Toni Donovan Mysteries- Books 1-3

by Helen Gray

  “Glad you kept it cool in here,” she said, getting behind the wheel.

  “I’m doing fine, so if you want to go any place else, feel free.” His grin was a bit smug.

  “Smart guy.” She backed the van out of the parking spot and swung forward into the street, heading back the way they had come. Feeling safe with John riding shotgun beside her, and discussing her conversation with Jesse Campbell’s widow with him, she didn’t pay as much attention to their surroundings as she should have. As they made a turn at the end of the block, a dark car pulled out of a parking space a hundred yards down the street and followed them.

  *

  When Joyce Franklin opened the door, her eyes widened in recognition. “I don’t want to talk to you,” she snapped, starting to close the door.

  Instinctively Toni shoved a foot between it and the door frame. “Let’s forget about what you want and do what’s smart.”

  Joyce glared at her through the partial opening, distrust marring her face. Her white-blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and held by a powder blue ribbon.

  Toni placed a palm against the door and pressed firmly. “May I please come in?”

  The woman’s eyes flashed with annoyance, but she made no further attempt to close the door, obviously wrestling with herself. After a long moment of indecision she stepped back. “Make it short.”

  Toni followed her inside and took a chair while Joyce plopped onto the couch.

  “I told you everything I know when you were here before,” she said in an angry burst.

  “But you didn’t tell me the truth,” Toni said, watching the woman’s eyes.

  Joyce blinked. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You told me you hadn’t seen Jesse Campbell in several months. Why did you lie?”

  “I didn’t,” she protested in a tone that bordered on surly.

  Toni wasn’t going to back down. “Yes, you did. You said Jesse dumped you when he left the school, which may have been true. But you hooked up with him again later. People talk,” she added pointedly.

  “So what if I did. I sure didn’t kill him.” She was bristling now, recognizing that further lies would do her no good.

  Toni eyed her closely, sizing her up. Joyce’s small size, as well as her naïve personality, made it unlikely that she would have committed such a physical attack, or have been in possession of a hunting knife. But her honesty was in question. She probably knew more than she was telling.

  “What did you really do after Jesse left the school? Did you look him up?”

  Joyce shook her head adamantly. “No way. I blocked him from my mind and moved on. Corey, my son, was a senior at the time, and graduation was a big thing for us. It gave me something to focus on and plan for.”

  That sounded like a fairly solid approach to Toni. “What about after that?”

  Joyce ran a hand through her wispy, flyaway bangs. She still wasn’t friendly, but she answered. “The next year Corey started college, and I missed him. I was lonely, but I kept busy. A friend was the cheerleading sponsor. I started helping her work with the girls after school. It occupied me, and I enjoyed the practices.”

  “But you and Jesse did connect again.”

  Joyce tilted her head, as if trying to guess how much Toni actually knew. She shrugged. “Schools are like little towns or communities inside a building. Everybody knows everybody else’s business, and gossip flows fast.” She sounded more resigned than bitter.

  “When did you call him?”

  “I didn’t. I knew from the grapevine that he went to work for a construction outfit after leaving the district. I also knew when he started coaching again at Ozark, but I never called him.”

  Toni waited while Joyce paused, gazing around as if wondering where her life had gone out of control.

  “Because of working with the cheerleaders, I kept attending basketball games, even though I no longer had a boy playing on the team,” she said, more in control now.

  Toni anticipated the next part of the story.

  “Jesse showed up with his Ozark team to play us early in the season. It was one of our first games. Afterward he stopped me in the hall, and we talked a little. He asked how I was, how Corey was doing in college, things like that. That was all. But the next time he came for a game, he looked me up and asked me to meet him for a drink. I tried to resist him, I really did. But when he kept calling me, I finally gave in. He was like a disease for me. I couldn’t resist him.” Her eyes begged Toni to understand.

  What Toni understood most clearly was that someone had cured that addiction, cold turkey, with a murder.

  “I knew he got in a mess and felt like he had to marry his buddy’s ex after her divorce. He felt guilty, I guess. But I’m sure he didn’t love her,” Joyce went on. “She’s kind of wimpy.”

  So speaks the expert on love, Toni thought wryly. Any sympathy she had felt for the woman dissolved. Undoubtedly, Joyce believed Jesse loved her, and only her, while all evidence indicated that Jesse loved no one but himself. Well, maybe he had loved his kids. She could allow him that.

  “Did you know he was operating a teenage gambling ring?” she asked, steering the conversation in a different direction.

  “No. All I knew was how he made me feel,” Joyce said with self-absorbed candor.

  “Were you helping him with his bookkeeping?”

  “I said I didn’t know about any gambling ring,” she snapped.

  “How did your son feel about your affair?”

  Joyce looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then back down. “He said I was being dumb for letting him string me along. I guess he was right. But I couldn’t seem to break free.”

  “Are you sure you never heard any talk about betting on sports or Internet gambling?”

  Joyce gave a tight little laugh. “No, but I heard the boys laugh about some funny little tricks that helped them win ballgames. That wasn’t serious, though, or gambling.”

