Murder at the High School Reunion (19 page)

I awoke Monday morning and made myself focus on the
case. Once I got back into the routine of fixing breakfast, Wiiing, and heading
out to bring the case to a conclusion I would be all right. I sprang from the
bed a little quicker than I was able to do a few weeks before, and set about
doing just that, whatever I could do to bring the case to a conclusion. I could
think about Jennifer while I Wiied, but after that it was back to business. I
set a new high score in Advanced Step, and even attempted the Tree exercise. I
still wasn’t able to support myself with one foot tucked underneath me, so I
had to put my foot down, since Jennifer wasn’t there to catch me.

+++

“Good morning, Sam.”

“You seem especially chipper this morning, Cy. Are you
calling me to tell me you’ve solved your case?”

“Not yet, Sam, but I am calling you to give you a
little work to do.”

“So, you’ve come up with sixteen more suspects you
want me to check on.”

“No, just one name, and she’s not a suspect. She died
twenty years ago.”

“If she died twenty years ago, why do you want me to
check on her? I doubt if she’s gone anywhere.”

“I’m not sure about that, but if she did, she went
twenty years ago. Her name is Miriam Van Meter. She was the girl who was killed
in the car wreck one night when Jimmy Conkwright was drunk.”

“I vaguely remember something about that. It caused
quite a stir around here for a while. So, what do you want from me?”

“I want you to see if you can figure out where she
came from. All anyone I’ve talked to seems to know is that one day she arrived
at County High. No one seems to have seen her before that. Check with the
school. Find out where she came from. Then check there to see if she still has
family there. Find out as much as you can about her. In the meantime, Lou and I
are going to check on where she went. Maybe take a look at her tombstone, see
if it tells us anything. We’re on our way to the cemetery.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting out of the house for a
change. Is that all you have for me?”

“It is for now, and I have been out working on the
case every day.”

“If you say so. Well, I should be able to get back to
you with the information you want some time today or tomorrow.”

+++

I pulled up in front of Lou’s apartment building. He
was sitting on the front porch. He got up quickly and seemed to bounce as he
made his way to Lightning.

“After the dash,” he said, as he tucked himself into
his seatbelt.

“Huh?” was all I could mutter.

“I said, ‘after the dash.’ Cy, you need to get those
love stars out of your eyes and focus on the case again.”

“I am focusing on the case.”

“Then why don’t you recognize the clue of the day?”

I stared at him dejectedly.

“What’s the matter, Cy?”

“You said, ‘After the dash?’”

“That’s right.”

“It’s just that it doesn’t sound like something that
Google will be able to help us with.”

“Remember, Cy, we were always able to figure things
out before we ever heard of Google.”

“Yeah, but it always took us longer. Do you have any
idea what it means?”

“Absolutely.”

“You do?” I couldn’t believe Lou’s answer because he
always gave me a strange look or a rebuke when I asked him that before.

“Sure. It means that you are to run a fifty yard dash,
and I will be there at the end. At that time, your adrenalin will be so strong
that you will know what this clue means.”

“You know, Lou, I do think I’ll be ready to do the ten
minute run on the Wii before long.”

“You mean within the decade?”

“Yeah, and maybe within a month.”

“You know, Cy, love does some strange things to
people. Now, where are we going?”

I informed Lou that it was time to see if Miriam Van
Meter’s death had anything to do with the murders, so we needed to see what we
could find out about her.

+++

We arrived at the cemetery, found Lightning a
comfortable place to rest, then got out and made our way to the office.

“Hi, I’m Lt. Dekker with the Hilldale Police
Department. This is Sgt. Murdock. We’re here to inquire about someone who was
buried here twenty years ago.”

“Do you have the exact date this burial took place?”

“No, but it was sometime in May, and we do have her
name. It’s Miriam Van Meter.”

The woman turned to the computer and hit some keys,
then hit some more. She sat there puzzled for a moment, and then turned back to
me.

“Is this the correct spelling?”

“That’s right. At least I think it’s right. Just tell
me where to find her grave. And if you have any information on her next of kin,
that would be appreciated, too.”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but she doesn’t seem to be
buried here. What made you think that she was?”

“She lived here, and she died here.”

“Was she born here?”

“I don’t think so. Where she was born is what I’m
trying to find out.”

“Well, if her family came from somewhere else, there’s
a good possibility that they might have buried her back where they came from.
Was she an older woman?”

“Quite the opposite. She was a teenager.”

“Well, sometimes when a tragedy strikes a family, like
when a young person dies, that family tries to rid themselves of anything or
any place that might conjure up memories of the awful occasion. It could be
they moved back where they came from and they had her buried there. I’m sorry I
can’t help you.”

+++

If the cemetery couldn’t help us, maybe the mortuary
could. Hilldale had two of them, McPeak’s and Herrington & Sons. We would
check both places. We began with McPeak’s, since it was closer.

Lou opened the front door and someone came rushing out
of the office to meet us.

“I’m sorry, for the delay, but some of our people are
still out at the cemetery. We had a funeral this morning.”

I said I understood, and told the man who welcomed me
why we were there.

“What was the name again?”

“Miriam Van Meter.”

As was the case at the cemetery, the man sat down in
front of a computer, and pushed some keys.

“I’m sorry. I don’t seem to have anything. Are you
sure we served the family, or could it have been Herrington?”

