Read Online An Indecent Death by David Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

drinking he became a different person. He was rough with her. Sometimes he hit her or shoved her against a wall or grabbed her arm. You understand, I never saw him do any of these things, it was just her telling me about it after. But I saw the bruises on her arms, and once, a mark on her face. So I knew that what she said was true.”
    Lori excused herself to use Lynnette’s bathroom. The medicine cupboard was full of the usual things, including aspirin, beauty creams, tampons and the like. Lori was interested to note a prescription bottle for an anti-depressant drug and a couple of bottles with unidentified pills in them. She flushed the toilet, washed and dried her hands and returned to the kitchen where Lynnette was tidying up.
    Lori sat down again. “Do you think Terry Noonan is capable of murder, Lynn?”
    Lynnette looked troubled again and admitted, “I’ve been going over and over in my mind about that. I like Terry, you see. I do not excuse what he did to her but the Terry Noonan I know is a pretty good guy. I’ve never seen him abusing Sarah, I’ve just heard her tell me about it. And I believe her, it’s not that I don’t – didn’t, I mean –, but when you don’t see it with your own eyes, and what you do see is a normal looking guy… He can be charming, you know? To answer your question, I guess I just don’t know.”
    “Fair enough,” said Lori. “What about her relationships with other staff at school? Was she close with anyone, other than you?”
    “Close? No, I wouldn’t say that. She wasn’t friendly with the other girls. A bunch of us might see each other now and then at the pub but it was just chance, nothing arranged. To tell the truth, most of the women teachers didn’t like her much.”
    Lori was surprised. “They didn’t? Why not?”
    Lynnette frowned. “Well, the way she dressed, for one thing. I mean, she was a sexy woman. She has – had – a great body and she wasn’t afraid to show it off. I don’t mean she was immodest, you couldn’t get away with that here at school, but she knew how to dress to maximum advantage, shall we say? Most of the women at Elmdale wear pants but she liked skirts and dresses and she often wouldn’t wear underwear.” As the detective’s eyebrows raised, Lynnette hastened to add, “She told me that, you see. She was amused by people’s attitudes. She especially liked to see how the men would react.”
    “I can see how that might not go over too well with the other women,” said Lori drily.
    “Several of them didn’t care for it at all. They practically called her a slut. Well, one of them did use that word one day when she was talking to me.”
    Lori said, “I’ll need her name.”
    “It was Muriel Atkinson. She’s a special ed teacher. But it wasn’t just her, there was a whole group of them. You have to understand, a school always has cliques. Elmdale has a group of older teachers, all women; they sit every day at the same table in the staff room, before school starts, at lunch and breaks, and they bitch and complain about everything. I try to avoid that group because they’re always so negative but I still try to get along with them. Sarah was different, though. She couldn’t stand them and basically ignored them. And they didn’t like her at all. She gave them a lot to gossip about.”
    “So these women didn’t approve of Sarah or the way she dressed? How about the other younger female teachers? How did they feel about her?”
    “Like I said, there were no close friendships there. Maybe they didn’t talk about her as much as the Bitchin’ Crew did, but there was no real liking for Sarah.”
    “The Bitchin’ Crew?”
    Lynnette said, “Oh, sorry. That was Sarah’s name for the women who sit at that same staff room table every day. Muriel Atkinson, Anne Jamieson, Ellen Marks – they’re always there. Then there are some others who join them now and then.”
    Lori said, “I see.” She thought for a minute. “So the