The Bookmark Murders: Saving Emil Heider

By A. L. Provost

On the night of October 12, 1913, a beautiful and popular high school sophomore was murdered in the peaceful community of Hagerstown, Maryland.
Upon discovering that her mentally-disturbed sixteen-year-old son Emil was the killer, Gretchen Heider was forced to make a choice. She could turn her son over to the authorities. Or she could conceal the truth.
Unfortunately Gretchen Heider made the wrong decision. However she had made her catch-22 choice out of love for her son. The murders continued.
Eight years later Gretchen Heider was faced with a similar dilemma. Would she be able to save her son from a society ill-equipped to deal with the mentally-disturbed?
This is the story of Emil Heider.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781465331151

A. L. Provost

The author, an attorney and optometrist, resides outside Atlanta with his wife Evelyn, an attorney, their four talented children having gone on to careers in Optometry, real estate and teaching. In May 1961 the author received an undergraduate degree in Physics-Mathematics from Berry College, and in July of that year enlisted in the U. S. Army. He served two tours of duty in South Korea, the last with U. S. Army Intelligence as a Korean linguist and prisoner interrogator. In 1972 Dr. Provost was awarded the degree of Doctor of Optometry from the University of Houston, and in 1980 earned a Juris Doctor degree from Nova Southeastern University College of Law. Dr. Provost is the author of the best-selling memoir, Reflections in an Orphan’s Eye, The Puppeteer, a mystery novel of the wartime South, and thirteen other mystery novels.

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Copyright © 2009 by A.L. Provost.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Introduction

Prologue

The Bookmarks

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Epilogue

Praise for the mystery novels

of A.L. Provost:

The Tangled Web

Congratulations on a great book that combines historic detail with suspense and superb characterization.

Writer’s Digest

The Thirty-Seventh Parallel

You did a good job building the suspense and drawing the reader into the plot… I found myself reading quickly without realizing how much time was passing…

Writer’s Digest

Introduction

This is the story of five persons and how the conduct of each influenced, and was in turn influenced by, the others.

Emil Heider, high school math teacher.

Gretchen Heider, wife of Franz and mother of Emil.

Abel Becker, writer of historical non-fiction.

Marvin K. Smith, high school physics teacher and war hero

Paul Marlowe, Chief Homicide Investigator, Baltimore Police Department

Our story takes place during the first two decades of the twentieth century, in France and the states of Maryland and North Carolina.

Prologue

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

The Shadow knows.

Aside from Lamont Cranston however, the majority of us are pretty much in the dark when it comes to delving into the mind of a killer. This is the tale of a mother’s unwavering love for her son, and the ultimate sacrifice she made in order to save him.

Whether or not we are cognizant of the truism, we do live in glass houses. The danger inherent in stepping outside your glass house and hurling a large rock toward the center of your neighbor’s glass house should be readily apparent.

To a normal person, that is. However to a narcissistic psychopath, retribution is not a concept grounded in reality. Thus the fear of exposure and punishment is oftentimes not a consideration.

However, what would be a psychopath’s reaction should he suddenly find himself a victim? Would a psychotic be capable of understanding this to be a form of revenge in response to his own heinous crimes?

Or, would the concept simply elude him? Perhaps one should not attempt to make a psychopath a victim.

We shall see.

The Bookmarks

Chapter 1

The Disturbed Kind

Emil Heider was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on August 12, 1897. He was the only son of Franz and Gretchen Heider, who had emigrated from Düsseldorf, Germany in 1885, settling in a small German enclave in the western part of the city, located a few miles south of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line.

Even as a young boy growing up in the north-central Maryland city of Hagerstown, Mrs. Gretchen Heider knew something just wasn’t right about her youngest of two children, Emil.

Franz and Gretchen’s first child, a lovely Aryan girl they named Heidi, was beautiful, outgoing, kind and intelligent. This first one was such a joy to have around, why don’t we just double our blessing, thought the proud German-American couple.

However discovered the parents, too late to do anything about it of course, viewed from any angle, begetting children is a crapshoot pure and simple. Even for Germans.

Therefore two years after cute little Heidi was born, along came a second beautiful Kind, a boy they proudly named Emil, after Franz’ father, who had been a well-respected senior officer in Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck’s vaunted Prussian Army.

However unlike the beautiful, intelligent, outgoing and kind Heidi, during his Kinderheit Emil proved to be handsome, intelligent, outgoing… and cruel.

