Suspicion

Yesterday afternoon I was questioned as a suspect in a murder case.

Sort of.

The Baraboo Public Library -- like just about every other library in the state, apparently -- is running a program on detectives this summer for teenagers. Besides reading detective novels, they have had lectures from police, the local CSI-types and such things. It's called "Get a Clue".

Yesterday they had a Mystery Game Party. Six teams of teenagers were given a description of the basic case -- the body of a man who had been missing for five years was discovered in the foundation of a library addition during construction -- and then had to go around and interview ten suspects who were scattered around in the library.

My role was Richard Eddington, an elderly man, recently voted president of the Board of Trustees of the library named for his grandfather. He would very much like to return to the days when libraries housed only aging works of literature and unnecessary talking was prohibited. He avoids the library in the hours immediately after school lets out. He was supposed to be a curmudgeon and I told them I thought that would fit me fine.

All I really had to say was, "I made no secret of my opposition to this addition. Since when does a library need beanbag chairs and a neon sign? Don't teenage students have a school library? But I'm not a violent man, and one death would not have stopped the project. I am also an officer at Crow Valley Country Club, and we had a long dinner meeting there that evening." It was supposed to be calm, stiff and formal.

We were encouraged to ham it up a bit, and I think I did that pretty well. Most of the kids seemed a bit intimidated by me.

I got hooked into this through the book club at the library, and I volunteered Tom because they were having trouble finding enough guys for the male suspects. He was a 35-year-old party-hearty guy who had once worked as a construction worker for the dead man.

It turned out we were both innocent, I'm glad to say.