"Thanks. Aren't you going back to change?"
"No, I'd better get on the road." Lily headed toward the parking lot behind the gym.
As Harry entered the gym, Jody drifted away from the group. There was nothing unusual in a player heading back to the gym.
Cynthia, caught in the crowd, fought to get through the bodies when she saw Jody leave.
The three animals raced across the grass, little tufts of it floating up in the wind as it flew off their claws. They reached the door just as Harry opened it.
"Hi, guys." She was tired.
Within a minute Jody, stick in hand, was also in the gym. As Harry turned right down the hall toward the faculty changing room, Jody, on tiptoes now, moved down the hall, carefully listening for another footfall. Without speaking to one another, the animals ducked in doorways. Only Murphy stayed with Harry in case Tucker and Pewter failed.
Jody passed Pewter, who ran out and grabbed the back of her leg with her front claws. Jody howled, whirled around, and slapped at the cat, who let go just as Tucker emerged from the janitor's door. She ran hard at Jody, jumped up, and smashed into her knees. Dog and human collapsed in a heap, and the hockey stick clattered on the shiny floor.
"Goddammit!" Jody reached for her stick as Tucker grabbed the end of it.
They tugged from opposite ends. Tucker slid along the floor, but she wouldn't let go. Jody kicked at the dog, then twisted the stick to force her jaws loose. It didn't work. Pewter jumped on Jody's leg again as Harry, hearing the scramble, opened the locker room door and came back into the hall. Mrs. Murphy stuck with Harry.
"Good work," the tiger encouraged her pals.
Jody, seeing Harry, dropped her hockey stick, lunging for Harry's throat.
Harry raised her forearm to protect herself. She stumbled back against the concrete wall of the gym, which gave her support. She lifted up her knee, catching Jody in the crotch. It slowed Jody, but not enough. Pewter, still hanging on to Jody's right leg, was joined by Murphy on the left. They sank their fangs in as deep as they'd
go .
Jody screamed, loosening her grip on Harry's neck. The enraged girl lurched for her hockey stick. Tucker was dragging it down the hallway, but the corgi couldn't go fast, she being small and the stick being large.
Jody yanked the stick hard out of the dog's jaws. Tucker jumped for the stick, but Jody held it over her head and ran for Harry, who crouched. The hallway was long and narrow. She would use the walls to her benefit. Harry, a good athlete, steadied for the attack.
Jody swung the stick at her head. Harry ducked lower and shifted her weight. The tip of the hockey stick grazed the wall. Harry moved closer to the wall. She prayed Jody would crack her stick on the wall.
Jody, oblivious to the damage the cats were doing to her legs, she was so obsessed, swung again. The stick splintered, and that fast Harry pushed off the wall and flung herself at Jody. The two went down hard on the floor as the cats let go of their quarry. Tucker ran alongside the fighting humans, waiting for an opening. Her fangs, longer than the cats', could do more damage.
Sounds down the hall stopped Jody for a split second. She wriggled from Harry's grasp and raced away from the noise. Tucker caught her quickly and grabbed her ankle. Jody stopped to beat off the dog just as Cynthia Cooper rounded the corner and dropped to one knee, gun out.
"Stop or I'll shoot."
Jody, eyes glazed, stared down the barrel of a .357, stared at the bloody fangs of Tucker, then held up her hands.
73
Because of their bravery, the animals were rewarded with filet mi-gnon cooked by Miranda Hogendobber. Harry, Fair, Susan, Brooks, Cynthia, and the Reverend Jones joined them. The animals had place settings at the big dinner table. Miranda went all out.
"This is heaven," Pewter purred.
"I didn't know Pewter had it in her." Susan smiled at the plump kitty.
"There's a lion beneath that lard," Mrs. Murphy joked.
As the humans put together the pieces of the murderous puzzle, Tucker said, "Murphy, how did you figure it out?"
"Mother was on the right track when she said that whoever killed Roscoe Fletcher did it at the car wash. Any one of the suspects could have done it, but not one person recalled anyone giving Roscoe candy, although he offered it to them. Jody walked past the Texaco station on her way to the deli. The station blocks the view from the car wash. She gave him the candy; no one saw her, and no car was behind Roscoe yet. She could have worked fast, then run back to the office. It would give her a good alibi. She was waiting for an opportunity. She was smart enough to know this was a good shot. Who knows how long she carried that candy around?"
"I don't know whether to pity Jody or hate her," Susan Tucker mused.
'Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches!' Psalm Seventy-three, verse twelve," Miranda recited. "Roscoe and Maury did increase in riches, but they paid for it. As for Jody, she was very pretty and vulnerable. But so are many other young people. She participated in her own corruption."
"The slush fund ledger gave me part of the motive—money— but I couldn't find the slushers. Drugs weren't it." Cynthia folded her arms across her chest. "Never would I have thought of porno movies."
"It is ghastly." The Reverend Jones shuddered.
"What tipped you off?" Pewter asked Murphy.
"It took me a long time to figure it out. I think finding that address label at the bottom of Roscoe's desk was my first inkling. Neptune Film Lab. And wonderful though it might be to have a film department at a private secondary school—it seemed like a great expense even if Maury was supposedly going to make a huge contribution."
"Kendrick was more of a man than we've given him credit for," Susan said.
"He guessed Jody was the killer. He didn't know why." Cynthia recalled the expression on his face when Jody confessed. "She'd told Irene and Kendrick that she was pregnant by Sean. It was actually Roscoe."
"I'd kill him myself." Fair's face flushed. "Sorry, Herb."
"Quite understandable under the circumstances."
"She had slept with Sean and told him he was the father of her child. That's when he stole the BMW. He was running away and asking for help at the same time," Cynthia continued. "But she now says the father might be Roscoe. And she said this is the second film made at St. Elizabeth's. Last year they used Courtney Frere. He'd pick one favorite girl for his films. We tracked her down at Tulane. Poor kid. That's what the sleeping pills were about, not low board scores. The film she was in was shot at Maury's house, but then Roscoe and Maury got bolder. They came up with the bright idea of setting up shop at St. Elizabeth's. It certainly gave them the opportunity to troll for victims."
"Monsters." Miranda shook her head.
"There have always been bad people." Brooks surprised everyone by speaking up. "Bad as Mr. Fletcher and Mr. McKinchie were, she didn't have to kill them."
"She snapped." Susan thought out loud. "All of a sudden she must have realized that one mistake—that movie—could ruin the rest of her life."
"Exactly." Cynthia confirmed this. "She drove out with Winifred Thalman, thinking she could get the footage back, but Winifred had already mailed the rough cut to Neptune Lab. She only had outtakes with her, so Jody killed her. She threw the outtakes in the pond."
"How," Harry asked, "did she kill her?"
"Blow to the head. Maybe used her hockey stick. She walked across the fields after dark and arrived home in time for supper. After that she was driven by revenge. She wanted power over the people she felt had humiliated her—even though she'd agreed to be in these movies for money."