by Tonya Kappes
“We need to go through all this paper and see if any of it lines up with this.” I put the somewhat intact piece in the middle like we did the cover of a puzzle we worked on at the Laundry Club, acting as if it were just a puzzle.
Over next few hours, we had coffee and talked about pretty much nothing, just passing the time as the five of us went through each piece of paper in the garbage bag that’d fallen out of Alena’s work dumpster.
“Nothing.” I flung the last piece of paper on the table.
“Do you think Hank got her planner from her car?” Betts asked.
“I don’t know.” I glanced over at Dottie. She was on a phone call taking the fifth cancellation since we’d been here. “But I’m going to go broke and have to sell the campground and go work at the greenhouse for Mary Elizabeth if we don’t find the killer.”
FIFTEEN
The day flew by with no word from Hank about Alena or what he’d found out about her ties to the case. The Laundry Club girls and I were so tired that we went our separate ways and decided to get back together after the reception at the school for the now three murdered employees.
I decided on wearing a long, black dress I’d picked up from the Tough Nickel Thrift Shop when I’d moved to Normal and didn’t have much to wear since most of the items Stanley had shipped to me were cocktail dresses, fancy shoes, and things I’d never wear hiking or wear to run a campground in.
Speaking of Stanley, I let Fifi out to potty one last time and decided to give Stanley a call. Stanley was my dead ex-husband’s attorney and he was well connected.
“Hi, Stanley. It’s Mae West,” I spoke into the answering machine. “I’m not in trouble so you can take a deep breath. But I know that you know a lot of high profile people. I was wondering if you knew of any Hollywood agents or agents living in New York that might take a look at a gal I know. I know you don’t owe me, and I owe you, but one last favor from your favorite pro-bono client? Please?” I hung up the phone hoping he’d get back to me.
Not that I wanted to help out Ellis. I wanted to help out Hank. And I didn’t like the fact that Natalie was actually bribing Ellis. That’s some sort of illegal, I was sure of it. If not morally illegal.
The school’s parking lot was full, and I had to park in the overflow lot they used for sporting events.
“Hey, Miss West.” Beth Lambert was getting out of her car. “Can you believe they didn’t cancel the ACT this morning?”
I slung my bag around my shoulder. I had the notebook and the piece of Alena’s planner, two things I wasn’t going to let out of my sight.
“I guess since it’s a national thing.” I had no idea how it worked. I only understood the testing to be universal across the states. “I think they only cancel it when the weather doesn’t permit the administrator to be there.”
“Yeah, well, if they don’t catch this killer, all the administrators will be dead.” She shook her head and flung her backpack over her shoulder.
“You know, we didn’t get to finish our conversation the other day. You were saying something about Mr. Goodman and your grades.” It was a perfect time to bring it up since we had a little bit of a walk.
“Like every other athlete, we want to continue to play in college, but it’s so expensive. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t try to cheat on the ACT, but they got caught before they took the test in my name. So technically, they can’t pin that on me. But they crossed off the names on the students who were supposed to be there and mine was the only one not crossed off. So everyone knew, by process of elimination, that it was my fault.”
She walked fast. I tried to go slow so we had more time to talk.
“I heard you were changing schools.” I threw it out there. “You and Sam Patterson.”
“Something stupid my parents want me to do. Sam’s parents too. It’s not a secret that the state schools have to fill a quota of in state students. They pick from all over and my chances of getting a scholarship for that as well as walk onto a team might lead to a sports scholarship.” She waved to a couple of other students. “Plus it helps out the school’s average and funding based on how many kids get accepted to college. So my parents think it’s a good idea.”
“How do you feel about leaving your friends?” I asked, thinking it would be tough.
“As long as I get to pull the bow, I’m all good.” She did a little hop before she jogged over to more kids that were walking in a side door of the school.
It felt like her parents knew what they were talking about and if she wasn’t that great at testing or even in school, if it was her only option, I guess it was a good decision. I didn’t remember it being so complicated when I was in high school. But did any of this have to do with the murders?
I had to put that in the back of my head and get through the reception before I could even think about where me and the Laundry Club gals would go from here on the investigation, if we went anywhere.
The office door was open when I walked in the front door. There were some noises coming from the teacher’s lounge. I went in there to see who was in there. When I peeked in, I saw Gracie and a few of the other women teachers comforting each other. I’d overheard one of them say they were heading to the police station after the reception to give their fingerprints to the police. Hank, I’m sure, was having all the teachers come down to give fingerprints to eliminate them as suspects. It only seemed natural.
It was a private moment and I didn’t feel right watching. I looked down the hall at the office Alena Russell used for the students. I found my legs walking me back there without listening to my brain telling me to stop. I put my hand on the handle and twisted it open.
There was fingerprint powder on a few things. I’m sure this was where Hank had spent most of his night since I’d not heard from him. And by the look on his face yesterday, he wasn’t going to stop for food or rest until he found out who the killer was.
