Murder at the High School Reunion (18 page)

While it was good to see that I could do well at
something compared to others’ efforts, the highlight of my Wii Fit exercises
was when I was coerced into doing the Tree exercise with Jennifer as my crutch,
and when I got to watch Jennifer do the Hula Hoop exercise. Afterward, I
congratulated her on her moves. What made the Tree exercise much better than
before, was that I tried to maintain the pose and almost fell off the board. I
fell into Jennifer and wasn’t eager to regain my balance. But all good things
must come to an end, and around 10:30 Lou suggested that we had better go
because we had to get up for church the next day. While Jennifer was going to
Thelma Lou’s church, rather than mine, I found out that the girls had planned a
picnic for the four of us for the next afternoon. I gave Jennifer a goodbye
hug, and Lou and I left.

+++

I looked over at the grinning man in the driver’s
seat.

“Listen, Cy, if you’re too tired to come back
tomorrow, the girls will understand. I’ll let them know.”

“That might be best, Lou. Why don’t you stay home and
I can pick Jennifer up and take her to my house for a while.”

Lou laughed.

“See, Cy, I told you that she’d probably look better
in person.”

I shook my fist at Lou.

“Remember, Cy, you owe me.”

I thought to myself,
in more ways than one.

Lou dropped me off. I skipped a few times before I
walked into the house. It was a good thing I didn’t fall down when I kicked up
my heels. The woman of my dreams wasn’t there to pick me up, and I was still a
long way from being able to get up off the ground by myself.

It was a good thing it was late. It would have been
useless for me to try to read. I stripped down to my boxers and undershirt and
went to bed. An hour later, I was still thinking about “Her”. These were
feelings I hadn’t had in a while. It had been over twenty years since my Eunice
died.

+++

After tossing and turning, and smiling each time I
woke up during the night, daylight arrived. I lay there thinking of Jennifer,
wondering if she was thinking of me. Suddenly, I became aware of the time. I
had already planned to forgo my daily Wii workout, as most of the time I
skipped Wiiing on Sunday. I fixed breakfast, hopped in the shower, and paid
extra attention to my grooming. As I was getting dressed, the phone rang. Could
it be “Her”?

“Oh, it’s only you.”

“It’s good hearing your voice too, Cy. I just called
to remind you that I’m picking you up today, since we’re going on a picnic with
the girls after church.”

“I almost forgot.”

“About the picnic?”

“That I wasn’t driving. I’ll be ready when you get
here.”

+++

We arrived at church, entered the building, and were
immediately reminded of where we were. The smell of pecan buns and cinnamon
rolls wafted through the church. It had been only a couple of weeks since I’d
given up eating them. Lou, on the other hand, gave them up months ago, so more
than likely he paid no attention to the smell.

We went downstairs for the fellowship time anyway. My
will power was good. I wasn’t tempted. Well, not much. After chatting with a
few friends, Lou and I hurried to the sanctuary to get our customary back row
seats. I didn’t want visitors taking what was rightfully ours. Besides, we
could hear quite nicely from the back. As it turned out, we could be seen on
the back row, too. I didn’t know this until we were greeted by our pastor on
the way out after the service.

“Cy, as always, good to see you. You must have liked
today’s sermon in particular.”

“I like all of you sermons.”

“But today I could see the smile on your face, the joy
in your heart.”

I elbowed Lou so that he wouldn’t comment on the joy
in my heart, and he took the hint. Of course he had a few words about my joy
after we’d left the congregation behind. Neither Lou nor I are prone to
dressing up or dressing down, so we didn’t have to bring a change of clothes
for the picnic. The girls on the other hand, did change from their church
clothes. We arrived at Thelma Lou’s house just after the girls had changed into
casual attire.

We walked in to encounter a luxurious creature hidden
behind a paper mask of grotesque proportions. Evidently someone had had enough
time to print a picture from her Facebook page. I walked over and took the hand
that held up the paper mask, lowered the hand and the mask.

“I like this face better.”

“I have a confession to make.”

“Oh, what’s that? You mean that this mask is what you
really look like?”

“No, I mean I had trouble sleeping last night. I kept
thinking of you.”

A lump formed in my throat. I finally managed to
whisper, “Me, too.”

“You mean you thought of yourself last night, too?”

I love a beautiful woman with a sense of humor.

We stood there, starring into each other’s eyes, until
Thelma Lou said, “Jennifer, if you’re busy I can pack the food by myself.”

I was starting to let her go, when she replied, “Sure,
if you don’t mind.”

Those words were music to my ears. Almost as heavenly
was when Lou said to Thelma Lou, “Let me help you.”

Jennifer reached out and did her best to put her arms
around this big, burly guy. I don’t know how long we stood there and embraced,
but at some point before we were joined by Lou and Thelma Lou we stepped back,
while still holding hands. Again I gazed into her eyes, and I was the first to
speak.

“How soon can you move here?”

“How does yesterday sound?”

A clearing of the throat, voices, and approaching
footsteps alerted us that it was time to separate completely.

“Well, are you two ready to go?”

“If you two are,” Jennifer replied.

+++

Thelma Lou directed Lou toward Lakeside Park, a city-owned park on the outskirts of town. We arrived a few minutes later, realized that
we didn’t have the place all to ourselves, and looked for a place to park the
car and our carcasses. The first was easy. The second took a couple of minutes,
but finally we spotted an empty picnic table. We took our time eating, even fed
each other. Well, Lou and I didn’t feed each other, but Jennifer and I did.
However, we refrained from eating from both ends of anything until me met in
the middle. After all, I had no idea if the Chief or some of my friends from
the department were there. I could imagine what they’d have to say, simply
seeing me somewhere with a woman. We were close enough that none of them would
have believed she was my cousin from Alabama.

