Murder at the High School Reunion (7 page)

“Can you remember who was about to fight with
Conkwright?”

“Once it was Billy Korlein. The other time it was
George Justice. Both April Korlein and Sandy Justice used to be cheerleaders,
back when we were in school. Jimmy went over and said something about them
still looking good and asked them if they would do a cheer just for him. I
remember Billy saying something about Jimmy hadn’t changed a bit.”

“So, what happened next?”

“Well, Jim Bob seemed to calm everyone down and
directed Jimmy to a chair at a table on the other side of the room.”

“Was that the end of Jimmy’s flirtations?”

“Well, it was for a while. Then, Betty Gail Spencer
came in. Everyone noticed that her husband wasn’t with her, especially Jimmy.
He went over and rubbed up against her and she smiled. George walked over and
asked her where Duck was. Duck is her husband. It’s a nickname. Anyway, she
said Duck decided not to come. After dinner, Jimmy and Betty Gail left the
cafeteria. I think they went to his car. Anyway, when they came back in,
several minutes later, they both smelled of alcohol. Jim Bob said something
else to Jimmy, but Jimmy just laughed.”

“And then what happened?”

“Well, shortly after the caterer packed up and left,
someone whipped out a CD player and put some CDs on to play, ones popular when
we were in high school. Jimmy got up and started dancing with Betty Gail.
Lieutenant, he was dancing much too close. Billy Korlein said something about
her being a married woman. This made Jimmy mad and he stumbled over and grabbed
April Korlein and tried to get her to get up and dance with him. Well, the guys
got together and shoved Jimmy out the door. A couple of minutes later, Betty
Gail walked out looking for him.”

“When you say out the door, do you mean the cafeteria
door or the front door?”

“Well, the cafeteria door for sure, but I think the
front door, too.”

“I’m sure Betty Gail Spencer noticed all this. How
long after she went looking for him did they come back to the cafeteria?”

“Neither of them came back. As soon as Betty Gail
walked out after Jimmy, George Justice got on his cell phone and called Duck,
told him what was going on. Then, Jim Bob, Billy, and George went out looking
for Jimmy and Betty Gail.”

“How long after Justice called Spencer did the guys
leave the cafeteria?”

“Well, I’d say that George was on the phone with Duck
at least five minutes, and maybe they waited another five minutes to see if
Betty Gail came back, before they huddled together and decided to see if they
could find her.”

“When the guys went looking for them, do you know if
they were together, or did they split up?”

“All of them were gone a few minutes. I’m not sure how
long. I don’t think they came back at the same time. No, I know they didn’t.
After they all came back in someone mumbled something about Betty Gail nursing
Jimmy’s wounds and that the two of them had gone into hiding somewhere. Anyway,
they waited for Duck to get there.”

“And did Betty Gail Spencer’s husband show up?”

“He did, and there was some other guy there, too. I
think it was our old janitor, Mr. Spickard. It had been years since I’ve seen
Mr. Spickard, so I’m not sure it was him, but it looked something like him.”

“Was Mr. Spickard the janitor when you went to school
here?”

“Yes.”

“So, tell me about what happened before Mr. Spencer
showed up?”

“Well, a couple of times George’s phone rang. I think
it was Duck, but I’m not sure. Anyway, after it rang the second time, George
went over and stood by the door. A couple of minutes later, Duck came in. The
entrance to the cafeteria is almost directly in line with the front door, and
not more than twenty feet away, so it was easy for George to see Duck and vice
versa.

“Anyway, Duck asked if George knew where they went,
and George said no. Duck said he didn’t see them out in the parking lot. They
were about to go look for them again, with Duck along, when the janitor and the
man I think is Mr. Spickard came out of the men’s restroom, talking and
laughing, and patting each other on the back. They came over when they saw
everyone standing out in the hall, near the cafeteria. They tried to calm us
down a little, and then went into the janitor’s office together. A while later,
after the guys came back one at a time from looking for the missing couple, the
janitor and Mr. Spickard came to check on us. When they saw things were
relatively calm, they walked off down the hall together. I think this was after
Duck walked out in a huff. I could tell he was upset, and rightly so.”

“Anything else happen?”

“Nothing out of line. A little at a time, people
starting leaving. Most left a little after midnight, but a few of us were still
here when things ended at 1:00. We carried things out, the janitor walked out
as I did, and he followed me out of the parking lot.”

“Did you notice if there were any cars left when you
walked out?”

“I did, because I was curious as to whether Jimmy and
Betty Gail had left, and if they left in one car or two.”

“And what did you see?”

“Evidently they left in separate cars, because there
were no cars in the lot.”

“And did you pass any cars on the way back to town?”

“Not on the road the school is on, and not at all
until I got most of the way to town.”

