“People said it was because there was evidence the two of them were having sexual relations shortly before the murders happened,” Lana said. “I didn’t believe it then and I still don’t believe it. I can’t imagine them being so foolish to do that down there at the football field where anyone could’ve discovered them. It would’ve been risky.”
Lana continued pulling things out of the box, remarking to Tommy on each item’s history. “Oh, look at these,” she said excitedly, handing him two ticket stubs. “These are for the Riverside skating rink where we used to go on Saturday mornings when we were kids. The South Side Fire Company was in charge of it. I have so many fond memories of that place - even if I did fall down on the floor a lot. We’d rent our skates and go round and round for hours. We never seemed to get tired then.” She smiled at the innocence of those bygone days.
“Shirley’s sister Linda often went with us. When Linda got into high school she looked just like Shirley. I heard her father had a real hard time with that. It was a constant reminder of what had happened.”
Lana turned back to the box of mementoes on the table. An invitation to Linda’s birthday party and party favors in the shape of roller skates, brittle with age, were removed and placed on the table next to the newspaper articles. Lana looked at each item with renewed interest and accidentally dropped some things.
Bunky, sensing his chance to run off with something, came running before the items hit the floor. He rooted through the papers and grabbed a delicate white envelope between his teeth, ready to make his getaway.
“Bring that back,” Lana shouted.
This time, Bunky obeyed. He took the fragile envelope over to where she was sitting and dropped it at her feet.
“Good boy,” she said, stooping to pet his soft silky hair. Lana picked it up and stared at the yellowing envelope.
“What do you have there?” Sheski asked.
“I’m not sure. No, wait a minute. I know what this envelope is.” Lana turned the envelope over and opened it. “I don’t know what’s in it, though.” A puzzled look crossed her face. “The night of Linda’s party, we were bugging Shirley while she was trying to get ready for her date. One of the times we barged into her room, Shirley’d been looking at whatever was in this envelope. When she came to the door to chase us away, we could see in the mirror she was holding something behind her back. Linda peeked in later to see Shirley hiding things under a makeup mirror on her vanity table. After her sister went out for her date, Linda went into her room and took this envelope. She gave it to me and told me to hold onto it. She said we’d look at it together when the other girls had gone home. After the police came to the Adams’ house, they drove us home. Linda and I never got to open it. I just put all this stuff in a box and forgot all about it.”
Sheski became more interested. “Open it up and let’s see what she was hiding.”
Lana opened the envelope with the forbidden contents. Uneven edges of two pieces of a black and white photograph slid out. She carefully picked them up and put the corresponding pieces together. They could see where they had once been taped together, but time had caused the tape to fail. Lana removed another wrinkled photo and smoothed it out the best she could. Placing them on the table, she could see their significance. She rushed to her desk, searched for some tape and brought it to the kitchen table to repair her find.
Tommy asked her to be careful handling them so as not to destroy any prints.
Lana carefully turned the torn photograph pieces and taped them on the back. She placed the result on the table next to the rumpled one so they could be viewed together.
Sheski leaned over to get a good look at what it was Shirley was trying so hard to hide.
Looking out from the first crumpled photo was a beautiful although frightened Shirley, on a cot. Next to her was a teenage boy, a hazy right side of his face to the viewer. It was obvious the boy’s intentions were being forced on the girl and she was in distress.
“That’s Shirley,” Lana said.
“Who’s the boy?” Tommy asked.
“I don’t know. All I can see is part of his face, and that part is blurry. It could be Joey, but I don’t think so. Shirley doesn’t look happy and Joey wasn’t the type to be photographed with her in a compromising situation. You can see the boy with her was a willing participant in the picture-taking. So it can’t be Joey.”
The two of them turned their attention to the taped photo. A smiling, good-looking, middle-aged man was reaching to touch the arm of a pretty woman who appeared to be his age.