  “You mean tricks like videoing the opposing teams in the locker room to get their play plans, or switching jerseys in the locker room when a player got in foul trouble?”

  She looked surprised. “You know about that, too?”

  “I do,” Toni said in her sternest school teacher tone. “It may seem funny, but it’s cheating. And small things have a way of leading to bigger things. In this case, it looks like a huge business has grown.”

  Joyce’s face went lax. “I had no idea.”

  “Did you know if your son was friends with a young man named Barry Kuzman?”

  Once again Joyce needed time to think, and didn’t seem to have a lot of thoughts from which to draw. “I always knew his friends in high school, but when he started college I…”

  Her voice trailed off, and then her eyes went wide. “Wait a minute! Are you talking about that guy who was blown up in his car?”

  “That’s him.”

  “I read the story in the newspaper, but I never heard of him before that.”

  It was clear to Toni that she had gotten all she was going to get from this interview. Which she rated right around zero in value.

  *

  When she slid into the van, Toni slapped her hands against the wheel and looked over at John. “I think I finally understand why we have dumb blonde jokes.”

  He smirked. “I take it you’ve found one.”

  She snorted. “That lady was so besotted with Jesse Campbell that she forgot she had a brain. Why am I doing this? I’m just running in circles.”

  “Didn’t she say anything at all that was helpful?” John asked in sympathy.

  “She admitted to starting up with Jesse Campbell again after he began coaching at Ozark, but denied any knowledge of the gambling operation and said she had no idea whether her son was friends with Barry Kuzman. She’s so unobservant that I tend to believe her.”

  “Maybe it just isn’t meant for us to know the answer before we go home,” he said with a commiserating head shake.

  “I
guess you’re right.” Toni put the van in gear and pulled into the street.

  “You’re spoiled,” he accused. “You’re two for two as a sleuth, and you can’t handle defeat.”

  “But the possibilities won’t stop running through my mind,” she grumbled. “I can’t seem to let it go.”

  John’s mouth quirked. “I understand. My mind is also refusing to quit. I was just sitting here wondering about the murder weapon. The police found a knife in Sonya Finch’s apartment. That has to make her a prime suspect. But do you think she did it?”

  “I think she has the temperament for it, but I’m not totally convinced she did it,” Toni answered thoughtfully. “I think it would have taken real strength to kill a physical fitness type like Campbell. Maybe she could have caught him off guard. But why?”

  John tapped his fingers against the door frame where his arm was resting. “Maybe a better question is, what was the guy doing in the park that night? Was it a clandestine meeting for a tryst? Or was it business?”

  “I don’t think Sonya cared who knew she was messing around with him, married or not, and no matter how many other women he was stringing along. So I doubt it was a tryst,” Toni said, merging into highway traffic. “So what was the motive? Something tells me it had nothing to do with his coaching job. Money is behind a high percentage of crimes, and Jesse was raking in a lot of it. There was also a lot of anger in the way he was killed. I think it had to be related to his moonlighting job.”

  “That got him killed in the moonlight,” John added, chuckling at his terrible pun.

  For a few minutes they rode in silence. Then Toni glanced in the rear view mirror as she steered into the right lane to take the ramp up ahead. In the distance behind her she noticed a dark car make the same lane change.

  She exited the thoroughfare and glided to a stop at the red traffic light at the top of the incline, glancing back at the car as it rolled nearer. When the light changed, she shot forward, swung left onto Sunshine, and sped down the street.

  John came upright in the seat. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m being paranoid. I saw a black car change lanes behind us, and I’m over-reacting,” Toni said, not slowing down. She changed lanes and made a quick right into a residential area.

  “You’re not being paranoid,” John assured her. “You’re exercising wise precautions.”

  Toni wound through the streets and finally exited onto Chestnut. As she drove into the campus parking lot and pulled up next to John’s car, she scanned the empty vehicles there.

  “I don’t see anyone sitting in any of them,” John said, voicing her thoughts. He opened the passenger door and climbed out, but he didn’t walk away yet. “If you want to take a scenic route to the apartment, I approve. I’ll stay right behind you until I know you’re safely inside your brother’s apartment.”

  Toni gave him a grim smile. “You’re a good friend.”

  When she drove off the lot, John stayed right on her tail. Neither of them saw the car parked on the lot of a gas station at the far side of the street, the driver slumped low, watching them.

  Chapter 22

  When they finally reached the apartment, John met Toni at the door of the van and walked her to the door, refusing to just drive away as he had done before.

  “Spend the evening here with your brother, where you’ll be safe,” he cautioned firmly. “And be honest with him. Tell him you think someone followed us. Promise?”

  Toni nodded, not mentioning that she didn’t see Quint’s pickup anywhere in the lot. “I’m sure I just overreacted back there, but I appreciate your concern.”

  “Call me if you need anything.” He watched her go inside before he left.

  Tired and facing defeat, Toni kicked off her shoes and flexed her toes, relieved to be able to do so with only a twinge of pain. She dumped her bags in the guest room and went to the kitchen for something cold to drink. The apartment was quiet and surprisingly tidy. Quint must have been spending at least a little of his days off around the place. So where was he?

