For the Love of Literature

Reflecting back on the past five years, it still seemed unreal Saul had passed away. Saul Murray, a Professor Emeritus at the U. of T., had mentored Sharon throughout her program. They became very close and he introduced her to many established newspeople, attributing him to her successful employment at the Globe and Mail. Growing up with her brother, losing their mother to drug addiction and relying on their father and his schemes to provide for them, they were humble beginnings to her successful career making the bond between her and Saul invaluable. It felt like yesterday when she received an anonymous $20,000 scholarship to the journalism program at the University of Toronto. Having already accepted at Carlton University, she immediately switched schools.

Sitting in the offices of Whitaker, Smith and Cohen, named in Saul’s last will and testament, Sharon could hardly focus on the reading of the will as the bulk of Saul’s estate was donated to the university. Time seemed to slow as her name was mentioned.

To Sharon McGinnis, I leave my heirloom desk from the news room of the Toronto Star, to inspire her to keep to the simple rules of journalism as she builds her career. I also leave the contents of my safety deposit box, #344568 at TD Bank, key enclosed.

One week later, Sharon cleared a strategic spot in her small apartment by a bright, south-facing window in the main room to feature the piece of furniture in her space. The bell rang and the delivery men handed her a legal-sized envelope, placed the desk, asked for her signature and left. Closing the door, she approached the wooden centurion desk. The top’s lacquer had thinned to expose wood grain with wooden match stick strikes embedded among burn marks from the bygone era of pipe-smoking. Sharon ran her hand over its top, feeling the nicks and grooves made by decades of constant use.

Saul prided himself on salvaging the desk from the newsroom of the Toronto Star. He told Sharon countless stories of working with famed newsman Morley Callaghan. Morley informed Saul the desk was once a young and upcoming Ernest Hemingway’s, during the four years he wrote at the Toronto Star, before Saul was hired to replace him. Saul took possession of the desk when he became Editor and Chief in 1948.

As she explored further, she stopped at the locked top drawer, then turned her attention to the envelope that accompanied it. Tearing it open and sliding the contents out onto the desk, Sharon swooped up the antique key, inserted it and gave it a firm right turn. The lock released and she slid the drawer open. There, sat a lone black leather journal, well weathered, with 1993 embossed in gold on the cover. She fanned the yellowing dog-eared pages, then opened the front cover. Scribbled in black felt-pen was ‘Property of Saul S. Murray’.

As she perused the journal filled with names, places and notes inscribed on every calendar page, she recalled how Saul instilled in her how a journalist is lost without notes. Like a compass to an explorer, they guided them to the facts of their news stories. But, what was so significant about 1993, that Saul would keep this particular agenda year of the decades of journals he filled during his career, and why leave it to her? Sharon noticed the time and left for her appointment at the bank to claim the contents of the safety deposit box. As she drove there, she wondered about the journal.

The bank vault was oddly silent once the clerk left Sharon alone with the box. Gripping the key in her sweating hand, Sharon drew in a deep breath and opened the lid. She was surprised at the contents; letters, literary documents and a book.

Sharon lifted the grey-blue book entitled, Three Stories and Ten Poems, opened the cover and there was an inscription, “To Callaghan with best luck and predictions,” signed Ernest Hemingway. Suddenly, she could hardly breathe. Shakily, she emptied the rest of the contents onto the table and spread them out for a better look. There were multiple letters to Morley Callaghan from Ernest Hemingway, F. Scot Fitzgerald among others, postmarked 1929. She couldn’t believe what she saw and took several photos before hastily returning them to the box and locking them back away. How did Saul acquire these letters? Sharon was confident he would have shared this with her and the world, why hadn’t he? Had Morley given them to him? She had the feeling Saul left her breadcrumbs to the answer and the clues were in the journal in the desk. Sharon left the bank and returned to her apartment.

Booting up her laptop, Sharon focused at the task at hand. She started by finding information about the book. A quick Google search revealed a rare numbered copy of 300, printed privately in 1923, of Ernest Hemingway’s vignettes. But she couldn’t find a coalition between the book and Saul’s 1993 journal.

Then, she took out her phone to examine the photos of the letters. Sharon was perplexed that Saul had such personal and historical documents. It was out of character for him to be secretive. He was known for being the most transparent reporter in the business. He was objective. Dedicated to journalism, it consumed his entire life. Sharon felt like family and based on her inheritance it showed the feeling was mutual.

