She stared off, her face distressed, and her hand trembled as she reached up to smooth her hair. “How could this happen? Oh Lord, how could he drown?”
“Mrs. Eddings, I don’t think he did.”
Startled, she stared at me with wide eyes. “Then what happened?”
“I’m not sure yet. There are tests to be done.”
“What else could it be?” She began dabbing tears with a tissue. “The policeman who came to see me said it happened underwater. Ted was diving in the river with that contraption of his.”
“There could be a number of possible causes,” I answered. “A malfunction of the breathing apparatus he was using, for example. He could have been overcome by fumes. I don’t know right this minute.”
“I told him not to use that thing. I can’t tell you how many times I begged him not to go off and dive with that thing.”
“Then he had used it before.”
“He loved to look for Civil War relics. He’d go diving almost anywhere with one of those metal detectors. I believe he found a few cannonballs in the James last year.
I’m surprised you didn’t know. He’s written several stories about his adventures.”
“Generally, divers have a partner with them, a buddy,” I said. “Do you know who he usually went with?”
“Well, he may have taken someone with him now and then. I really don’t know because he didn’t discuss his friends with me very much.”
“Did he ever say anything to you about going diving in the Elizabeth River to look for Civil War relics?” I asked.
“I don’t know anything about him going there. He never mentioned it to me. I thought he was coming here today.”
She shut her eyes, brow furrowed, and her bosom deeply rose and fell as if there were not enough air in the room.
“What about these Civil War relics he collected?” I went on. “Do you know where he kept them?”
She did not respond.
“Mrs. Eddings,” I went on, “we found nothing like that in his house. Not a single button, belt buckle or minis ball.
Nor did we find a metal detector.”
She was silent, hands shaking as she clutched the tissue hard.
“It is very important that we establish what your son might have been doing at the Inactive Ship Yard in Chesapeake,” I spoke to her again. “He was diving in a classified area around Navy decommissioned ships and no one seems to know why.
It’s hard to imagine he was looking for Civil War relics there.”
She stared at the fire and in a distant voice said, “Ted goes through phases. Once he collected butterflies. When he was ten. Then he gave them all away and started collecting gems. I remember he would pan for gold in the oddest places and pluck up garnets from the roadside with a pair of tweezers. He went from that to coins, and those he mostly spent because the Coke machine doesn’t care if the quarter’s pure silver or not. Baseball cards, stamps, girls. He never kept anything long. He told me he likes journalism because it’s never the same.”
I listened as she tragically went on.
. “Why, I think he would have traded in his mother for a different one if that could have been arranged.- A tear slid down her cheek. “I know he must have gotten so bored with me.”
“Too bored to accept your financial help, Mrs. Eddings?” I delicately said.
She lifted her chin. “Now I believe you’re getting a bit too personal.”
Yes, I am, and I regret that you have to be subjected to it. But I am a doctor, and right now, your son is my patient. It is my mission to do everything I can to determine what might have happened to him.”
She took a deep, tremulous breath and fingered the top button of her jacket. I waited as she fought back tears.
“I sent him money every month. You know how inheritance taxes are, and Ted was accustomed to living beyond his means. I suppose his father and I are to blame.” She could barely continue. “Life was not hard enough for my sons. I don’t suppose life was very hard for me until Arthur passed on.”