Singing Loudly

[I've finally had time to write some more of this short story. If you want to follow from the beginning Epiode 5 is available here]

When Sheriff Mundle questioned used car salesman Rembrandt Roué about his whereabouts at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 (the coroner's estimated time of DiDi Stuart's murder) Roué thought about it for a minute and then said, "The twelfth ... let's see, that was last Thursday ... Well, sure. I was with my lady friend Suzie. Suzie Digits. Every Thursday she and I eat over at Madge's."

"By Madge's," the Sheriff asked to clarify, "you mean the Rumpus Supper Club?"

"Yes, every Thursday we eat at the Rumpus Supper Club."

"You rea-lize, Rembrandt, that since you're the last person seen wi' the late Ms. Stuart that you're our number one suspect fer the murder?"

"DiDi Stuart was murdered?" Roué asked disbelievingly.

"Roué, don't play foolish cat 'n' mouse games wi' me. You know as well as I that TV reporter DiDi Stuart was murdered near Lock Lake over there on the Ole Walsh Place. A crafty sumbitch like yerself is gonna' know all 'bout sumpin' like that if only to find out how you could profit from it."

Rembrandt Roué's superficially amicable disposition didn't change at the Sheriff's malignment of him; Roué didn't respond to him at all. The sheriff thought that Roué either had the best poker face he had ever seen (aside from Jack the Spoon's) or he truly was cold-hearted enough not to be affected by anyone insulting him to his face.

"Would you like to tell me what you and Ms. Stuart were talking about?"

"Hmmm ... that was on Thursday, as well. I was driving past the old abandoned toaster factory to pick up Suzie in one of our recently acquired sports utility vehicles when I happened upon a woman (in a lavender polka-dotted, eggshell blue miniskirt) who was fooling around with the engine of her beautiful, brand new cherry red Ferrari. I remember thinking to myself, "Well, that isn't something one sees too often in Rumpus."

"Witnessing a lady in evident distress, I decided to stop and help the fair maiden. I asked her, 'May I help you, Miss?' 'Yeah,' she said, 'take me someplace I can grab a bite to eat, someplace that won't make me vomit.' So I turned the car around and dropped her off at Madge's (the Rumpus Supper Club) before going back to pick up Suzie. Sheriff, I am not a man bothered by much, but that DiDi Stuart has ... I mean, she had a mouth on her that would have embarrassed a sailor, and a woman as pretty as her. Shameful."

"Okay, your holiness, let's go check out yer story wi' Miss Digits."

As Sheriff Mundle and Rembrandt Roué left the dealership conference room where they had been speaking, the Sheriff walked up behind an unusually pensive Reggie Crome-"agnon," star quarterback of the Glenedin County Red Dragons football team and Roué's assistant, and asked him whether the Dragons would win the state championship that year (even though the Sheriff knew that the team probably wouldn't win since the Dragons hadn't had one winning season in the past 17 years and for a "star quarterback" Reggie wasn't particularly exceptional, nor was he particularly bright, nor much of a leader for that matter; Reggie was a really good team player and that was about it; a good quarterback needs to be a bold and intelligent leader and someone his teammates can trust unconditionally, like Donnovan Check Worthy Grey was back in 1980, the last great season in Glenedin County High School's golden years).

The Sheriff and Roué pulled out of Brawn's New and Used Cars, the dealership run by Rembrandt Roué for Erik Derrik Brawn Sr., in the Sheriff's truck, and they drove to Don's Construction and Moving Company so that the sheriff could question Suzie Digits.

Like most everything else in Rumpus, Don's Construction and Moving Company was owned by Erik Derik Brawn Sr., but Emanuel Nackyball operated Don's, (not that he ever had any moving or construction business so he ran a garbage collection service on the side)