Murder at the High School Reunion
Read Murder at the High School Reunion Online
Authors: Steve Demaree
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Humor & Satire, #Humorous, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Mystery, #Cozy, #Culinary, #General Humor
Murder
at the
High School Reunion
Steve Demaree
In
the fifth book in this series, Lt. Dekker gets an advance warning that he might
be investigating a couple of murders when two people turn up missing after a
high school reunion. When those bodies do indeed turn up, the lieutenant and
his sergeant sidekick go to work. They start by interviewing everyone who
attended that high school reunion. In their favor is the fact that not a lot of
people attended the reunion, but it doesn’t help them any when they find out
that everyone hated one of the victims, but none of them appear guilty of
murder.
Copyright 2011
Steve Demaree
All Rights Reserved
This
book is dedicated to the two people I love the most and whose love I deserve
the least, my wife Nell and my daughter Kelly. May God continue to bless me
with their presence in my life.
This
book is also dedicated to all my friends on Facebook. If you are not yet a
Facebook friend, send me a request to become friends.
May
each of them and each of you enjoy this book.
Other Books by Steve
Demaree
Lt.
Dekker-Sgt. Murdock
Mystery Series
The Hilltop Murder
Mystery
The Precipice Point
Murder Mystery
Murder In The Library
The Parkway Arms
Murder Mystery
Murder at the High
School Reunion
Murder at the Art &
Craft Fair
Stand Alone
Mysteries
Photo Finish
A Gated Community
Murder in the Dark
Aylesford Place
Series
Aylesford Place
: The First Year
Aylesford Place
: The Second Year
Aylesford Place
: The Third Year
Non-Fiction
Lexington
& Me
Inspirational
Reflecting Upon God’s
Word
Table of Contents
Lt.
Cy Dekker - The lead detective of the Hilldale Police Department
Sgt.
Lou Murdock - Lt. Dekker’s homicide partner
Rose
Ellen Calvert – A librarian at the public library and the organizer of the high
school reunion
Jimmy
Conkwright – The town’s rich kid who got in trouble and was forced to move away
Duck
Spencer – A student who did not finish high school and decided not to come to
the reunion with his wife
Betty
Gail Spencer – Duck Spencer’s wife, who had gotten pretty wild recently
Jim
Bob Gibbons – Jimmy Conkwright’s one friend in high school
Billy
Korlein – A student who didn’t like Conkwright in high school
April
Korlein – Billy’s wife, a cheerleader when she was in high school
George
Justice – Billy Korlein’s friend, who also detested Conkwright
Sandy
Justice – George’s wife, another former cheerleader
Miriam
Van Meter – A girl who appeared out of nowhere during high school, then died in
a car wreck near the end of her freshman year
Walter
Gillis – The school’s custodian, who is in his third year at the school
Earl
Spickard – The former custodian at the high school, who retired two years ago
Mrs.
Eversole – One of Sgt. Murdock’s elderly neighbors in his apartment building, a
woman well versed in TV and movies
Lt.
George Michaelson - A friend of Lt. Dekker and Sgt. Murdock and a fellow member
of the Hilldale Police Department
Frank
Harris - The medical examiner
Sam
Schumann - A policeman who does much of Lt. Dekker’s investigative work
Officer
Dan Davis - A young policeman who helps Lt. Dekker and Sgt. Murdock from time
to time
Heather
Ambrose – A petite female officer of the Hilldale Police Department whom Lt.
Dekker is fond of, and who dates Dan Davis
Heloise
Humphert - Lt. Dekker’s irritating next-door neighbor
Twinkle
Toes - Heloise Humphert’s toy white French poodle
Rosie
- The waitress at the Blue Moon Diner
Betty
McElroy - A friend of Lt. Dekker’s whom he sometimes takes out to eat
Thelma
Lou Spencer - Sgt. Murdock’s girlfriend
Jennifer
Sharp – Thelma Lou’s cousin, who came to Hilldale to visit her cousin
Lou and I stepped from the Blue Moon Diner, where I
had had a scrumptious breakfast and Lou had picked at something on his plate
that didn’t look very appetizing to me. I closed the door and looked up to see
our friend and fellow officer with the Hilldale Police Department, Lt. George
Michaelson, pull up behind Lightning, my yellow VW bug. George got out of that gun-metal
gray tank of his and walked toward us.
“Well, Cy, Lou, did you hear the bad news?”
“Rosie just told us. But how did you know?”
“Oh, didn’t you know? I work for the police department
now.”
“Well, I knew they’d been paying you for over thirty
years, but I had no idea that you’d starting doing something to earn that
money.”
“Well, if anyone should know about drawing money
without earning it, it’d be you, Cy. So, what do you think of the news?”
“Well, we probably won’t know anything for sure for a
month, and then we’ll just have to deal with it best we can.”
“A month? You think it’ll take us that long to find
them?”
“Find who, what? What are you talking about, George?”
“I thought you said you knew. What are you talking
about, Cy?”
“The bad news, of course. You yourself asked me if
we’d heard it, although I can’t figure out how you’d know. You never eat here.
Besides, it won’t matter to you if the place closes.”
“The school isn’t going to close, Cy.”
