I knew the cop. Eddie Gazarra. I went to high school with him, and now he was married to my cousin Shirley the Whiner.
“Lula’s gun is on the ground,” I said. “You don’t want to mistake it for the murder weapon. Maybe you want to let her put it back in her purse.”
Eddie flicked a beam of light on the gun. “Is it legal?”
“Is your momma?” Lula asked him.
“I never saw that gun,” Eddie said, moving the light over to the body.
Thirty minutes later the area was secure. It had been roped off with crime scene tape and lights had been set up. The band had packed up and gone home. The students attending the party were detained in the Zeta house. They’d be questioned one by one and released. The side yard was filled with EMTs, cops, a forensic photographer, the coroner, the first of the crime scene techs, and Morelli. Lula said she had the heebie-jeebies, so I sent her home.
“It looks like he hasn’t been dead long,” Morelli said to me. “So far we haven’t found anyone who heard gunshots. The band was playing. No one was in this back area. Except you.”
“Globovic asked me to meet him here at ten o’clock. He said he wanted to talk.”
“Was he here?”
“If he was, I didn’t see him. We were walking toward the back of the building, in the dark, and Lula tripped over Mintner.”
Morelli popped a couple pills into his mouth.
“Breath mints?” I asked him.
“Stomach issues.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s all your fault,” he said.
“Jeez.”
He grinned and hugged me into him. “I was kidding. It’s not all your fault. It’s only partly your fault.”
“Boy, that makes me feel a lot better. I don’t have any more to contribute here. Will anyone mind if I get Gazarra to take me home?”
“No one will mind.”
I sat in the front with Gazarra so no one would call my mother and tell her I’d been arrested.
“What’s with Morelli?” I asked Gazarra. “Is something wrong at work?”
“This is Trenton. Work is never good.”
“Then why do you stay?”
“I want my pension.”
“That’s years away.”
“Yeah, but it’s something to look forward to.”
“Why has Morelli stayed?”
“He’s the job. He believes in it. He’s good at it.”
“He seems to be taking more antacids than usual.”
“I noticed. I don’t know what the deal is with that.”
“He hasn’t said anything to you?”
“Morelli’s never been a big talker, but he’s more distant than usual these days. And he’s been taking time off. I figured if anyone knew what was going on, it would be you.”
“He broke up with me.”
“Wow. I didn’t know.”
Gazarra idled at the back door of my building. “Are you freaked out by the shooting?” he asked. “Do you want me to see you inside?”
“Thanks, but it’s not necessary. I’m used to being freaked out.”
“One of the many perks of law enforcement.”
I waved him away and went inside. I took the stairs to the second floor and found Julie Ruley hunched in front of my door, waiting for me. I had a moment of panic. My instinct was to turn and bolt down the stairs, but my feet weren’t moving.
“Where’s Gobbles?” I asked Julie.
“He didn’t come with me. He doesn’t know I’m here. We were walking across campus to meet you, and we saw the police. At first we thought they were there for us, but then we heard kids talking about how there was a shooting. We watched for a while from a distance and then we took off. I heard someone say it was Dean Mintner.”
“He was shot and killed.”
“That’s horrible. I didn’t like him, but it’s still horrible.”
“You realize that you and Gobbles are suspects?”
“We had nothing to do with it. Gobbles had nothing to do with what happened to Dean Mintner the first time.”
“Mintner thought there was something evil going on at the fraternity.”
“There’s nothing evil going on at the fraternity, but there have been some strange things happening. Gobbles and I thought we could poke around and figure it out, but we can’t. We’re not getting anywhere. We need professional help, and we’re afraid to go to the police. They’ll put Gobbles in jail.”
“What makes you think I won’t put Gobbles in jail?”
Julie shrugged. “You seem nice. Gobbles said we have to trust someone, and we picked you.”
Oh great.
“What have you got so far?” I asked her. “You must have some idea what’s going on. What are the strange things that have been happening?”