The Westing Game: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

On Thursday, Flora sits at the broker’s office and watches WPP stock rise and rise. Turtle is at school, listening to the reports on her radio—but when she’s caught, she blames her distraction on a toothache and is sent to the nurse. She lies about having a dentist appointment the following week and asks to be sent home. The nurse sends her back to class. She continues going to the bathroom every few minutes, citing a bladder infection, to listen to the radio.

Meanwhile, Crow cleans the Wexlers’ apartment, worried about returning to the Westing house in a few days. Otis knocks on the door—he is delivering a box of Westing Paper Products to the apartment. He tells Crow that he believes he’s figured out who the bomber is: Hoo. Hoo wanted to put the coffee shop out of business and he catered Angela’s shower—he bombed his own restaurant, Otis suggests, to avoid suspicion. Crow becomes furious with Hoo for threatening the life of Angela, an “angel reborn.”

Sandy reads to Ford from Crow’s dossier file. It states that she was raised by a single father and married at 15 to a man named Windy Windkloppel. Crow has been arrested three times for vagrancy and public intoxication. She runs a soup kitchen on Skid Row, she is deeply religious, and she works as a cleaning woman. The only question is what her Westing connection might be.

As Jake Wexler enjoys lunch, Crow shows up to Hoo’s restaurant. Grace seats her; Madame Hoo is serving a special tea lunch. As Madame Hoo serves Jake, Grace feels jealous and nauseated. Crow complains to Jake of the poor job he did excising her corn. Jake insists that Crow wears shoes that don’t fit and that give her terrible podiatric problems. Hoo comes out of the kitchen with a pair of paper innersoles, his latest inventions, and offers them to Crow. Crow suspiciously slips the insoles into her shoes and feels great relief. She decides that the charitable Hoo cannot be the bomber and leaves without eating her meal.

A nurse wheels Chris into Angela and Sydelle’s room, explaining that Chris has come to the hospital for some tests. Chris reaches into the pocket of his bathrobe—he has something for Angela. Theo has a crush on Angela and Chris suspects that Theo wanted to sneak a letter to her but put it into the wrong bathrobe pocket. Chris retrieves the letter and hands it to Angela. The nurse wheels him back out. Angela opens the cryptic letter, which reminds her of the letter she found in her tapestry bag days ago: “Your love has 2, here are 2 for you. Take her away from this sin and hate NOW! Before it is too late.” The two clues at the bottom are WITH and MAJESTIES.

Sandy and Ford are still compiling their dossiers, gathering information on the Wexlers. Sandy adds to the investigator’s file that Jake is a bookie, but Ford says such a fact has no bearing on their assessment of him: she’ll take a bookie any day, she says, over an “upstanding” man like Westing who cheated people, stole ideas, and mistreated his workers. Sandy takes a flask from his pocket and takes a drink. He is surprised when Ford exclaims that Grace’s maiden name, Windkloppel, corresponds to the name of Crow’s ex-husband, Windy Windkloppel. Ford rereads the reports. She finds an extract from an interview with one of Crow’s downstairs neighbors and best friends growing up—Sybil Pulaski. Ford announces that Sam Westing has made his first mistake.