Murder at the High School Reunion (9 page)

“Is there somethin’ you’re not tellin’ me,
Lieutenant?”

“Answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”

“Same answer. Some of ’em was by theirselves.”

“Mr. Spickard, Betty Gail Spencer was murdered at the
school that night.”

“You don’t say. Well, I’d say your man is that good
for nothin’ Jimmy Conkwright. You probably won’t need to look no farther.”

“I think we will.”

“Oh, why’s that? Did he buy hisself one a them
alibis?”

“You might say that. See, he was murdered, too.”

“You don’t say. Well, that’s the best news I heered in
a long time. When you find out who done it, maybe we can have a parade for the
guy.”

“It looks like I’m going to have to look a little
longer to find someone who’s grieving about poor Jimmy Conkwright.”

“No, Lieutenant, I think you’re gonna hafta look a lot
longer. I never met nobody who didn’t hate his guts.”

“What about Betty Gail Spencer? Did people hate her
guts, too?”

“I don’t know ’bout her, but I’d say that most
people’d jist say that all she needed was a good butt whippin’. Duck woulda
never done that, though. He worshiped the ground she walked on. Course, he was
mighty put out with her that night. Too bad she got mixed up with that good for
nothin’ Conkwright agin, ’though unless she’d seen him somewhere and Duck
didn’t know nothin’ about it, she got messed up afore she seen that good for
nothin’ agin. I don’t know what got into her.”

“Mr. Spickard, does the name Jennifer Garner mean
anything to you.”

“Nope. Is she s’posed to live out this way
somewheres?”

“I’m not sure. Her name just came up in our
investigation.”

“Well, lack I told you afore, I pretty much keep to
myself. Sometimes, the only time I see someone is when I go to town to pick up
things I need. Course I do see Duck once a month or so. He comes by to check on
me, make shore I’s doin’ all right. Sometimes he picks up what I need, saves me
a trip. Other than him, not too many people live out this way. I like it like
that.”

I thanked Earl Spickard for his time, and he told me
to come back anytime and we’d see if the fish were biting.

“I’m usually here some place.”

I thanked him again, and Lou and I turned to head back
to civilization. We only hoped Lightning hadn’t gotten tired and left without
us.

We got back to Lightning and took inventory of where
we were. So far we’d talked with Walter Gillis, the current janitor at the
county high school; Rose Ellen Calvert, the woman who coordinated the high
school reunion; Duck Spencer, the murdered woman’s husband; and Earl Spickard,
the retired janitor. For sure, I planned to talk to Jim Bob Gibbons, Billy and
April Korlein, and George and Sandy Justice, to get their take on who was where
and when that night. If only someone would confess, or all but one person would
agree on what went on.

I looked at my watch and was surprised it was already
after 4:30. While everyone who attended the county high school lived out in the
country when they were in high school, only one of my remaining suspects still
lived in the country. That one was Jim Bob Gibbons. From what I could tell, he
was closer to Jimmy Conkwright than any of the others. I wondered if his take
on that night would agree with what the others had to say. It wouldn’t take me
long to find out. While Gibbons still lived out in the country, he lived in a
different part of the county. I hoped that by the time I got to his house, he’d
be home from work.

+++

I found Gibbons house easier than I found the old
man’s. It was a small, red brick, and it looked like he might have had a couple
of acres of land surrounding it. I pulled into the drive, got out and went up
and knocked, but no one answered. I was contemplating what to do when a four by
four pulled into the driveway. Out jumped a man nearing forty, which was the
right age for Gibbons. He had on jeans, an Army green T-shirt, and boots. He
was slender, sandy-haired, and clean shaven.

“This is private property. What do you want?”

“You Jim Bob Gibbons?”

“You got cop written all over you, even though you’re
drivin’ some kind of sissy car. Listen, I don’t care what she says. I didn’t
touch that woman.”

“Which woman is that?”

“Emma Mae Parsons. Ain’t that what you’re a ’ere
about?”

“Afraid not.”

“So, you ain’t no cop?”

“No, I’m a cop, all right. I’m Lt. Dekker. This is
Sgt. Murdock. We’d like to ask you a few questions. This is if you’re Jim Bob
Gibbons.”

“What’s this all ’bout?”

“Are you Jim Bob Gibbons?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m Jim Bob. Now, what’s all this ’bout?”

“It’s about the night of the high school reunion.”

When I said that, Gibbons seemed to relax.

“Oh, is that all? What ’appened? Did Jimmy Conkwright
go and git ’isself in a buncha trouble? Surely, ’e’s not tryin’ to git me to
bail his sorry you know what outa jail. ’e’s got more money than Carter’s got
liver pills.”

