Return to Murder

by John Osipowicz

  “I should get out more. Life is getting much more exciting than I remember it. God-speed. Up in the air you go.”

  Later, Todd learned that this man, Barney Gunther, had fought at some of the most famous battles in World War II, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Two years earlier he had been given a special award at a Veterans Day ceremony by none other than Mayor Ernst Dante. Apparently Dante didn’t make too much of an impression on Gunther.

  It was easy to get up on the roof, but Todd forgot about the slant part and he started to slide off. The heel of his shoe caught the gutter to stop his momentum.

  The access to the roof had taken him on the excessive slant side. The other side, facing Dante’s house was fairly flat. Todd scooted over there and assessed the situation. What helped was that Gunther’s house was a story taller than Dante’s. Todd would be jumping down, so if he could get enough of a leap, gravity would do the rest.

  The gap between the two houses looked to be about ten feet. It would take a fast run and a powerful spring of the legs. Todd thought it could be done, but the real question was whether he was the person who could do it. However, Clarice’s life was at stake, and also justice for probably a number of ladies who had been raped by this Lothario. Todd didn’t have to think any more about it.

  He did a couple of knee bends, hearing them crack when he did so. He jumped up and down five times to get his blood going. He couldn’t do a practice run. It was all or nothing, but he did estimate how many steps back he had to start to get a full run. After these calculations he took a deep breath, shouted to the sky, “Here goes nothing,” and began running toward the edge.

  What he hadn’t noticed was that about halfway to the gutters, the roof dipped a bit. He hit that dip, stumbled and fell, rolling almost to the edge. He stopped himself by hanging on to a protruding shingle.

  “Damn, that was close,” he said to himself. He got up, went back to his starting point but moved it over three feet to avoid that dip. He was ready.

  While he was in the air between the two houses, he whispered to himself, I hope this wasn’t a bad idea.

  He hit the edge of the other roof harder than he thought he would. He actually felt himself bounce with first his side and then his chin hitting the surface. The pain in his side and the bleeding of his chin told him he was still alive. He was right next to the edge. Another foot the other way and he would have fallen to his death.

  He sat up and stayed still for a moment to get his bearings. The sharp pain in his side upon impact was now turning thankfully into a dull ache, and he was able to stop his bleeding chin by holding his handkerchief against it for a full minute. He was now ready for part two.

  It looked as if part two was hitting a snag because as he looked around Dante’s roof, he could see no entrance from it into the house. Maybe there had been a door and stairs at one end, but that all was probably removed when the new story was added to the house. He could see where a door might have been, but it was all boarded up. How was he going to get into the house?

  He crawled to the back part of the roof, shimmied his way partially over the gutter and looked down. Below was a bedroom window with no screen, just pure glass. Todd was grateful for the screen being absent. Summers in the Midwest were not long. Mosquitos hardly had time to relax before the snows came. There was no need for screens.

  Todd thought it out. He figured if he got down on his haunches, grabbed on to the gutter, and leaped backwards he could swing down toward the window. Then he needed the arc of that swinging half-circle to propel him toward the window with his boot. He could kick in the window and keep swinging into the bedroom.

  The plan worked. Almost.

  He leaped backwards with good force and kept hanging on to the gutter, but the aluminum material itself was not able to full withstand his weight and bent a bit. The result was that his kicking foot was lower than he thought it was going to be. Instead of smashing the entire glass, all he did was poke a hole in lower part of the window. He could not fit through that hole.

  He would have to swing out a second time.

  With his chest muscle straining, he hoisted himself back up to the roof. He rested now for a couple of minutes. This entire thing was exhausting him, but he kept telling himself once he was inside the house he could capture Dante.

  So back on his haunches again and leaping backwards. This time the gutter did not bend at all, and Todd was able to supply a good kick to the center of the window, totally shattering it. Now he could swing through that bigger hole he made.

