by Helen Gray
Buck took a moment to respond. “When we found her car at the airport, the key was in the glove compartment. There were no prints on it, so someone killed her, took the key, and drove the car away from the school.”
“That means she was killed in the lower parking lot,” Toni said, theorizing.
Buck got to his feet. “Let’s go take a look.”
It was frigid and almost dark when they got outside. Buck used his flashlight to swing a bright beam around the concrete surface of the lot. When Toni pointed out the exact spot where Marsha’s car had been parked, they examined the area closely.
Buck squatted where the driver’s door of the car would have been. Then he leaned closer. “There have been eleven days of snow falling and melting, and then traffic through here today. It’s been wiped and then tracked over, but here’s a big blood stain.”
“Here’s a piece of glass.” Toni pointed at a small shard, but didn’t touch it. About an inch in diameter, it was pointed on one side and rounded at the back, a rough resemblance of an ice cream cone. She watched Buck put on a glove, pick it up, and drop it into a small envelope.
He stood. “It looks like we’ve found our primary crime scene. Thank you both for your help.”
John turned toward the door. “Let’s go home.”
Toni moved to follow him, but then hesitated. “When I opened Marsha’s purse to look for identification, I saw a cell phone.”
Buck nodded. “I’ll have her phone records checked. And we’ll get a technician to look into her computer.”
“I can try to find out more about her activities during that last day if you like.”
Buck heaved a sigh of longsuffering. “Toni, I know you’re a science instructor and the daughter of a retired trooper, but you have no business getting involved in this investigation. You found her, yes, but it’s our job from this point on. Let us handle it without interference.”
“So if I learn anything, just keep my mouth shut, right?”
“Don’t get smart with me, young lady,” he warned gruffly. “Or I’ll turn you over to your dad. Furthermore, I’ll never buy you another Coke.”
*
As Toni got into her van and started it, she closed her eyes against a fresh onslaught of guilt. She had wanted Marsha gone, had even spoken those thoughts aloud to others. Honesty forced her to admit that she felt a sense of relief that the woman’s reign of threats and intimidation was over. She should feel more grief. Long forgotten words from the Bible surfaced in her mind.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer …
Had she caused Marsha’s death? No, she hadn’t physically killed the woman. Yet an irrational part of her felt as if she had.
Toni forced her head up and put the van in motion. When she arrived home, she found the living room deserted. Exhausted, she tossed her purse and satchel on the foyer table and started down the hall—and heard the shower running. That accounted for Kyle.
As she passed the boys’ room, she heard odd muffled sounds. Curious, she stopped and eased the door open a crack. Both boys sat on the floor, their backs to the door, absorbed in something on the carpet.
“I think I hear a parental unit on the premises.” she heard Gabe say, mimicking a term John Zachary had been known to use in their presence.
“X or Y?” Garrett asked in a near whisper.
When Toni eased inside the door, they spun around, guilty expressions on their raised faces.
“Definitely X.” Arms folded, Toni surveyed the room. Apparently they had listened more closely than she realized to a discussion she and John had one day last week after class about a lesson on male and female chromosomes. Her sons lived in a home where conversations often revolved around education, aviation, and scientific subjects. She found it amusing, even pleasing, at their retention and subsequent use of a scientific concept.
However, the sight she saw on the floor was not amusing. Her budding scientists had spread a newspaper on the carpet and dumped the contents of the vacuum bag onto it. But they had seriously underestimated the amount of paper needed to hold the mess. Dirt and debris littered the carpet far beyond the edges of the newspaper.
“What do you boys think you’re doing?” she asked, not sure whether to laugh or cry.
“We wanted to use our new microscope, and we read in the manual about how we could learn things from dust,” Gabe explained in his scholarly way.
“We wanted to see what we could find in our dust,” Garrett added, his eyes blinking.
“We’ll clean up the mess,” Gabe promised, trying to wheedle his way out of trouble. Toni was too tired to mete out any discipline, and, truth be told, she was pleased at the route of their curiosity. “What did you find?”
She could almost hear the muscles relaxing in their small bodies. “Salt and pepper and talcum powder,” Gabe enumerated proudly.
“And some hairs,” Garrett added. “We were trying to figure out who they all came from.”
“What did you have to eat?” she asked, deciding to change the subject.
“Hamburgers,” they chorused, as expected.
“Be sure you clean that up. And get all of it. I’ll be checking later to make sure you did a good job.”
“We will,” they chorused as she turned and headed for her own bedroom.
Kyle emerged from the shower, clad in a navy bathrobe. “Your lasagna and salad are on the kitchen cabinet. Eat and try to unwind. I’ll join you in a minute.”
“I need a shower, and I’m not hungry.”
“But you need to eat,” he countered, tugging her to him. “And you don’t smell too bad.”
Toni pushed away from him. “Just for that, I will eat before showering.”
“Good.” He grinned in satisfaction.
A couple of minutes later he took a seat across the table from her. “How did things go?”
Toni sighed. “I’m not sure.” She went over the session with Chief Freeman and about finding the blood and glass fragment on the parking lot. The phone rang as she finished.