“Not anymore.”

“You kiddin’ me. Jimmy lost all ’is money. ’e didn’t
say nothin’ about it that night. What ’appened?”

“Is there some place we can sit down and talk about
this?”

“I guess we could go out back. I call it my patio.
Actually, it’s three or four chairs in the grass and a barbecue.”

Gibbons stretched out his pronunciation of patio and
barbecue.

I noticed that he had a considerable limp as he led us
around the house to the back. We each took a seat, choosing three of the four
metal chairs that looked like they were nearing antique status. Gibbons
grimaced and used his arms to take most of his weight as he sat down.

“So, Mr. Gibbons, tell me about what all happened that
night. Did you participate when everyone toured the school before the dinner?”

“No, you mighta noticed I got me a limp. It ’urts
mosta the time, but it really ’urts if’n I try to go up or down steps. As ya
can see, I ain’t got no steps here. But that night, I got thare a few minutes
afore 7:00, afore we ate.”

“Was Jimmy Conkwright there when you got there?”

“No, but Jimmy got there not long after that. ’e was
thare when it come time to go through the food line.”

“So, tell me about what went on that night?”

“Well, there ain’t much to tell. It was our twenty
year reunion. There ain’t many a us, and mosta us still live ’round here, but
Jimmy ’ad moved away. It was good to see ’im agin. ’e was kind of feelin’ ’is
oats that night. I ’ad to calm ’im down a mite.”

“How was he feeling his oats?”

“Well, you know ’ow some people act when they see some
old friends. ’e was a little on the rowdy side.”

“What kind of things did he do?”

“Oh, nothin’ too much. ’e was jist talkin’ a lot, and
’e asked some o’ the guys’ wives to dance. Flirted with ’em a little, too. Some
a the guys took it the wrong way.”

“Almost come to blows?”

“Well, I don’t know ’bout that. I stepped in and
pulled Jimmy away afore that ’appened.”

“Did he hit on any more of the women before the night
ended?”

“A little bit. Ruffled some more feathers. Then, when
Betty Gail Spencer came in without Duck, ’e took up with her.”

“Was he drinking?”

“Not at first. Then, someone riled ’im up and ’e
stomped out. Betty Gail took off after ’im. They was gone a while. When they
got back they’d been drinkin’ a little.”

“Did this lead to anything?”

“Oh, that Rose Ellen Calvert ’ad ’er panties tied in a
knot. Everybody always said she was such a prude because none a the guys were
innerested in her. The first time Jimmy left, she followed ’im. I think she was
’fraid ’e might do somethin’ to the school. She tried to do it agin, when Jimmy
and Betty Gail  left together, but somebody stopped ’er.”

“Do you know who it was?”

“Naw. I jist remember that somebody said somethin’ to
’er, kept ’er from leaving. She ended up leavin’ anyway, said she ’ad to go to
the restroom, but that was about five minutes later. I ’ad to go myself, and
when I come out I seen Rose Ellen comin’ outa the kitchen. When she seen me, she
’ightailed back to the cafeteria.”

“Did anyone leave the cafeteria to go look for Jimmy
and Betty Gail?”

“Yeah, but not right away. At least I don’t think it
was right away. Anyway, Duck showed up a few minutes later. I think George
Justice musta called ’im. At least ’e got on ’is phone and called someone when
they left together. Anyway, ’e showed up, and ’e, George, and Billy Korlein
were gonna look for Jimmy and Betty Gail. I was afraid that the three a ’em would
beat Jimmy up if they found ’im, so I butted in and went lookin’ with ’em.”

“So the four of you looked for them together?”

“Well, we did at first, but when we didn’t find ’em
right away, Duck was jist gittin’ madder and madder, so somebody suggested we’d
do better if we spread out. I told ’em to ’oller if they found ’em, but nobody
ever ’ollered.”

“Do you have any idea if anybody saw either of them?”

“Don’t know. I went outside, thought maybe the two a
’em mighta gone back to Jimmy’s car. I ’unted ’round out there for a while, but
I didn’t see nothin’ except’n one a the other guys. Time I got back, the other
three was back with everyone else and Duck was ravin’ and decided to leave.”

“Did you see Jimmy’s car?”

“Yep, but they wasn’t in it.”

“Were you and Jimmy good friends?”

“Still are. Oh, we ’ad some words on occasion. Usually
when we were out drinkin’ somewheres. We were still in ’igh school, but Jimmy
always knowed where to find somethin’ to drink. I don’t drink no more. That
night that Jimmy and that girl was out ridin’ ’round and she got killed, that
cured me. I never took another drink after that. That was jist afore the end o’
the school year. Jimmy’s daddy got things ’ushed for a while, but everybody
turned aginst Jimmy after that, so ’is daddy ’ad ’im leave town. I didn’t see
much of Jimmy after that.”

