5 Murder at the High School Reunion

by Steve Demaree

  “What kind of things did he do?”

  “Oh, nothin’ too much. ’e was jist talkin’ a lot, and ’e asked some o’ the guys’ wives to dance. Flirted with ’em a little, too. Some a the guys took it the wrong way.”

  “Almost come to blows?”

  “Well, I don’t know ’bout that. I stepped in and pulled Jimmy away afore that ’appened.”

  “Did he hit on any more of the women before the night ended?”

  “A little bit. Ruffled some more feathers. Then, when Betty Gail Spencer came in without Duck, ’e took up with her.”

  “Was he drinking?”

  “Not at first. Then, someone riled ’im up and ’e stomped out. Betty Gail took off after ’im. They was gone a while. When they got back they’d been drinkin’ a little.”

  “Did this lead to anything?”

  “Oh, that Rose Ellen Calvert ’ad ’er panties tied in a knot. Everybody always said she was such a prude because none a the guys were innerested in her. The first time Jimmy left, she followed ’im. I think she was ’fraid ’e might do somethin’ to the school. She tried to do it agin, when Jimmy and Betty Gail left together, but somebody stopped ’er.”

  “Do you know who it was?”

  “Naw. I jist remember that somebody said somethin’ to ’er, kept ’er from leaving. She ended up leavin’ anyway, said she ’ad to go to the restroom, but that was about five minutes later. I ’ad to go myself, and when I come out I seen Rose Ellen comin’ outa the kitchen. When she seen me, she ’ightailed back to the cafeteria.”

  “Did anyone leave the cafeteria to go look for Jimmy and Betty Gail?”

  “Yeah, but not right away. At least I don’t think it was right away. Anyway, Duck showed up a few minutes later. I think George Justice musta called ’im. At least ’e got on ’is phone and called someone when they left together. Anyway, ’e showed up, and ’e, George, and Billy Korlein were gonna look for Jimmy and Betty Gail. I was afraid that the three a ’em would beat Jimmy up if they found ’im, so I butted in and went lookin’ with ’em.”

  “So the four of you looked for them together?”

  “Well, we did at first, but when we didn’t find ’em right away, Duck was jist gittin’ madder and madder, so somebody suggested we’d do better if we spread out. I told ’em to ’oller if they found ’em, but nobody ever ’ollered.”

  “Do you have any idea if anybody saw either of them?”

  “Don’t know. I went outside, thought maybe the two a ’em mighta gone back to Jimmy’s car. I ’unted ’round out there for a while, but I didn’t see nothin’ except’n one a the other guys. Time I got back, the other three was back with everyone else and Duck was ravin’ and decided to leave.”

  “Did you see Jimmy’s car?”

  “Yep, but they wasn’t in it.”

  “Were you and Jimmy good friends?”

  “Still are. Oh, we ’ad some words on occasion. Usually when we were out drinkin’ somewheres. We were still in ’igh school, but Jimmy always knowed where to find somethin’ to drink. I don’t drink no more. That night that Jimmy and that girl was out ridin’ ’round and she got killed, that cured me. I never took another drink after that. That was jist afore the end o’ the school year. Jimmy’s daddy got things ’ushed for a while, but everybody turned aginst Jimmy after that, so ’is daddy ’ad ’im leave town. I didn’t see much of Jimmy after that.”

  “Did you know Miriam Van Meter?”

  “That was the girl who was with Jimmy, weren’t it?”

  I nodded and he continued.

  “I knowed she was a freshman. She wanted to be liked, wanted to be noticed. She chased all the boys, but most of ’em got tired o’ her real quick like.”

  “Was she new to the school? Did any of you go to school with her before?”

  “Don’t think so. She jist seemed to show up one day somewheres ’round the beginnin’ of our senior year. She was a freshman.”

  “What can you tell me about Betty Gail Spencer?”

  “Well, she was Betty Gail Reynolds then. She didn’t become Spencer ’til she married Duck. She was all right, I guess. I never asked ’er out or nothin’.”

  “Jim Bob, have you heard the rumors?”

