Murder at the High School Reunion (8 page)

“So, you knew that Jimmy Conkwright was going to be
there?”

“Naw, but it didn’t s’prise me none, him bein’ someone
who was always causin’ trouble, ever chance he got. With that there Internet,
he probably heard about the reunion, either that or Jim Bob Gibbons told him
’bout it.”

“Who else went with you when you went looking for your
wife?”

“It was jist the four of us, me, George, Jim Bob, and
Billy Korlein.”

“And did you stay together, or split up and look for
her in different places?”

“Together, mostly.”

“What kind of work do you do now, Mr. Spencer?”

“I got my own bisness. I’m in the auto body bisness.”

“That means you fix wrecked vehicles. You wouldn’t
happen to have fixed one recently with a dented front end, would you?”

Duck Spencer grinned.

“Well, as a mattera fact I did have one jist a week or
two ago that was dinged a little in the front.”

“Whose car was it?”

“Well, can’t say as I ’member right now.”

“Mr. Spencer, I can requisition your books.”

“Does that mean look at ’em? If so, won’t do you no
good. I didn’t charge for this one. Favor for a friend, you might say.”

“Could it be that this friend is the one who locked
your wife and Jimmy Conkwright in the freezer?”

“Is that what happened? Naw, it wudden nothin’ like
that.”

“Mr. Spencer, I can’t say that you look all broken up
over your wife’s death.”

“I can’t say that I’m happy she’s gone. I loved her at
one time, still do, but she jist got too high falutin’, started goin’ out at
night, never tellin’ me where she went.”

“Was that when you starting hitting her?”

“If that woman had any bruises on her, it was that
good for nuthin’. I didn’t do it. I never laid a hand on that woman, even
though there were times I wanted to.”

“So, tell me, Mr. Spencer. How did you get home that
night?”

He grinned again.

“When we walked up from the river bank, I seen her
truck over in the parking lot. I had keys to it too, and I already ’cided that
if she didn’t come home with me, I was takin’ her wheels and hightailin’ it out
o’ there.”

“But wasn’t the tree still blocking the road when you
got home?”

“Yep, but I’d already figured I’d park the truck there
and walk the rest of the way. It was worth it, jist to take away her wheels.”

“Tell me why you didn’t go with your wife that night.”

“I was goin’ to, at first. Then, the more I thought
’bout those high and mighty people bein’ there, holdin’ it over me because they
gradiated, an’ I didn’t. That afternoon, I jist told her that I weren’t goin’.
She threw a hissy fit, and stormed outa here. Got outa here jist afore the
storm hit, a long time afore the reunion. I don’t know where she went. Like I
said, I didn’t know that rich boy was goin’ to be there. Only rich boy in our
school, and he used all his money to make all the girls chase after him. I
figured he was long gone from here. Nobody seen him in years.”

“Mr. Spencer, why didn’t you report your wife missing
when she didn’t show up that night?”

“I figured she was still with him.”

“But you never reported her at all. It was some of her
co-workers that reported it when she didn’t show up for work on Monday.”

“I was wonderin’ who it was. I shoulda knowed it was
them people. They liked her, but I think she behaved better at work. She even
started drinkin’. I don’t hold for no drinkin’.”

“When did you first suspect that maybe your wife was
dead?”

“Not until they called me. I jist figured she’d run
off with that no-good rich guy, and if she wanted him instead of me, that was
all right with me.”

“Did you know a girl named Miriam Van Meter?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Think close now. She was the girl who died one night
when she was out with Jimmy Conkwright and he ran into a tree.”

“Oh, was that her name? Naw, I didn’t know her. See,
she came the year after I quit.”

“So, tell me, not a lot of guys are nicknamed Duck.
How’d you get your nickname?”

“Got it in school. I was quite a fighter back in the
day. I’d make somebody mad and he’d take a swing at me, and I’d duck afore he
could hit me. Then, I’d pop him one under the chin. If I caught him low enough,
some of those guys couldn’t talk for a few minutes. I popped that rich boy one
time. He turned me in and got me ’spelled, and he’s the one who started it. His
money got him whatever he wanted, but no more. But I guess it did get him a
good burial.”