  Pushing off the side of the house to get backward momentum he then swung in through the hole, going too far and hitting against a chest of drawers near that window. His left arm hurt like hell as he picked himself up off the floor. He was in, but now he had to capture Dante.

  He thought he had made a lot of noise breaking through that window, but no one came upstairs. Ernst was probably still waiting by that living room window for Todd or anyone else to charge up to the front of the house so he could pick them off with his rifle. Dante was so concentrated on stopping an intruder that he probably heard only his own thoughts.

  Todd slowly opened the bedroom door. Faintly downstairs he could hear the sound of voices, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He shimmied himself on his belly toward the staircase. He needed have taken all that trouble because the living room Ernst and Clarice were in was around the corner form the staircase. He could not see them, and they could not see him if he stayed on the staircase. However, the point was to capture Dante and not play a game of hide-and-seek.

  Firmly handling his gun, Todd crept down the stairs. So far so good. Now he could hear them arguing. First it was Clarice’s voice. “You’ve been lying to me all these years.”

  “So what!” came the blunt reply.

  “I should never have married you.”

  “Shut up.”

  Todd was now on the hardwood floors of the main area creeping slowly toward the corner around which he would be able to see both people. The bad thing was they could also see him.

  Todd now heard Ernst’s plan. “Clarice, I’m going to use you as a shield to get to my car out there in the driveway. I haven’t seen that amateur sheriff out there for quite a while. I think he left to get reinforcements. But in case he is there he won’t shoot with you in front of me. When we’re out there if you fight me, I’ll immediately shoot you.”

  Clarice was still in an argumentative mood. “Yes, I’ll be dead, but then you’ll lose your shield.”

  “I may get gunned down but the important thing for you to remember is that you’ll be dead first.” Todd could hear soft crying.

  The logistical problem Todd had was as soon as he turned that corner he would have to expose himself before he could shoot. He had to chance it. He couldn’t capture Dante by words. It would have to be physical.

  He quietly turned that corner. The scene he saw was Clarice sitting on the couch facing him, while by her side facing the other way out the window, Ernst still had the shotgun pointed outside. Todd put his finger to his lips for Clarice to be quiet. He raised his gun. It would be shooting a man in the back, but he saw no other way. Maybe he would shoot him in both legs.

  It became a moot point because when Todd pointed his gun at Ernst, his wife gasped. To this day, Todd felt Clarice was not trying to warn her husband. The gasp was because she was going to see a man shot in cold blood.

  “What is it, Clarice?” Dante turned and almost at the same time fired his rifle before Todd could get off s shot. Todd leaped back behind the curved wall with Dante’s bullet taking a big chunk out the wall where Todd had been a second earlier.

  Todd heard the rifle reloaded. “I’m coming to get you, Henson,” Dante said.

  Todd could try to flee back up those stairs, but he would get only halfway before he would be blasted by that rifle. He gripped his gun more tightly. It was going to have to be face-to-face combat only a few feet apart, almost like in Civil War days.

 
; He braced himself for Dante charging around the corner. Todd had to get that first shot off before Dante fired.

  Suddenly he heard a thump and then, “Argh!” Then another thump, followed by a half minute of silence.

  “You can come out now, Sheriff,” Clarice said. “Everything is under control.”

  “I know he’s still got you,” Todd said. “I’m not falling for Dante’s trick.”

  “It isn’t a trick. I hit him. He’s out cold. Look for yourself.”

  Todd peeked one eye around that corner. Sure enough, Ernst was on the ground stretched out and not moving. Clarice was standing over him with some kind of metallic dish in her hand.

  “I got him good,” she said.

  Todd approached. “What’s that in your hand?”

  “It’s a silver platter. It was given to Ernst two years ago by City Council for a decade of meritorious service as the mayor of Calypso. He’s always had it on the mantle and shined it once a week.”

  “It looks heavy.”

  “Heavy enough to knock that fool out. I gave him an extra one so he’ll stay blotto for a few more minutes. I’m the one, though, who’s been the fool to ever listen to that man. After he shot at you the first time he was too concerned where you were, and he left me alone. But I guess he left me alone a long time ago.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  The next day the new deputy arrived.

