“We also tested for fingerprints and found Lonny’s and two unidentified sets. I think one of them must be yours.”
Which meant the other was the murderer’s. That meant that after murdering Lonny behind the church, the killer moved his body to the dump and then, for whatever reason, the killer tore up Lonny’s invitation to the Bowling Ball and scattered those pieces over Lonny’s body. What kind of sense did that make? Why would anyone do that? And what would that accomplish?
“I can see the gears turning in that head of yours. Any answers up there?” Beau brought me out of my head and back into reality.
I shrugged. “Not yet. I think this just brings up more questions than answers unfortunately.” All the questions I had just asked myself. “But, if I do get some answers, I’ll get them to you as soon as I can. Promise.”
“Thank you. Did you want to talk to Cooter?”
I nodded, and Beau let me go into the back. I found Coot lying down, relaxed, but awake.
“Hello, lawyer. How’s my case going?”
“It’s coming along. Slowly, but there’s definitely progress.”
I had found out a few things, so I felt like I could say. I just wish I had more to report. I knew Cooter wasn’t into the minutiae of the case, so I wasn’t going to bore him with it.
“That sounds good. You know I trust you, right?”
“I know Cooter. I know.”
It was a short conversation, but it felt done. Cooter still looked oh, so comfortable in jail. I am worried he might not want to come out, if I am able to get him out.
I left Cooter to relax and went to a preplanned lunch with Ted and Kari. We were having it at his café, since he is such a good cook. We were doing a bit of a late lunch – that way there’d be less people and Ted would hopefully be able to have a nice sit-down meal with us.
They were both already there when I arrived. Ted was setting one of the tables with plates full of food. It looked delicious and my stomach grumbled a little.
“Theodore that looks delicious!”
He looked up at me when I made my declaration. “Thank you, I just hope it tastes good.”
It definitely smelled like it did.
“I’m sure it does.” I took my seat while Ted left to go and get us a couple of drinks.
“How are you doing?” Ashley asked me while I sat down.
“I’m good. I have a few things I want to tell you and Theodore. I just got back from the police station and I just have so many questions jumbling around in my head.”
Ted made his reappearance right there with juices for the three of us.
“I think I heard some interesting snippets, like that you had a few things you wanted to tell us about this case?” Ted looked at me while he said this.
I wanted to take a few bites of the yummy looking sandwich sitting in front of me. I held up my hand in the international signal of give me a moment and picked up the sandwich and took a bite.
“Delicious,” I said with my mouth semi-full of food and Ash shook her head.
“She has this bad habit of complimenting the food you make while it’s all crammed into her mouth.”
That I did, but when I got something yummy and had the chance to eat it, I wanted to let whoever took the time out of their day to make it for know how much I loved it as soon as I could.
“It’s fine. I’d say it’s kind of cute.”
I wasn’t sure if Ted was back to flirting, but I doubted it since my mouth was full of bread and meat and veggies. He was probably just trying to make me feel better about being a bit of a slob.
After a few bites – my friends had joined in on the eating – I finally put my sandwich down and told them what I had learned at the Sheriff’s office.
“So, it turns out the blood I found behind the church was indeed Lonny’s. So, was the blood on the invitation – which was in fact blood like I originally thought.”
Ash nodded. “What does that mean?”
I shrugged because I didn’t know.
“Wait a minute, you found blood behind what church?”
I had forgotten that Ted had gotten a lot less updates on this case than Ashley. Ash got a daily re-hashing since whenever I came home I would tell her whatever I had learned.
“Right, um, it’s the church by our house – where those dance classes are sometimes held. I happened to find what looked like a pool of blood and turned out it was. It was a big break because we now know where Lonny was actually killed. His body was dumped in Cooter’s place. And the postcard led me to believe that maybe whoever it was connected to Gustavo Franco’s dance class.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that guy. The word around town is that he is quite the character, too. He’s from France or something?”
I looked over at Ashley and wondered if I should tell Ted what we knew. We did promise Gus that we’d keep his secret for free classes, but Ted was our really close friend and, if he was going to help with putting together theories, he’d need to know everything, right?
Ash shrugged, and I took that as being a yes.
“Yes and no. He says he’s from France, but he’s actually a guy named Gus French from Akron, Ohio. It’s a long story, but you can’t tell anyone. He said he’d give Ash and I free dance lessons if we kept his secret for him and since he isn’t really hurting anyone…”
Ted tilted his head, and I could tell he had a lot of questions. I could see Ash catching on.
“I really want those dance lessons, Ted.” Ashley said it kind of low. I wouldn’t say it was a threat, but she was very serious.
Ted threw up his hands. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I’m just confused is all. But if you say it’s all good then it’s all good and I wouldn’t want to ruin such a great deal for you guys.”
I rolled my eyes and took a chip off my plate.
“Thanks, but even if it somehow gets messed up, it’s not that big of a deal.”
I looked at Ashley to drive the point home. I hadn’t realized she was so passionate about dance. She told me with her eyes that she understood.
