Clubbed to death
“Sorry I am late.” I was more than a little late, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. “Has anyone seen Kirsten or Thomas yet?”
“Nope, not yet,” replied Claire. “I know Kirsten is coming. She dropped by after the rugby game yesterday just to tell me.”
“Thomas didn’t make it to our planning meeting last week either. It was his third missed meeting in six months. He needs to shape up or we will have to replace him.” Teresa was detail oriented to an extreme. She remembered who was at each planning meeting or club meeting.
The group of us had been sharing book club duties for close to 6 years. Our club had over 100 readers on our notification list. Books were selected from requested books by the members. The planning crew came about because a few of our members wanted to read the same kinds of books over and over. Out of our 12 books in the last year, 2 were classics, 3 were modern literature, 1 was a poetry collection, 3 were mysteries and 3 were science fiction. Last month’s book had been a collection of short stories.
This month’s book is A Wrinkle in Time. Required reading in science now that tesseracts had been proven to exist, it was Teresa’s favorite book. It didn’t fit with her personality, but she really wanted us to read it. Since we had read it as a group in our first year, we expected push back when it was announced. Surprisingly, most of the group was excited to reread it.
I unlocked the door to the community center. On book club nights, we took up all of the smaller rooms and the big lecture hall. The city had decided a few years ago that we could just have the whole of the facility on meeting nights as long as we let city residents attend. The more the merrier, so it worked out great.
“We are going to need to hustle to get everything set up without Thomas and Kirsten. I hope they show up soon,” Teresa said. She was annoyed — it was obvious — but there was nothing we could do about it. “Sally, are you handing out next month’s book?”
“Sure am,” I replied. “The boxes got here last week. “Jefferson City Murders should generate almost as good of discussion as Wrinkle in Time.”
Claire was on auditorium duty this month, so she went off to make sure the projector was working and the room was all set up. Teresa went to start setting up the small rooms.
“Teresa, I’ll get the refreshments set up after I set up my table. I won’t put out the donation boxes until someone else arrives.” I was pretty sure I could scrape together enough goodies, but Kirsten was going to owe me big time.
Just then Kirsten bustled into the room. On the cart behind her were boxes of cupcakes. “Sorry I’m late, the bakery didn’t finish our order on time.”
“Glad you made it!” I replied. “We are shorthanded tonight — Thomas isn’t here.”
“What?” Kirsten replied confused. “He left our place at the same time I left to get the cupcakes. We were watching Game of Thrones reruns and talking about the differences between the last season and the book. I thought he would get here long before me.”
“Can you call his phone and see if you can find him?” I was as confused as Kirsten. Missing a club meeting wasn’t like Thomas. He was never late to our meetings, just to the planning meetings.
Kirsten headed off to set up the refreshment area and call Thomas. I finished up my table, then went to see Claire. She didn’t need any help, so I let her know Kirsten was here. Then I headed to the conference rooms to help Teresa.
Checking out the rooms, I found that about half the rooms were already set up. Teresa wasn’t in any of them. This wasn’t like her. I went to check the bathroom and found her there. She was dressed in a different outfit — and she seemed surprised to see me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, puzzled. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing your own set up tasks?”
“Kirsten’s here. She was held up at the bakery — the cupcakes weren’t ready. She’s setting up the food now. Set up for the book table is done. I thought you could use some help.”
Teresa didn’t seem happy to see me, which was strange. “I love the new outfit, Teresa, very retro. Where did you get it? I haven’t seen it before.”
“This thing? Ummm…” Teresa was stalling. That wasn’t like her. “I left it here earlier this week. Thought I would do a 2020 throwback look this week. Everyone will be wearing this kind of thing soon. Any word from Thomas yet?”
“No. And this isn’t like him. Kirsten said he left their place before she did, so he should be here.” I replied. “We better go finish up the room set up, Teresa. By the way, how did you get all those rooms done so quickly without help?”
“There weren’t any meetings this afternoon, so Ms. Bainbride let me come set them up ahead of time.” Teresa replied. “I’m sure we can get the others done before people start arriving.”
A half hour later, we had 8 of the 10 rooms set up. Teresa told me to go work registration while she finished up. There had still been no sign of Thomas.
