Toni Donovan Mysteries- Books 1-3

by Helen Gray

  God, please protect Garrett. I can’t be with him every minute. You’re the only one who can do that. I’m sorry I wished Mrs. Carter gone, but I don’t want to go to that funeral tomorrow. But I will if you’ll …

  Her prayer trailed to a halt as she realized that God would not bargain with her. At the same time, conviction grew in her that it was important she attend the service. Once she accepted that she must go, she fell asleep.

  When Toni entered the church the next afternoon, she saw that the service was well attended. No matter what Marsha Carter’s status had been at the school, her death was a big local story. Even though this was not the church Toni attended, she recognized most of the people present. She spotted a group of school staff sitting in a back section of pews and joined them. Marsha’s son and daughter, and a man she assumed to be their dad, sat on the front pew at the right side of the center aisle. Jack Rayford sat alone on the opposite side.

  Just as the service started, Chief Freeman slipped into the church and took a seat in the very back pew. Deep wrinkles formed brackets around his mouth and etched frown lines between his eyes. When he turned his head, his gaze met Toni’s.

  She raised her eyebrows in what she hoped he recognized as a signal that she wanted to speak to him later.

  The service was a solemn affair. There was some recorded music and a message delivered by the older, heavyset and balding minister. As he spoke, Toni fought her burden of guilt. She knew her feelings toward Marsha had not killed the woman, but the guilt persisted anyhow. When the minister finished speaking, the organ began to play. People formed a line to file past the casket and out of the room.

  Toni eased into the line a few feet behind Buck. At the exit he stepped to the left of the door and waited for her to join him. “I got the impression you want to speak to me.”

  “I just want to know if you’ve had a chance to check Jimmie Huff’s and Rick Montgomery’s alibis.”

  “They both check,” he said briefly.

  “Would it be possible for me to get a look into Marsha’s computer?”

  His frown lines deepened. “What would you be looking for?”

  “Anything that would indicate proposals she meant to present to the board about budget or staff cuts. Also anything to do with insurance policies she might have had besides the standard district group policy.”

  He nodded. “Let me think about that and get back to you. Are you going to the graveside service?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ve done my civic duty. I wasn’t exactly close to the woman.”

  Toni had left the boys with her parents again after school. Once she picked them up and arrived home she decided to take the evening off and just relax. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

  After bowls of chili and crackers, Toni took a shower and curled up on the sofa with a book. But she couldn’t read. Her body ached, and depression weighed her down. It had now been a week and a half since finding Marsha’s body. There was a killer out there, and she had no idea who it was.

  “Hey, Mom!” Garrett slid to a stop in the doorway. “Gabe’s high on pot!”

  “What?” Toni sprang to her feet, flinching with pain and grabbing her hip as she did so. “Where is he?”

  “In here,” Garrett called over his shoulder as he raced toward the bathroom.

  When she reached the open doorway, Toni stopped abruptly. Gabe stood on top of the closed lid of the toilet stool, waving his arms. “I’m high on pot,” he crowed. “I’m high on pot.”

  “You brat,” Toni sputtered, crossing the room and wrapping her arm around the kid’s neck in a headlock. With her other hand she reached around and grabbed Garrett in a similar hold. Then she rubbed their heads together in a playful scuffle. “You two are in big trouble.”

  The three of them wrestled their way across the room and ended up in a heap on the hallway floor.

  “I’ll teach you two to scare me like that.” She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. Then she sat upright and looked from one to the other of them.

  Gabe was still laughing, but Garrett had quieted.

  “You know what I think you boys are doing?”

  They both shook their heads and chorused, “Huh uh.”

  “I think you’re trying to cheer me up.”

  “Did it work?” Garrett asked quietly.

  She took a deep breath. “I believe it did. But I still think you deserve punishment. I think I’ll just refuse to let you grow up and leave me.”

  Gabe laughed.