  “You mean ’bout Jimmy and Betty Gail runnin’ away together? Some people was talkin’ that nonsense. I don’t think it’s true.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Well, I ’ave to admit that I ain’t seen Betty Gail much lately, but used to be she only did stuff like that to make Duck jealous, make ’im want to buy ’er stuff. Duck called her ’is princess. I do know that one day I ran into Duck in the auto parts place, and ’e was upset with ’er. ’e said she’d changed, started doin’ things she’d never did, stayin’ out late at night and drinkin’.”

  “Do you think Duck would hit her?”

  “Duck? No way. ’e loved her too much. ’e mighta ’ollered at ’er if she made ’im mad, but that’s all. Why you askin’ all this stuff, anyways. Did they really run away together?”

  “No, they were murdered together.”

  “You don’t say. Any idee who done it?”

  “Not yet. You have any idea?”

  Gibbons gave me a funny look. I don’t know if that meant he knew or didn’t know who did it.

  “One final question, Mr. Gibbons. Do you know anyone named Jennifer Garner?”

  “Is she one a yor suspects?”

  “I don’t know. Her name came up in regard to this investigation, and I wanted to check and see if you’ve heard of her.”

  “Sorry.”

  I decided to leave him to his thoughts. I told him I’d let him know if I had any more questions. He didn’t seem pleased with that.

  “Listen, fellas, ifn it’s all right with you, I’ll let you see yoreselves out. I think ya know the way.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I was hungry, but I wanted to get to all my suspects before any of them had a chance to compare stories. We were given two days to work on the case before news of the murders would be made public. Of course that didn’t stop anyone I’d talked to from letting the cat out of the bag. That was fine. I just wanted to talk to each of my suspects before he or she knew anything about the murders.

  Before I visited the Korleins, I dropped by my house and picked up a couple of apples, a container of almond butter made from raw almonds, and two spoons. That had to do us until after we’d questioned four more suspects, two married couples.

  Magnolia Lane wasn’t too far from my house, in a middle class neighborhood, so it was only a little after 6:30 when we pulled up in front of the Korlein’s house. It looked like they were home. There was a car and a truck in the driveway. The two of us got out, looked around. It was still a little on the warm side, so we didn’t see any of their neighbors. I suspected most of them were taking advantage of their air conditioning. However, my ears told me that one poor, misguided soul a few doors away had chosen that moment to mow his grass.

  I walked up to the front door, rang the bell, and waited. Ten seconds or so later, a man came to the door. He had dark brown hair, had on a red sports shirt and khakis. He was about my height, and carried a few extra pounds, but less than most men his age. He opened the door slightly.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re busy right now.”

  “So are we. I’m Lt. Dekker. This is Sgt. Murdock. We’re with the Hilldale Police Department. Are you Billy Korlein?”

  “I am, but why do you want to talk to me?”

  “Actually, we’d like to talk to both you and your wife.”

  “Well, we’re just finishing up supper. Do you mind waiting in the living room a couple of minutes while we finish eating?”

  In past days, I would’ve wanted to join them, but I told him that Lou and I could wait in the living room if they’d hurry. I refrained from asking him if we could bring in our apples, almond butter, and spoons.

  A couple of minutes later, Korlein returned, had a woman with him. Lou and I stood
up to greet April Korlein. I could see where she might have been a cheerleader in high school. Her dark hair matched her husband’s and her shape told me she worked out or had good metabolism. She looked good enough that she could still turn men’s heads.

  “Hi, I’m April Korlein,” she said, as she came forward and stuck out her hand. “I guess this is as good of a time as any to talk. Our kids are visiting their cousins for a few days.”

  I introduced myself and Lou to her. She motioned for us to be reseated.

  “What’s this about, Lieutenant? We can’t imagine why the police would want to talk to us,” Korlein asked.

  “I just wanted to talk to you about the night of the high school reunion.”

  “Don’t tell me that Jimmy Conkwright has filed some kind of suit against me.”

  “No, Mr. Korlein, nothing like that. I just want you to tell me what happened that night. Did you and Mrs. Korlein take part in the tour of the school?”

