Imitation of Life

Chapter Four

“Richard laughed at the answer a student gave to his question. The class also roared in laughter, with students pounding the desks in amusement. The culprit, however, just sat there and flashed a big smile. Richard kept chuckling when he heard a tap on the classroom door. The Principal stood there, also wearing a smile.

‘I see you guys are having a good time,’ he remarked. He beckoned to Richard to come closer.

‘I'm just going to borrow Mr. Richard for a couple of minutes. Hope you guys don't mind?’

The Principal left without waiting for a reply from the students, with his palm on Richard's back. ‘They're really enjoying themselves,’ he observed, still wearing his smile.

‘That's the best way to get their attention,’ Richard replied. ‘Making them understand that learning shouldn't be a chore. It should be fun.’

‘That's why we have you in this department, Richard.’

The voice came from behind both men in the large hallway. Richard turned to face the origin of the voice, not expecting to see who it came from.

‘Charles!’

The man grinned widely, opening his long arms for an invitation Richard couldn't refuse. Soon, the men were laughing and hugging themselves like they'd never let go. Like old friends who hadn't seen themselves for a thousand years.

‘Look at you, man.’ The visitor remarked.

‘You haven't aged a day!’ He laughed again.

‘And you now look as old as my grandpa.’

Richard said in between the laughter. Both friends laughed and hugged themselves again.

The happy commotion caused teachers and a few students to poke their head out of the classes to witness what the racket was all about. The Principal simply smiled at the pair.

‘I'll leave you two to it, then,’ he said as he quietly slipped away.

They didn't even notice the Principal's departure. Charles sImply put his hand around Richard's shoulders and smiled.

‘We have a lot to talk about, my friend.’”

Joshua looked up from his desk and noticed Tracy at the door. He minimized the page he'd been reading from the story and closed the laptop.

"Come in, partner." He said humorously.

She came in with a small tray containing two cups of coffee and some doughnuts. Dropping them off on the table, she sat back on the chair at his desk and blew out air forcefully.

"You okay?" He asked while staring at the doughnuts with one eye.

Tracy blew her hair away from her face in frustration. "The boss wanted us to drop the investigation."

"Wait, what?!" Joshua sat up suddenly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mr. fatty ass Collins insisted we drop the investigation. His reason being that the whole ordeal seemed more like a suicide than a murder."

Joshua couldn't believe his ears. He suddenly realized the reason why all those murders in the past were left unsolved. It wasn't entirely due to lack of evidence or uncooperative witnesses. The unwillingness of the police force to follow through was a major contributor as well. Now they wanted to rub off their lethargic energy on this case.

"I need to speak to him. He can't possibly do this."

"Already taken care of that, Joshua." She said, with a playful emphasis on his name. "Told him it's what we're here for, so he should let us do our job or he finds another pair of detectives."

Joshua chortled in amusement. "You threatened to quit?"

"Worked, didn't it?" She grabbed a doughnut and bit a generous portion off. "Now, tell me we have a lead somewhere."

"Well," Joshua rubbed his eyes roughly. "The story Michael gave pretty much checks out. I called the company earlier to confirm his whereabouts on the 15th of July. He was truly in Las Vegas with a client."

"That crosses Mr. Ecstatic off our list." Tracy said disappointedly. She bit into the doughnut again.

"It's funny how we never realized he was actually married. No one had mentioned it before," Joshua mused.

"You saw the way Michael spoke of her. It's like she's an outsider of the family. Probably someone they didn't approve of before her marriage to Johnathan."

"Or perhaps she's just someone he had a personal feud with."

Tracy shook her head with a chuckle. "You and your fancy imagination."

"In this job, you'd better have one." Joshua said defensively. He put the laptop in the brown box at the foot of his table. Then he reached for a doughnut as well.

"You've been carrying that laptop around a lot, Josh." She tilted her head towards the box on the ground. "You found some clues yet?"

"Not really," Joshua responded with a full mouth. He also reached for a cup of coffee. “Just reading some stories he wrote. Nothing serious."

"They must be that interesting, huh?" Tracy didn't really look so convinced.

"Actually, they are." Joshua confirmed. He glanced at his watch quickly. 10:45am.

"I actually thought we'd visit his school today." Joshua muttered.

"So did I." Tracy was already up on her feet with the plastic cup in her hand. "Did I tell you we were given a deadline?"

"Deadline?" Joshua rose to his feet as well, grabbing his brown jacket from the coat rack and putting it on.

"Yep. We've got to crack this case before Chesterfield's Thanksgiving Day or it's officially closed."

"But that's only three weeks away," complained Joshua.

"Exactly." Tracy winked. "Now, let's stop messing around and visit that school."

★

"Johnathan was a very intelligent yet humble man. One of the best we ever had, to be honest. The shock and pain was indescribable when we heard of his demise."

Principal Derrick Jenkins sighed as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. The crack in his voice had melted Joshua's heart, Tracy's too. He cleared his throat quickly and slipped his glasses back on.

"He'd offered to run our English classes for free when he returned to Chesterfield Springs, three years ago. At the time, we were in dire need of experienced personnel in that department, so his offer was very much priceless to us. When he began tutorials on French and Spanish, we knew we had to do a little more as regards to his income. After weeks of persuasion, he finally agreed to be placed on a payroll."

"So, he worked for free during the first weeks of his employment here?" Tracy asked.

