The Body on the Roof

by Kevin Creager

  “However we did find quite a bit of money hidden in tea boxes in her kitchen cabinet. Much more than one would have expected to be put away as rainy-day money through the week. For right now, we have no information as to where it came from. Phil Culbertson is looking at all the contents of her kitchen cabinets right now.

  “At the bank, we went through her safety deposit box, but nothing in it except personal papers –- the will, insurance, home improvement receipts, things like that. I made copies of everything, and I’ll take a closer look at them, but I didn’t see anything relevant to her death or her collection.”

  “Offhand, anything stand out to you?” Addams asked. “Anything that might tie in at all for a possible motivation?”

  She shook her head. “Just the money from her will and insurance, but it’s not enough to make somebody rich from her death. I’m going to further check Townsend’s finances, but it’s hard to believe he would have killed his own aunt for that amount.”

  Pierson drummed his fingers on the table and looked up at the board. Hazlett had filled in where she could, but it didn’t really add much to what they already knew. Which wasn’t much to start with. There was a lot of miscellaneous information with no apparent connections.

  “We still have a harmless little old lady, sorry, Pops, not that old, who was liked by most everybody and didn’t have anything worth taking, much less killing for. A worthless collection of knick-knacks, with some missing that may, or may not, have been there at the time of her death.” He looked back at the others. “We might be reaching on trying to tie those in with her death. No viable motive and no viable suspects. Not much to go on.”

  There was a quiet moment while everyone seemed to be considering what he had just said.

  “Chief,” Reasoner spoke up. “I’ve been thinking. What if...” She took a breath. “What if her death was an accident, not a murder, not intentional? If the real issue was trying to cover up an accident, not a killing?”

  Hazlett wrote “ACCIDENT?” under the MOTIVE column in big bold letters.

  Addams spoke, “You mean, if, and I’m just throwing this out, putting her on the roof was to make it appear to be more of a natural accident, rather than one caused by someone?”

  Reasoner continued. “There doesn’t appear to be a plan here anywhere. It just looks as if...it happened, and the rest was improvised, taking advantage of the storm. We can’t find any reason to kill her, or anybody that would have wanted her dead. The only ones that benefit at all would have been Harry Townsend and his sister, but, by all accounts, their relationship was good. There were no conflicts or money problems.”

  “He did seem very shook up by it,” Pierson said.

  “But an accident?” Peabody questioned. “She was hit in the head!”

  “Kind of personal for someone that everybody liked,” Reasoner agreed. “Can you picture somebody coming up on her and purposefully doing that? From Dr. Ross’ description, the front left temple over the eye, it would have had to have been from the front. I don’t see anybody planning on facing her and doing it on purpose. Do you?”

  “Well, we haven’t found anyone yet.” Addams emphasized the “yet”. “But you’re right. No one can think of anyone that would do that.”

  Reasoner continued. “I’m just asking that we consider the possibility. Which moves motive in a completely different direction, to one where somebody was just momentarily upset or confused, not angry or vindictive. A minor conflict that went … that went way beyond what was intended.” She looked at Pierson. “That could then tie in with the missing pieces from her collection. The pieces that she wasn’t supposed to have.”

  “Something to consider.” Pierson looked again at the board. Hazlett had long ago put “Missing Curiosities” under motive, and now she underlined it. With a star in front. He took a moment, then brought his gaze back to the others.

  “Does anybody have anything they want to add?”

  “That does bring it back to including friends, people with nothing to gain,” Addams said.

  Pierson looked at his watch. “It has gotten past suppertime. Why don’t we sleep on it tonight? We’ve got some information, but I think we need time to figure out where we are going with it.” He reached toward Reasoner. “Speed, let me have those lists. Maybe I can spot something there since we now think they may be significant. Bud, I think you’ve got duty tonight, but, if something serious comes up, you let me know.”

  Pierson noted that Peabody picked out a bear claw and wrapped it in a napkin. He shook his head, knowing that Peabody’s wife would have supper ready, but that Pops liked to be prepared if that dinner included a big salad.

  — — —

  Reasoner watched the others drift back to their desks. Pierson headed to his office, started to close his door, but left it open. He sat down behind his desk and set the list of stolen items in front of him.

  Addams picked up the phone for emergency calls from Hazlett’s desk, then sat down at his own, looking between a pile of what appeared to be old paperwork and a blank tablet. He pulled the tablet over and started writing on it. The duty officer for that night usually stayed a couple of hours in case somebody walked into the station with an emergency, then took the mobile phone home with him/her to answer nighttime calls. He was apparently settling in for a while.

  Reasoner wandered around the office. She took a look at the night duty roster posted on the wall and noted that she had the following night. She went out back to the parking lot with their regular cars. Peabody was pulling out, but the others were still inside. There were two gray sedans. Well, we knew there were quite a few in town, she thought. She walked around to the back and took a look at the bumpers and the stickers in the windows. Everybody seems to have some sort of sticker, she thought. Her own car bore one for a local gym, Fitness by Fleming, because the owner was a good friend of hers.

