I nodded yes. “Part-time stuff. But by the time Alyssa left I was on my way to being an apprentice.”
“But you were there. Learning the ropes, right?”
“Yes.”
Perry reached into his shirt pocket and unfolded a sheet of paper which he held out to me. It was the list of the names of employees at Elm Grove cemetery and DiGregorio’s and Henderson’s Funeral Homes whom he considered possible cemetery buffs and suspects.
“How many of these people did you know back then?” Perry asked as he handed me the list.
I scanned it for a few seconds. “Over time I came to know them well. But I didn’t really get to know most of them until after college and I was Lew’s Assistant. Obviously, everyone at Henderson’s. At DiGregorio’s I knew Tyler, Alphonse and Wilt Ging. Vaughn was the only person I knew at the cemetery then.”
“Who knew you were dating with Alyssa Kirkland?”
I had to think for a few seconds. “Tyler, definitely.”
“Interesting. Tyler knows cemeteries. Tyler knew your girlfriend. Tyler’s the first one to show up at the Funeral Home where Brandy Parker is laid out.”
“He came to see me, not her.”
“He could’ve called. And why did he come when he did?”
“You’re way off base on this, Perry.”
“We’ll see,” he said. “Who else knew about Alyssa?”
“It’s hard to remember. Lew might’ve known I had a girlfriend, but I don’t think I ever would’ve discussed it with him. Same with Nolan. They were grown men. If we talked it was about sports or the business.”
“But you might’ve let it drop that you had a girlfriend. Or you and Alyssa were seen together. It’s not inconceivable that Nolan or Lew knew you were dating someone.”
“You can’t possibly think either one of them could be the… ”
“Hell, if your theory about the same person killing all three women holds water, Lew and Nolan are old enough to be responsible for all deaths.”
“That’s just crazy, Perry. Why would either one… ?”
“Don’t waste your time asking ‘why?’ Del. My father used to say that there is no why for some crimes. Guy robs a bank for money. Guy steals food to eat. Woman kills her husband for insurance money. Guy murders his wife because she’s cheating on him. Those are solid, definite whys. Then there are the crimes of impulse. Guy doesn’t need money, but he robs a liquor store for laughs. Kid from a good family decides to sell drugs for kicks. Guy slaps his girlfriend around one punch too many. Then there’s the crimes where a cop or a District Attorney scratches his head from here to Timbuktu looking for a reason. A motive. And there isn’t one. Give me a motive why somebody killed Brandy Parker.”
“I can’t.”
“Give me a motive why someone killed or kidnapped and killed Virginia Thistle.”
“I can’t.”
“Give me a motive why Alphonse Digregorio or Lew Henderson or Nolan Fowler or Wilt Ging or Alton Held or Tyler DiGregorio would have killed Alyssa Kirkland.”
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I. Let’s narrow the odds. Tyler could’ve, understand me, could have killed Brandy Parker and Alyssa Kirkland, but he would’ve been too young to have done in Virginia Thistle. So we’ll leave him out of this scenario. But Nolan and Lew — and to make it interesting — Kyle Thistle could’ve killed his wife and Brandy Parker. But he was locked up in the nuthouse when Alyssa disappeared. But Nolan and Lew… and just for laughs, let’s say Alphonse… who knew you indirectly because you were friends with Tyler… and just to make it really interesting, let’s put Wilt Ging into the mix because as Chief Embalmer at DiGregorio’s, he might’ve known you only because of your friendship with Tyler.”
“Where are you going with this, Perry?”
“The point being that those men were all in Dankworth when Virginia Thistle disappeared. And of the people you knew fifteen years ago when Alyssa Kirkland vanished, Lew, Nolan, Alphonse, Wilt and Alton could’ve known that she was your girlfriend. They all were certainly around nine years ago and each of them knew enough about the layout of that fucking cemetery to know where to hide a body.”
“Wrong! Not Nolan and Wilt. Embalmers don’t go to cemeteries. I can’t speak for Wilt, but I’d bet you a thousand dollars that Nolan Fowler doesn’t know anything about the layout of Elm Grove or any other cemetery. In all the years I’ve been associated with Henderson’s Funeral Home, with the exception of a handful of burials, if that, Nolan never spent enough time at Elm Cross to be any kind of expert on the layout of the grounds.”
“Fine. But Lew has. And Alphonse. And Alton works there, for God’s sake. And you don’t know if Wilt Ging is a cemetery buff. And, frankly, you don’t know what Nolan does in his spare time or what he did in his spare time fifteen years ago. He might’ve been a cemetery buff back then.”
Perry was confusing me. I wasn’t sure if he was playing mind games with me like he usually tried to do or if he was genuinely trying to communicate to me from the point of view of a cop stumped by a difficult case.
“Is being a cemetery buff a lifelong hobby for people?”
“For some.”
“I’ve been interested in some things all my life, other things I get tired of after a year. Some things six months. I have to weigh all kinds of facts and information. It sounds nice to theorize that the same person was responsible for what happened to these three women, but when you think hard about it…it’s just too remote. I’ll grant you it’s possible, but it’s not probable. That’s why I have to focus on the facts I have. And the biggest fact I have the body of Brandy Parker. If I had the remains of Alyssa Kirkland or Virginia Thistle, then I’d say your theory has one hundred percent credibility. But I have to go with what I’ve got. And as of this moment, it’s all in Gretchen Yearwood’s court. And if she can’t give me something new to go on… it’s over.”
“She’s already given you something, Perry. She’s the only person connected to both Virginia Thistle and Brandy Parker.”
Perry took in the remark. “I take it that you and the kid have already talked to her?” I nodded yes. “Save me some time. Did she say anything that I can work with?”
“Not much.”
“Then that’s it. There’s nothing except theories. I met with Greg and Wendell to pick their brains. We sat down like lawyers trying to come up with logical scenarios of who, what, where, why and how.”
He removed two sheets of paper, folded in half, from his jacket pocket and unfolded them. “This is a printout of the fifty-six names you and the kid got from the headstones by the mausoleum. We poured over them, looking for a link. Abbreviations. A big chunk of people from Europe settled here. Lots of them changed their names. We considered that the killer uses the shortened surname of his ancestors. “He handed me the page. “Of the fifty-six names, eleven could’ve been trimmed down or ‘Americanized’. I made a separate list of those. Take a look.”
I looked at the paper, my eyes going to the short list:
Norbyer
Uvorelli
Friskenacht
Suinneur
Oberfuolner
Bastaad
Ruddigger
Wachtmannfried
Viteurhoven
Kogarun
Puillifert
“None rings even the remotest bell for me,” I said. “In my head I’m trying to make anagrams out of them.”
“We tried that too. Nothing. I even ran them through the computer to find variations on the names. Made it even worse. Came up with seventy-six weird-sounding names.”