  “How will you do that?” Garrett wanted to know.

  Toni grinned. “I’m still working on that.”

  *

  Monday started out gloomy and stayed that way. The overcast sky presaged more snow and dampened student morale. Toni breathed a sigh of relief when the last class ended. She stood by the doorway until the hallway cleared, and then went to get the boys, leaving the classroom unlocked for Beth Price. When she returned, the boys went to seats in the back of the room to do their homework, and Toni put a CD into the player on the bookshelf near her desk. A rousing band march from the collection Jenny had given her for Christmas filled the room. She turned the volume down.

  “Hey, I like that.” Beth entered the room, dragging a big trash bag in each hand. She sashayed rhythmically to the rear of the room and deposited them. Then she looked back and spotted the boys. “I could sure use your help, guys,” she called as she began to tie newspapers into bundles. “Gabe, why don’t you start on that bag of cans?” She pointed. “Garrett, you can help me with these papers.”

  “It’s okay,” Toni told them. “You can finish your homework later.”

  While Beth and the boys worked and chattered in the back of the room, Toni made a test for later in the week. When she finished, she gathered her grade book and papers and shoved them into her satchel.

  Beth approached the desk. “Mrs. Donovan,” she said quietly. “You asked me about Jodi Garrison the other day.”

  Toni put the satchel down. “Yes, I did. I care about her.”

  “Well,” Beth began uncertainly. “I told you that she broke up with her boyfriend.”

  “Are you saying you were wrong?”

  Beth shook her head. “No. I mean yes. She did break up with him. But I heard she has a new boyfriend. I don’t know his name, but it’s supposed to be an older boy, someone who graduated two or three years ago.”

  “That’s interesting. I appreciate you getting back to me about it.”

  “If I hear anything else, I’ll let you know.” Beth put on her coat and left the room.

  Oh, the angst of teenage love. Toni remembered it well. Her childhood had been a happy one, and growing up with two younger brothers had taught her a certain amount of responsibility, as well as self defense. But she had not escaped the pangs of romance.

  She had known Kyle Donovan casually as they grew up in a small town and attended many of the same school activities, but in seventh grade everything had changed. One night at a high school basketball game she had lost her purse. It hadn’t contained much of value, but she wanted a Coke, and her allowance was in the purse. As she looked for it under the bleachers, Kyle had come by and helped her in the fruitless search. Then he took her to the concession and bought Cokes for the two of them. At that moment she fell in love with him, sure that her heart would burst, and that she would never be whole without him.

  The next day Toni had been devastated to learn that he already had a steady girlfriend, and thought her thirteen-year-old heart would break. But her despair turned to joy later that week when Kyle stopped her in the hall, asked if she would sit with him at the next game, and assured her that he no longer had a steady girlfriend.

  They were sweethearts from that time forward. When Kyle graduated from high school two years ahead of her and left for college, Toni thought she would die of loneliness. Kyle wanted to get married when he graduated, but she had not wanted him to support her through her last two years of college. So
he went to work for the airline and saved money while waiting. They married right after her graduation, and she signed a contract to teach at Clearmount.

  They had weathered some rough times in those first years of marriage while Toni was trying to balance teaching, working on her Master’s degree, and having babies. But they had worked through things, and she had found satisfaction in teaching. When schools began offering forensics classes, she had been among the first to seize the opportunity to incorporate crime solving into her curriculum.

  “Let’s go, Mom.” Garrett tugged on his coat.

  Toni returned to the present and gathered her possessions. On the way home she debated whether to leave the boys again. She hated to, but she wanted to talk to Tom Keller.

  As she pulled into the driveway, Toni’s cell phone rang. She picked it up and noted the Zachary ID. “Hello, John.”

  “It’s me, Jenny.” Her voice sounded tense. Dejected.

  “What’s wrong?” Toni turned off the motor, but didn’t get out of the warm van. The boys sat tight also.

