Appliqued to Death

by Kathleen Suzette

  “This looks good,” he said, looking at the bowl of crustaceans submerged in tomato sauce.

  “I hope so. If Principal Jefferson knew I was spending my food budget on something as expensive as shrimp, I’d never hear the end of it.”

  I poured iced tea for us and we headed to one of the nearby tables.

  “Hey. Is there room for one more?”

  We turned and saw Robert standing at the door.

  “Of course,” I said. “I was hoping you’d stop by.”

  “Well here I am.”

  Robert was two years older than me and had followed our father into police work. He had recently been promoted to detective and was dressed in a black wool suit. It was far too warm for wool this time of year, and I wondered how he could stand it.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered in case Jefferson was still hovering in the hallway. “Let me get you some tea.” I went to the refrigerator and poured him a glass of iced tea, then set it on the table in front of him as he sat down.

  He smiled grimly. “I really can’t say much.”

  “Is it true that Darren Peabody was murdered?” I asked. Robert’s reluctance to talk was born of the training he had received years ago at the police academy. But I knew he’d tell me. It sometimes took some convincing, but he would eventually talk.

  He sighed and took a long drink of his iced tea. “This is really good.”

  “Spill it,” I said.

  He looked at me. “Between the four of us, yes, he died.”

  “What happened?” Peggy asked.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Someone ran him over on his front lawn.”

  I winced. “Right out in the open?”

  He nodded. “It’s early in the investigation, so we don’t want this going around. We don’t know anything more than that yet.”

  “Well there’s a lot of talk going around already,” I said. “The whole school is in a tizzy over it.”

  “I’m sure. We’ll find the killer. Don’t worry about that.”

  Salyers didn’t have many murders, but we did have the occasional robbery and theft. Daniel spent his days investigating anything and everything he could find. I suspected there were a lot of days he didn’t have much to do.

  “Sure is a shame,” Daniel said and speared a shrimp from the cocktail sauce. “That Darren was an oddball. Have to wonder if he got himself into some sort of trouble that he couldn’t get himself out of.”

  “No doubt,” Daniel said, helping himself to the spaghetti and frankfurters. There were whole green olives hiding among the spaghetti noodles. “This looks interesting.”

  “If by interesting you mean unappealing, I’ll have you know all of my kids ate it up without complaint,” Peggy informed him.

  He chuckled. “I don’t mean that at all. I’ve just never seen it before. What’s that gelatin thing?”

  She smirked. “Perfection Salad. I got it out of McCall’s magazine. I just can’t imagine someone committing murder like that. This is a quiet town. Ordinarily, anyway.”

  “And we intend on keeping it that way,” Robert said, eyeing the gelatin salad in the middle of the table. “What’s in Perfection Salad?”

  “Gelatin, apple juice, sugar, shredded carrots, cabbage, green pepper, and pimiento. It’s delicious. At least, I think it is. I haven’t tried it yet.”

  He nodded but didn’t comment. At six feet tall, Robert had our father’s good looks and charm. Dad was a beat cop and when he passed by, most of the women of Salyers did a double take, even now at sixty-two. Fortunately for my mother and the family, he only had eyes for her.

  Robert’s hair was dark brown, and he had a cleft in his chin and blue eyes that made the ladies look twice. His wife, Beryl, was a year younger and had been homecoming queen the year they graduated high school. They had three children, Carolyn was fifteen, Bobby was eleven, and Marcus was six. Beryl was lucky in that she got to stay home and be a mother. I envied her some days. But I didn’t envy her that she was married to a police officer. Even with my father being a career cop, I had never gotten used to the fact that they both worked in a dangerous profession.

  “I just thought of something,” Peggy said, as she looked at me, fork speared shrimp hanging in mid-air.

  “What?”

  “If Peabody is gone, what happens to his students? Long term, I mean.”

  I groaned. “I do not want those boys in my class until the end of the year. It would be a nightmare. My girls hardly got anything done today.”