“There you are.” Violet Rhinehammer was standing at the office door with her camera around her neck. “I feel like you’re ignoring me. As a matter of fact, I know you are. We had a deal.”
“I know, but I’ve been so busy with trying to take over as the fulltime substitute that. . .”
“Cut the bull.” She saw right through me. “Where’s the piece of the planner?”
“How did you know about that?” I questioned.
“All it takes is a twenty dollar bill and one hour of Jazzercise to get Queenie to talk.” She did a little Strike move like she was punching the air. “Twenty dollars is a rip off for a class. But the information was valuable.”
“You are ruthless.” My jaw dropped.
“I’m a reporter. I do what I’ve got to do to get the scoop. If that means do a Jazzercise class for a little conversation, so be it.” She walked in. “Now, partner, where is that piece of paper?”
“Here.” I took it out of my bag and gave it to her. “I’m at a loss. Maybe you can figure it out.”
“Easy.” She looked at it and handed it back to me. “Is it from one of those planners?” She pointed to the shelf where there were several bound planners.
“I don’t know. I just walked in.” I followed her lead and started pulling them from the shelf. “I guess with all the fingerprint powder, they are done. Besides, there’s no police tape up.” She looked around as if she were making sure. “You know, like the police tape I was standing behind yesterday when you were ignoring me.”
“Can we please let that go? I admit. I’m at a loss. I have no solid clues other than the Lypsnk pens.” I ended up telling her my theory about the pens being the killer’s calling card. I was happy that she didn’t seem to think it was a silly theory.
“What do we have here?” She bent down and looked at one of the planner more closely. “We are missing a page. And the paper looks exactly the same.” She held the planner up to me.
I put the piece of paper on top and compared it. It was one of those planners with a daily layout on one side and
a notes section on the other side. More of a business planner than a personal one. Which would make sense due to her job.
“Look, there’s some indents where she scribbled out before she ripped it out.” I pointed to the next day in the planner.
“Let me see it.” Violet picked up the planner and held the next day page with the indents up to the light. “You can see a name was there.”
“Oh gosh,” I gasped. “You can.”
“Time to do some investigative work.” She walked over to the desk and laid the planner open to that page. “Do you have a pencil in that bag?”
“No. Just pens.” I hurried around the office to look for a pencil. “Surely, there’s a pencil in here. It’s a school office.”
Violet jerked open the top drawer.
“Got one.” She flipped the page over and lightly stroked the pencil over the area exposing more indents, making a name appear. “Mathew. It looks like Mathew.”
“Mathew Tillman?” I questioned. “I wonder if he had an appointment.”
“What’s his name and who is he?” Violet opened the notebook and used the pencil to write.
“Mathew Tillman,” I started to say.
“Did you want me?” Mathew asked, leaning on the door.
He made me and Violet jump.
“You okay?” he laughed.
“Mathew Tillman?” Violet pointed to him. “What did you want to see Alena Russell for? It’s in her planner.” She left out the part that it wasn’t really in the planner, but in a bag of shredded paper.
“She was the school counselor and I was meeting with her about how we were going to switch the student files to the new teacher taking my place before I left, but she cancelled on me at the last minute.” He didn’t hesitate to answer the question. “Why?”
“I found. . .” I started to talk but Violet rudely interrupted again.
“We are doing a piece in the paper about the murders and just looking in her planner to see who she had appointments with and try to figure out a pattern for her.” Violet smiled and tapped me on the shoulder with the pencil eraser. “I’ll see you after the reception. Don’t leave without talking to me.”
“Fine,” I said sternly and waited until she was out of the room to walk out with Mathew. “She also got a key to the city and will be taking over the school’s newspaper for six weeks.”
“Thank goodness I’m not in charge of that. I couldn’t handle someone so pushy.” He put his hand on the small of my back, making me walk a little faster to get it off on our way down to the cafeteria.
“I guess you’re leaving soon?” I asked since he’d mentioned the job and meeting with Alena.
“I was, but now they asked me to stay until the end of the year due to all the changes in staff.” Without him saying the murders, I knew what he was talking about. He pointed up front to a couple of chairs in the packed cafeteria. “Do you want to sit up there?”
“I’m fine right here for now. You go ahead. I don’t want to sit, but I’ll sit with you and the rest of the teachers at the reception part.” It looked like they were going to say a few words before it was time to eat.
I noticed a few of the Bible thumpers behind the tables that were set up for the food, Betts included. We made eye contact but didn’t say anything. All of us seemed to be at a loss for words. There was a sadness in the air with all the whispers and sniffles. As I looked around, I continued to repeat what Hank had told me about the killer returning to the scene of the crime and having a feeling of getting away with it.
I took a good hard look around. If the killer was here, they had a good game face on because everyone looked very somber.
I went over and stood in the long line in front of three tripod stands with three framed photos of the deceased. It looked like the photos were taken from the yearbook. There was enough space on the matte around the photo to sign it. Each person in the line went from frame to frame to sign.
