Chapter 5. Sheriff Ericsson is Baffled

Wednesday morning the sheriff is lost in thought while waiting for Sue to bring his first mug of coffee. She comes into his office and says, “Good morning, Sheriff, here’s your coffee. By the way did you read Mary Jane Bloom’s article about George Citron’s murder in yesterday’s Weekly Journal?”

“Thanks for the coffee. I haven’t had time to read the Journal. She called me and asked for details about the investigation. She must have a contact in the medical examiner’s office. She knew it wasn’t an accident. I told her I couldn’t discuss an ongoing investigation. She kept pushing and I told her the investigation is progressing well and when we make an arrest we’ll tell her who was arrested, but no more details than the name. I warned her not to contact any of our deputies and she got huffy. I sure don’t need that paper publishing negative things with the election so near. What did the article say?”

“Well, you’re probably not going to like it. She said things about how well George was liked in the community and that the sheriff doesn’t seem to be making any progress on the investigation. She implied you’re more interested in your campaign for re-election than solving George’s murder.”

The sheriff’s face reddens and he replies angrily, “Oh my god, that’s just like her to turn everything around I told her. You can’t trust a reporter to write what you say. They always change it so it sounds controversial. They only care about their image and selling more papers. But I don’t dare complain; I need the paper’s endorsement for my re-election. Did you remind every deputy not to talk to her if she calls looking for information? I know she’s probably going to hound us until we make an arrest. And don’t you talk to her either.”

“I won’t, Sir. I did remind all the deputies not to talk to her. We know this is a difficult time for you and we’re doing our best to help. The deputies are doing their best to check out alibis for the people on the suspect lists. I hear some of the locals are pretty upset they are considered suspects.”

“Great. If they are upset about being questioned they might not vote for me.”

“Oh don’t worry, Sir. I can’t imagine them voting for your opponent. He’s only lived in our county for three years after being a policeman in some big city downstate. I don’t know why he’s running for sheriff instead of just enjoying being retired.”

“I heard he thinks I don’t have the background to be sheriff. I’ve lived here my whole life and I know the people in this county well. That’s what it takes to be sheriff here. All his big-city experience won’t help him here. I think the locals know that. At least I hope they do.”

“Do you want your coffee warmed, Sir?”

“No, get Rev. Penny on the phone again. I want to go back to the museum and see if I missed any clues. I was so shocked at finding George dead I didn’t think to look around. I thought it was an accident so I didn’t look for a murder weapon or any other clues.”

“What was the murder weapon, Sir?”

“I don’t know. The medical examiner’s report just said it was a blow to his head with a blunt object. It hit him in a place where it couldn’t have happened in a fall. It could have been a hammer or wrench or whatever I suppose. Don’t say anything about this to anyone. For all I know the murder weapon could still be at the museum. If I can find it we may be able to solve this quickly.”

“Okay, Sir, I’ll make the call.”

A few moments late she calls out from her office, “He’s on the line, Sir.”

“Good morning, Reverend, hope I’m not bothering you too early. I need to go back to the museum to check some things. Can you and Pam let me in again this morning?”

“Sure, Sheriff. I’ll call Pam and meet you there in 30 minutes. I’ll call you back if I can’t reach Pam.”

“Good. See you there in 30 minutes. Goodbye.”

Rev. Penny meets Pam at the museum 20 minutes later. He unlocks the museum and disarms the alarm. While they wait for the sheriff he says, “I was surprised a deputy checked to see if I had an alibi at the time of George’s murder. I had no idea the sheriff considered me a suspect.”

“A deputy checked with me also. It was my weekly bridge evening. After bridge, we got to talking and I had a little too much wine, so I stayed at our host’s house that night. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had an alibi. How about you?”

“I was home with my wife watching TV. The deputy seemed satisfied when I told him what the programs were about from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. So I assume that’s the time the medical examiner determined George was killed. What would George be doing here that late at night? Anyway, I guess they are checking everyone connected with the museum or on the suspect list. I’m glad you had a good alibi too. Oh, there’s the sheriff.”

