Murder on the Hudson - 2. Chapter 2

My first inclination was to summon Jason to the crime scene, or at least to the spot where the body had been dumped. I realized that I didn’t know which room was his, but I knew which room was Larry’s. I tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to awaken anyone. When I got to Larry’s room, I tapped lightly.

There was no answer so I opened the door. Larry was lying in bed sound asleep. He was naked and the covers were thrown back. I approached him and by the light of a small night light, I saw immediately that there was dried semen in his pubic hairs. I looked further and could see several semen stains on the sheets. Obviously Larry had experienced a hot night. But where was his partner? Why was he alone? I shook his shoulder and tried to wake him, but was totally unsuccessful.

I switched on the lamp at his bedside, and I pulled back one of his eyelids. His pupil should have been totally dilated but it was a mere pinpoint. Larry had taken drugs or had been drugged. I could not leave him like this. I am much bigger than he, so I just dragged him out of bed and started walking with him. We were stumbling together up and down the hall when suddenly he slurred, “What happened? My head is killing me.”

“Where’s Jason’s room?” I asked. With great difficulty he raised his left hand as if it weighed a ton, and pointed to the third door ahead of us on the right. I struggled with him until we reached Jason’s door. I didn’t bother to knock, but went right in. Jason was sleeping wrapped up around Ian. I must have startled him because he woke with a jump and nearly threw Ian off the bed.

“Good God,” the Chief said. “What’s going on?”

I waved my head as if to say follow me. Ian just kept on sleeping.

I was still struggling with a semi-awake Larry, and Jason followed us out to the hall. “Look,” I whispered, pointing my head towards Abel’s body. “I think we better call the police.”

“I am the police,” he whispered. “I can’t call anyone. If it got out that I was at this party, my career would be over. No. You and I will have to run the investigation, and until it’s concluded nobody leaves this house. Is that understood?”

If I was dressed, I would have clicked my heels and yelled, Jawohl, mein fuehrer.

“I’ve got to continue walking Larry,” I explained. “He’s been drugged. Why don’t you examine the body and see what you can find out.”

“Are there any rubber gloves in the kitchen?” Jason asked the semi-comatose Larry.

“Under the sink,” Larry slurred. Jason disappeared and returned shortly wearing bulky dishwashing gloves. He approached the victim and began to examine the body.

“His throat’s been slashed,” he announced.

“Doh!” I responded.

“He’s got a bump on the back of his head the size of a baseball. The perp hit him hard with a heavy blunt object before he slit his throat, or else he hit his head when he was dragged out of bed.”

“Either the blow killed him or he was killed elsewhere and dragged back here. That would explain the lack of blood,” I offered my opinion.

The body was positioned face down. Jason removed the ties from the door handle and turned the body on its back.

“Oh God!” Jason gasped. “His cock’s been cut off.”

I was still holding Larry up and walking him in circles. We both glanced at the corpse and I for one almost gagged, and remember, I’ve seen everything.

“Other than the bump on his head, there are no other signs of trauma,” the Chief said. He lifted one of Abel’s eyelids. “He’s been heavily drugged too,” he stated. Then he stood up and took hold of Larry’s other side.

“Why don’t you walk Larry a little,” I said to Jason. “His pupils are beginning to dilate somewhat. I think he’s coming around. I better wake Monte and let him know what’s going on. Let’s try to figure out what we can do with the body. It’s supposed to get into the high eighties today.”

I opened Monte’s bedroom door, closed it behind me, and went in. Monte was still snoring lightly. I tapped him on his shoulder and he stirred somewhat. I shook a little harder and he awakened. He looked at me, smiled and said, “I’m all done out. Please, no more sex until after breakfast.”

‘Monte,” I said, “Brace yourself. One of your guests has been murdered. It’s Abel.” He looked at me with a blank stare on his face. It wasn’t sinking in so I repeated. “Abel has been murdered.”

Monte grabbed his head with both his hands and began to rock back and forth. “Oh my God! Oh my God!” he repeated over and over. Finally, he jumped out of bed. “I’ve gotta pee,” he said and ran to the bathroom. While he was peeing, I opened the bedroom door. Jason was still walking Larry around, but Larry seemed to be maneuvering quite well. I motioned for them to come into Monte’s bedroom. They came into the bedroom carrying Abel’s lifeless body with them. When they came in, I closed the door again as Monte emerged from the bathroom.

They laid the body on a chaise lounge and covered it with Monte’s comforter. Then they sat on the two boudoir chairs in the room, and Monte and I sat on the edge of the bed. I would say that this was the moment the investigation began and Jason took the helm. He looked at Monte and said, “Nobody leaves this house until we find the murderer. If it ever gets out that I was here at this party, I’ll be sweeping floors backstage at one of your plays. Is that understood? I’ll use my police authority to prevent anyone from leaving.” He looked at me. “How did you come to discover the body?”

