A Simple Suburban Murder by Mark Richard Zubro Page B

they'd tear the place apart, but I like to be safe and know there's an adult nearby. I gave them their assignments for the hour. Then I took Greg aside and asked him not to leave even if I didn't get back by the end of the session.
    I found Leonard Vance in his classroom.
    "How're you doing, Sherlock?" He gave me a friendly grin.
    "Hot on the trail," I said. "Can I check something with you?"
    "Sure."
    "It seems that Evans was pretty broke lately. I'm trying to find out if it's true and, if so, to track down the reason. Supposedly at other times he had vast excesses of money."
    Vance sat down at his desk. He rubbed his hand across his chin. "Broke, huh. I'm not sure about that. Excess I am sure about. He used to brag about all the things he bought— fabulous stereo systems, new cars."
    I didn't know how to put this delicately so I said, "Could he have made or lost a bundle on the gambling operation the math department runs?"
    Instead of taking offense, he gave this idea calm consideration. He pressed his hands against the top of his desk and leaned forward. "I'd say no. I'd have to check the computer records to be sure. We keep close track of everybody's bets, winnings and losings. Individuals seldom win or lose significant amounts of money. Over a year's time a person might average a total winning of maybe five hundred dollars, tops. Nobody's ever lost more than two or three hundred in a year."
    "Exactly how much money are we talking about, if it's not out of line for tuc to ask?"
    "It's okay. We average about five thousand a week in bets."
    "Five thousand?"
    "That surprises you?"
    "Yeah."
    ''It shouldn't. That's peanuts compared to most operations. Remember that five thousand is collectively. We have fifty or sixty people in the pool on a regular basis, sometimes over live hundred on big games or events like the Super Bowl or World Series. There's more than just the people at school in on it."
    "Could somebody lose a lot, say if you backed losers for several weeks in a row?"
    "With the whole system computerized we've minimized the risks. It would be a bad week if someone lost even a hundred. Usually we break even or win a little. Right here in the department we don't bet ridiculous amounts. We're teachers, remember."
    "Could Evans have been cheating some way to increase his take?"
    "No. When we set up the system, we tried all the cheating methods we could think of, and built safeguards against them."
    "Could he have used the information from here to place side bets with another operation?"
    "Sure, but we wouldn't know about it."
    "Could he have duplicated your system and tried to set himself up in his own business?"
    "He couldn't have an exact duplicate of ours. The discs we use can't be copied. He could set up one of his own, but that's a tremendous amount of work for one person. We have several people for each sport collecting and entering the data."
    I strolled to the window. Outside the football team practiced in the November gloom. I turned back to him. "But he could have set one up for himself?"
    "It's possible."
    "But not probable." "Right."
    "And he couldn't be cheating?"
    "No way."
    I'd found out all I could. I prepared to leave. "One last thing I can't resist asking: Aren't you guys afraid of getting caught for illegal gambling or betting on school property?"
    He gave a friendly grin. "Not really. Sure, people know about the operation, but we don't flaunt it. And what's to find as proof? A couple of floppy discs that are useless if you don't have the access codes. Significant dollar amounts change hands off school grounds."
    In my classroom I found Greg's lean frame draped in the chair behind my desk. The other students were gone. He jumped up when he saw me.
    "Is this going to take long, Mr. Mason? I've got to meet some guys in fifteen minutes."
    "That depends on your answers, Greg."
    "To what?" he asked.
    "I talked to Phil last night."
    "You did." His attempt at cool only partly covered his surprise. "How was