5 Murder at the High School Reunion

by Steve Demaree

  “Oh, hi, Lieutenant, what brings you back?”

  “As a matter of fact, it’s the sergeant’s car this time, which reminds me. Were you here at the school yesterday?”

  “No, with school startin’ next week, yestidy was my last day off for a while. Well, other than weekends. The teachers’ll be back Monday. That’s means I have to git all these here rooms cleaned by Friday. The students come back next Wednesday.”

  “Well, I guess I just have one question for you, about the night of the reunion. What can you tell me about Earl Spickard after he got here that night?”

  He smiled.

  “Well, old Earl is the only one I can tell you about, ’cept for myself. He was with me the whole time.”

  “So tell me your whereabouts after he got here.”

  “Well, I was in the restroom when somebody come in. I didn’t know at first it was my friend Earl. As a matter of fact, I was s’prised to see him. Anyway, Earl took a seat in the next stall, and we ended up coming out at the same time. That’s the first I knowed it was him. Afore, I figured it was one of them guys from the reunion. I was so glad to see Earl. We hadn’t seen each other in a while. We slapped each other on the back, and I asked him what in tarnation he was doing at the school. He told me about bringin’ some guy there in his boat. When I found out he didn’t have to hang out with the guy that come with him, I invited him to my office, his old office, to catch up on things. He was with me ’til he left.”

  “And were you in the office the whole time?”

  “No, Lieutenant, I thought I told you he wanted to walk the hallsa the school agin.”

  “How long was this after he arrived?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe half hour, forty-five minutes. I checked with that woman in charga the reunion to make sure everthang was okay afore we took off, and let her know we was goin’ in case she needed me. I might’ve told you that things got a little rowdy a coupla times earlier in the night. That guy who got kilt was responsible for the ruckus.”

  “At any time that night, did you see someone headed for the kitchen, or coming out of the kitchen?”

  “I was in my office most of the time. I didn’t see mucha nothin’, but I heered a couple things, but alla that stuff was afore Earl and that other guy got here.”

  I thanked Gillis for his time and wished him luck getting everything ready for the start of school.

  “Oh, I’ll get ’er done all right, otherwise I’ll have to come back this weekend and do it, ’cause it needs to be done afore Monday. Well, this here second floor does. The other’n I can do on Monday and Tuesday.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Lou and I walked out the door. I looked quickly to see if Lou’s car was still there. It was. Evidently, his car isn’t as desirable as Lightning. A tear came to my eye as I thought about my companion. Lou broke the silence.

  “What do you think, Cy?”

  “About what?”

  “Well, if he’s telling the truth, there’s no way the retired janitor could have done it, unless they did it together.”

  “I’m just wondering why no one saw Conkwright and Mrs. Spencer come back in the school.”

  “Well, I think that part is obvious. When they came back in they came in through the kitchen door, and they never made it past the kitchen. I doubt if they ever intended to go anywhere but the kitchen. Maybe they went to the freezer to get some ice for what they were drinking, or for Conkwright’s face. Remember, he had lacerations on his face when the guys threw him out. Might have had some swelling, too.”

  “I think you might be right there, Lou. Remember, there were at least a couple of people in that kitchen that we know of.”

  “Yeah, the two that inherited.”

  “Yeah, and somebody said that they saw Duck Spencer coming out of there. I’d say that whoever shut that freezer door just missed getting caught, with all the traffic that was in and out of the cafeteria, up and down the hall.”

  +++

  Lou turned right out of the school parking lot and headed on out Thornapple Road. He continued down the road until he came to the turnoff for Flat Rock Road. He turned left and we headed up the rollercoaster hill until the road leveled out. At least we didn’t start dropping when we got to the top.

  I knew we were getting close to Duck Spencer’s place when I heard an exclamation come out of Lou’s mouth. I looked ahead and saw what he saw. There, off in the distance, was a yellow spot. From what I could tell, the spot was in the road. As we drew closer, the spot began to look familiar, and my seatbelt was the only thing that kept me from jumping out of my seat.

  There, facing me, in the other lane of traffic, one hundred feet or so past the entrance to Spencer’s place, sat Lightning. Lou pulled up past Spencer’s driveway and stopped. I’m not sure if I hopped out before or after he stopped, but it was close.

  I expected Lightning to start tooting her horn at me, but the closer I got, the more I could see the shame she felt. Her headlights seemed to look down, as if she was embarrassed. Lightning had never been violated before and didn’t know how to handle it.

  I ran up beside her, yanked on the door. It was locked. Whoever had driven her there relocked the door when they left. I took out my key and opened the door. The stench was too much for me. Cigarette smoke and far worse odors wafted from Lightning. I looked her over, and then walked all the way around her outside. Other than the smell she had had to endure, I could see nothing else that would tell someone that she had had a frightening experience.

  I got in long enough to see if she would start. She started right up as if nothing had happened. The smell was too much for me, so I got out quickly, told Lightning I’d be back in a few minutes. I noticed that Lou had remained in his car. He knew that Lightning and I needed a little time alone.