“Did you know Miriam Van Meter?”

“That was the girl who was with Jimmy, weren’t it?”

I nodded and he continued.

“I knowed she was a freshman. She wanted to be liked,
wanted to be noticed. She chased all the boys, but most of ’em got tired o’ her
real quick like.”

“Was she new to the school? Did any of you go to
school with her before?”

“Don’t think so. She jist seemed to show up one day
somewheres ’round the beginnin’ of our senior year. She was a freshman.”

“What can you tell me about Betty Gail Spencer?”

“Well, she was Betty Gail Reynolds then. She didn’t
become Spencer ’til she married Duck. She was all right, I guess. I never asked
’er out or nothin’.”

“Jim Bob, have you heard the rumors?”

“You mean ’bout Jimmy and Betty Gail runnin’ away together?
Some people was talkin’ that nonsense. I don’t think it’s true.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I ’ave to admit that I ain’t seen Betty Gail
much lately, but used to be she only did stuff like that to make Duck jealous,
make ’im want to buy ’er stuff. Duck called her ’is princess. I do know that
one day I ran into Duck in the auto parts place, and ’e was upset with ’er. ’e
said she’d changed, started doin’ things she’d never did, stayin’ out late at
night and drinkin’.”

“Do you think Duck would hit her?”

“Duck? No way. ’e loved her too much. ’e mighta
’ollered at ’er if she made ’im mad, but that’s all. Why you askin’ all this
stuff, anyways. Did they really run away together?”

“No, they were murdered together.”

“You don’t say. Any idee who done it?”

“Not yet. You have any idea?”

Gibbons gave me a funny look. I don’t know if that
meant he knew or didn’t know who did it.

“One final question, Mr. Gibbons. Do you know anyone
named Jennifer Garner?”

“Is she one a yor suspects?”

“I don’t know. Her name came up in regard to this
investigation, and I wanted to check and see if you’ve heard of her.”

“Sorry.”

I decided to leave him to his thoughts. I told him I’d
let him know if I had any more questions. He didn’t seem pleased with that.

“Listen, fellas, ifn it’s all right with you, I’ll let
you see yoreselves out. I think ya know the way.”

I was hungry, but I wanted to get to all my suspects
before any of them had a chance to compare stories. We were given two days to
work on the case before news of the murders would be made public. Of course
that didn’t stop anyone I’d talked to from letting the cat out of the bag. That
was fine. I just wanted to talk to each of my suspects before he or she knew
anything about the murders.

Before I visited the Korleins, I dropped by my house
and picked up a couple of apples, a container of almond butter made from raw
almonds, and two spoons. That had to do us until after we’d questioned four
more suspects, two married couples.

Magnolia Lane wasn’t too far from my house, in a
middle class neighborhood, so it was only a little after 6:30 when we pulled up in front of the Korlein’s house. It looked like they were home. There was a
car and a truck in the driveway. The two of us got out, looked around. It was
still a little on the warm side, so we didn’t see any of their neighbors. I
suspected most of them were taking advantage of their air conditioning.
However, my ears told me that one poor, misguided soul a few doors away had
chosen that moment to mow his grass.

I walked up to the front door, rang the bell, and
waited. Ten seconds or so later, a man came to the door. He had dark brown
hair, had on a red sports shirt and khakis. He was about my height, and carried
a few extra pounds, but less than most men his age. He opened the door
slightly.

“I’m sorry, but we’re busy right now.”

“So are we. I’m Lt. Dekker. This is Sgt. Murdock.
We’re with the Hilldale Police Department. Are you Billy Korlein?”

“I am, but why do you want to talk to me?”

“Actually, we’d like to talk to both you and your
wife.”

“Well, we’re just finishing up supper. Do you mind
waiting in the living room a couple of minutes while we finish eating?”

In past days, I would’ve wanted to join them, but I
told him that Lou and I could wait in the living room if they’d hurry. I
refrained from asking him if we could bring in our apples, almond butter, and
spoons.

A couple of minutes later, Korlein returned, had a
woman with him. Lou and I stood up to greet April Korlein. I could see where
she might have been a cheerleader in high school. Her dark hair matched her
husband’s and her shape told me she worked out or had good metabolism. She
looked good enough that she could still turn men’s heads.

“Hi, I’m April Korlein,” she said, as she came forward
and stuck out her hand. “I guess this is as good of a time as any to talk. Our
kids are visiting their cousins for a few days.”

