The Man Who Was Poe

Dupin leaves Edmund at the tenement feeling confused and unsure whether he can trust Dupin. He decides to follow Dupin to Helen’s as a test of his trustworthiness. He notices someone else following Dupin too but thinks he might be imagining it. Dupin enters the Unitarian Church, which disappoints Edmund. 

Inside, Dupin ascends the steps to the bell tower, where he notices that the hemp of the bell rope matches the fiber he found earlier in the vault. From his vantage point, he notices an alley that ends at the back of the bank but is otherwise obscured from view, allowing someone easy access to the bank’s roof. Dupin realizes a child could have been lowered into the vault to package the gold (103).

Edmund is relieved to see Dupin eventually continue to Benefit Street. Catherine rushes out of the house, and Edmund follows her to Hotel American House. Dupin waits for Helen in the cemetery and finds the idea of “love amidst death and decay” appropriate for him (105). He goes to the mausoleum so that Helen can imagine him “emerging from death” (105), but instead he confronts a woman who looks like Edmund’s aunt emerging from the tomb. She demands that Dupin return her children before fleeing into the overgrowth.