The telltale signs were readily apparent at an early age. When Heidi was six and Emil four, Heidi harassed her parents until they bought the child a small tabby kitten. Heidi loved the animal, and named it Munchkin, from one of the characters in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

One morning while Heidi was in school, four-year-old Emil was playing quietly with the kitten in his sister’s room. He had closed the bedroom door. Gretchen went into the kitchen and began preparing supper for the family.

Suddenly Gretchen heard the terrified screeching of a frightened kitten. She rushed to the bedroom and quickly flung open the door to witness Emil, a cruel smile on his cherubic face, just as he delivered the final blow to the bloodied animal using a heavy stick.

Gretchen rushed to the child and snatched the heavy stick from his upraised hands. To her horror the boy was smiling benignly.

Gretchen Heider then made a fatal decision, one that every mother must make upon discovering that her four-year-old child is a monster.

Emil was born on August 12, 1897. In 1901 America, psychiatric help for small children, and for any children for that matter, was almost nonexistent. The distraught mother hardly knew where to begin searching for someone to help her child.

Gretchen Heider was forced to make a terrible choice. Either she could inform her husband Franz of the horror she had witnessed, or she could remain quiet and hope her love for Emil could somehow overcome his violent psychopathic behavior.

Gretchen realized there was no short-term solution to her dilemma. However she loved her son dearly; thus her choice became a mother’s choice. She vowed to protect her son until she could find him the professional help he needed. Unfortunately, help that never would come.

Gretchen’s immediate concern was how to conceal evidence of her son’s crime. She did not scold the boy, and he watched without expression as his mother placed the dead kitten in a small pasteboard box. Using a bar of strong Octagon detergent soap, a rag and a pan of warm water, she cleaned the kitten’s blood from the floor and from the stick.

Then not daring to leave Emil alone in the house, Gretchen picked up the box that was the poor animal’s coffin, retrieved a gardener’s spade from the garage, and Emil followed his mother into the flower garden behind the house.

Gretchen dug a two-foot-deep hole in the soft dirt, placed the box in the hole, then covered the hole with dirt, packing it down to secure it from curious dogs that ran loose through the neighborhood.

At 2:30 p.m. Gretchen and Emil drove to the elementary school to pick up first-grader Heidi. On the way home Gretchen told Heidi that the kitten had gotten out of the house, and she and Emil had searched the neighborhood but could not find the child’s pet. Heidi hesitated, then spoke.

Did Emil hit my kitten with a stick again? asked Heidi innocently.

Her six-year-old’s question shocked Gretchen to the core of her being. It let her know immediately that Emil’s act of cruelty was not an isolated occurrence.

However Gretchen’s cover-up continued. She denied that Emil had hurt the kitten. In order to mollify her young daughter, Gretchen promised Heidi that if her kitten could not be found, Gretchen would purchase for Heidi another kitten.

However Gretchen had no intention of ever having another small animal in the Heider house.

This disturbing incident marked the beginning of years of a loving and devoted mother covering up the crimes of her mentally-disturbed, psychopathic child. By some small miracle however, Gretchen succeeded in shielding Emil’s unlawful and antisocial conduct from her loving husband Franz, who was a successful banker and who left the rearing of his two children to his very capable wife, whom he loved dearly.

Due largely to Gretchen’s constant vigilance, somehow Emil made it to high school without committing any major crime. However Emil Heider was a ticking bomb. All it took was someone to light his fuse, which indeed was a short one.

Emil was a handsome and quite intelligent lad, excelling in math and science subjects. Heidi, two years Emil’s senior, was a student in the seventh grade the same year Emil was in the fifth grade. Heidi was an average student. However she made excellent grades in all her classes, because Emil did Heidi’s homework and in addition tutored his sister nightly.

Due in part to his quirky personality and in another part to the unconcealed envy expressed by his peers, by the age of fourteen Emil Heider had become an introverted teenager. As soon as his classes were over each day, the shy lad returned home straightaway, and spent much of his time at home in his room studying and brooding over his predicament. Antisocial behavior loomed on the horizon for the increasingly troubled lad.

Chapter 2

The Girl From Atlanta

When the school year began in the fall of 1913, Emil Heider, age sixteen, was in the tenth grade. All of the kids in his class had been with Emil in the ninth grade the previous year.

Except for one, that is.

