Voice Mail Murder (11 page)

Chapter Twenty

They decided to try the same routine at the Coach’s office. It was past five o’clock and they weren’t sure that anyone would even be there, but when they arrived at the azalea-drenched front edifice of the Athletic Department Building, Pamela could see a light on in the office where Rosemary Ellis’s face had appeared the other day when she had stopped to investigate—or rather snoop—around the Coach’s home turf.

Shoop led the way and Pamela followed him into the drafty old building. As he turned right, he was immediately confronted with the Athletic Department’s Main Office, or so the large sign above the door declared. The open door and inside lights belied anyone’s presence in the main office. Shoop walked into the outer lobby where a small foyer was surrounded with polished wooden benches. Above each bench, was a photograph of a group of men in various sporting regalia. The photographs went back years. On the left side, Pamela could see teams from the ‘30’s and ‘40’s and as she turned to the walls on the right, she noticed that the pictures continued around the entire waiting room in chronological order, ending on the near right wall with the present team. This photograph showed a group of young men dressed in red and white football jerseys. The front row of players knelt and the back row stood. In the center of the front row stood Coach Wade Croft, staring proudly at the cameraman. At the rear of the waiting room was a waist-high counter and some sort of registration book with an attached pen to sign in. There was no one behind the counter and no one in the lobby.

Shoop continued towards the back of the room and moved behind the counter where a door led to a back room. A light shone through the upper glass portion of this door and voices could be heard. Shoop moved over to the door and gave it a sharp tap. Almost immediately, the door opened and Jeff Dooley, the Coach’s assistant, appeared at the opening.

“Yes?” he said.

“Mr. Dooley,” said Shoop. Obviously, thought Pamela, he remembered the young coach from an earlier cross-examination session. “Glad we caught you still here.”

“Detective,” said Dooley, “hello. Miss Ellis and I were going over some roster changes for this week. What can I do for you?”

“If Miss Ellis is here too, we’d like to speak to both of you . . . .”

“We?” He looked around and spied Pamela lagging behind. She gave Dooley a jaunty wave and a smile.

“Dr. Barnes is assisting me with a project related to the investigation of Coach Croft’s murder.”

“Oh,” said Dooley. He popped his head back inside, shutting the door, then immediately opened it up and waved for the two to come through the entrance to the secretary’s office.

Pamela followed Shoop. She smiled sheepishly. It seemed only yesterday that Rosemary Ellis and Jeff Dooley had found her on her hands and knees outside of the window immediately below the secretary’s desk. She looked around the office. It was small, but still larger than Jane Marie’s, she noted. Jane Marie always complained about how tiny her office was. Apparently, the Athletic Department rated a larger space for their executive assistant, but not by much. She’d have to report that fact to Jane Marie—if she didn’t know already.

The three of them—Dooley, Shoop, and Pamela, gathered around Rosemary’s desk which fronted immediately below a large window. On the sill, a veritable jungle of plants sprung. Around the room, several large pots and canisters housed other unusual and beautiful plants—many of them flowering. Behind her desk, Pamela noticed Rosemary’s gardening basket with all of her supplies. It was obviously well used as all of the plants in the room looked well cared for and neatly pruned.

“Detective,” said Rosemary from behind her desk. “You’re working very late, I see.”

“No later than you, Miss Ellis,” responded Shoop. “We’re glad we caught you still here. Dr. Barnes and I have been working on a little project that we’re hoping you might assist us with.”

“Is this research?” asked Dooley. “Or something to do with the Coach?” He leaned back against a table near the door.

“Jeff,” reprimanded Rosemary, “whatever it is, I’m sure we can assist the detective.” She motioned for them to be seated. “Dr. Barnes, we met the other day, didn’t we?”

“Yes,” replied Pamela, almost tripping as she grabbed a chair from the desk near the wall. “I was admiring your plants. You have quite a display in here too.”

“Yup,” agreed Dooley, “Rosemary keeps us officially green!”

“Actually,” continued Shoop, bringing out his CD player, “we have a recording of some voices we’d like you both to hear.”

“What type of voices?” asked Dooley.

“These are actually messages left on the cell phone that we found in the motel room where Coach Croft was murdered. We’ve—Dr. Barnes and I—tried to identify the speakers but so far we haven’t been able to. Now, we’re asking the Coach’s family and friends to see if they recognize any of these women . . .”

