Murder to Go

by Brenda Donelan

  “Me too. He has a lot to say. We just need to figure out how to get him to talk.”

  Hector found a quiet place in the police station for the two of them to discuss the case. “Let’s talk about what we know now.”

  “Burt and Connie both have a motive for killing Roxie, but now Violet, Paula, and Johnny all have motives too. Plus, each of them have lied to us on more than one occasion,” Marlee summarized.

  “True and they might all be in on it. Or one of them killed Roxie and the others are all covering for them,” Hector said.

  “There’s something about Johnny that keeps bothering me. I don’t know what it is. It’s like my subconscious knows but I can’t access it,” Marlee said.

  “Sounds like a Psychology 101 topic,” Hector teased.

  “It does, doesn’t it?” Marlee laughed, thinking back to the class she took her freshman year of college.

  “Burt and Connie asked for a lawyer, so we can’t talk to them anymore right now. Same for Johnny. Violet and Paula didn’t ask for a lawyer, so we can keep talking to them, but I’d like to let them sit for a while. Waiting and not knowing what’s going on will turn up the pressure on them to talk even more,” Hector said. “Let’s go back to your house and look at the crime chart again.”

  As they were getting in the car to leave, Marlee shouted, “Wait! Johnny’s the one who hit me on the head! I’m one hundred percent positive!”

  “How do you know?” Hector quizzed.

  “I remember the smell of his cologne. The person who hit me was wearing the same type of cologne Johnny wears. That can’t be a coincidence!”

  The pair strode back into the interview room where Johnny sat, awaiting his legal representation to arrive. “Johnny, I know you asked for a lawyer and we’re not going to ask you any more questions. Dr. McCabe just had something she wanted to say to you,” Hector said.

  “Johnny, I know you hit me in the back of the head when I was outside my house on Saturday night. I know it was you because I remember the smell of your cologne. The same cologne you’re wearing now.” Marlee looked at Johnny and he looked away.

  Hector and Marlee paused, waiting for Johnny to speak. When they’d given up hope and moved toward the door Johnny said, “Wait. I’ll talk.”

  When the bird begins to sing, all will hear his tune.

  Chapter 28

  “You agree to talk to us without your lawyer present?” Hector asked after he’d activated the recording equipment in the room. Johnny nodded his assent.

  When Johnny began to speak, his voice wavered and his eyes were teary. “You’re right. It was me. I’m so sorry, Dr. M. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted you to stop chasing Violet and her family. Knocking you out was the only way I could get you to stop investigating them for a bit. They just needed to get to Canada and they’d be fine.”

  Even though Marlee felt Johnny’s words were sincere, she thought the tears and the unsteady voice were staged. “You realize you could’ve seriously hurt me or even killed me?” She stared the student down, letting him know she was in no mood for any more of his bullshit.

  Johnny nodded. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I was desperate and did the only thing I could think of. I had a bat in my car and I just grabbed it and hid alongside your house.”

  “Did you assault Dr. McCabe because you poisoned Roxie?” Hector was straight forward, eschewing the good cop role altogether.

  “No! I never spent any time alone with Roxie!” Johnny howled.

  “We know it was either you, Paula, Violet, or their parents who killed Roxie. Who was it?” Hector growled.

  “I don’t know who did it. I don’t think any of them did,” Johnny mumbled.

  “You’re an accessory to murder, Johnny-Boy. By helping the Stones escape to Canada, you helped them avoid prosecution for murder. You’ll be looking at almost as much time as they are unless you tell us everything right now!” Hector shouted, bits of spittle flying in Johnny’s face.

  “I don’t know anything about Roxie’s murder. No one told me anything! That’s the truth!” Johnny yelled, jumping out of the chair.

  The door to the interrogation room opened an in walked a short, rotund woman in a red dress. “I’m representing Mr. Marble and I’d like a moment with my client,” she said. “And I don’t want anyone talking to him without me present.”

  Hector and Marlee left the room. “What do you think about Johnny?” Hector asked.