Jennie Garber and her parents had moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Hagerstown that summer. The family purchased a two-story brick home on Marshall Street in the downtown residential area, just four blocks from Hagerstown High School, that was located on Salem Avenue.

Jennie Garber was a beautiful Southern girl with bright blue eyes and long blonde shoulder-length hair. She was intelligent and friendly. Emil Heider fell in love with Jennie Garber the moment he saw her.

Although Jennie lived only four city blocks from the high school, when school let out at 2:15 each afternoon, Emil managed to walk home with Jennie. To the friendly girl from the South, Emil was simply a classmate who just happened to be walking in the same direction as she as they left school each day.

However her insecure classmate viewed the situation in a different light. Within two months after school started, in his own mind Emil had begun to believe that he and Jennie enjoyed some sort of relationship, as in boyfriend-girlfriend.

This impression was furthered when one day in early October, as they were walking home from school, Emil asked Jennie if she would attend a silent picture show with him, that was playing at the Bijou theatre on Maryland Avenue downtown.

The innocent, unassuming Jennie accepted the invitation, and they enjoyed the picture show. Afterwards the two stopped by an ice cream parlor for a sweet snack.

By the time they arrived back at Jennie’s home, Emil Heider was in love. However Jennie Garber was not. They sat side by side on the swing on the front porch. Suddenly Emil leaned toward a surprised Jennie, put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the mouth, just as he had seen in a silent picture show down at the Bijou.

"Just what are you doing?" cried Jennie, pulling away from Emil.

But I love you Jennie, and I want you to be my girlfriend, responded Emil, reaching for her again.

Jennie pulled away and stood up. I want you to leave my house Emil. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We just go to school together. And I don’t ever want to see you again. She turned on her heels and stalked into the house, leaving the bewildered lad sitting alone on the swing.

Emil Heider sat quietly on the swing, in shock and humiliation. He loved the beautiful blonde Southern girl, and he was certain she loved him. What had suddenly caused her to change her mind and end their relationship so abruptly?

After sitting for nearly an hour on the swing on Jennie’s front porch, a dejected Emil Heider slowly stood and walked away. As he ambled down the sidewalk he observed in his periphery one of his classmates, Jeffrey Ponder, step onto the porch of the Garber house and knock on the front door.

Emil looked around and could see no other persons on the sidewalk. The sun was going down over the rooftops to the west, so he stepped behind a row of hedges separating the Garber front yard from the adjacent property.

From Emil’s vantage point crouched behind the hedges, he had a clear view of the front porch of Jennie’s house. When Jeffrey Ponder went into the Garber house, Emil assumed it was to deliver an item. He never had seen Jeffrey and Jennie together at school. He waited.

When it turned dark, suddenly the front porch light came on, but no one came out the front door. Fifteen minutes later the front door opened and out walked Jeffrey and Jennie. They were laughing. Jeffrey pulled Jennie close to him and they kissed passionately, then drew apart. Jennie laughed again.

Can you believe the schmuck tried to kiss me? she said. We go for ice cream and a picture show, and all of a sudden the weirdo’s in love. Why, I’ve never even seen him with a girl. I thought he was a queer.

Tell you what let’s do, said Jeffrey. Meet me outside here about nine o’clock tomorrow night, and we’ll do it in the back seat of your dad’s car again. Bring a blanket, and if I’m a little late, just wait for me.

Sure you don’t want stupid Emil Heider to come along? asked Jennie derisively.

The two laughed again, and Jeffrey walked off down the sidewalk whistling in the dark. Jennie walked into her house, and the front porch light went out.

For a long time sixteen-year-old Emil Heider stood concealed behind the hedges, peering out through the darkness at the Garber house. His initial feeling of dejection had quickly changed to a fuming rage upon hearing the disparaging comments made by a girl with whom he was in love.

In a similar situation another teenager might accept the affront and go on his way. But not Emil Heider. Jennie Garber might not love him. However, she had no right to ridicule him to her boyfriend. Such insults could not go unanswered.

Now what was it her boyfriend said? Meet him tomorrow night outside her house? Something about her father’s automobile and bringing a blanket? Wait for him if he were a little late?

Insult Emil Heider and get away with it? Not hardly. Call Emil Heider a schmuck and not suffer the consequences? It would not happen.

Emil’s parents grew up in Germany. Emil knew that schmuck was a Yiddish slang word meaning penis, or a stupid person. No, such insult could not go unpunished. Would not go unpunished.

