Murder at the High School Reunion (22 page)

“Very funny! And I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in
Lightning, either. I wouldn’t want to be caught dead anywhere, at least not for
a while. Now, can we get this reported, and can someone give Lou and me a ride
to his place?”

+++

We called in and reported Lightning missing. It was
the first anyone downtown had heard of it. We were assured that Lightning would
be easy to spot, since there were few yellow VWs in Hilldale. George offered to
drive us to Lou’s place, but I asked Heather to take us instead. She informed
me that she and Dan had come together, and that Lou and I would have to ride in
the back. I suggested that Lou could drive and she and I could ride in the
back. About that time, Lou leaned over and whispered the name “Jennifer” in my
ear.

+++

While I was worried about Lightning, I was also
starved, since it was after 2:30 and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.
I informed Heather of this, and asked her if she could stop somewhere quick, so
we could grab something.

She pulled in at the first place we came to, which
wasn’t any place I was familiar with, but I wasn’t picky at that point. She and
Dan got out the front and opened the back doors of the cruiser to let Lou and
me out. The people inside the restaurant noticed this and seemed to fidget.
Heather took all this in, too. I could tell that by what she said as soon as we
entered the restaurant.

“Don’t be alarmed, folks! They’re merely escaped
prisoners we caught trying to get away up river. They promised they wouldn’t
try anything if we let them come inside to eat.”

“See,” I said, “they even gave us our guns back.”

At that point a couple of parties got up to beat a
hasty retreat. Even when Heather told them we were kidding and all of us were
cops, many of the restaurant’s patrons remained on edge.

+++

All the way to Lou’s place my thoughts were about
Lightning. Who could have stolen her? After all, like George said, out where we
were is a very remote region. It couldn’t have been Earl Spickard. There was no
way he could’ve outrun us, driven Lightning off, and got back to his place
before we did. And he didn’t have time to do it before we talked to him. It had
to be someone else, but who? The only other person who lived close to where we
were was Duck Spencer. Why would he have stolen Lightning?

+++

Lou could tell that I was despondent over Lightning’s
disappearance, so, when Heather and Dan dropped us off, he invited me inside so
he could cheer me up. He tried to get me on the Wii, but I wasn’t in the mood.
He offered to take me out looking for Lightning, but I figured that it wouldn’t
do any good. Besides, I had no idea where to look, and all officers had been
alerted as to Lightning’s disappearance, and her license plate number. I told
him that if we didn’t hear anything by the next morning, we’d drive out to
where we left her and see if anyone out that way saw someone in a yellow VW. We
would kill two birds with one stone. While we were out that way, we planned to
check with Duck Spencer and Walter Gillis to see if either of them saw
Lightning. Then I remembered that no one was at the school when we floated by,
so, more than likely, Walter Gillis wasn’t a witness to anything.

+++

I went home and tried to read, but I couldn’t
concentrate, so I did what I did best. I lay down and took a nap. I was fine
until I woke up again and remembered the circumstances.

I was a basket case the rest of the day and night. I
tried to focus on the case, but my mind kept wandering back to Lightning.
Finally, it came time to go to bed. Before I retired for the night I called
downtown to see if they’d heard anything about my car. Nothing.

I woke up the next morning and a few seconds later I
remembered my dilemma. I sprang from the bed and hurried to the phone. Still no
word on Lightning. Dejectedly, I went about my routine, but my heart wasn’t in
it. After I’d checked everything off my list and figured we’d arrived at a
decent hour, I called Lou and told him the bad news.

“Maybe something will turn up today, Cy. You still
want to drive out in the country and talk to Spencer?”

“Life goes on, my friend. Maybe if I’m busy, things
will get better.”

“Well, let me give you a chance to be busy while I’m
on my way to pick you up. I have today’s message. It’s ‘Verbal Kint’.”

“Verbal Kent. Who or what’s verbal kent?”

“Do I look like Google to you?”

“No, Google is smarter.”

“If you weren’t under duress, Cy, I might have a
comeback to that.”