“You mean you believe Coach Croft was having affairs with . . . .” Dooley interjected.

“Three women,” answered Shoop. “Three women—at least we have three different women’s voices on the cell phone. There could be more.”

“That idiot!” scowled Dooley. “He just threw it all away.”

“No, Mr. Dooley,” said Shoop. “Somebody took it from him. Somebody killed him.”

“Yeah,” agreed Dooley, “but to screw around on your wife—your invalid wife—with not one—but three women!”

“Jeff,” said Rosemary to the young coach, through clenched teeth.

“Anyway,” continued Shoop, “Let me play the recording. It’s short. If either of you recognize any of the voices, just let me know.”

“Sure,” said Dooley. He sat back on the table top and crossed his legs. Pamela could see the intricate weaving on the bottom of his tennis shoes. Rosemary Ellis folded her hands neatly on the top of her desk.

Shoop started the CD. As before, the sounds belted throughout the room. The three voices that Pamela now knew so well left their unchanging messages. When the recording ended, Shoop looked from the secretary to the coach and back again.

“Do you recognize any of them?” he asked, looking pointedly at the man and the woman.

“I don’t know,” said Dooley. “Nobody that comes to mind. I mean, Detective, I talk to lots of people every day. I hear lots of people talk every day. These three could be any of them and I wouldn’t know it. They’re surely not people I know really well, I guess.”

“And you, Miss Ellis?” Shoop focused his gaze on the prim secretary clutching her hands together. Her face, however, was a sea of calm.

“I don’t either, Detective—recognize them, that is,” replied the woman, with just a slight tilt upward of her chin. “Would you like me to call in any of the other staff members so they could hear the recording?”

“Not right now,” said Shoop.

“Detective,” said Rosemary, “you believe that these women were all engaged in relationships with Coach Croft?”

“We do,” he replied. “There may be more, but these three are the only ones whose voices we have now.”

“Detective,” continued the secretary, “I knew Coach Croft—and his schedule—better than anyone. I simply don’t see how he could have—had time—to become involved with all these women.”

“He was obviously very discreet,” replied Shoop. “His wife didn’t know. It also looks as if none of the various women knew about the others—so we’re considering the fact that possibly one of them found out about the Coach’s, shall we say, multiple escapades, and became furious.”

“I can imagine they would,” snapped Dooley from the table. “Hey, look, I liked the guy. He was my boss, and a really great man! We never talked about our personal lives—so, believe me, all this comes as quite a shock. But, I know the guy well enough to know he loved his wife. I can’t figure it.”

“I certainly don’t want to make excuses for him,” said Shoop, “but since he’s not here to defend himself . . .”

“Detective,” said Pamela, bursting in, “you’re surely not going to give us that bull about his wife being too incapacitated to satisfy him . . . are you?”

“I’m guessing what the detective was going to say,” said Rosemary, smiling at the policeman and the young professor, “is that if the police don’t stand up for the victim, who will?”

“Exactly,” replied Shoop. He gave Rosemary Ellis a thoughtful nod and she smiled and looked down at her hands, still folded neatly on her desk. “Dr. Barnes, I guess we’re done here.” He nodded towards Pamela and started towards the door.

“Wait, Detective,” said a smiling Rosemary to Shoop. “I believe it’s difficult for anyone to identify anyone’s voice from just one listening, wouldn’t you say, Dr. Barnes?”

Pamela stopped and turned as the secretary continued to speak.

“Those voices went by so fast and I really didn’t have time to think about each one before the next one popped up and was gone. What might be more helpful, Detective, would be if you could play the recording for us a few more times—? Maybe stop it between speakers? Could you?”

“I guess I could if you really think that might jog your memory?” He turned to Pamela and gave her a quizzical look.

“I see no problem with repeating the recording for them,” she told him.

Shoop played the recording several more times for Rosemary Ellis and Jeff Dooley. He even did as the secretary requested, stopping the recording at several points between speakers.

Pamela leaned back in her chair. She had heard the recording more times than she could count and nothing new was showing itself to her. Shoop was starting again, at Rosemary’s request, for the fifth—or was it sixth—time. She wasn’t sure. The same youngish, energetic female voice leaped out of the player with the same exuberance:

“I’m really excited to see you. I’m here, just like you said. Can you come over?”

