Chairman found, explanations offered

Detective Bartos was right. Reunion Chairman Bob Watson was heading due south. He sped away early in his mint-condition 1960 Nash-Rambler, the one with the fold-down seats, like Paul Strandberg drove. Using the icy northern blast as a tailwind, he was tooling down Highway 29 toward Glenwood when a valve-lifter snapped.
He made it to Forada.
He took refuge there at the Muddy Boot, used the pay phone, and was picked up later Wednesday. While waiting for his ride, he had the delicate task of explaining to Big Jack why the 2010 Class of 1965 Reunion Bash won't be held in his fine establishment after all, and just to show there were no hard feelings, he shot the minnow, twice. "Maybe 2015," Bobby promised with a jaunty wave on his way out. "That'll be the big one, you know, The Big Five OH!"
Jack didn't appear too impressed as he studied the IOU Bob had left him on the bar, payable by the Class of 1965 Treasury.
The chairman was surprised when told that the Class of 1965 Reunion Headquarters on the Second Floor of the Woodtick Lodge on West Little Lake Darling had been left wide-open and abandoned.
"I told Betty to lock up," he said with a blank look. "She's got the key. She told me we had to get the piano  out of there before we close up. She's been using the class baby grand to practice her 'Darling Duo' singing and dancing act with Carol. Ordinarily Betty is so reliable. I can't imagine what happened. There must have been some miscommunication or something."
Calls to Betty in Fayetteville were not immediately returned. The voice mailbox said she was presently unavailable, as she had made the final table in the local satellite World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. No other explanation was given.
Mr. Watson's alibi for the missing After-Dinner Speaker's Fund Cash Box held up as well. Watson was headed south to Omaha to see if he could interest local resident Warren Buffet in making a special appearance next August. "Getting a Nebraska speaker to come to Alexandria in the middle of the summer should be easy," he said. "But it is not as easy as it sounds. So I brought along the cash box. It gives me something to jingle", he explained, "when they say 'Show me the money!'"