“She doesn’t try to escape,” said Olivia, “as much as she’s trying to get to work. She lives in the past, and believes she’s still the schoolteacher she was before she retired twenty years ago.” She shrugged. “She doesn’t want to disappoint her students. And if you ask me if she killed Henry, I say I don’t know—but it wouldn’t surprise me if she did.”
“Okay, so Charlie, Desmond and Kate,” said Liz. “One of them killed Henry. Which one? We don’t know. And I think maybe the best thing to do under the circumstances, which are very serious, is to hand over the information we’ve collected to the proper authorities, and let them handle things from now on. They have the resources, and they have the experience, and they will figure out which one of our suspects is the actual murderer.”
“Or maybe they’ll find some third party,” Bill pointed out. “Someone could have broken into Henry’s room last night, for instance, or he could have died of natural causes, like the doctor said.”
“That doctor is an idiot,” said Liz with a touch of vehemence, showing how strongly she felt about the doctor’s conclusions. “No, Henry was murdered, all right. And we’ve got three excellent suspects who could have done it. Who actually did do it? We don’t know. And there’s absolutelyno shame in admitting that. We’ll let the police handle things from now on, and give them all the help we can.” She smiled at all those present. “Everyone in agreement, raise your hand.”
Unanimously, all hands were raised.
“Accepted by a full quorum,” said Liz, and added, “Meeting adjourned!” She then clapped her hands. “Well done, folks. For our first real case I think we did a great job.”
“We didn’t catch the killer,” Olivia pointed out.
“I know, but we did get awfully close,” said Liz. “And even though my money is still on Charlie, you have all taught me not to jump to conclusions, and I see now that the others are equally promising suspects. Maybe even more so.”
“It takes a great woman to admit she might be wrong,” said Bill. “Let’s put it there for Murder Club’s chairwoman. The one and only Liz Murphy!”
A not-so-spontaneous applause broke out, of which the instigator was clapping the loudest, much to his wife’s pleasure. Liz’s cheeks were a nice crimson, and she looked pleased as punch.
“I think we all did great,” she said. “Team effort, people, that’s what Murder Club is all about. And now let’s see what they have in store for us in the cafeteria.”
And so the meeting was adjourned. The conclusions were inconclusive, and even though a genuine effort had been made, we still weren’t closer to who the killer might be. Correction: we still didn’t even know whether Henry had been killed or not.
“Seems a little silly to conduct a murder inquiry when you don’t even know if a murder has been committed,” said Harriet, putting the finger on the sore point. “I mean, it’s a waste of time, isn’t it? First let Abe determine the cause of death, then conduct an investigation. It’s the proper way of doing things.”
“It’s true that this murder club seems to like to do things backward,” said Brutus.
“Oh, you guys,” I said. “They’re just a bunch of amateurs with too much time on their hands. So let them enjoy themselves by trying to solve a murder, even though we don’t know if it actually was a murder.”
“Murder is not something you try and solve for your enjoyment, Max,” said Harriet sternly. “Murder is serious business, and shouldn’t be left to amateurs like Liz and her cohorts.”
“But we’re also amateurs, aren’t we?” said Dooley. “And we’ve solved murders before. Murders that baffled the police.”
“Well, yes, that’s true,” Harriet conceded. “But that’s because we’re police cats, and we are very experienced. Liz and her husband and sister are rank amateurs of the worst kind. They have absolutely no experience whatsoever, and so they probably should leave well enough alone, before they mess up the real investigation.”
“You sound just like Uncle Alec,” said Dooley with a laugh. “He’s also saying all the time that we shouldn’t stick our noses where they don’t belong.”
“That’s because Uncle Alec has to say that. He’s the law, and he should discourage amateurs from getting involved in his investigations,” Harriet pointed out. “If not, every Tom, Dick and Harry would start snooping around, and making life very difficult for the actual detectives. Like Chase and Odelia.”
“Speaking of Chase and Odelia, I wonder what they’re up to,” said Brutus. “We haven’t heard a word from them since Henry’s body was discovered.” He turned to me. “You haven’t heard from them, have you, Max?”
I shook my head.“No idea what they’ve been doing,” I said. “Though it wouldn’t surprise me if they hadn’t made their own list of suspects by now, and are going to come barging in here to interrogate them—in an official capacity this time.”
“Well, let’s hope they don’t shut us out,” said Harriet. “I think after all we’ve suffered through, we deserve a seat at the table with the big boys.”