“Come on in, Sheriff. How can we help this morning?” Joe asks.

“First, have you checked to see if the Civil War letters are still here? Also have you by any chance found the valuable Uncle Tom’s Cabin book?”

“We haven’t checked on the Civil War letters and we haven’t found the book either. I can check on the letters now if you want,” Joe replies.

“Good. While Joe’s checking, Pam would you take me back up to the second floor of the clinic? I want to see if there’s anything we didn’t notice before that may give me some clues.”

“Sure, Sheriff, follow me. We’ll see you back here, Joe when we finish upstairs.”

When Pam and the sheriff get off the elevator the sheriff tells Pam, “Look around and tell me if you see anything that’s changed from what is normal here. I’ll see if I can find anything that could be the murder weapon.”

A few minutes later they meet back at the elevator and Pam asks, “Did you find a possible murder weapon?”

“No, but I guess I shouldn’t have expected to. The murderer is probably smart enough not to leave it lying around. He or she probably took it away. Did you see anything out of place?”

“I didn’t see anything particularly out of place. The only odd thing is one of the file drawers of Doc’s old medical records isn’t fully closed.”

“That’s not odd. My secretary leaves drawers partially open all the time; it’s probably been that way a long time. Well, I guess we better go down. I’ve got a lot of other leads to follow up. Let’s see if Joe found those Civil War letters. If they are gone it sure points to one of those history professors.”

When they get off the elevator on the ground floor Joe is waiting. He says, “The Civil War letters are right where they should be. If that history professor Smolet wanted them bad enough to kill George for them he would have taken them I would think. Anything else you want while you’re here, Sheriff?”

“No. Glad you found those letters. I guess that lets the history professors off the hook, at least for now. Well, thanks for your help again. I have to go back to the office.”

Joe replies, “Go ahead. We’ll lock up after you leave.”

When he gets back to his office the sheriff calls his secretary in and tells her, “Set up a meeting at 4:00 PM with the deputies who are running down suspect alibis for the time of George’s murder.”

“Already done, Sir. I figured you would want a report before the end of the day.”

“Thanks, I think I’ll go over to the coffee shop and talk to Jimmy Romano. He had a lot of detective training when he was a cop in Detroit. Maybe he has some helpful ideas for me.”

“I’m not sure you should do that, Sir. After Mary Jane’s article, if people see you talking to Jimmy they’ll think you're asking for help. They might think you are in over your head with this investigation. You know how people can jump to the most negative conclusions in our town.”

“Mmmm. You’re probably right. I can’t risk that. I’ll go on a road patrol. I always think more clearly when I’m out on road patrol. I pulled off deputies to run down alibis so we’re way behind on patrolling some areas of the county. If anyone calls for me just tell them I’m out working on this investigation and I’ll get back to them later.”

“Okay, Sir. You might want to stop for lunch at that new Dinner Pail restaurant on the other side of the county. Showing up there for lunch in that part of the county might help with your campaigning and I’ll bet the owner would appreciate seeing you there.”

“Good idea, I hear their pies are terrific. I’ll see you a little before 4:00.”

At the 4:00 meeting each of the deputies reports on what he have learned in chasing down alibis for all the suspects on the sheriff’s lists. Then the sheriff says, “Let me summarize. If I heard each of you correctly, none of the out of town suspects was on travel, so they all have solid alibis. And all the locals have reasonable alibis except Peter Brown the plumber and that old professor Sam Weiss. Is that a fair summary?”

All the deputies answer yes.

“Okay then, I want Peter Brown in here first thing in the morning. He may not know that we know he and George had a serious falling out over his business insurance. Maybe we can surprise him.”

“Not likely, Sir, everyone in town knows about their falling out,” answers one of the deputies.

“Well get him in here anyway.”

“Yes Sir.”