  “I think he was overacting about how bad he felt about hurting me. I believe some of what he said, though. I really don’t think he poisoned Roxie, but he might know which of the Stones did.”

  “I think he’s in this up to his ears,” Hector said. “If one of the Stones killed Roxie, and I think they did, then Johnny knows who it was.”

  The remainder of the afternoon was spent talking to the attorneys representing Burt and Connie Stone and Johnny Marble. None of them would allow Hector to talk to their clients without them present. Neither Paula nor Violet had asked for a lawyer, so Marlee and Hector met with them again. Both young women stuck to their stories, maintaining they knew nothing of Roxie’s death. Since they were at an impasse, Marlee suggested they go back to her house to relax a bit and talk about the case.

  Once back at Marlee’s house, she found the message light blinking on her home phone. The first message was from Weight Watcher’s reminding her that her winter flab wouldn’t go away unless she joined their program. “Frickin’ Weight Watchers!” Marlee yelled at her phone to Hector’s amusement.

  The second message was from Ira Green. “McCabe! Call me back!”

  Marlee rolled her eyes as she dialed Green’s number. “It’s me. What do you want?” Marlee asked in a clipped tone. She wasn’t in the mood to put up with him and his antics today.

  “I called for a status report,” Green stated.

  “What? A status report? As in you want to know what I’ve found out?” Marlee was stunned. The former dean was still acting like her boss. Just as she was about to explode, she heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Who’s there with you, Ira? Marlee asked.

  “Petra came back from Florida. She called me and we talked. We’re getting back together,” Green stated. Then to his wife he said, “Isn’t that right, Pete?”

  You can’t unring a bell

  You can’t uncast a spell

  You can’t unfart a smell

  My AA group liked my poem. My poetry professor, not so much.

  Chapter 29

  “Oh. My. God,” Marlee whispered.

  “What’s that, McCabe? I didn’t hear you,” Green said.

  “Um, you said you and Pete were going to get back together? You call your wife Pete?”

  “Yeah, it’s her nickname. She’s had it since childhood. Guess her dad wanted a boy,” the former dean said with a chuckle.

  “Look, I can’t talk right now. Where are you at?” Marlee asked.

  “Pete and I are in the basement of Scobey Hall. In the lounge where I’ve been hiding out for the last week. Why?”

  “No reason. I’ll call you back shortly, okay?” Marlee said before hanging up the phone.

  She turned and faced Hector. “Pete is Petra Green, Ira’s wife. Pete is her nickname. She’s the person Roxie referenced in her online diary. That’s why the waiter at Apollo’s said he only saw Roxie with a woman. It was Petra.” Marlee relayed the Greens’ location to Hector and they took off for the MSU campus.

  Marlee had a key to Scobey Hall since her office was once housed in that building. She’d neglected to return the key when her department moved to a new location, an oversight she now appreciated. The recently-vacant Scobey Hall was the ideal hiding place for the displaced dean and his wife, Petra. Since the building was no longer in use and would be demolished shortly, no one set foot in the rickety old structure anymore.

  After arriving on campus, Marlee used her key to gain entry to Scobey Hall. Although the building was vacant, the electri
city was still on. The lights in the stairwells and hallways remained on permanently, so finding their way to the basement lounge was easy. They approached the lounge, taking care to be as quiet as they could. Whoever had the element of surprise held the upper hand. As they neared the lounge, the voices of Ira Green and his wife could be overheard. Marlee and Hector hung back to listen.

  “Never in a million years would I have thought you’d do something like this!” barked Ira Green.

  “I never in a million years thought I’d have to. Don’t put this all on me. You’re the one that brought it on,” Petra Green shot back.

  “You knew I loved Roxie and was going to leave you. That’s why you killed her!”

  “We had a deal,” Petra said with an eerie calmness. “You were free to see whomever you liked as long as you didn’t parade them in front of me and it didn’t get serious. You broke our agreement and that’s why the rules of the game changed.”

  “But to kill her? Nothing Roxie or I ever did justifies that! We’re done! I’m calling the police and then filing for divorce!” Ira’s voice was still booming, but it held a level of sadness which was rare for the crass and grumpy former dean.

