Toni Donovan Mysteries- Books 1-3

by Helen Gray

  Nicole raised troubled blue eyes to meet hers. She nodded. “I was in one of his classes when he was teaching at Branson six years ago.”

  Toni studied the girl, recalling the student comments she had heard earlier. What kind of guy had the victim been? “Was it a bad experience?” she asked carefully.

  Nicole drew a deep breath. “He never touched me, if that’s what you’re asking. But he made me uneasy. He was kind of flirty, if you know what I mean.”

  Uh, oh! Educators involved in sexual misconduct cases was becoming way too much of a problem. Toni remembered reading an article recently that stated, of the approximately three million public school teachers in the United States, there had been over twenty-five hundred educators censured over a three-year period. “Were there any formal accusations from anyone?”

  Nicole winced. “There were stories going around, but nothing was ever made public.”

  “What kind of stories?”

  “Well, there was a senior girl he was supposed to be having a thing with.”

  Toni couldn’t prevent a wince of her own. “Do you think the stories were true?”

  Nicole sighed. “I’m sure they were. The girl was in my art class, and she seemed proud of what she considered her conquest. I overheard her talking to some other girls one day, and she was telling them about a hot date. They were whispering, but I’m pretty sure I heard her say Jesse.”

  Toni wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this.

  “You were there in the park. What do you think happened to him?” Nicole asked.

  “I don’t have any idea who might have killed the man. Do you?”

  Nicole bit her lip. “No, but if he was fooling around at other schools like he did at Branson, there are probably plenty of possibilities. Listen, I’m sorry I bothered you. I’m sure you’re busy, and I have to get to work.”

  “You didn’t bother me,” Toni assured her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  With a little wave, Nicole left the room.

  *

  As promised, Kara was waiting at the entrance of the student union when Toni arrived. Wearing a peach blouse and ivory slacks, she gripped the handle of an infant carrier in one hand, and had a diaper bag and purse dangling from the opposite shoulder. Toni reached over and took the diaper bag.

  Kara Yates had been Toni’s best friend since junior high school when Kara’s parents moved to Clearmount. Ironically, their relationship had begun in science class when they were placed in the same small work group during a lesson on genetics and inherited traits. They had discovered that they had so many traits in common, including hair color, height and weight, that they decided they must really be sisters and their parents just didn’t know it.

  Finding that hilarious, they had partnered up in other classes and rapidly cemented their friendship.

  After high school, they attended different colleges, but kept in touch regularly, and both majored in science. While Toni returned to Clearmount to marry Kyle and teach school there, Kara had remained in Springfield, graduated from Missouri State University, and taken a teaching position at Glendale High School. After six years with that district, she had resigned, become an adjunct science instructor at the local community college, and later gotten married. When she learned she was expecting Jimmy in June, she had talked Toni into holding down her summer class for her. Toni had stayed with her during the first four weeks to be with her through the time of having Jimmy while her husband was deployed to Afghanistan.

  Kara looked her over. “You look like you’ve been running a race. I had to bring Jimmy, but he’s taking his long afternoon nap.”

  “I haven’t had lunch, and I’m starving,” Toni said as they headed inside.

  She ordered a fish sandwich and soda, but Kara, who said she had already eaten, just got a soft drink. They slid into a booth that had seen a lot of wear, facing one another, and Toni scooted the diaper bag to the inner wall next to her.

  “Okay, talk,” Kara ordered when she had Jimmy and his carrier settled.

  “Did you know the victim we found?” Toni asked, unwrapping her sandwich.

  Kara shook her head. “No, but it’s an intriguing story, and I want to know if you’re going to get involved.”

  “I don’t have any such plans, and I’m too hungry to talk right now.”

  Kara grinned. “Eat. Then I expect a full revelation.”

  Toni downed her sandwich quickly and then told Kara about Saturday’s events, omitting only the bit about Garrett’s dream.

