Fred Limberg - First Murder

Tony thought he’d done pretty well in the interviews yesterday. He hadn’t said much, but he hadn’t done any damage either. Watching Ray and Lakisha Marland interact had been as interesting as the case, for a little while at least. He’d met one of his heroes. Now he was on the trail of a suspect…sort of. Okay, he was just chasing down an alibi, he admitted to himself, but cases on TV turned on this kind of shit all the time.

He watched the activity on the street. Most of it consisted of student housing. He watched young men and women carrying backpacks or wearing shoulder bags juggle coffee cups and napkin wrapped bagels or toast while trudging north on 17 thStreet toward the nearest bus stop. Some walked alone. Others clumped together. Some looked serious and distracted. Others laughed and jostled, elbows nudged, heads rolled back laughing. Erin tripped down the stairs of the house next to Scotty’s and noticed Tony. She started to give a wave but ended up just looking puzzled and walked off. Tony chuckled and shook his head.

The Swenson kid emerged from the big blue house. He was one of the serious ones and walked alone as far up the street as Tony could see. He guessed that Scotty was still with his father, camped out in an overheated hotel room full of grief and sadness, waiting for word from the coroner as to when the body would be released. He drained the last of his tepid coffee and got out, stretched, and again wondered if the Stuckey kid had come home the night before. He’d considered calling first but that hadn’t done any good so far. He climbed the stairs and cocked his fist to knock on the door. David Hong burst out and crashed into him.

“Whoa!” Tony had to grab onto him to keep from falling. It struck him that Hong was big enough to give Boom Boom Bork a worry or two on the football field.

“Detective!”

“Sorry, man.” Tony grabbed Hong’s dropped backpack for him. It weighed just under a ton.

David hefted it with ease and slung it over his shoulder. “Something wrong?”

“No. Still trying to hook up with Stuckey. He around?”

Hong shook his head. “Haven’t seen him. Must have spent the night at his girlfriend’s. One of ’em. Who knows?”

“Right, you told me he was a busy man.”

“Look, I gotta make my bus.” The big Samoan kid looked at his watch, then up the street.

“Any idea where I can hook up with him?” Tony asked.

Hong, already down the stairs, said, “It’s Wednesday. He’s got a 9:00 in Film History Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”

Tony trotted after him and laid a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Hey, I’ll give you a lift.” The house was empty and Tony wanted to talk to Hong. Maybe he knew where the class was. Tony wondered if he could track Stuckey down on campus.

David was grateful for the ride. “This is kinda’ cool,” he said while checking out the radio in the unmarked Crown Victoria. It was set low and the dispatchers were coding calls and directing the patrol traffic. It was a slow morning.

“First ride in a cop car?” Tony said, trying to make conversation.

“First time in the front seat.” Hong had a sheepish look on his face. Tony looked the obvious question at him. “Last year at Halloween. Some of us went to Madison for the party.”

Tony couldn’t help but grin. “That still going on?” He told David that he had partied on State Street back in his college days. It was good. They were bonding. Hong turned the conversation back to the missing roommate.

“What are you so interested in Sean for? You think he did it?”

Tony frowned. He was positive his questioning was slyer than it obviously was. “No. I’m just on alibi patrol. We like to know where everyone was. I’m the new guy. They put me on the low priority stuff, you know.”

“How do you like being a detective?” Hong asked. He seemed genuinely interested.

Tony smiled. “Yesterday was pretty cool. I got to meet Boom Boom Bork.”

“Who?”

Tony shook his head. Did the kid really not know who he was talking about? David’s face was blank. He had no clue. “Never mind.” Hong would never be an offensive lineman. “So, if I can find this auditorium where the film class is how would I recognize Stuckey?”

David laughed. “You wouldn’t. Not on this campus. He’s a white guy, early twenties, blondish hair, average height, average build, trying to grow some hair on his face. He’s probably wearing dirty jeans and a sweatshirt, carrying a backpack. Good luck, Tony.”

De Luca, on the campus now, scanned the crowds of students swirling along the sidewalks. He saw ten Sean Stuckey’s without even trying or turning his head.

“Unless he’s like, naked,” Hong said, out of the blue. “Then you’d recognize him.” He had a matter of fact look on his face, eyes wide, head cocked to one side, thin grin.

“Huh?” Tony flashed to the idea of scars or a tattoo…tattoos…and asked Hong what he meant.

“The guy has the biggest dinger I’ve ever seen.”

“Dinger?”

“Weenie.” Tony had a puzzled look on his face. “Penis?” Hey, pull over anywhere, this is good.”

Tony pulled to the curb and asked, just to be sure, “You’re telling me Sean Stuckey has a big dick?”

“Dude, he’s got a porn star dick, okay,” Hong looked a little sheepish, embarrassed even, and hurried to explain. “I just…this one time he came out of the bathroom naked. I thought ‘holy shit’. Hey, I’m not gay or anything like that, dude. I just noticed, you know.”

“Watch a lot of porn, do you?” Tony said with tease in his voice. The big Samoan kid was turning all kinds of shades of red. Tony chuckled and had to quickly explain to David that he wasn’t laughing at him.

“Life’s not all Halo and Modern Warfare and studying. Just sometimes. Everybody does it. Mostly it’s funny,” Hong said. He looked all kinds of anxious to get out of the car now. “I shouldn’t have even brought it up.”

The two of them looked at each other for a beat and then both laughed out loud.

“Okay, sometimes it’s like my brain isn’t even connected,” Hong said, still laughing a little. “When you asked how you could recognize him I, like, flashed on the fact that he looks like every third guy on campus…except for one little thing.”

Two grown men laughing out loud in an un-marked, but obvious, police cruiser bought more than a few turned heads and furrowed brows from passersby.

“Sadly, dude, this is not the first time my habit of free-association and mild case of ADD have gotten me in a bit of trouble,” Hong managed to work in between giggles. “Oh look, a bunny.”

“That’s going to make it a little hard to pick him out of a crowd, know what I mean?” Tony said.

“God, let’s hope so,” Hong said and took a great deep breath to try to get himself under control. “Maybe that’s why he has all the girlfriends and I’m on the seventh level of Halo already.”

Tony thanked him for the information, still chuckling a little. Hong thanked him for the ride and headed off into the churning crowd. Tony sat there for a minute trying to think of what this new tidbit of information meant; what bearing it could possibly have on Deanna Fredrickson’s murder.

He couldn’t think of a thing.

Then he wondered just how big …

Ray and Carol caught up with Erika Hilgendorff at her office early on Wednesday morning. She greeted them at the receptionist’s desk wearing a phone headset. Someone, maybe Lakisha Marland, Ray tried to recall exactly who, had told him that Erika was small; small but not a midget. He silently corrected himself without prodding-not a ‘little person’. He hadn’t given it much thought. The woman standing in front of him was most pleasantly unique.