The lady in front of me passed me back the pen.
“Thank you,” I said very softly because it looked like the preacher was going to say something to the crowd and I quickly signed the three frames.
“My pen?” The woman held her hand out. “I let you borrow my pen because there’s not one up here.”
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t realize it was hers and that I was still holding it. When I handed it back to her, I noticed it was from Lypsnk.
“It’s a shame,” she said and took her pen, putting it back in her bag.
“Shame?” I gulped.
“The three deaths.” She sighed.
“They are about to start. I saved you a seat.” Mathew touched my arm and I jerked around.
“Are you okay? You seem jumpy.”
“I’m fine.” I noticed the lady was gone. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” I continued to look around him for the woman. “I’ll be right back,” I told him and shoved past him when I saw her walk out the back of the cafeteria.
I left him standing there and hurried down the makeshift aisle they’d made with the chairs and tables from the usual cafeteria layout where the kids would sit and eat during the school day. The hallway was empty, and the woman wasn’t around, but the piece of paper on the office door was swinging like the wind from the door to the outside had shut. Then the door clicked.
My mind reeled. The woman had left. Was she the killer? Was she the woman that the hostess had mentioned who had been at the karaoke bar with Orlando?
The sound of a car door slamming caught my attention before the black car pulled out of the spot and zoomed out of the parking lot. I ran as fast as I could to get to the overflow parking lot without falling down because I was trying to keep my attention focused on the black car and where it was going.
Luckily, downtown Normal and the couple blocks where the school was located had a lot of one way streets and there weren’t too many turns once I got into my car. I was able to catch up with the black car.
I kept a safe distance and followed the car out of the downtown area.
“Call Queenie,” I told the Bluetooth and hung up when her voicemail answered. I went down the line of my Laundry Club gals, calling them, but none of them answered. I even tried Hank. No one. No one was available and I was glad I wasn’t in real trouble.
“Call Violet.” I was desperate.
“Where are you? I’m walking all over this stupid school and getting all sorts of bad memories,” she spat.
“Listen, long story short, I’m headed to Lypsnk. There was a woman at the reception I didn’t know, and I used her pen to write my name on the frame.” I wasn’t sure that’s where the black car was headed, but we were definitely heading out of town towards Swamp Canal, leaving me to believe we were going to Lypsnk where her pen was from.
“I’m on my way.” The phone went silent.
SIXTEEN
“Hey you!” I screamed from the open window in my car when the woman beat me to the front door of Lypsnk.
She turned around, lowered her eyes and then opened them.
“You stay,” I put my finger up and said even though I knew she couldn’t hear me. She didn’t bother waiting. She shook her head and walked inside of the building.
I threw the car in park and didn’t even care that I wasn’t parked in a real spot. The music from the Lypsnk could be heard from outside.
“Who on earth goes to karaoke during the day?” I questioned when opening up the front door.
The bouncer was different and sitting inside on the black stool. He barely even looked at me before he waved me in.
It didn’t seem to be as dark this time and surprisingly, there was a lot of people here.
“Booth, bar, or private room,” a young women in a cute pig costume stood at the hostess stand. The woman I was following was thumbing through her phone and stood next to her.
“You!” I yelled over the music. “I need to talk to you.”
She looked at me like I had two heads before she started tapping on her phone.
“Did you follow me here?” she asked all innocent.
“I did. When I borrowed your pen I couldn’t help but notice it was from Lypsnk.” I watched her chin draw upwards, shoulders back as she took a firm stance. “Did you know that all three of those victims had a pen from here? How did you know them?”
“I told you the other night how Orlando came in here all the time.” As she talked, I realized she was the young woman in the cat costume the night before. “I was only giving my condolences.”
Her phone buzzed and she fiddled with it a little more.
“You said you saw Orlando here with a woman and a man a few times. Can you describe them?” I asked. “Excuse me,” I interrupted her oh so important texting.
The other hostess looked at her and they gave each other a shrug.
“I’ll give you five minutes.” The woman held her hand up in the air. “Follow me.”
“Are you a manager here?” I asked.
“No. My fiancé and I own it. He’s only here on the weekends. He’s a very busy guy, so I run it. I’m generally here at night because it’s busier at night and during the day my staff consists of mothers that want to be home at night with their families.”
I followed her around the bar and through a door marked Employees Only. We passed a bathroom and a break room before we reaching a door marked Office. At the end of the hall was another door that was marked with a red exit sign.
“This is a really neat business. It’s a lot of fun.” I thought I’d be nice to try to get as much as I could out of her in the five minutes.
“I went to Chicago with a few friends.” She wiggled her finger. “We went to a karaoke bar a lot like this one. I came back, quit my job, got a few investors, and opened it.”
She sat down behind a modern glass desk. There was a glass frame photo on the desk along with a Mac computer. Very streamlined and clean.
“Please sit.” She gestured to one of the two acrylic white chairs in front of the desk. “Five minutes starts now.” She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and looked at her watch.