  “I remembered about your reunion and knew it just had to be you,” Kara said, her eyes sparkling with interest when Toni finished.

  Toni eased back in the booth and tucked a leg comfortably beneath her. She started to make another comment, but her attention was diverted to the booth across the aisle when she heard the dead coach’s name mentioned. A card game was in progress.

  A young man, a big guy with dark bushy hair and a beard that made Toni think of a fur trapper in an old western movie, slapped a card down on the table. “See what you think of that, Jackie Boy,” he said in a gloating tone. “I remember when he coached at Branson. He had a fantastic winning record. I don’t understand what happened.”

  “I raise you two dollars. He was one winning dude,” Jackie agreed from across the table, picking up a card from the deck between them and studying it. Sandy haired, he wore glasses that gave him a scholarly look.

  “I really appreciate you holding down my job for me this summer,” Kara said to Toni, and opened her mouth to say more.

  Toni rolled her eyes sideways and blinked to signal her interest in the next table.

  Message received, Kara went silent and picked up her drink cup. They sipped slowly and listened.

  “I loved to watch his teams play,” the third young man said. Also fair haired, his haircut resembled a fringed bowling ball. He slapped his cards face down on the table. “I’m out. I’ll miss attending games to see the guy win,” he continued without missing a beat.

  “Too bad someone offed him,” the first one said, studying his hand.

  “Yeah, it’s too bad,” the spectacled Jackie said.

  The fourth young man, who had been silent, suddenly looked up from staring at his hand of cards. “He’s no big loss.” The tone sounded snide. Broad shouldered, his hair was shorter than his companions. It stood straight up on top. The ends had been bleached a glaring golden color that bounced off Toni’s eyeballs.

  “What’s your beef, Corey?” the first big guy snapped. “You shouldn’t speak bad of the dead.”

  Corey flipped a card onto the discard pile. “Forget it. I didn’t mean anything.”

  Jackie scooted out of the booth. “I have class in fifteen. See you around.” He dashed away.

  “Me, too,” golden top said, putting his cards down.

  The big guy raked up the cards and tucked them into his book bag.

  Kara stared at Toni as the foursome walked out of sight. “I guess the story is the topic of the day. Should I run those guys down and tell them your role in it?”

  Toni gave her a glare.

  The Batman theme erupted. It took a couple of seconds for Toni to assimilate that one of her sons had changed the ring of her cell phone.

  Startled from sleep, the baby’s eyes shot open. His little body stiffened, and he set up a howl. Kara reached over to soothe him and lifted him from his seat.

  Toni checked the caller ID and saw that it was John. “Hello.”

  “Toni, I need to talk to you,” he said, his voice low and vibrating with suppressed emotion. “I just left the library. Where are you? Can you meet me somewhere?”

  Struggling to hear him over the crying baby, Toni glanced at her watch. “I’m at the student union with Kara.”

  “I need to go,” Kara broke in. “Talk to you later.” She slid from the booth, patting Jimmy.

  Toni nodded and put her hand over the phone and spoke to Kara. “Give me a call later. Okay?”

  “Will d
o.” Kara grabbed the infant seat, her purse, and the diaper bag Toni handed her.

  “I’m back,” Toni said to John as Kara walked away. Do you want to come here, or would you rather meet me some place, like the park, or at my in-laws?”

  There was a slight pause. “Do you have your laptop with you?”

  “No, it’s at the house.”

  “Then I’ll meet you there. What’s the address and what time will you be there?”

  Toni gave him the address. “I can be there in about fifteen minutes.”

  “Good.” The phone went silent.

  *

  Puzzled, Toni stuck the phone back in her purse and wasted no time getting to the Donovan home. John’s car was already parked at the curb. As soon as she pulled into the drive, he emerged and came to meet her, his laptop in his hands.

  “Here,” he said, pulling the flash drive from the lanyard around his neck and holding it out to her.

