Headscratchers / The Pale Blue Eye

• How does Landor track down and kill Ballinger? When he was last seen, Landor chased him off for attacking Poe and they went to a bar together while Ballinger presumably returned to the barracks. When did he find the time to kill Ballinger then, and how did he get Ballinger to a secluded location to interrogate and kill him?
  • Landor could have left the bar early. Ballinger could have been already sulking in seclusion, Landor could easily approach him and order him to follow him for an interrogation about Fry's murder.
• Why wasn't Landor able to get Ballinger and Stoddard's names out of Fry while attacking him?
  • Fry could have refused to give over the names and screamed for help, forcing Landor to kill him to shut him up.
• Why did Fry's diary mention Ballinger as one of Mattie's co-rapists, but not Stoddard?
  • Fry may not have been as close to Stoddard and may not have remembered his name.
  • It's possible the diary did mention Stoddard. Landor just wanted Ballinger to confirm it.
• Why did Ballinger send Fry's diary to his mother instead of disposing it, when it could very well contain incriminating evidence on him?
  • The diary was written in code. Ballinger thought it was nonsense and wanted to do right by his friend by giving his mother something to remember him by. Besides, Ballinger may have thought that if it was far away in Fry's mother's hands, Landor won't get his hands on it.
• Considering Dr. Marquis' profession, couldn't his family have found more legitimate means of finding human hearts? He did an autopsy in the beginning, surely there are other corpses that still have their hearts with them.
  • The book cited by Landor's occult consultant specifically states that witches would eat the hearts of hanged men in satanic rituals. A doctor at a military academy would be hard-pressed to get his hands on one of those, and have no less difficulty extracting the cadaver's heart without arousing suspicion.
  • Along with the above, Landor is specifically stationed at West Point, not a hospital morgue, it's unlikely he performs autopsies that often.