I introduced myself and Lou to her. She motioned for
us to be reseated.

“What’s this about, Lieutenant? We can’t imagine why
the police would want to talk to us,” Korlein asked.

“I just wanted to talk to you about the night of the
high school reunion.”

“Don’t tell me that Jimmy Conkwright has filed some
kind of suit against me.”

“No, Mr. Korlein, nothing like that. I just want you
to tell me what happened that night. Did you and Mrs. Korlein take part in the
tour of the school?”

“Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Me and George Justice
swapped stories of things we did back then.”

“Give me a for instance.”

“Well, when we got upstairs, anytime we saw something,
it reminded us of things we did when we were in school. We both started
laughing when we passed the restroom. See, the boy’s restroom was just above
the entrance to the school, and since teachers were already in their classrooms
getting ready for whatever we were to do that day, none of them were standing
at the school entrance. From time to time, some of us guys would open the boy’s
bathroom window, and toss a water balloon on an unsuspecting girl. We had our
favorites we watched for. Like girls who were already developed, or ones who
were stuck up. We smacked Rose Ellen Calvert right in the kisser one day.
Naturally, she reported us, but they didn’t ever find out who did it. And then,
on occasion, we’d see some girl walking down the hall and shove her into the
boy’s bathroom. Some of them loved it, but others hid their eyes. One time, we
almost got caught. We didn’t know that Mr. Tompkins, the math teacher, was in
there at the time. And that night, I’m talking about the night of the reunion;
we went in and sat down in a few classrooms. That gave us a chance to talk
about some of the things we put in teachers’ desk drawers or girl’s hair. And
one day, Jessica Tyler opened her notebook and found it was full of shaving
cream. Nobody admitted doing that, either, although Miss Thorndike questioned
us about it for over ten minutes. And another time, someone put some water on
Angie Crowder’s seat, and she didn’t see it before she sat down. Someone did
pass her a note telling her that next time she should stop off in the girls’
bathroom before coming to class. Several of us noticed that her backside was
still wet when class was over. She had a couple of her friends walk behind her
on her way to her next class.”

I smiled at some of the things he talked about, although
I never attempted any of those things. We were more civilized at Hilldale High.

“So, you swapped stories and relived some old
memories. What then?”

“Well, that put most of us in a good mood, and we were
well on our way to having a good reunion. Everybody seemed happy to see
everybody else. Oh, some of us run into some of the others at the Piggly Wiggly
from time to time, but that’s different. Anyway, like I said, we were on our
way to having a good time, talking about high school, music, the way we all looked
back then. That was until Jimmy showed up, then Betty Gail Spencer showed up
without her husband and started carrying on with Jimmy.”

“I understand that Jimmy Conkwright hit on your wife.”

“So, you’ve already talked to some others. The truth
is that Jimmy hit on practically everyone that ever wore a skirt. Well,
everyone except Rose Ellen Calvert. I doubt if anybody’s ever hit on her. She
really doesn’t look that bad. It’s just that she expects everyone to be so
perfect. I admit that Jimmy was way out of line, both in high school and that
night. But Rose Ellen always had this thing about her that repelled both guys
and girls.”

“Do you agree with that, Mrs. Korlein?”

“Well, Billy’s thinking is a little stronger than
mine, but I never really felt comfortable around her. She always expected
everything to be a certain way. I don’t mean that she’s a bad person. She just
seemed like someone who never had any fun and didn’t seem to want anyone else
to have fun, either. Of course, I don’t call any of those things Jimmy did
fun.”

“So, Mr. Korlein, Conkwright came in and made a pass
at your wife, or something like that?”

“Yeah. See Sandy Justice and April were cheerleaders.
The Justices were there that night too, so when Jimmy came in he came over and
said something like he wanted them to do a cheer just for him. I never liked
Jimmy in high school, so I got riled up pretty easy, but I never hit him, and
nobody else did, either. And later, after Jimmy started drinking, he came over
and tried to pull April and Sandy to the dance floor. It was then that a few of
us threw Jimmy out. Betty Gail left right after that. Jimmy had paired up with
Betty Gail, after she showed up without Duck. Jimmy shared some of whatever he
was drinking with her. They’d gone out once before. Evidently he had a bottle
on him or in his car.”

“When you say threw him out, do you mean you saw that
he left the cafeteria, or left the school building?”

Korlein laughed.

“I mean threw him out. We hustled him out the door. I
took one arm and George took the other one and we threw him out the front
door.”

“And he hit the sidewalk and landed on his face.”