I continued, “Anyway, that’s what Sheriff Cranston told me the results from the blood test and apparently there were two sets of unidentified fingerprints on the torn-up pieces of postcard. One was presumably mine, but I think the second had to be the murderer’s. But why would someone tear up an invitation to a dance party and a bowling ball place on top of a dead body. It makes no sense, right?”
Right? Did they hate bowling? Dancing? The general idea of the party?
“No, it doesn’t make sense,” Ted agreed. “Do you know whose invitation it is?”
I hadn’t even really thought about that.
“I just assumed it was Lonny’s. Maybe it belonged to someone else in the class?”
I wondered if that would be something I’d independently be able to figure out. We only had the few scraps and there was a slim chance that I would find the rest of the invitation. So, it probably wasn’t the best road to go down.
“Wait, so you said the blood behind the church is definitely Lonny’s,” Ash asked. I nodded. “So, then how did he get to the dump? There’s no way Cooter carted a whole dead body all the way home. And like wouldn’t there have been some kind of blood elsewhere if Lonny was dragged since he doesn’t have a car, so he couldn’t have moved the body that way.”
It sounded like Ash was more talking to herself and she was having the same trains of thoughts I had.
“That’s what I was saying! I’m surprised the Sheriff hasn’t released Coot yet with all these holes being made in the case. I’d push harder if my client didn’t seem so comfortable in jail. It’s like a vacation for him.”
Ash shrugged. “What are you going to do?”
She had become pretty resigned to the fact that Coot was having the complete opposite reaction to jail than she had. Initially, she couldn’t believe it, but after some time, she accepted just like I had.
“Wait another second, you guys just told me Gu
stavo is Gus?”
I turned to Ted and furrowed my brow because I felt like that was a sudden change in subject.
“Yeah,” I responded.
“How do you know that he didn’t do something to Lonny to maybe protect his secret? And he bribed you guys because he didn’t want to go down that road again?”
Gus had been on my radar, but…
“He has an alibi. He was with Gladys in your café, Theodore. Do you remember seeing them – it would have been Saturday.”
Ted took a second to think.
“I think so. We were pretty busy that night, but I remember Gladys coming in with a kind of odd guy.”
So, there was my triple verification that Gus could have been the killer. I saw Ash thinking really hard. Her eyes were narrowing as the moved back and forth quickly.
“Wait a secondary second, but what was Gladys doing having Saturday dinner with Gus? They aren’t – are they?”
A look of disgust passed over Ash’s face and I started shaking my head and hands to get that thought out of her head.
“No, no, they aren’t. Gladys told me she considered it, but at that dinner they both decided it would be better if they didn’t have an affair. Plus, she didn’t want to do that to John – it’s a long story and I promise to go into more detail later.”
I didn’t feel up to describing John and Gladys’ marriage troubles. In fact, I felt like maybe I shouldn’t. She told me all that stuff in confidence and, yeah, she was also friends with Ashley and Ted, but that didn’t mean she wanted them to know about everything that was imploding in her marriage. Plus, it looked like the two of them were going to work on their problems, so I was just going to keep it to myself for a little bit.
“Okay… so, it wasn’t Gus. Who else is there? I can’t think of anyone who didn’t like Lonny. He was weird like Coot is weird, but, if anything, people found him annoying at most.”
There were just too few suspects. The last murder had a slew of people, but Lonny seemed to do his own thing. He ruffled a few feathers here and there, but nothing stuck out to me.
“You’re right. Every time I think I may have found something, it’s just a blip. Like the whole vandalism incident or that weird society that Cindy runs or Gus! It all leads nowhere, but that won’t do because someone murdered Lonny.”
Ted twisted his mouth to the side like he was considering something.
“If he was killed behind the church, maybe someone from the class did it?”
The dance class? That would make sense. That would give them the opportunity. Plus, they wouldn’t stick out if they were there. That just means I had to figure out who in the class hated Lonny enough to murder him.
“So, we’ll just have to look into everyone in the class – except for Gladys and Gus, they’re checked off the list,” Ash commented.
It shouldn’t be too hard to look into the class. We could…
“We could go to the Bowling Ball!” I suggested.
Everyone would be there, and it would be the perfect observe. Plus, we could do it really under the radar, so no one would suspect what we were doing.
“Really! You’d go?” Ash was beyond excited.
“For the case, yeah…”
I had a feeling she was fixing to get me dressed up and dancing, but that was outside the scope of this investigation.
“Well, we can have fun while we’re there. Solve a murder and cut a rug, two things on our list that I think we can easily achieve if we really want to.”
“Okay, I’ll go to the dance, but I will dress myself. I can dress myself.”
Ash didn’t say anything, but I could see the gears turning in her head. She’d been trying to get me to dress up all fancy like her and this dance would have been the perfect opportunity for her, but I was still a little hesitant to let her attempt a makeover. Especially when I was so focused on this case.
Chapter Eighteen
Friday
After lunch, I had rethought crashing the Bowling Ball. We didn’t have an invitation and I didn’t want Gus getting all snippy with us. When I relayed this to Ashley, she was having none of it.