  She started to pull out the keys to her car, but looked at them for a few seconds and returned them to her pocket. She reentered the station and walked up to the open door for Pierson’s office.

  He looked up before she knocked. “Speed? Aren’t you going home?”

  “Jeff, could we...talk for a little bit?”

  He set the papers carefully down and squared them off neatly. “Sure, Speed. Do you want to close the door and take a seat?”

  “How about?” She looked out the front door at the green. “Could we go talk outside? On the green, at the bandstand? I’ve always liked that spot.”

  “Okay...if that’s what you want.” He rose and pulled on his jacket. “Gets a little chilly as the evening comes on. Going to put yours on?”

  “Yeah, I should.” She moved across the room to pull her jacket off the back of the chair at her desk and joined him at the front door.

  Pierson called to Addams. “Bud, we’re going to be back, so don’t lock the front door till you see if we’ve returned.”

  Addams waved without looking up.

  CHAPTER 15

  Reasoner paused just outside the door to take a look around the green. Shops were still open, but some of the businesses were closing their doors and people not already at home for supper with their families, were heading to Mac’s Café or The Silver Griddle for their late evening meal. Not many other choices. Pierson stopped with her, but his eyes were on the ground.

  The night was graying with the beginning of dusk, but the street lamps weren’t on yet, and it was still light enough to appreciate the intimacy of the small town. A couple of people were cutting through the park covering the green, but there was no one at the bandstand, and she led the way there.

  Two or three folding chairs were leaning against the wall inside for just-in-case-they-were-needed m
oments, but she didn’t pull them out. The structure was six-sided, with one open to the steps and the others all half-walls and a single railing above each, posts at each corner holding up the overhanging roof. Reasoner stepped up into the bandstand and put her hands on the top railing of the half-wall farthest from the opening and facing the police department, and just stood there for a moment.

  Pierson joined her. “I’ve always liked this time of night. Enough light and sounds to recognize where you are, but it’s quieter and calmer. Easier to appreciate. I think it’s difficult to get this in the big city.”

  “Yeah.” Reasoner absently scratched at a spot on the railing. “Sometimes, I... wish there were more excitement. More things happening, more drama, more activities, just more. But then I realize I’d get tired of that quickly, maybe overwhelmed, and that I’d miss this. This whole town is a family, our family. And what happens to one of us here impacts all of us.”

  She took a deep breath and turned. “Jeff, what happened?”

  “What?” He tried to look startled, but it was as if he’d been practicing the reaction. “What do you mean?”

  “Jeff, you had duty that night.” She put her hand out to touch his arm. “If Mrs. Mathison was going to call anyone that night, it would have been you.”

  “But. . . “ he started to say something, then stopped and stared unseeing at the station.

  “That was one of the big questions. Who would have been there at that time and in that weather? None of her friends or neighbors was going to be out. Harry Townsend was in another town. It was likely to be someone that she had a reason to call and ask to come over. And she has a history of calling us.

  “Mrs. Bucholtz reported seeing a gray sedan with a circular sticker in the rear window. Both you and Marie have your bowling league stickers in your back windows. With the big round bowling ball logo. All you would see from across the street, in the rain, would be a big circle.”

  He took a step away from her, but continued to fix his eyes in the far distance. “There are plenty of those around town. As you said, even Hazy has one in her window.” But there wasn’t a denial in his statement, and he still didn’t look back at her.

  “But Marie’s name isn’t on any list of stolen objects from a garage sale. Yours and Judy’s are. Specifically reporting the stolen statuette and the pottery bowl from your garage sale. The objects missing from Mrs. Mathison’s house. Nothing from anybody else’s list. The only things missing are from your house. And the bowling trophy makes sense too. It wasn’t on the list of stolen property, but I’m betting it was yours.

  “And someone had to have been strong enough to carry her body onto the roof, as well as know there was a reason for her to be out there. To rescue her cat, Reginald. Marie has the gray sedan and the bowling logo, but she’s not strong enough to carry a body up there. You are. And not that many people know about the cat getting up on the roof. You do.

  “So, Jeff.” She took a step toward him. “What happened?”

  Pierson finally turned his gaze from the station and took a few steps to the open side of the bandstand. He sat on the top step facing the mayor’s law office. Reasoner sat beside him. He put his head in his hands and shuddered.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What have I done?” He started rocking, and Reasoner put her arm around him. “What have I done?”

  “I’m not going to say, ‘it’s alright’, because it’s not. But I am going to be here for you.” She paused. “It was an accident, wasn’t it?”

  He took a deep breath and finally looked up. “Yes, you were right about that. It was an accident. I never meant to hurt her.”

