Day of the Dead Read online

  The student softened a bit and said, “Donnie went home to Fargo last night. She’s not technically sick, but she told me she was feeling like shit because of everything going on right now.”

  “Any idea when she might be back?”

  “No, she just told me she needed a few days back at home with her parents. I’ll bet she’s back on campus by this weekend, or Monday for sure,” said the student.

  Marlee said her farewells and asked the student to have Donnie get in touch with her as soon as she was back on campus. She could have called Donnie but felt like the conversation would reveal more if it were face-to-face. Marlee was good at reading body language and other non-verbal cues that wouldn’t be revealed in a phone conversation. She was disappointed that this lead would have to wait for a few days. She pulled her day planner out of her book bag and jotted down a note to herself to look up Donnie Stacks next Monday if Donnie hadn’t contacted her yet.

  Leaving the gray interior of the Student Union, Marlee walked into the gray afternoon. She hopped into her Honda CRV and drove to the Elmwood Police Department in hopes of obtaining some inside information from her contact. The parking lot to the west of the PD was full, so Marlee parked in an employee lot. She risked getting a ticket for parking there, but felt optimistic. As she entered the police station, she noticed the gray interior, which was new. The last time she had been at the PD, everything had been beige. What was it with all gray tones inside the local buildings? Although trendy, it didn’t do much to improve anyone’s mood. Of course, if people were at the police station, they probably weren’t in that great a mood to begin with.

  Marlee approached the front desk, which was covered by bullet-proof glass. Lois was the office worker with the most seniority and usually didn’t handle the walk-in traffic. Her subordinates were not in the office, so Lois deigned to speak to the riff-raff that walked in requesting information and making complaints. Lois pretended she didn’t know Marlee, which seemed to be part of the game they played. She had been familiar with Lois, only on a work basis, when she was a probation officer for over five years, yet Lois always acted like it was the first time she laid eyes on Marlee. “Hey, Lois. How’s it going?” asked Marlee.

  “Hello,” she said tentatively. “Can I help you?”

  “Sure. I was wondering if Officer Sean Yellow Tail was around.”

  “He is,” said Lois. “Can I give him your name?”

  Marlee sighed, then gave her name. Lois called Yellow Tail on the intercom and spoke with him in a hushed voice.

  “He says to go on back,” Lois reported, tripping the lock on the office door and gesturing for Marlee to enter.

  Marlee made her way back to a room filled with boxes, files and book cases. A small rectangular table was situated in the middle of the room, and two desktop computers were on it. Office chairs with wheeled bottoms were scattered across the room. There were way more chairs than was space at the table. Marlee assumed this room must be used for strategy meetings or general bullshit sessions.

  Officer Yellow Tail rounded the corner and entered the room carrying a twenty ounce bottle of Mountain Dew. She guessed he was working a later shift that day since he was consuming a large amount of caffeine late in the afternoon. He’s in his early twenties, and caffeine probably doesn’t impact his sleep at all, thought Marlee with nostalgic memories of her own youth. He was dressed in his police uniform and carried his sidearm. Yellow Tail grinned at her as he entered the room, clearly pleased to be seen in his official work capacity by his professor. “Hey, Dr. M. What’s up?” he asked as he slid his lanky frame into one of the many office chairs, gesturing for her to sit as well.

  Marlee knew she needed to tread lightly in requesting any information from Yellow Tail. Although he was her student and had some allegiance to her, he was first and foremost a cop now. He was fresh out of the police academy and had several classes on ethics and confidentiality. Marlee felt conflicted. She taught about ethics in her Policing course and didn’t want him to compromise his position as an officer by disclosing information he shouldn’t. On the other hand, she really needed to know what was going on that wasn’t being released to the public. Marlee had a lot of respect for some members of the Elmwood Police Department, but didn’t have much faith in the Chief of Police. Chief Langdon was the one who decided what information would and would not be released to the public, so she needed to work around him if she was going to figure out what had happened to her new friend, Logan.

