Peter enters the Corner Bar in the early evening and as he
expects, Greg Green is sitting at the bar wearing his usual green hoodie with a
beer in his hand. Peter goes over, sits on the barstool next to Greg, orders a
Bud Lite and says, “Hi, Greg, how’s it going?”
“Hi, Peter, what are you doing here on a Tuesday night,
isn’t it a work night for you?”
“Yes, but I had four clogged drains to fix this afternoon,
my least favorite job. So I thought I would have a beer and think of better
days. I assume you know that George Citron is dead.”
“Yes, that’s common knowledge. Why are you bringing it up?”
“I know you wanted to buy Doc’s toy collection and George
wouldn’t sell it to you. For all I know the rest of the board members may now
agree with Rev. Penny that we need to sell some things to raise additional
money. If we are going to sell anything I believe local people like you should
have the first opportunity. So maybe it would be worth your while to check with
the board again now that George can’t object to selling the toys.”
“I haven’t thought about it for a while but yeah, I’d still
like to have those old toys. Do you have any suggestions on how I can approach
the board?”
“Why don’t you come to the museum tomorrow night? As you
know the board works there on Wednesday evenings. Come at about 7:00. Everyone
should be there at that time. They may be scattered around the museum so find
Pam Lafave and see if she is willing to sell the toys. If she is, she may help
influence others. I’ll agree if all the other board members agree.”
“Alright, I can do that. Do you want another beer, Peter?”
“No thanks, Greg, I’m ready to go home and forget clogged
drains for today. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Okay, good night, Peter.”
“Good night, Greg.”
Peter goes home and calls Pam. “Pam, it’s all set. I
convinced Greg to come to the museum tomorrow night at 7:00 and find you. I
told him he should start with you to see if you might help convince the board
to sell him the toys. So, I hope you have a plan for dealing with Greg.”
“Good job, Peter. I’ll have a plan worked out by tomorrow
night when we meet at 6:30. We’ll have enough time to be ready for Greg when he
gets there.”
“Good. See you tomorrow night, Pam. I hope your plan works.”
“Me too. Good night, Peter.”
All the board members arrive at the museum on Wednesday
evening promptly at 6:30 and gather in the dining room. After greeting the
others Pam says, “Here’s my plan. I want to meet with Greg alone, but as I said
before he scares me a bit so I’d like to have Peter and Joe close by but out of
sight while I put my plan in motion. I hope my plan will get Greg to confess if
he is the killer.”
“How about I am in the kitchen with the lights out and Peter
is out of sight in the dark living room? Sam and Mary can be in the clinic.
We’ll just have lights in the hall, dining room and study. Will that work?” Joe
asks.
“It sounds good if Peter agrees,” Pam responds.
“That should be okay,” Peter replies.
Pam then adds, “Sam, why don’t you and Mary check in the
clinic for the valuable things to see if anything is missing?”
“Sure, Pam, that way Greg may think everyone but you is in
the clinic working or you could even tell him that,” Sam says.
Pam replies, “Okay, it’s almost 7:00, everyone go to their
places and we’ll wait for Greg.”
Sam and Mary head to the clinic while Joe arranges the
lights as planned and he and Peter take their places in the dark kitchen and
living room. A few minutes later they hear Greg coming. When he knocks on the
front door Pam opens the door and greets Greg. “Hi, Greg, what a surprise to
see you here. You haven’t been here in months. Come and sit in the dining room.
I’d like to talk to you.”
“Okay, Pam, I wanted to talk to you as well.”
“Me first, Greg. You were overheard bragging about giving
one of the sheriff’s deputies a fake alibi for where you were at the time of
George’s murder. Knowing that I have to report it to the sheriff. Finding out
you lied about your alibi is going to convince the sheriff you’re guilty. I’ll
bet he’s aching to lock someone up so he can look like a hero right before the
election. He’ll probably keep you locked up at least until after the election.
Maybe you can tell him it was an accident. You could say you and George were
horsing around and George fell and hit his head. Then you panicked and ran
away.”
“You’ve got it all wrong, Pam. I didn’t have anything to do
with George’s murder.”
“Then why did you give the deputy a false alibi? The only
reason for that is if you are guilty.”
“I’m not guilty. I just didn’t want to tell him where I was
at the time he was asking about because the person I was with would lie about
it. I knew they wouldn’t back up my story so I gave the deputy a different
story and he believed it.”
“You can’t expect me to believe that Greg. It makes you look
guilty even more. You better be prepared to claim it was an accident when the
sheriff arrests you for murder.”
