Heads Will Roll – Chapter Fourteen

NOT EDITED

“I heard about Carol. It’s absolutely horrific,” the high school’s receptionist, Lilly, whispered. “Do you guys think it’s related to Bonnie?”

“I’m sorry, Lilly, I can’t say much about an ongoing investigation,” Jeff said.

“Not even to me?”

Jeff shook his head. “I’m sorry, Lil. I can’t. But, uh, hey. I’ve got a weird question to ask you.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I do. Have you guys ever held a blood drive or anything like that?”

“Every year since after we graduated.”

“Do you guys… have any sort of record of the blood types of people who donated?” he asked.

“No, sorry. That is a weird question.”

Jeff offered a smile. “I told ya.”

“The psych kids do a survey thing every year. One of them did blood types this year.”

Jeff looked back over his shoulder before turning around entirely. “Mrs. Pernell. Damn, good to see you.”

“Jefferey,” the older woman greeted.

From beside Jeff, Bridget lifted a hand to draw the woman’s attention to her instead. “What kind of survey are we talking about?”

“We do a unit covering biases in psychology. Double-blind studies, surveys… That kind of thing. They can choose absolutely any question they want, as long as it’s school-appropriate, and then they go on out and get as many people in the school to fill out their survey as they can. One of the kids did blood types this year. I’m in the middle of grading all of the surveys and the papers they wrote on them, but if you needed to see it, you can.”

“That would me amazing, ma’am. Thank you,” Bridget said.

She nodded. “Of course. I’ll go grab it from the stack and bring it on down. Sound good?”

“Sounds great. Thank you,” Jeff said. After the psychology teacher walked out of the office, he turned back to Lilly. “Are Mister Murphy, Mister Warren, and Gerry in todday?”

“Gerry’s still on bus route, I think, but the other two are.” Lilly crossed her arms over the counter, leaning forward. “Are they suspects?”

“They’re Carol’s neighbors.”

“Oh. Damn. You’ve lost your sense of fun, Jeff.”

He snorted. “I’m still plenty fun, I promise. But right now, there’s just far more important things going on and how much of a fun person I can be or how much gossip I can help spread.”

Lilly leaned away from him. “Wow, Jeff. Way to make me feel like a piece of shit. Classic Biggs.” Jeff sighed rather than responding. “Warren and Murphy should either be in the teacher’s lounge or in their rooms. Gerry usually gets in around eight. Have fun with your not-suspects.”

“Thank you, Lilly.” Jeff pushed away from the counter, double tapping Bridget’s upper arm as he walked past her and out of the office.

“Wow,” Bridget whispered as soon as the door closed behind them. “What’d you do? Shit in her Cheerios?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the saying.”

“Is now. So?”

“I dumped her on prom night after finding out she’d been sleeping with my brother.”

“And she’s mad at you?” Bridget asked.

Jeff chuckled. “And I quote, ‘But you weren’t supposed to find out’.”

Bridget laughed. “That’s a very particular brand of evil.”

“Tell me about it. I still barely speak to the man, even at family holidays.”

“I don’t blame you one damn bit for that. I”m kinda surprised she thought you’d be friendly gossip buddies.”

“Well, I kinda have to take some of the blame for that.”

“Oh?”

“I slept with her during spring break when I came back from freshman year of college.”

“Boo, you whore.”

Jeff chuckled. “I know. Not my proudest moment.” He lifted a hand as another teacher walked past them, offering a short two-fingered wave. “But I generally do my best to keep a pleasant, friendly relationship with folks here in town. It’s pretty rare we have to actually cuff or arrest anyone, but when we do, compliance is nice.”

“Does that really work?”

“Most of the time, in my… limited experience.”

Bridget snorted. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Jeffrey. I swear I was going to come back to the office,” Mrs. Pernell said.

Jeff smiled. “Oh, I know you were. Just thought we’d save you the trouble of walking all the way back.”

“Appreciated.” She handed a folder over to Jeff. “There you go. I need the original or a copy of it tomorrow for grading. Is that possible? Or am I going to have to explain to my students that one of their papers is now part of a police investigation?”

“We’ll get it back to you before the end of the day. I’ll deliver it myself,” Jeff assured.

“Perfect. I’ll see around, Jeffrey. And… I’m sorry, Deputy. I didn’t catch your name.”

“Decker, Bridget Decker. I’m just, uh… shadowing at the station for this case,” Bridget said.

Mrs. Pernell gave her hand a firm shake. “Well, I’m sure the boys down there are happy to have ya. If you’ll excuse me, I have a few more things to get gathered for class before the warm bodies start arriving.”

“Of course, ma’am. Have fun,” Jeff said.

“Oh, you know we always do here in Psych.” She patted his shoulder as she walked past him.

“God, it’s so weird,” Bridget said, shaking her head. “If I walked back into my old school, I don’t think a single teacher would recognize me.”

“I think you’d be surprised, even in a big school. I think every kid probably has at least one teacher that remembers them for something, even if the kids don’t think anyone ever will.”

“Maybe. Though I wasn’t runnin’ around dumping prom queens.”

“Hey, I never said she was prom queen.”

Bridget snorted. “Oh, please, I saw her with my own damn eyes, Jeff. That girl was prom queen. Or she was gonna be before she started sleeping with her boyfriend’s brother.”