Inside the cutlery drawer in her kitchen table Mrs. Heider stored six silverware place settings. Inside another drawer she kept a set of seven carving knives with eight-inch blades that her husband purchased several years earlier from the Hanson Cutlery Shop in downtown Hagerstown.

The First: October 12, 1913

At 8:45 p.m. the following night an excited sixteen-year-old blonde beauty walked out the front door of her house, carrying in her arms a brown woolen blanket, as she had been instructed by her boyfriend the previous night.

Ambient light from a quarter moon filtered through the windows of the four-door family Ford, revealing the silhouette of her boyfriend Jeffrey Ponder.

Oh, I see you’re on time, said an eager Jennie Garber as she reached to open the back door of the automobile.

"Oh yourself," came the response.

At a quarter after nine a just as eager Jeffrey Ponder stepped out of the shadows of the maple trees lining Marshall Street and approached the darkened front porch of the Garber residence. Not observing any movement on the porch, he focused his attention on the automobile parked in the driveway. And there sat Jennie waiting for him.

Okay, babe, let’s get started, said Jeffrey as he opened the rear door of the automobile.

Jennie Garber was seated upright in the center of the back seat. Her long blonde hair was splayed out on the headrest of the back seat. In the dim incandescence of the sliver of a moon Jeffrey could see the girl was naked, and it appeared she had smudged her lipstick.

Jeffrey opened the back door of the Ford and sat down beside his naked girlfriend. The weight of his body on the seat caused Jennie’s body to tilt toward him.

Boy, we sure are eager tonight, aren’t we girl? said Jeffrey. Then he noticed the moonlight glinting off a long flat metallic object resting on Jennie’s lap.

The biggest mistake in Jeffrey Ponder’s short life was picking up that razor-sharp eight-inch-long carving knife, one of a set of seven, that until that night had rested in a narrow kitchen drawer in the Heider home.

Gripping the bloody handle of the long kitchen knife in his right hand, the shocked teenager pushed Jennie Garber’s body to an upright position. Then he noticed the girl’s blood that now covered the front of his white cotton shirt, and realized to his horror that what he had at first sight believed to be Jennie’s smudged lipstick was instead blood smeared on the dead girl’s face.

In his panic the frightened teenager dropped the bloody knife on the floor of the back seat, grasped the handle of the back door and in his haste tumbled headlong out of the car. He slammed the car door, then dashed through the night to his home two blocks away.

The time was 9:15 p.m. Jeffrey’s parents never missed the radio crime show, The Shadow, that played in the half hour time slot 9:00-9:30 p.m. Peering through the front window, Jeffrey could see his parents in the living room, each occupying an easy chair, staring mesmerized at the Philco Baby Grand radio across the room.

As Jeffrey stood at the window, the light from the incandescent living room bulb reflected off his white shirt, and he looked down to see his shirt, hands and arms streaked with Jennie’s blood.

The frightened youngster had to act fast. In fifteen minutes the radio show would end, and Mrs. Ponder would go into Jeffrey’s room to remind him to prepare for bed. The next few minutes passed in a blur.

Rushing to the back door, Jeffrey slipped into the kitchen. He went straight to the large sink and quickly washed the blood off his hands and arms. After drying himself on the hand towel near the sink, Jeffrey carefully took off the bloody shirt.

He rolled the shirt into a tight ball, then crept down the narrow hallway and quietly entered his room. Moving quickly to the small closet, he concealed the rolled-up bloody shirt beneath some soiled clothes piled on the floor.

Jeffrey feared if he stayed in his room, after the radio show ended in a few minutes, his mother might enter his room and engage him in a meaningless conversation about school or his homework.

In order to avoid speaking to his parents, Jeffrey poked his head around the corner, and his parents looked up.

I’m going to turn in early, folks, he said. I’ll see you in the morning. He didn’t wait for his parents to answer. This was fine with his parents, as they were about to hear the climax of The Shadow.

Jennie Garber had walked out her front door at 8:45 p.m., telling her mother she was going to her friend Margaret’s house to study for a test, and that she would return home at around 10:30. Because Jennie was a responsible daughter her parents did not object.

However at 11:00 p.m. Jennie’s mother became concerned. She telephoned Margaret’s house, but Margaret informed Mrs. Garber that Jennie had not come to her house. When Mrs. Garber telephoned the Ponder residence, Mrs. Ponder told Mrs. Garber that her son Jeffrey had gone to bed at around 9:30 p.m., and before that had been in his room studying.

