by Kathi Daley
Praise for the Tj Jensen Mystery Series
“Daley’s characters come to life on the page. Her novels are filled with a little mystery and a little romance which makes for a murderous adventure.”
– Tonya Kappes,
USA Today Bestselling Author of Fixin’ To Die
“Daley’s mysteries offer as much sizzle and pop as fireworks on a hot summer’s day.”
– Mary Kennedy,
Author of The Dream Club Mysteries
“I’m a huge fan of Kathi’s books. I think I’ve read every one. Without a doubt, she’s a gifted cozy mystery author and I eagerly await each new release!”
– Dianne Harman,
Author of the High Desert Cozy Mysteries
“Intriguing, likeable characters, keep-you-guessing mysteries, and settings that literally transport you to Paradise…Daley’s stories draw you in and keep you glued until the very last page.”
– Tracy Weber,
Agatha-Nominated Author of the Downward Dog Mysteries
“Daley really knows how to write a top-notch cozy.”
– MJB Reviewers
“Kathi Daley writes a story with a puzzling cold-case mystery while highlighting…the love of home, family, and good friends.”
– Chatting About Cozies
The Tj Jensen Mystery Series
by Kathi Daley
Boxed Set #1
PUMPKINS IN PARADISE (#1)
SNOWMEN IN PARADISE (#2)
BIKINIS IN PARADISE (#3)
CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE (#4)
PUPPIES IN PARADISE (#5)
Boxed Set #2
HALLOWEEN IN PARADISE (#6)
TREASURE IN PARADISE (#7)
FIREWORKS IN PARADISE (#8)
BEACHES IN PARADISE (#9)
THANKSGIVING IN PARADISE (#10)
HALLOWEEN IN PARADISE
A Tj Jenson Mystery #6
Kathi Daley
This book is dedicated to my Halloween loving grandchildren: Isaiah, Eisley, Maleia, Greyson, and Maevelynn.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
They say it takes a village and I have a great one.
I want to thank all my friends who hang out over at my Kathi Daley Books Group page on Facebook. This exceptional group help me not only with promotion but with helpful suggestion and feedback as well.
I want to thank the bloggers who have pretty much adopted me and have helped me to build a fantastic social media presence. There are too many to list, but I want to specifically recognize Dru Ann Love for her expert guidance and support.
I want to thank my fellow authors who I run to all the time when I don’t know how to do something or how to deal with a situation. I have to say that the cozy mystery family is about as close-knit a family as you are likely to find anywhere.
I want to thank Bruce Curran for generously helping me with all my techy questions and Ricky Turner for help with my webpage.
I want to thank my graphic designer Jessica Fisher for all my flashy ads and headers.
I want to thank Randy Ladenheim-Gil for making what I write legible.
I want to thank Art Molinares for welcoming me so enthusiastically to the Henery Press family and a special thank you to Erin George and the entire editing crew who have been so incredibly awesome and fun to work with.
And last but certainly not least, I want to thank my super-husband Ken for allowing me time to write by taking care of everything else (and I mean everything).
Chapter 1
Monday, October 26
“Coach Jensen.” Carly Rice, one of the juniors on Tj Jensen’s soccer team, poked her head through her office door. “You wanted to see me?”
“I did. Please have a seat.” Tj motioned to the only surface in her cluttered office that wasn’t covered with file folders or athletic equipment. As chairperson for the department, it was her responsibility to apply for grants and file reports, two jobs she could never seem to find time to do, despite the extra prep period she was granted for just that purpose.
Carly sat down as instructed. “Am I being suspended from the team?” she asked sullenly.
“You know I have no other choice,” Tj said with sympathy in her eyes. “If I could do things differently I would.”
Carly was the best forward Tj had on her team. She really did feel bad that it had come to this. Not only would Carly’s suspension hurt the junior herself, but it would hurt the team’s chances of making it to the state finals.
Tj had worked with many talented kids during her tenure as a coach and physical education teacher, and few exhibited the drive to compete and win that Carly did. Or at least she had until her world crumbled around her and everything changed.
Carly sighed. “I guess I’ll kiss any chance at a scholarship goodbye, which means I won’t be able to go to college or get a decent job. I may as well pick out a box to live in and get on with my life.”
Tj suppressed a smile. Carly really did have a flare for the dramatic. “I don’t think things are quite that dire. You’re still a junior, so you have time to redeem yourself, especially if you take on a new attitude. But if you don’t learn to control your temper, you won’t be allowed to try out for the team next year. Soccer isn’t football. You can’t just tackle people in your way.”
“I know. I just get so mad. Someone gets in front of me and the only thing I can think of is how much I want to flatten them.”
And flatten them she did. Carly was a tiny thing, but she could take down her opponents as effectively as any linebacker. She’d let Carly’s bad behavior in class and on the soccer field slide as long as she could, but after she’d intentionally tackled an opposing team member then elbowed her in the stomach, Tj realized she had no choice but to suspend her.
“I understand you’ve had it rough,” Tj said. “I can’t imagine how awful it must be to lose a brother. You’re angry and need an outlet for your emotion, but the league has very strict rules regarding intentional roughhousing.”
“I know.”
