of course. The police could also tell the 
detective that they wanted to arrest Nadan and that their investigations 
showed he fled north.

> As for the American government pulling "some kind of stunt" on Easter Sunday
> that would have significant international repercussions, it must have been a
> big dud. The note that the investigator sent to the family back in Iran
> along with the notebook was obviously written in the autumn, a good six
> months after Nadan's stay in D.C. There is no indication that anything of
> import happened in the world since Easter.
>   
The frame tale is narrowly focussed on the hunt for Nadan. You can argue 
that nothing happened on the international scene, but an argument from 
lack of evidence is a weak one. It would have been nice for my theory if 
Wolfe had made some sort of mention of troubled times. He does hint that 
something is slowing down the mail between the investigator and the family.

You make some good arguments, but I'm convinced I have found the 
"gestalt" of this story. When I read what I think is the last page Nadan 
really wrote, the dramatic irony jumps out at me.

"You will see me tomorrow. You're going to take me boating, and we'll 
picnic by the water, under the cherry trees. Tomorrow night the theater 
will be closed for Easter, and you can take me to a party. But now you 
are going home, and I am going to sleep." When I was dressed and 
standing in the doorway, I asked her if she loved me, but she stopped my 
mouth with a kiss.

The parallels to Holy Week have been extensive up to this point. Judas 
betrayed Jesus "with a kiss" right before his arrest. I believe that the 
parade described the next day is a "stations of the cross" parade for 
Good Friday. If the parallel continues, what follows Thursday night for 
Nadan should not be a happy day in the park.

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