File M For Murder

Before I went too far down the road of idle speculation, I decided, I should check out the rest of the page references from Lawton’s notes.

I had to pull several more boxes of microfilm from the cabinets, including some of the Commercial Appeal issues, but once I had read through them all I had a better understanding of Lawton’s interest in the Norris family.

As I read I jotted down notes on the pad I’d brought with me. My eyes were tired and my neck slightly sore by the time I finished with the microfilm. I relaxed and massaged my neck while I read through my notes.

Ray Appleby, who continued to report on Hubert Norris’s death, wrote that there was to be an official investigation of the former mayor’s death. Normal procedure, I supposed, in a case of accidental death, particularly of a prominent citizen.

There were several short articles about the investigation, and one about the funeral. That event evidently attracted notables from surrounding counties, and even a former governor and several state legislators. Hubert Norris had been well known in political circles, though the highest office he ever held was the mayoralty of Athena.

The articles grew shorter and ceased by the end of June. There were sparse details of the investigation, but from what I gathered the police and the sheriff’s department were eventually satisfied with the verdict of accidental death.

Why had the investigation dragged on for three months, though? That seemed odd to me. Unless the two departments were bogged down in multiple other investigations, I couldn’t see this one taking three months to resolve.

So why had it? That was a question I would put to Ray Appleby for sure.

The articles mentioned little about the rest of the Norris family. The first one had listed Sarabeth under her maiden name, but subsequent ones identified her as “Sarabeth (Mrs. Jack) Conley.” The son, Levi, was apparently a teenager, and that meant there was quite a gap in age between him and Sarabeth. No age was given for the widow, but after quick calculations, based on Sarabeth’s probable age of thirty-two or so in 1984, I figured Mrs. Norris was a good fifteen to twenty years younger than her husband. Perhaps she was still alive—another fact I might check.

I made a note to check the obituaries in the Register. Not today, however. I’d had my limit of microfilm. Later I’d start with the digitized versions of the paper, and if that yielded no result, then I would tackle the microfilm again. Another of the joys of being over fifty, I had discovered to my dismay, was that my eyes tired more easily now.

Back to my notes—the final two articles from the Register dated from the late 1980s and concerned Levi Norris. One was simply a mention in the weekly arrest reports the paper published—much to the chagrin of the families of those arrested, I was sure. Levi had been arrested for burglary in 1988, but I couldn’t find any further details on that incident.

The second, short article denoted the arrest in 1991 of Levi Norris, then aged twenty-three, for assault and battery. A small, somewhat grainy photo of Norris accompanied the article. I stared at it. His face seemed familiar. Had I seen him somewhere recently?

It took me a moment, but I placed him. I’d seen him at the cocktail party and again at the theater. Laura and I had spoken to him there, and later I saw him talking with Sarabeth in the lobby. That settled, I returned to my research.

Lawton had apparently stopped with 1991 in his survey of the Register. Had he found all he needed, or had he meant to do more searching but didn’t have time? I pondered that while I loaded the first roll of microfilm of the Commercial Appeal. There were only a few references for this paper, and I soon read them. They revealed further details of Levi Norris’s brushes with the law. Mostly petty thievery or assault, including one incident in Memphis that sounded like attempted rape. There was no mention of Norris’s having served time for any of these offenses, and I wondered about that, too.

Levi Norris seemed to be an unsavory character. He appeared innocuous enough when I’d seen him recently, though definitely a bit seedy. Had he reformed completely? His history of assault made me uneasy. He might have been Laura’s attacker, and he also could be our would-be arsonist.

But why? How could he be connected with Connor Lawton and Damitra Vane? It didn’t make much sense. Ralph and Magda Johnston still seemed more likely suspects to me.

I turned off the reader and replaced the microfilm boxes in the cabinet. I could have left them in a basket provided for that purpose and one of the staff would refile them later, but I didn’t see the point in making extra work for anyone.