by Helen Gray
She had been fascinated by the Discovery channel and loved and found humor in the animal shows. Her biggest fights with her brothers had been over the television and what to watch on the only set that had been in their home at that time. Having a mother who worked in the medical profession was probably why she decided at a very young age that she would be a doctor. After all, her favorite board game had been Operation.
Her fourth grade teacher had been color blind, and Toni wondered how things looked to him. Then in fifth grade her model of the planets and sun and their orbits had won a blue ribbon. Advancing to regional competition, she had won a second place ribbon at her first science fair—and was hooked. She considered that the real turning point of her life, and from then through high school graduation had never missed a science fair.
When her classmates began taking babysitting jobs to earn extra money, Toni did not. She wasn’t comfortable with kids and didn’t want to spend her life dealing with them. But that also changed. She still remembered the moment it happened.
One day while waiting for her mother in the waiting room of the clinic, a woman and young girl had sat next to her. The kid was restless and acting up, and it was easy to see that the mother felt too sick to deal with the child. About four, the little girl wore a bunch of small bracelets on both her arms.
Impulsively Toni had asked the girl how many bracelets she was wearing. When the child shrugged, Toni began helping her count them. Then she removed two of them and asked how many were left. The little girl counted again, and the game continued, adding, subtracting, and recounting bracelets.
When the mother’s name was called and she took the girl inside with her, Toni had sunk back in her chair and gasped with the sudden realization that she should be a teacher. She forgot about her plans for pre-med and earned her teaching certification, then a master’s in science education, and returned to her home town to teach.
Now she faced a real life incident of violence to someone she knew personally. It was a shock that filled her with questions of who, why, and how. There was a compulsion inside her to seek answers, but she knew Police Chief Freeman was right. It was not her job. Her job was to teach science concepts to these students. She considered herself to be a scientist who taught—not a teacher who did science.
It was a relief when the last class of the day arrived. As they filed into the room and took their seats, Toni noted that Jodi Garrison was absent—again. She had hoped when she saw the girl in class yesterday that it was a new beginning for Jodi.
As soon as class ended and she had the room tidied, Toni went downstairs to the principal’s office. “What can you tell me about Jodi Garrison’s chronic absenteeism?” she asked the secretary. “Is there any legitimate reason for it?”
Pam frowned, her long blonde hair falling past each side of her attractive oval face and down her back. Her soft lavender pantsuit reflected her gentle nature. “She brings written excuses from her mother. I have my doubts about her really being sick, or believing whatever other excuse is given, but it’s not my decision whether they’re accepted as excused or not.”
Toni didn’t know anything about Jodi’s personal life. “What kind of home situation does she have? Do her parents work?”
“Her dad works at a manufacturing plant, and her mother is a waitress at a large restaurant, both in Poplar Bluff. With the long work hours, plus the commute, I doubt they’re home much.”
“So her mother probably does pretty much whatever Jodi asks of her,” Toni surmised with a slow nod. “I need to call her.”
Pam opened a computer file. “I’ll give you a phone number.”
Toni took the number and started to leave.
“Toni,” Pam said hesitantly.
Toni paused at the door. “Was there something else?”
“The police interviewed several people today, including Ken.” Her voice wavered.
Toni studied the secretary’s concerned expression. “Are you saying they suspect Ken?” she asked, incredulous.
Pam nodded. “I think he’s their number one suspect. There’s no way they could talk to all the people they did and not find out about Marsha’s efforts to get him fired.”
Toni shook her head in disbelief. “So the police think that’s a motive? If so, they’re grasping at straws.”
How could they believe him capable of such an act?
“I know he didn’t do it,” Pam declared with conviction. “No matter what Marsha dished out, he just took it and kept his mouth shut.”
“I know,” Toni agreed, tight lipped. “We’ll stand by him.”
Pam seemed to draw some reassurance from that.
Toni returned to her room and attempted to call Jodi’s parents, but got no answer. She gave up and hustled down the hall. At the gym door, she stuck her head inside and saw Gabe and Garrett gathering basketballs and replacing them in the ball rack for the basketball team members who were shooting free throws. “Let’s go, guys.”
They continued to chase stray balls.
“Now,” she called sternly.
They each tossed a ball in the rack, grabbed their things, and trotted after her.
“I need to stop by the police station on the way home,” Toni said as they climbed into the minivan.
“Can we go in?” Gabe asked.
“May we,” she corrected automatically.
“May we?”
“Okay.”
Toni drove left out of the school parking lot, passed their turnoff, and followed the highway into town. From one end of town to the other was about a mile.
The area had been settled in the early eighteen hundreds, but fire had destroyed half the business district near the end of the century. Then a terrible flood had destroyed much of it about twenty years later. Those had been hard times, but the stubborn residents and business owners had rebuilt each time. Today the colorful Missouri Ozark community, within easy driving distance of several lakes and rivers, thrived on tourism and small businesses.