  “Michelle is sick.”

  “Is it serious?” Michelle Turner taught art at the school.

  “I don’t think so, just the flu. But she’s supposed to go with the band tomorrow.”

  Suddenly Toni understood. All-District Band auditions. “You’re short a chaperone for your trip tomorrow,” she said, thinking fast.

  “Because we have to haul our instruments as well as the students, we’re taking two buses,” Jenny explained. “If you could possibly go on the other bus in Michelle’s place, John would be happy to look after your boys. He’ll even come to your house so they can sleep late in the morning. I’m desperate, Toni.” She had reached the point of pleading.

  Toni drew a silent sigh as her entire Saturday slipped away from her. Jenny would do as much for her, though. She knew that. “Kyle is still out of town, so that’ll work fine.”

  “Oh, thank you, thank you.” Relief came across the line in waves. “He’ll take them out for pizza, or wherever they want to eat.”

  Treat them like little princes, Toni thought with a grin.

  “You ready for the bad part?” Jenny asked.

  Toni went still.

  “We have to be at the school at four a.m. to load the buses and get on the road.”

  Now she laughed. “I thought you were going to say I had to sit with the tuba.”

  Jenny’s laugh was almost a giggle. “Thanks,” she repeated before disconnecting.

  The next morning Toni packed her book satchel to take with her so she could grade some papers during the lengthy ride. Still sleepy eyed, she left right after John arrived and reached the school exactly on time, not one minute late, but certainly not early.

  The day was a carefully orchestrated event. They arrived at the host school at seven-fifteen, registration began at eight, and the judges began auditions at nine. By early afternoon the students had been shepherded through the process, and they headed back to their buses.

  “Winners will come back for rehearsals and a concert the first weekend of February,” Jenny said as she and Toni watched the students carry their instruments back onto the buses.

  “I enjoyed the day, but I won’t mind if Michelle is able to come next time,” Toni said with a teasing grin.

  It was five o’clock, with dusk beginning to fall, when they arrived back at the Clearmount School. Anxious to get home, Toni curbed her impatience while waiting for the students to store their instruments in the building and drive away or catch their rides.

  “See you in the morning at church,” Jenny called as Toni sprinted for her van. She started the motor and was letting it warm when her phone rang. She shivered from the cold as she answered it.

  “Toni, this is Sandy Douglas.” The voice of her principal’s wife was low and hoarse, unrecognizable.

  Toni frowned. “Are you okay?”

  “No, my car quit, and I can’t get it going. Ken’s not home. Can you come get me?”

  “Where are you?” Please let it be close.

  “I’m at the lake campground, near the spillway. And I’m freezing.” Her voice sounded unlike her, quavering and almost indistinguishable. She must be scared as well as cold. And Toni found it odd that she would be out at the lake.

  Toni glanced at her watch. “It’ll take me ten minutes to get there.”

  She put the van in motion and dialed her house. Gabe answered. “I’m in town, but I have to run an errand on my way home.”

  “That’s okay. We’re playing carom with John. Bye.” It was their favorite board game, played much like pool, with plastic donut-like caroms that they knocked into corner pouches by finger flipping a shooter carom at them.

  Toni made it to the campground entrance in nine minutes. She reduced her speed and turned left, and then slowed to a crawl as she followed the road through the park, keeping watch for Sandy’s car, a blue van if she remembered correctly. She rounded the final curve to the spillway and peered ahead. The area was deserted.

  A loud burst of sound and impact on the side window behind her startled the wits out of Toni. Without conscious thought she slammed on the brakes. As the van skidded, another explosion came, and the vehicle careened to the edge of the paved surface. For a moment she thought it was going into the water, but she held onto the wheel with a death grip and managed to bring it to a full stop at the very edge of the lake.