When I got to the front desk, Claire and Kirsten were talking. I wandered over just in time to hear Claire say, “He still isn’t answering his phone? That is so not like him. Usually you two talk and text all the time.”
Kirsten looked worried as she replied, “I know. It’s been almost 2 hours. I am worried something happened.” As I walked up, they turned to me. “Any word from Thomas, Sally?”
I shook my head. The three of us decided that when the first few club members got here, we would send someone to see if they could find Thomas.
A few moments later, the club members flooded the entryway. It was always this way — as if they had all decided to get here at the same instant. I started checking people in, Claire handled the book table, and Kirsten went to cover refreshments.
“Detective Strauss! I am so glad you got here early!” I was glad to see him. We could trust him to go find Thomas without causing wide spread panic. “We could really use a favor, if you have time.”
“Always have time for you, Sally.” He smiled at me. “Need me to move something heavy?”
“No, but we do need you to find someone.” I tried not to let my worry show. I didn’t want to start a panic either. “Thomas isn’t here yet. Can you go help Claire with the refreshments?”
“Sure thing,” came the reply, “I wanted to invite the two of them over for a whiskey tasting next week. May as well do that now!”
The next part of the story I didn’t learn until after everything was done. Detective Strauss had talked to Claire and found out that Thomas was missing. He called over to the police department and asked a couple of officers to do a sweep of the path between their house and the community center. Knowing Thomas was a creature of habit, he had them start at Kirsten and Thomas’s place and work towards the community center.
Registration was busy, so I didn’t have time to connect with any of the others until just before we started the club meeting. Teresa walked up to the book table to talk to Claire. She looked even more on edge. And she was back in her other outfit.
When I had processed the last person in line, I joined Claire and Teresa to head into the auditorium. “Teresa, what happened to that retro outfit you were wearing a while ago? It was really cool! Why did you change?”
“I…um… spilled something on it,” came Teresa’s reply. “Not like me, I know, but that’s the way it goes.”
Just then, Kirsten and the detective came running in. They both had very strange looks on their faces. Kirsten yelled back towards the auditorium doors, “Thanks Sally. If you can get everyone through the material on the book that would be a great help. We’ll be there soon, I hope.”
“What’s going on, Kirsten?” I wasn’t sure what was up, but I could tell something was. “Did you hear from Thomas?”
At the mention of his name, Kirsten burst out in tears. Claire went over to comfort her. “Detective Strauss, can you fill us in?”
“We better sit down first.” The detective motioned us to a group of chairs near the doorway. “I asked a group of police to see if they could find Thomas. They did.”
Claire and I looked at Kirsten. Confused, I asked the detective, “If you found him, why is Kirsten so upset?”
“There’s no good way to say this,” the detective said, “Thomas’ body was found about three blocks away in one of the alleys. It looks like someone bonked him on the head and left him there to die.”
Teresa just stood there with her mouth open. Kirsten was full on crying now. She also was staring at Teresa’s outfit. “Teresa, didn’t you have stacked heels on when I saw you a bit ago? You came in to help me with the sign for the refreshment area. I couldn’t reach to hang it, but the heels gave you a few extra inches.”
Teresa didn’t answer Kirsten. She just continued to stand there with her mouth open. She looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. “Um,” she muttered, “do you all mind if I go check to see how things are going in the auditorium? Sally hasn’t run an intro session in years. I am guessing she could use a hand.”
The detective looked at Teresa, then continued. “No ma’am, I need you to stay here. I need all four of you to stay here. Please sit down so I can continue.”
Teresa sat on the edge of the sofa. Detective Strauss went on, “When the officers found the body, they found two strange things with it. One was a copy of A Wrinkle in Time, and the other was a woman’s shoe.”
“I am having them bring both items here. The ME and the crime team are collecting the rest of the evidence. They will take Thomas’ body back to the morgue with them when they are done. According to what the officers told me on the phone, they should be here in a just a few minutes.”
So, we waited. The only sound was Kirsten’s crying. I moved over to her other side and held her hand. I couldn’t believe Thomas was dead. Who would want to kill him? He wrote for a living. They weren’t rich. Someday, they might be, but not now. I thought over everything the detective said. “Detective, was there anything unique about the book?”