  Marlee and Hector looked at each other from their hiding spots outside the lounge. Their mouths were agape as they made sense of the conversation they were overhearing. Petra killed Roxie because she knew Ira was in love with Roxie and wanted to be with her, thus leaving Petra cast aside.

  TING TINKLE TING! At this inopportune time, Marlee’s key slipped from her hand and bounced twice before landing on the hard surfaced floor.

  “What’s that? Who’s there?” Petra shouted with suspicion.

  “Probably just the pipes. It’s an old building. It’ll be torn down soon,” Green said.

  Hector and Marlee looked at each other and nodded. They chose this time to confront Ira and Petra to determine what really happened to Roxie. Taking a deep breath, they entered the lounge and came face to face with Roxie’s killer.

  “It’s us,” Marlee said. “You told me where you were and we came over to talk.”

  “Why? I hope nobody sees you here,” Ira spat, worried that the professor and the detective had advertised his hiding spot.

  Hector, with his gun at his side was the first to speak to Petra. “We heard your conversation. We know you killed Roxie because you thought Ira was leaving you.”

  Petra looked at the floor, then at Hector, deciding whether to lie or come clean. She gave a loud sigh and recounted the events surrounding Roxie’s murder. “I’ll tell you everything. My life is over anyway. I overheard a phone conversation between Ira and someone and who I later found out was Roxie. He was telling her how much he loved her and that he wanted to get rid of me so they could be together. He was laughing when he said it. Like I didn’t matter anymore. I followed him around campus and figured out who Roxie was and then I followed her around until I was able to meet her.”

  “Didn’t Ira see you on campus?” Marlee asked, incredulous that the former dean wouldn’t notice his wife following him around the small university.

  “I wore a disguise. I minored in theater in college and worked with costumes and makeup,” Petra said.

  “It’s true,” Ira said nodding. “She can completely transform herself.”

  “Are her disguises better than the one you wore to Easy Street on Saturday night?” Marlee asked Ira, recalling his ridiculous getup.

  “That wasn’t really a disguise,” Ira said.

  “I was there. At Easy Street when you met,” Petra said. “I was sitting at a table in the back dressed like an old farmer. None of you even noticed.”

  Marlee’s jaw dropped. She remembered seeing an old farmer dressed in overalls and a John Deere baseball cap that night at the bar. “That was you?”

  “It was me. And I overheard everything you said,” Petra said in a crisp tone.

  “Getting back to Roxie, how did you meet up with her and gain her confidence?” Hector asked.

  “I followed her to an AA meeting in the Methodist Church basement and went in. Over the next two weeks I made it a point to sit next to Roxie and then began chatting her up. She was lonely and opened up to me when she found out I had a history of alcohol abuse too. I really don’t, but I guess I put on a good enough act that she believed it. That theater minor has paid for itself over the years. Then we started getting together after the meetings to chat. She’d been sober for nearly twelve years and was proud of it. Roxie loved Coke and I’m a coffee drinker, so we’d go out for non-alcoholic drinks and pie. We always had pie after the AA meetings,” Petra recalled.

  “What did Roxie tell you about Ira?” Marlee asked.

  “She told me how she met Ira back when she was a student and had a fling with him. She also told me about their baby that was stolen by a relative and how she had tracked the child down and needed Ira’s help to talk to their child. Roxie always denied that she had romantic intentions toward Ira, but I knew better. She seemed like the scheming type to go after any guy she wanted. I knew I had to put a stop to things,” Petra said.

  “What did you do?” Hector asked, relaxing his hold on the gun at his side.

  “First, I started spiking Roxie’s Coke with small amounts of vodka. When she went to the restroom I took a syringe I filled with vodka and emptied it into her Coke. It was such a small amount that she didn’t even notice it. But her body knew it was alcohol. After spiking her drink a few times that week, Roxie was off the wagon and binge drinking again,” Petra recounted.

  “But just getting her to drink again wasn’t enough was it?” Marlee asked.