At 11:15 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Garber began searching for their daughter. A few minutes later Mrs. Garber approached the family Ford, where she discovered her daughter’s blood-soaked, naked body propped upright in the back seat. She screamed in terror.

Mr. Garber telephoned the Hagerstown Police Department. Within ten minutes several police cars and an ambulance arrived. Detective Ralph Mooney introduced himself to Mr. and Mrs. Garber, and took their statements.

The Investigation Begins

It’s too dark to tell much with the car in the driveway, explained the homicide detective. So we’re going to drive your car downtown to our well-lit police garage. We did recover the kitchen knife, and it appears to have fingerprints on it. Also there appears to be a clear handprint on the back door, where the killer pushed the door closed. All we need to do is find who owns these fingerprints. Shouldn’t be too difficult to track him down.

There is a lot to be said for keeping one’s intimate secrets just that. However teenage boys can’t refrain from boasting about what they did with this or that pretty girl. And although Jeffrey Ponder had completely forgotten, in English class the previous day he had bragged to a few of his friends about his date with the beautiful Jennie Garber later that night, even mentioning the blanket and what he and Jennie planned to do in the back seat of the Garber family Ford.

During his interview with the distraught parents of Jennie Garber, Ralph Mooney learned that Jennie’s steady boyfriend was a sixteen-year-old classmate named Jeffrey Ponder.

Are there any other boys your daughter knew who were more than just classmates? asked the veteran homicide detective.

Well, I don’t know if this is important, but one of her classmates walks home with her every day after school, added Mrs. Garber. But I don’t think he’s a boyfriend, just a fellow classmate.

Mrs. Garber, I can assure you that anything you tell me is important, said the detective. "And what is his name?"

As soon as the spurned young Emil Heider, in a fit of uncontrollable rage had savagely stabbed to death Jennie Garber in the back seat of the Garber family’s Ford, he calmly wiped the handle of the knife on her dress. He then undressed the dead girl. He rolled up her clothes and walked away toward his home, the ripped clothes tucked securely under his arm.

As Emil approached his house he observed the garbage can sitting out on the street at the end of the driveway. Garbage pickup was scheduled for the next day.

Leaving Jennie’s rolled up clothes in the bushes, Emil calmly walked into his house by way of the back door. His parents were in the living room and did not observe their son enter the house.

Emil picked up a grocery sack from a small table near the pantry, and returned to the front yard. He stuffed Jennie’s blood-soaked clothes, including her shoes, into the brown paper sack.

Keeping in the shadows to avoid being observed by a neighbor out walking his dog, fifteen minutes later Emil arrived at the Ponder residence. The Ponders also had placed their garbage can out near the road. Being careful to avoid detection, Emil stepped out from the shadows and approached the trash can.

Glancing around one last time, the teenage murderer quickly lifted the metal lid, and dropped the sack filled with the incriminating evidence into the large trash can. He replaced the lid, then calmly turned and walked off down the sidewalk toward his home. With a little luck, mused the youngster, he would get away scot-free.

The Set of Seven Kitchen Knives

An hour later Emil Heider lay in his bed, going over in his mind the events of the night. It had been easy, killing the girl. Wordlessly he had plunged the eight-inch blade of the butcher knife into her heart as soon as she opened the car door and stepped inside. In his frenzy he had continued to stab her in the chest.

Leaving the blood-soaked knife at the scene had been a stroke of genius, thought Emil. He could have taken the knife, but he needed to leave it for that loudmouth Jeffrey Ponder to find and stupidly put his hands on it. Jeffrey Ponder the patsy!

Only one niggling thought kept Emil from enjoying a good night’s sleep. The fact that he had remained calm following the murder surprised him. However the loose end that Emil had to contend with was the kitchen knife.

The knife was one of a set of seven wooden-handled knives Mr. Heider had purchased for his wife seven years before from Johann Hanson, owner of Hanson’s Cutlery Shop in downtown Hagerstown. Surely Mrs. Heider would discover one of her knives was missing, and the police would identify the murder weapon to the newspapers.

After giving the problem some serious thought, Emil felt certain there was a simple solution. With these assurances Emil Heider fell asleep, his last conscious thought being how easy it was to murder someone. Easy as pie, he murmured softly as he drifted off.