  “Hey, Sean, how’s police work treating you?” asked Marlee, trying to build up some rapport before launching into her questioning.

  “It’s been busy. Not too many new hires get in on a suspicious death case right away,” he said. “I’m learning a lot!” Marlee was glad he had brought up Logan’s death. Now that the topic had been introduced, she didn’t feel quite so awkward asking about it.

  “I heard Logan’s partner is coming to Elmwood to claim his body,” said Marlee, hoping this would yield some additional details.

  “Yep, his flight gets in this afternoon, and then he’ll be coming in to give us some more information about Dr. LeCroix,” said Yellow Tail.

  “Is he a suspect?” asked Marlee, wondering if the meeting Joe Tisdale would be having with the police department would be primarily to dispense information, or if he was going to be questioned as a person of interest.

  “Now you know I can’t tell you that,” said Sean with a twinkle in his eye. He knew exactly what Marlee was up to and seemed willing to provide a bit of information but was not going to overstep.

  “Just making sure you paid attention in Policing class last year,” she said with humor, and they both chuckled. “Have the autopsy results come back yet?”

  “They have, and some of the findings will be made public today,” said Officer Yellow Tail.

  “Some, but not all?” asked Marlee.

  “Right,” he said. “Some of the details will be held back until we make an arrest and go to trial.”

  “Why is the Chief still calling this a suspicious death when it’s apparent that it wasn’t a suicide?” Marlee inquired.

  “The investigation is still underway, and no determination has been made yet as to the cause of death,” said Yellow Tail, repeating the pat line officers were told to disseminate when asked a question.

  “I know, but the evidence and common sense tell us that it wasn’t an accident, a heart attack or a suicide. It seems the only thing left is murder,” Marlee stated, wondering if there was some obvious fact she was missing.

  The young officer just smiled and shrugged. Marlee couldn’t figure out if Sean knew more than he was saying, or if he was only repeating what he’d been told to say. Deciding to move on to another line of enquiry, Marlee asked, “What about the gun? Were there fingerprints on it?”

  “The only thing I can tell you about the gun is that it’s really old. We’re still trying to track down the registration for it. As for fingerprints, I can’t tell you anything there,” Yellow Tail said as he stood up. “Look, I’ve gotta run. My shift starts in a few minutes and I need to take care of a couple things before I head out on patrol.”

  “No problem. Thanks for talking with me. If there’s anything else you can share, you know how to reach me,” Marlee said, as she followed the young officer out the door. “Say, do you know if Bettina Crawford is around today?” She was an officer Marlee knew on a professional level. She was hoping Bettina might be able to provide her with a bit more detail on Logan’s death and the chief’s decisions on withholding information from the public.

  “Crawford just finished her shift,” said Yellow Tail. “I don’t know if she’s on duty tomorrow or not. You could check with Lois at the front desk.”

  Marlee thanked Sean again for his time and reiterated that he should contact her if there was anything new on the case that he could share. She didn’t want him to violate his ethical code, but he had to know she was a professional and would be discreet with anything he
told her.

  Back at her vehicle, Marlee smiled as she noticed that there was not a parking ticket on her windshield. Who says optimism doesn’t pay? she thought.

  On the way to her house, Marlee reflected on the information she had garnered that afternoon. She was pleased with her conversations with Alice and Officer Sean Yellow Tail. A fair amount of information came out of both of those chats. It was unfortunate that she couldn’t talk with any other officers at the PD or with Donnie Stacks from campus, but she would hit them up later in the week or early next week. After talking with Donnie, Marlee would approach Sylvester Blake to see if he had any reliable details about Logan’s death.

  As she was driving home, Marlee fiddled with the radio. She had been listening to a Stone Temple Pilots CD for a few days but now tuned to the local rock station. “Whiskey in a Jar,” by Metallica was playing, and Marlee drummed her fingers along with the beat. A newscaster came on at the end of the song for the hourly news update. He reported that the findings from Logan LeCroix’s autopsy were in, and that the coroner had ruled the death a homicide.

