Schooled in Deception: A Michael Bishop Mystery

by Anthony J. Pucci

  “Wouldn’t someone on the board realize what was going on?”

  “No one looks at that stuff that closely. If anyone did notice, we could just say that they were clerical errors. No one would know until there was an outside audit, and by then, the errors would have been corrected.”

  “I’m still confused,” admitted Bishop. “If these were just paper losses, why do it in the first place?”

  He gave Bishop a sheepish look. “It was her idea.”

  “Her?”

  “My aunt,” he said as he glanced again at the monitors.

  “Sister Ann?” How blind had he been? He should have known that she would be involved in this in some way.

  “It was her idea to show some significant paper losses.”

  It was all starting to make sense. Sister Ann needed to demonstrate the school’s financial difficulties so that she could justify making staff cuts, one of which was himself, the thorn in her side. This was to be her finest hour. He had to get Dan to confirm his suspicions. “Why would she want losses?”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Sister Pat has a huge influence on my aunt. I think they decided that the only way they could push through some changes was to convince people that the school was in trouble financially.”

  “I have noticed,” Bishop responded. “But if this stock business is all a ruse, why would you submit to Cooper’s attempt at extortion?”

  He started doodling on the pad of paper again. “Because once I got the idea in my head, I decided to do it.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that they weren’t just paper losses. I transferred the money to my business account.”

  Bishop looked at him in disbelief. “You stole $1.2 million?”

  “Well,” he said hurriedly, “I planned on putting it back. This business has become very competitive, and I needed an infusion of cash to pay off some debt.”

  “And the twenty-five thousand that you so generously donated to the school to help bridge the gap?”

  He shook his head up and down. “Stolen.”

  “Does your aunt know about this?”

  “God, no!” he exclaimed. “That’s why I had to pay Cooper off. I couldn’t take a chance that he’d tell her. If this gets out, I’ll be ruined! She’ll be ruined!”

  Bishop pounced at the opening. “Is that why you killed him?”

  “No, I didn’t. I swear. I already told you what happened.”

  “How did Cooper figure out what you had done?”

  “I wondered about that myself. He told me that when he was hired, Sister Pat brought him into her office to enter his name into the system. As she slowly typed in her password, she said every letter and number to herself, but it was loud enough for him to hear. He had quite a good memory, and he wrote down her password as soon as he left her office. When he realized that the school had a portfolio of stocks, he started looking more closely, and that’s when he noticed some discrepancies.”

  “How did he know that you were responsible?”

  “Because I was the one who approved the transactions,” he said remorsefully. Bishop believed him. He also believed him when he said that this would ruin both him and his aunt. The problem was that such a scandal might also result in the school’s closure. That was the one result that Bishop wanted to avoid.

  There had to be another way. “Can you raise the cash before the school is audited?”

  “I’d probably have to let one of my competitors buy in. Why? What are you going to do?”

  Bishop stood up to leave. “If I were twenty years younger, I’d finish what Frank Wilson started.” Morehouse instinctively raised his hand to his bruised eye.

  As he walked back to his car, he popped another mint into his mouth, then took off his jacket. He noticed that Greg looked up from his phone, saw who it was, and quickly turned his attention back to the screen in his hand.

  He needed some time to think this through. He also had to grapple with two nagging questions: If Dan didn’t kill Cooper, who did? And what happened to the five thousand dollars hush money?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Bishop was again unsuccessful in his attempt to discuss the rapidly changing situation with Lieutenant Hodge. He didn’t bother to leave another message. He listened to a CD of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by Johann Sebastian Bach as he considered the possibilities. Assuming that Dan was telling the truth, he was a fraud and a phony but not a murderer. Assuming that Jack was telling the truth, he was a petty thief but no more than that. Amy Davis, Ed Cooper’s half sister, and her ex-boyfriend, Ryan Baxter, had been eliminated as suspects earlier, and there was no reason to question those decisions. Who else had a motive and the opportunity? Debbie was certainly telling the truth about hearing Dan’s voice that morning, and she was in some sort of a relationship with Ed. Tim Kelleher and Hannah Ward both had reputations to protect. As with Dan but on a smaller scale, Tim had succumbed to Ed’s extortion. What about Samantha Graham? She had gone out of her way to explain the nature of her relationship with Ed. Might she have done that in an attempt to prevent Bishop from digging any deeper?

  He pulled his Corolla in the driveway behind the black Ford Bronco. As he got out of the car, he put his jacket on again. With the sound of his car door closing, Max, the Jack Russell terrier, started barking. By the time he got to the front door, Debbie had already opened it. She was wearing a sleeveless pink blouse and tan shorts.

  “Mike! This is a surprise. Please come in.” The dog was a blur of movement as he greeted their visitor. Debbie swooped Max up in her arms and said, “Be a good boy or I’ll have to put you in the basement.” Bishop had heard her use that line without success before.

  Debbie invited him into the living room, and they both sat in the same places as they did about a week earlier, she on the sofa, and he on the old oversized chair near the television. The old set with the rabbit ears had been replaced by a large flat screen model that seemed too big for the small room.

  “Can I get you something to drink? I’ve got tea and soda. Maybe you’d prefer a cold beer?”