“So, you know that he died, too?”

“I didn’t until I went to ’dentify my wife. After
that, I heered people talkin’.”

One more thing, Mr. Spencer. Does the name Jennifer
Garner mean anything to you?”

“Nope. Does she have somethin’ to do with this?”

“She might. I just wanted to know if you know her.”

“Sorry, name dudden ring a bell. I know I never done
no work for her, though. If you run into her, and she happens to need some body
work sometime, tell her to give me a call. I work cheap. I’m here mosta the
time. You’d be surprised how many people drive all the way out here to have
their body work done. I do a good job, see.”

Especially if someone needs to keep the body work
quiet, someone who might get that work done for free.

I’d probably have more questions for Spencer, but I
couldn’t think of any more at that time. So, I left my thoughts about Spencer’s
body work, thanked him for his time, and Lou and I walked away.

From the house numbers, and the fact that Duck Spencer
had sought out Earl Spickard the night of the reunion, I figured that Spickard
didn’t live too far from Spencer, and I was right. But right after we left
Spencer’s place, in a wooded area that bordered his property, I spotted a
roadside park with a picnic table. I pulled over, reached over the seat and
grabbed the cooler as I got out. I’d brought enough food for Lou, too, and
since Lou and I were suddenly eating the same food again, we could snack
together.

“So, what do you think, Lou?” I asked as I opened the
cooler.

“I think I’m proud of you, Cy. I didn’t know you had
it in you.”

“I don’t mean that. What do you think about our
grieving widower?”

Lou reached into the cooler, selected a hard boiled
egg, and plucked it from its confines. He must have grabbed it by one end, and
too hard, because the egg sprang from his hand and spurted into the air. Lou
circled under it and managed to cradle it in his hands when gravity took over.

“Good catch, Lou!”

He smiled, took a bite out of the egg, as if to teach
it a lesson.

I learned from Lou’s mistake and carefully removed the
other egg from the cooler.

After Lou had downed his egg, he looked up, and
answered my question.

“Cy, I have no idea if this guy’s our murderer or not.
I don’t want to put all my eggs in Col. Mustard’s basket before I’ve met
Professor Plum. Let’s just say that he’s not exactly heartbroken that his
wife’s no longer with us. Still, he seems more the type to pummel the two of
them to death than to sneak up and lock them in the freezer. That seems more
like something a woman would do.”

“Remember, he said he never beat her. Maybe he’s not a
pummeling type of guy. Of course, it’s obvious he had no use for Jimmy
Conkwright, but then we have yet to meet any members of Jimmy’s fan club.
Still, could Jimmy’s presence make Duck Spencer act out of character?”

“Well, if he was telling the truth, he didn’t know
Conkwright was coming, although he did find out before he left home that
Conkwright was there in case he wanted to plan something if he caught
Conkwright with his wife.”

“Tomorrow, we may stop by the shoe factory where
Spencer’s wife worked and see what anybody there has to say about how Spencer
treated his wife.”

Lou and I mulled over what we’d learned, as we divvied
up the four celery sticks, the four carrot sticks, the four cherry tomatoes,
and the ten green olives. There were times when Lou and I would have considered
hitting the olives with the vegetable sticks, but at that moment our minds were
on the case. Besides, the cracked paint of the picnic table and the dust that
had taken up residence there put a damper on things.

“Do you think he took his wife’s truck because he knew
that she’d never need it again?”

“I don’t know, but I hope we soon find out. It’s
possible that Spencer could have done it, paid someone to do it, or fixed
someone’s car or truck after he or she used it to push Conkwright’s car into
the drink. I wish we knew if his wife and Conkwright were locked in the freezer
before or after Spencer got there.”

“Yeah, I’d love to know when Spencer first knew or
suspected that his wife was dead. Somehow I don’t think he was telling us the
truth.”

We paused again from exercising our brains and lifted
out our dessert. What used to be two pieces of pie each had transformed into
two little green apples, one each. Rather than accost suspect number three with
apple juice all over our chins, I returned to Lightning and extracted enough
paper towels to make both of us look presentable.