I knew it wouldn’t do me any good to ask Lou how to
spell Verbal Kint, because God never writes down his messages for Lou. And
that’s a good thing, because the one guy God did write a message down for died
that same day. I prefer my messages verbally. I had to laugh. Verbal Kint.
Verbal messages. Was there a connection?

I hurried to the computer, typed in Verbal Kent. I
soon found out that there was a Verbal Kent, but there was also a Verbal Kint.
I read about both. I was still studying them when Lou pulled up. I went to the
door and motioned for Lou to come in and help me decide which one of these guys
was our guy.

“What’s wrong, Cy?”

“Nothing, Lou. It’s just that there are two Verbal
Kents, of some spelling or another. I wanted you to look them over and see
which one you think is our clue.”

“So, you think that a whole brain is better than a
half?”

“Something like that.”

Lou looked over the first guy, the one spelled with an
“e”. Chicago, music, and emcee. We didn’t see what any of those had to do with
our case. So, I clicked on the second guy.

“I knew I’d heard that name somewhere, Cy. One night
Thelma Lou and I were alone and she wanted to rent a movie. My being a cop and
all, we were fascinated by the title
The Usual Suspects.
This guy Verbal
Kint is one of the characters in that movie.”

“You remember a character from a movie?”

“Well, he was kind of the Scarlett O’Hara of the
movie.”

“Since you said ‘he’, I can’t see the connection to
Scarlett O’Hara. Do you mean he made his own clothes out of drapes?”

“No, I mean his character is the one who sticks with
you. The best I can remember, he was a witness to something. At least, I
remember the cops were interrogating him. Supposedly, he had some disease and
walked with a limp. Actually, that wasn’t true, and he was really the bad guy.”

My eyes lit up.

“So, are you telling me that the guy who walks with
the limp is the bad guy?”

“He is in the movie. I don’t know who the bad guy is
in our case.”

“I think this is the Verbal Kint we want, and I know
which one of our suspects walks with a limp, Jim Bob Gibbons.”

Lou and I wondered if Jim Bob Gibbons was our
murderer, or if there was something to the clue we were missing.

We realized that we were getting nowhere fast, or was
it slowly. At any rate, we left my place and headed toward Flat Rock Road, both
to look for tire tracks and to check on Earl Spickard’s alibi.

+++

Since Lou was driving for a change, I got to look at
the scenery. I have always enjoyed a drive in the country, although I preferred
different circumstances than the ones that surrounded me that day. Lou turned
off the main road out of town onto Thornapple River Road. He drove a while
until I spotted the school up ahead on the right.

“Pull in here, Lou.”

While there were no vehicles in the parking lot when
we passed the school the day before, there were three vehicles in the parking
lot that day. I recognized one of those as Walter Gillis’s truck.

Lou pulled in and parked away from the other vehicles.
I hoped that whoever had stolen Lightning didn’t swoop down and take our last
mode of transportation. We decided to chance it. Well, I decided to chance it.
I was hoping Lou never gave it a thought. I knew what he thought of his red,
classic, 1957 Chevy. He loved that thing as much as I loved Lightning, always
kept it polished.

I didn’t expect to be in the school long. We jogged up
the steps and into the school. Walter Gillis’ door was closed. I knocked, but
no one answered. As we turned away, a woman popped around the corner, curious
as to who was knocking at the janitor’s door.

“Hi, I’m Lt. Dekker. This is Sgt. Murdock. We’re the
ones investigating the bodies found here at the school. Walter Gillis found
those bodies, and we have another question for him.”

“Oh, sure, Lieutenant. Walter is upstairs cleaning
classrooms. I’m not sure which room he’s in, but you shouldn’t have any trouble
finding him.”

I thanked her and Lou and I took off for the steps. We
climbed them in better time than I’d remembered climbing steps in a while, and
looked down the hall. I heard a faint noise, but couldn’t tell which room it
was coming from. We walked past all the closed doors until we found an open
one. We walked in and spotted the janitor moving desks. He looked up and saw
us.

“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.”

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.”