  She was just returning to the living room, popping the tab on a soda, when he arrived. Wearing jeans and a tan polo shirt, he looked comfortable and relaxed. She held up her drink. “Want one?”

  “Yeah. It’s hot out there. Something cold sounds good.”

  “What have you been up to?” Toni asked over her shoulder as she went to get it.

  “Had to run a couple of errands,” he said vaguely.

  When she returned and handed him the soda, he studied her. “What’s up?”

  Sometimes she wished her brothers weren’t able to read her so well. “My imagination got the best of me. I thought I saw a car following me,” she admitted, her voice a little strained. “I guess I’m getting paranoid.”

  “Don’t underrate your gut feelings,” he said irritably.

  “I think I’m letting my son influence me,” she said with a shrug.

  He went still. “Has Garrett been dreaming again?”

  Toni nodded and tried to appear casual. “Gabe called and said he was dreaming and mumbling something that sounded like ‘watch the black car’.”

  “The car you thought was following you was black?”

  She nodded again.

  “That kid has an eerie track record. Cancel any plans you might have for going out this evening.” His tone brooked no argument.

  “Yes, little brother,” she said meekly. Then she perked up. “Okay, who’s cooking?”

  He grinned. “I’ll put some steaks on the grill out back and pop some potatoes in to bake while you take a shower if you want one. Then you can make us a salad. I have ice cream in the freezer, and I bought some strawberries today that I’ll let you slice if you’re nice to me.”

  “Sounds good.” She had been taking care of a family for several years now, and suddenly her baby brother was taking care of her. Truth was, she found she kind of liked it.

  By the time they sat down to eat, Toni had regained some clear-headedness.

  “Tell me about your day,” Quint invited as he applied steak sauce to his meat.

  Their mealtime chatter was pleasant and included talk of their family. Russell’s hearing concerned them, as did his other health problems. Gabe would enter junior high in about a month, and Garrett’s growing propensity for finding things fascinated Quint.

  “It’s been fun having you here this week,” he said as he took his plate and cutlery to the sink after they finished eating. “I know you’re disappointed at not solving our murder case before leaving, but I admit I’m glad you’re going back where you’ll be safe.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about it,” she said, running water in the sink and squirting detergent into it. “We didn’t make a big mess, so I’ll wash these few things instead of running the dishwasher.”

  He grabbed a dishtowel. “I’ll dry.”

  “What have the detectives learned about that website? Did their secret participation net any helpful information?” she asked, unable to leave the case alone.

  “Unfortunately, all they learned was how to place bets and how the runners ferry money to winning bettors and collect debts for distributors. They wanted to put surveillance on the Harcourt kid and gather more evidence on him, but because of the fast escalation of the case and a second death, they decided to abandon the website activity and search his residence.”

  “Did they find anything incriminating or explanatory?”

  “They confiscated his computer and a bunch of papers from his desk. I’m not sure what they’ve learned from it.”

  “It takes time to examine that kind of material and know what it represents,” Toni allowed, placing a mug in the dish drainer.

  “The medical examiner says the knife found in Sonya Finch’s place is the murder weapon, but that doesn’t prove she killed the guy. There were two sets of fingerprints on it, hers and an unknown. The detectives had the foresight to save a drinking cup she used Tuesday while the two of you were there,” he ex
plained, picking up the mug. “They were able to match a set of prints from it to one of those on the knife. But they got no hits from AFIS on the other set.”

  Toni got the picture. “Those may belong to the killer, and it might be someone who hasn’t done anything that would result in being fingerprinted. Do you think it’s someone who’s too young to have a record?”

  “Could be.” He placed the mug in the cabinets.

  “What about in that apartment of Jesse’s? Did they take prints there?”

  “Too many. They’ve found Sonya’s, Dean’s, and Mitch’s. But we knew they were in the place. It’s the collection of unidentified prints that are dead ends. It’s the same with trying to trace those fancy phones. When they asked school administrators if they had noticed seeing a lot of extra phones around, they just laughed. So many kids have phones these days that there’s no way of knowing who has new ones or where they got them. Plus, it’s summer vacation, and the kids aren’t around right now.”

  “That’s all hard to accept, but easy to understand,” Toni said, draining the sink and wiping it. “I wish I could see some records, like bank accounts, phone records, credit card statements.”

  Quint hung his dishtowel on a rack and faced her, his expression reflecting uncertainty over whether to say something. Finally he spoke. “If—and I say if,” he repeated, holding up a palm, “I were to take you to the station tomorrow after you finish at the school and ask my superior and the detectives if they’ll let you look at some files, will you be nice to them?”

  A smile spread across her face, and she grabbed him in a tight squeeze. “I would treat them like royalty,” she promised in pleased exuberance.

  “Okay, okay, I hear you,” he said, edging back. But he was grinning.

  Toni released him. “I’ll do my best to not get you fired.”

  They spent a pleasant evening of camaraderie that Toni thoroughly enjoyed. Quint went to bed about ten, but she stayed up to watch the news and weather. When she turned the television off, sounds drew her to the window. She gazed out at people cavorting in the pool and thought longingly of her boys racing through the woods to the pool at the country club to beat the heat.