“Miss Calvert, you mentioned that Jimmy had a
reputation of drinking. Do you remember any instances of drinking or bad
behavior on his part when you were in school?”

“Lots. If it wasn’t for his dad, Jimmy would have been
expelled, and maybe put in jail. The last straw was when he was out driving
drunk with some girl in the car, and Jimmy rounded a corner too fast and hit a
tree. The girl was killed instantly. At least, she was dead when the ambulance
arrived. Jimmy had stumbled off somewhere, but everyone knew that it was his
car, because he drove the only red Corvette in town. Someone said there was a
red Corvette in the parking lot at the reunion, and since none of us have one,
we figured it had to be Jimmy’s car.”

“Do you know the name of the girl who was killed?”

“Miriam Van Meter. I didn’t know her well. She was
only a freshman when I was a senior. I think that was part of the reason Jimmy
hit on her. That and the fact that she did whatever it took to be liked. She
didn’t talk much about herself, and I think a lot of what she said was a lie.
She claimed to live with Mrs. Edwards, said she was her niece. Lola Cartwright
told me that she didn’t know if she was Mrs. Edwards’ niece or not, but she’d
been to Mrs. Edwards house and never saw Miriam there. All I know is that she
was one of those kids who came to school by rowboat, and she always managed to
try to be the last kid leaving school, so no one could tell where she was
headed. She was strange. By the way, Mrs. Edwards’ house was nowhere near the river,
but then I guess Miriam never thought about that. While Miriam arrived by
rowboat most of the time, I lived close enough to ride my bicycle, that’s how I
got to school unless the weather was bad. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on that
road in those days, so it wasn’t dangerous riding a bike to school. Of course,
there still isn’t very much traffic on that road.”

“Did you go to the funeral?”

“Miriam’s? No, I didn’t really know her that well,
even though we attended a small school. Most of the girls didn’t like her
anyway, since she was always flirting with the boys.”

“Back to the night of the reunion. Who left the
cafeteria after the last time you saw Jimmy and Betty Gail?”

“Well, the guys I mentioned. And if you include trips
to the restroom when you want to know who left the cafeteria, I’d say most all
of us. I know I had to go once after that. Some of the other ladies did, too.”

“Miss Calvert did you or anyone else take anything out
of the kitchen refrigerator or freezer at any time during the night?”

“I know I didn’t. I don’t think anyone else did
either. Why, is something missing?”

“Not that I know of. I’m just curious. So, not  even
the caterer?”

“The caterer was in and out, but as far as I know,
neither she nor her helper went to the kitchen. There’s actually a door that
leads from the kitchen to the cafeteria. I don’t think anyone used that door
all night. Everyone was in and out the main door. Now that doesn’t mean that no
one was in the kitchen. It could be that one of the guys was in there when they
were looking for Jimmy and Betty Gail, but I don’t know that for sure.”

“Miss Calvert, does the name Jennifer Garner mean
anything to you?”

“No. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t anyone who went to
school with us. Being a small school, I remember most of their names. Besides,
I worked in the school library back then, so I had to learn everyone’s name. Is
this Garner person someone who lives around here?”

“I don’t know. Her name just came up in conjunction
with our investigation.”

“Well, I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

“One more thing. Did anyone wear gloves that night?”

“Of course not, Lieutenant. No one wears gloves in
July.”

I thanked her for her time, told her I’d be back if I
thought of anything else. That last remark didn’t seem to please her, but she
didn’t say anything.

I did notice her looking at Lou from time to time. I
wasn’t sure what that was all about. Maybe she thought he was cute. Maybe she
wondered why he never opened his mouth. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter.
Whatever Rose Ellen Calvert thought of Lou, it had no bearing on our case.

Lou and I walked down the steps back to Lightning. We
got in, sat down, and looked at each other.

“Well, what do you think, Lou?”

“It seems like a lot of people had the opportunity to
lock them in the freezer, only someone would’ve had to have been brave to do
so, with all those people in and out of the cafeteria. It would have been
easier to kill them outside, unless someone else was outside.”

“We’ll find out, but I bet some of those guys were
outside looking for them. Besides, it’s much easier to shut a door on someone
inside of a freezer than it is to chase two people down and conk them on the
head, even if they are drunk.”

“And from what you said Frank said no one was conked
on the head. It doesn’t sound like whoever did this planned it out ahead of
time. At least if they did, I doubt if anyone planned to lure Jimmy and/or
Betty Gail to the freezer and lock them in. Nor can I see anyone leaving a
trail of bread crumbs, or more likely, beer bottles.”

“I’d say you’re right, Lou. But evidently whoever did
it didn’t mind killing both of them, even if he or she had a grudge against
only one of them.”

“Unless that person didn’t realize that there were two
people in the freezer.”

“Oh, I’m sure whoever did it knew what he or she was
doing.”