  Toni’s puzzlement grew. “What’s the matter? Are you having trouble getting something off of it?”

  John shook his head. “It’s not my drive. It’s Jesse Campbell’s.”

  That nearly exploded her brain. “How in the world did you get it?”

  His grin was wry. “He and I went to the lab after class Thursday to look up and copy some material for an assignment. I mean, why copy stuff at home if we can do it for free in the lab?”

  Toni nodded, but she still didn’t understand about the drive.

  “We both used our flash drives, and when we finished, I guess we each picked up the wrong one,” he explained. “We were sitting next to one another. Anyhow, with Friday being the holiday, we weren’t in class that day, and I didn’t use the drive over the weekend. When I went to the lab after class today and started to open my files, I discovered the switch.”

  Toni’s mind was spinning. She wanted to see what was on that drive—even though there was probably nothing helpful there.

  John’s expression turned somber. “Do you think I should turn it over to the police?”

  Toni debated for about two seconds. “Yes, I do—after we copy it.”

  John grinned and indicated his laptop. “My thoughts exactly.”

  The front door opened, and Barb Donovan stepped out onto the small front porch. “Why, hello, John.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Donovan,” he returned amiably. “I hope you don’t mind if I come in and show Toni some files. I need some advice on a matter.”

  “Of course not. Come on inside. Dan and the boys are out shopping. You’re welcome to use Dan’s office.”

  “Thanks,” Toni said to her mother-in-law, and then addressed John. “It’s the room on the left at the end of the hall. Go ahead and get your computer going. I’ll join you in a minute with mine.”

  Once they had both laptops on Russell’s desk and booted, John inserted Jesse’s flash drive into a USB port and opened the list of files on it. Toni pulled her chair up next to him and peered over his shoulder. The file names seemed simple enough.

  “Some of these are class assignments,” John mumbled, running a finger down the screen. He paused on a file name. “There’s the one we both worked on Thursday and copied from my drive to his. I guess that’s when we got them mixed up.”

  “There are some Excel files,” Toni commented. “Did you use any spreadsheets in the class?”

  John nodded. “We created a grade book one day, so he may have made more than one copy. This one looks like it could be that assignment.” He clicked on it.

  Finding what he expected, John closed the file and opened another. He peered closer. “This looks like it could be a copy of his personal banking records.”

  “Everything looks pretty straightforward,” Toni said. “Let’s copy all the files onto both our computers. Then we can look at them in more detail when we have more time.”

  John closed the file and copied everything to his hard drive. Then he extracted the flash and handed it to Toni.

  “Now who do we give it to?” she asked when she had done the same.

  John considered a moment. “We probably should take it to the police station. But I’m not crazy about going in there when we’ve just done this. I guess I feel a little guilty.”

  “I’ll call Quint and see if he’ll turn it in for us.” She picked up her phone from where she had laid it on the desk.

  “Uh, do you have time to come by before you go to work?” she asked when her brother answered. “John and I have something we need to show you.”

  “Are you at the Donovan house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is this about the body at the park?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll stop by on my way to work. I was just getting dressed.”

  Toni exhaled in relief as she disconnected.

  Chapter 5

  When Quint’s navy pickup pulled to the curb a half hour later, Toni trotted down the driveway and crawled into the passenger seat beside her uniformed brother. John went around to the driver’s door, and Quint rolled down the window. “What’s up?” he asked John.

  “I found something that belongs to the dead man.” John handed the flash drive through the open window.

  Quint took it, a questioning frown on his face, and turned it over in his hands. “How did you get this, and what’s the significance of it?”

  “I don’t know whether it has any significance.” John explained how he came to have it.

  “Since it belonged to the dead man, we thought the police might want it,” Toni said. “But we weren’t sure who it should be given to.”

  Quint nodded. “I’ll give it to one of the detectives. It may be a waste of time, but it should be checked. You never know what kind of personal information could help solve a case like this.” He glanced at his watch.

