Murder at the High School Reunion (14 page)

“Cy, it’s Sam. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“Very funny, Sam! Lou and I have been working on the
case all day. We were wondering when you’d get started so we could have
something else to do.”

“So, not much has changed, Cy. I still have to solve
all your cases for you.”

“I hope that means you’ve solved this one.”

“Well, let’s just say I’ve come up with some possible
motives.”

“Let’s hear them.”

“Well, first let’s start with your janitor friend,
Walter Gillis, who was the reason it took me so long to get back to you. After
I was able to track him back to northeastern Ohio it didn’t take long, but it
took me a while to find out where he lived before he came here. Cy, I’m sorry
to disappoint you on this one, but he is who he says he is. He doesn’t have any
criminal record. As a matter of fact I talked to his former boss and one of his
co-workers. He was a janitor at a school up there too, and they said he was a
fine worker. I even double-checked with the Board of Education up there, and I
talked to the school principal. No one had anything but good things to say
about him. His co-worker did give me an inkling as to why he ended up here.
Gillis told him that every few years he was going a little farther south until
he got to where it’s warm all year long. He said that Gillis said when he left
Ohio that he was going to drive until he used up one tank full of gas, and
wherever that happened to be was where he planned to put down roots. Well,
whatever roots you can put down in a few years. Everyone up there described
Gillis as nice, quiet, and a hard worker. I checked other places, both here and
there, and I can’t come up with anything that says Gillis knew anyone here
before he arrived here four-and-a-half years ago. The principal at the school
here is the one who turned me on to checking in Ohio. He couldn’t remember the
exact place where Gillis was from, but he said he could find out if I couldn’t.
He told me that he called up there and talked to someone at the school where
Gillis used to work and they told him that Gillis would be a good hire.”

“I thought you said you were going to give me some
motives.”

“I am, but I thought I’d start with the guy you know
the least about. What if I move on to who inherits?”

“Only if it’s one of my suspects. I don’t want any
more suspects.”

“How about two of your suspects?”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you?”

“Do you want me to be kidding?”

“No.”

“Well, then the timing is right, because the will was
read this morning. Conkwright was well-heeled. Are you ready for this? It might
surprise you.”

“Just get on with it, Sam. We don’t need a drum roll.”

“First of all, let me ask you a question. Does Jim Bob
Gibbons limp?”

“He sure does. You know something about that?”

“Nothing concrete, but it’s enough for me. Back when
this bunch was in high school, Gibbons went to the hospital drunk one night. He
said he had accidentally shot himself in a hunting accident. Now, I can see
where someone might believe that, well at least the part where he said he shot
himself accidentally, except for a couple of things. One, someone at the
hospital spotted Gibbons being dropped off that night by someone in a red
Corvette. Of course we all know who that was. Also, the next day Gibbons made a
deposit of $2,500 in his bank account. Each month, on the same day each month,
there was another $2,500 deposited in the bank. For the first few years, he
deposited $2,500 in cash, but just before Big Russ Conkwright died, that money
started moving from one account to another, and that first account was a trust
fund that Big Russ set aside to take care of Gibbons. I checked, and that money
is still coming in today and will continue to come in until Gibbons dies. At
that point, the remainder of the money will go to charity.

“Now, let’s move on to the will, which was made out by
Jimmy, not his father. There are two beneficiaries. Jim Bob Gibbons will
receive one million dollars. Now, get this next part. The rest of the money,
which is over eight million dollars, all goes to Rose Ellen Calvert. Jimmy,
being an evil person to the end, stated that he wanted to give her the money,
because he had no family to leave it to, and a lot of money was the only way
Rose Ellen Calvert could ever lasso a man, and he knew how badly she wanted
one.”

I whistled at that remark.

“So, it looks like I’ve got a couple of suspects.”

“I’ve got another one for you if you want.”

“Shoot.”

“Again, back to high school. Duck Spencer was expelled
from school because of Jimmy Conkwright.”

“I know that.”

“But, did you know that he was first suspended because
of fighting with Conkwright, and that Conkwright wasn’t suspended. Then, when
Spencer came back to school, Conkwright lured him into another fight, and this
time Spencer was expelled for good. Even though several students went and told
the principal that it was Conkwright’s fault, Big Russ’s money prevailed, and
Duck Spencer was barred from ever being a student at County again.”

“How did he take it?”

“Not too well from what I heard.”

“Did he try to go to school anywhere else?”

“Hilldale didn’t want him either. He was going to have
to go outside the county, so he decided to get a job instead. He could only
find menial jobs, and he detested any job he had until he started working at an
auto body shop. Turns out that he liked that so much that later he started his
own business.”

“Anything on anybody else?”

“Nothing that you don’t have. I assume you know that
everybody hated Conkwright. Other than that, I couldn’t find anything specific
about anyone else.”

“Well, thanks for this much. This might be enough. If
I need you for anything else, I’ll let you know.”

I hung up and turned to Lou and filled him in on
everything Sam had told me.

We mulled over what we’d learned. The janitor was who
he said he was. So was everyone else. Everyone but the janitor, and the
possibility of Jim Bob Gibbons, hated Conkwright, so that must mean the janitor
was our killer. I smiled. We’d check out those three who stood out all of a
sudden. If we couldn’t pin anything on any of them, we’d consider it a
Murder
On The Orient Express
type of murder.

