Schuyler Square Day 53 An Odd Coincidence

“I don’t believe this.” Veronica Chandler felt as if her entire body had turned to ice. All around her the other guests at the Schuyler Square Policemen’s Retirement Ball were buzzing over the news that Ron Schuyler had been murdered. No one, Veronica noted, seemed too upset by the fact. If anything the party atmosphere had hardly been dampened. What kind of people are these? Don't any of them have emotions? Feelings?

“It is unbelievable,” Tom agreed. “Whoever offed Ron had to have been pretty gutsy to do it right here. I’m guessing it was a crime of passion instead of anything premeditated.”

“But who would want to see Ron dead?” Veronica asked.

Tom raised an eyebrow at her. “About half of the people attending this bash. At least. I’m sorry, Veronica, I know that you have a history with the man but Ron Schuyler was easily the most unpopular person in Schuyler Square. He was a snob, he treated everyone like crap, he went out of his way to be cruel and I’m just talking about with his immediate family members. You work at Schuyler Industries. You have to know that the late Ron Schuyler was universally disliked by everyone from the VPs all the way down the line.”

“It’s one thing to hate your boss but it’s something else to kill him,” Veronica replied. Her hands were shaking. All of her was shaking.

“It’s going to be pretty rough on Kirk, isn’t it?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know,” Veronica replied honestly. “He never really met Ron so it’s not going to be as hard as it would have been if they’d been close. On the other hand, the fact that Ron didn’t make any effort to get to know Kirk might make his death even more of an ordeal.”

“This is awful, isn’t it?” Chelsea Van Husen joined them.

“Horrible,” Veronica agreed. She looked at Chelsea. Her friend had changed out of her bright red outfit into a pair of sweatpants, a T-shirt and running shoes. The casual attired looked strange with Chelsea's upswept hairdo and sparkling jewelry. “What happened to your new dress?”

Chelsea looked down at her outfit and shrugged. “Oh, I changed a couple of minutes ago. It was too uncomfortable and I figured I’d be here for most of the night so I wanted to be able to breathe. That dress pinched horribly. I guess I should have gotten it a size bigger but I thought for sure I'd lose ten pounds before the party.”

Veronica wished she could ditch her party clothes too. The heels she was wearing were killing her. “I suppose Peter is at the station.”

“Yes. He left a little while ago.”

“Did he give you any idea of who might have killed Ron?” Tom asked Chelsea in a hushed voice.

Chelsea shook her head. “Even if he knew he wouldn’t say anything to me. Peter is Mr. Straight and Narrow, you guys know that. My husband always does the right thing. It’s like being married to a Boy Scout.”

Veronica and Tom both looked away from Chelsea. It was hard to listen to a wife spout off about how wonderful her husband was when they both knew that Mr. Boy Scout was having an extremely torrid affair with the wife of the evening’s murder victim.

“I think I’d like to go home too,” Veronica said. “There’s no reason for us to stay, is there?”

“Has anyone from the police department questioned you?” Chelsea asked.

“Yes, we both gave statements,” Tom replied.

“Then you should be able to leave. I’m sure if they want to get in touch with you later, they will. After all, It’s not like either of you would have a motive to kill Ron Schuyler.”

Veronica wondered about that. It wouldn’t take a whole lot of probing for someone to find out that Ron was her son’s father. A father who never paid child support, never acknowledged their son and who had also recently hired her and owned the house she was living in.  “I’d like to go, Tom,” Veronica said.

Chelsea reached out and touched Veronica’s arm gently. “You know what’s weird? It’s twenty years exactly since that murder happened in your house. Mary Austin was murdered twenty years ago tonight. Odd, huh? Do you suppose there’s any kind of a connection?”