“That’s right! He was already drunk, so he had trouble
getting up. It was about that time that Duck’s wife pushed me aside and went to
his rescue. We just left the two of them to themselves and went back to the
cafeteria.”

“You had to pass the janitor’s office on the way to
and from the front door. Did the janitor see you throw Conkwright out?”

“Naw, he had his door closed most of the way. I think
he was listening to make sure we weren’t going to do anything else. He’d
already threatened to call the police if things got out of hand.”

“And what was Jim Bob Gibbons’ take on all this?”

“Evidently, you’ve done your homework. I see we’re not
the first people you’ve questioned about this. Can I ask you why you’re here
asking all these questions? Something bad must have happened.”

“All in good time, Mr. Korlein. Just tell me about Jim
Bob Gibbons.”

“Well, back in high school Jim Bob was one of the few
male friends that Jimmy had. I think Jim Bob liked all the things that Jimmy’s
money could buy. Anyway, they hung out some together. That is if Jimmy wasn’t
pawing some girl. Anyway, I didn’t care to be around either one of them,
although it seems like Jim Bob might have changed some. It sounds funny that
the two of us live in the same town and never see each other, but it’d been a
while since I’d run into him until I saw him at the reunion. Anyway, Jim Bob
tried to settle Jimmy down. Each time it worked for a few minutes, but then
Jimmy’d get going again.”

“And what did Gibbons think of your rough way of
removing Conkwright from the premises?”

“Oh, he said something like, ‘You didn’t need to be so
rough.’”

“Tell me about when Duck Spencer showed up.”

“Lieutenant, if you already know all this stuff, why
are you bothering to question us? What did happen that we don’t know about?”

“In a minute. Just tell me about when Spencer showed
up.”

“Well, when Jimmy and Betty Gail left, I looked over
at George Justice, and he took out his phone and dialed someone. I wasn’t sure
if it was the police or what, but a while later Duck showed up, wanting to know
where Betty Gail was.”

“And did anyone know?”

“I’m sure Jimmy did, but Jimmy wasn’t there to answer
him, so we took off looking for them. I didn’t want Duck to do anything he’d be
sorry for.”

“You say ‘We took off.’ Who’s ‘we’?”

Oh, me, and George, and Duck, and Jim Bob.”

“All of you stick together?”

“We did at first, but it seemed liked Jim Bob was
itching to go look for them by himself, so he did. The rest of us stuck
together, didn’t find them, though. Later, I saw Jim Bob coming out of the
kitchen. He just looked at me, smiled, and gave me a palm’s up sign, as if he
hadn’t had any luck.”

“Are you sure Jim Bob was the one you saw coming out
of the kitchen?”

“Yeah, it was Jim Bob. The rest of us had just gotten
back. Duck and George went back in the cafeteria. I had to use the restroom. I
saw Jim Bob as I was coming out.”

“Do you remember Miriam Van Meter?”

When Korlein didn’t say anything right away, his wife
broke in.

“Wasn’t she the girl that Jimmy killed?”

“She was the one who died in an automobile accident
when Jimmy was driving drunk one night.”

“She was kind of different. It was like she wanted to
start out on top. I guess that’s why she hooked up with Jimmy. It’s funny. She
just showed up one day, out of nowhere. No one knew who she was. I never had
any classes with her, but since we were a small school I kind of knew who she
was. I could tell she wanted to be liked, but just like Rose Ellen, she never
went about it the right way.”

“Mr. Korlein, you’ve been after me to tell you why
we’re here. I’ll tell you now. We found Betty Gail Spencer and Jimmy Conkwright
dead. We’re pretty sure they were murdered.”

“I’d heard the rumors that they might have run away
together, but nobody ever guessed that they might have been murdered. I guess
this puts a whole different spin on things. Do you have any idea when they were
murdered?”

“Possibly that night. We’re not sure.”

“Well, neither of us saw anything out of the ordinary.
Well, nothing we haven’t already told you. Nobody followed them when they left
the school. At least I’m pretty sure no one did, because I think all of us were
in the cafeteria most of the time. I’m pretty sure no one went out and got in
their car and took off then.”

“And did you see either of them again that night after
Duck Spencer got to the school?”

“I didn’t. I don’t know about anyone else. I know that
nobody said anything about seeing them, at least not to us.”

April Korlein broke in.

“I hope we’ve been able to help you some.”

“We’re just putting together what everyone says and
see if we can learn anything from those who were there.”

“Well, I can’t see anyone at the reunion doing
anything. We might have wanted to throw Jimmy in the river and sober him up, or
hope he’d float away. But I’m sure none of us saw anything. Anything else we
can do for you, Lieutenant?”

“No, I guess that’s it. For now, anyway.”