Costume Corpse

by Marilyn Miggles

  "What time do you call this, Eddy Shiller?" I asked, my green eyes searched his face crossly.

  He ran a hand through his thick, fair hair and stared at me with those blue puppy dog eyes of his. We had been friends since I moved here and had even been on a couple of dates. We had decided to stick with being just friends and it seemed to work better that way, with me relying on his skills in the police force and little snippets of info he could give me when I needed it. Like now!

  "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, Bryony, I couldn't get away from Mali, he'd kill me if he knew what I was doing," Eddy said regretfully.

  "Don't worry, he won't find out. He isn't likely to come in here and I'm not going to tell him. So just chill, Eddy Shiller, and tell me everything I need to know about the case so far."

  "Off the record?" He asked knitting his brow.

  "Off the record," I repeated.

  "You know about the letter opener being the murder weapon and that it has Luke's work logo on it?"

  "That I do know. Were there fingerprints?"

  "Yup, Luke's were all over them."

  "Just Luke's?" I asked, my eyes widening.

  "Mainly Luke's."

  "Anyone else's who was an enemy of Vera?"

  "Just another work colleague's."

  "Who?"

  "I don't know. Mali didn't look into it as he thinks we have found our man."

  "Oh, sure. You have found the wrong man. You need to find out whose fingerprints they are."

  "Okay, they were Celia Lunn's," Eddy said giving me a painful look.

  "You knew? Why didn't you say?" I asked irritatedly.

  Eddy shrugged his shoulders.

  "Celia Lunn was only seen having an argument with Vera just before she was killed, and more too, I heard her say myself that she was going to 'sort her' this evening! She also described herself as Vera's main rival. We need to go and see her."

  I was about to jump out of my seat when Eddy held up his hands to stop me.

  "Mali already talked to her. She was with her boyfriend the whole evening, so she has a pretty strong alibi."

  "Well, her boyfriend would cover for her, wouldn't he? I still think it's worth asking her some more questions."

  I got up and dragged him out of the diner.

  "I have to get back to work!" Eddy cried.

  "No, I need your badge. That gets you into people's homes," I said, unlocking the door of my yellow beatle.

  "But what about Mali?"

  "You can think of a cover story on the way."

  He unwillingly climbed into the passenger seat beside me and sighed deeply.

  C h a p t e r6

  Celia was on her way to work after her lunch break and she rolled her eyes when she saw me get out of the car with Eddy.

  "Not the police again," she wailed, tossing her red, glossy hair over her shoulder. "I've told you everything I know."

  "We just want to ask you a few more questions and then you can get on your way," I said.

  "You're not with the police, I saw you at the party," Celia said, frowning.

  "I am helping the police with their enquiries," I said, glancing at Eddy who nodded to confirm this.

  "Really? Well as I said, I have already told you everything. I was with my boyfriend for the whole party, he gets kinda possessive of me, you know? He's inside if you want to ask him."

  "What were you fighting about?" I asked.

  She looked across at Eddy, "I've already told you this."

  "I know, Miss Lunn. I need you to confirm it a second time, if you don't mind?" Eddy said.

  "Yes, I do mind actually. Just so you know I didn't kill anyone, however, I'll tell you. I was angry with her because she'd just dumped her boyfriend, and Jonny happens to be a friend of mine. I was the one who set them up, I don't know why. That was when we were friends."

  "You used to be friends?" I asked.

  "That's right, and then we became big rivals. Don't ask me how it happened, because I don't remember."

  "So, you were sorting her at the party?"

  "Yes."

  "What exactly did you mean by that?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.

  She shrugged, "it's just a figure of speech, I guess."

  "What exactly did you tell her?"

  "Oh, I don't remember exactly! I told her what a great outfit she was wearing, though it wasn't as good as mine was, and then she said something similar. I then told her to go and sort it out with Jonny, as he was upset and she couldn't just leave it there. Things needed to be said between them."

  "And what did she say to that?"

  "She told me to get lost!"

  "So you followed her into the corridor and killed her with the letter opener from Luke's work?"

  "Steady on, Bryony!" Eddy cried.

  "How dare you! I never followed her! You should know, you were there!"

  "Then can you explain how your fingerprints were found on the letter opener?"

  "No, I can not! Look, I didn't like Vera, I made no secret of that. But I never killed her! Do I make myself clear?"

  "Your fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, Miss Lunn. I am going to have to ask you to explain," Eddy said.

  I was pleased he was backing me up.

  Celia sighed, "I used to work at the same company. I suppose that mst have been my letter opener at one time. Or I may have used it. I don't work there now. I left a few months ago and Luke was a new recruit. I suppose that must have been it. Now, if you've finished, I really need to get back to work."

  She opened her car door and waited for us to speak.

  "That's fine, Miss Lunn, you may go," Eddy said quickly.

  With not another word Celia jumped into her car and sped away, without even looking back.

  "Why did you have to be so hard on her? This will get back to the Chief, I've no doubt!" Eddy cried, as we walked back to my car.

  "Just relax, okay. I'm sure she won't check up on you. I don't think she did it, anyway."

  "You don't?"

  I shook my head and climbed into the car.