“In the middle of the night, or early morning, I’m not sure which, I thought I heard a thump against the door, but I was more asleep than awake and Monte had his arms around me. I didn’t want to disturb him and I fell asleep again. About five, I got up to pee. I remembered the thud and decided to investigate. When I tried to open the door, it wouldn’t budge I pushed and pushed until I finally had enough room to squeeze out, and that’s when I discovered Abel’s remains. I wanted to alert you, Chief, but I didn’t know what room you were in, so I went to Larry’s room.

“I knew he had slept with someone because there was dried semen on the sheets and in his pubic hair. When I tried to wake him up, I realized that he had used drugs, or been drugged, so I got him out of bed and started walking him around. He was already coming out of it and the walking helped. He led me to your room, and you know the rest.”

“Larry,” the chief asked, “who did you sleep with last night?”

Larry could only muster up a hoarse whisper. “Abel.”

“Do you use drugs, Larry?” Jason asked, almost kindly.

“I did when I was a teen ager, but I swear I haven’t even had a joint in over five years.”

“Do you have any inkling as to when you might have been drugged?”

“Somebody could have put something in my drink at the pool before Abel and I turned in. But if that’s the case, I want more of that stuff, because Abel and I had the most fantastic sex I ever had. Someone could have come into the room after we fell asleep and somehow drugged me. All I know is that when I fell asleep, Abel was alive and in bed with me. When Ken woke me up, he was dead in the hallway, and I was in a stupor. I can’t tell you more. I don’t remember anything between falling asleep and Ken waking me up. Oh God, help us all!”

As he spoke, I observed the others in the room. Jason was listening intently, obviously analyzing every word, every nuance in Larry’s body. Monte was staring at Larry with a look I can only describe as a sneer. Frankly, that surprised me. It appeared that Monte had already concluded that Larry had murdered Abel. After observing all the others, I asked Larry to stand in front of me. I examined his entire body, front and back, and then I saw it. He had a tiny little pin prick, which had caused the smallest of welts, on his left buttocks.

‘When I found you, Larry, you were lying on your back. Do you ever sleep on your stomach?”

“Yes, I always fall asleep on my stomach.”

“Of course,” I replied, and motioned Jason over to look at the tiny welt. The Chief nodded, agreeing that was probably how the drug was administered. I examined the corpse and noticed the same pinprick, but it was in his right arm.

The Chief resumed speaking. “After dinner, Barry and Elroy, Don and Francis, and Monte and Ken went off to their rooms together. I know that after the pool party, I went off with Ian, and Larry went off with Abel. That leaves Conrad, Grant and Harry unaccounted for.”

“Since there is only one bedroom left,” Monte interjected, “they must all be together.”

“I think it would be a good idea, Ken, if you looked in all the bedrooms to see if everyone is accounted for.” I hurried out of the room and peeked in to each of the bedrooms. Everyone was sound asleep, and indeed Conrad, Grant and Harry were a happy threesome.

“All present and accounted for,” I reported back. “Now fellas, what are we going to do with the body?”

“We have a deep freeze in the basement,” Larry offered. “There is some food in it, but I think I can get most of it into the kitchen freezer and maybe I can cook what’s left.”

“Let’s get to work then before everybody gets up,” I said.

I threw the comforter off the body and grabbed its feet as Jason picked it up by the shoulders. When we got to the basement, we removed the food from the deep freeze and stuffed the body in it. We all helped bring the food upstairs, and Larry put all but three packages of sirloin steaks in the freezer.

“I’ll barbeque these for dinner,” he said “The caterer’s food is already frozen and is stacked in the freezer. I’ll just use it another time.”

“I’d better shower and then start breakfast,” he said. “I imagine everyone will be waking up soon.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jason said. “I think we should all freshen up. I’ll tell everyone what happened at breakfast. After breakfast we can interview each of them individually,” he said looking at me.

I showered as quickly as I could and put on a pair of gym shorts. I opened Monte’s door a notch so that I could peer up the hallway to Larry’s room. As soon as he left to start breakfast, I went into his room. Following right behind me was the Chief. “I guess we both have the same idea,” he said.

“The crime began here, so here’s where we should look first,” I concluded.

We scoured every inch of the room, and found nothing, but that in and of itself was significant. If there was no sign of a scuffle, then probably Abel had been drugged prior to his being removed from the bed. That would indicate that he and Larry both received the drug prior to leaving the pool, yet the two men had experienced wonderful and wild sex. It didn’t make sense. It was more probable that they were drugged after sex, but how? I’d have to think about it. I voiced my thoughts aloud to Jason.