  As soon as I got out, I walked toward Lou’s car. As I walked, I looked over at Duck Spencer’s place. His truck was there, so he was probably home. I would check to see what he knew of this. I walked around to the passenger side of Lou’s car and opened the door. I got in and told Lou what I had in mind. He shifted his car into reverse and backed it up until he had passed Spencer’s driveway. Then, he drove up and parked behind Spencer’s truck. Spencer was just coming out of his garage when he heard us.

  “Now this is a fine seta wheels. Nothin’ like that one you drove out here the other day, Lieutenant. By the way, did you see there’s one like yours parked out on the road?”

  “That one is mine, Mr. Spencer. What do you know about how it got there?”

  “As a mattera fact, I know quite a bit. I was out bush hoggin’ my property out near the road yesterday when I seen this little car like your’n comin’ down the road. It s’prised me to see any kinda car comin’ down the road from that direction, ’cause nobody lives down there except’n Earl Spickard, and he ain’t got no car. Anyways, right after I seen ’em, they seen me. They stopped that car so fast and took off runnin’ down the road back the way they come from. It was them Clough boys. Meaner’n snakes, them boys is. Well, I knowed that car wasn’t their’n, but since I didn’t see no one drive it past my house on the way to Earl’s place, I had no idea it was your’n. I went up to check on it, locked it up, figured the owner would miss it and come ’long shortly. I was out thare another hour and still no one come along. I was gonna call and report it this afternoon, if nobody’d claimed it by then.”

  “You say it was some boys named Clough.”

  “That’s right. Ever’ now and agin, they come out of them hills and cause trouble. They live back in thare somewhere,” he said, as he pointed across the road and down. “People’s gone in lookin’ for ’em afore, but they never found ’em. I ain’t shore if they’s in this county or the next ’en.”

  I wondered if it would do any good to try to find them and prosecute. Mr. Spencer let me use his phone and I called downtown and had them send out a print crew just in case. I would use some of the time we had to wait on them to ask Spencer some questions
.

  “Mr. Spencer, I have a question about the night of the reunion.”

  “Like I told you afore, I weren’t there long.”

  “That’s okay. Just tell me this. You said that Earl Spickard took you there in his boat. Did you go into the school together?”

  “No, I ran on ahead. He come in a minute or two later.”

  “You came to the kitchen door first. Why didn’t you use it?”

  “I figured it was locked. I figured the front door was the only one unlocked.”

  “So, you didn’t try the kitchen door?”

  He looked at me like I was crazy.

  “Did you notice if it was shut?”

  “It was shut.”

  “So, what happened when you walked into the school?”

  “George was standin’ there, leanin’ aginst the cafeteria door. I’d called him and told him we was almost there.”

  “And what about Mr. Spickard? Did he come in and join you?”

  “Naw, I seen him walk in, out of the corner of my eye. He motioned to me that he was goin’ to the restroom.”

  “And did you see if he stopped somewhere on the way to the restroom?”

  “Well, my mind was on my wife and where she might be, but I’m pretty shore he went on in the restroom. Anyways, he come outa thare a coupla of minutes later, and thare was this here other guy with him. I found out that the other guy was the janitor who took his place when he retired.”

  “Did you see Mr. Spickard any time after that that night?”

  “Yep. I stopped off and told him I had a way home. Course, when we was runnin’ back and forth tryin’ to find my wife, I heard the two a ’em in the janitor’s cubbyhole talkin’.”

  Well, two people had backed up Earl Spickard’s alibi. Unless someone was lying, I couldn’t see where the old man would have had an opportunity to lock the freezer door.

  Just as I was about to end our conversation, I thought of Lightning.

  “Oh, Mr. Spencer, one other thing. Do you have any air freshener?”

  The look on his face said it all. Spencer was not the type of person to use air freshener.

  I thanked Spencer for his time and Lou and I turned to leave.

  +++

  It was about a quarter of a mile from Spencer’s house to where Lightning was parked. Lou drove back toward the road and we sat at the end of the driveway until the print crew arrived. A half hour or so later, they had finished and had lifted several prints, not all of them mine or Lou’s.

  +++

  The print crew drove off and Lou and I talked about what was next. I knew what was next for me. Lightning needed a bath, a good scrubbing, inside and out. I told Lou I needed to take Lightning to the car wash and would call him when I got home. There were a few other people I wanted to check with, just in case someone saw Earl Spickard where he shouldn’t have been.

  “Cy, why don’t you go first on the way to town? That way, if something happens on the way back in you won’t be stranded.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Lightning received a good scrubbing, inside and out, including washing behind her ears, and the car wash sprayed something inside to take the smell out of the air. I wasn’t too crazy about the smell, but it was better than what was there before.

  +++

  Anyone else I needed to talk to that day wouldn’t be home until after 5:00. It was time to head home, take a nap, and maybe read for a few minutes.

  +++

  As I drove to pick Lou up so that we could question people who were at the reunion about the retired janitor’s nocturnal wanderings or lack thereof, I hoped that we could soon file this case in the finished drawer.

  It was almost 5:30 when I pulled up in front of Lou’s apartment building. He was watching for me, and bounced down the walkway toward Lightning. I noticed that he patted Lightning as he rounded her front on his way to get in.