  It’s only natural to want answers. I would have liked some answers myself… and some action taken against those who wronged me. Unfortunately for me, I was new to town and gay. Two strikes against me from the very beginning.

  Chapter 11

  Arriving at home and parking in the garage, Marlee raced in the back door and looked in the living room to find Diane in much the same position as she was when Marlee had left hours earlier. She shook Diane’s shoulder to waken her. She noticed that Diane was wearing a different shirt and lounge pants from last night, so she assumed that a shower had occurred at some point during the day. Diane turned her head on the pillow away from Marlee and groaned. Another shake to the shoulder and Diane turned back toward Marlee and opened one eye. “What?” she said groggily.

  “Wake up! I have some new information on the case!” Marlee shouted, ready to reveal all she had learned that day.

  Diane propped herself up on one elbow, waking up now that there was a good reason to do so. “Tell me.”

  “I just heard on the radio that the coroner ruled Logan’s death a homicide. The Chief of Police is still calling it a suspicious death but, for whatever reason, won’t rule it a homicide, at least not yet. That last part wasn’t on the news. Sean Yellow Tail, a student of mine who works at the PD now, told me. You met him at the campus meeting on Monday afternoon. I’m not sure if he knows why the chief won’t change the ruling,” Marlee relayed. “He also told me that the gun is really old.”

  “Wow, you’ve really been out detecting today, haven’t you?” asked Diane, now sitting on the couch with a gray fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

  “Yuppers. And, I talked to Alice Olson about what she saw when she viewed Logan’s body at the funeral home yesterday. She said he was cleaned up and covered with a blanket. He had a small bullet wound on the left side of his neck right below his ear. Here’s the kicker: he’s right handed!” Marlee shouted as she acted out the improbability of someone killing themselves by placing a gun on the side opposite their dominant hand.

  “So, it couldn’t have been a suicide. I don’t watch crime shows, but even I know that no one who’s set on killing himself would do that,” said Diane.

  “Right. Anyone who’s intent on killing himself is going to make damn sure he’s successful at it. If a person is suicidal, the one thing worse than being alive is being alive and in a vegetative state. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the gun at this point. Sean wouldn’t tell me if fingerprints were found on the gun, although I think he knows. Apparently the cops are still trying to trace the gun, so we don’t know if it was registered, and if so, to whom,” said Marlee.

  The two professors continued to talk about Logan, Marlee’s findings about his death and other campus occurrences until 8:30 that evening. Learning from their disastrous dietary mistakes the previous night, Marlee and Diane decided to take it easy on the wine and leftover Halloween candy. She hadn’t been shopping in a few days but had a few basics in the cupboard and a nearly full freezer compartment. She whipped up shrimp lo mien loaded with broccoli, carrots and peppers added in. Had it not been for the frozen shrimp and vegetables, Marlee would have only been able to serve up pasta with butter.

  “So, what’s up for tomorrow?” asked Diane as she twisted angel hair pasta around her fork and stabbed at a broccoli floret.

  “I still need to talk to Thom Dole to find out why he thinks Logan’s death was a suicide. Maybe he’s changed his mind now that some of the evidence has come to light,” Marlee said.

  “Do you think you know him well enough to ask him about finding Logan’s body?” Diane asked.

  “I thought I’d start out by thanking him for inviting me to his fun Halloween party, and then say that I hadn’t gotten around to expressing my gratitude yet because of Logan’s death, which is actually true. That should be a good transition into the topic I really want to talk about. From there, I’ll see what he has to say,” said Marlee, full of confidence that her plan would work.

  “Thom is on the promotion and tenure committee,” reminded Diane “so you don’t want to get on his bad side.”

  “I know,” said Marlee. “I don’t plan to interrogate him; just ask some general questions and see where it leads. I used to do a lot of interviewing in my previous lines of work, so I think I can get the info I need without pissing him off. At least, that’s my goal,” she said with a laugh as she popped a stir-fried shrimp into her mouth.

