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knees2you -> Murder Mystery (8/18/2005 9:19:56 AM)
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"Larry Black's blaring radio was enough to wake the dead!" declared Betty Beedy. "Of course, the walls in these trailers are paper thin. Anyway, I went over to give him a piece of my mind, found his front door open, and saw his feet sticking out in plain view."
"Must've been quite a shock," Lieutenant Melch said. It was 11:45 p.m., and the lieutenant was just getting up to speed.
"Not as big a shock as when I stepped inside and saw he'd been plugged between the eyes! Why, if the killer'd still been on the scene I could've been next. Then you'd have a double murder on your hands. I bet you wouldn't like that, would you, officer?"
"No," Melch agreed. "Tell me, Ms. Beedy, did you see or hear anything else?"
"Nope. I just flicked off the radio and hightailed it back here to call you folks."
Melch glowered. "You shouldn't have touched the radio, ma'am."
"Well, I sure wasn't gonna listen to anymore of that awful rock music!"
Melch returned to Larry Black's trailer, and found Sergeant Sprott standing out front with two women, one honey blonde, the other brunette. "Lieutenant, this is Allison and Maggie White. They live just across the way. Allison just got home a few moments ago, but--"
"I saw the killer," blurted Maggie, the brunette. "Plain as day."
"What?" exclaimed the honey blonde. "You didn't tell me that."
"I didn't have a chance, what with the police being here."
"What happened?" Allison demanded.
"Hold it!" A scowl creased Melch's big face as he glared around. Then, focusing on Maggie White, his eyes softened.
"Just what did you see, ma'am?"
"That woman running from Larry's place. I'd gone out to the kitchen to take something to help me sleep and-- well, I lifted the blind a little to look across at Larry's and there she was-- running out his door." She sobbed into a pink hanky.
"There, there." Melch patted her shoulder. "If you mean Betty Beedy, I've already talked with her. She admits finding the body and calling us."
"But did she tell you about throwing the murder weapon in the trash can?"
"What?" Melch blinked.
"I saw her," Maggie added. "She stopped at Larry's trash can, threw something in and then-- then went on to her place."
"You saw her throw in a gun?"
"I saw her throw in something."
Everyone waited silently while Sergeant Sprott crossed to the garbage can, leaned all the way into it, then pulled himself out. "Sprott, what're you doing?" asked Lieuteant Melch.
"There's a gun in there, right on top." Sprott replied. "I leaned down to sniff the barrel. It's been fired recently, sir."
Melch stared. "Smelling a garbage can?"
"Well, I didn't want to touch anything."
Melch smiled, then swung back on Maggie White. "You referred to Black by his first name. Were you friends?"
She nodded. "We just broke up last night. He couldn't be faithful to any one woman, and I--"
"He was a heel!" Allison snapped.
"Please, Allison--"
"Well he was. Gave you nothing but heartache."
"So the two of you broke up, eh?" Melch asked.
"Yes, but, I'm not lying about what I saw tonight. That woman threw something in Larry's trash can."
"How about the gunshot, ma'am?"
"The gunshot?"
"Yes. Did you hear it?"
"No. I--" Tears started down her cheeks.
"Now look what you've done!" Allison White snapped. "Of course Maggie didn't hear the gunshot. The radio was too loud. But she did see the killer."
"Maybe, ma'am. Maybe." Melch pursed his lips. "Sprott, stay here with these two. I'm gonna have another chat with Ms. Beedy."
* * * *
"You think I killed Larry Black?" Betty Beedy gazed at Lieutenant Melch, than burst into tears.
"Oh no, not another crier," Melch murmured under his breath.
"Just a couple tissues," she continued after blowing her nose. "That's what I threw in the can. When I saw him shot like that. .. . My stomach got queasy. I saw a tissue dispenser, grabbed a couple to cover my mouth, and--"
She stared at the floor. "I guess I'm not as tough as I try to make out."
* * * *
"I'll check the can for tissues," Sergeant Sprott said as they left the Beedy trailer.
"Go ahead," Melch replied. "But it won't prove a thing.
She could've thrown both the gun and the tissues in."
"But then we're at a dead end!"
Melch smiled grimly. "Wrong. The killer slipped up. Killers usually do."
Who do You believe was the killer.
Betty Beedy
Allison White
Maggie White
Not sure Scroll down~
Allison White~The Explanation
Why?
If Allison White had "just got home" how could she know her sister didn't hear the gunshot because "the radio was too loud"? The only way she could have known the radio was on at the time of Black's murder was to be on the scene. When confronted by this fact, Allison broke down.
"I visited him on the sly to have it out with him on how he'd treated Maggie. He was drunk. He turned the radio on real loud and grabbed me. I got free, but he came at me again. I saw a gun lying on the counter and-- It was self-defense."
The evidence supported Allison's story. Black's blood-alcohol was found to be extremely high. Plus, the gunpowder residue around the bullet hole indicated he was shot at very close range.
Sincerely, Ant[;)]
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