Ben And Nancy Ch 18

Passion in James County XV: Ben and Nancy

Tim walked into Alex's office. "I got the reports from Jamestown P.D. on their interviews with the two women the principal told us Morris was dating," he said.

"They amount to anything?" Alex asked.

Tim frowned and shook his head. "The stories both women tell are pretty much the same," he said. "Both of them saw Morris a few times, then he stopped calling. They figured he'd found someone else."

"Either of them have any idea who he dumped them for?" Alex asked.

"Nope," Tim said. "Both of them said they tried to find out, too, but for some reason the usual school gossip mill missed this particular story. I called Heidi, just to see if she'd heard something, but she said nobody knows who Morris has been seeing, even though a lot of people have been wondering."

"What do you think that means?" Alex asked.

"It could mean Morris has been seeing the victim and keeping it quiet," Tim said.

"If that's true, why would he rape her and try to kill her?" Alex asked.

"Maybe they had some kind of fight," Tim said. "I mean, we are looking at a crime of rage, here, judging from the way the victim was beaten. Maybe she said something that set Morris off. Like maybe she told him she was going to go public about what they were doing."

"Tim, I understand you're upset about what happened to that girl," Alex said. "But I'm not so sure Morris did this."

"How can you say that?" Tim asked. "Jesus, boss, we have a lot of evidence and..."

"The forensic people didn't find a single item of clothing with blood on it, or any bloodstains in Morris's apartment," Alex said.

"Yeah, but the did find the panties," Tim said, "and the girl's panties are missing."

"Are you sure the panties we found belong to the victim?" Alex asked.

"We haven't been able to confirm that, yet," Tim said. "She's still in a coma."

"Tim, you've been married too long, you're not thinking," Alex said, grinning. "Can't you come up with a creative way of figuring out whether the panties fit the victim or not?"

Tim felt a little silly. He had no idea what Alex was getting at. "How the heck am I supposed to do that?" he asked.

Alex shrugged. "The tag's still in the panties we have," he said. "Get the size, then ask a woman, maybe one of the nurses taking care of the girl, if she thinks the victim wears that size panties."

"I...ah...I suppose I could do that," Tim replied, blushing.

Just then, Sergeant Dewars walked in. She saw Tim's red face and grinned. "What the hell did you tell the kid?" she asked.

"We've been discussing women's panties," Alex replied.

"Oh," the sergeant said. "I think I may have stumbled onto something over at the high school."

"What?" Tim asked.

"Well, I was interviewing everyone I could," Sgt. Dewars said, "One of them happened to be a woman named Marya Thompson."

"The psychologist," Tim said.

"Thought you'd know her," the sergeant said, smiling.

Tim's face turned red again.

The sergeant looked at the sheriff and grinned. "Woman's blonde, gorgeous, and dresses real sexy," she said.

"Ah-hah!" Alex said, chuckling.

"Anyhow," Sgt. Dewars went on, "she told me something we didn't know. Seems that Morris came to her a couple of months ago and told her the victim had met him alone in the newspaper office and propositioned him."

"Did he take her up on it?" Tim asked.

"The Thompson woman said she didn't think he did," the sergeant continued. "She said he asked her to follow up with the girl."

"Did she?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, she's been seeing her regularly ever since," Sgt. Dewars said. "Says she's been making good progress."

"This Morris guy ever come up in their sessions?" Alex asked.

Sgt. Dewars nodded. "Yeah," she said. "The shrink said the girl did talk about Morris, but that the content of what she said changed."

"What does that mean?" Tim asked.

"The girl had a wicked crush on Morris early on," Sgt. Dewars said, "but the shrink says therapy helped the girl see that she was confusing sex and affection, and that she admired Mr. Morris and liked him, and that she didn't have to have sex with him to show that."

"So we have our suspect saying the victim propositioned him a few months ago," Tim said. "He responded by sending her to a shrink, who seems to be fixing her by helping her learn that liking someone and having sex with him aren't necessarily one and the same. Is that about it?"