As the recording was playing, Pamela could hear footsteps walking into the main office. She remembered the main door was open when she and Shoop had entered and anyone could still come in. The footsteps were coming toward the secretary’s office. Just as the speaker said, “Can you come over?” the door to the secretary’s office opened and the head of a young male student popped in.

“Hey, Miss Ellis,” said the student.

“Hello, Ricky,” replied Rosemary, “Can I help you? We’re rather busy here.”

“No, Miss Ellis,” replied the boy. “I just thought I heard my mom in here and I wondered what she was doing in your office. I was afraid I might be in trouble or something.”

Shoop stood up immediately and Pamela jumped to attention.

“Excuse me, son,” Shoop said to the boy, “Was this what sounded like your mother?” He played the recording of the first speaker again. The voice of the bubbly woman spoke, “I’m really excited to see you. I’m here, just like you said. Can you come over?” Shoop clicked off the CD player and looked at the young man.

“That’s her all right,” said Ricky. “Why do you have a recording of my mom?”

“Ricky,” said Dooley, rising to the occasion, and with a glance at Rosemary and the detective, “let’s you and me go have a chat down in my office.” He draped his arm around the young man’s shoulders and escorted him out of the office.

“Ricky Terlinger,” said Rosemary to the detective. “He’s a member of the team. His mother is . . . just a minute.” She opened a drawer on the left side of her desk and removed a folder from a file. Running her finger down a list of names, she read, “Charlene Terlinger. She lives here in Reardon. I have her address and phone number.”

“Of course,” said Shoop to Pamela, “Coach Croft would get to know all the parents of his players.”

“You think all three of them are parents—mothers—of team members?” asked Pamela.

“I don’t know,” said Shoop, “but, Miss Ellis, can you make me a copy of that roster of team parents? I’ll need to check it out. Oh, and also, Miss Ellis, can we get a copy of a team photo? Like the one in your lobby?”

Chapter Twenty-One

Pamela was tired—and hungry. She hoped Rocky had cooked something that would keep. It was now after six o’clock and she and Shoop had returned to Shoop’s office to go over the copy of the team roster that Rosemary Ellis had made for them. Shoop seemed none the worse for wear, bent over his desk, the list before him. He rubbed his chin as he studied the names of the twenty-four young football players, their parents’ names, and home addresses.

“It’s got to be this Prescott boy,” Pamela told him, pointing at a name far down the list. She sat in a straight back chair next to Shoop’s desk, her purse, jacket and other belongings strewn on Shoop’s small, green plastic couch behind her. “He’s the only one from Boston.”

“Right,” said Shoop, nodding and continuing to rub his chin. “I agree that his mother is probably our second speaker. My dilemma is the next step. And—how to find the third speaker.”

“You said the motel clerk remembered an African-American woman,” noted Pamela. “If our third speaker is black, that would narrow it down.”

Shoop glanced over at a photocopy of the team picture that Pamela had seen in the lobby of the Athletic Department’s main office. The twenty-four young men smiled benignly. Below the photograph ran a list of their names from left to right. “Have you looked at this photograph?”

“I get it. There are a lot of African-American guys on the team.”

“Yeah. And most of them are local. That fits your two main features for our third speaker.”

“Detective,” said Pamela, “It appears you’ll have to question them all.”

“Yeah,” he replied. An officer appeared at the office door.

“Hey, Detective, we’ve got that Terlinger woman here for questioning. You want her in Room A?”

“No, Sikes. Bring the lady in here. I’d like Dr. Barnes to hear her speak.”

“You got it, boss.” The man disappeared.

Shoop stood up, looking at Pamela. “You up for this—or do you need to get home to your hubby?”

“No, no,” she replied. “I’d like to hear what this mother of a teenage boy has to say about how she got involved with her son’s football coach.” She rose and followed Shoop to the door. The officer reappeared with a blonde woman, neatly dressed in a simple flowered sheath. Her hair was short and framed her heart-shaped face. The lines around her eyes were the only indications that this woman was old enough to have a teen-aged son. Otherwise, she looked around twenty-five.

“Mrs. Terlinger?” Shoop ushered the woman into his office and seated her on the chair where Pamela had recently been, next to his desk. He resumed his seat behind his desk and Pamela sat on the couch. The young officer shut the door and left the trio in private.

“I don’t understand,” said the woman. “The other officer said Ricky wasn’t in trouble. Is this about Coach? About his murder?”

“Yes, it is, Mrs. Terlinger,” continued Shoop.

“Is Ricky in trouble?”