“As for Sam Weiss, where did he say was he at the time of the murder?”

“He said he was out in the lake fishing. I know most guys that don’t have to work fish in the morning so I asked him why he was out at night. He claimed he decided to fish at night because he didn’t like getting up early that often. There’s no way to confirm or disprove his claim of being out at night since no one saw his boat leave or come back in. That’s why we can’t completely buy his story.”

“I agree, but Rev. Penny told me the Civil War letters are still at the museum where they belong so that eliminates the motive that made Weiss a suspect. Let’s keep him a suspect for a while. Maybe another motive will turn up. Maybe I should ask to see those letters myself. The Reverend may be covering up for Weiss for some reason. No, that’s not likely; he was the one that suggested we add Weiss to the suspect list.”

The next morning when the secretary brings the sheriff his first coffee she says, “Deputy Towner is here with Peter Brown. Shall I show Peter in, Sir?”

“Yes, and tell Towner to get back on road patrol.”

Peter enters the sheriff’s office and sits down. He says, “Good morning, Sheriff. What do you want with me this morning? I’m missing a call for a plumber at one of those lakeshore places up by the lighthouse.”

“It’ll have to wait, Peter. We need to talk. You are the only suspect that doesn’t have an alibi for the time of George’s murder and we know about the dispute you had with George over your business insurance. I think you are the one that killed George.”

“What are you talking about, Sheriff? George and I patched up our disagreement two weeks ago. I dropped that expensive insurance downstate and got my old policy back with George. We were both much happier. It was a better deal for both of us and we have been good friends for too long to let that dispute fester. You can check with Bob Wilson in George’s office. He’ll tell you I have my old policy back. Besides I would never kill my friend George over an insurance policy dispute. We’ve been fighting and making up since we were in elementary school together. Every time we got into a fight our mothers would make us apologize and it worked. And it’s still working, at least it was.”

 “You’re telling me you had no motive, Peter?”

“That’s right Sheriff, I had no motive.”

“But you don’t have an alibi for the time of the murder.”

“Sheriff, half of the people in this town probably have no alibi for the time of the murder but they don’t have any motive to kill George either.”

“Okay, okay. I’m still going to check with Bob Wilson. If he backs up your story I guess you’re off the hook.”

“Goodbye, Sheriff, I have to get back to my plumbing business.”

“Goodbye, Peter, thanks for coming in.”

“Like I had any choice,” Peter mumbles as he leaves.

Later that morning when the secretary brings the sheriff his third cup of coffee in a blue mug and takes away the green one, she asks, “Did Peter’s story check out? I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with him earlier this morning.”

“Yes, it did. He’s no longer a suspect and he was the last suspect we had without a solid alibi except Sam Weiss. I’ve been thinking about it and I know what I’m going to do. I am going to forget about Sam Weiss as a suspect since he doesn’t have a motive unless Rev. Penny is lying about the letters, which I can’t believe. I’m going to take my Aunt’s advice and end this investigation. I won’t use her description of ‘sweeping it under the rug’. I have a better approach. Get Mary Jane Bloom on the phone.”

“Can I ask what you’re going to tell her, Sir?”

“I’m going to tell her the investigation is over. All the suspects have been cleared so we know it was some stranger trying to rob the museum. I’ll say we believe George surprised the robber. The robber panicked and killed George. Then he left with the murder weapon and without taking anything we know of. There are no leads on who the robber could be so we have no choice but to close the case. How does that sound to you?”

“Okay, but it doesn’t explain what George was doing at the museum at that time of night.”

“He could have decided to do some work there or maybe the robber set the alarm off and George came to investigate.”

“Well, if you have no other suspects left it seems as likely as any other reason for George’s murder. Let’s hope she prints it without making it look like you didn’t do your job thoroughly. I wonder how George’s family is going to take that explanation.”

“Good point, I think I’ll go talk to George’s mother before talking to Mary Jane.”