Murder on the Ballot, Myrtle Clover #17

Chapter Eight

As Miles hurried off to get Red at the police station, Myrtle approached Royce Rollins's body lying at the bottom of the stairs. She realized her first impression had been completely correct and that the man was far past needing any sort of medical attention. She peered around to see if there were any obvious clues, but couldn't see anything that pointed to what might have happened to him.

She backed away from Royce's body and stood, hands folded and looking demure, just in time as Red jogged up. He stood staring at the scene and then said, "Okay, let's all back up out of the way. Miles, can you go grab that crime scene tape that's in my office? I've got to make a call to the state police and I don't want anybody else coming up on this."

It was time for the employees at the town hall building to all be showing up for work, so this was definitely a legitimate concern. In fact, as Red was speaking on the phone, Myrtle spotted town councilman Bonner Lang striding up wearing, as usual, his seersucker suit and a pink button-down shirt.

Red made a "back-up" motion as he continued speaking on the phone and Bonner obediently backed up. He gave Myrtle an inquisitive look.

"We're not going to be able to get into town hall today," said Myrtle. "Royce Rollins is dead."

Bonner's jaw dropped. "Here? In the building?"

Myrtle wasn't sure later whether she was trying to be perverse in not sharing information, or whether she simply wanted to know more than Bonner did. At any rate, she decided not to tell Bonner that Royce was dead at the bottom of the stairs and not inside the chambers. "That's right."

Bonner's face was shocked, his eyes big. "What happened? Do you know? Did he . . . well, did he have some sort of heart attack or something?"

Myrtle raised her eyebrows. "Did he have a heart condition?"

Bonner shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Miss Myrtle. I mean, I knew Royce, but it wasn't like we were best buddies or anything."

Myrtle frowned. She seemed to recall reading in one of the many town council articles that there had been bad blood of some kind between Bonner and Royce when Royce had addressed Bonner at town council meetings.

"The two of you—well, there were issues, weren't there?"

Bonner hastily said, "Not on my side, Miss Myrtle. You know I always put the best interests of Bradley, North Carolina at heart. But Royce thought I should have picked his construction company's bid for a town project. It made him furious when I didn't."

"But surely you don't have the power to choose something big like that solely by yourself."

Bonner said, "I was the deciding vote. The 'no' vote. Royce said he was going to run for town council so he could be elected and spite me. I promise I didn't have any sort of ill-will toward Royce . . . all I wanted to do was do what was right for Bradley. His bid was too high and I'd heard about cost-cutting measures and safety issues at his company, too. I didn't think the town should be involved in it."

"You were here last night, weren't you?" asked Myrtle thoughtfully. "I remember seeing you in the audience at the debate. In fact, I do believe you were wearing a Vote for Myrtle sticker."

Bonner blushed. "Ah, yes. As a matter of fact, I was. I had a slew of them made up to show some support."

Myrtle narrowed her eyes. She'd taught Bonner and never thought he was a huge fan of hers after she'd failed him on an absolutely dreadful research paper he'd turned in. "You were trying to rub a little salt in Royce's wounds, weren't you?"

Bonner sighed. "Maybe. Probably so. But I never meant him any real harm." His eyes grew large. "You're not thinking I had anything to do with this, are you? These questions you're asking—was Royce murdered? It wasn't some kind of medical event?"