“No, he’s not,” said Shoop. “Mrs. Terlinger, we’d like you to hear something.” Shoop reached to his right where he had placed his portable CD player. He hit the “play” button and immediately Charlene Terlinger’s voice filled the office:

“I’m really excited to see you. I’m here, just like you said. Can you come over?”

Charlene Terlinger froze in her chair, a look of terror on her face.

“Oh, no!” she said. “You think I killed him!”

“We don’t know that,” said Shoop, “but that is your voice, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” agreed the woman, “but I would never hurt Coach! Never!”

“You do know, Mrs. Terlinger, don’t you,” continued Shoop, now in full interrogation mode, “that the police have been searching for Coach Croft’s killer for days now with no viable suspects in sight. Finding his cell phone with a message from his mistress—you—on it, is very suspicious.“

“But, Detective,” she cried, “I wasn’t with Coach in that motel last week when he was murdered! Honestly, I wasn’t! Yes, I’ve met Coach at motels before. We’ve been together. He’s a wonderful man. And he’s been wonderful to Ricky! But I would never hurt him!”

“Does your husband feel the same way?” asked Shoop, now pacing behind the woman’s chair and bending over her in his most threatening manner. Pamela cringed at his Gestapo tactics.

“I don’t have a husband!” she declared. “Well, I did, but he left me—and Ricky when Ricky was just a baby. Eventually, I divorced him. I’ve taken care of both of us ever since. When Ricky got a scholarship to Grace and made the team, we were both thrilled! It was like a dream come true for us both! And Coach Croft was wonderful to him—and to me! He really helped Ricky—like a father.“

“So you felt obligated to him—sexually?” prodded Shoop.

“Oh, no!” she continued. “I genuinely like him. He’s a wonderful man. He helped me find a better job than that horrible one I had at the tire factory. It was killing me. I was sick all the time from the fumes. Coach knew people and he helped me get a job as an assistant manager at this little boutique in downtown Reardon—right across the street from the Reardon Coffee House.”

“It never occurred to you, Mrs. Terlinger, to come forward to the police when Coach was found murdered?”

“No,” she said, eyes blinking rapidly. “I mean, I would never want to embarrass him—or his family. You know. And I didn’t know anything about who killed him. But it wasn’t me! It wasn’t!”

“So, let me get this straight,” said Shoop. Pamela realized that he was attempting to find out what this woman knew about the Coach’s extra-marital affairs without actually informing her that she was just one of a group of at least three mistresses. “You and the Coach got together in a motel room regularly. . . .”

“Oh, not regularly!” she exclaimed. “Just every once in a while!”

“We have the messages you left for the Coach on his cell phone.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “He gave me a disposable phone. He’d call me and suggest a motel and a day and time. Then I’d go to the motel, check in, and call him and leave a message when I got there with the room number. Then, well, then, he’d show up and we’d spend the afternoon together. . . you know. . . and then he’d leave and a little later I’d leave. It was the way we did it.”

“He set up this method?”

“Yes,” she said, “he said we had to be careful because too many people recognized him and nobody recognized me.” She laughed a little and rubbed her hand over her cheek.

“Did he pay you?”

“Pay me?”

“You know, did he give you money afterwards?”

“No!” she screamed. “Detective, whatever you think of me, I’m no prostitute. I really cared for Coach. I can’t believe he’s gone. I didn’t want his money.”

“Did your son—Ricky—did he know about all this?”

“Oh no,” she said. “That was one of my fears—that Ricky would find out. He worships Coach. This is going to crush him. He’s already heart-broken about Coach’s death—his murder. Just sick. Now, to find out that his mother was involved with. . . oh, it’s just too awful!” She placed both hands on her temples and dropped her head to her lap. “How could I have done this to him?”

“Mrs. Terlinger,” asked Shoop, “to your knowledge, were you the only woman the Coach was involved with?”

“I thought I was the only one, but now I don’t know,” she said. “Coach felt guilty about our relationship—his sick wife and all. He really loves her, but. . . .”

“So, the Coach never had relationships with any other women to your knowledge?”

“No, Detective! I’m sure he didn’t!” She looked up adamantly, the tears in her eyes drying suddenly.

“What do you suppose the Coach was doing in that motel room the day he was murdered?” asked Shoop. “He wasn’t there to meet you, was he?”