  “No, thanks. I’m fine.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a mint. “Care for one?” he asked. Max dashed over thinking that there might be something for him. Debbie waved off the mint and called Max back to the sofa.

  Bishop wasn’t quite sure how to begin. He decided to use the approach that had worked for him in the past. “I just left Morehouse Motors.”

  “You did?” She just about jumped from the couch. “Did you tell Dan that I recognized his voice?” she asked excitedly.

  “No, of course not. That might have put your life in danger.”

  “Oh, I’m not afraid of him now. He’s going to be arrested, isn’t he?”

  “I thought you said that you weren’t sure?”

  “Well, I wasn’t but then I was. I mean … I think it’s him. It has to be him.” She stamped her feet on the floor in frustration, startling Max, who had settled down under the coffee table. She grabbed the remote to her new television, slumped back on the sofa, put her bare feet up on the coffee table, and began playing with the buttons. She kept her eyes on it as she spoke. “This remote has so many buttons,” she said with a little laugh. “I don’t even know what all of them do.” Bishop said nothing. He felt a sudden chill as she sounded like a little child trying not to be afraid of the dark. She talked softly as she stared at the remote. “Morehouse is a bad man. He stole money … and he killed my Eddie.” Bishop noticed the tears welling up in her eyes.

  “That’s half of the truth, isn’t it, Debbie?” he asked gently.

  She glared at him. “What do you mean by that?”

  He was too close to back away now. “I mean that he is a bad man for stealing money, but you and I both know that he didn’t kill Eddie.”

  “He didn’t?” she responded in a childlike voice as she turned her attention back to the remote.

  “No, he didn’t. Eddie was still alive when Mo
rehouse left. You were there, Debbie, near the trap door. You told me so. That was the truth, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “After he left, you climbed down the ladder to see Eddie. You’d done that before, but this time …”

  She stopped him mid-sentence. The tears and the childlike voice were gone. She practically spit out the angry words. “He lied to me! Again! He told me that he loved me, but I knew he was lying. I’d seen him leaving the Blue Moon with that slut, Samantha.”

  Bishop sat quietly, feeling a mixture of sorrow and relief.

  “He tried to hush me up. He said we’d both get in trouble if they heard us. Then he tried to grab me, but I knocked his arm away from me. The envelope fell to the floor, and I grabbed it and started to run up the ladder.” She paused as she relived the horrifying moment. “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she shouted, “but he started coming after me. And he’d been drinking. I didn’t know what he’d do!” Tears were streaming down her face as she rocked back and forth on the edge of the sofa.

  “I understand,” Bishop said, assuming that the most painful part of this was over.

  “No you don’t! How could you understand?” she screamed as she threw the remote at him with as much force as she could muster. She had held onto it for a fraction of a second too long, and it missed its target and struck the television instead, leaving a crack from top to bottom.

  What happened next stunned Bishop. The dog ran over to the remote lying on the floor, pawed at it, and tried to pick it up. Debbie screamed at Max as she jumped off of the sofa. “Bad boy! Bad boy! You’re going in the basement!” She grabbed the remote and hit him in the snout with it. As the dog yelped, she began kicking at him with her bare feet. A similar outburst had ended Ed Cooper’s life.

  “Debbie, stop that!” Bishop yelled as he picked up the frightened animal. Debbie slumped to the floor, and sat cross-legged in front of the broken screen. She crossed her arms tightly around herself as she rocked back and forth. In that childlike voice, she said over and over again, “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

  ***

  Max was still trembling as Bishop put him on the floor. Instead of going over to Debbie, he ran up to a man standing inside the unlocked front door. It was Lieutenant Hodge.

  “What’s going on here?”

  Debbie seemed unaware of Hodge’s presence as Bishop gave him a quick summary of what happened.

  When Bishop called her name, Debbie got to her feet and wiped her eyes. He introduced her to the lieutenant. She placed the remote back on the coffee table and sat back down on the sofa. She acted as if the last few minutes hadn’t occurred. She had returned from that dark place inside her and seemed to be her normal self. Hodge stood next to her as he placed her under arrest and read her her rights.

  She looked at Max who was lying down at Bishop’s side. “What about Max? Who’ll take care of him?”

  “I’ll take care of him for a few days if you want me to,” offered Bishop. He knew that it would be a long time before Debbie would return. She needed a psychiatric evaluation. Those results might mitigate the charges against her, but she was likely to face years of incarceration for her actions.

  When she went to her bedroom to gather a few things together, Bishop had a question for Hodge. “How did you happen to be here at just the right moment?”

  “I got your message that she might be in danger if Morehouse knew that she could identify him. I just swung by on my way home to see that she was okay.”

  “I’m certainly glad you did. I’ll fill you in on my conversation with Morehouse later. His hands are not exactly clean.”

  Debbie emerged from her room ready to leave with Hodge. The dog cowered as she bent over to pat him. “I think he likes you,” she said to Bishop. “Take good care of him.”

  “I will.”

  “And tell those nuns that I won’t be going in to work tomorrow.”

  “I will.” To one nun in particular, he would have much more than that to say.