  “I thought it would be at first, but I just knew she would try to steal my husband. She still denied having feelings for him, but I knew better. We went to her apartment one night after the AA meeting and talked. I broke in the day before the prison tour class started and put a few drops of anti-freeze in each of the twenty-ounce plastic Coke bottles in her refrigerator. They had twist off caps so I really tightened them up after I put the poison in. Anti-freeze has a sweet taste, so she wouldn’t even notice it in her soda. I thought that would take care of her, but she was so busy drinking alcohol that she wasn’t drinking as much Coke.”

  “Did you find any Coke bottles in Roxie’s car or room when you searched them?” Marlee asked Hector.

  “Yeah. There was a half empty bottle in the cup holder in her car and an overturned Coke bottle in the motel room. There was a small cooler filled with Cokes in the motel room. She could’ve brought them from home or bought them while on the road,” Hector said.

  “I’m guessing Roxie ingested some of the poisoned Coke while driving to Pierre on Monday. That would account for her irrational behavior at the Women’s Prison and then later on at the pool in Chamberlain,” Marlee surmised.

  Hector nodded in agreement. “She was drinking again by then, so she may have had some alcohol in her system too. If she was drinking vodka you wouldn’t be able to smell it on her breath.”

  Hector turned again to Petra. “Tell us about meeting Roxie on Monday night at the motel in Chamberlain.”

  “Roxie called me on my cell. I was honestly surprised she was still alive. She was drunk and said she’d met with her daughter and told her everything and then the daughter ran off. She didn’t know what to do. Ira had been there to talk to her before that and she told him to go away. It was well after midnight when I met up with Roxie in her motel room. She’d switched from beer to mixed drinks. Jack Daniels and Coke, I think was what she was drinking. I knew she was drinking one of the poisoned Coke’s because she was completely out of her mind, shouting nonsense. I tried to get her to drink more Coke, but she knocked it out of my hand and slapped me. We wrestled around until I got her on the bed and held her down by her neck. She calmed down a bit and I convinced her to drink some Coke without alcohol...to sober up. After she drank most of a bottle of Coke, she passed out and then went into convulsions and then…just drifted off. I felt her pulse later and she wa
s dead. Then I left. I drove my rental car back to the motel where I was staying here in Elmwood. I’ve been there ever since.”

  “You weren’t in Florida with your sister? Pete, you lied to me!” Ira asked, as if that deception was the worst act Petra committed.

  “You needed a little time to think about things. I knew you’d be ready to get back together after Roxie was gone. I’m the one you love. Me!” Petra shouted pointing a long slim finger at her heart.

  “Petra, I don’t think Roxie loved Ira. I think she just wanted his help in talking to Violet. At most, she wanted friendship from him, but he ruined that. Did Ira tell you that Roxie filed a sexual harassment claim against him at MSU?” Hector said.

  “What? No, I didn’t… I didn’t know. So, she didn’t love him? They weren’t going to set up house with the little brat they produced?” Petra’s eyes darted from Hector to Ira, searching for answers.

  “Ira wanted to divorce you and be with Roxie, but Roxie had no interest in him. He told me he would stay with you since Roxie died.” Marlee didn’t relish breaking Petra’s heart, but she needed to know Ira’s true intentions or she’d pine away for that old fart for the rest of her life.

  Petra collapsed to the floor, one hand over her mouth as she struggled to suppress a scream. Hector hoisted Petra to her feet and placed her in handcuffs as he read her the Miranda rights. As the detective escorted her out of the basement lounge, Petra turned to her husband and shouted, “You! You’re the poison!”

  Tears streamed down her face as Hector led her away.

  Just when you think everything is all well and fine… the shit hits the fan.

  Chapter 30

  Petra signed a full confession and was charged with first degree murder. She was booked into the Elmwood jail for the night but would make her initial court appearance the following day in Chamberlain since that’s where Roxie ingested the fatal dose of poison. Since Ira hadn’t committed any actual crimes, other than being a complete and total jerk, he was released after further questioning at the police station.