“No,” said Charlene Terlinger. “I don’t know. I don’t think we were supposed to meet that day.” She continued to cry and Pamela was flabbergasted that the woman was oblivious to her lover’s deceit. Either that or she was simply too dim-witted to figure out that she wasn’t his only mistress.

Shoop continued to question the grief-stricken woman for a while longer. Eventually, satisfied apparently that she was telling the truth, he allowed her to leave with the admonition that she not discuss her situation with anyone else and that she contact him if she remembered anything at all that might be connected to the Coach or his murder. Charlene Terlinger agreed and Officer Sikes drove her home.

“Is she telling the truth?” asked Shoop after Charlene had departed. Pamela, now comfortably ensconced on Shoop’s uncomfortable divan, perked up.

“She exhibited no vocal signals that I would read as deceptive,” she said, “but I told you, Detective, that those signals are only to be used as guidelines—not absolutes. Otherwise, no one would ever be able to lie to me.” She smiled benignly at the man. She was too tired to spar with him now. All she wanted was to go home to her husband, a hot meal, and a warm bed.

“I can’t imagine anyone lying to you, Dr. Barnes,” snickered Shoop. Pamela realized that sarcasm was Shoop’s most endearing quality. “Why don’t we try one more before we call it a night?”

“Why not?” she shrugged.

Shoop ran his finger down the team roster list and selected a home phone number, which he placed on the landline phone on his desk. He hit the microphone button and the sound of dialing filled the room. Almost as soon, a male voice answered the phone.

“Prescotts.”

“Mr. Prescott?”

“Yes,” the gruff, obviously tired voice replied, “what do you want?”

“I’m calling about your son’s football coach. . . .”

“This is about Jeremy?” said the voice on the speaker.

“Yes, sir. Jeremy Prescott. On the Grace University Football team.”

“Is Jeremy okay?”

“Yes, sir,” continued Shoop, “this is Detective Shoop from the Reardon Police Department. You may have heard that Coach Croft. . . .”

“Yes, I heard. Murdered, wasn’t he? Jeremy told us.” Then his voice was muffled as he could be heard speaking to someone in the background. “Abigail, it’s about Jeremy’s football coach. That Croft fellow. The one who was murdered.” There was more muffled discussion and a female voice came on the line.

“Detective,” said an elegant-sounding female voice—and one that Pamela instantly recognized. “What is this about Coach Croft? Is Jeremy involved? What is going on?”

Shoop glanced over at Pamela who nodded in agreement. It was clear that Shoop also recognized the woman’s voice.

“Ma’am —” began Shoop. Pamela was curious how he was going to broach this topic to her over the phone with her husband hanging in the background. Care would have to be taken as they didn’t want two murders on their hands.

“Yes, Detective?”

“Ma’am,” said Shoop. “This actually doesn’t concern Jeremy at all. We’re calling all the parents of Coach Croft’s team to enlist their help in tracking down a woman who left a message on Coach Croft’s cell phone. This woman may or may not be a suspect in the Coach’s death. We don’t know, but we need to question her.“ The wife’s sudden intake of breath was audible.

“And you think I might . . . know this woman?” Abigail Prescott asked carefully. How much of this conversation can her husband hear, wondered Pamela. Pamela felt from the sound of the woman’s voice that she knew exactly what they knew.

“It’s possible. When did you last . . . see the Coach?”

“I . . . I believe I . . . saw him when the team was here last February. They played an away game just outside of Boston where we live. It was wonderful because we got a chance to see Jeremy again. “

“And you saw the Coach then?”

“I believe we may have . . . spoken to each other then—after the game.”

“Ma’am, it would be very helpful, if you could think of anything you . . . noticed about the coach at that time that might assist us . . . if you would call us.”

“Yes, Detective,” said Abigail Prescott. “I can’t . . . think of anything right now, but if I think of anything . . . later, I will certainly call you.”

After providing the Bostonian matron with his contact information, Shoop hung up the phone. As Pamela suspected, Shoop had also immediately recognized the proper high-bred lilt of Abigail’s voice.

“Do you think she’ll call back when the husband isn’t around?” he asked. “What did her voice tell you?”

“I’m guessing she will—when the husband isn’t hanging over her shoulder.”

“Husbands do cramp a woman’s style, don’t they?” he asked slyly.

“You would know,” she tossed back at him as she left his office. “I, however, am thoroughly happy to be heading home to mine.” She gave him a jaunty wave, much jauntier than she felt, and trudged out.