SEVEN

"Detective Jeffries? Officer Morgan. My Sergeant said you wanted to speak to me for a minute."

Officer Jeff Morgan was just about to go on duty when Will arrived at his station. He had been one of the two officers to answer the original call at the Parker's house the night they had died. He was younger than Will expected, only in his late 20s.

"Yes," said Will, shaking hands with the officer. "I understand you answered a call to the estate of Richard Parker in 1998."

"That's right. I had only been on the force about a year and it was the first murder I was involved with. Is there something wrong? That was 5 years ago."

"We're just reinvestigating the case. According to the report, you and your partner arrived at the scene within 6 minutes of getting the call."

"That's about right. We were on patrol and we were near the house when the call came in. We proceeded to the house immediately but the Parker's were all ready dead when we got there."

"Tell me what happened when you got there"

"Well, the call said a neighbor had called the station saying she thought she heard shots. When we got there we noticed a side door was open and the glass was broken out of it. So my partner and I proceeded to check the house. We found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Parker in the library. My partner had me call for backup and then we searched the house to see if the perp was still there."

"But the place was empty."

"That's right. Several of the rooms had been ransacked so we figured it was a burglary. We also noticed that the power cables to the alarm system had been cut so we figured the perp had cut the cables to gain entry to the house."

"Then what happened?"

"Backup arrived about 10 minutes later and we researched the house just to make sure we hadn't missed anything. Sometime later the Commissioner Timoney showed up. He said the Parkers were close friends of the mayor and told us to make sure we did everything by the book."

"The Parker's son arrived with the Commissioner."

"That's right. After the CSI guys had finished with the place he looked around. Gave us a list of what was missing. Once the detectives arrived we were released and went back out on our patrol. Because it was such a high profile case my partner and I decided to finish our reports before getting off shift."

"Was there anything unusual about the scene?" Will asked. "Anything that seemed out of place?"

"I'm not really sure. As I said it was my first murder case. And I was just a rookie. I relied mostly on my partner to tell me if anything was unusual. He didn't mention anything out of the ordinary."

"Where is your partner now?"

"He retired last year. Moved out of state somewhere. I don't really know. We really didn't spend much time together off duty."

"I see. So there didn't seem to be anything unusual that you noticed?"

"Well, I haven't thought about it for years. But now that you mention it there was one thing that I found odd at the time. I mentioned it to my partner but he said it wasn't anything so I forgot about it until just now."

"What was it?" Will asked.

"Well, it had rained that night. Not much. Little more than enough to get the ground good and wet. But when we were searching the house I noticed something that seemed strange. There wasn't any mud in the house. The broken glass door led to the side yard and it was mostly unpaved. And I did notice that my partner and I had tracked some mud into the house even from the driveway."

"You said you mentioned it to your partner. What did he say about it?"

"He said the perp probably wore overshoes or something and removed them before actually entering the house. To prevent leaving any shoeprints or anything. It sounded reasonable to me at the time so, as I said, I just forgot about it."

"But you've changed your mind about it?"

"Well, you know what they say. Hindsight is 20/20. I've answered a fair number of home invasions in the past 5 years and some of them have been during or after a storm. And not one of the perps removed their overshoes before going into the houses. Like I said, I hadn't thought about it for years. But now that you bring it up it does seem a bit odd."

"Anything else you can think of that seemed unusual?"

"No, that's about it. I suppose George could have been right. George, he was my partner back then. I suppose the perp could have removed his overshoes. Lord knows he didn't leave much other evidence at the scene. I understand the case was never solved."

"That's right. We've had some new leads come to light recently. That's why we're reinvestigating it."

"Well there's not much else I can tell you. As I said, we searched the house and found nothing and when the detectives arrived we were released to return to our patrol. That's really the last I ever heard of the case until you arrived. Is that about it, Detective? I need to be getting out on patrol."

"Yes, I think that's all. Thanks for your time. If I have any more questions I'll let you know."

"This isn't going to reflect badly on me, is it? I mean about me leaving out the mud from my report? Like I said, my partner said it wasn't important. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."

"No, it isn't going to reflect badly on you. From what I can tell you did exactly what you were supposed to do. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Thanks Detective. Well, if you need anything else you know where to find me."

Will left the police station and headed for his car. He remembered something they had talked about earlier. About the neighbor who had called in the gunshots at the Parker's house. Mildred Walker. He decided to pay her a visit before returning to the station.

Robert Wise was in his late 40s and wore small square frame glasses and a goatee. His hair was mostly black but had some streaks of noticeable gray in it. He was dressed in a utility-type uniform with his name embroidered over one pocket. He was the Facility Manager for Temple College and was responsible for all of the maintenance and custodial personnel at the college.

Wise's office was about what Lilly had expected. Located in an out of the way place in the school it was cluttered with boxes and containers of cleaning supplies. There was a desk and three filing cabinets.

Behind the desk, covering the wall, were photographs of Wise with a variety of people. The pictures were hung in a more or less circular pattern around a single photograph that showed Wise with his arm around Bill Cosby, the comedian.

"Mr. Cosby is an alumnus here," said Wise. "Arguably our most famous one. There are a fair number of others as well." He began to point them out and it was obvious he was proud of them. "This one is me with Tom Sizemore, the actor. There's me with Mark Levin, the radio talk show host. That one there is me with Bob Saget, the comedian. And that one is Ben Bova, the science fiction author."

"You sure seem to know a lot of famous people," said Lilly looking at the photographs. Scotty was enthralled with them looking at one after another.

"Well, maybe 'know' is a pretty strong word," said Wise. "I've met them all. They eventually come back for one reason or another. Some come back to get a higher degree. Others attend alumni functions or fundraisers. Still others have their children going here. Whenever we have one come to campus I make sure to get my picture taken with them. Been collecting them for nearly 30 years: since I started working here."

