Murder is Academic (14 page)

I rushed back to where Annie was standing.

“I just hit pay dirt, I think.” I repeated my conversation with Bunny.

“Great, but what does this have to do with Talbot’s murder or with Stanford’s suicide?”

Now why did Annie have to ask that question?

“I only wish I knew. I feel like I know something or am about to know something, but the pieces don't seem to fit very well just yet. But soon. Maybe my visit to Bunny’s will help.”

“You aren’t going there alone, are you?”

“Of course I’m going alone. Do you think she’d let me in on what’s going on if someone else were there? I practically had to threaten her to get her to talk with me.”

Annie looked concerned. “At least let Der know what you’re up to.”

“Nosy Der? No way. He’ll say it’s nothing, or he’ll insist on coming with me, or he may just leave me out of it. I can’t take that chance. Bunny might even deny she talked with me this afternoon if he horned in on this.”

Annie pushed me toward my car. “I’m waiting in the car outside tonight while you go in to meet with Bunny, just in case.”

“Just in case what? Bunny’s hardly going to do me in. If she’s involved in something shady with the condos or somehow connected to her husband’s or Stanford’s death, she’s not going to take a chance of doing something foolish to me.”

“You forget, oh master detective, how stupid criminals can be.”

Annie and I made plans to have an early dinner so that I could arrive at Bunny’s a little earlier than she expected. It was a private dick ploy I read someplace to keep suspects off balance.

Chapter 13

I made Annie hunch down in the passenger’s seat so that no one would know she was with me. She suffered an uncomfortable ride to the Talbot house, and she did not ride in silence. I was surprised. I never knew Annie to be a whiner.

It was threatening to rain again so I left Annie in a car with the windows rolled up even though the temperature was still in the eighties. She complained at the heat, but I couldn’t leave the windows down for air and then have Annie roll them up if it began to rain. I convinced her that anyone watching the car would find that highly suspicious. She moaned and settled farther down in the seat with her sketchpad in her hands.

When Bunny came to the door, the scowl on her face said I was early and the napkin in her hand told me I’d interrupted her dinner. She invited me in and offered me a glass of wine and a seat at the table while she finished eating. Bunny made small talk about the weather and national news. I interrupted her chatter.

“So what’s going on between you and Rudolf Pruitt?”

She touched her spit curls and cleared her throat.

“You know, Laura, my husband was not very fond of you. Not that he didn’t believe you were a fine researcher and good teacher. He found your style so rude and disruptive. I now know what he meant. You’re not very much of a lady, you know.”

“I know, I’m not, but being a lady was never very high on my list of things to strive for. Let’s not get side-tracked here. I don’t really care what your husband thought of me or whether you agree with his opinion. He died under very suspicious circumstances, and the police are still searching for his murderer. One of the people with reason to do him in was Rudolf Pruitt, and I think you know that. So your conversation with Rudolf is of some interest to me. And to the police.” I added this as an afterthought.

“Why would Rudolf want to kill my husband? He was finally getting what he wanted, control of the Biological Field Station. Now with Dr. Stanford dead and nothing in writing about the changes at the station, Rudolf’s in a bad spot. What if the next president doesn’t honor what dear Thomas wanted to do?” Bunny’s voice displayed both anger and distress.

“All quite true, unless your husband never intended to move the station under Rudolf’s supervision. Did he say anything to you about it?”

“Nothing.” Bunny picked at her skirt and patted her spit curls into place, but didn’t comment. I tried to wait her out, but she merely looked down at her lap, so I decided to be more direct with her.

“So what were you and Rudolf talking about when you told him to back off?”

“Just what you would expect. He was pressuring me to see if Dr. Stanford said anything to me about the changes at the station or whether there was anything in writing at home. He was taking the same approach he took with Thomas, harassing and pestering me. I knew little of dear Thomas’s business. I was just tired of Rudolf’s constant badgering me for information I didn’t have. It’s been hard enough dealing with Thomas’s death. I don’t really need Rudolf bothering me about something beyond my knowledge.”