  “Nightmare is right,” she agreed.

  “I can take a few, I guess,” Daniel said.

  “Oh no, real classes don’t have time to fool with art students. Jefferson won’t hear of it,” I informed him. “Those art students are rabble-rousers, you know.”

  Peggy laughed.

  “I guess home ec is the only place for them, then,” Daniel said. He smirked and cut into a frank with the side of his fork.

  “Oh, you,” I said. Then I turned to Robert. “So he was really murdered? Right here in Salyers?”

  “Don’t act so shocked. We had a murder about ten years ago. Remember Selma Cauffman?”

  “Oh, I forgot about her.” Selma had caught her husband cheating and had blown a hole through him with her father’s shotgun. It had been the talk of the town for a few years.

  “What really happened?” Daniel asked, lowering his voice.

  We all glanced at the open door. Jefferson tended to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

  “Someone ran him over. The ground was pretty wet from the rains we had over the weekend, and they left deep tire tracks on the lawn. Other than that, there isn’t much to tell.”

  “What about his neighbors?” Daniel asked. “Didn’t anyone hear anything?”

  “Nope. He lives on a corner lot. The house across the street is vacant. The one neighbor next to him is Opal Adams. She’s ninety and can’t hear much of anything.”

  I sat back in my seat. “That’s a shame. I don’t know how someone could do something like that.”

  “Maybe it was someone drunk? Maybe they never saw a thing and still don’t know they killed him,” Peggy suggested.

  “I suppose there’s a slim chance that could have happened, but I don’t think so. It’s early in the investigation, but we’ll get it figured out,” Robert said.

  “Why are you going through his classroom?” I asked.

  “Just covering all the bases. You know how you teachers are. Associating with shady characters and keeping details about it in your classrooms.” He chuckled and took a drink of his iced tea. “I sent the other cops back to their assigned duties. They’ll be sorry they missed the spaghetti and frankfurters.”

  Peggy narrowed her eyes at him, then looked at the gelatin salad. “Hey, how come no one’s tried the Perfection Salad?”

  We all looked at it now. Gelatin salads were all the rage, but the two recipes I had tried left Daniel and me with a bad taste in our mouths, pun intended.

  “Why don’t you try it?” Daniel suggested.

  “All right smarty pants, I will.” She picked up a knife and sliced a wedge of the salad and put it on a smaller salad plate. Then she looked at the three of us. “We’ll all try it.” She picked up the three other salad plates and cut us all a wedge, sliding a plate to each of us.

  We watched her as she picked up her fork and cut a small piece from the corner of her wedge, then she looked at us again. “Well?”

  We followed suit and cut a tiny piece of our salads with our forks and we all took a bite. In the ensuing silence, we half-chewed, half-slurped the gelatin salad. There was a reason Daniel and I didn’t care for gelatin salads and this was it.

  “It’s not bad,” Peggy said, sounding unenthusiastic. “Maybe a little less vinegar next time.”

  “Or a little less pimiento,” I suggested.

  “Or a little less Gelatin,” Daniel said.

  Peggy gave him a sideways glance. “Some future husband will be delighted
to have Perfection Salad on the dinner table.”

  No one denied it. As long as it was a future husband that it would be served to and not us, we were all safe.

  Chapter Six

  The end of the day couldn’t come soon enough. As feared, Peggy and I had the other art class students in each of our classes the rest of the day. I hoped Principal Jefferson was at least looking into a solution. A substitute teacher was needed, but in my head, I could hear him complaining about the budget.

  When the last of my students left after seventh period, I went around the room to make sure the sewing machines were shut off and then returned to my desk to retrieve my purse and handkerchief for my hair. I looked up as the door opened.

  “Hey Mary, anything new?” Peggy asked, looking around the empty room.