The man was wearing a dress shirt with the top buttons open, exposing a white tee-shirt underneath. A suit coat and tie were draped on the chair behind him.
Plates with food on them and lit candles were visible on the kitchen table on which the couple was leaning. They were having dinner together and appeared to be having a good time.
The woman was grinning and looking at her date. She was wearing a housecoat, casually open a little, making it look as if she was wearing nothing underneath it. Despite having no makeup on and tousled hair, she looked attractive.
“That’s Mr. Adams, Shirley’s father,” Lana blurted out in surprise. “And that’s Mrs. Temple,” she said, pointing to the woman. “Wow. No wonder Shirley had been staring at these photographs. The first one shows Shirley to be in a terrible situation and this photo shows her father with someone other than his wife.”
Sheski was getting one of his gut feelings - feelings which usually proved right. He was thinking these two pictures were critical to the solving of this case. “Who’s Mrs. Temple?” he asked. He pulled the picture closer to get a better look.
“Thelma Temple. She was a pretty woman, a widow who clerked in the clothing store Kenneth Adams owned. Mrs. Temple had a son and daughter, Dwight and Annette whom she raised alone.”
“Are any of these people still living in this area?” he asked.
“After high school graduation, I lost track of Annette. She moved to California to attend college. Thelma still lives in Danville, but she never fully recovered from the accident. She’s retired and lives in the same house on Bloom Road where she raised her children.”
“The accident? You mean the Teen Lovers? Did she know those kids that well?”
“Not that incident,” Lana said. “The drowning. It happened after Shirley and Joey were murdered. Annette’s brother Dwight drowned while swimming in the Susquehanna River with some friends. He was only 18 at the time. A real cutie and a strong swimmer, too. He was out on the river with some friends in a jon boat. They were anchored above Elephant Rock and decided to race to shore. The boys jumped out of the boat and swam as fast as they could. Dwight never made it. Some kids don’t seem to realize how dangerous the river can be. The police couldn’t understand how such a strong swimmer as Dwight could drown with his friends there. They never found his body.”
“How sad for Dwight and his family,” Sheski said.
“Yes, it was a bad time for Annette and her mother. The police called it the Jon Boat Death case.”
“I’m going to have to have a talk with Mrs. Temple and Kenneth Adams. That’s if he’s still alive. Sometime soon. Linda Adams, too, if we can find her. These pictures need some explaining. They open up a whole new line of inquiry for us. I wonder how Shirley got them. And I wonder if she’s the one who tore them apart.”
“I’m sure it was her,” Lana said. “No one else had access to them between the time when she hid them from us and when we opened the envelope today.”
“I wonder who photographed these two events and why. Unless there was some blackmail going on. Whoever it was could’ve been getting something from Shirley to keep quiet about whatever was going on between her father and Mrs. Temple.”
“Maybe that’s how the boy in this photo got her in this position,” Lana said, holding up the photo of Shirley and the boy on the cot. “By threatening to expose her father’s relationship if she didn’t do what he wanted. What a creep he�
��d have to be.”
“Now that we have John Deadly in the middle of this, maybe we ought to have a closer look at that boy in the picture. We know Deadly is capable of all this and plenty more.”
“John Deadly,” Lana said. “I didn’t know he was involved in this. Where does that monster fit in?” She remembered him from his murderous history and even though he committed suicide, his involvement still frightened her.
Sheski told her the little he could reveal of Deadly’s part in the case. “We don’t know much about where he fits in here for sure, but I wouldn’t put it past him to do such a thing. Maybe one of his buddies took the picture of Shirley and this guy. We’ll check it out and make copies of these photos. We can computer enhance them and lift fingerprints, too.”
“Tommy,” Lana said, her face brightening. “Have the police talked to the Sams yet?”
“The Sams?” Sheski repeated. “I never heard of them. Who are they?”
