Page 13 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Road Kill

I studied her face. It was tense but glowing, as she recreated the
scene in her mind’s eye. Captain Fassner had been writing rapidly,
forced to use more than one page in his tiny notebook. “So he simply
stumbled and went over full tilt, eh?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes. He wasn’t very athletic, you know. I
doubt if he had a good sense of balance, either. If you’re wondering
whether or not he intentionally did it, I don’t think so. Don’t suicide
jumpers make a big show of standing on top of a building or a bridge
before they dive off?”
“Sometimes.” The policeman’s beefy features took on a look of
exasperation. “But that is a conclusion to be arrived at by careful
investigation—which is my job, young lady. Do you have any idea
why he might want to kill himself?”
“No, I don’t. And it wouldn’t be in character, as far as I can tell.
He was very sure of himself. No identity problems. Of course, many
adults appear that way to teenagers, especially when compared to
themselves. But Mr. Ewidge would not have been high on my list of
possible suicides among the teachers here.”
I coughed and covered my mouth. That was not a list any student
should be compiling, even in her head.
“All right,” said Fassner wearily. “What happened next?”
“I remember a screaming sound, almost in my ears. It was Sherrie
Cook. My eyes were glued to the scene in front of me, trying to pick
out some sign of life down in the valley where I presumed he had
landed. But it must have been on the far side of the promontory,
because I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I turned, but
Sherrie had already run back down the path, crying out the name of
her boyfriend at the top of her lungs. In her panic she went the
wrong way and headed off into another canyon. I took the most
direct route down to the rendezvous point and alerted one of the
rangers. By that time most of the other students were straggling back
to the bus; some were already eating their lunch ahead of schedule.
The chief ranger took charge and had us all assemble in one place so
he could count heads. The police arrived just past eleven-thirty and
some of them went out with a ranger to find Mr. Ewidge. By then
Sherrie had returned, and gave the rest of the students a wild version
of what had happened.”

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