I noticed Lou was looking at me, so I took a moment
for levity and acted out some of the steps from the Wii Fit exercise, as well
as a hula hoop rendition or two. I regained my senses when I attempted to do
the tree exercise from the yoga workout, and almost fell and made a calculation
on the Richter Scale. Lou applauded my two successes and laughed when I almost
fell.

I knew that it was time to leave, time to interrogate
our next suspect.

+++

Lightning seemed to know where she was going, but
evidently not. A couple of minutes later, we hit a dead end. There wasn’t a
house or mailbox anywhere. I looked at Lou. Both of us were stumped. I looked
at the address again. Supposedly, Earl Spickard lived somewhere on this road, but
when I asked Lou if we passed any houses or mailboxes on our way there, he said
“no.” There was nothing to do except backtrack. I drove even slower this time.
Lou checked the right side of the road. I checked the left. Before I knew it,
we were back at Spencer’s place. I had no choice but to turn in.

“Somethin’ else on your mind, Lieutenant?”

“I’m having trouble finding Earl Spickard’s place.”

Spencer laughed.

“It’s sorta hard to find. There ain’t no drive that
goes back to it. Jist go to the end of the road, park whatever that thing is
you’re drivin’, then head through the trees on the right. ’ventually, you’ll
get there.”

I thanked Spencer again and we left.

I did as Duck Spencer told me. I pulled over at the
dead end. Lou and I got out, saw where there was enough of a break in the trees
to allow us to walk down an unmarked path, and we walked in that direction. We
were about to give up when Lou spotted what looked like a cabin in the
distance. It looked lived in, but we saw no car or truck anywhere. I knocked
and we waited for someone to answer. The whole thing didn’t look like more than
one large room, so I doubted if it would take Spickard long to answer the
knock. When no one answered, I knocked again. Still no answer.

“Let’s try out back.”

When still we hadn’t located anyone, I did what I was
taught to do in the country. I hollered.

“Anybody home!”

“Down here!” came a call from the distance.

Lou and I did our best to gauge from where the
response came and took off in that direction. A minute or so later, we located
an older man, fishing. His hair was turning white, as was the stubble on his
face, which told me he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days.

“You Earl Spickard?”

“Yep. Who might you be?”

“Well, I might be just about anyone, but I’m Lt.
Dekker of the Hilldale Police Department and this is Sgt. Murdock.”

Spickard started to laugh at my first statement, then
stopped when he found out we were the police. He looked puzzled.

“I’m trying to read that look on your face.”

“Oh, that. It’s jist that I’m s’prised to see you for
a coupla reasons.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“Well, I’m s’prised anybody from the police department
can find this place, plus I can’t imagine why the police would come callin’ on
me.”

I decided to be honest with him.

“Well, I have to admit, I did need some help finding
you. As to why we’re here, we have some questions about the night you took Duck
Spencer to the high school.”

“Didn’t nothin’ happen to Duck, did it? I would’ve
been happy to bring him home, too.”

“No, nothing happened to him. As a matter of fact,
he’s the one who told me how to find you. I couldn’t find you the first time I
tried.”

Spickard laughed again.

“My place is hard to find. I like it that way.”

“So, where’s your mailbox?”

“It’s up there some place. The mailman knows where it’s
at. Don’t get much mail no how, so havin’ the thang is a wasta time.”

“So, tell me about what you did that night.”

“Everthang, or jist the part where I took Duck?”

“I don’t care about what you did before he got here.
Just start with when he knocked on your door.”

“Well, he comes a runnin’ up toward the house. I sees
him comin’ and heered him, too. He was out o’ breath. I says, ‘What’s wrong,
Duck? Somethin’ wrong with Betty Gail. Betty Gail’s Duck’s wife.”

“He says, ‘Yeah, thare’s a lot wrong with Betty Gail.
She’s at that high school reunion with that no good Jimmy Conkwright.”

“And did you know Jimmy Conkwright?”

I noticed that Spickard’s demeanor changed.

