The Hayloft: a 1950s Mystery Read online

  I nodded and looked around, not wanting others to hear the conversation. Those closest to us were still immersed in their games. “A certain member of the administration has it in for me,” I said in little more than a whisper. “And Sylvia. But it isn’t only him. It’s the kids. I don’t care so much about me, but Sylvia’s life would be a lot easier if they at least spoke to her. Natalie has a lot of influence. If she acted friendly toward Sylvia, I think most of the others would fall into line.”

  “Natalie has skeletons in her closet. Listen. Are you free this afternoon? Come on over to my house. We’ll play some more chess. And I’ll tell you a few things that might interest you. You know where I live, don’t you?”

  ***

  Everybody knew where Barney lived because his father was the town doctor, and his office was in his house. The house was right on Main Street beyond the hollow, as I drove east from the high school. I drove down the first hill, passing Sylvia’s house, into the hollow. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Aunt Dorothy. I had to wait a few minutes for it, and by the time I drove up the hill on other side and parked on the street in front of the white, two-story, wood house, the bus had already dropped Barney off.

  I went up the wooden steps to the porch that went around two sides of the house and rang the doorbell three times. That was the signal that I was here on personal business and not to see the doctor. I opened the door and went inside. The waiting room was to the left of the entrance. Half a dozen people sat on chairs, waiting for their turn in the examining room. Barney came downstairs and motioned me to follow him up the stairs to the second floor.

  “Your dad does a good business,” I said as he led the way into his bedroom.

  “Now if they would only pay him. Have you seen the poem in his office? It goes like this:

  The Lord and doctor we implore

  On the brink of danger, not before.

  When the danger is over both alike are requited:

  The Lord is forgotten, the doctor slighted.”

  “I assume Uncle Jeff and Aunt Dorothy pay their bill.”

  “That wasn’t meant to be personal.”

  Bookcases lined two walls, filled with a variety of books. Barney must read a lot. On a third wall was taped a newspaper article about anti-vivisectionists, which I took to mean people who opposed cutting up animals for scientific research. Barney had taped a hand-lettered sign above the article that read, “Anti-anti-vivisectionist.”

  “Let’s get something to drink,” Barney said.

  He led the way through what must be the living room into a small kitchen. An equally small woman who was busily working at the counter turned at our entrance and, speaking with what sounded to me like a German accent, said, “How was school today?”

  “The usual,” Barney said. “Unicorns in science and Ben Franklin in history. Or maybe it was the other way around. This is the new boy I told you about—Gary Blanchard. Gary, this is my mother.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said.

  “He doesn’t talk that way in school, does he?” Mrs. Weiss asked me. “If he did, I’d think they would throw him out on his ear.”

  “He answers all the questions right in math class,” I said.

  “He has you brainwashed,” she said with a smile. “Well, as long as he gets decent report cards…”

  “I see you’ve spotted the clock,” Barney said.

  I was looking at the clock on the wall over the refrigerator, which was fifteen minutes fast. I checked my cheap watch to make sure.

  “It’s always been that way,” Barney continued. “Once we tried setting it to the correct time, but it made us late.”

  So that’s how the smart people lived. Barney opened the refrigerator and extracted sodas for each of us.

  As we left the kitchen, Mrs. Weiss said to me, “Gary, you look as if you have a good head on your shoulders. Maybe you can help to keep Barney on the straight and narrow, so that he won’t act so wild.”

  “Don’t be too sure,” Barney said. “Gary’s not exactly Mr. Clean.”

  Fortunately, he didn’t elaborate on that. Back in his room, Barney said, “I promised to tell you about Natalie and me. But first, tell me what you know about her.”

  How should I answer that? Officially, we just barely knew each other. “Well, she’s the most beautiful girl in the school and she’s head cheerleader and she’s dating the captain of the football team—”

  “Okay, cut the crap, Gary. I saw you two dancing together at the sock hop. You were the only boy with guts enough to do that. And even though you’re as tall as Joe, you’re too thin to be a match for him physically. You have some connection with her.”

  I shouldn’t have underestimated Barney. “I taught Natalie how to play nim.”

  Barney stared at me for a moment and then started to grin. “Of course. It all makes sense. Mysterious new guy appears on the scene and starts overshadowing me in math class. Sylvia obviously likes him more than her job of showing him around the school would require. Sylvia and Natalie are tight. Natalie, who didn’t have a clue about nim, suddenly becomes an expert. If I had any brains, I would have figured it out. Well, I don’t feel so bad, knowing that I really lost to you.”

  “Thanks. All right, you know my secret. What about you and Natalie?”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “All I know is that the first time you two played nim, she lost and had to run around the school naked.”

  “Naked? Is that what she said? My, that girl does like to exaggerate. Well it’s true, she is somewhat of an exhibitionist, but she was hardly naked. Maybe I should have stipulated that. No, she was wearing a bra and panties. And she did it at night.”

  Barney opened a drawer of a hand-painted dresser and rummaged through some papers. He pulled one out and handed it to me. It was a dark and fuzzy black-and-white print of a girl running while wearing what looked like a white bra and panties. By squinting, I could almost recognize the figure as Natalie.

