The Reason

“Really,” Chris said his face turning serious for a moment. “I can walk you home.”

  “How about this, I walk home alone tonight and you promise to meet me for breakfast? How does that sound?” Amy softly stroked his hair and brushed a curl from his forehead.

  “I’ll pick you up at eight and take you to Dunkin, how’s that sound?”

  “Great.” Amy leaned over his face and kissed him one last time. She whispered in his ear, “I love you and yes you are sexy.” With that Amy stood and walked out of his room, never looking back.

  Chris fell asleep and dreamt of little children calling him Da running and jumping into piles of leaves he had just raked up.

  CHAPTER 13

  The next morning Chris awoke to pounding on his door. “Chris, unlock the door! Get up man! Chris, something really bad has happened! Open up man!” Duff continued to pound on the door and yell to his friend. Other dorm mates woke to the commotion and poked their heads into the common room.

  “What the hell Duff? It’s six thirty in the morning,” the other dorm mates yelled. “Shut up we’re trying to sleep.”

  Duff ignored the pleas from the others and kept pounding and yelling until Chris open the door. “Get dressed. You have to come with me now.”

  “Duff, what’s going on,” Chris rubbed the sleep out of his eyes?

  Before Chris could continue Duff said, “It’s Amy, there been a…an accident!”

  Although Duff was talking the entire way Chris didn’t remember what he put on or how he got to her dorm. What he did remember was Amy’s twisted body on the front yard, and the blood. The blood was everywhere. Chris ran to her body and picked her up in his arms. Several policemen grabbed him, forced him to release his grip on Amy. Still holding both his arms behind his back the officers dragged him to the detective in charge. Chris was out of his mind with grief. “Amy,” he screamed. Duff tried to help but was ordered to get behind the tape. “Amy,” Chris screamed again sobbing uncontrollably.

  The detective put his hand on Chris’s shoulder. “It’s all right son, everything is going to be all right.”

  Chris collapsed in the officers arms; they lowered him to the ground and let him weep. Duff was behind the tape when one of the officers waved him back inside the tape. Duff ran and slid into Chris and wrapped his arms around his friend. Duff was crying too and kept saying to Chris, “I’m sorry dude, I’m so sorry.”

  “Chris you got to let her go. We need to figure out what happened here,” Detective Barnes told Chris with his hand on Chris’s shoulder.

  The rage grew within Chris. “What do you mean figure out what happened here? The woman who I was going to marry and spend my life with is dead you stupid ass. If you had done your job after the first two murders she would not be here now. Leave her alone. I don’t want your grubby hands on her. Just get away.” Chris flung the detective’s arm away and pulled Amy even closer to himself.

  Detective Barnes fought the urge to yank Chris away from the body and off the crime scene. He managed to hold his tongue and motion to Duff who stood up and walked over to talk with Barnes.

  “What’s up,” Duff said through the tears running down his face.

  “I need you to get Chris out of here. What we have to do now you don’t want him to see.”

  Duff nodded his understanding and walked back to Chris. “Come on buddy, she’s gone we need to let them take her.”

  “I can’t Duff. If they take her she will be gone forever.” The tears streamed down Chris’s face.

  “I know pal. I know. Come on, let’s get out of here. We need to call Mike anyway.”

  Chris released his hold on Amy and laid her gently on the grass. All the while he cried unashamed. He kissed her cheek and told her he loved her one last time then with Duff’s help he stood to go. Duff led him across the lawn and to Chris’s car. He put Chris in the passenger seat, climbed into the driver’s seat and asked Chris for the keys. Between sobs Chris handed his friend the keys.

  Duff drove to Mike’s home. He would still be sleeping after closing up last night at 2AM. He knocked at the door and waited for the big man to open the door.

  Mike was half asleep when he opened the door and Duff and Chris. Chris was crying as he said to Mike, “She’s dead Mike. They found her body this morning outside Harris Hall.”

  Mike’s knees went weak and he fell to the floor. Duff reached for him but could not stop Mike in time. Both boys knelt in front of him and helped him back to his feet.