  Over the phone with the South Bend police chief, Todd heard that J-O-E was coming to help him. The Chief should have spelled it out because it was J-O, short for Joanna. “Wow, you’re a woman,” Todd said.

  “I have been, much of my life,” said the red-haired, sharp featured creature. Todd had to admit she was probably much nicer to look at than any guy named Joe.

  “You’re a day late,” Todd said. “I captured this rapist and possible murderer yesterday.”

  “Good for you. I don’t have any medals on me, but perhaps we can send a couple cereal box-tops for a de-coder ring instead for your heroism in the line of duty.”

  “I am surprised to see you. “You’re so young, and like I said before I didn’t think they’d be sending me a woman.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you. You’re not being very complimentary.”

  “I’m not meaning any disrespect, but I’m trying to chase down a serial killer. I wanted someone tough who could fight and--.”

  Todd was interrupted when Jo took two steps forward, and suddenly he found himself on the floor. She had grabbed his hand so quickly she didn’t see it, but he sure felt being flipped on onto his back.

  “I was in the Marines for three years,” Jo said. I saw some action a year ago in Syria fighting ISIS. It was intense. I think I can handle things here in Calypso.”

  The next couple days Todd found out that Jo had been born in South Bend, but she didn’t like that book learning well enough to go to college so she joined the Marines right out of high school. He parents were against it, but like she said, “I was eighteen, and I could do what I wanted to.”

  Todd was beginning to see that he had a diamond in the rough. He was glad to have her. At one point they sat for two hours while Todd talked about the highs and lows of his case so far.

  “It is complicated, Todd,” Joanna said, “because you’re ultimately pursuing your original case from Philadelphia about Billy Jessup which brought you out here since this was where he grew up. However, here you’re faced that they strange May 10th at ten, murders. Then, the sheriff is murdered, and now you’re really responsible for stopping crime in Calypso. I think I’m needed here.”

  “You are. Why don’t I take a vacation, and you can solve all that stuff.”

  “No problem. Take a week off, and I’ll have all the answers when you come back. I wish it were that easy. From listening to you, though, I think I’ll add to your complexity. What comes through underneath a lot of what you’re saying is that you’re interested in that kid, Hiram, who was dropped off here in town when he was just barely a toddler.”

  “You’re right. Sometimes before I go to sleep at night, I get the thought that possibly Hiram somehow is the key to all these murders. Two of the people murdered, Ma Blessing and Walt Fosdick were both taking care of Hiram for a time. Also Ma’s daughter Lulu told me that Hiram had often talked with Billy Jessup before he left town. Possibly Billy picked up some kind of clue as to where Hiram came from, and therefore had to be eliminated. The Hiram angle could prove to be a dead end, but at least I’ll be satisfied I investigated it as thoroughly as I could.”

  “Why don’t we do it this way? I’ll keep pursuing the leads you’ve already set up, and you concentrate fully on the Hiram thing, wherever that takes you. It won’t be a vacation for you, but at least you’ll be able to satisfy your hunch about him.”

  “I would like that. That kid nags at me. Who in his right mind drops off a two-year old child to fend for himself? And why here in Calypso? I will pursue it.”

  Before Todd could begin his quest with Hiram, he received a call from one of his favorite people, reporter Nancy Skylar. “I’m not usually one of these emancipated progressive women, but I got the urge to ask you this. Why don’t we have a night out together, maybe some dinner?”

  Todd knew that when he was working a case, the rule was not to fraternize with the suspects. However, Nancy was as far away from being a suspect as anyone Todd had interviewed. She was simply another person in the town, and in Todd’s view totally unconnected to the case. “Nancy, that’s a great idea.”

  “You may not believe it, but Calypso does have one nice restaurant. I’ll pick you up at six tonight, and we’ll go to it. It can be Dutch treat—we each pay our way—so there’s no feeling of obligation.”