About halfway across town Toni turned right and drove a block to the police station that sat next to the city library and faced the Post Office and City Hall across the street. Inside the building, she guided the boys to chairs near the front desk. “Wait here,” she instructed, and then approached the desk where officer Pete Rogers sat. “I’d like to speak to Chief Freeman.”
“Hi, Toni,” Pete greeted her in a friendly manner. “Hear you found a body yesterday.” He had graduated from high school a couple years behind her and joined the department a few months later.
The entire force consisted of the chief, six deputies and two reserves. One of those six deputies was the K-9 officer, and one was their school resource officer. The department had no clerical staff, so deputies manned the desk.
“It wasn’t my best day,” she admitted.
“Let me see if he’s free.” Pete went to the door of the office behind him and stepped inside. A moment later he emerged. “Go right in.”
“Hi, Toni.” Buck Freeman stood and extended a hand across the desk. “You just caught me. What’s on your mind?”
“You know what’s on my mind. What have you learned about Marsha’s death?”
Buck dropped back into his chair. “You just curious, or are you playing detective?”
A little uneasy about probing, but compelled to do so, Toni raised her chin. “Chalk it up to nosiness if you like, but give me credit for having a vested interest.”
The narrow eyed look he gave her was piercing. “Granted, you had a traumatic experience yesterday, but I’m not sure you should be involved.”
“I don’t plan to interfere,” Toni assured him. “But, like it or not, this has affected me. As much as I didn’t like Marsha, I can’t stop thinking about how she died, or finding her like that. And my job is affected.”
Buck rubbed a long finger and thumb back and forth over his upper lip. “In what way?”
Toni took the chair next to his desk, stifling the twinge of guilt niggling
at her for using their relationship this way, but she needed to know what had happened to their superintendent. Buck and her dad had been pals from the time they were young boys. After graduation from high school, Russell had enlisted in the military, while Buck had gone right to work for the local police department and earned his degree in criminal justice over a period of several years. When their longtime chief retired six years ago, Buck had run for the job and won.
“I was seriously considering looking for another position, but now I don’t know what to think or do. I guess I just need to know what happened. I’m positive Ken didn’t do it.” She added the last with utter, almost hostile, certainty.
Buck seemed startled by her adamancy. “Is this your personal or science knowledge speaking? Or is it just the fact that the guy is your friend?”
Toni held on to her temper. “I know Ken Douglas. He’s not a violent person. In fact, he’s a bit of a pushover. Knowing the truth would clear him and help me make a decision about my job.” She didn’t mention the personal guilt underlying her motives.
“Okay, maybe you’re entitled—to a point,” he granted in a gruff drawl. “But if I share information with you, I have to be convinced that you’ll not reveal too much or get in the way. And if you get any ideas or learn anything, you bring them directly to me.”
Toni nodded. “Fair enough. Now what can you tell me?”
He leaned forward on his arms. “The blood we found in the parking lot was a match to Marsha, but we didn’t find anything helpful in her computer.”
“What about her cell phone?”
“Her phone log shows a call to Jack at ten-thirty that night, supporting what he said.”
“You talked to him?”
Buck nodded. “We did. He said Marsha called him that night to tell him something had come up and she had to go to Aaron’s.”
“Her son.”
“Right. Jack said he tried calling her the next day to check on her, but she didn’t answer her cell phone. He tried calling Aaron, but he couldn’t get an answer there either. He says he kept trying to reach both of them, but days passed and he still got no answers. He was getting worried by then but didn’t know what to do. That’s when he started calling friends and family members to see if anyone knew where he might find her.”
“Did he ever talk to her son?”
Buck eased back in the chair. “Jack said he finally got Aaron on the phone New Year’s Day. The boy’s a college student and had been on a skiing trip with some friends. He knew nothing of his mother’s whereabouts.”
Toni tapped a finger against her knee. “We know the rest of the story. What about the piece of glass we found near the blood in the parking lot?”
“No reports on that yet.”
“Okay, thanks for leveling with me.” She rose to leave.
Buck tipped his chair back, his brow creased in thought. “Maybe your knowledge of the school and the people who work there can be helpful to us. Since everyone knows you, they might share details with you that they wouldn’t think to tell us.”
Toni pushed her purse strap onto her shoulder. “Is that permission to talk to them?”
He emitted a long sigh. “We both know the gossip mill is alive and well, and no one can tell you not to listen to people or talk to them. I suppose it’s permission to do it with a purpose.”
She left quickly, before he could change his mind.
On the way home, Toni fought the tension headache that had crept through her neck and shoulders and moved up into the back of her head. The argument the boys were having in the back seat didn’t help. She opened her mouth to put a stop to it, but was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.
Her first impulse was to ignore it, but a quick glance at the caller ID told her it was her best friend, Kara Yates, who probably wanted to discuss her wedding plans.
Keeping her eyes on the road, Toni put the phone to her ear. “Hello, Kool Kara.”