Bunny finally looked up and me. While I wasn’t certain she was telling the truth, I knew enough of Rudolf’s style to believe he would have been intrusive enough to bother Bunny about the field station matter.

“So I told him to back off,” Bunny said.

It fit, but somehow I still wasn’t satisfied.

“Why were you so upset at my mentioning the condos?”

“Oh.” Bunny paused, her eyes now darting around the room as if looking for something to rescue her. “Ah, well, see, people are always trying to use me to get to the condo board. I used to be on it, you know, years ago when I was selling the places as a real estate agent. So I thought you might be…

“Don’t bullshit me, Bunny. You know I wouldn’t be interested in those condos or the board. So who is? Rudolf?”

“Maybe. I can’t say.” Bunny rose, a signal our conversation was over. She seemed to gather her composure, perhaps feeling she fielded my questions successfully. While I was not convinced her story was true, parts of it made sense, and I could see I was going to get nothing more out of her. She showed me to the door just as the first downpour of rain hit. I had the feeling she was not unhappy to see me leave nor to see how wet I was getting in the deluge of rain and wind.

When I got into the car, Annie looked as wet as I.

“Why did you get out of the car? Someone could have seen you.”

“I didn’t. I left the windows up as you insisted. It got so hot in here, I’ve been sweating like an teenage girl at the Salem witch trials.” Annie did not look happy.

I put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb as a limb blew off a tree and hit the pavement behind me.

“Wow! That was close,” I said. My windshield wipers were barely handling the deluge of water. Pieces of debris from trees and yards were blowing around us. Lightning struck one block over, and we could smell the ozone in the air. The wind increased and rocked my car from side to side as I picked my way down the street toward Annie’s apartment.

“Maybe you should stay the night instead of trying to make it home,” Annie said.

“I’ll be all right. I’ll take it nice and slow.”

“You never drive nice, and I don’t think ‘slow’ is in your vocabulary. Come on in, at least until this blows over.”

She was right. The storm was gaining in intensity, and I worried a power line might go down or a tree would hit my precious car. That would mean car payments, a bill I didn’t want to cope with yet. I figured the old jitney still had a few miles in her, so I decided not to chance endangering her life and mine.

We were settling down to a nice cup of tea when the lights went out. Annie found a candle, and we settled in for a cozy chat, as cozy as one can feel with the wind ripping shingles off the roof and rattling window panes, and lightning flashing all around.

I told Annie of my discussion with Bunny.

“I think she’s telling some of the truth, but I also got the feeling that there was something more she was holding back. Maybe I need to have a little chat with Rudolf. Soon.” I stared into the depths of my teacup as if the answer to questions about Talbot and Stanford’s deaths resided in the tea leaves. Stymied once more. We were using teabags.

“Oh, goodie. Can I come too?” Annie squirmed around in her chair like a kid waiting for permission to go out and play.

“You know, Annie, you’re getting as bad as I am.”

“No, I’m not. I just like to watch you bait him. You’re so good at it. But seriously, where is all of this leading? I can’t see we’re any nearer to putting the finger on him as Talbot’s murderer than we were before you spoke with Bunny.”

“You’re right. I’m as puzzled as you are. Yet Rudolf’s our prime suspect. He certainly had access to the shovel whether he got the key to the shed out of Nancy’s office or used his own key, and I have no doubt he has his own key to the shed. He had a motive to kill Talbot if Talbot refused yet again to give the Biological Field Station to Rudolf. It’s certainly not beyond imagining that he could have been harassing Talbot about the station and lost his temper, killed Talbot, dumped the body and then announced what he wanted to hear, that Talbot had changed the leadership of the station to Rudolf. It fits so nicely.”

Lightning struck a tree in the yard, showering the lawn with leaves and pieces of wood. A sign from a higher authority that I was right about Rudolf? Or perhaps a warning for me to butt out.