+++

Lou and I sat discussing the case for a few minutes. I
looked at my watch to see what time it was. It was getting close to lunch time.
I’d missed my midmorning snack again. At that rate I might turn out to be the
skinniest cop on the force. Yeah, right!

Since the next person on our list, Duck Spencer, lived
way out in the country, I dropped Lou at his place, then ran home and fixed my
lunch. I told Lou I’d pick him up at 1:30, and we’d go visit suspect number
two.

A couple of minutes after I started Lightning and took
off, we got a call on the police radio, something that seldom happens. One of
the missing cars had been found. When the bodies were found inside the school,
the department started looking for the cars again. Finding the first one was
easy.  It was parked right beside Betty Gail Spencer’s house. It took a little
longer to find Jimmy’s car, and the main reason they found it so easily is that
they started searching at the scene of the crime. They pulled Jimmy’s car from
the river. It went in a few feet from where I initiated my boat ride. The back
end was smashed in. It could have happened when the car hit the bank on the way
to the river, but my money was on the fact that someone else’s car helped it
find its way to the river. Maybe the murderer didn’t want the janitor
double-checking the school to see why one of the vehicles was still there. I’m
sure that if whoever did it suffered any damage to his or her vehicle, that
person had gotten it fixed by now. Still, body shops keep records of the work
they do. Maybe this thing would be as simple as finding whose vehicle had been
repaired recently and arresting the owner for murder.

+++

I fixed a quick lunch and packed a small cooler with
afternoon snacks. I almost whistled when I stepped out the door to go pick up
Lou and corner a couple more suspects. I sat the cooler down and had my back
turned as I was shutting the door, when I felt something tugging on my pant
leg. Before I could look down, I heard something that sounded like fingernails
on a chalkboard.

“Oh, Cyrus, she remembers you.”

I stumbled when I turned around and faced my next-door
neighbor from the dark side, because something was still attached to my pant
leg. I stumbled again, backward this time, when I realized my next-door
neighbor was mere inches from my face. I thudded against the door that I’d shut
too quickly. I regained my footing before I spoke.

“Miss Humphert, there are laws against vermin invading
other people’s property.”

“Cyrus, you know Twinkle Toes didn’t mean anything.
She was just showing her love for you.”

“I was talking about you, Miss Humphert.”

“Well, Cyrus, you know I love you, too,” she said as
she invaded my space even more.

It was then that the woman and her rat noticed my
cooler. I picked it up before either of them could drool on it.

“Oh, Cyrus, you packed us a lunch. How wonderful! And
it’s such a small lunch. I guess I know what you want to do.”

“I’ve been giving you hints for years now. It’s about
time you caught my drift.”

“So, where are we going?”

“I found a nice little place for you. It’s right on
the river, and it has the cutest little rowboat. I’ll let you step into the
boat first, and then I’ll drill the hole.”

“Oh, you sly rascal, you. You want to give me CPR.”

“I can’t think of many things I’d like to give you,
Miss Humphert, but CPR isn’t one of them.”

I could see that she was momentarily distracted, so I
swung the cooler around and knocked her off balance enough that I was able to
duck under her arm and get around her. My problem was that I failed to notice
that when Muffy realized she couldn’t have whatever was in my cooler, she
wrapped her teeth around my pant leg again. I thanked my workouts on the Wii
for my ability to stay on my feet as I kicked the rat away with my free foot
and stumbled down the steps away from the dastardly duo.

“Oh, Cyrus. I didn’t know you could dance like that.
Why don’t you come on over to my house and we can make music together? Maybe we
can get on
Dancing With The Stars?
”

“I’d love for you to see stars, but I’m afraid if I
did anything to make it possible, I might lose my job.”

“That’d be great! That would give us more time
together.”

“Miss Humphert, the last time I was around you this
long I ended up going back to the doctor twice a week for two months to get
another shot so I could get over whatever it was you gave me.”

“Just come over to my place and I’ll make sure it
takes even longer for you to get over me.”

“I’d love to get over you, maybe by about twenty feet,
and then we could play drop the anvil. I’d go first. In the meantime, I’ve got
work to do. Why don’t you and Muffy go practice your dance steps? By the way,
I’d love to see you on that show. How many weeks would you be gone?”

With that I wheeled and turned in my best time ever in
the forty yard dash, just under one minute. Before she could move, I was in
Lightning and backing out of my driveway. Maybe the Wii could help me in ways
I’d never envisioned. But I still wasn’t sure how I could use it to get rid of
a neighbor.

+++

I allowed Lou his laughs as I asked him if my face was
broken out and then told him why I asked.

“Cy, you should apologize to that woman, maybe give
her a gift.”

“What did you have in mind? A rope and a hood, a
bouquet of poison ivy, or an electric fence and a collar?”

Lou laughed again, but then Lou didn’t have to live
next-door to her. He didn’t always have to be on the lookout, in case of an
ambush. I did.