"Pretty much," Sgt. Dewars said. "One more thing," she added. "The shrink acted nervous, real nervous."

"You think she's lying?" Tim asked.

Sgt. Dewars shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "It sounded to me like she was being straight with me, but there was something going on I couldn't put my finger on."

"Maybe she's making up this story to help Morris," Tim said.

"Why would she do that?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, why?" Sgt. Dewars asked.

"Jesus, I don't know," Tim said. "It was just a thought."

"Good work, Marilyn," Alex said. "Why don't you go back and interview this Thompson woman again? Tim, you go see if those panties fit, OK?"

"Yeah, OK, boss," Tim said.

After his subordinates left, Alex leaned back in his chair. He still didn't feel right about the case. They had some solid evidence against Morris, but it wasn't nearly enough. If the panties proved to be the girl's, that would add to it, but if they weren't, the case was paper-thin. If the girl came out of the coma and confirmed her ID of Morris as her attacker, the case was a lock. But if she died, or if she came out of the coma and ID'd someone else... He leaned forward, stood up, and headed for the door. Maybe he should go to the high school and sit in when Marilyn interviewed the Thompson woman a second time.

Tim Jackman decided he really didn't want to ask one of the nurses at the hospital whether the panties they found in Ben Morris' apartment might fit Trish Wilkins. He knew another nurse he could ask, one who knew the victim well, and asking her wouldn't be embarrassing.

Heidi Jackman smiled at her husband, Tim, when he walked into her office at Jamestown High School, carrying a manila envelope. "Hi, sweetheart," she said. "What do I owe this wonderful surprise to?" Heidi, who was quite a few years older than her husband, was a very attractive woman. She had brown hair she wore cut short, in a kind of pixy style. Her lithe body was in fine shape, something her husband showed his appreciation for almost nightly.

"I, ah, need your help with something," Tim said. He handed the manila envelope to his wife.

Heidi looked inside the envelope, then dumped the contents on her desk. She gave Tim a puzzled look when she saw what was inside. "These look used, so I'm assuming they're not a gift, is that right?" she asked.

Tim nodded.

"Then exactly why are they lying on my desk?" Heidi asked.

"Well...we...we found them when we did the search of Morris's apartment," he replied. "And, well, the victim's panties were missing, and these were...ah...they were...um...fresh, so we figured..."

"Oh," Heidi said. She turned around, opened her desk drawer and took out some rubber gloves and put them on, then she picked up the panties and found the tag. She held them up and began giggling.

Tim had no idea why his wife was acting like this. What was so humorous about the panties? "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Oh, Tim," Heidi giggled. She saw the look on her husband's face, a combination of hurt and puzzlement, but couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing.

Tim had no idea why his wife found the panties so hilarious, but he couldn't help smiling as he watched her uproarious laughter. "All right, all right," he said, chuckling a little himself. "You going to tell me what's so funny?"

"Oh, Tim..." Heidi giggled, desperately trying to get herself under control. She dangled the panties from her hand. "Trish...she...you...you could get two of her in these and still have room left over."

"You mean they're too big?" Tim asked.

Heidi, who had managed to get herself under control, nodded. "These are a size seven," she said. "That's a larger size than I wear."

"Oh?" her husband said. His face got even redder.

Heidi giggled. "But not the same style," his wife added. "Of course you already know that, don't you?"

Tim smiled. "Yeah, I sure do," he said.

"Tim, you don't really think Ben Morris hurt Trish, do you?" Heidi asked, suddenly very serious.

Her husband shrugged. "I'm beginning to wonder," he admitted.

"Tim, I knew Ben when he was a student here," his wife told him. "He's a good boy, from a good family. And from what I've heard from the kids since he took over the Mrs. Wallingford's class, he's an excellent teacher. Nancy Dillon told me the same thing."

"Dammit, hon," Tim said, "if he didn't do it, why did the girl tell the janitor he did?"

"I don't know," Heidi said. "Let's just hope she comes out of the coma so you can ask her."