After we finished eating, we must have sat and talked
for thirty minutes or so, as a foursome.

“What do you think of going out on the lake in a
couple of those paddleboats?” Jennifer asked.

“Jennifer, how about you and I taking a walk down the
woodland trail instead?”

“Sounds good to me. But Thelma Lou and Lou, you feel
free to give one of those paddleboats a try. Let us know what you think of it.”

I was glad that she was not someone who had to plan
everything. And that she wanted to be alone with me as much as I wanted to be
alone with her.

We took off down the woodland trail and were thankful
that we seemed to have the trail all to ourselves. She reached over and took my
hand, and we swung them back and forth, as we walked slowly down the trail. I
assume that we walked slowly because neither of us was ready for the moment to
end. Plus, we looked more at each other than we did the pathway, so we had to
go slowly so as not to fall down.

Hidden from the rest of the world, we talked about
ourselves. She asked me questions about myself that she didn’t already know the
answers to, and I learned what I could about her.

We walked for a while, and then we stopped. I looked
around, saw no one. Then I looked at her, so close to me. I’m five feet ten
inches tall, so I guessed her to be around five eight. I looked at her, mere
inches from me. I don’t know who made the first move, but our lips met, and our
kiss lingered.

When we parted, she looked at me and saw that I had tears
in my eyes.

“What’s wrong, Cy? I’m sorry if I did something
wrong.”

Tears began to form in her eyes, too.

“It’s just that you’re the first woman I’ve kissed
since my mother died. And the last woman I kissed on the lips was my Eunice,
and she’s been gone over twenty years.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I should have waited.”

“But I’m not sorry. I’d just forgotten what it’s like
to have feelings for a woman.”

This time I’m sure she was the one who kissed first,
and the second kiss lingered longer than the first. We parted only when we
heard the snickers. I looked up to see a boy and a girl. They looked around
twelve years of age.

“Sorry to interrupt you, but there’s not enough room
for us to get by. If you could let us by before you carry on.”

We stepped aside to let them pass, but heard their
remarks as they walked on by.

“They are supposed to be our role models.”

“Yeah, they tell us no PDA, but I see they don’t
practice what they preach.”

We gave them time to move away from us, and then we
too walked on, but happy we’d taken the trail.

+++

We’d agreed to meet at Lou’s car, and we returned just
as two leg-weary people stepped from a paddleboat back on to hard ground. Their
first few steps were wobbly. I was glad we’d chosen the trail instead.

It was time to leave. Neither Jennifer nor I wanted
the day to end, but Jennifer had already told me that she needed to leave town
before 4:00 in order to get home before dark. Luckily, it was summer and
darkness didn’t arrive until somewhere around 9:00.

Lou drove back to Thelma Lou’s. Jennifer and I were
silent, both of us wrapped up in our thoughts. A few minutes later, we stood in
Thelma Lou’s living room saying our goodbyes.

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m definitely going to move
here, but it might be a few months before I can sell my house and find one
here. But, I can probably arrange another weekend trip before long.”

I nodded, and reached out and hugged her. She broke
apart from me long enough to put her arms around my neck and pull my lips to
hers. It didn’t matter what Lou or Thelma Lou saw. That kiss had to last us for
a while.

She had already packed. I helped her carry her things
out, kissed her one more time, and the three of us stood there and watched her
drive off.

Thelma Lou walked over and gave me a hug.

“Thanks for making my cousin feel welcome,” and then
she laughed. We all did.

“Thanks for having a cousin,” I replied.

+++

I expected Lou to let fly as soon as we left, but he
left me to my thoughts. He drove me home. I got out and said, “Thanks.”

He replied, “Remember Cy, we have to go back to work
tomorrow.”

“I know, but that’s tomorrow. Tomorrow is another
day.”

He laughed and backed out of my driveway.

I gave myself an hour to think of Jennifer, and then
my thoughts returned to the murder case.

+++

I had trouble leaving my thoughts of Jennifer behind
and moving on to the case at hand. For the first five minutes I did nothing but
rescue Jennifer from the freezer at the school. Finally, I was able to move on.

I pictured each of the suspects, none of whom looked any
guiltier than any of the others. When I thought of what I had planned for the
next day, to see what I could find out about Miriam Van Meter, the girl who
died in the wreck twenty years ago, I wondered if her death had anything to do
with the murders. From everything I could ascertain, the murders were not
premeditated. No one, including Rose Ellen Calvert who organized the reunion,
seemed to have any knowledge that Jimmy Conkwright was coming to the reunion. I
couldn’t even find out how Conkwright knew that the reunion was taking place,
but he did. Obviously, someone saw an opportunity to rid the world of a bad
person and took advantage of that opportunity. But who?

+++

I continued to ponder the case until the phone rang. I
looked at my watch. It was almost 9:00. I couldn’t imagine anyone calling me at
that time on a Sunday night except Lou. Maybe he’d been thinking about the case
too, and had come up with a lead.

“Dekker here.”

“Sharp here,” came the reply.

“You got that right! You’re as sharp as they come, in
every way.”

“I just wanted to let you know I made it home okay.
The drive home didn’t seem as long. I thought of you all the way back.”

“Why don’t you just turn around and come back, and
think of me all the way here?”

“I can’t do that yet, but I will as soon as I can.
Besides, aren’t you working on a case?”

“I was just going over it when the phone rang.”

“Well, I’d better let you go, then. I miss you
already.”

“And I missed you already before you disappeared out
of sight.”

I hung up and gave up. There was no way I could focus
on the case again until the next morning. I went to the computer, Googled
Jennifer. It was just as I hoped. The ugly picture had been replaced by a
gorgeous one. It was all I could do to keep from kissing the computer screen.