  Chris was the first to speak. “I’m sorry Mike. She wanted to walk home last night and study. I was going to meet her for breakfast. I guess she never made it home. I’m so sorry Mike.”

  Before either Chris or Duff could react Mike punched Chris square in the jaw with a mighty right cross. Chris flew off his feet and landed in the grass two steps below the front door. “It’s your fault you son of a bitch. If she hadn’t been with you she would still be alive.”

  Duff stood between the two. Chris just hung his head and wept. “Mike’s right. If I had walked her home she would still be alive. I killed her.” Chris sobbed and shook as the tears continued to fall.

  Mike look at Chris and his heart broke. He crossed the distance between them and knelt to Chris and took him in his massive arms. “I’m sorry Chris. It’s not your fault. She was always stubborn. If she wanted to walk home alone she would have no matter what you said.” Mike was weeping now and the two held each other as they shared their loss. Duff turned and sat on the stoop. He joined them in weeping for Amy.

  CHAPTER 14

 

  Mike, Chris, and Duff sat in the empty pub drinking Bushmills 1608. The three were drunk, angry and heartbroken. Amy lay in a casket at the end of the bar. Friends had come for the wake hours ago leaving them with words of concern and sorrow for their loss. But tonight words rang hollow. As each glass was emptied Mike filled it again not caring that the toffee smooth scotch cost $100.00 per bottle. Tonight was about drowning sorrows and finding a way to go on.

  “What am I going to do without my little girl?” Mike asked no one in particular.

  “What am I going to do without my love?” Chris asked.

  “How long are we going to keep acting like victims?” Duff asked and stared at the two men in front of him.

  “What do you mean,” Chris asked?

  “I mean it is obvious that the police and detective Barnes have no clue how to solve this case. I think we should solve this case ourselves.”

  “I’m with Duff,” Mike slurred. “Good idea Duff.”

  “But we aren’t detectives. What can we do?” Chris looked at both men with whisky glazed eyes.

  “We can’t do any worse than they have done and it will give us something constructive to do. Plus we don’t have to obey all the rules they do. I mean if we suspect someone we can call Mike and just beat a confession out of um.” Duff was animated as he spoke smashing a fist into his hand.

  “Right,” Mike yelled out punching his fist into the air.

  “You’re right Duff. We can solve this thing. Mike we are going to find out who killed Amy and the other girls, and then we are going to bring them to you and you can beat them to death!”

  “Yeah,” Both Mike and Duff cheered.

  Mike raised his glass, “To Amy, Nár laga Dia do lámh.”

  Chris smiled and asked, “What does that mean?”

  “May God not weaken my hand.”

  All three put down the shots in one gulp and slammed the glass down on the table. Mike filled them again and said, “Sláinte, Health.”

  “Health,” Chris and Duff yelled and gulped the whiskey and slammed the glass again to the table.

  Chris looked at both men smiled closed his eyes and immediately passed out cold falling off the back of the stool. Duff and Mike burst out laughing. Duff got a funny look on his face and joined Chris out cold on the floor. Mike smiled a
t Chris and Duff, took another drink, and laid his head on the table snoring loud enough to wake the dead.

  It was 11AM the next morning when Danielle, one of the servers, arrived to start her shift. She walked over to the table and shook Mike.

  “Huh, Dani what are you doin here?” Mike rubbed his head as the pain hit him.

  “Starting my shift Mike. It’s 11AM.” She smiled at her boss and chortled as she looked at Chris and Duff sound asleep on the floor.

  Mike signaled her to keep the laughter and talking quiet. “Better put some coffee on and unlock the back door for the funeral home. They should be here in half an hour.”

  Dani set about the tasks Mike gave her. She stopped at the coffin still open at the end of the bar and looked down at Amy. “Sleep well little one. We’ll miss you.”

  Mike came up behind her and smiled, “Thanks Dani.” He closed the lid then wiped a tear from his eye.

  Mike walked back to Chris and Duff who were still out cold on the floor. “Wake up boys. It’s time to go home.”

  Chris and Duff opened their eyes and groaned at the brightness from the work lights that were on in the pub. “What time is it,” Chris asked?