Kyle leaned over and grabbed the cordless receiver from the counter. “Yes, she’s here.” He handed it to Toni.
“Hello.”
“Toni, the three of us—Ryan, Sara and myself—contacted members of the board.” Her principal’s voice was tense as he referred to the middle school and elementary principals. “We’ll have school as usual tomorrow, but there will be a faculty meeting before classes in the library at seven-thirty.”
“No problem,” she said and started to disconnect.
“Uh, I trust you’ll tell Loretta?”
Toni rolled her eyes. Loretta Mullins, their librarian, was not a favorite among the staff. How her name happened to follow Toni’s on the emergency call chain was a mystery. Or maybe not. She suspected deliberateness on Ken’s part, because he thought she could deal with Loretta’s negative personality.
“I’ll take care of it.” She disconnected and immediately made the call.
“What!” Loretta exclaimed in her usual whiny tone when she heard that the meeting would be held in the library. “I just got in a big order of books today. There are boxes all over the floor. I can’t possibly get all those books put away, or the boxes moved by that time.”
If that weren’t the case, there would have been another excuse. Loretta didn’t like having her space invaded, and she didn’t do any more work than absolutely necessary. But she was tenured and planned to be employed there until she retired.
“Just shove a path through them, and we’ll be fine,” Toni said, her teeth on edge. “Whoever gets there first will help. I’ll see you in the morning.” She disconnected before Loretta could voice any more complaints.
Kyle wore a big grin. “Efficiently done. Ken knew what he was doing when he arranged things so you have to handle Miss Nit-Picky. He’s afraid anyone else would tell her to stuff it.”
“Someday I may. She’s really not a bad person. She’s just such a chronic complainer that no one wa
nts to be around her.”
He eyed her across the table. “Are you sure you’re all right? You’ve had a rough day.”
Toni emitted a long sigh. “I’m fine. But I’ll be better when I’ve had a shower and some sleep.”
He reached over and tipped her face up with a finger. “Be honest with me, Toni. What’s wrong?”
She gulped and blinked back tears. “I feel guilty.”
When her chin quivered, he got up and rounded the table. He pulled her to his chest, and she plucked at a button on his shirt. “I don’t understand what happened.”
With a thumb he wiped the lone tear that had escaped. “Bad things happen. The devil never rests, you know.”
She smoothed the button back into place. “I know. But they don’t usually happen to people I …wanted out of my life.” Her voice broke.
Kyle drew her closer. “Life has some shockers, but God will give us comfort and help.”
Toni lifted her face to peer up at her husband. She hadn’t realized how much stronger his faith was than hers. She didn’t have the heart to tell him how weak hers had grown. “I’ll try,” she said softly.
“My schedule got changed today. They have me routed cross-country for the next two weeks. I hate to leave you for that long right now.”
Toni fought to contain her frustration. He was gone more and more, and she had so many things running her in circles. They no longer had time for in-depth communication. They talked about urgent matters that needed immediate attention, but they no longer shared their inner thoughts and dreams the way soul mates should.
Chapter 4
Wednesday morning Toni left the boys in the elementary office where the secretary already had the children of several other teachers corralled to keep an eye on them for the thirty minutes until they could go on to their classrooms.
When Toni entered the library at seven-fifteen it was already teeming with staff. Loretta’s boxes of books were stacked along one wall, and Ken stood nearby. He gave Toni an almost imperceptible wink when she looked his way. She smothered a grin and gave him a discreet nod.
Loretta came bustling through the door of her domain. Five two and slightly overweight, she had short, curly gray hair, and a small mouth that wore its usual down-turned expression.
“I would have been here sooner, but my cat took my car keys, and it took me half an hour to find them,” the librarian sputtered.
So now it’s the cat’s fault.
Besides having excuses, Loretta was chronically late for everything. Covert glances passed between staff members, but no one uttered a word. The room finished filling as faculty and staff entered and found seats.
“We only have a few minutes, so let’s get started,” Ken announced from the front of the room.
A hand shot up from a nearby table.
“Yes, Hal?”
“Wouldn’t it be appropriate to dismiss school while the police are working around here, out of respect for Mrs. Carter?”
Newbies should keep quiet.
Toni swallowed the taste of dislike that rose in her, realizing she was biased against the man. She missed Rick. She had liked the young math teacher and thought he was doing a good job. But Marsha had fired him mid-semester—no one seemed to know why—and hired Hal Warren as his replacement. Hal was an odd duck who struck Toni as a know-it-all and far less competent than Rick had been.
Ken frowned, his control rigidly contained. “It’s obvious that everyone has heard about the death of Mrs. Carter. The principals have met with the board and decided to proceed as normally as possible. That was to be my first announcement. I assure you no disrespect is meant, but we need to keep the students focused as much as we can.”
He paused before continuing. “The second announcement is that there will be a guard posted to see that everyone stays away from the taped off crime areas. We will appreciate your help in keeping those areas clear.”
He looked around the room, as if expecting questions. But it remained silent. “If you have students who are upset or have more questions than you can answer, please send them to the counselor’s office. We’ve contacted a couple of nearby districts and borrowed counselors from them to help Kelly.” Kelly Graham was their high school counselor.
