Nighttime Is My Time

'No fingerprints. We know it has to be the same guy who grabbed Helen Whelan Friday night.'

'What neighbor did you talk to?'

'Actually, everyone on the block, but the one who knows anything is the one Tepper had been visiting and had probably just left when she was waylaid. Her name is Rita Hall. Tepper and she were close friends. Tepper had brought some cosmetics from her salon for Mrs. Hall and ran over with them when she got home last night, sometime after ten o'clock. The two women visited for a while and watched the eleven o'clock news together. Hall's husband, Matthew, had already gone to bed. Incidentally, this morning he was the first person to reach Bessie Koch, the woman who found the body and was blowing the horn of her car to get help. He was smart enough to tell the other neighbors to keep away from the body and to call 911.'

'Did Yvonne Tepper leave Mrs. Hall's house directly after the news was over?' Sam asked.

'Yes. Mrs. Hall walked her to the door and stepped out onto the porch with her. She remembered that she wanted to tell Tepper something she'd heard about a former neighbor. She said they didn't stand there longer than a minute and that the overhead light was on, so they could have been seen. She said she noticed a car slow down and pull over to the curb, but she didn't think anything of it. Apparently the people across the street have teenagers who are always coming and going.'

'Does Mrs. Hall remember anything about the car?' Sam asked.

'Only that it was a medium-sized sedan, either dark blue or black. Mrs. Hall went back into her house and closed the door, and Mrs. Tepper cut across the lawn to the sidewalk.'

'My guess is that she was dead less than a minute later,' Rich Stevens said. 'The motive wasn't robbery. Her handbag was on the sidewalk. She had two hundred bucks in her wallet and was wearing a diamond ring and diamond earrings. The only thing that guy wanted to do was kill her. He grabbed her, pulled her onto her own lawn, strangled her, left her body behind a bush, and drove away.'

'He stayed long enough to drop the owl in her pocket,' Sam observed.

Rich Stevens looked from one to the other of his investigators. 'I've been turning over in my head whether or not to release the information about the owl to the papers. Maybe someone would know something about a guy who's obsessed with owls or possibly keeps them as a hobby.'

'You can imagine what a field day the media would have if they knew about the owl being left in the victims' pockets,' Sam said quickly. 'If this nut is on an ego trip, and I think he is, we'll be feeding him what he wants, to say nothing about the possibility of setting a copycat killer loose.'

'And it's not as though we'd be warning women by releasing that bit of information,' Joy Lacko pointed out. 'He leaves the owl after he kills his victim, not before.'

At the end of the meeting it was agreed that the best course of action was to warn women against being alone on the street after dark and to acknowledge that evidence pointed to the fact that both Helen Whelan and Yvonne Tepper had been murdered by the same unknown person or persons.

As they got up to go, Joy Lacko said quietly, 'What scares me is that right now some perfectly innocent woman is going about her business, not realizing that in the next few days, just because she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when that guy comes cruising by, her life will be over.'

'I am not conceding that yet,' Rich Stevens said sharply.

I am, Sam thought. I am.

64

On Wednesday morning, Jake Perkins attended his scheduled classes, with the exception of the creative writing seminar, which he felt he was more equipped to teach than the current instructor. Just before the lunch break, in his capacity as a reporter for the Stonecroft Gazette, he went into the office of President Downes for his scheduled interview, in which Downes was supposed to give his comments on the glorious success of the reunion.

Alfred Downes, however, was clearly not in good temper. 'Jake, I realize I had promised you this time, but actually it's quite inconvenient now.'

'I can understand, sir,' Jake responded soothingly. 'I guess you've seen on the news that the district attorney may press criminal charges against two of our Stonecroft honorees because of this publicity hoax.'

'I am aware of that,' Downes said, his voice icy.

If Jake noticed the frosty tone, he did not show it. 'Do you think that all this adverse publicity reflects badly on Stonecroft Academy?' he asked.

'I would think that's obvious, Jake,' Downes snapped. 'If you're going to waste my time asking stupid questions, then get out of here now.'

'I don't mean to ask stupid questions/' Jake said quickly, his tone apologetic. 'What I was leading up to is that at the dinner, Robby Brent gave a check for ten thousand dollars to our school. In light of his actions of the last few days, are you inclined to return that donation to him?'

It was a question that he was sure would make President Downes squirm. He knew how much Downes wanted a new addition to the school to be built during his term as president. It was common knowledge that, while Jack Emerson had dreamed up this reunion, along with the idea of the honorees, Alfred Downes had been delighted by the concept of it. It meant publicity for the school, a chance to show off the successful graduates-the message being, of course, that they learned everything they needed to know at good old Stonecroft-and it would also be a chance to wring donations from them and other alumni at the reunion.

Now the media were speculating about the eerie coincidence of five women from the same lunch table who had died since they graduated from Stonecroft, and Jake knew that wouldn't make anyone want to send their kids there. And now the Laura Wilcox and Robby Brent publicity scheme was another blow to the prestige of the school. His face set in earnest lines, his red hair sticking up even more than usual, Jake said, 'Dr. Downes, as you know, my deadline for the Gazette is coming up. I just need a quote from you about the reunion.'

Alfred Downes looked at his student with near loathing. 'I am preparing a statement, and you will have a copy of it by tomorrow morning, Jake.'

'Oh, thank you, sir.' Jake felt a measure of sympathy for the man sitting across the desk from him. He's worried about his job, he thought. The board of trustees might give him the gate. They know Jack Emerson started the reunion fiasco because he owns the land they'll have to buy for a new addition, and that Downes went along with it, 'Sir, I was thinking-'

'Don't think, Jake. Just be on your way.'

'In a moment, sir, but please listen to this suggestion. I happen to know that Dr. Sheridan, Dr. Fleischman, and Gordon Amory are still at the Glen-Ridge and that Carter Stewart is staying across town at the Hudson Valley. Perhaps if you invited them to dinner and had some photos taken with them, it would be a way of putting Stonecroft back in a good light. Nobody could question any of their achievements, and pointing them out would offset the negative effect of the misconduct of the other two honorees.'

Alfred Downes stared at Jake Perkins, thinking that in his thirty-five years of teaching he had never come across a student as nervy or as street-smart as he was. He leaned back in his chair and waited a long minute before responding. 'When do you graduate, Jake?'

'I'll have enough credits by the end of this year, sir. As you know, every semester I've loaded up with extra classes. But my folks don't think I'll be ready to go off to college next year, so I'm happy to stay here and graduate with my class.'

Jake looked at Dr. Downes and noted that he did not seem to share his happiness. 'I have another idea for an article that you might like,' he said. 'I've done a lot of research on Laura Wilcox. I mean, I've gone over back issues of the Gazette and the Cornwall Times for the years she was here, and, as the Times reported, she was always the belle of the ball. Her family had money; her parents doted on her. I'm going to do a feature article for the Gazette to show how, with all the advantages Laura Wilcox enjoyed, she's the one who's having a hard time now.'

Jake sensed that he was about to be interrupted, so he rushed on. 'I think an article like that will serve two purposes, sir. It will show the kids at Stonecroft that having all the advantages doesn't guarantee success, and it