  “About 11AM,” Mike told them. “Do either of you remember much about last night? I kinda have it in my head that we are going to solve Amy’s murder ourselves.”

  “We are,” Duff spoke up first.

  “Ya Mike, we decided last night about half way through that bottle. If you guys are still in so am I.” Chris looked expectantly at Mike and Duff.

  “I’m in,” Mike said.

  “Me too,” Duff responded.

  “Then I guess we better get started. But first I need some coffee and breakfast.”

  “I need some coffee too,” Duff smiled at Mike.

  “Dani has a pot on. I’ll go in the back and make some eggs and rashers.”

  “Thanks Mike. You have got to tell me how you’re not hung over?”

  “Oh, I’m hung over. I just refuse to let you two see it.” Mike laughed and immediately grabbed his forehead in pain.

  Chris and Duff climbed off the floor and sat back down on the stools they had fallen off of last night. Mike made breakfast and Dani kept the coffee flowing. After breakfast the boys headed back to the dorm. The funeral was slated for the following morning. The attendance was comforting to Mike and Chris. Duff stood off to the side and made sure nothing and nobody bothered Mike and Chris.

  After the funeral an open house was held at Mike’s. By the end of the day everyone was exhausted. As Chris and Duff headed to the door after cleaning up Mike’s place Mike asked, “So we get started tomorrow?”

  Chris looked at the forlorn father and said, “First thing in the morning we are going to get the door logs to all the dorms and classrooms. That will give us a master list to work from.”

  “Good,” was all Mike said as he closed the front door behind them.

  CHAPTER 15wwww

  Getting the logs proved harder than they had anticipated. “Who knew they kept those logs secured on the network server?” Chris looked at Duff, “Any ideas?”

  “Just one, I play hockey with one of the network administrators. He is a major geek but he knows his stuff. I’ll bet he’ll help us out if we ask.”

  Duff knocked at the door to Troy’s office. “Come,” came the response from the other side of the door. Troy looked up from his screen and smiled. “Duff buddy what are doing here? Is that Chris with you?”

  “Hey Troy, how are you doing?” Chris could not look him in the eye, he just stared at all the computer monitors on his desk. “Sweet setup.”

  “Sorry about Amy, Chris.” Troy’s face showed the pain he knew Chris was in.

  Duff interrupted sensing Chris was getting uncomfortable. “Troy, we need a favor.”

  “Sure, what can I do for you?”

  “We need a copy of all the door logs on campus for the dates of the murders.” Duff nervously waited for Troy’s response.

  “Dude, I could lose my job over that. That is secure data.” Troy bowed his head and thought about it for a minute. “Wait a minute, the police requested that data about a week ago. I copied it to our FTP site. It is still there waiting for pickup. If you were to make a copy from the FTP site, well that would be beyond my control and responsibility. It also contains a list of all the student and teacher id’s.”

  “Where?” Duff asked.

  Troy wrote an address user name and address on a piece of paper and handed it to Duff. “This will get you in. The file is password protect as well. The password is the user name I just gave you.”

  “Thanks Troy.”

  “Thanks for what? I didn’t give you anything.” Troy smiled and returned to his computer screens.

  “Right.” Chris said as they left the office smiling.

  They headed to the dorm to get Chris’s laptop. Using a program called WS-FTP they logged into the site. Chris copied the file down to his computer and opened it. “This thing is over 500 pages. What do we do now?”

  Duff smiled and slid the computer so it was facing him. After an hour Duff asked for the dates and times of the murders. He entered the information into spreadsheet he had created. After a couple of minutes pushing the processing power of the old laptop he asked, “You got 50 pages in the printer of yours?”

  “Ya, no problem.” Chris checked the printer’s paper tray and said, “Go for it.”

  Duff hit the printer icon and the inkjet started spitting out pages. It took about 15 minutes to print out the pages but the result was exactly what they needed. As Chris looked at the pages he was amazed to see the log in and out times and names of each student and faculty member.

  “Can we narrow this down more?”

  Duff smiled, “We can do anything we want with the data.”

  “Let’s start by removing all the women.”

  “Got it, Duff typed into the laptop more and said. We are down to 20 pages.”