“Yes, there was. And that is all I will say until the officers get here.” So we sat in silence. An ever growing, uncomfortable silence.
Finally, the doors opened and the officers stepped in. They came over to us. “Here is the book and the shoe, sir,” one of the officers said as he handed two evidence bags to the detective.
The detective set the bag with the shoe on the arm of his chair. He held out the book to Kirsten and the rest of us. “Look familiar to any of you?”
“Of course it does,” exclaimed Teresa. “It is the book for this month’s club. I expect everyone in the building tonight has a copy with them. With the exception of you and the officers, of course.”
Kirsten stopped crying and looked up at Teresa. “No. Everyone doesn’t have a copy of the book with them. I have two. And looking at your face, I think you don’t have any.”
The detective looked at Teresa and waved his officers over to her side. “That’s what I think too, Kirsten. In fact, this one has Teresa’s name in it, not Thomas’. Teresa changing her shoes is just a bonus.”
“You can’t prove anything with that kind of flimsy evidence, detective,” Teresa replied. “I might have lent my book to him. And there have got to be other people with that kind of shoe.”
“Teresa, why have you been in different outfits every time I have seen you tonight?” I had started to put things together too. “And why were you so eager to do this book this month? You wouldn’t let us pick any other book. You said this had to be done this month.”
Teresa’s eyes blazed at me. Turning to the detective, she sat there for a minute. Suddenly sad, she said, “Yes, I did it.” Her voice was small and scared. Her eyes weren’t blazing anymore. In fact, they looked hollow. Like she wasn’t really there anymore. “I suppose I owe you all the truth. I didn’t mean to kill him, Kirsten, I just meant to scare him. I just wanted him to stop being late for everything. It was driving me crazy.”
The officers went to cuff her, but the detective stopped her, “I thought it would be something like that. But before they take you away, I would like to know how you did it. I think you owe Kirsten that much.”
At his words, the little bit of life that was left in Teresa sparked back up. “You never will figure it out. I am not telling you anything!”
Detective Strauss motioned to the officers, they cuffed her and took her away. “I don’t really need her to tell me anymore,” he told the remaining three of us. “I figured it out when I saw the shoe and the book with her name in it.”
We all looked at him. I asked, “Do you plan to fill us in? Or can I give a guess to how she did it first?”
Strauss nodded at me, “Take it away. I wondered if anyone else had figured it out.”
“Do you all remember the last meeting Thomas missed? Do you remember Teresa’s big news earlier that week?” Kirsten and Claire shook their heads. I continued. “Her lab had been working on a personal tesseract. They had just gotten the prototype working. She was sure she would be famous for it.”
“I think she used the personal tesseract to set up and do the murder.” I looked at the detective and he nodded agreeing. “The only thing I don’t understand is when she did it. She’s been here all evening and Thomas was with Kirsten up until just before Claire, Teresa, and I met at the front door.”
“I already checked with the lab. Their logs show that the personal tesseract was used unexpectedly the week they finished it. I think that tells us she set this up months ago.” Detective Strauss answered. “I think she used the tesseract to go forward in time. Once she was in this timeline, she made sure that some of the conference rooms were set up to give herself time to go do the murder.”
The detective was right. As we were all to learn at her trial, Teresa had moved up to this time early in the morning of the day after the meeting. No one else was in the lab, so her time traveling wasn’t noticed. While in our time line, she set up the rooms. She was just about to head back to her time when I caught her in the bathroom. While “then” Teresa was here in the building setting up the room, “now” Teresa was off waiting for Thomas. “Now” Teresa knocked him on the head and then went back to community center. She timed things close enough to get everything done, but (she thought) not so close as to tip anyone off.
Teresa hadn’t known Thomas was dead until the detective told us. She thought she had just knocked him out. Later on, we were to find out that he died from being too close to the personal tesseract. Once that came out, the lab she had worked at was closed and the personal tesseract project was put on the back burner. There was no way any company was going to touch a machine that killed bystanders when it was used.
This story is part of the Murder Room project on Chalkboard.