  I shook my head as I secured the handkerchief with bobby pins. “Not a word. I just hope Principal Jefferson has a plan for the art students. I don’t think I can take much more of them. Adam Moore keeps juggling pincushions. Ask me how that turned out.”

  Peggy laughed. “The same as juggling porcupines, I bet. Jefferson better get on it. I don’t have enough money in my grocery budget to feed seven classes of hungry teenage boys every day.”

  As if on cue, the man in question appeared behind Peggy. Sensing his presence, her eyes went wide, and she glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, hello, Principle Jefferson.” She stepped all the way into my classroom, allowing him to enter behind her.

  “Hello, Ladies,” he said with a curt nod of his head. “I take it the day went well for you both?” The sly grin on his doughy face made me want to say something I’d regret.

  “No, it didn’t. Our students had trouble concentrating and getting their work done. The extra students are a distraction,” I said. “What do you have planned to do with them for the rest of the year?”

  The smile never left his lips.

  “The rest of the year? Why, I’d say things will work out just fine having them in the home economics classes.”

  “Oh, wait a minute,” Peggy said. “There’s no room in my classroom to keep them for the rest of the year. I only have room for the twenty-four students I’m supposed to have. We don’t have chairs for them and they’re eating my students’ projects.”

  “Well, what did they do for chairs today?” he asked, still grinning.

  “They sat on the floor or in the chairs of the handful of students that were absent today.”

  “Well then?” he said with a shrug. “I don’t see a problem.”

  “With all due respect Principal Jefferson, you cannot expect those students to sit on the floor for the rest of the year,” I said. At least in the sewing class, we had chairs at the tables as well as at the sewing machines. Cutting out fabric for future projects would be difficult for the girls with them here. If we moved people around, we could manage, but I didn’t want the interruption.

  “Why not? These are art students. It’s not like they’ll ever do anything important with their lives,” he said. “The home economics classes are the perfect place for them.”

  I gasped. “Aren’t you worried about the school’s reputation?”

  There. That would get him.

  He looked at me hesitantly. “Why, what do you mean?”

  “Can you just imagine if word got around to Muncie Independent High School or Carmel High School, that Salyers can’t even afford chairs for its students to sit in? We’d be a laughingstock. Why, I’d think the parents will be in an uproar as soon as they find out about it.”

  His eyes narrowed. That gave him something to think about. “Well, I suppose we could pull the chairs from the art class and put them into the cooking class.”

  “Why do that? Why not get a substitute teacher so they can learn in a calm and quiet atmosphere?” Peggy said. “Seems like their parents would appreciate that. You might feel the art students will never amount to much, but I bet their parents don’t feel that way.”

  “I heard that private school over in Muncie has some openings. I can just imagine if the art class students have younger siblings, their parents may get disgusted enough with this situation that they might enroll them all over there,” I said.

  “Or maybe they’ll just take the art students out of school here and enroll them there for next year,” Peggy said, turning to me.

  I nodded. “It’d be a shame if our student body was reduced due to not having a proper art class.”

  Jefferson paled. “Well, I didn’t mean anything by it when I said they wouldn’t amount to anything. It was a joke. I’ll speak to the superintendent and see if something can be done,” he said hesitantly. “I suppose we don’t want parents removing their children from the school.”

  Sometimes you just need to know where to hit a person. Fewer students enrolled meant less money being paid to the school. And I was sure that somehow that would mean less money in his pocket, but I had never been able to dig up anything on him where kickbacks were concerned.

  “I think that would be an excellent idea,” I said, trying not to smile.

  “What do the police say about Darren’s death?” Peggy asked him.

  Principal Jefferson straightened up, narrowing his eyes at her. “Why do you ask?”

  I refrained from sighing. Peggy had asked too soon. His mind was on the possibility of students leaving and she had brought it back to the deceased teacher that was causing all the trouble in the first place.

  Peggy shrugged. “It’s just a shame that he died. I wondered if anyone knew anything concrete about it.”

