As the hounds were driven out, Ben Sidel pulled up to the theater building, an ambulance behind him.
Charlotte gave him what details she could. Ben whispered something to Ty Banks as the rescue squad removed Knute’s body.
Charlotte, Ben, Walter, and Carter walked Bill Wheatley to Old Main Hall. He professed to know nothing about the cases. As for why Knute Nilsson would suddenly turn on him with a knife, he accounted for it by the tremendous financial strain Knute was under.
“What strain?” Charlotte asked as they headed across the oldest quad, Old Main straight ahead.
“He bought that schooner. Do you know how much one of those things costs?”
“I don’t,” Charlotte said.
“He paid $575,000 for that thing. It has a navigation system, a galley, sleeps people. It’s incredible. He just lost his head. Midlife crisis, I guess.”
“Why would he take it out on you?” Ben asked, voice level as though this were a coffee-break conversation.
“Don’t you usually lash out at the people closest to you? Knute and I have been friends ever since I moved here. I told him he was losing it. Told him not to be impulsive. He wouldn’t listen. The bills mounted up and I think he just snapped. Even his wife didn’t know how bad it was.”
Charlotte, Carter, Walter, and Ben considered this as they walked up the long steps to the front doors of Old Main Hall, lights blazing inside.
Felicity, Howard, and Pamela Rene had joined Sister, Tootie, Valentina, and the others.
Sister greeted Ben, then said,“Whatever this is about, starting with the hanging of Al Perez, is in these cases.”
Ben’s eyes took in the artifacts. He turned to Tootie, Valentina, Felicity, and Pamela. “You worked with Professor Kennedy more than the other students, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” they replied.
“When she handled these objects, did she say anything that aroused your interest?”
“No. We gave Mrs. Norton our notes,” Pamela replied.
“They did. I reviewed them briefly. Seemed like a dry description to me.”
“What about the photographs?” Ben persisted.
“No,” Valentina answered. “She made us shoot every side or angle of the objects. But she didn’t say anything.”
Tootie thought a long time, then said,“The only thing she did that I noticed was sometimes when she was writing up her description she’d put a star by an item.”
“Did you put that in your notes?” Sister asked, her intuition about Tootie’s intelligence and plain good sense again confirmed.
“This ring a bell with any of you other girls?” Ben corrected himself, “Young ladies?”
“Well, I saw her do it, but I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t put a star in my notes. But my notes aren’t very good,” Pamela confessed.
Valentina shrugged,“I didn’t pay much attention. Sorry.”
Felicity chimed in,“Sometimes when I’d photograph an object—that was my job—I didn’t take too many notes, but Professor Kennedy would come over and pick up some things, not others.”
“What’s unusual about that?” Bill was curious.
“At first I didn’t think anything, but then I began to see that what she picked up was usually in good shape. She didn’t touch other things at all and some things no one touched. They were too delicate. She had me photograph them in the cases.”
“Charlotte, would you get Tootie’s notes?” Ben asked the headmistress.
“Of course.”
As Charlotte left for her office, Ben said,“Why don’t you first show me what she wouldn’t touch?”
“Sure.” Pamela walked right over and pointed to a large basket made of soaked strips of wood. Small bits of yarn, the balls long ago removed, remained inside along with a pair of horn knitting needles.
“Was the area underneath, around these kinds of things, clean?” Ben asked.
“Depends.” Valentina led him to the case next to the one where Pamela had pointed out the basket. “See this baby’s bonnet? It’s been dusted around it but we were afraid to pick it up because it’s disintegrating.”
“I see.”
“But most of the stuff is clean, shelves, too.” Valentina wondered what they’d find.
“Are the jewels real?” Ben asked, just as Charlotte returned with Tootie’s handwritten notes as well as the ones she’d typed into her computer. She also had the key to the cases.
“She didn’t say anything about that. I mean, Professor Kennedy didn’t say if the jewelry was expensive.” Felicity studied a fancy brooch as Charlotte returned.
“Charlotte, have any items ever been removed from these cases with your knowledge?”
“The only time I know anything has even been taken out of these cases is during Professor Kennedy’s investigation.”
“Tootie, point out from your notes anything Professor Kennedy starred.”
As Tootie’s eye ran down her lists, Sister asked Bill, “Would it be possible to sew diamonds onto dresses without anyone noticing?”
“You mean noticing that they were real diamonds?”
“Yes.”
“It’s possible.” He shrugged. “Seems like a lot of work. Wouldn’t it be easier to put them in a safe-deposit box?”
“Old Main Hall is always open, right?” Gray asked.
“No, it’s locked at night,” Charlotte answered.
“So who could get in?” Ben raised an eyebrow.
“Any member of the school’s administration or Jake Walford, in charge of buildings and grounds.”
“You could unlock the doors?” Ben asked.
“I could. My secretary could. Knute. The entire administration is housed in Old Main.”
“Al Perez?” Sister was beginning to get an idea of how the crimes were committed but she still didn’t know what it was—was it diamonds, was it drugs?
“Yes,” Charlotte answered.
“Could Bill get in?” Sister persisted.
“No, not without one of us.” Charlotte, too, was seeing the pattern.
“But Bill, you could come in the middle of the night with Al or Knute?” Sister focused on Bill, who was calm.
“I could. I didn’t, but I could.”
“Were Al and Knute close?” Ben asked. “I didn’t think they were. If they were, it didn’t come out when Custis Hall people were questioned.”
“They had a good working relationship,” Bill offered. “I wouldn’t say they were close.”
Charlotte nodded in assent.
Tootie quietly asked the sheriff,“Do you want me to point out the items?”
“I do, in one minute, Tootie. Charlotte, who knows about the key to the cases?” Ben could feel his own excitement rising.
“Teresa, my assistant. Knute, the treasurer. I think that’s it.”
“Did you ever notice the key had been moved?”
“No,” she answered Ben.
“Is it locked up, the key, I mean?”
She blushed.“Well, no.”
“Do you have it now?”
“Yes.” Charlotte opened her hand, a key on a wide, dark blue ribbon nesting within.
“Charlotte, if you have no objection, I’d like you to open these cases and for Tootie to remove those items that Professor Kennedy starred.”
“Of course.”
Bill interjected,“Charlotte, what if something falls apart in your hands?”
“I’ll take full responsibility. Under the circumstances, I think harming an item is the lesser of two evils.”
Bill said nothing, but his disapproval was apparent.
“Carry them over here to this table,” Ben instructed.
Tootie removed a gold snuff box with a small ruby in the center. She took out General Washington’s epaulettes, his dress sword, shoe buckles, and a beautiful brocade vest.
Sister, Charlotte, Ben, Pamela, Felicity, Howard, Gray, and Valentina crowded around the table. Bill stood just behind this group as did Walter and Carter.
“May I touch this?” Ben pointed to the snuff box.