“The police will be on the premises, questioning people throughout the day. Please give them any assistance you can. Now Dennis Guthrie, our school board president, will announce the board’s appointment of an acting superintendent.”
Ken stepped aside for Dustin Guthrie’s dad to take the floor. Dennis was a big man with thick bushy eyebrows and a thatch of wiry, dark hair cut in a military style. Toni guessed that Ken would not be the board’s choice because of Marsha’s open dislike of him. She was correct.
“Ryan Prewitt will serve as acting superintendent, and the other two principals will provide any assistance he needs,” Dennis Guthrie announced. “The board is confident that the entire staff will assist them in any way possible.”
The meeting broke up noisily. Conversation buzzed as Toni joined the line filing out of the library, her thoughts fragmented. She wondered who had killed Marsha, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the possibilities now. She had classes to conduct.
The day passed slowly. Toni didn’t push the students. She allowed them to just talk, or go to the counselor if they wished. When they seemed ready, she proceeded with as much of the day’s lesson as their attention span could handle.
When her forensics class arrived last hour, the picture changed. This upper level class didn’t require as much one-on-one guidance and would work with minimal prompting.
“Okay, students,” she said when she had finished taking roll, scanning the twenty-two students who were mostly seniors. “Let’s see if you can solve a crime for me. Last night someone ransacked my desk, threw supplies on the floor, and took some money hidden in one of the drawers.”
“Is this another of your sim...simu…” Jodi Garrison hesitated. A junior, she was an above average student in science, but weak in language skills. It was good to see the girl present in class today. Her first semester attendance record had been a serious problem.
“Simulations,” Sidney Rayford, an intelligent senior with an attitude, supplied for her.
“Yeah, one of those crimes that’s just make believe,” Jodi responded with a nod.
“That’s right.” Toni held up a plastic bag. “Fortunately, I was able to gather some evidence. In here I have a hair sample, a fingerprint, and a thread from an article of clothing. Someone in this class is the perpetrator of this crime, and it’s up to you to determine which one.”
“I did it!” Dustin Guthrie waved his hand in the air, obviously trying to be funny.
“Oh, be quiet,” another student snapped. “You just want to show off and interrupt class.”
“Focus on this case,” Toni instructed firmly. “We only have a four-day week, and I want the perpetrator identified by the end of it. Now, how do you propose to begin to solve this crime? How will you analyze the evidence collected?”
Beth Price raised a hand.
“Yes, Beth.”
“We should collect evidence from everyone in the class. Same as you collected from the crime scene. So we can compare it.”
“That’s right. Since every member of the class has access to the crime scene, you’re all suspects.”
Beth surveyed the room, studying her classmates. “I’ll figure it out,” the petite, dark haired girl promised.
Toni held up more plastic bags. “I’m going to give each of you one of these bags. You’re to place a hair sample and a thread from your clothing in yours. Use a piece of adhesive tape to pull a piece of thread from your clothing, or you may snip a small thread from the inside of a garment with a pair of scissors.”
“This is my favorite class,” Beth said to no one in particular.
“Then each of you must submit your fingerprints for analysis,” Toni continued, ignoring the comment. Beth was an average student with
a hunger for attention that there wasn’t enough time to supply at this moment.
“How do we do that?” Dustin asked. Tall, dark haired and dark eyed, he was poorly motivated and a regular in ISS, In-School Suspension, for disruptive behavior. He should never have been allowed to take this class, but the children of school board members were known to receive preferential treatment. Dustin wanted in the class because of its popularity. Too much money and privilege, and too little regard for the rules, made Toni fear that the boy was heading for serious trouble.
Patiently she outlined it for him. “You draw a dark pencil smudge on a piece of paper. Then you rub your fingers, beginning with the little finger on your right hand, on the pencil smudge until they’re all blackened. Next, you put a small piece of clear tape on the pad of your right thumb and gently press down on it. Then you carefully remove the tape and place it on one edge of a clean sheet of paper. Repeat the process for each finger, placing pieces of tape across the sheet of paper and labeling them.”
“How do we label them?”
The procedure had been discussed in class before, but this was the first time Dustin had shown any genuine interest. Maybe the repetition would result in some retention.
“Label the thumb of your right hand with a T, the index finger with an I, the middle finger with an M, the ring finger with an R, and the little finger with an L. Then repeat the steps for your left hand,” Toni explained.
Dustin stared at her, apparently working on a decision. “Okay,” he said at last.
The class period continued in a satisfyingly hectic fashion. The students eventually got themselves organized and busy, and the time passed quickly.
Toni glanced at the clock. “Put your things away. The bell rings in two minutes.”
As she watched the students depart, she felt unbalanced. Living in a small town had insulated her from the harshness of life in many areas. Her studies in science and forensics were intriguing and absorbing, but she hadn’t applied them to any real-life crime situations.
Growing up, she had always been naturally curious, loved to solve problems, and had gravitated to science like a magnet. It seemed so relevant to everyday life. After all, everyone had a body and lived in the world of air, land, and water.
