when there were workmen about. I searched around among the tools for Earl’s extra pair of overalls but found nothing.
Just as I was about to give up my search I spotted a large pair of hedge trimmers that seemed to be hiding behind a piece of canvas. I pulled them out, not thinking about fingerprints, and examined the blades for bloodstains. They appeared to have been wiped clean, but near the juncture of the blades were rust-colored spots that would be worth examining. I wrapped them in an oily cloth, trying not to damage fingerprints any more than I already had.
I was leaving the shed with my find when I saw Virginia Taylor walking toward me. “What have you got there?”
“Hedge trimmers. Could be the murder weapon.”
“I always forget that you’re something of a detective.”
“Just an amateur.”
“I wanted to see the spot where Hiram’s body was found,” she explained. “They seem to have removed all the Brewster coffins now.”
“Did you know Hiram well? I only saw him at the meetings.”
“He handled some real-estate transactions for my family years ago. He was good at making deals.”
“A man of few words.”
She smiled. “He could keep his mouth shut. Sometimes that’s a valuable asset.”
“Did he still work?”
She shook her head. “He’s been retired for a year or so, ever since he put together the parcels of land for the new college in Shinn Corners.”
“He was probably an interesting man. I’m sorry I never got to know him better. I remember last summer’s party at Swan’s place. Even out there I never saw him without a stiff collar and tie.” It was still the era of highly starched detachable collars and men like Mullins and Swan wore them regularly. I preferred a shirt with an attached collar, as did younger men like Randy Freed.
We strolled back toward the small office building where the board held its meetings. A part-time secretary helped Gunther with the bookwork when she was needed, but most days he was there alone unless he was supervising a work crew. Today, as always, he gathered up his papers to leave us in privacy.
“Stay a few minutes, Earl,” I suggested. “We’ll want to talk with you about what happened.”
“Sure, whatever you say.” He stayed at his desk rather than join us at the board table. Almost at once two more cars pulled up outside and I saw that Swan and Freed were arriving.
The lawyer was first through the door, all business. “We’ve got a serious problem here, Gunther. I’m worried about the cemetery’s liability.”
Dalton Swan took his seat at the head of the table, running a hand through his thinning hair. “We’ll get to that later, Randy. Let’s everyone sit down and go over what we know. Have you been able to learn anything, Sam?”
“Not much,” I admitted. I ran through the autopsy report for them and then turned to Gunther. “Earl, you usually keep a clean set of overalls in the tool shed, don’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“I was just looking for them. They’re not to be found. I did find this hedge trimmer, though, with what looks like traces of blood.”
Virginia Taylor made a face. “Sam thinks it could be the murder weapon.”
“It’s possible.”
Dalton Swan now shifted his gaze to the cemetery superintendent. “Isn’t that tool shed kept locked, Earl?”
“Sure, most of the time.”
“Was it locked night before last?”
“Well-” Gunther looked uneasy. “See, we had all this work to do in the morning, digging up those coffins for reburial. I thought some of the workmen might arrive early so I left the shed unlocked for them. Nobody dug up the graves before we got there, though. Doc saw that for himself.”
“That’s right,” I agreed reluctantly. “The coffins were still underground when I got there.”
“Do you have any idea how Mullins’s body could have gotten in there?” Swan asked.
“None. It’s like a miracle.”
“All right.” Swan waved him away. “Leave us alone for a few minutes.”
Earl left the office and walked across the driveway to his house.
“Who do you have in mind as Hiram’s replacement?” Virginia asked.
It was Randy Freed who answered. “I spoke to Dalton on the phone and made a suggestion. Milton Doyle is-”
“Not another lawyer!” Virginia exploded. “Cemeteries are about families, not lawsuits, for God’s sake! How about another woman?”
“We have a woman,” Swan answered quietly.
“Then how about
“It’s worth considering,” I agreed. “I suggest we adjourn until after the funeral. In the meantime maybe we can come up with some good women nominees.”
Virginia Taylor gave me a smile of thanks and Swan agreed to adjourn until the following Monday. As we were leaving, Freed said, “It doesn’t seem the same without old Mullins.”
“He never said anything.”
“But he was there, right in that chair! With those popping eyes and that bull neck he always looked as if his collar was strangling him.”
Something occurred to me. “Randy, where would the records of real-estate transactions for the new college be kept?”
“Shinn Corners. At the courthouse.”
It was just a hunch, but it was worth a drive to Shinn Corners. On the way over I started putting the pieces together in my mind. There was a way it could have been done. I saw it clearly now. Sometimes killers set out to create impossible situations but that hadn’t been the case here. The killer had only wanted a safe way to dispose of the body, a way that would keep it hidden for another twenty years.
The courthouse was a big old building dating from the turn of the century with a stone fence already grown dark and weathered. In a big room I found maps and deeds, records stretching back a hundred years and longer. A girl in her late teens, a part-time clerk, came to my assistance at once. “The new college? We’re very excited about it. I’m already enrolled for September.”
“That’s great,” I said, meaning it. “I need to see the deeds on the various pieces of property that make up the college land. Would that be difficult?”
“No, not at all. It’s a matter of public record.”
There were so many individual parcels of land involved that the task seemed hopeless at first. Then I spotted Hiram Mullins’s name and started concentrating on the deals he’d handled. I turned over the page of one deed and found the name I’d been seeking. After that it was easy.
I phoned Mary at the office and told her to postpone my afternoon appointments till the following day. “That’s easy,” she said. “There’s only the Kane boy, and his mother says he’s feeling fine now. The spots are all gone.”
“Tell her to keep him out of school the rest of the week. He can go back on Monday.”
“Sheriff Lens has been looking for you.”