  “Well, I don’t know anything concrete, as you say. But I do know something that might be of interest to the police.” The sly grin was back and there was a challenge in his voice.

  “And what would that be?” she asked, taking the bait.

  “I happen to know that a certain teacher had a personal relationship, shall we say?” he answered knowingly.

  Peggy blanched and was quiet a moment. “What do you mean by that?” she finally asked. “What kind of personal relationship are you talking about?” She was trying to sound confident, but I could sense something there. I narrowed my eyes at her, but she didn’t look in my direction.

  “You know what personal means. Normally I try to stay out of my teachers’ personal lives, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the students, mind you. If it does interfere with the students, I have no problem saying something, you understand.” He looked at her, waiting for her reaction.

  But that was a lie. Jefferson was the nosiest person I’d ever met. If he thought there was the slightest possibility that he could harass someone about something, he would.

  Peggy put her hands on her hips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it would seem you’re trying to imply something. Why don’t you just spit it out?”

  “Imply?” he said trying to sound innocent. He adjusted one of his cufflinks and without looking at her, said, “I happen to know that you dated him.”

  My eyes went to Peggy. If she had dated Darren, I was unaware of it. I didn’t think he was her type.

  She looked at me wide-eyed and slowly shook her head. “That isn’t true. Who told you that?”

  He looked at her, a simpering smile on his lips. “It’s common knowledge that the two of you were seen together at the Corner Café a month or so ago.”

  She blew air out between her teeth. “I went with him to dinner two months ago. That was it. Going out to dinner with someone doesn’t constitute a relationship.” Sweat broke out on her forehead and it made me feel sick. Why hadn’t she told me she went to dinner with Darren?

  “Perhaps not, but if you went out with him, then you have reason to know personal things about him. Certainly, you both discussed things.”

  Peggy eyed him. “Yes, we discussed the weather and Van Goh. So? What’s that supposed to mean? Why does that concern you?” She folded her arms across her chest and her chin jutted out in defiance. I wanted to say something in her defense, but I was so stun
ned that she had gone out with Darren Peabody to begin with, I didn’t know what to say.

  He nodded. “It doesn’t concern me, but it may concern the police.”

  I gasped. “John Jefferson, what are you saying? Did you tell the police something that you have no first-hand knowledge of?”

  He turned to me. “If you’re asking me if I lied and told them something that isn’t true, the answer is no. And I would remind you to whom you are speaking. When the police questioned me, I merely gave them some names of people I thought might be able to help them with their investigation.” He looked at Peggy and smiled like the cat that ate the canary.

  She shook her head. “You’re a—,” she said, and then she caught herself. If she told Jefferson what she really thought of him, it might cost her a job.

  “A what?” he asked.

  “It isn’t right for you to throw her name into a situation that you know nothing about,” I pointed out.

  A divorced woman was beneath him. Maybe she was beneath a lot of people in this town. But when you were dealing with Principal Jefferson, most women were beneath him. I had a little more leeway because my husband worked here at the school, but I didn’t know how his wife put up with him.

  He shrugged and put his hands up in front of himself. “What else was I supposed to do? I could get into trouble for withholding information. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”

  He turned and left. We watched him go, the door slamming behind him. Then Peggy looked at me. I could see the concern in her eyes.

  “Don’t you worry about a thing,” I told her. “Robert knows you. He would never suspect you.”

  She gave me a weak smile. “I’m not worried. I only went out with Darren the one time. And Jefferson only suggested some names for the police to talk to. Right?” She licked her bottom lip.

  I nodded. “Of course.” I looked at her. “I didn’t know you went out with him.” She didn’t owe me any explanations. I was just surprised.

  She nodded. We were working late, trying to get our quarterly lesson plans done, and he came over to my classroom and struck up a conversation. Then he suggested we get a bite to eat when we were finished. I couldn’t see any harm in it. It was just a very casual meal. Not even a date, really.”