“Rudolf admits to seeing Talbot earlier the day of Talbot’s murder, but the timing’s not right. He couldn’t have murdered Talbot then,” Annie said.

“Rudolf could have gone to see Talbot later. Instead of losing his temper, Rudolf could have carefully planned out the murder. Premeditation. Not beyond the man.” Now I was really excited. All this made a lot of sense, and it satisfied an inner longing for Rudolf to get his. This time no lightning strike followed as a sign of either my brilliance or my stupidity in these matters.

“So, time to see Der and let him in on our theory?” asked Annie.

“Absolutely not. Time to see Pruitt for some baiting, but we need to plan what we’re going to ask him or tell him first.”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe a little lie or two about my conversation with Bunny. But for now, it’s time I got home for some sleep.” I picked up my purse and headed for the car.

The rain and wind had stopped and the night air smelled clean, as it often did after a summer thunderstorm. I expected some branches to be down in the road, but I figured I’d drive home very carefully. I waved good-bye to Annie who stood on her porch, door open, her tiny figure backlit by the light coming from her living room.

I encountered more branches in the road than I anticipated. The amount of debris from the storm forced me to make various detours down country roads to find my way back to the lake. It gave me some time to think. The scenario with Rudolf as the villain/murderer appealed to my sense of logic as well as to my knowledge that he was not a kind nor decent human being. There was a certain justice in this bad guy being a really bad guy. But Stanford’s suicide made some sense too. I certainly wouldn’t want to work as Pruitt’s lackey especially after having run the station for all the years Stanford had.

I preferred the package with Pruitt as murderer of both men but I almost liked it too much. There were some loose ends that floated around in my brain and refused to be tied down. Exactly what they were escaped me, but I had a feeling I was missing some essential element associated with the murder or murders. I pulled into my driveway and almost hit the Gold Wing parked there.

“What the…?”

Guy was the last person I wanted to deal with tonight. His figure appeared in my kitchen doorway.

“I ought to call the police and have you arrested for breaking and entering.” I stormed into the kitchen and confronted him.

“Can’t.” He was calm and looked as good as ever. “The door was open. Besides I’m not exactly a stranger, and the police might find it odd that you chose to complain about a friend.”

“A friend. I don’t think so.” I could be calm, too—just not for long. “You’re no friend of mine. I guess you forgot to tell me about your wife and kid or kids. Just how many are there?”

“Five. Four girls and a boy. The boy had an accident with his bicycle. A car hit him. He broke his leg.”

My agitation was building. I resisted the impulse to scream. I sat down at the table, placed my hands in my lap, and dug my nails into my leg.
Ouch.

“Sorry to hear about his accident.” And I was sorry, poor kid. I remembered when David broke his collar bone when he was taking riding lessons. Very scary for him and painful, too. Then my anger at Guy spilled over.

“All you macho guys are alike. Poor wifey has to keep getting pregnant until she produces a male heir to the throne. A girl just won’t do for the majestic male ego.” I hoped I hadn’t begun frothing at the mouth.

“Actually, the boy is the oldest.”

Gulp. I was wrong. I changed direction.

“How’s he doing? Is he out of the hospital?” I noticed a bottle of wine open on the table, went to the cupboard and got myself a glass. “By the way, when, if ever, were you going to tell me about your family?”

“When, if ever, were you going to tell me about yours?”

“You’ve got some nerve comparing our situations. In the first place, I’ve been divorced for years, so that’s all behind me. And how do you know about my family, anyway?”

“Well, I settled down with this wine to wait for you, but about fifteen minutes after I got here, Der showed up, so I uncorked the bottle, and we shared a glass. We just kind of got to talking, and he mentioned your marriage, divorce and son in passing.”

“I might have known. That weasel. Why can’t men keep their mouths shut? It was none of his business and none of your business, either.”