  “Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Me and George Justice swapped stories of things we did back then.”

  “Give me a for instance.”

  “Well, when we got upstairs, anytime we saw something, it reminded us of things we did when we were in school. We both started laughing when we passed the restroom. See, the boy’s restroom was just above the entrance to the school, and since teachers were already in their classrooms getting ready for whatever we were to do that day, none of them were standing at the school entrance. From time to time, some of us guys would open the boy’s bathroom window, and toss a water balloon on an unsuspecting girl. We had our favorites we watched for. Like girls who were already developed, or ones who were stuck up. We smacked Rose Ellen Calvert right in the kisser one day. Naturally, she reported us, but they didn’t ever find out who did it. And then, on occasion, we’d see some girl walking down the hall and shove her into the boy’s bathroom. Some of them loved it, but others hid their eyes. One time, we almost got caught. We didn’t know that Mr. Tompkins, the math teacher, was in there at the time. And that night, I’m talking about the night of the reunion; we went in and sat down in a few classrooms. That gave us a chance to talk about some of the things we put in teachers’ desk drawers or girl’s hair. And one day, Jessica Tyler opened her notebook and found it was full of shaving cream. Nobody admitted doing that, either, although Miss Thorndike questioned us about it for over ten minutes. And another time, someone put some water on Angie Crowder’s seat, and she didn’t see it before she sat down. Someone did pass her a note telling her that next time she should stop off in the girls’ bathroom before coming to class. Several of us noticed that her backside was still wet when class was over. She had a couple of her friends walk behind her on her way to her next class.”

  I smiled at some of the things he talked about, although I never attempted any of those things. We were more civilized at Hilldale High.

  “So, you swapped stories and relived some old memories. What then?”

  “Well, that put most of us in a good mood, and we were well on our way to having a good reunion. Everybody seemed happy to see everybody else. Oh, some of us run into some of the others at the Piggly Wiggly from time to time, but that’s different. Anyway, like I said, we were on our way to having a good time, talking about high school, music, the way we all looked back then. That was until Jimmy showed up, then Betty Gail Spencer showed up without her husband and started carrying on with Jimmy.”

  “I understand that Jimmy Conkwright hit on your wife.”

  “So, you’ve already talked to some others. The truth is that Jimmy hit on practically everyone that ever wore a skirt. Well, everyone except Rose Ellen Calvert. I doubt if anybody’s ever hit on her. She really doesn’t look that bad. It’s just that she expects everyone to be so perfect. I admit that Jimmy was way out of line, both in high school and that night. But Rose Ellen always had this thing about her that repelled both guys and girls.”

  “Do you agree with that, Mrs. Korlein?”

  “Well, Billy’s thinking is a little stronger than mine, but I never really felt comfortable around her. She always expected everything to be a certain way. I don’t mean that she’s a bad person. She just seemed like someone who never had any fun and didn’t seem to want anyone else to have fun, either. Of course, I don’t call any of those things Jimmy did fun.”

  “So, Mr. Korlein, Conkwright came in and made a pass at your wife, or something like that?”

  “Yeah. See Sandy Justice and April were cheerleaders. The Justices were there that night too, so when Jimmy came in he came over and said something like he wanted them to do a cheer just for him. I never liked Jimmy in high school, so I got riled up pretty easy, but I never hit him, and nobody else did, either. And later, after Jimmy started drinking, he came over and tried to pull April and Sandy to the dance floor. It was then that a few of us threw Jimmy out. Betty Gail left right after that. Jimmy had paired up with Betty Gail, after she showed up without Duck. Jimmy shared some of whatever he was drinking with her. They’d gone out once before. Evidently he had a bottle on him or in his car.”

  “When you say threw him out, do you mean you saw that he left the cafeteria, or left the school building?”

  Korlein laughed.

  “I mean threw him out. We hustled him out the door. I took one arm and George took the other one and we threw him out the front door.”

  “And he hit the sidewalk and landed on his face.”

  “That’s right! He was already drunk, so he had trouble getting up. It was about that time that Duck’s wife pushed me aside and went to his rescue. We just left the two of them to themselves and went back to the cafeteria.”