  “You need to work on your photography,” I said, handing it back to him. “I’ve seen better pictures taken in a girls’ locker room.”

  “It’s not a great shot,” Barney admitted. “That’s why I said she had to run during the day the second time. I was determined to get a better picture of her. Oh well. The best laid plans of mice and men.”

  “But what started this whole thing? Sylvia told me you were hot for Natalie’s bod, and she wouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “Story of the life of almost every boy in school. But it’s at least partially true. Last spring she was having trouble with—guess what—math. She led me on so I would help her. Agreed to go with me to the prom. She stood me up when someone else asked her who has the qualification of being taller than I am.”

  “Not Joe.”

  “No. She just started going with Joe a few weeks ago at the beginning of the school year. Anyway, I was pissed off enough that I harassed her. She agreed to play nim with me to get me off her back. If I had lost, I would have had to stay away from her and do something so humiliating I’m not going to tell you about it. She has an imagination, er, unusual in high school girls. The nim game wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done, but then she’s not known for her brainpower.”

  “You mentioned skeletons in Natalie’s closet.”

  “Yes.” Barney looked thoughtful. “Before Joe and before me, Natalie made a play for…Ralph.”

  “Ralph? My cousin Ralph?”

  “The very same.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “The first semester of last year.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “Ralph started going with Ruth.”

  “It’s hard to believe he would leave Natalie for Ruth.”

  “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

  “And it must be difficult for Natalie and Ruth to be cheerleaders together.”

  “Cheerleaders are elected by the students, so Natalie
didn’t have much choice in the matter.”

  “You don’t think that Natalie would have been mad enough to push Ralph off the balcony.”

  “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” Barney looked at me with an evil grin befitting The Shadow. “I’m just telling you the facts. I’ll let you do with them what you will. Let’s play chess.”

  CHAPTER 22

  The double funeral for Willie and Dennis Rice was held on Tuesday afternoon. School closed early so that the students could attend. The yellow school buses took them into Carter where the service was being conducted at the old Presbyterian Church on Main Street. The buses had taken students to Ralph’s funeral, too. I drove my car since we didn’t have to return to school.

  I parked some distance away from the small stone church with the spire reaching toward heaven, since nearby street parking spots and the miniscule church parking lot were filled. As I walked toward the church, I spotted Dr. Graves entering it from a block away and wondered what he was thinking about.

  It appeared that the church wasn’t large enough to hold all the students, in addition to the family and friends of the Rices. Every seat inside was filled by the time I arrived at the door, and there was standing room only. The students were being told to stay outside. Anticipating this, a loudspeaker had been set up outside the door, so that those who couldn’t make it inside could hear the service.

  The church had been built right on the street long long ago. I was one of perhaps fifty people, mostly students, who were standing on the front steps and the sidewalk that ran along Main Street. Sylvia wasn’t among them. She had come on one of the buses and apparently had made it inside.

  One reason I had been dreading going to this funeral is because I thought it would remind me of Ralph, even though I hadn’t attended Ralph’s funeral. But being outside the church in the sun didn’t have the same emotional impact as being inside with the coffin and the members of the Rice family. Maybe it was just as well.

  I spotted Natalie walking toward the church along Main Street. She looked good in a dark dress that matched her dark hair. The dark colors were relieved by a wide, white belt that accented her tiny waist. She also wore a simple hat with a veil of the kind women wore in church.

  To my surprise, she walked up and stood beside me. We didn’t say anything to each other; the service had already started. When I looked around and saw that most of the other students outside were Willie’s age, I knew why she had chosen me for a partner. Joe was at football practice, which was being held as usual.

  The mood outside was somber at first, but as the service droned on with prayers, singing, and people speaking in monotones, we became restless and disconnected from what was happening inside. We couldn’t see the coffins or the weeping parents. It wasn’t real. Kids started talking to each other. Stories were being told about the wild antics of the Rice brothers, and there was scattered laughter. We weren’t showing proper respect for the dearly departed. I hoped the noise wasn’t traveling through the open doorway.

  Natalie took my arm and pulled me away from the others. “Damn kids,” she said.

  Someone started giving what promised to be a long, boring eulogy extolling the many virtues of Dennis and Willie, and I couldn’t concentrate on the words. I looked at Natalie and saw that she was having the same problem.

  “Don’t you have cheerleader practice today?” I asked.

  “I cancelled it. Nobody feels like cheering on a day like this.”

  “But they’re holding football practice.”

  “Yeah. That’s too important to cancel.”

  There was a certain irony in her tone. Perhaps Natalie was deeper than I gave her credit for. I had been trying to figure out how to talk to her. And now I had my chance. I took the plunge. “You never told me that you went out with Ralph.”

  She looked at me and shrugged. “You never asked me.”

  I didn’t have a comeback for that. But I did need to ask another question. “Your breakup with Ralph. Was it…amicable?”

  Natalie looked at me again and smiled. “You mean, did he leave me for another girl, and did I, the abandoned lover, in a thirst for black revenge, throw him off the balcony?”