The next morning, again in an effort to avoid any conversation with his parents, Jeffrey Ponder rose early, ate a quick breakfast of milk and buttered bread and walked off toward Hagerstown High six blocks away.

At the same time, seven blocks to the west young Emil Heider rose and got dressed. He was in a good mood as he sat at the breakfast table and enjoyed a large bowl of hot Quaker Oats oatmeal and bacon. Then he said goodbye to his mother, gave her a kiss on her cheek, and walked off to school. Like he didn’t have a worry in the world.

At 7:30 Hagerstown police homicide investigators Ralph Mooney and George Torrence were sitting at Ralph’s desk in the squad room of police headquarters, discussing Ralph’s findings of the previous night.

Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen, said Ralph. "Not only were the murdered girl’s clothes missing, but her shoes as well."

Now that’s an unusual M.O. (modus operandi) if there ever was one, agreed George. Was the girl raped?

According to old Doc Barker, no, replied Ralph. However, he’ll do the autopsy later this morning and we’ll know for certain.

So where do we want to start? asked George.

I believe the killer is local, responded Ralph. And based on how savage the attack was, the guy who did this was really out for revenge. He stabbed her fourteen times. That can only be uncontrollable rage, he added.

The Classmate Interviews

Let’s drive over to the high school, continued Ralph. We’ll start by interviewing the fifteen students Mr. Garber said were in Jennie’s tenth-grade class.

Anybody specific? asked George.

The Garbers told me Jennie’s steady boyfriend’s name is Jeffrey Ponder, and that she walked home from school every day with another classmate named Emil Heider. But the parents believe this was just because it happened to be on Emil’s way home. But we’ll question everybody.

On the drive to the high school, George appeared deep in thought, which usually indicated that the detective had come up with some forensic gem pertaining to the investigation.

What’s on your mind? asked Ralph.

The missing clothes, said George. The killer took the clothes. So more likely than not the killer took them home. However, if he got home and realized what he had done, he’d likely get rid of them.

And what better place than the garbage can, said Ralph. You know that today is Tuesday and it’s garbage pickup day on this side of town.

As soon as we get to the high school, Ralph, I’ll telephone the city waste disposal department, and stop all garbage pickup until they hear from us.

Brilliant minds think alike, said Ralph Mooney. If I could take credit for only half of your ideas, George, I’d be running the police department.

Minutes later they pulled up and parked the unmarked police car in front of the high school. Upon entering the building they strolled directly to the principal’s office.

Mr. Wallace, let’s go into your private office, said Ralph. George, call the city waste disposal and stop the garbage pickup. Then come on back to Mr. Wallace’s office.

Seated in the principal’s office, Detective Mooney explained the reason for the visit, leaving out any extraneous material not related to the principal’s need to know.

We’re going to interview each of the fifteen students, one at a time, here in your office, Mooney told the principal. "Following the interview the students will be sent to another classroom, so they can’t go back and tell the other students what’s going on."

What about the students who have been questioned? asked the principal.

I want a teacher to monitor that classroom. I don’t even want those we’ve questioned to be able to discuss the case among themselves, said the detective.

Okay with me, said the principal. Anybody special you want to question first?

Yes, let’s have Jeffrey Ponder first, then Emil Heider, responded Ralph Mooney.

A few minutes later a visibly upset Jeffrey Ponder entered the principal’s private office and sat across the desk from the two detectives.

After introducing themselves but not explaining the reason for the interview, Detective Mooney began.

Where were you last night Jeffrey, from the time you had supper until midnight?

Well, after supper I took a walk around the block, then went back home to study. At around 9:15 I said goodnight to my parents and went to bed. You can ask them.

Would it be okay with you if we took your fingerprints? asked George Torrence almost nonchalantly.

Jeffrey Ponder recalled that he had held the bloody knife, that would have his fingerprints. However to refuse the request would be a clear indication that he had something to hide. There was no way out.

Certainly, said Jeffrey. That would be all right with me.

That will be all for now, Jeffrey. We may need to talk to you again later. That, you can bet on, thought Ralph Mooney.

Creating Suspicion

Jeffrey was escorted to the second classroom, and Emil Heider was brought into the principal’s private office. At once the detectives became aware of the contrasting demeanor of the two boys. Emil appeared to be in a good mood, and smiled and shook hands with them. The detectives did not believe Emil Heider could have committed such a vicious crime.