+++

Although I’d never spent much time out on Thornapple River Road, I knew how to get there. There are two roads leading north out of
Hilldale, one northeast, and one northwest. The northeastern road was the one I
took that morning. I drove five miles, crossed the bridge over the Thornapple River, and immediately took the road to the right. Unlike the road out of town, Thornapple River Road is narrow, and not a lot of people live out that way. But when the
county high school was built many years ago, not a lot of people lived
anywhere, but more people lived in that end of the county so that location was chosen
for the high school.

Today, the majority of the people live on the end of
the road nearer the main road. The right side of the road, the side the river
is on, is relatively flat. There’s a steep incline on the left side, but there
are a few houses on the left side of the road. Those are harder to see driving
by, because all of those homes are well above the road. Still, in winter,
everyone who lives up there can look through the barren trees and see the
river. The rest of the year, the trees give them privacy. Because the right
side of the road is flat, our drive became a scenic one, consisting of seeing
an occasional home, then a view of the river, which at times was only twenty
feet or so from the road we traveled. The road, like the river, was serpentine
at times, which prevented me from checking out the scenery too closely, but it
straightened out shortly before we arrived at the high school.

We passed the high school without checking to see if
there were any more bodies on the premises. I noticed a truck and two cars
there. When we met Frank at the school, there was only one vehicle there other
than mine and Frank’s, so I knew that the truck belonged to the janitor. I
assumed the cars belonged to the principal and his secretary, who were back at work
with the beginning of school a mere two weeks away. Of course, they could have
merely been there for the day, to see what repercussions there were from the
bodies being found. Since the janitor wasn’t there everyday yet, and the
principal was still in the middle of his vacation, maybe the school would be
vacant again the next day.

Flat Rock Road veered off to the left a couple of
miles past the school, and because both Duck Spencer and Earl Spickard, the
retired custodian, lived on Flat Rock Road, Lightning, Lou, and I veered, too.
The rock might have been flat, but the road wasn’t. At least not in the
beginning. Lightning sped upward, propelling Lou and me against the back of our
seats, much like the first climb of a rollercoaster. After a steep, thirty-foot
incline, the road leveled out and crossed over top of Thornapple River Road,
and went back and forth across the river, until someone had decided to keep it
on the Thornapple River Road side of the river.

There weren’t a lot of houses on the road, so I didn’t
have to slow down often to see if the house we were nearing was Duck Spencer’s
place. We passed a place where a tree had fallen and someone had used a
chainsaw to cut it into smaller chunks. I assumed this was the tree that fell
the night of the reunion, the one that prevented Duck Spencer from driving to
the school.

About a half of a mile later we neared a mailbox whose
number matched the address I had down for Duck Spencer. The land was flat, and
from the looks of the place and my limited knowledge of measurements, I guessed
his property to be about an acre. There was a barn-like structure out back to
the right of the vinyl-siding covered house, and that was where I found Duck
Spencer, tall, slender, but muscular, with long, straight, medium brown hair,
and little grease on his clothes and in his hair. He walked up as we propelled
ourselves from Lightning’s clutches.

“Can I hep you?”

“You can if you’re Duck Spencer.”

“Then I guess I can hep. What can I do for you
gentlemen? Got a car needin’ fixin’?”

“No, my car’s fine. I’m Lt. Dekker. This is Sgt.
Murdock. We’re here about your wife’s death.”

“I guess you didn’t hear. I already went and
identified her. It was her all right. She didn’t look none too good.”

“Not too many people do when they’re dead. I’m not
sure if they look better or worse if they’ve been frozen.”

“Is that what happened to her?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Come to think of it, the guy might ’ave said
somethin’. So how’d she get in that mess?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

“Then I’d say your best bet would be to talk to soma 
them people who was with her that night.”

“I understand you were there that night.”

“Jist a few minutes, but I never seen
her
.”

“How many minutes?”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Me and
some of the other guys looked for her, but when we didn’t find her after a
while I left.”

“How’d you get to the school that night?”

“I’d say you probably already know that. A guy up the
road used to be the janitor there. This here road was blocked from the storm,
so I checked with ’im and he took me in ’is boat.”

“I assume you’re talking about Earl Spickard.”

“I figured you already knowed who it was.”

“Did Mr. Spickard go with you when you looked for your
wife?”

“Naw, it was some of ’em who went to school with her.
It was one of ’em that called me and told me she was actin’ up with some guy.”

“Was it George Justice who called you?”

“Yeah, my man George.”

“And did he tell you which guy she was acting up
with?”

“Yeah, but then I figured she would hook up with that
slime ball when she was so hot to trot to get out of here that night. He was no
’count in school.”

“So, did you go to school with them?”

“Yeah, but I quit afore twelfth grade, got me a job.”