  “Something like that.”

  “We can’t talk here. I sense that this…” she nodded toward the church “…is going to last until our children ship us off to the old folks’ home. And I’ve been to enough funerals to last me a lifetime. Let’s meet someplace.”

  “Where?” I pictured Sylvia finding us together.

  “Where? Right, we have to be careful about running into your commie girlfriend. I’ve got it. We’ll meet in the hayloft of your uncle’s barn.”

  “Do you know how to get there?”

  “What do you think?”

  Of course. She had gone there with Ralph. “You’re not dressed for it.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. Can you picture me sliding down the haystack in my nylons?”

  I could, but I had better not.

  “I only live fifteen minutes from there. I’ll go home and change and meet you at the barn in an hour.”

  “Park down by the railroad track.” I didn’t want Aunt Dorothy or anybody else knowing that I was in the hayloft with Natalie.

  ***

  In fact, as I shot baskets while I waited for Natalie in the hayloft, I grew more and more apprehensive about our meeting. Why had I agreed to meet her here? Was there a valid reason to quiz her some more in regard to Ralph? Had Barney put the thought that Natalie might have killed Ralph into my head because of some remaining lust for revenge that he was harboring?

  What if Sylvia found out we were together? She might excuse an innocent flirtation with Kate, but Natalie was a completely different story, especially since they were barely speaking to each other. And what about Joe? What if one of his friends spotted Natalie’s car near our barn? I was glad I had told her to park by the railroad tracks.

  On top of everything else, she was late. An hour ticked by and then another half. Maybe she wasn’t coming at all. I tried to convince myself that this was for the best, but even that failed. She still had some power over me.

  When Natalie finally climbed the iron ladder and poked her head through the hole in the floor, I was in a state of high anxiety. I determined to get rid of her as soon as possible. She nimbly made the transition to the floor of the hayloft before I could get over to assist her.

  She was dressed in faded blue jeans and an old sweatshirt with a tear under one sleeve, through which I could see a bit of her bra when she raised her arm. In spite of her tattered appearance, she was still the most beautiful girl in the school.

  She looked around and said, “I’ve got some good memories of this place.”

  She didn’t elaborate, but that was a lead-in. “So, tell me about you and Ralph.”

  She pouted. “Is that the only reason you invited me here, to pump me for information?”

  I hadn’t invited her; she had invited herself. She grabbed the basketball and shot awkwardly at the rim. In spite of having the flexibility and coordination of a cheerleader, she didn’t have the shooting skill of either Kate or Sylvia.

  I asked the same question several different ways, but she didn’t respond with anything on subject. She kept messing with the basketball, passing it to me, shooting it, dribbling. This was going nowhere fast.

  I asked her about one of the other things on my mind. “What if Joe finds out you’re here?”

  “He’s at football practice. But I want to talk to you about Joe. Can we go up on the bales? Ralph and I built a fort there once.”

  Without waiting for a response, she climbed to the top of the bales with agility. I followed, wondering how one controlled a wayward woman. I had decided several years ago never to get married, and Natalie’s behavior reinforced my decision.

  “Somebody’s been hard at work,” she said as I clambered up behind her.

  She surveyed all the bales I had moved in trying to get do
wn to the corner of the hayloft to look for the necklace. I hadn’t worked on this project since last Friday, four days ago. I didn’t answer, not wanting to go into my reasons for exhausting myself.

  “Did you make the fort?” she asked.

  It was the fort that Kate and I had made—and Sylvia and I had inhabited. Natalie dove inside and disappeared.

  “Come on in; the water’s fine.”

  I knew I shouldn’t do it, but sometimes the lures of the flesh are irresistible. I followed her into the dark, cramped space. The only way we could cohabit it was to sit shoulder-to-shoulder or facing in opposite directions. I chose the latter position as the safer, but she told me to turn around.

  I did, and knew it was advisable for me not to move any more. In any case, Natalie belonged to Joe, and I belonged to Sylvia, so she wouldn’t want me to try anything.

  “Tell me about Joe,” I said. If she wouldn’t talk about Ralph, maybe she would at least talk about Joe. And talking was the safest thing we could do.

  “Joe was a mistake,” she said.

  That wasn’t what I expected to hear. I was so surprised I couldn’t reply.

  After a pause, she continued, “I expected him to be manly. After all, he’s a big hunk of a guy.”

  I couldn’t dispute that.

  “Have you ever heard of a boy who doesn’t like to kiss?”

  Was that a rhetorical question? And what did it have to do with Joe?

  “Ralph was a good kisser. He tried some other things, too, but I wouldn’t let him do anything below the neck.”

  Now I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear all this.

  “But Joe is strange. He expects me to be completely true to him, but I don’t know what else he wants. He certainly doesn’t seem to want to do anything with me, except to have me close by. Like one of his athletic trophies. Do you know what I mean?”

  I grunted, not knowing what to say.

  “He gets mad at me for no reason. If he even thinks I look at another boy.”

  Then what was she doing here?

  “Anyway, come graduation, he’s going to be gonesville.”