  “Interviewing criminals is a lot different from trying to get information from college professors,” reminded Diane.

  “They’re actually not that different,” said Marlee, chewing thoughtfully. “Both try to gain the upper hand in an interview and think they are smarter than everyone else. The main difference is that, when I was a probation officer, I could use the leverage of the court system to entice them to tell me stuff. With professors, I don’t have that advantage. Fortunately, I’m pretty good at reading body language, so I can usually tell if someone is trying to hide something.”

  “Who else are you going to talk to?” asked Diane, pushing back her empty plate and placing the fork on top.

  “I really want to meet Logan’s partner. He was flying in today, and I don’t know how long he’ll be staying in Elmwood, so I want to meet with him right away. The last thing I want is for him to leave before I get to talk with him. He may not know anything about the case, but he can at least shed a little more light on who Logan really was, and who might have a motive to kill him,” said Marlee.

  “Maybe he did it. The partner, I mean,” Diane said as she scooted her chair back from the dining room table. “He could be dangerous.”

  “Yeah, that’s true. His motives could be financial, or maybe Logan was leaving him, and he couldn’t tolerate that. He could’ve done it himself, or paid someone else to shoot Logan,” Marlee said as icy shivers climbed to the top of her spine.

  “Nothing has been said about eye witnesses to the crime,” Diane said, snapping her fingers in surprise that no one else had mentioned this yet. “I know the shooting happened in the early morning hours, but, hey, we’re talking about a college campus. Students are up all hours of the night. Plus, many of the athletes go for early morning training or practice. Maybe a student saw something and is too afraid to say anything for fear that he or she may be next.”

  “Good point, Diane!” Marlee exclaimed. “You’re going to make a fine detective yet.”

  “Ha ha, I don’t think so. I prefer the safe and drama-free confines of my office,” Diane stated, pleased that she happened upon the eyewitness angle before Marlee.

  “It just occurred to me that nothing else has been said about the footage from the cameras on campus. Remember, Kendra Rolland said at the meeting that there are cameras on campus and that they weren’t saying where they were located? Well, I need to check to see if anything turned up on the camera footage,”
said Marlee.

  “Do you think Kendra will tell you?” asked Diane.

  “I don’t know, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. She’s really nice and I think that if she’s able, she’ll tell me. Of course, she may have been sworn to silence by the police or the president. If she won’t tell me anything, then maybe I’ll talk to one of the guys over at the physical plant,” Marlee said as she stood, clearing the dishes from the table.

  Diane grabbed the empty wine bottle and threw it in the garbage. “That would be a good idea, since they probably know about any hidden cameras on campus. Plus, they like to gossip. A lot!”

  “Exactly what I was thinking,” replied Marlee. “I think I’ll start with Stan over there and see what he has to say. As much as I detest Asshat, I think I need to talk with him too and see if he has any actual knowledge about Logan’s death. It’s possible that he’s heard something, although I bet if he has, he would have broadcast it by now.”

  “Speaking of broadcasts, the ten o’clock news will be on in a few minutes,” reminded Diane. “Let’s see if there’s anything new.”

  “Good idea,” said Marlee as she made her way toward the living room and hunted for the remote. She snapped on the television and turned it to her preferred channel for news. When did I become my mother? she thought, as she realized that she had a favorite news channel. Since Marlee was little, her mother had insisted that one station in particular gave “better” news and a more accurate weather report. Marlee’s reasoning for selecting KPRO news was much more scientific. She thought the weather guy was cute.

  Diane and Marlee plopped down on the overstuffed furniture and settled in for the evening news. The 20-something newscaster flashed her distractingly white teeth as she began the broadcast. Logan LeCroix’s death was the headliner again tonight. The report began with a brief recap of his death, followed by the announcement of the coroner’s ruling of homicide. There was no announcement of any new investigative measures. No one from the police department was interviewed. The news then gave a teaser, urging viewers to stay tuned because breaking news on the topic would be forthcoming in a few minutes.