+++

I wasn’t sure if we were going to interrogate everyone
again, but I definitely had questions for Rose Ellen Calvert, Jim Bob Gibbons,
and Duck Spencer. I looked at my watch. It was almost 5:00. We had enough time to question two of the three before calling it a day. I figured Duck
Spencer could be found in his shop during the day. I could find Miss Calvert
during the day too, but I preferred to question her at her home, rather than
the library. We were off to see the two people mentioned in the will and see
what new story they had for us.

+++

Lightning was ready for us when we walked out of my
house. I looked next door. It was nice to know I could leave my house without
being pawed. I wondered when George would release my neighbor. I hoped for some
date in the far distant future, like the turn of the next century.

After weighing our options, Lou and I decided to begin
with Rose Ellen Calvert. I could tell when she came to the door that she was
excited to see us.

“I don’t know anything else about that night,
Lieutenant.”

“But I do. Why don’t we come in and talk about what I
know?”

Rose Ellen Calvert seemed a little shaken.

“I’m sort of busy right now.”

“We are too. That’s the reason we’d rather talk here
than downtown.”

“You act as if I’m a suspect, Lieutenant.”

“Everyone’s a suspect, Miss Calvert. If you’re not
guilty, you might want to cooperate, so we can get this wrapped up as quickly
as possible.”

Reluctantly, she opened the door and let us in. My
guess was that she wasn’t going to ask us to stay for dinner.

“So, Miss Calvert, are you sure there’s nothing else
about that night that you want to tell us?”

“Absolutely.”

“How about when you followed the victims?”

“I only followed them far enough to see that they were
leaving the building.”

“And then you went to the kitchen.”

“I did not.”

“We have witnesses.”

“Oh, all right. I didn’t want to share this, because
it has nothing to do with the murders. Jimmy and Betty Gail turned left as they
left the school and headed toward the parking lot. I was curious as to whether
or not they planned to leave, and I knew that I could look out the kitchen door
and see what they were doing. Well, at first he was pawing her something awful,
and then he reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a bottle of
something. I don’t know what, because I don’t drink, but I know enough to know
that it was booze of some sort. Jimmy took a big drink and then offered a drink
to Betty Gail. She grabbed it with both hands and drank until Jimmy took it away
from her and took another drink. Well, I contemplated calling the police, but
instead I merely hoped that they wouldn’t come back into the school or take off
driving. I could tell that they weren’t going to quit drinking until the bottle
was empty. So, I closed the door and returned to the cafeteria.”

“Did you lock the door when you closed it?”

“No, I figured the janitor would check the doors
before he left, and I left it open in case I wanted to go back and see if they
passed out in the parking lot.”

“Did you mention to anyone else that the two of them
were drinking?”

“No, I was afraid of what some of the men might do.”

“So, tell me, Miss Calvert, what was your relationship
with Jimmy Conkwright?”

“I had no relationship with Jimmy Conkwright. I
despised him when we were in school together, and I still do.”

“Did he ever hit on you in high school?”

“A couple of times. I think as a joke. He would come
up to me and say something out of the way and then laugh when I said something
about his manners.”

“So, were you surprised that you were the largest
beneficiary in his will?”

“So, you know about that, too.”

“We know about a lot of things, Miss Calvert. That’s
why it would be better for everyone if they told us the truth.”

“Okay, I was surprised. But then when the lawyer read
why he left all that money to me, I thought it sounded just like Jimmy
Conkwright.”

“When did you first find out that you were mentioned
in his will?”

“When the lawyer called me last night and invited me
to the reading. I thought it was someone pulling a not-very-funny practical
joke. I even called the lawyer’s office back to make sure they were the ones
who called.”

“And you didn’t know anything about it before the
reunion? The will was written before then, you know.”

“Obviously, and no, I didn’t know.”

“And when did you find out how much you received?”

“Not until the reading of the will. I knew that Big
Russ had a lot of money, but I never suspected he had that much and I figured
that Jimmy would have squandered all of it by now. It’s a good thing I was
sitting down when the lawyer told me, although at the time it seemed like
something out of a nasty dream.”

“An eight million dollar nasty dream?”

“Well, considering where the money came from.”

“So, you turned down the money?”

“No, I’ve decided to accept it to teach Jimmy a
lesson. Besides, Big Earl made that money, and he made it honestly.”

The days of Jimmy learning a lesson were over, so I
figured that Rose Ellen Calvert accepted his money because the idea of having
money sounded good to her.

“Back to the night of the reunion. How many times did
you return to the kitchen that night?”

“Maybe once.”

“And was anyone in the kitchen at the time?”

“No.”

“Was the door still unlocked?”

“I can’t remember if I checked.”

I didn’t want to make the kitchen so obvious, so I
asked another question, so she wouldn’t think too much about the kitchen.

“What about the second floor of the school? Did you go
back up there after dinner?”

“No, there was no need to.”

“Isn’t there a window up there that overlooks the
parking lot?”

“Come to think of it, there is, but it takes longer to
get to it.”

“Did you go outside anytime after dinner?”

“Not until I left.”

“And when was the last time you saw Jimmy Conkwright
and Betty Gail Spencer?”

“When the guys threw them out for coming back in the
school drunk.”