  Toni opened the door and dropped to the ground. “Thanks for coming by. See you later.”

  As she watched Quint drive away, Toni’s mind took a different turn. She faced John. “Where’s your flash drive?”

  “I don’t know. I guess Jesse took it.”

  “Do you think his wife might have it?”

  He shrugged. “She might be willing to check in his stuff and see if she can find it.”

  “Do you know where she lives?”

  “No-o-o,” he said on a long drawl. “But she’s somewhere in Ozark, and it’s not a real big town.”

  Toni thought a moment. “I’ll call Kara. Maybe she can help.”

  Within minutes Toni had Kara on the line and gave her an abbreviated explanation of the mix-up. “Do you have any idea how I can locate the coach’s widow?” she asked, hearing the baby crying in the background.

  “No,” Kara said. “Hang on just a second. Okay,” she continued moments later. “Jimmy is fighting naptime. He may go to sleep if I hold him, but he isn’t about to be quiet so I can chat. He’s been fussy all day.”

  Toni waited for the explanations to run down.

  “Okay, you’re looking for Jesse Campbell’s widow,” Kara said, a note of frustration in her voice as the baby continued to cry, the uneven sounds indicating she was bouncing him in her arms. “I didn’t know the Campbell couple, but I have a good friend who lives in Ozark. I’ll call her and get right back to you.”

  “I’d appreciate that.” Toni disconnected and relayed Kara’s response to John. “Let’s go back inside and have a cold soda while we wait for her to call back.”

  He nodded. “That, and the air conditioning, sound good.”

  They were seated at the kitchen table with their drinks and cookies that Barb had insisted they try when Toni’s phone rang.

  “I talked to my friend Sally,” Kara said without preamble. “She says Jesse and Sheila Campbell lived in the Excelsior Gardens apartment complex. She doesn’t have an apartment number, just a phone number from her staff emergency call list.”

  “Give it to me.” Toni indicated to John with a hand motion that she needed writing materials. He bounced up and trotted back to t
he office. When he returned and handed her only a pen, Toni wrote the number Kara quoted on a napkin. After thanking Kara and disconnecting, she went to her computer and looked up directions to the apartments.

  “I’ll drive and bring you back,” John volunteered when she finished making notes.

  Toni went to tell Barb they were leaving and would probably be gone a couple of hours, and then she followed John to his car.

  Ozark was only about ten miles from Springfield. As they traveled south on Route 65, Toni found herself wondering about Jesse Campbell. Up until now he had only been a murder victim, but in her mind he was beginning to take vague form as a human being.

  Steep hills towered on each side of the highway, the mid-afternoon sun giving the horizon a shimmering glow. It only took a few minutes to reach Highway F. John swung left and was soon cruising past a sparkling swimming pool, a playground, and a courtyard with patio tables and BBQ grills. He pulled in at the office building of the complex and parked next to a late model gray van.

  A huge pot of flowers stood next to the doorway, and the lawn was neatly mowed and trimmed. Toni pointed toward a cluster of mailboxes at the end of the walkway. “Let’s check those before trying to talk a clerk into giving us an apartment number.”

  “Works for me.”

  “You start at one end. I’ll take the other,” Toni said when they reached them. She began running her eyes over the surnames on the individual boxes.

  “Here’s a Campbell,” John announced. “It’s number three-twenty-eight.”

  They found the apartment quickly. In simultaneous moves Toni rang the doorbell and John knocked on the door. “We’ll scare her to death,” Toni said in a near giggle.

  It was a few moments before the door opened a couple of inches. Round dark eyes peered out over the burglar chain.

  “Mrs. Campbell?” John asked politely. “I’m John Zachary, and this is my colleague, Toni Donovan. I met your husband in a class last week at Drury, and I’m shocked at his death. May we come in and talk to you?”

  The woman continued to stare at them, whether doubting their identity or just reluctant to talk to them, it was hard to tell.