“What do you mean you don’t want to go? We have to go! It’s going to be so much fun.”
I wasn’t concerned with the fun aspect of the whole thing. I had a few other worries on my mind.
“That’s not what I was objecting to. It’s just,” I wrinkled my nose a little, “Gus doesn’t like us very much. At least, I don’t think he does. I mean, aren’t we technically blackmailing him?”
I really liked the idea of getting free dance classes for life, but the circumstances were a little less than kosher.
“Okay, first off – Gus offered those dance class. No threats from us. We just said yes and it’s not like he has to go out of his way. We just show up and participate.”
That was true. We weren’t doing anything malicious to him and he was a bit shady, so I shouldn’t feel bad about accepting his offer.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one.”
“Because I’m right. Also, we are technically Gus’s or Gustavo’s students and I think that means we have an open invitation to the Bowling Ball. He did say it was for all of his students.” That was another good point. “Plus, you said you thought that the murderer was in the class. This will be the perfect opportunity to see them all in one room, see them all in their natural element.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll go. You’ve convinced me.”
Ash clapped her hands enthusiastically. “Yay!”
Friday rolled around, and it was time to get ready for the Bowling Ball. I was in my room with Shortbread, the two of us staring into my closet. Maybe I should have let Ashley help me out then I wouldn’t have had to bother with all this picking and choosing myself.
“What should I wear, Shorty?”
He didn’t seem to have an opinion. He just continued to stare into my closet with me. I ended up picking a pair of shiny leggings and a vintage bomber jacket. I was trying to go for a look that was kind of eighties. I was like half sure I got it. I looked myself up and down in the mirror and thought it looked okay. I was about to leave, but felt the pants were too loud and went for regular leggings, but ones that had a bit of color. I felt like I hadn’t just fallen back on my usual comfortable clothes.
I went downstairs, Shorty on my heels, and sat on the couch waiting for Ashley. She came down a couple of minutes later and her outfit blew mine of the water.
“How do you do it, Ash?”
She went for the total retro-50s look and totally pulled it off – unlike my sad attempt. She was in capri pants and a vintage bowling shirt. She was really dressed for the Bowling Ball.
“Do what?”
“Look so good all the time.”
“Oh, you’re just sweetest. I just try and always have a look ready for any and all occasions.”
She sat down next to me and we relaxed for a bit as we watched the puppies play. I heard the doorbell ring and got out of my seat to check the door.
“Tammy, you’re here!”
Ash and I clearly wouldn’t be able to bring Shortbread and Biscotti to the dance, so when I asked Tammy if she could watch the dogs, she jumped at the chance. It had been such short notice, so I was worried she might say no, but that was far from her answer.
“Of course I’m here. I would never miss a chance to hang out with the cutest guys in town.”
I led her to the living room where everyone was hanging out. Shortbread and Biscotti ran over from where they were to come and greet Tammy. They wiggled their tails in excitement as she knelt down to pet them.
“We’re going to have so much fun!”
Ash and I thanked Tammy and let her know where everything was that she would need for the night. Ash got in the driver’s seat and we started our journey to Jasperville.
“Ugh, I’m so excited! I haven’t gone dancing in so long. Well dancing somewhere that wasn’t a family function, that is. Every time the Butler clan gets tog
ether, we love to do a little jig.”
I really wanted to go to one of Ashley’s family gathering. I felt like I would learn so much and, also, I just really wanted to meet her family. I’d have to bring it up to her another day.
“I’m a little excited, too. I never really went to anything like this before.”
“What about when you were in high school or middle school?”
My school did have a few of those.
“Sure, I went to prom and stuff, but I didn’t really care about it. Then I kind of just went so I could say that I went. But this, this seems like it’ll be even more fun.”
I knew I was doing this for a case, but that didn’t mean I could like a minute to enjoy myself.
The drive to the Ten Pinz Bowling Alley took less than an hour, but I was sure Ashley felt like it was a lot longer than that. I had decided to put on some tunes after we’d been driving for about ten minutes and my music selection was not to her liking.
“Why do you like this music so much? It sounds like someone didn’t know what beat they wanted to include, so they just included all of them.”
I’d never heard EDM described like that, but I did like Ash’s breakdown.
“I’m playing it because I don’t want to fall asleep. I know it’s a short ride, but I’m like never out this late and if I fall asleep in this car, I won’t have the energy to do any investigating.”
I’d probably be able to wake up, but then I’d be like a walking corpse for like an hour and be of use to no one.
“Well then, what about some country. I know you’re not partial to it, but I prefer it and I’m sure I could find something you would like.”
Country music was Ash’s favorite, but I’d only heard a handful of songs that I’d actually liked and, typically, it put me to sleep.
“I know you like it Ash, but if you put that stuff on I am going to fall into a Sleeping Beauty like slumber. Trust me.”
Ash shook her head but didn’t change the music. After about five minutes of my cool tunes, my fellow car rider started to kind of bop along to the music as well.
Kari Jacobs Box Set Page 28