  “I know, I know.” She murmured, not sure if he even heard her.

  “I just turned, and she was right there.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it.

  “Just tell me what happened, Jeff. I believe you.”

  “She called. I had...I had stayed late because of the storm coming and was just getting ready to leave. I really didn’t want to go over there, that stupid cat, but,” he ruefully smiled, “I didn’t want her going out on the roof. Which she would have if no one else had shown up.”

  He wrung his hands then spread his fingers. “I want to say it was raining cats and dogs, but it was just one cat. I set the ladder up out back and managed to get the cat down. I’ve done it often enough now that Reginald doesn’t fight it like he used to. Grace offered me something to drink, something with a little bite to it. I don’t want to drink on duty, but I was wet and cold, and it wasn’t much, and I was going straight home.”

  The sky was now getting darker and a few streetlights at the corners were turning on, but they didn’t notice.

  “While she was drying Reginald, I wandered over to her cabinet in the living room. I’d never really looked at it before. I didn’t think much of it, and she didn’t think much of my going over there. I saw the Laurel and Hardy statue. I just thought it was curious at first, that she would have one too, I didn’t imagine there were too many of those around. Then I saw the bowling trophy, and I leaned in closer.” He looked at Reasoner, but not really seeing her. “It had my name on it! It was mine! I didn’t even know it was gone. I thought it was still in a drawer upstairs. Judy must have put several of my things into a big box for the garage sale and not told me, figuring I wasn’t going to miss them. Not really. She probably didn’t list it as stolen because she still didn’t want me to know it was gone. That and the train locomotive. One of my favorite toys as a kid.

  “I must have yelled something when I saw it. I picked it up and turned around. She was right there! Right in my face!” He put his hands up. “She was looking angry and shouted, ‘Leave those alone!’ She was coming right at me, closer than I would have thought. I just put my hands out and didn’t think about my holding the trophy and it hit her right in the side of her head. And she went down. Just like that.” His hands came down. “Just like that.”

  “Why didn’t you call an ambulance?”

  “I knelt down, but she was gone. Her eyes were open and staring, and there was no pulse. I started toward the phone, but stopped just before I got there.” He looked at Reasoner, seeing her for the first time. “Speed, Steph, I’m the police chief. I’m the one that’s supposed to keep people from getting killed, not the one killing them. I know everyone would have believed it was an accident, but how can anybody trust a police chief that kills someone, even if by accident?”

  He looked away again. “She was gone. There wasn’t anything I could do for her. I knew that. That damn cat walked over to her then. That damn cat. I wanted to put him back on the roof and forget this ever happened.” He sighed. “And that’s what I decided to do. I took him back up there, then carried her body up. I tried to get her to roll off the roof so that she would land on the ground. I know, it sounds gruesome, but I thought that if she fell to the ground, any damage to her head would be assumed to be because of the fall. That people would think what they first thought, that she went out to get the cat on her own and slipped. But she got caught up on the edge of the vent, and I couldn’t get to her in the storm, to finish it.

  “I went back inside, cleaned up what I could of the carpet, washed the glasses, and took the knick-knacks that I knew were mine. Including the trophy. They’re in a box in my garage. I couldn’t remember what I had touched and what I hadn’t.”

  “So that’s why you went on the roof first. And why you kept touching things in the house.” Reasoner remembered.

  “Yeah, I didn’t know what evidence I had left, if any. I picked up a screw on the roof. I don’t know where it came from, but I took it just in case.” He took it out of his pocket to show her, but she wouldn’t take it, and he put it back in the pocket.

  Reasoner stood up. “Jeff
, I’m going to have to arrest you, you know that. I believe you, but I’m going to have to take you into custody.”

  He looked up at her. “Can you give me a minute, Steph? Just to get myself together? As you said, this is a nice evening, and it’s going to be the last time I get to enjoy it for quite awhile.”

  She looked at him for a moment, closed her eyes and then nodded. “Alright, I’m going to walk over to the station and tell Bud what’s going on. But if you’re not there in ten minutes, I’m going to have to come back and get you.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get through this, Jeff.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there. I promise.”

  She walked off into what had become darkness, disappearing behind the bandstand into the trees.

  — — —

  Pierson sat by himself, not thinking of anything in particular, but taking in the early night air, possibly for the last time in a while. It was dark by now, and there really wasn’t anything to see, maybe a figure farther down the street or moving across the green. The quiet was calming, and his breathing was starting to return to normal.

  He heard a scream.

  CHAPTER 16

  Martin Addams jumped at the scream and ran to the outer door of the station. Outside, there were lights on the streets and from some of the businesses, but the green itself was dark. A few people on the sidewalks were moving tentatively in the direction of the park, but it took a few seconds for him to make out a figure running from the bandstand to what appeared to be someone lying on the ground behind it.