"You've been here that long?" Scotty asked, sitting in a chair next to Lilly.

"Well, 27 full-time. Actually, I worked my way through college here. I didn't have enough grants or loans to make it so I got a part-time job working as a custodian to help me get through. Once I graduated I had trouble getting a job. The Facility Manager at the time offered me a full-time position until I could find something else. I've been here ever since."

"Now you're the Facility Manager," said Lilly.

"Yeah. Only back then we just called them the Head Custodian. Things have certainly changed in 27 years. But you can always count on the alumni coming back for one reason or another." He pulled a camera out of his desk. "I keep this handy just in case. And this one is digital. Saves on film and makes it a lot easier to get the pictures when they do show up."

"Mr. Wise," said Lilly. "About Casper Fontane."

"Of course. Yes, I remember Casper Fontane. His uncle worked here and asked if I could put him on. He was under 18 and according to college guidelines I couldn't put him on full-time. So I hired him party-time. Mostly weekends and holidays, that sort of thing. And for special events. I like to give my regular people as many breaks as I can."

"We understand," said Lilly. "What can you tell us about Mr. Fontane?"

"Well, he was a good enough worker, I guess. Nothing extraordinary. He always did his job well, showed up on time, and I never found him goofing off. But he wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic worker I've ever had. I tried to get him extra work when I could but a lot of the time he'd just say he couldn't. That he had plans."

"What kinds of plans?" Scotty asked.

"He never said specifically. But he was always spouting off about how he was going to strike it rich one day. He always seemed to have some scheme going on but nothing he would talk about. He always said that soon he was going to have all the money he needed."

"Lot of dreams and no action, huh?" Lilly asked.

"Pretty much. I remember a couple of weeks before he died he said he was about to come into a lot of money. I asked him about it but he wouldn't talk much. Just that he had something in the works that would set him up for a long time. But then he was killed in a car accident."

"When was that exactly?" Scotty asked.

"Oh, let me think. I guess it was near the middle of April or so. I remember because a couple of weeks before that he had helped clean up for an alumni fundraiser we had here. The mayor even put in appearance during the fund raiser. He wasn't an alumnus but his assistant was. The assistant convinced the mayor to show up to help with the fundraiser."

"Garland Probst," said Scotty.

"Yes, that was him. He had graduated here in '89. I remembered him because he had worked his way through college as a custodian here. He was a good worker. I offered him a job after he graduated but he said he all ready had something else lined up."

"Teaching legal ethics as we understand it," said Lilly.

"Well, not exactly teaching," said Wise. "He was TA for one of the professors here. I suppose he did teach some. When Professor Goble wasn't able to. But for the most part he did things like grade papers and things like that. He was here for a couple of years and then the mayor hired him. We thought it was quite a coup getting the mayor to attend one of the fundraisers."

"Did Fontane and Probst talk at all?" Scotty asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact they did. It seems they had a great deal in common, both having worked here. But I finally had to remind Fontane to get back to work."

"Do you know if Fontane and Probst ever saw each other again?" Lilly asked. "After the fundraiser?"

"Not that I know of. But then I don't make it a habit of prying into the personal lives of the people who work for me. I suppose they might have. But I never knew anything about it."

"When was the fundraiser that the mayor attended?" Scotty asked.

"I think it was the weekend of April 4. It was a Saturday, that much I remember."

"Can you tell us if Fontane worked on the 18th?" Lilly asked.

"I'll have to check my records. I won't be a minute."

He moved over to a filing cabinet and opened the bottom drawer. He flipped through the files and finally pulled one out. He brought the file back to the table and opened it, looking through it for a minute.

"No, he was off that night. Oh, I remember now. He switched with one of the regular guys. Said he had something he had to take care of. Both shifts were covered so I didn't have a problem with it. Fontane was back at work the next day."

"What about RJ Parker?" Scotty asked. "Do you know if he and Fontane knew each other?"

"Not that I know of. I remember RJ. He was on the Student Council. His family had enough money he didn't have to work while going to college. But to the best of my recollection I don't remember them ever meeting. Of course it's hard to say for sure. That was 5 years ago. But students like Parker usually didn't associate with the help, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, we know what you mean," said Lilly. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Wise. You've been a lot of help in our investigation."

"You never did say what the investigation was about," said Wise.

"Just following up on some new leads in an old case," said Lilly. "Nothing for you to be concerned with."

"Well, I need to be getting back to work," said Wise. "There's a dinner here tonight and we have to set up for it."

"We'll see ourselves out," said Scotty.

"That was interesting," said Lilly as they walked off campus. "Fontane wasn't working the night the Parkers died. And according to Wise, Parker and Fontane didn't know each other. No connection there."

"Well, Fontane apparently had a connection to Probst. Looks like Will and Nick might have been right. The 25 grand Rendell suspected Probst of stealing probably wasn't the only donations Probst stole. He had several years to skim from the books."

"And he probably paid Fontane to kill the Parkers to keep them quiet. Then he sets the fire in the records room to destroy the evidence and to prevent the missing donations from being traced back to him."

"He probably destroyed any records for any donations he had skimmed. With no record of them there was no way to prove he had taken them."

"Pretty slick," said Scotty. "And he gets hailed as a hero for putting out the fire he started."

"Well, we'll probably never be able to prove he started the fire. But now we have a connection between Probst and Fontane. All we have to do is prove Fontane was the burglar the night the Parkers were murdered."

"Is that all?"

"Well, no one said it would be easy."

Scotty just smiled as they headed to the parking lot.