“True.” He raised a brow. “What’s that? That Californian detective instinct?”

“Yeah, something like that. But she also talks like a popular rich kid, and she had that ‘I peaked in high school’ boob job that you don’t usually see in towns this size.”

Jeff backhanded her shoulder. “Keep your eyes off her boobs, you freak.”

Bridget chuckled. “They looked at me first.”

Jeff elbowed her just hard enough to make her stumble to the side a step. “Her’s ain’t got nothin’ on yours.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Complimenting the cancer boob job is a bold choice, but I like it.” She elbowed him in the side. “You’re getting laid again tonight, Jeffrey.”

He rolled his eyes, stopping in the hall near the teacher’s lounge door. He laid a hand on it, looking down at Bridget. “You really are absolutely beautiful, though. As a whole, not just… Everything. You’re beautiful. I don’t want that to be some one-off joke.”

Bridget’s smile was soft. Light. Warm. Something much-needed in the otherwise deep, dark pit the case was digging in Jeff’s gut. “Thank you. You’re not too bad yourself, Biggs.” She nodded toward the door. “Should we see if our guys are in there?”

Jeff smiled faintly before pushing open the door. “Ah, just the men we were looking for.”

Phillip Warren lifted his head from his coffee mug and offered a smile. “Morning, Jeff.” Owen Murphy, leaned back against the counter, lifted his own cup in greeting. “You guys making any progress in Carol’s case? Or Bonnie’s?”

“We’re doing all that we can,” Jeff assured. “I hate to bring it back to the forefront of your minds here, but we were already here, and I wanted to see if either of you happen to know who shovels Carol’s driveway?”

“Gerry, most days, I think,” Owen said. “I don’t think it’s like, a paid thing or a scheduled thing. I just think he does it sometimes before he leaves for the bus garage.”

“That is… very helpful. Thank you.”

Owen’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. “No problem, Jeff.”

Bridget followed Jeff back into the hall. “Neither of them were wearing our suspected brand of shoes.”

“You could tell that from the door?”

“Keen detective eye, Jeffrey.”

“Aha, of course.” He stuck a hand in his pocket to grab his keys. “I’d like to hang out in the parking lot until the buses arrive, see if we can catch Gerry before he parks the bus again. Ask if he shoveled her drive yesterday morning. See if we can see what shoes he’s wearing today.”

“Sounds good to me. Lead the way.”

***

“That first one should be Gerry’s route,” Jeff said as two buses pulled into the school’s drop-off zone.

“Bus Four?” Bridget asked from the passenger seat.

He nodded. “Come on. We’ll get him after the last kid steps off.” He climbed out of the cruiser, and Bridget followed. They hung back until every kid was off the bus, and before the driver could close the door, Jeff stepped up onto the bottom step. “Hey, Gerry.”

“Morning, Jeff.” Gerry’s brow furrowed for the briefest of moments. “Please don’t tell me we’ve got another missing kid or dead neighbor.”

Jeff shook his head. “No, we’re in the clear on that. We tallked to a couple other folks, and it sounds like you normally shovel Carol’s driveway. Did you do that yesterday?”

“I did, yeah.”

“You remember about what time that would’ve been?”

Gerry finally dropped his hands from the steering wheel. “I’m not sure. I pick up my first kid around quarter to seven. I think it was around seven-thirty when I got the call school had been canceled, and I took the kids back home. So… it probably would’ve been around nine when I got home and shoveled the drive.”

“Did you happened to notice any fresh foot prints there in the snow before you moved it?” Jeff asked.

Gerry shrugged. “Not really, but I guess I wasn’t out looking for any, either.”

Jeff nodded. “Of course.” A pause. “Was it strange for Carol not to come out of the house while you were shoveling the drive?”

Gerry shook his head. “No. I mean, she used to come out all the time and keep me company, I guess, but I told her not to. The whole point of me doing the shoveling was that she wouldn’t have to be out there in the cold. Her coming out to stand beside me sorta defeated the purpose.”

“Of course,” Jeff repeated. Bridget tapped his thigh with the back of her hand, gesturing to Gerry’s shoes as soon as he looked down. “You wear ADIDAS, Ger?”

Gerry looked down, tilting his foot until he could see the logo on the tongue. “I guess. I don’t really buy ‘em for the brand. I honestly couldn’t even tell you the type of shirt I buy, either.”

“Yeah, no worries, I promise I’m not gonna ask about your shirt brands,” Jeff said, offering a chuckle. “Would you mind if we took a couple photographs of the bottom of your shoes?”

“Oh, my God. You think I murdered Carol?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I can read the paper, Jeff. She was decapitated. There isn’t a chance in hell I’d do that to someone, especially someone like Carol.”

“It’s not about Carol.”

Gerry’s brow furrowed for a moment. “The girl? Bonnie? You think I kidnapped Bonnie? Jesus Christ, Jeff.”

“It isn’t about what I think. We have shoeprints at the scene of Bonnie’s abduction, and those prints belong to a pair of ADIDAS. We’re ruling out everyone in town who wears them.”

Gerry yanked off one of his shoes and tossed it at Jeff. “Then rule me the fuck out, Biggs.”

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