Reading the letters in her photos, it appeared the famed writers were squabbling over the results of a boxing match between Hemingway and Callaghan, in Paris, 1929. F. Scot Fitzgerald had written to Callaghan to set the record straight from what was published in Chicago Tribune. It appears the reporter had it wrong, reporting Callaghan knocked Hemingway over with a blood drawing hit to the face, while Fitzgerald refereed. Letters from Fitzgerald to Callaghan proposed he contact the Tribune for a retraction, as it appeared Hemingway’s ego was bruised more then his jaw. Several letters from Hemingway demanded Callaghan do the same, as New York tabloids picked up the story. Letters from the Tribune acknowledging Callaghan’s request for a retraction were to no avail. Sharon began researching Morley Callaghan and besides his memoir of That Summer in Paris, his account of the famed event, she couldn’t believe what surfaced next.

After Callaghan’s death in 1990 the family decided to sell the letters and copy of Hemingway’s autographed book. They employed the service of well known, rare book dealer David Mason to broker the sale. However, after Mason took possession of the letters and book, they were subject to theft in 1993. Finally, a connection between the contents of the safety deposit box and the journal. Sharon began a deep dive into the reports around the theft. To some it may have been a blip on the radar of international burglaries, but at the time it’s noted to be the largest literary theft in North America and these historical documents are worth over a million dollars in today’s market.

Upon taking possession, Mason stored the contents in the store safe. Advertising the sale around the world, it became obvious during the investigation of the heist, though other items were stolen on October, 15th, 1993, the robbers were there for the Callaghan-Hemingway materials. The thieves alluded capture for two years, until police arrested Robert Pacheco. Why did that name sound familiar? Sharon couldn’t get it out of her mind. Pacheco, not a common name.

She grabbed Saul’s journal and began to comb through it. Suddenly the name jumped off the page at her, McGinnis. Sharon read Saul’s notes. James Finley, one of Saul’s reporters at the Toronto Star, had a lead on a suspect, Daniel McGinnis, for breaking into the safe at a local jeweller alibied by his wife, Cindy. Sharon’s stomach turned at reading notes about her own parents. Disbelief that Saul had known them, she felt twisted inside-out as more information about her father’s transgression. Reading further, she saw a week before the book store theft, Saul had James kill the story about her father.

This brought Sharon back to a dark place; though she was only six years old in 1993, she could recall her father trying to explain how her mother was very sick and had to go away for a while. Sharon was scared for her mother and remembered buying her a stuffed animal to take with her. She could still remember her mum hugging it and telling her she was going to call it George, like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons they’d watch cuddled on the couch together. Finally, after her mother returned from months away, Sharon came home from school with her brother and found her on the couch, dead, covered with vomit and a tourniquet still tied around her arm. Later, her father tried to explain what she saw away by telling Sharon and her brother their mother died while taking medicine for her illness.

Drawing on her incredible strength to escape the pain of her past, Sharon pulled herself together to formulate a hypothesis of what was unravelling before her, proceeding with the reports on Roberto Pacheco’s arrest for a home invasion two years after the heist. There, police found stolen material from Mason’s shop including a postcard to Callaghan from Hemingway. Pacheco gave his account to the police about being contracted to break into Mason’s store and steal the contents of the safe. Not being literary scholars, they didn’t know what the value of the contents were, only what to look for.

The three men used the alley beside the store, under cover of darkness to carry a ladder, crowbar and handsaw. After breaking into the store, the safe cracker opened the safe, they emptied the contents and got off without a hitch. Although Pacheco never revealed his accomplices, he was found dead in Don jail of an apparent suicide, however authorities believed he was murdered to keep whoever hired them safe.

It was then Sharon recalled the name Pacheco, or Bobby as her and her brother used to call him. Bile rose up in Sharon’s mouth as she remembered him coming to the house to play video games with her brother, Allan. How could this be true? Then Sharon pursued Saul’s black book one more time.

Taped to the back cover was an envelope with her name on it. Reluctantly she detached and opened it, pulling out a folded piece of notepaper in Saul’s handwriting;

Dearest Sharon,

If you’re reading this I’m dead and beyond the point of judgement. I want you to know what started off as a ruse to have you attend U. of T., as I sent you the scholarship to keep you close to me as collateral over your father, it turned out to be the most meaningful relationship of my life. I hired your dad, Pacheco and his cousin to steal the Callaghan – Hemingway documents you have inherited. I did it purely for the love of literature. A passion I know you share with me as a journalist. Callaghan showed the collection to me at his home several times and when his family decided to sell it, I just couldn’t let it go.

I found your dad by a story James Finely was reporting and threatened to give evidence against him for the jewellery heist. He needed money to pay off your mother’s drug debt. Unfortunately, Pacheco became a liability when he was arrested and through my journalistic contacts found out they were circling in on his accomplices. Couldn’t let a career criminal ruin my career and reputation. I watched you and Allan grow up and provided you with scholarships. I ask you to be kind in however you decide to proceed with your inheritance and if the time comes to divulge me, use that journalistic talent of yours to make it the story of the century.

Yours forever,

Saul