The Rotary Club Murder Mystery Read Free Page A

finished my lunch, I went back upstairs and found that the sheriff had arrived. Having appointments scheduled throughout the afternoon, I persuaded him to hear my evidence first so that I could go about my business.

    The following morning I read this story in the Banner-Democrat:

    SUICIDE AT LOCAL MOTEL
    Police were called at 12:15 Tuesday to investigate the circumstances of the death of a guest at the Borderville Motor Inn.
    The victim was a white male approximately forty years of age. He was found in bed, apparently a suicide.
    Personnel at the Inn had no inkling that anything was amiss until approximately 11:40 a.m., when Eugene Spencer, 628 Dominion Terrace, attempted to reach the deceased by phone.
    After several unsuccessful attempts, Spencer notified Inn Manager Nancy Attwood that further efforts to rouse the guest should be made. Attwood and attendant James R. Rickets, 1392 Linden Way, forced the door.
    The victim was lying in bed, a bullet through his brain.
    Sheriff R. M. Bowser informed the Banner-Democrat that the dead man had shot himself with a .45 automatic pistol. He said also that a suicide note was found beside the body.
    The name of the victim is being withheld until his next of kin can be found and notified.

    It should surprise no one that I was well enough pleased to have been left out of this account. But I received a call from the Banner - Democrat on Thursday afternoon, and I appeared in a minor way in the story that they carried on Friday morning.
    By that time, Hollonbrook’s wife had been located and informed, the reporter had ascertained the biographical facts
about Hollonbrook, and Bowser had released the information that the automatic had been identified as Hollonbrook’s property, which seemed to lend weight to the official contention that the death was suicide.
    Pictures accompanied this story, including a shot of the chain that had been jerked loose from the doorjamb in order for motel staff to break into the room.
    It seemed very obvious that this mechanism, once in place, would prevent admission from the outside without the cooperation of Hollonbrook. The fact that this mechanism was indeed in place and that the door was also locked in the conventional manner seemed to prove beyond possible doubt that Hollonbrook’s death was suicide.
    So in spite of the fact that I could not reconcile the note from Hollonbrook’s desk pad and the unread portion of the Dick Francis book, and the obvious preparations he had made for the normal activities of the following morning, I certainly could not explain the death otherwise than as a suicide.
    But I could not rid my mind of the suspicion that, in this case, suicide was the wrong verdict.

DEALING WITH MURDER AGAIN
    >> Harriet Bushrow <<
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    T he Rotary Club has always been gracious and attentive to the Rotary Anns—that’s the wives and widows of Rotarians. Now that they have women in Rotary, I just wonder how that is going to be in future years.
    As I say, until now the boys have always had a “Ladies’ Night” once a year, honoring us wives and widows of Rotarians. And how they have always handed us around!—as though we were something precious. A lot of it was just put-on-the toast to the ladies and the ladies’ response, and the corsages and dinner favors—but we loved it just the same. Now with women’s lib and equal opportunity, I don’t suppose the boys will want to honor us in the old way. Can they honor the Rotary Anns without honoring the Rotary Andies? And will they provide corsages for the widowers the same way they have always done for the widows?
    But that’s completely off the subject. What I started to say was that Rotary was always a big part of social life for me and Lamar. Lamar went into Rotary when he was thirty-five and remained in it until he died thirty-two years later. And during
that time, some of the dearest friends we ever had were