  Todd would have liked to be obligated to Nancy so he could keep seeing her, but he agreed with her plan. “Sure, it sounds great. Now are you sure there’s an eating establishment better than McDonald’s?”

  “With McDonald’s I know the bar is set high, but I’ll let you be the judge. See you at six.”

  Montebello’s was on maybe the only hill in the area with a good view of the countryside. Soft music, deep wood furnishings, and elegant dark brown tablecloths made for an initial impressive first impression for Todd.

  They were shown to a soft leather booth whose high sides gave a feeling of privacy.

  “This is better than McDonald’s. You’ve done well, Nancy.”

  “See how the food is. If you’re not satisfied we’ll to get a Big Mac for dessert.”

  Todd felt like he had known this woman for years. They each had a mixed drink, and in waiting for their meal at no time did their conversation become strained. Nancy had grown up in Cleveland. She assured Todd that all the jokes weren’t true. “I loved the city. People were open and friendly; no one put on airs. People there lived within what they thought they could accomplish and were not always trying to beat out the other guy. It was so relaxed. Now there’s a little more crime, but when I go back to visit my brother, most of the old neighborhood is still there and welcomes me.”

  “What brought you out to Calypso?”

  “I started working in Chicago for the Tribune, but the pace was too frantic. I could keep up, but in the three years I was there I never felt I was really enjoying life. I surfed the internet and saw a job opening here. Even though, of course, Calypso, is tiny compared to Cleveland, I thought a small town would have the peaceful atmosphere I was accustomed to, and I haven’t been disappointed. It doesn’t take a lot to satisfy me. Fulfilling work, good companionship, and a little fun would be enough for me. At least so far I’ve found fulfilling work.”

  Her implication sat out there in the middle of the table. Was Todd the person who would supply the companionship and fun? He didn’t respond, and they had their first awkward silence. The food arrived just in time.

  Todd dug into the luscious looking piece of meat in front of him. Two bites later he said, “We do not have to stop for the Big Mac. This steak is excellent.”
<
br />   Halfway through the food, Todd thought he would see how committed Nancy would be to an idea he had. He knew he wasn’t going to spend the rest of his life living in Calypso, Indiana.

  “Would you ever move away from this area, Nancy, say to the East Coast?”

  “That part of the country intrigues me, but no I wouldn’t.” She went no further.

  “That’s quite a decisive answer. It doesn’t seem to match the first part of your thought, about the East Coast being intriguing.”

  “It’s something I haven’t mentioned to you. It’s my mother. She has an advanced case of Parkinson’s. The actor, Michael J. Fox, who has the disease, is able to function pretty well, but my mother’s been in a wheel chair for the last six years. She was getting worse until a couple of years ago. At the present the disease seems to have quieted down, but she’s still in the chair. My dad worked from home a lot, and so he took care of her. He died three years ago, and so I took over her care. I tried to get on-line work, but I couldn’t so I had to put her into a managed care facility connected to the Cleveland Clinic. That facility isn’t too far from Calypso. That’s the real reason I live here, so I can be close to her. I wouldn’t want to change that.”

  “Of course not. I’m so sorry. It sounds rough.”

  “She was diagnosed over ten years ago, so we’ve all adjusted to it. It’s just part of life now. Michael J. Fox when he gives interviews says he hardly thinks about it, and it the same for my mom and me. I don’t want to move away from her, though.”

  Todd finish his bread pudding dessert lost in his own thoughts. Possibly he had found the ideal placement for the money he had won in the Lottery.

  He didn’t mention his idea to Nancy. Perhaps he was rushing things. But he was going to keep that idea in mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Erin Brock had her therapy office in her home, which was a small brown-roofed cottage next to a corn field. It reminded Todd of cottages he used to see in pictures of the English countryside. Erin told him that the cottage was actually constructed by someone from London who had thought he might start that kind of dwelling in the USA.