“Maybe the murderer paid them a visit. They knew everyone in the house and would not have kept anyone from entering their room. They may even have anticipated a three way,” Jason commented.

“But Larry told us they came back to the room, had sex, fell asleep and that’s all he remembered. He never mentioned a visitor, but he might still be hazy. We can ask him again later,” I said.

When we were done going through Larry’s room and all his belongings, we went to the other rooms and woke everyone up. There was much objection, but we told the guys that something had happened, and they had to get their asses downstairs for breakfast.

When we got to the dining room, we were pleased to smell fresh coffee, along with fried and scrambled eggs and crisp bacon. A platter of assorted bagels and butter patties was laid out alongside the other food on a long server. Little by little the dining room table filled and everyone had a plate of food in front of them. I asked Monte to summon Larry from the kitchen. When he came in, he made himself a breakfast plate and joined us at the table. One chair at the table was empty.

“Where’s Abel,” Grant asked

“That’s why we’re here,” Jason said. “Now listen up.”

Jason slowly and meticulously related the events of the morning, and Abel’s murder, to the assembled group. They were all aghast, but Francis jumped up and said, “I’m out of here.”

“Nobody leaves,” Jason said emphatically. “I’m the police chief and the murder occurred in my jurisdiction. Anyone who leaves this house, before we find the killer, will be arrested on suspicion of murder. Is that clear?”

Francis sat down in defeat.

“After breakfast Ken and I will be interviewing each one of you,” Jason informed them. “You may have seen or heard something which seemed of no consequence at the time, but which might be very important considering what has happened. So, while you’re waiting to be questioned, put on your thinking caps. Did you hear or see anything which would shed some light on this affair?”

Monte had a small study which housed his desk and two chairs facing the desk. Jason and I decided that this was an ideal place for the interviews. We started with Larry, who raised holy hell, complaining that he had to pick up the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, dispose of the leftovers and clean up the dining room. In truth, he had been clearing the table all through breakfast, and there wasn’t that much left to do.

“You’ve already given me the third degree,” he protested.

“Relax partner,” I tried to soothe him. “We only have another question or two to ask you. Between the time you entered your room and fell asleep, did you have any visitors at all?”

“Yes,” Larry answered. I was being fucked by Abel, when Harry walked in without even knocking. He asked if I had some aspirin and I told him he could find a bottle in the top drawer of my night table. He took some and left. I had forgotten all about it. It’s not something you place priority memory on when you are in the middle of being fucked, and then your fuck buddy gets murdered afterward.”

“OK,” I said. “That’s all we wanted to know. Would you send Harry in next?”

Harry could shed little light on the situation, but we did ask if he had left his room at any time during the night.

“Yes,” he said. “I had a terrible hangover, so I went to Larry’s room to ask where I could get some aspirin. He and Abel were fucking, but Larry was still able to direct me to a drawer containing a bottle of aspirin. I took a few pills and left. When I left Larry’s room, Abel was alive, and more than kicking.”

We interviewed the guys one at a time and learned nothing. Nobody had seen or heard anything. When we were through with each of them, we sent them to the pool to hang out, and have some fun if they could. All the interviews were completed and Jason was ready to throw in the towel.

“Not yet, Chief,” I said. “We haven’t interviewed Barry.”

“That’s right. I guess I lost count,” he said.

“I’ll go get him,” I said. I had expected him to be waiting outside the study, but he wasn’t there. I went into the dining room, where I found Larry vacuuming the floor. He was pushing the vacuum with his left hand and it was the first time I realized that he was left handed. The needle prick was on his left buttock. It could have been self-inflicted.

“Have you seen Barry?” I asked him.

“No! Isn’t he with the other guys?” Larry asked.

“I’ll go to the pool and see if he’s there,” I said.

“Has anyone seen Barry?” I yelled out. They all shook their heads. I ran back to Jason and practically screamed, “Barry’s skipped out. He must be our man.”

“Don’t panic,” Jason said. “Maybe he’s in the house. Let’s check out the bedrooms.”

We ran upstairs and proceeded to check out every bedroom. In the second bedroom we looked, we found Barry asleep on the bed. He had come to breakfast naked and he was still naked. He was lying on his stomach. I went over to rouse him only to discover that Barry was as dead as Abel, but at least his cock had not been lopped off. I wasn’t having much fun this weekend, finding dead bodies all over the place.

“He’s dead,” I said very matter of factly to the Chief. “There’s an odor around his mouth that smells like arsenic. What do you think?’’

“It smells like a poison, but I don’t know if it’s arsenic. What the fuck are we going to do now?”