“Samantha and Samuel West. Everyone in town calls them the Sams because of their names. They dress in matching clothes, finish each others’ sentences, and are usually together.” She smiled. “They’re also known for being very inquisitive. They know everything going on in their neighborhood. In warmer weather, they sit together on the porch, watching the street. They’ve always done that and probably will for as long as they can. During bad weather or in the evening they sit on the bay window seat inside their home, looking out. Surely, they must’ve been questioned all those years ago. They should’ve been the first witnesses the police spoke to. They’re real nice but they are characters.”
Sheski was certain Chief Bill never talked to them. Their names weren’t mentioned in any of the documents.
“Maybe they saw something that night. I don’t know, but it’s worth a try. They lived near the Adams’ house when the murders happened. Still do. Maybe they remember something.”
Tuesday, 4am
“Are you alright?” Mike asked his wife.
Lillian was restless and tossing on the damp sheets next to him. She’d been up several times to walk around and couldn’t seem to get comfortable.
“I’m sorry I woke you, Mike. I can’t sleep. I just don’t feel good. Maybe it was the ice cream I had before I came to bed. I usually don’t eat something like that but I’ve been so hungry lately.” She sat up. “I feel hot and sick, like I’m gonna throw up. And I’ve been having these crampy feelings for the last fifteen minutes.”
Alarmed, he said, “Can I get you anything? Is the baby coming? It’s too soon. It’s not due yet.” Mike sat up in bed and drew his weary wife close to him. He looked at the creases in her forehead and knew she was ill. Reaching his hand across her cheek, he pushed damp strands of hair from her flushed face.
“I don’t know. I never had this problem when I was pregnant with the girls. Things always went smoothly. I’m scared, Mike. I think we should get to the hospital.” She leaned against him and looked into his face.
Mike alerted their daughters and called 911. After that he phoned Dr. Cornell, telling him of the events.
“Have her lie down, prop her feet up, and try to keep her calm,” the physician advised. “Is there any bleeding? Has her water broke?”
Lillian said “No” to the questions he asked.
“No,” Mike relayed. His hands were shaking and he paced back and forth while talking.
“Good. Just do as I said and get her to the hospital as fast as you can. I’ll meet you there. Do you want me to call the ambulance for you?”
“I already did,” Mike said. He hung up the phone and told their daughter Chloe to retrieve her mother’s overnight bag.
“I’m scared, Daddy. It’s not time for the baby to be born yet. Mother said it would be a couple of weeks.” A tear streaked down her cheek and she choked back a sob as she reached for the carry bag next to the bed.
“Don’t be scared, honey. Everything will be alright. Now run and tell your sister to come in here.”
Vanessa, their older daughter, appeared with Chloe. Her pretty face was fraught with worry as she viewed her mother’s discomfort.
“What can I do to help, Daddy?” she asked, her eyes darting back and forth from him to her mother. She patted her mother’s hand.
“Help me get your mother comfortable until the ambulance arrives.”
That morning
When the normally cool and collected Mike called Sheski from the hospital, it was obvious he was frazzled. Lillian was in labor.
Sheski tried to focus on the case to ease his troubled mind. If anything happened to Lillian, he didn’t know if Mike would be able to handle it. She meant everything to him. He told Pat so.
Pat grunted in reply. She thought about her own life and how having a baby would be the last thing she wanted to do. She’d always thought being pregnant would only slow down her obtaining the most important thing in life - a well-paying, influential career. She’d long ago made sure no babies were in her future.
Sheski remained busy with details on the murder case, exchanging ideas with Pat.
Paul chose to let them work on it without him this morning. Instead, he gave Sheski his expectations and scribbles of suggestions. He reviewed these with them and went back to his office.
“It’s hard to keep my mind on this knowing Mike and Lillian are at the hospital,” Sheski said to Pat, his face belying his worry.
“I hope he doesn’t take too much time off. We have a lot to do here and I don’t want to get behind. This is too important.” She hunched over documents. “Did he say when he’d be coming back in?”