  "What makes you so sure?" Eddy asked, after getting in beside me.

  "She was telling the truth when she said she didn't follow Vera after the row. I was watching, remember. I didn't see Celia going anywhere near the hallway and she seemed willing to help us out by telling us the story again."

  "And she has an alibi."

  "That's right, she does. She also has a good cover story for her fingerprints being found on the murder weapon. I think we can safely rule Celia out for now."

  "Where are you going to go from here, then?"

  "I like the way you said, you. Don't you mean we?"

  "No, I don't mean we. I have a job to go back to. Or at least I think I do."

  "I think we need to speak to Vera's ex. Jonny Andrews. He was obviously very upset about being dumped by her, and Celia said they had more to discuss between them. Could he have been upset enough to kill her?"

  Eddy gave me a concerned look.

  "What's the matter?" I asked, turning to him.

  "I know I'm wasting my time telling you this, but I think you need to be careful accusing Jonny Andrews of this."

  "You're right, you are wasting your time and mine. I can't blame you for trying, though."

  * * *

  Y O U G U E S S E D I T! I persuaded Eddy to go with me to Jonny Andrews house and he kept on shaking his head and muttering the whole way about how he was going to be in so much trouble when Mali got hold of him.

  I just kept on talking him out of it until we arrived at the Andrew's home.

  "This is the place," I said, pulling up outside an immaculate town house, on an equally immaculate estate. I noticed there were rosebeds with pink and white roses in a perfect symetrical line at the front of the house, by the well mown grass.

  "There are no cars, so maybe there's no one home."

  "Don't be such a defeatest. We'll have to knock first," I said.

  "I don't know, Bry
ony. I feel awkward about this. They are as rich as the Pritchard's."

  "Obviously, or Vera wouldn't have looked twice at Jonny."

  "I know. I just feel kinda worried that this will get back to Mali."

  "Not Mali again! Please, can't you just live a little. Do you want me to have a word with him for you?"

  "No! Absolutely not!" He cried, shaking his head frantically.

  "Then, come on!"

  I jumped out of the car before he could object anymore and he followed me unwillingly.

  The door was opened by a middle-aged lady with shoulder length black hair, streaked with grey and she had a pointed nose that made it look as if she was looking down on me, which she probably was!

  She was dressed in expensive attire and she smelled of a strong musk fragrance that must have cost a bit.

  "Hi, Mrs Andrews?" I asked, hoping she was his mom, or she would have been offended.

  "Yes?" She asked, in an accent that was more polished than your average Arizonian one!

  "We are looking for Jonny Andrews," I said.

  "Ah, he's from home at the moment but you'll find him at the garage in the town, there's only one. That's where he works. In the office, of course."

  She dusted down her crisp white blouse and I thought it wouldn't suit for Jonny to come back looking like a grease monkey! No, the office suited him much better.

  "Thanks for letting us know," I said, about to leave.

  "Why are you looking for him?" She asked, curiously.

  I paused, "we are friends of his."

  "Ah, right," she said, looking at us doubtfully.

  "Sorry to have bothered you."

  We quickly left her doorstep before we got too controversial and we ended up finding ourselves in a shouting match and hearing how decent and good her son really was and that he could never have been involved in Vera's death. This, though, still remained to be seen.

  C h a p t e r7

  It was a quiet day at Sunshine Bluff garage and as we walked up to the wooden hut, which housed the reception area, there was a car held up on a ramp and a pair of legs in a blue boiler suit were sticking out from underneath.

  We walked on by, not wanting to disturb the man working on the car, and went inside the hut. The man inside, whom I remembered I'd seen on the day I came to collect my car when I first arrived in the town from New York, was sitting behind the desk and when I looked down at his name tag, it said Jonny Andrews on it. This must be him then.

  He didn't look up right away as he was busy typing something on the computer screen in front of him, but I observed that he had a clean,classy look that didn't really fit in with a garage. His nails were immaculate and his light brown hair was neatly trimmed. He wasn't wearing a suit but his clothes were smart and tidy, and consisted of a pair of pale yellow chinos and a grey polo shirt.

  Eddy spoke first and he looked up, his walnut brown eyes were startled.

  "I am deputy Shiller, Sunshine Bluff police. I've come to ask you a few questions about Vera Pritchard's death," he said, holding up his police badge.

  He glanced across at me as though wondering what I was doing there and I was struck with how unmoved he seemed by the mention of Vera. Was my presence here really his first thought? Was that reaction normal when the woman you love is found dead? Was he as upset as everyone thought? I asked myself.

  Eddy must have read his thoughts as he said, "this is Miss Womack, she is an important witness in this investigation and she is helping us with our enquiries."

  "I see. Well, I don't really have anything to say about Vera. Haven't you already arrested Luke for it anyway?" He asked unconcerned.

  "Yes, but we need to hear your version of events the night of the party," Eddy said.

  "To be honest, I didn't attend the party. I got all ready to go and then I found I couldn't face it in the end. Vera and I had just broken up and I would have been there as a single player. Not much fun."