“You bet I knowed him. He was a mean son of gun, only
stayed outa jail ’cause of his rich daddy.”

“How did you know him?”

“See, I useta be the janitor at that school ’til I
retired. He went to school thare when I was thare. I didn’t know mosta them by
name, but I knowed him. I was hopin’ he’d do somethin’ so they could put him
away.”

“From what I understand, he might have. Did you know
Miriam Van Meter?”

“Can’t say that that name rings a bell.”

“She was the one who was killed when Conkwright was
driving drunk one night.”

Spickard tried to wipe his tear before I could catch
him. No such luck.

“No, I never knowed  no one by that name. I remember
about him killin’ some girl, though. His daddy got him off from that, too. If’n
I remember right, she was jist a freshman. Too young to know to stay away from
the likesa him.”

“It seems that way. Let’s get back to the night of the
reunion. Why did Duck Spencer tell you he needed a ride?”

“Well, we’d had a storm out this way earlier. Duck
said a tree blowed over and blocked the road. Said he couldn’t git through that
way.”

“And he knew you had a boat?”

“That’s right.”

“So, you offered to take him to the school.”

“Seems like you already knowed everthang.”

“Just a little bit. What did Spencer have to say on
the way up the river?”

“Not a lot. I could tell he was in a hurry to git to
the school, said somethin’ about teachin’ her a lesson. I didn’t know at the
time what he meant, but I did later.”

“Oh, what did he mean?”

“Well, I don’t know this for gospel, but I think Duck
took her truck. I jist knowed he didn’t need me to brang him home. I wondered
how she’d act when she walked out and found out that her truck was gone. I
still don’t know. I’ll have to go down sometime and ask Duck.”

“So, pick up where you left off and tell me what
happened when you got to school.”

“Well, jist as soon as we hit the bank, ol’ Duck
hopped outa the boat and took off runnin’ for the school. He was already inside
when I got thare.”

“So, you went in the school, too?”

“Yep, like I said, I used to be the janitor there, and
the last year I was thare the man who’s janitor now started workin’ thare. We
became good friends. Very good friends. If either of us needed somthin’ the
other one would hep him anyway he could.”

“You’re talking about Walter Gillis.”

“That’s right. I walked in the door and there was Duck
standin’ and talkin’ to some people. I’m not shore who all, but I thank they
was people who went to school thare when I was thare. I recognized faces, but
not too many names. Anyways, I knowed my way around, so I walked in the door,
looked in at the place that they called my office when I was thare, and seen
Walter wudden in there, so I went on down to use the facilities. I ran into
Walter in thare. He was in one stall. I was in another. We come out at the same
time, seen who each other was, and patted each other on the back. He was so
glad to see me. It’d been a few weeks since we seen each other. Anyway, we
walked outa the restroom, passed the others, who was about to go stompin’ off
somewhere, and went into Walter’s office. The two of us set thare a while
talkin’, and I got to itchin’ to see the old home place again, so we git up and
walked through the school. Walter checked with some lady afore we took off to
make sure everthang was okay.”

“Would you know Jimmy Conkwright if you saw him?”

“I’m not shore. I ’spect so. If so, I never laid eyes
on him that night, but I heered he was thare.”

“What about Betty Gail Spencer?”

“I never seen her neither, but I knowed her. I thank
Duck’s right. The last time I seen her she seemed like a different person.”

“In what way?”

“Kinda wild like.”

“How many times did you see Duck Spencer after you got
to the school?”

“Jist once that I can recollect. He stopped by, leaned
in the office and told me he didn’t need a ride home. He smiled as he said it.
I said, ‘Are you shore?’ and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, as long as the truck starts.’
It weren’t long after that that I up and left. I really enjoyed spendin’ some
time with my friend Walter. He made me promise that I’d git back to see him
sometime soon.”

“Did you see anyone out in the hall while you were at
the school?”

“I didn’t pay no ’tention to that, but yeah, I guess I
seen some of ’em. They were all hepped up to find Duck’s woman.”

“When you saw them, were they alone or with someone?”