What is your relationship with Jennie Garber? asked Detective Torrence.

Is something the matter? asked Emil, suddenly concerned. I just saw her last, yesterday after school.

Is Jennie your girlfriend? asked Detective Mooney.

Oh, no sir, said Emil smiling. "Jennie’s house is on my way home, and we walk together. She stops at her house, and I continue on to my house. No, Jennie’s Jeffrey Ponder’s girlfriend. Or at least I think they are still going together."

Why do you say that? asked a suddenly very interested Detective Mooney.

Well I don’t want to gossip, said Emil. "But two weeks ago Jennie told me that Jeffrey had been after her to go all the way, you know what I mean?" asked Emil.

Yes I do, said Detective Mooney.

Well anyway, Jennie told me she had never done it before, and that if Jeffrey kept bothering her about it she was going to break up with him, he lied. "But please don’t tell anybody I said that. I don’t want to get Jennie in trouble."

In questioning other members of the class, two boys admitted that Jeffrey Ponder had boasted that he was going to meet Jennie the previous night, and that he and Jennie were going to make out in Mr. Garber’s automobile.

The detectives felt certain they had the killer. They placed Jeffrey Ponder in the back seat of the police car and drove to the Ponder residence. Mrs. Ponder was at home, and she allowed the detectives to search the home.

While Detective Mooney searched Jeffrey’s room, Detective Torrence walked out to the garbage can. He lifted the metal lid, and there on top of the other bags of garbage was a brown grocery sack.

Without touching the sack, Detective Torrence walked back to the Ponder house. He asked Detective Mooney, Mrs. Ponder and Jeffrey to follow him to the garbage can. Lifting the lid, he asked Jeffrey to take out the sack.

"Is this your paper sack, Jeffrey?" asked Detective Torrence.

No sir, I don’t know whose it is, answered Jeffrey.

Well, let’s open it and see what’s inside, said Detective Torrence, lifting the bag and placing it on the ground.

The detective opened the bag and dumped its contents, consisting of a bloody dress, brassiere and white cotton panties, out on the sidewalk. One more shake produced a blood-stained pair of brown and white Oxfords.

Upon seeing the clothing Jeffrey sat down on the sidewalk, buried his face in his hands and began sobbing. Detective Mooney knelt and gently placed his hand on the distraught boy’s shoulder.

Having seen Jennie’s naked, blood-spattered body and the large knife only hours before, the veteran detective, father of a fourteen-year-old daughter, had the urge at that moment to draw his service revolver from his shoulder holster, press the four-inch barrel to the boy’s temple and pull the trigger.

However, Suspect Interrogation 101 taught that the best time to obtain a confession was when the suspect was most vulnerable. And in Jeffrey Ponder’s case that time was right now. So Detective Mooney swallowed his anger and pressed on. By the sound of his voice one would have thought the detective and the prime (and only) suspect were the best of friends.

Why don’t you tell us what happened and get if off your chest, said Ralph Mooney quietly. However the detective didn’t get the answer he expected. Not by a long shot.

But I didn’t kill her. She was already dead when I got there, insisted Jeffrey, his sobbing becoming now a keening moan.

Realizing they weren’t going to obtain an instant confession, the two detectives placed Jennie’s clothes in the paper sack. Detective Torrence handcuffed Jeffrey and in full view of the boy’s mother, placed him in the back seat of the car and drove off in the direction of police headquarters.

Replacing the Seventh Knife

School let out at 2:15 p.m. and the teenagers fanned out for the walk home. All except one, that is. He had some shopping to do, a side trip to a certain cutlery shop located two stores down from the Bijou on Main Street.

At 2:45 p.m. Emil Heider quietly entered the front door of Hanson’s Cutlery Shop, where he observed Johann Hanson assisting the elderly Everley twins with their purchases. He browsed for awhile until he found what he was looking for in the kitchen knives section of the store.

In the second tray from the top Emil found what he needed. The kitchen knives were stored by brand name and length of blade. Missing from the cutlery drawer in Mrs. Heider’s kitchen was a wooden-handled kitchen knife with an eight-inch blade that was manufactured by the Luft Cutlery Factory of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The knife to replace the one Emil had used to murder the slut Jennie Garber was all he really needed. However, in order for this one item not to stand out in the mind of Mr. Hanson, Emil also selected a cheap white ceramic coffee mug and several paper packages of