“Hi, Terrific Toni,” Kara returned brightly. Then her voice changed, became serious. “I heard on the news about your superintendent being killed. You’re the science teacher who found her, aren’t you?”
Toni drew a deep breath. “I’m afraid so.”
“How are you handling the situation?”
“Angry. Tired. Guilty,” she added, knowing Kara was the one person who would always understand her.
“I know you didn’t like the woman, but you have no control over what happened to her.”
“I wanted her gone.”
“Wow. And how many others did the same? Okay, your guilt is misplaced, but I see how it could affect you. Just don’t let it eat you alive. Put on your reality cap and accept that you don’t have the power to wish someone dead. Oops, someone’s at the door. Chin up, okay?”
When she disconnected, the wedding had not been mentioned. But Toni felt a tiny bit better. Kara always knew when she was down and could lift her spirits. Toni missed her and wished she still lived here in Clearmount.
Their friendship dated from junior high when Kara’s family moved to Clearmount. One day during Mr. Hamlin’s science class they had been assigned to the same small work group and given the assignment of seeing how many genetic and inherited traits they could identify that they had in common with their parents. During class they were given a work sheet with a list of common traits for them to compare with their classmates—like sticking out their tongues to see if they could curl it into a U. Then they put their hands together and interlocked their fingers to see if they were right or left thumbed.
Toni and Kara had become fascinated as they continued their comparisons and found more and more traits in common. They both had dimples. They both could spread their fingers in a Vulcan hand sign. They had the same hair color. By the time the classroom exercise ended, they decided they must be sisters and their parents just didn’t know it. By that time they were besties. Still were.
After high school they attended different colleges but kept in touch—and both majored in science. Kara had been Toni’s maid of honor when she married Kyle, but Toni had not been able to reciprocate for Kara, whose longtime engagement to her high school sweetheart had gone sour and been broken during their senior year. That was when Kara had decided not to return to Clearmount.
Instead, she had accepted a teaching position at a high school there in Springfield. Later she began an eBay business on the side and started attending auctions and other sales where she could find antiques or items she thought would turn a profit. When there were estate sales in the area, she came to attend, and Toni got to visit with her. During Kara’s spring break in March, that long delayed privilege of serving as Kara’s maid of honor was to be rectified.
*
As soon as Toni arrived at her classroom Thursday morning she called the office and asked to speak to her principal. “May I visit with you third hour?” she asked as soon as Pam put her through. Each teacher had one period free to take care of class preparation and other duties. Hers was third.
“I’ll try to be here,” he promised in a tired voice.
Toni understood that meant if he didn’t have to deal with an unexpected disciplinary matter or an impromptu meeting. Under the circumstances, anything was possible.
Two hours later she got a Coke from a vending machine on the way to Ken’s office. When she entered, popping the top of the can, she recognized dejection in his demeanor.
The office was small, with a desk in the center and a credenza behind it that held a laptop, assorted books and papers. A large bookshelf stood to the right, a smaller one on the left, leaving only enough room for one chair in front of the desk.
“Hello, Imelda,” he said with a ghost of his usual spirits, eyeing her pale pink pumps that matched her pink blouse. Ken often kidded Toni about her penchant for shoes, which she had in nearly every color imaginable, although not as many as Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines who had left behind a collection of over three thousand pairs when exiled.
>
Toni dropped into the chair and got right to the point. “I heard that the police gave you a hard time. Will you tell me about it so I can get some things straight in my mind?”
He shuffled a stack of discipline reports from one side of the desk to the other. Then he met her gaze across the desk. “They grilled me like they think I killed Marsha. In fact, I thought they were going to take me to jail.”
“Do you have any idea who could have done it?”
He shook his rumple-haired head. “I know a lot of people who think she deserved it, but I can’t imagine who really did it.”
Toni knew how hard Ken had worked, commuting to night classes during regular semesters, taking summer classes, all while working on his thesis. He had also taken on extra stipend paying duties so his wife could stay home after their son was born.
“Can we talk about it and see if we can develop any theories?”
Ken’s eyes narrowed. “Does that mean you don’t think I did it?”
Toni nodded and grinned. “You’re too much of a marshmallow.”
Ken’s smile at her attempted levity was halfhearted. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. I guess it’s true what they say about finding out who your friends really are when you’re in trouble. The truth is, I don’t think I could kill someone if my life depended on it.”
“Do you remember the last time you saw Marsha?”
“Like I told the police, I remember seeing her leave the gym around four that last afternoon of classes before the break. She went out the north door, so I assumed she was headed to her office.”
“Which is probably true from the look of things. What time did you leave?”
“It was somewhere around five, right behind you.”
“But you went out the front door.”
His troubled gaze darted around the room. “Yes, just like I always do.”
“I didn’t,” Toni said thoughtfully. “I had parked in the end lot, so I went out the way Marsha did, past the administration offices.”
Ken waited for an explanation.