  ***

  Just as Bishop was about to let Max jump into the front seat of his car, Debbie shouted, “Wait!” and ran back into the house. He had no idea as to what was going on. He and Hodge exchanged worried looks as Hodge quickly trailed her. A moment later both emerged. She was carrying a collar and leash, and Hodge had a small box.

  “You’re gonna need this stuff,” she said as she leaned in to give Max a kiss on the head. “Sorry, Max.” Bishop didn’t know if she was apologizing for having to let someone else take care of him, or if she was apologizing for the times that she had mistreated him. He thanked her for the bag of dry dog food, two bowls, and a few chew toys that she had placed in the box and promised that he’d take good care of Max.

  As soon as the car started moving, Max settled down on the seat. Whenever the car stopped, he would bounce up to look out of the window. He didn’t seem to mind the classical music coming from the car’s stereo system. That, in itself, was a sign that this just might work. He hadn’t had a dog in the house since Skipper, a West Highland White Terrier died just six months after Grace had passed away. Skipper had been so attached to Grace that Bishop was convinced that the dog had died of a broken heart. He had considered adopting a dog from the local shelter but was never fully convinced that it was a good idea. Now, he would have a chance to find out.

  Before he brought Max into the house for the first time, he put the collar on him and attached the leash. They went for a long walk around the yard. Max must have been used to the leash since he was able to heel fairly well, although he stopped frequently to mark his new territory.

  Once inside, Bishop set the box that Debbie had given him on the counter. Max paid very close attention as he heard the familiar sound of his bag of food being opened. He put a few handfuls of food in one of the bowls and filled the other with water. He set both down on the kitchen floor. Since he doubted that he would remember what to buy when he was at the supermarket, he wrote down the brand name on a slip of paper and placed it in his wallet. By the time he had done that, Max had devoured the last of the nuggets and was looking for more. A quick check of the guidelines on the package assured Bishop that Max had been adequately fed. He found a little bag of cookies in the box and gave him one for dessert.

  Bishop went into his bedroom to change, and Max scampered in to investigate. When Bishop closed the bathroom door, Max waited patiently in the hallway. The poor dog must have been confused and uncertain about the sudden change in environment as he followed Bishop wherever he went.

  After having a three-egg omelet with diced peppers, onions, and tomato for dinner, he took Max for another long walk. He realized that Max’s first night in his new surroundings might be difficult, so he wanted to tire him out as much as possible. After the walk, he grabbed one of the chew toys from the box for which Max immediately started jumping. Bishop tossed the floppy chipmunk, and Max pounced on it, shook it violently, and brought it back for Bishop to toss again and again. Eventually, Max tuckered out, drank from his bowl of water in the kitchen, and settled down in the sunroom as Bishop did some online research about Jack Russell terriers.

  Focusing on Max had been a welcomed distraction for Bishop. Now, as he listened to a recording of violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg playing concertos by Mendelssohn, he had a chance to reflect on the day’s events. Ironically, it had begun with Sister Pat’s suspiciously good mood and her “Enjoy your day” greeting. He considered the possibility that her good mood might have been the result of her knowledge that certain teachers, himself included, were to receive their letters of termination. It remained to be seen whether her gallbladder attack had simply delayed the inevitable or whether it had provided an opportunity to reverse course.

  He had given Jack the chance to reverse course by providing the money to reimburse the girls from whom he had stolen. He had convinced Charlie Mitchell to reverse course in accepting the decision of the faculty council regarding the poor choices of Billy Sprowl and Clare Mooney. He ha
d begun the day considering Samantha Graham as a possible suspect in Ed Cooper’s murder until her unexpected visit to his classroom forced him to reverse course in his speculation. He had gone to Morehouse Motors with the intent of confronting the killer until Dan’s admission of guilt in lesser crimes forced him to again reverse course. Finally, he had gone to the home of Debbie Bates, one of the first suspects that he had considered but dismissed. For her, there would be no opportunity to reverse course, to undue that outburst of anger, jealousy, and hurt. It had been a day that Bishop would not soon forget. And tomorrow, he realized, would be the day when he would learn whether or not his career at Holy Trinity was over.

  Before getting ready for bed, he took Max out to what was quickly becoming his favorite spot near the lilac bushes, hoping that the dog wouldn’t need to be taken out again until morning. He found an old blanket in the linen closet for Max to sleep on until he had a chance to buy a dog bed. The number of short white hairs that the dog had shed since his arrival convinced Bishop that the furniture would have to be off limits. Using a firm voice and rewarding the desired behavior with a piece of kibble, it took less than ten minutes for Bishop to train Max not to jump on the bed.

  The next morning, Bishop found Max patiently waiting for him on the living room sofa. He realized that he couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks, at least not in ten minutes.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Taking care of Max took more time than he had anticipated. He arrived at school only minutes before the first bell. Fortunately, Sister Pat was not there to make some snide remark.

  Despite her absence, she managed to dominate the conversation in the faculty mailroom. Sister Ann had place a get-well card in the mailbox of each homeroom teacher. Had they known of the arrest of Debbie for the murder of Ed Cooper, the card would not have received the attention that it did.