  “So, Lou, are you ready to wrap this up?”

  “A lot more eager than I am to wrap your Christmas presents. Of course, then, as you know, most of the time I use bags.”

  “And maybe we are well on our way to bagging someone in this case.”

  “Who do you want to bag, Cy?”

  “At this point, I’ll take almost anybody.”

  It didn’t take us long to get to Rose Ellen Calvert’s house, and as we pulled up we saw her outside watering her flowers. She turned as we shut Lightning’s doors, and the look she gave me made me think I had an overdue book.

  “Hello, Miss Calvert. Good to see you again.”

  “I wish I could say the same, Lieutenant. What do you want this time? You have a witness who saw me standing over the deceased?”

  “I was hoping you could be my witness.”

  “Oh? In what way?”

  “I want to know what you saw Earl Spickard doing on the night of the reunion.”

  “That’s the old janitor? Right?”

  I nodded that it was.

  “I saw him standing, but he wasn’t standing over any bodies.”

  “Did you at any time see him by himself, in the hall, or any of the rooms of the school?”

  “I saw him only once, and that time he was with the current janitor. There were other people around, too.”

  “Did you see anyone heading toward the stairs leading to the second floor?”

  “Only when we were up there before dinner.”

  “What about the kitchen?”

  “Only what I’ve already told you. I think Jim Bob Gibbons headed in there just after I headed out. At least, he looked in the kitchen. Whether or not he spent any time in there I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea if he used the kitchen door to leave the school. He’s the only one I can remember seeing in the kitchen, but the whole thing is starting to get a little fuzzy.”

  I thanked her for her time. I think she was relieved to get off so easily, and she never mentioned anything about Lou.

  +++

  Trips to the Korleins, Justices, and Jim Bob Gibbons didn’t give me any incriminating evidence against Earl Spickard. Those who saw him at all that night, and most people saw him at least once, never saw him by himself.

  +++

  “You know, Lou, it would really help if we knew when those two were locked inside the freezer.”

  “Especially if they were locked in there before Duck Spencer and Earl Spickard got there.”

  “Right! The best we have to go on is what Rose Ellen Calvert said. She saw them heading toward the kitchen door a few minutes before Spencer got there. What if they stumbled around outside long enough that Spencer saw them heading to the kitchen?”

  “But if he saw them, wouldn’t old man Spickard have seen them, too?”

  “You would think. Unless he was too busy tying up his rowboat.”

  “But even if he was, George Justice said he saw Spencer come in through the front door. That means Spencer would have had to have gone back out the kitchen door, and I would think that by that time Spickard would have seen him.”

  “I wonder if someone, Spickard or otherwise, saw someone go in the kitchen and isn’t telling us. Everyone hated Conkwright. Could it be that someone saw the whole thing or suspected what happened and is keeping quiet? Or did someone do it, and then confess what he or she did to someone else?”

  “I don’t know. I think at least two of our suspects are lying about something or other, but I’m not sure they are lying about that. Someone would have to be awfully good not to have been the murderer, but still be able to lie in order to protect someone else.”

  +++

  It was late when we finished questioning all those involved. I didn’t want to go home and fix something to eat. Lou didn’t either. So, we opted to cheat, sort of. We stopped off at a new pizza joint that opened recently, A Slice of the Pie, in order to find out if they were any good. Lou and I split a thin, medium pizza, with sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, black olives, and onions, and between the two of us, we ate only half. We had them box up t
he rest of it, so that we could have it the next day for either lunch or supper. Surely, two pieces of thin crust pizza each wouldn’t cause us to go off the wagon.

  +++

  It felt good to be able to drop Lou off at his place again. I was sure that Lightning had some after effects of what had happened, but she was a trooper and was handling it as well as could be expected.

  I returned to my place, grateful that my next-door neighbor had not invaded my space since she was arrested. I liked being able to enter my house by whichever door suited me, and to do it at whatever pace I wanted.

  I was tired when I got home, but I wasn’t ready to fall into bed. It had been a few weeks since I had gotten together with my friends from Hogan’s Heroes. I felt that a few weeks were long enough. I put the DVD in, sat back in my recliner, and watched three episodes of Hogan getting the best of Sgt. Schultz and Col. Klink. When I ejected the DVD and turned off my TV, I had the feeling I always have after watching some classic comedy TV shows. They don’t make them like they used to. At least modern technology allows me to go back in time anytime I want.

  +++

  I was trying to decide whether or not to go to bed when the phone rang.

  “I didn’t wake you, did I, Cy?”

  “If you had, it would have been more than all right. So, how’s my Jennifer?”

  “Missing her Cy.”

  “That’s good to know. I guess you know the feeling is mutual.”

  “So what were you doing, if I may ask?”

  “Would you believe sitting in front of the computer looking at your picture?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, I was unwinding.”

  “And how were you doing that?”

  “Hogan’s Heroes.”

  I heard a chuckle on the other end of the phone.

  “I went back further than that yesterday, Cy. I found an old episode of The Danny Thomas Show. True, it was on long before I was born, but I saw a few episodes years ago and liked them, particularly the ones where someone is getting the best of Danny. So, are you still working on the same case?”