going to cut it for a funeral. But I also knew that if I was going to get a suit and have it altered in time to wear it to a funeral on Saturday, it had to be purchased that very day—before I went home and gave Karen the news. So that’s what I did. Fortunately, it turned out there was still enough room left in our Bon charge account to make that work.
By the time I broke the news to Karen that I would be spending all of Saturday driving to and from Leavenworth to attend a funeral followed by a reception, my wife was barely speaking to me. She stuck Scott in my lap, told me she was going to the store, and why didn’t I figure out what we were having for dinner for a change. Cooking has never been my strong suit. I rose to the occasion by opening a can of SpaghettiOs, to which I added some frozen hamburger that I had thawed out and fried. When she came back from the store, Karen ate my slightly burnt offering without comment. I could tell she was neither pleased nor amused, although it was the best I could do with Scott screaming bloody murder the whole time I was trying to cook.
Believe me, I already suspected Karen’s job of stay-at-home mom wasn’t easy, but that evening’s meal made it blazingly clear to all concerned.
On Thursday I left the domestic warfare at home and showed up on time and properly dressed, Homicide style, on the fifth floor. Watty directed me to a cubicle near his that gave evidence of having been recently vacated by someone else—clearly someone who smoked, as there was a dusting of cigarette ash everywhere and a faint whiff of smoke still lingering in the air.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Watty told me. “Go down to the motor pool and check out a car. I’ll meet you out front on Third.”
Welcome to the world of being the last guy in. I had already been warned that I was automatically on tap to do the grunt work, and that was fine with me. I knew that was what it would take to learn the ropes. When I showed up in the garage, I more than half expected Phil Molloy, who ran the motor pool, to give me the business about it.
“So you’re out of squad cars and into unmarked,” he observed. “Who are you working with?”
“They haven’t assigned me a partner yet. I’m working a case with Detectives Watkins and Powell.”
“You’re lucky,” Molloy said. “They’re both good people.”
I sat in the passenger load zone on Third Avenue for the better part of fifteen minutes before Watty finally put in an appearance.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School on Magnolia to have a talk with Donnie and Frankie Dodd,” Watty replied. “You’re the one who brought up the path question yesterday, so it’s only fair that you’re there when we talk to them. Do you know where Saints Peter and Paul is?”
I shook my head.
“It’s on the far side of Magnolia Village,” Watty told me. “Just head over the Magnolia Bridge and turn right.”
Magnolia Village was the name of the neighborhood’s central shopping district.
“We’re going to talk to them at their school?” I asked, heading the patrol car in that direction. “Without their mother being there?”
Watty favored me with an owlish look. “Mac and I already tried talking to them with their mother in the room,” he replied. “We didn’t get anywhere that way, so now we’re going to try talking to them alone.”
It seemed like a good time to change the subject.
“How much does tuition to a private school cost?” I asked.
“Funny you should ask,” Watty replied. “I wondered that myself, and I already checked. It’s seven and a half thousand dollars a year per kid.”
I whistled. “Fifteen thousand a year? That’s a lot of money. How does a single mom afford something like that?”
“Good question,” Watty said.
I was still mulling it over when we arrived at the school and parked in a designated visitor parking slot. A sign on the door directed all visitors to report to the office, which we did. Moments later we were in the presence of Sister Mary Katherine, a tall bony woman in a severe black skirt and starched white blouse with a black-and-white veil pinned to short, graying brown hair. She examined Watty’s ID badge thoroughly through gold-framed glasses before handing it back to him.
“What can I do for you gentlemen?” she asked.
“Detective Beaumont and I are hoping to have a word with two of your students, Donnie and Frankie Dodd.”
Sister Mary Katherine glared briefly at me. It was the first time I had heard the word “Detective” attached to my name, but if she had asked to see my badge, I would have been stumped. The only ID I had still referred to me as “Officer Beaumont.”
I was relieved when she turned back to Watty.
“What about?”
“The boys were instrumental in helping us find a body over the weekend,” Watty said. “I spoke to them on Sunday, but a few more questions have come up.”
Sister Mary Katherine studied us for a moment longer. “On one condition,” she said.
“What’s that?” Watty wanted to know.
“That I stay in the room while you speak to them. These are my students, after all,” she added. “I won’t have them pushed around.”
“Fine,” Watty agreed.
With that, Sister Mary Katherine reached for the intercom button on her desk. “Miss Simmons,” she said. “Please ask Donnie and Frankie Dodd to come to the office.”
I noticed she didn’t have to specify in which classrooms the boys might be found. I had the sense that this wasn’t the first time the two red-haired brothers had been summoned to the office—and that it wouldn’t be the last. I expected them to show up together, but they didn’t. When the first one arrived, he was already protesting his innocence.
“Whatever it is,” he declared, “I didn’t do it and neither did Frankie.”
“It’s all right, Donnie,” Sister Mary Katherine said. “You’re not in trouble. These two detectives would like to speak to you and your brother for a few minutes.”
I was glad the good sister could tell them apart. In a pinch, I wouldn’t have been able to.
A minute or so later Frankie slouched into the room. Without a word, he settled onto a chair next to his brother to await whatever was coming. Yes, they had definitely been summoned to the principal’s office on more than one occasion.
“Do you remember me from the other day?” Watty asked.
Both boys nodded. Neither of them met Watty’s questioning stare.
“What about Detective Beaumont here?” Watty asked.
They both glanced in my direction and then delivered tiny simultaneous nods.
Watty launched straight into the heart of the matter. “I’ve been going over Detective
