Black Cat Weekly #84

Chapter 6

byWhen State Police Detective Kelly Stone arrived at the scene of the crime, the Jericho Electrics warehouse, she found Deputy Sheriff Rick Peters taking cellphone pictures of the victim, still in his desk chair, but very dead.

“Assistant Coroner Bowdoin sends her regrets,” Peters said. “She says it’s been a busy night.”

“Tell me about it,” said a tired Kelly, who was double-shifting. “Who’s the victim?” she asked, pointing to the figure in the chair.

“James ‘Jellybean’ Jericho,” said the deputy. “Actually, I knew Jellybean quite well. When I was a kid, he wired my parents’ house.”

“His girth notwithstanding,” said Kelly, “I understand why he was nicknamed Jellybean.” She pointed to a basketball-size jar on the desk filled with a rainbow of colored candies.

“Jellybean was the great success story,” said Peters. “Started out as a gofer for his electrician father and ended up owning the biggest electric warehouse in the tri-county area.”

“Murder weapon?”

“.38.” Peters pointed to the hardwood floor where a g*n sat. “According to his wife, the pistol was his.”

“So probably the killer was someone he knew, someone who could get close to him and take his gun.”

“His wife, who’s sitting in my cruiser, said only three people other than Jellybean had keycard access to his office—she, her son, and his brother. The other two are also in my car with Deputy Grigsby watching them.”

“Good work. We’ll question them in a minute, but tonight is Sunday. Any idea why a warehouse owner would be working at night?”

“His brother, Shorty, said that at this time of the year, Jellybean liked to cloister himself in his office to do the business’ taxes.”

The State Police detective said, “Sounds like old Jellybean didn’t trust anybody and that he was suspicious of something happening in his warehouse.”

“That’s one possible motive,” Peters agreed. “Rumors around town were that Maeve, his wife, was going to divorce him.”

“Any reasons?”

“Seems like other than keeping himself supplied with jellybeans, the old man didn’t like to spend a dime. He kept plowing profits back into his company in order to expand the business.”

“Well, as long as we’ve started down the rumor road, what else are people in Woodhole saying?” posed Kelly.

“Shorty’s a big drinker with loose lips. Always felt squeezed out of the business. Felt he should have been a partner, not an employee.”

“No sign of forced entry anywhere,” said Kelly, who had been examining the room as Peters talked. “What about the son?”

“Herky’s the wayward son,” replied Peters. “Jellybean spent a small fortune paying for the kid’s rehab. Like a lot of the county, he got hooked on opioids, and we both know the recidivism rate on that.”

For the first time, Kelly approached the desk. Beside the computer keyboard she noticed six jellybean arranged in two rows of three, one directly above the other. The top row consisted of a black bean, a green bean, and a white bean. The row directly below it contained a white bean, a green bean, and a white bean.

Seeing the focus of Kelly’s eyes, Peters said, “I took a picture of that too. Don’t know why. I figured old Jellybean was rewarding himself. Finish one form, you know, get a jellybean reward.”

“Makes sense,” said Kelly. “I can’t think of any other significance for six jellybeans,” she said, “other than as a clue to his killer.”

“A dying clue?” said Peters incredulously.

“Sure. Jellybean knew his killer, who perhaps grabbed his g*n. Jellybean wanted to leave us a clue without the killer catching on.”

“Sounds pretty far out,” admitted Peters.

“Actually,” said Kelly, “I’ve got a pretty good idea who the killer is.”

Having learned Jellybean Jericho had been an electrician caused Kelly to look not at all six beans but at their placement and color. In an electrician’s world of modern circuitry, the black is the “hot” wire, the white is neutral, and the green is ground. The top three beans represented a wire connecting to another wire, the bottom row. However, the black was above the white below; if connected, a “short” circuit would occur. She arrested Jellybean’s envious brother, Shorty. He confessed to murdering the brother who found evidence of him stealing from the business. Luckily, for him, the state did not have an electric chair.