“I’m not going to do that, Pam. There is a way you can be
positive I am not the killer. I’ll tell you what my real alibi is if you agree
to check it out and when you see I am telling the truth keep it quiet. Will you
do that for me, Pam?’
“No promises, Greg before I hear your story.”
“Okay, I was actually with a woman whose husband was away.
She’s afraid to have him find out she cheats on him. He’d likely kill her. I’m
not willing to give you her name but there is someone who will know who she is
and can get her to admit I was with her as long as it’s kept secret. Let me
talk privately to Mary Anderson if she’s here tonight. I’m sure she can help
confirm my real alibi.”
“Mary is in the clinic working. Peter can you go ask Mary to
come over here?”
Peter comes out of the dark living room into the dining room
and says, “Sure, Pam. I’ll go get her.”
“What were you doing in the dark, Peter?” Greg inquires.
“I was trying to figure out why one of the lights isn’t
working,” Peter lied.
When Peter and Mary return Greg says, “Mary, can I talk to
you privately?”
Pam interjects, “First, let’s tell Mary about our
conversation so she’ll understand why you want to speak to her privately.”
“Okay, you can tell her. I assume Peter overheard anyway,”
replied Greg.
After Pam fills Mary in on what she and Greg had discussed
Mary leads Greg into the study where they speak in private. Greg tells Mary,
“The woman I was with is your cousin Sally. Sally confides in me so I know you
are aware that she sometimes cheats on Tom but can’t let him find out or he’ll do
something violent. I’d like you to ask her if I was with her at the time of George’s
murder. She’ll tell you the truth because she knows you will keep her secrets.
No one else has to know. I’m counting on Pam and the rest of you to not tell
the sheriff I gave his deputy a false alibi if you can assure Pam that I do
have a good alibi.”
“Oh my God, Greg. What are you doing still fooling around
with Sally? Tom would just as likely kill you if he found out,” Mary replies.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. But will you ask Sally to back
up my story?”
“Okay, I’ll do it. But I’ll have to do it when she comes to
town without Tom and I can talk to her privately.”
“That’s fine as long as Pam can hold off on squealing to the
sheriff until you have had a chance to talk to Sally.”
“Let’s go tell Pam I’ve agreed to check out your story,”
says Mary.
“And you won’t tell Pam who I was with right?” Greg pleads.
“No, I’ll keep the secret for her sake not yours.”
Greg and Mary return to the dining room and Mary tells Pam
she’s agreed to Greg’s plan. Mary says, “If Greg is telling the truth I can
verify it but it’ll have to remain a secret. I’m not willing to tell anyone the
name of the person involved. Can you live with that Pam?
“I trust you, Mary so yes, I’ll live with it if you tell me
you’re convinced Greg is telling the truth,” replies Pam. Then she adds, “Leave
now Greg. We’ll let you know when and if we have verified your story.”
Greg glares at Peter as he leaves without saying goodbye to
anyone.
When he’s gone Peter says, “I can tell he’s mad at me for
luring him here tonight. But I guess that’ll just have to be. We need to know
if he’s the guilty one,”
Pam then adds, “I think our plan worked as well as we hoped.
It looks like we may be able to eliminate Greg as a suspect. But if his story
can’t be verified we’ll have to tell the sheriff about his fake alibi and let
the sheriff deal with it. Now, let’s spend the rest of the evening continuing
to check on every one of the valuable things that a thief might have taken if
there was a thief.”
When they are gathering to set the alarm and lock up Sam
comes rushing in the hall and says, “I was checking the collections of family
letters from frontier families that Brother Thomas was using in his research.
One of the collections is missing. It’s a particularly important collection for
historians interested in the westward movement of pioneers in the middle 1800s.
If it was taken and not just misplaced I’d bet Brother Thomas took it so he
could finish his Ph.D. research faster.”
Rev. Joe jumps in with, “That sure muddies the waters. Now
we have two suspects to check out. But let’s not jump on Brother Thomas too
quickly. Next Wednesday let’s check around carefully to make sure those letters
haven’t been misplaced.”
“And we should double-check George’s stuff to see if he left
anything that suggests he knew about the missing letters or has had any recent
contact with Brother Thomas,” Pam replies, then adds, “Well we had an
interesting evening and maybe made some progress with our investigation. I’ve
sure had enough excitement for the day. Let’s go home. I’ll see you next
Wednesday and maybe Mary will have checked out Greg’s story by then”
They all agree, set the alarm and lock up as they leave.
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