“School? What school, and what does any school have to
do with whether or not the Blue Moon closes.”
“So, that’s your bad news?”
“Yeah. The owner is thinking of closing down for a
month, taking a vacation, and trying to decide whether or not to reopen. I
don’t think the place has been the same since they lost Lou’s business.”
I was referring to the fact that my feeble friend, who
once weighed in at a robust two-hundred-ninety-two pounds, had fallen off to
somewhere around two-fifty, while I had maintained a finely sculptured weight
of three-hundred-three pounds.
“Evidently your bad news is different. So, let’s hear
it.”
“Well, sorry to heap more bad news on you, but you
might have to go back to work.”
“You mean you’re thinking about killing someone?”
Lou and I make up the entire homicide department of
the Hilldale Police Department, and since Lou and I have passed fifty years of
age and thirty years of service to the police department, and Hilldale doesn’t
have to use as much crime scene tape as New York City does, we worked out a
deal with the department where we’ll work only when there is a murder to solve.
The rest of the time we draw our retirement checks, which are a little less
than the paychecks we were receiving when we worked out this deal.
“So, I guess the two of you haven’t heard?”
“Evidently not, but I’ve got a feeling that we’re
about to.”
“I can always wait and let you find out when someone
leaves the bodies on your doorstep.”
“Just spill it, George.”
“Okay, here’s what we know. A county high school class
had their twenty-year reunion the weekend before last. Word is that a couple of
those who attended haven’t been accounted for since.”
“Anybody we’d know?”
George, like Lou and I, attended the Hilldale city
schools. Hilldale High was and still is larger than the county high school, a
school where only those who live out away from town attend. Since that has
always been the case, we didn’t know a lot of the county kids growing up. Plus,
we are over ten years older than those who attended this reunion.
“One of them was some guy who caused a lot of problems
back when he was in high school, but he’s been gone from here a long time. The
other one, Betty Gail Spencer, lives here and is married. The funny thing is
her husband didn’t report her missing. No one knew she didn’t go home from the
reunion until she didn’t show up at the shoe factory on Monday morning. We
checked with her husband. He doesn’t seem to know or care where she is.”
“Sounds like if we find the bodies, it won’t take Lou
and me long to solve this one.”
“You know better than that, Cy. The simple ones always
take longer.”
“You’ve got that right. So, where did they disappear
from? And is anyone looking into this?”
“The reunion was at the high school. We sent an officer
out to the school. It was locked. No one was there. We checked. Both the
principal and the custodian were away on vacation, so we had to get a key from
the county to check out the place. The officer walked through the building and
checked around the outside of the school, but he didn’t find anything. Then,
that officer was sent to check with whoever was in charge of the reunion, but
that didn’t lead to anything, either. So far there’s no evidence of foul play.
Some people think the two of them ran away together. Anyway, those of us at the
department aren’t so sure. We’ve even got a pool going on what day the bodies
will be found.”
“And you’re going to keep the bodies hidden until it’s
the day you chose?”
“Well, I’ve got to, Cy. After all, I don’t make your
kind of money.”
I knew exactly that George makes the same amount I do,
or the amount I made when I worked full time, plus he has a wife who works and
contributes money to the bank account.
“Well, when we get the call, I’ll hunt you down as
soon as I interrogate the husband.”
“I’m looking forward to it, Cy. Listen, I’ve got to
go. One of us has to work.”
We bid George goodbye and watched him get back into
his tank and drive away. I turned to look at Lou who’d been silent ever since
we walked out of the Blue Moon. Poor guy probably didn’t have enough strength
to say much, and more than likely he wanted to wait until he had something
important to say. As if on cue, Lou opened his mouth.
“You’re thinking about something, Cy.”
“Just wondering who we have to see in order to put my
five dollars in the pot. If we’re going to have to solve this thing, I want to
get a little something extra out of it.”
Lou laughed as he opened his billfold and took out his
five dollars.
All in good time. First, I had an idea.
“Lou, we don’t have anything pressing today. How’d you
like to take a drive out to the county high school, see if we can spot anything
suspicious?”
“And if we find the bodies, move them until my day or
yours, just in case someone else has already found and hidden them?”
“I don’t know about touching them. As long as they’ve
been missing, they must smell a bunch.”
“What if the coyotes have already found them?”
“I guess we just hope that we can find a finger, so we
can bring it back for prints. Of course, from what I understand, all the
coyotes in this county are of the two-legged variety.”
Our back and forth repartee was starting to get a
little gross. It was time to change the subject.
“So, Lou, what do you think?”
“You that anxious to go back to work, Cy?”
“Well, I did finish reading that Carolyn Hart book
last night, and I figured out who did it, which means my perceptive powers are
at work. And I haven’t started another book yet. Any reason you don’t want to
take a look?”
Lou gave me a look that told me he was game if I was.
It was going to be another hot July day, but it was still early, and we could
drive out to the school, look around, and get back in plenty of time to eat
lunch and then take a nap during the hottest part of the day.
As I mulled this over in my head, it sounded like a
reasonable plan, but then things don’t always work out the way we plan them.
Maybe we should have waited until someone found the bodies.