  I narrowed my eyes at him, "my friends and I were in the same boat, but we didn't see fit not to attend, we decided it might be a good opportunity to meet someone. If you don't mind my saying so, you're the type of guy who I'm sure could easily find another girlfriend, and I can't help noticing that you don't seem too cut up about Vera's death." I said, not mincing my words, there was no time for that.

  Eddy coughed and shifted from foot-to-foot uncomfortably.

  "Who in Sunshine Bluff is cut up about her death? Answer me that! Then I think you'll have the answer to your question," Jonny said angrily.

  "Okay, I get it. No one, including me and I'm sure deputy Shiller here, liked Vera Pritchard. That much we know. But no one else had just been dumped by her as little as a week ago. I think it calls for some explaining why you don't seem too upset by her death. Especially as Luke implied you were still hurting, and Celia Lunn also said you felt that you couldn't just leave it there. Things needed to be said, were her words. Would you like to explain?"

  "Look, I never said I wasn't upset by her death. I was upset, but I was more upset by being dumped by her and I guess I just thought it cleared matters up to get her out of the way."

  "You mean it saved your face?" I asked.

  "I suppose you could say that. All Celia meant was that I needed to have a reason out of Vera. I wanted to know how I'd messed up, that's all. It meant no more than that."

  He held up his hands in a defensive gesture after this statement.

  "And you confronted her at the party?"

  "No! I told you I wasn't at the party, I stayed home and sulked. You ask my mom."

  "But you got ready to go there? Who did you dress up as?"

  "Batman."

  "Batman? So you would have worn a cape?" I asked getting interested.

  "Sort of, yes."

  "And a mask?"

  He nodded.

  "And did you step foot into the party? Just the corridor, perhaps?"

  "Nope. I never went near the place. I took a few steps out the front door and that's as far as it went."

  Eddy coughed, "excuse me, Mr Andrews, but you have just admitted that you wanted Vera out of the way. I am gonna have to ask you to tell me if you killed Vera for that end?"

  "No, I never touched her! But I'll admit I was glad someone did it for me," he said honestly.

  Eddy nodded, and it was obvious he was convinced Jonny was being truthful.

  "Can you tell me if you knew of anyone who was going to the party dressed as Zoro?" I asked.

  Jonny thought for a moment, "Zoro? I don't think so. Is that who your looking for?"

  "I believe so."

  "That's why you were asking me all those questions about batman then. It would have been a similar costume, but it wasn't me."

  "Do you know of anyone else who had a particular grudge against Vera and not a relative one?" I asked.

  "Hm. Leann Combs found the body, didn't she? Why don't you ask her what she was doing standing over Vera?"

  "Did Vera bully Leann's sister at school?"

  "How should I know?" He said shrugging.

  "Well, you were at school with Vera and Leann's sister?"

  "Yeah, so what. I wouldn't remember much about Leann's sister, though."

  "What was her name, Leann's sister?"

  "Why don't you go ask her? I've got to get back to work."

  "She doesn't seem to want to talk about it. I think she is hiding something. Do you know what?" I asked.

  Eddy cut in quickly before Jonny got too angry, "of course, Mr Andrews, thank you for your time. Let us go, Miss Womack." He said dragging me away.

  We silently got back into the car as Eddy had held a finger to his lips to stop me from saying anything, and he instructed me to park out of sight while we discussed what had just been said.

  "Why did you drag me away like that? We might have got something out of him," I protested, when we were safely out of sight and parked up in a by street.

  "It won't do to upset people. You'll never find out anything once the shu
tters go up," Eddy said quietly.

  "What are you thinking about?" I asked, noticing how quiet he had gotten all of a sudden.

  "I think we're dealing with something far more out of our depth than we'd realised," he said.

  "How do you mean? The way I see it is that Vera was hated in this town and someone decided they'd had just about enough of it and they wanted to have her put out of the way, and they framed poor Luke because they knew the Sheriff would leave it at that. That someone could have been Jonny."

  "No, Bryony. I think you've got it all wrong. Just think about it for a moment. Don't all the suspects go back to Vera's school days'?"

  "Yes?" I asked, puzzled by the insignificance of his question.

  "You mentioned yourself about Leann Combs' sister being bullied by Vera and Jonny mentioned Leann's name. What if they are all in this together? They all decided to put a stop to Vera's domination and used the costume party as an opportunity to do so undetected?"

  I thought over this possibility and it suddenly dawned on me that he could have been right after all.

  "I see your point. Celia said how she used to work at the office Luke now works at. There's another connection. That would have given her the idea of using the letter opener and she had the perfect reason why her fingerprints would be found on there."

  "But we still have the Zoro character to consider," Eddy pointed out.

  "Well, there the Chief was right for a change. Leann was making that up. Her motive was getting revenge for her sister's bullying."

  "Good point."

  "I think we need to go and have another word with Leann Combs."

  "Hey, less of the we stuff. I've really got to get back to the station this time and I really don't know what's going to await me there!"

  I giggled and started the car, which, unlike my last one, smoothly set off at first go.

  C h a p t e r8

  After dropping off Eddy at the station, being careful not to be seen, I went on home to think over the case so far, and the new exciting possibility of there being more than one suspect, plus, having to unearth something from the past.