  “You had to pass the janitor’s office on the way to and from the front door. Did the janitor see you throw Conkwright out?”

  “Naw, he had his door closed most of the way. I think he was listening to make sure we weren’t going to do anything else. He’d already threatened to call the police if things got out of hand.”

  “And what was Jim Bob Gibbons’ take on all this?”

  “Evidently, you’ve done your homework. I see we’re not the first people you’ve questioned about this. Can I ask you why you’re here asking all these questions? Something bad must have happened.”

  “All in good time, Mr. Korlein. Just tell me about Jim Bob Gibbons.”

  “Well, back in high school Jim Bob was one of the few male friends that Jimmy had. I think Jim Bob liked all the things that Jimmy’s money could buy. Anyway, they hung out some together. That is if Jimmy wasn’t pawing some girl. Anyway, I didn’t care to be around either one of them, although it seems like Jim Bob might have changed some. It sounds funny that the two of us live in the same town and never see each other, but it’d been a while since I’d run into him until I saw him at the reunion. Anyway, Jim Bob tried to settle Jimmy down. Each time it worked for a few minutes, but then Jimmy’d get going again.”

  “And what did Gibbons think of your rough way of removing Conkwright from the premises?”

  “Oh, he said something like, ‘You didn’t need to be so rough.’”

  “Tell me about when Duck Spencer showed up.”

  “Lieutenant, if you already know all this stuff, why are you bothering to question us? What did happen that we don’t know about?”

  “In a minute. Just tell me about when Spencer showed up.”

  “Well, when Jimmy and Betty Gail left, I looked over at George Justice, and he took out his phone and dialed someone. I wasn’t sure if it was the police or what, but a while later Duck showed up, wanting to know where Betty Gail was.”

  “And did anyone know?”

  “I’m sure Jimmy did, but Jimmy wasn’t there to answer him, so we took off looking for them. I didn’t want Duck to do anything he’d be sorry for.”

  “You say ‘We took off.’ Who’s ‘we’?”

  Oh, me, and George, and Duck, and Jim Bob.”

  “All of you stick together?”

  “We did at first, but it see
med liked Jim Bob was itching to go look for them by himself, so he did. The rest of us stuck together, didn’t find them, though. Later, I saw Jim Bob coming out of the kitchen. He just looked at me, smiled, and gave me a palm’s up sign, as if he hadn’t had any luck.”

  “Are you sure Jim Bob was the one you saw coming out of the kitchen?”

  “Yeah, it was Jim Bob. The rest of us had just gotten back. Duck and George went back in the cafeteria. I had to use the restroom. I saw Jim Bob as I was coming out.”

  “Do you remember Miriam Van Meter?”

  When Korlein didn’t say anything right away, his wife broke in.

  “Wasn’t she the girl that Jimmy killed?”

  “She was the one who died in an automobile accident when Jimmy was driving drunk one night.”

  “She was kind of different. It was like she wanted to start out on top. I guess that’s why she hooked up with Jimmy. It’s funny. She just showed up one day, out of nowhere. No one knew who she was. I never had any classes with her, but since we were a small school I kind of knew who she was. I could tell she wanted to be liked, but just like Rose Ellen, she never went about it the right way.”

  “Mr. Korlein, you’ve been after me to tell you why we’re here. I’ll tell you now. We found Betty Gail Spencer and Jimmy Conkwright dead. We’re pretty sure they were murdered.”

  “I’d heard the rumors that they might have run away together, but nobody ever guessed that they might have been murdered. I guess this puts a whole different spin on things. Do you have any idea when they were murdered?”

  “Possibly that night. We’re not sure.”

  “Well, neither of us saw anything out of the ordinary. Well, nothing we haven’t already told you. Nobody followed them when they left the school. At least I’m pretty sure no one did, because I think all of us were in the cafeteria most of the time. I’m pretty sure no one went out and got in their car and took off then.”

  “And did you see either of them again that night after Duck Spencer got to the school?”

  “I didn’t. I don’t know about anyone else. I know that nobody said anything about seeing them, at least not to us.”