“I’m really not sure. It was a long time ago.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that. How long ago?”

When I said twenty years, the man turned and smiled at
me.

“That might explain it. See, twenty years ago we weren’t
computerized. All of those files are stored in the basement. As time permits,
we’re trying to convert everything to the computer, but we’ve been so busy
lately we haven’t had time to get all of them done. We’d be glad to check on
that for you, Lieutenant, but we have another funeral today. It would probably
be tomorrow sometime before we can find what you want.”

I was disappointed, but I understood. I agree to check
back the next day.

Lou and I left and made the short drive to Herrington
& Sons. We left five minutes later, with the same response.

I was at a loss as to what to do next. All I could
think of was for Lou and me to head to my house and mull over what we knew.
There had to be something out there that could help us. Otherwise, our only
hope was if Sam had more luck than we had had.

+++

“Any ideas, Lou?”

“None, Cy.”

“I guess all we can do is lay it all out on the table,
clues, suspects, motives, and see if anything jumps out at us.”

Both of us grabbed a legal pad and headed to my dining
room table. We put down who we had talked to, who might have had a reason to
murder either or both of the victims, and the clues we had been given. In
Column A we had Walter Gillis, Rose Ellen Calvert, Earl Spickard, Jim Bob
Gibbons, Billy Korlein, April Korlein, George Justice, Sandy Justice, and Duck
Spencer. We refrained from putting down Mrs. Eversole, Lou’s neighbor, because
she had a good alibi for the night of the murders. She was watching Jennifer
Somebody on TV in her apartment. I was sorry I thought of Mrs. Eversole,
because the thought of Jennifer anybody made me think of Jennifer Special. I
needed to focus.

Column B was much shorter than Column A, because we
didn’t know as many possible motives. Rose Ellen Calvert and Jim Bob Gibbons
were richer with Jimmy Conkwright out the way than with him living. Also, not
only did Conkwright cause Duck Spencer to be expelled from school, but it was
Spencer’s wife that Conkwright was carrying on with the night of the reunion.
Was it possible that the fact that Conkwright had hit on Korlein’s or Justice’s
wife at the reunion was enough of a reason to end Conkwright’s life? I didn’t
think so.

It took a few minutes for me to remember the clues I
would list in Column C; “North To Alaska,” “Jennifer Garner,” “9 30 55,” “Wyatt
Earp,” and “After The Dash.” The first one had to do with finding the bodies in
the freezer at the school. I had no idea what the last one meant. The second
one meant somebody was not who he or she said he was, and the other two had to
do with Miriam Van Meter. At least that’s what Lou and I thought.

We were getting nowhere, and we weren’t even getting
there fast, or were we? At any rate, I looked at my watch and we agreed to take
a break for lunch. After all, there wasn’t much we could do. We hoped that we’d
get a break when Sam called.

Sam called just as we were finishing lunch. I
swallowed my last bite, and picked up the phone.

“This had better be Sam.”

“And this had better be Cy. Otherwise I’m calling
downtown and report a burglary in progress. It must be nice to get to stay home
all day and do nothing.”

“You ought to know. So, did you learn something about
Miriam Van Meter?”

“It all depends upon what you mean by learn something.
Did I find out anything that might help you? I don’t know. What I do know is
that I called the school, found out she transferred to County High from a small town in Tennessee. At least that’s what County High said. When I called that
small town in Tennessee, I found out there’s no school there by the name County
gave me. When I checked with the schools there, I found out that the county
high school had never had a student by that name. So, I checked with the county
clerk. They have no record of any family named Van Meter living in the town, at
least not in the last fifty years.”

“Thanks, Sam,” I said dejectedly, and then hung up.

I shared Sam’s findings with Lou.

“Do you think all this about a girl being killed in a
car wreck was someone’s idea to throw us off?”

“No, because I vaguely remember this happening and so
do some other people. Could it be that the girl didn’t want us to know what
town she came from?”

“Obviously.”

“Is it possible that she could have grown up right
here in Hilldale?”

“I don’t see how. If so, wouldn’t you think someone
would’ve known her. If she didn’t go to school, neighbors would’ve reported
her. If she did go to school here, there would be a record. Let’s check the
middle schools here, see if they have a record of Miriam Van Meter. There are
only three of them, two that move on up to Hilldale High, and one that sends
their students on to County. It shouldn’t be that tough to find out.”

It shouldn’t be that tough, yet everything about this
case was that tough. Everyone seemed to be lying to me. A mysterious girl was
thrust upon us. Maybe she did die in a car wreck with Jimmy Conkwright behind
the wheel. That doesn’t mean that her death had anything to do with
Conkwright’s and Betty Gail Spencer’s death. I tried to think of who first told
us about that wreck. Could it be that someone who had no connection to Miriam
Van Meter dropped her name in order to send us on a wild goose chase? I was
beginning to think that. Whatever their reason, whoever opened that can of
worms had gotten me to where I wanted to find out who this girl was and where
she came from. What if we checked back with the two mortuaries and neither of
them knew a thing about Miriam Van Meter? I needed to know where to turn. Could
it be that the next clue would give us what we needed to solve the murders?

I could see that Lou was as frustrated as I was. At
times like that, it was always a good idea to step away, regain our bearings.

“Lou, I think we need a break. I know it’s still
early, but what do you think about shutting things down for the day. I can take
you home and both of us can kick back and start reading a new book.”