It was all Sheski could do to keep from blasting her. He gritted his teeth and reminded Pat that Mike and Lillian had more important things on their minds right now than work.
“Sorry, but I don’t agree. Work comes first then family. Why did they decide to continue this pregnancy anyway? They already have two kids. With all those distractions, how does he expect to get ahead and make something of himself?” Under her breath, she mumbled something about it being too late for some people to amount to anything.
Afraid of what he would say if he got started, Sheski let that slide and kept on working.
By noontime, when Mike hadn’t telephoned, Sheski decided to call him.
“I’m glad you called. I was just getting ready to phone you. It’s a boy! He’s handsome. Looks just like me.” He laughed. “Lillian delivered him just fine.”
“Congratulations. Give Lillian my love.”
“I will. She’s worn out and is resting right now. We named him Gregory Michael after me and my dad. Dr. Cornell said he’s a few weeks premature. He scored six on the APGAR when he was born, but after they put him in the incubator he scored an eight. Lana can explain that to you. All it means is that he’s doing pretty good for a five-pound premie.”
Sheski heard the pride in his friend’s voice. “Is Lana there?” he asked.
“She was here for awhile, but she had an appointment. She left right after Gregory was born.”
“That’s great. Well, I guess I should let you get back to your family. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Tell Paul I’ll call him this afternoon.”
“Okay. Take your time coming back. We’ll manage,” Sheski said.
“Hey, if I know Pat, she’s probably complaining already, isn’t she? Wait. Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.”
In the afternoon
Paul was in his office when Sheski came back from lunch. The Captain was leaning back in his office chair, hands clasped behind his head, staring at time sheets when Sheski entered.
“What have you heard from Mike?” Paul asked.
“Mike said to tell you he’ll call you this afternoon. He and Lillian are the proud parents of a five-pound baby boy. Gregory Michael.” Sheski smiled at telling the good news. “Mother and baby are doing well. Since he’s premature, Gregory will have to be in the hospital awhile, but he has all his fingers and toes. The Doc thinks he’s going to be fine.�
�
Paul sighed. “I’m pleased to hear that. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
“Well, for starters, you can keep Pat off his back. He’s only been gone today and she’s already sniping at him because he didn’t come in.”
“How’s she been behaving otherwise? You know, the sexual harassment,” Paul said warily. He absently touched the pocket where pills were waiting to be retrieved. He thought about getting one but changed his mind. He didn’t want Sheski to think he needed them. He touched the pocket again and hoped this conversation would be short.
“She’s been fine around me lately, but she still keeps her eyes on Mike. Your talk with her helped a little. And for goodness sake, take a pill if you need it.”
Paul ignored his last comment. “Good. Now, unless there’s something else, get back to work.”
“You’re in a hurry to get rid of me,” Sheski said.
“Listen, I hear from Harrisburg regularly about this case you’re working on. They want results, Sheski, results!” By now, Paul was standing, his knuckles white against the dark desktop. “So pay attention to your timeline and follow my suggestions. We’ll regroup in the meeting room at 4:00 PM for an overview. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” When Sheski was gone, Paul grabbed two antacids and popped them in his mouth.
1:45 PM
“Let’s get going,” Pat said when Sheski returned to the meeting room. “You have appointments with Thelma Temple and Kenneth Adams tomorrow and we need to get our line of questioning ready.”
Sheski acknowledged he heard what she said then ignored her the rest of the afternoon.
Mrs. Temple was residing right where Lana said she was, in her modest home on Bloom Road.
Kenneth Adams was just as easy to locate. He never remarried after his wife’s death and was living in a high-rise apartment at the edge of town.
They were still trying to find Chief Bill. The Chief’s son, Bill Davis, a retired schoolteacher, had yet to return their calls.
“Where are you on our line of questioning?” Pat asked.
TEEN LOVERS: Murder Along the River Page 8