  “Let’s remove the faculty from the list. The murders were all done in the middle of the night. Chances are the faculty was home asleep.”

  “That takes us down to 15 pages. Can you think of anything else?”

  “Not right now but that will give us something to work with. Good job Duff.”

  “Thanks, Mom’s an accountant and works with Excel all the time. I am a guru with that piece of software.”

  Chris laughed, “Be sure to tell Mom thanks for teaching you how to work that program.”

  Duff laughed, “I will.”

  For the next 2 hours the boys poured over the 15 pages. They had a list of 35 suspects. Now they had to dig deeper.

  “We need to approach each of these guys and get a better read on them?” Chris had highlighted each suspect’s names. “There are 5 guys here in our dorm. Let’s put together a little party at Mikes and get them there. We can loosen up some tongues with Mikes help and maybe we can get some answers.”

  “We should check with Mike first, after all some of these guys are underage.” Duff looked questionably at Chris.

  “Mike will go along with this one. But I will check with him now before we start inviting people.” Chris dialed his phone and told Mike the plan.

  Mike agreed and offered his party room in the basement. “I’ll have some music brought in. The room holds 125 so invite them all. I’ll work the room too and we can narrow down that list.”

  “Good plan. I’ll see you tonight.” Chris smiled as he hung up the phone and told Duff. “He’s given us the party room and wants us to invite all the suspects.”

  Duff laughed, “Well it is the smartest move. It’s just like in the old movies where the cop would put all the suspects in one room and then, with lots of drama, tell them who done it.”

  ”That would work except for one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We have no idea who done it.”

  “Ya
h that could be a problem.” Chris and Duff laughed.

  Duff printed up the suspect list ordered by dorm and gave Chris half the list. “Here you invite this half and I’ll take the rest.”

  Chris took his half then said, “We may need a reason for this party when we invite these guys. Any ideas?”

  “How about a hockey team party and we are inviting new people to get them excited about the team this year.”

  “No, that won’t work. I know a guys night out party. We will talk about the women on campus and rate them from 1-10 in the student directory. Most guys would come out for that and it would keep the conversation focused on our feelings about the women.”

  ”I like it; I’m heading out now to start the invites. See you back here at 8 PM. Let’s start this party at 9 PM.”

  “Cool, see you then.”

  CHAPTER 16

  By the time Chris and Duff arrived at Mike’s pub the place was jumping. Mike true to his word had a DJ in the basement and free booze filling every glass.

  Chris looked around checking off mentally the names of those who were here. “Mike you are a man of your word. This is a rockin party!”

  “Thanks Chris. It’s not hard when you put a couple of kegs on ice and tell a bunch of underage college students to help themselves to the free beer. I’ve had one of the girls making Jello shots all afternoon. When the conversation slows down let me know and I’ll bring them down. That will loosen their tongues. Also a couple of the girls have called their friends. There will be a group of 40 women arriving at 10 PM to dance with the boys for an hour. I’m paying them each 50 bucks for the hour. None of the girls will be from the school. We better get this show on the road.”

  “Right, let’s check in every half hour and update the list with the information we have gathered.” Duff and Mike nodded their approval and began talking to the party goers. The interesting thing was how forthcoming everyone was with information. It became obvious that most of these guys had nothing to do with the murders. With a little effort the list of 35 was reduced to 10 in less than an hour.

  Chris walked over to the DJ and asked to use the mike. The DJ faded the music and handed him the microphone. “Let’s hear it for DJ Coffee.” Everyone applauded. Chris continued, “I have some news for you all. Some friends have arrived to help this party along. Please welcome the local ladies.” An eruption of clapping and hoots filled the room. The ladies Mike had promised arrived right on cue. Chris read out the rules Mike had handed him before getting the girls ready. “Guys, guys listen up for a second. Mike has requested that you follow some simple rules or risk being thrown out of this most awesome party. The girls will dance with you, but you must keep your hands to yourself. You can buy the ladies drinks. They will like that. You can order those drinks at the bar. The ladies do not drink beer so don’t be cheap, it won’t work. The ladies are only going to be with us for a short time so get to dancing.”