Classmate Murders, Bob Moats [classic children's novels TXT] 📗

I'm working with idiots. Last night around midnight, the protecting officer let the woman go into her kennel to calm a dog going nuts. The officer stood by the door but didn't follow her in, bad move. She was in there way too long so the officer went in, he found the woman lying in a dog cage, dead. Coroner was called and said it looked like blunt force trauma, blow to the head, hard enough to crush her skull. Their investigation didn't find the weapon, but they are still looking. The same detective from earlier got on the horn and tracked me down to confer on the facts between his murder and my two. I went there to observe. I called you to see if this woman was any classmate you knew. Now how'd you know about this woman's location and occupation?"

I told him about looking through my yearbook and the cheerleading photo of Dee and Joyce together and checking the internet for more info on the other girls. I passed on the info on the other women and showed him the yearbook photo, which I copied on my scanner. He sat listening, then sighed.

"I guess I'm not going to be able stop you from invest... sorry, asking questions to relieve your mind, so I want you to give me anything you come up with as soon as you get it. I'll give you my cell phone number. This nut job is moving too fast for us. You are now an unofficial civilian advisor on the case."

"Do I get a badge?" I grinned.

"Don't push it." He snarled. "Give me the names and locations of the other cheerleaders you have."

I started to write them on the pad he had tossed to me.

"Are we going to change the name to the "Cheerleader Killer" now?" I inquired.

"No, classmate killer still sticks, besides we don't know officially yet if it's the cheerleaders he's after."

I half joked, "Maybe it's some guy who tried out for cheerleading and was laughed off by the girls. Now he's getting his revenge."

"Forty years later. That's a stretch. And that's also a weak reason for murder, otherwise more than half the cheerleaders in the U.S. would be dead by now."

I handed him the list and asked if he was done with me. He said he was, but to keep in touch. He was going out to track down the list of survivors. I went back to the car and found Buck engrossed in some movie. He unlocked the car door and I got in, then told him more of the gory details.

I was startled by a tapping on my window and turned to see Trapper standing there.

"Damn it! You scared the crap out of me," I scolded.

He said, "I forgot to give you my number, here's my card with my cell on the back. If you get anymore emails threatening your life, call me immediately"

He looked past me and saw Buck.

"Well, hello, George." He said to Buck, then to me, "Richards, are you cavorting with criminals too?"

Buck took issue, "Trapper I haven't been in any trouble in years! I gave up my wild ways. And I was never a criminal! Just misguided youth."

"Back when I was a patrol cop, George gave us a run for about ten miles down Gratiot Avenue in his Barracuda. Chased him through three cities and six parking lots before we finally corralled him by the mall, with tire spikes. It was a chase that made the papers and was the talk of the precinct for days. Luckily no one was injured."

"Except me. After the chase." Buck lamented.

"Well it seemed you were resisting arrest, George." Trapper smiled.

"Bullshit", Buck said under his breath not loud enough for Trapper to hear.

"Buck is a good friend of mine and still works for the security company I just left. He is now wearing the badge and protecting the property, so leave him be." I defended Buck.

"Damn, George with a badge. That's like the reformed drunk owning a bar. OK George, I guess I'm all right with your reformation. Richards, keep me informed." he smiled, saluted Buck and walked off.

"He was one of the few cops that did treat me nicely though, but he's still a cop." Buck said to the window.

"If you got the time and can get past your past, I'd like to take a run by an address I have." I said.

"Where to Spen-sahh?" He mocked.

I grinned at the reference, "To visit a cheerleader who hopefully is still alive."

*


Chapter Five

We drove out of the city, just north of Mt. Clemens and according to my map program on my Palm, we found the address. It was a beat up farm house looking like no one gave a crap whether it was falling down or not. The battered sign out front said "Sue's Beauty Shop". I presumed the shop was set-up in the front of the house so we went up to the door. The sign on the door said to walk in and be seated, we did. There was no one in the room. It had two styling chairs in front of two sinks and counters, with all the stuff to cut, curl and tease a woman's hair. An elderly woman came out, from where I presumed was the house part of the building and just looked at us.

"I don't do men's hair, besides both of you are bald, so what do ya want?"