  Someone was shooting at her. Toni hunkered down in the seat and pushed the door partially open. She waited a couple of seconds, and then risked a peek through the bottom of the door glass. Across the grounds she saw a lone figure dart from behind a tree and take off across the campground, running and weaving through the trees and campsites. The person wore a dark hoodie and a dark bulky jacket.

  Toni glanced back and saw that a hole had been blown through the rear window of the van. The glass was cracked in a huge web all around it, and her left rear tire was flat. Filled with rage that someone had lured her out here with a phony call and tried to kill her, she leaped from the van and ran after the assailant. She lost sight of the fleeing figure for a moment, but then spotted the person leaping from the ditch to the paved surface.

  Pushing with everything she had, Toni raced that way. The figure stumbled once, but then took off across the roadway and disappeared behind the check station. By the time Toni got across the ditch, she saw the person fleeing into the trees up the hillside.

  Gasping for breath, she drew to a halt and stared as the last flash of color disappeared. No way could she catch him or her. In defeat, she took several deep breaths and then started back across the empty campground. When she reached the van, she crawled inside and dug her phone from her purse. She called the police station, thankful she had the number saved in her phone.

  “Deputy Dale Brown. May I help you?”

  Toni rattled off what had happened, fighting for control.

  “Stay put. Someone will be right there.”

  Like she was going anywhere with a blown out tire—and the January cold and wind filtering through the hole in the window. She started the motor and turned the heat up full blast. Then she sat there, her fists clenched so tightly that her nails bit into her palms, trying to get warm and calm down.

  How could she be calm? Someone had tried to hurt her child. And now her. Rage boiled in her.

  Minutes later a police car came flying up the road, siren screaming, and swung into the campground. When it slid to a halt beside her, Buck Freeman emerged from it.

  “Tell me what happened,” he ordered gruffly as Toni opened the van door.

  Toni repeated what she had told the deputy, but added details she had been unable to articulate earlier. Buck’s gaze followed the line of her aim when she pointed to where the shooter had disappeared.

  “Toni,” he barked, looking back at her. “Don’t you realize how dangerous that was, chasing someone with a gun who had been shooting at you?”

  She swallowed the knot in her throat. “I was
mad. I wanted to catch the monster and strangle him. Or her,” she added, visualizing the figure again. She had no idea who it might have been. And that enraged her even more.

  “Okay, calm down,” he said, his voice gentling. “A couple of deputies will be here any minute. I’ll have them search those woods and examine your van. When they’re done, they’ll have it towed to whatever garage you prefer.”

  “Take it to Wally’s,” she said, her body threatening to melt into a puddle.

  “I’ll take you to the station and get your statement. Then I’ll take you home,” he said as another police car swerved into the grounds.

  By the time he delivered her home, Toni had grown calmer. But she was still ripping mad. “Thanks for everything,” she said as she stepped out of the cruiser.

  Buck nodded and drove away.

  As Toni made her way up the driveway, the garage door began to grind upward.

  “Hey, Mom. Dad came home, so John left,” Gabe announced from the doorway of the utility room at the back of the garage. “Where have you been? Why did the police bring you home?”

  Her gaze landed on Kyle’s truck parked next to where her van should have been. “I didn’t expect your dad until Wednesday. And Buck brought me home because I had some trouble with the van.” She didn’t want to tell the boys about the shooting.

  When Gabe turned, Toni followed him through the utility room into the kitchen. Kyle stood in front of the stove, stirring something in a big pot.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her anger momentarily forgotten.

  He put the spoon down and pulled her to him. “My boss adjusted the schedule.”

  Toni stepped back and narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, yeah? His idea or yours?”

  He shrugged. “A little of both. He knew I was concerned about you, so he juggled some things, and here I am. I have a run scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but that leaves me free to goof off for three days.”

  Toni tipped her head to study his expression, not sure whether to be upset with him or to love him to death for his concern. It would be good to have him here to help with the boys. Maybe they would even find a way to spend some time alone. She didn’t want the romantic part of their marriage to be over.