"Which was what he wanted, yes." Derrick replied calmly. "That is correct."

"Do you have any idea as to how he earned money during that period? I mean, if he rejected your payment offer repeatedly it's safe to assume he had something else on the side. Right?"

Derrick adjusted the textbooks stacked on his table. "I did call his attention to that, Miss Morgan. His response was that he had savings from a project he'd been involved in, and that could last him a lifetime."

"Any idea as to what the project could be?" Joshua inquired. "Or the nature of said ‘savings’?

Derrick shook his head. "He didn't elaborate on the matter. He simply said he wasn't here for the money, that the knowledge and information given to the children were all that mattered. I was satisfied with that, so I never pressed further."

Joshua nodded simply nodded, while Tracy scribbled furiously in her notepad.

"Regarding his relationship with the staff," Joshua started, maintaining steady eye contact with the Principal. "How would you describe his relationship with his colleagues? Did he ever have issues with one?"

"Like I said earlier, Johnathan was a humble man. Kind hearted and nice to all. It was very difficult to hate a man like that. Or have issues with him. That being said, his relation with the staff was wonderful." Derrick kept touching his books all through his answer.

Joshua narrowed his gaze at the Principal's unsteady hands. That, he didn't find as a good sign.

"How 'bout his relationship with you, Mr. Jenkins?" He suddenly asked, waiting to see his reaction. "All rosy and peachy? No hiccups?"

Derrick's hands suddenly stopped roaming over his books for a second, then dropped dead on the table. "He . . . was like a son to me," he answered quietly. "The sacrifices he made for the improvement of this school will never be in vain. Nor forgotten."

For some reason he couldn't explain, Joshua didn't really feel satisfied with the reply. Unfortunately, just as Joshua was about to throw another question, the telephone at Derrick's desk rang. He grabbed the receiver quickly and pressed it to his ear. Few seconds later, he returned it to it's original position.

All without saying a word.

"I'm truly sorry, detectives. But I need to attend to this. It's an emergency." He revealed rather unapologetically. He stood up immediately, a silent way of dismissing his guests.

"One more question," Tracy said as they rose from their seats. "Over the past few weeks, before his death, did you notice any strange behaviour? Or did anyone in particular visit him here at work?"

Despite having gray hair almost everywhere from his moustache to his once black hair, Derrick still looked much like the hunk he probably was in his youth. His broad shoulders were still square enough, his arms still looked meaty under the red long-sleeved polo shirt he wore. He was almost as tall as Joshua was, and his jaws looked solid enough to crush a rock. His eyes, a jet black hue, seemed to carry wealth of experience and some level of mystery.

And his bushy eyebrows were raised as these eyes now shone with realization.

"As a matter of fact, there was such a visitation. A couple of weeks ago. He claimed to be John's old friend from college."

"And do you know who this person is? His name, perhaps?" Even as he asked the question, Joshua began to feel an odd sense of déjà vu. Why did Johnathan having a visitor here sound so familiar? Like something he'd witnessed? He couldn't quite place it.

"Not really," Derrick rolled out his words slowly. "But the name ‘Shawn’ was given."

"Shawn." Tracy scribbled some more as Joshua handed a card to Derrick.

"Call us if you remember anything else." He simply said. Derrick took the card slowly, and nodded in compliance.

"Thank you for your time, sir. We'll stay in touch."

★

Joshua had his driver's seat pulled back flat, with loud urban hip hop blasting through his speakers. He had his face covered with his arm while his feet bopped in accordance to the rhythm, and he didn't even realize when Tracy got into the car.

"Is that Moe?" She asked, trying to raise her voice over the music.

"Yup." Joshua replied casually. "Spelt as M-O and the digit three. MO3. One of my favorites in the industry, actually."

"Well, can't say you don't have good taste." She remarked as she put her seatbelt on.

Joshua brought his seat back up, and turned the music down. "So," he began. "What did you gather?"

After leaving the Principal's office, they'd realized the bell they heard earlier signified the children's lunch break. So, the pair had split up to quickly interrogate the teachers before they returned to their classes, hoping to get tangible answers to their questions.

"You finished early," Tracy noticed with a smile. "No concrete replies?"

Joshua shook his head. "They all kept saying the same thing. ‘He was nice, he was hardworking, he was intellectually gifted . . . ’ Nothing else. I just dropped my card with all of them to call in case they remember anything else other than how ‘nice’ he was." He scratched his forehead and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, that was productive." Tracy retorted with a chuckle.

"Seems like you hit the jackpot." Joshua raised an eyebrow at her. "Well?"

"Well," she repeated, adjusting in her seat. "Like you, I got the same bland answers from everyone I asked. Then, from the last teacher I questioned, an entire can of beans was spilled."

Joshua sat up and twisted in his seat to face her. "Well?!"

Tracy laughed at the urgency in his voice. "The lady mentioned the couple of rough weeks Johnathan had following his divorce.Including the tension between him and the Principal."

"Derrick? I thought they were like father and son."

"They are, actually. Almost literally."

Joshua's raised eyebrow that indicated he wasn't following.

"They were actually father and son in law. After Johnathan married his daughter."

"Daughter? Who?" Joshua almost stuttered.

Tracy gave Joshua a “Ready?” look. Joshua responded with a “I don't think so” look of his own.

Tracy said it anyway.

"Eleanor Rigby."