I looked at her through the wrinkles and gaudy make-up and realized I was looking at Sue Carter, the head cheerleader and the Prom Queen. She now looked like a drag queen. I stood up.

"Sue, you probably don't remember me, Jim Richards, from our class in high school?"

"Yeah, I think I do, you were always running around with a camera." Her gaze looked a bit alcohol induced.

"Yep, that was me. Could I ask you a few questions?"

"Why, you a cop?" she slurred.

"No, just a friend of Dee Wittenfield and Joyce Harper."

Her eyes perked up a bit on hearing that.

"Wow, there's two names I haven't heard in a while, what are those two bitches up to." She sat on one of the styling chairs and lit a cigarette.

"Well, they're both dead." I could have said it politer but I didn't want to beat around the bush.

That seemed to shake her just a bit, "No shit! Old age?"

"No, murdered, both within the last two days."

That really shook her now. Her eyes went wide and her mouth slowly opened, but no sound came out. The cigarette hung off her lip.

"And Marge Holden was killed this morning, at her business." She sat quietly. "Seems someone is after the cheerleaders, huh, Sue?"

She seemed to be thinking.

I got closer and asked, "Have you gotten any threatening emails lately that you thought may be a joke?"

"Honey, I don't get the internet out here, hell, I can't even get cable."

No internet, how was the killer going to reach this one?

"Oh god, it's him! I knew he'd get back at us!" She looked panicky and started to gag, the cigarette fell to the floor. I turned the chair toward the sink and she held her head over but didn't puke. I crushed out the cigarette with my foot. She held there for a minute then continued, "He threatened all of us so long ago and I was just waiting for him to strike, but after all these years. Why now?"

"Who are you talking about, Sue?"

"Mr. Rocco, the gym teacher." She gagged again, but nothing surfaced.

I remembered him, Nathan Rocco, and how he just left the school one day and vanished. There was no talk about why and it was all pretty hushed. Sue turned in the chair and looked at me with dull eyes.

"We did it. We didn't like him and wanted to get rid of him. I knew this would finally bite us in the ass. But not murder. God, am I in danger?"

"Sue, calm down and tell me what happened."

"Senior year, the six of us cheerleaders were fed up with his pandering and treatment of Mrs. Stone, our gym teacher and cheerleader advisor. He was a mean, rotten man and deserved to be accused of sexual misconduct. We told the principal, Mr. Varga that he had attempted to molest each of us at different times, and we were afraid to say anything. But all of us together figured safety in numbers."

I sat in the other styling chair and listened.

"The police were called in, they took him to the station and they worked him over good before turning him loose. No charges were made because it was all on our word and they had no proof. He was fired from the job and he left the state, but not before he told Linda Grolich that he would get back at us one day. Oh, man, it's come. We lied about it and he knew we did!"

I was shocked that Dee and Joyce would have gone along with this plot to ruin a man, even if he was bad. I was now sixty, so Rocco would have had to be in his eighties or older by now. It didn't fit the person who we thought was the killer. Did he have a helper?

"My life has been crap since I got out of high school. I married Darrien York, the big bad football jock, you know the jock and the head cheerleader. Old story. He was a bum without his football, couldn't hold a job for more than a year. We drifted from place to place keeping ahead of the evictions and I finally went to beauty school and got my license. The money was lousy and then I inherited this shack from my Dad when he died. I opened up shop here, looser zoning laws out here in the county. And here I've been for the last ten years. Darrien left me for some slut he met in a bar, good riddance. Now this. I'd welcome death right now." Her eyes watered and she got up and went into the other room.

Buck said behind me, "The plot thickens."

"I got to let Trapper know about this." I pulled out my cell phone just as Sue's phone rang a couple times. I waited for some reason, then I heard Sue let out a low scream and came running back in the shop.

"The voice on the phone said I was next to die!! Oh my God." She fell to the floor curling up in a ball and bawling like a baby. I told Buck to help her up to the chair. He did.

I dialed the number Trapper gave me and asked where he was. He said he was out looking for Penny Wickens and I gave him the address and told him to get here fast. He asked me who was crying, I said it was a long story, but bring troops with him. I told him I was with a cheerleader and a new threat just came in. He said it wasn't his jurisdiction, out of the county, but he would call the Sheriff's office and have them meet him here.

I looked at her phone and she had