“Have you considered counseling?” Tj asked. This wasn’t the first time that Tj had tried to persuade Carly to seek counseling after the death of her brother the prior summer.
Carly glared at her with dark brown eyes filled with pain. “My brother died. I’m angry about that,” she emphasized as she tucked a lock of her long brown hair behind one ear. She was fighting back tears as she spoke. “I’m not a nutcase who needs to see a shrink.”
“I never said you were a nutcase. I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’ve heard there are wonderful counselors who can help you work through the feelings you’ve been dealing with since Kenny was killed. I know I’ve suggested this before, but maybe you should speak to Mrs. Remington.”
Sheila Remington was the school counselor.
Carly looked Tj directly in the eye. “You think she can help me? You think anyone can help me? You have no idea what it’s like to be the child who didn’t die. To be the child who knows deep in her heart that her mom—and everyone else, for that matter—wishes she was the twin who died and Kenny was the one who lived?”
“I’m sure your mom doesn’t think that.”
“You don’t know. You don’t know anything,” Carly yelled. “My mom hates me. Every time she looks at me, I can see it in her eyes. If I hadn’t forgotten to check in while I was out with my friends, Kenny wouldn’t have come looking for me, and if Kenny hadn’t been out looking for me, he wouldn’t have been riding his bike on the street,
and if he hadn’t been riding on the street, he wouldn’t have been hit by a car. Kenny is dead and it’s my fault. I know it, my mom knows it, everyone knows it. Even my friends don’t want to hang out with me anymore.”
Tj suspected Carly’s friends were avoiding her due to the chip on her shoulder causing world-class mood swings and violent outbursts, not because they blamed her for Kenny’s death. Still, Kenny had been popular. Really popular. He was the star of both the football and baseball teams, and prior to his death, he’d been dating Portia Waldron, the most popular girl in the junior class. Portia could very well have blackballed Carly from their social circle. Tj hated to think the girl would do such a thing, but she’d been around long enough to know that kids could be cruel.
Tj struggled for the right thing to say. She hated to leave it like this, but as hard as she tried, her brain refused to formulate words that might prove helpful in this situation.
“If that’s all, I need to go. I have class.” Carly stood up. “Not that it will matter if I’m late because I’m flunking anyway, but I suppose I have to go somewhere. It might as well be class.”
“Carly.” Tj attempted to stop Carly from leaving, but the girl didn’t look back as she slammed the door behind her.
Tj let out a groan. That certainly hadn’t gone as she’d hoped. She wanted to help Carly, but she was in over her head with this one. Carly needed professional help she wasn’t qualified to give. She’d talked to Carly’s mother about it, but the mom had been unresponsive. Tj knew the woman had all but shut down since Kenny’s death, but Carly needed someone to help her work through her grief and get on with her life.
“I take it your talk with Carly didn’t go well?” Gina Roberts, the new math teacher, poked her head into Tj’s office shortly after Carly stormed off.
“Not even close. If it was possible to make things worse I think I just did.”
Gina left the door open as she walked into the office and took a seat on the other side of Tj’s desk. “The girl needs professional help.”
Tj agreed. “The problem is, she’s totally closed off to the idea, and her mother doesn’t seem willing to pursue it. I wish I could force the issue, but I don’t have any grounds to do so. Carly is self-destructive, but other than being overly aggressive on the soccer field, she hasn’t hurt anyone, and I can’t honestly say I think she’ll seriously hurt herself. If I thought calling child services would help I might consider it, but to be honest, I think that would just make things worse. Carly is a good kid. I really believe she can work her way through this if she’ll just forgive herself. At this point, I don’t think she believes she deserves any of the good things in life that she’s worked so hard to achieve. It’s almost like she’s punishing herself by creating situations where she knows she’ll lose things that were previously important to her.”
“Don’t give up on her,” Gina counseled. “I can see she wants to open up to you. Part of me thinks she acts the way she does to get your attention. I haven’t spoken to her mother, but I’ve heard through the rumor mill in the teachers’ lounge that there are staff members who have tried with zero success to get her mom to agree to counseling. I can’t imagine why she’s pushing away her only remaining child, but then again I have no children, so what do I know? Carly likes and respects you. In my opinion, you may very well be the only person who can help her.”
“Maybe, but I had to suspend her from the soccer team for the rest of the season after the incident this weekend. It’s going to hurt her shot at a scholarship, and her removal from the team means I’ll be seeing much less of her.”
“Make her an assistant,” Gina suggested. “I’d be willing to bet a whole paycheck that if you asked her to help you out she would.”
Tj considered the idea. “I’ll think about it. I don’t want it to seem like I’m rewarding her bad behavior, but I might be able to work it out so that her helping me appears to be punishment to the other girls. Thanks for the suggestion.”
“Anytime. But I actually came by to talk about another student we have in common.”
“Lexi Michaels,” Tj guessed. “I was just checking my email and saw the video. Do we know who sent it?”
Lexi Michaels was another of Tj’s soccer girls. The poor kid had recently become Serenity High School’s latest cyberbullying victim when someone posted a video of her singing in the locker room while showering after practice the night before. According to Gina, Lexi thought she was alone in the locker room, but apparently there had been at least one other straggler who had taken it upon herself to record the revealing and unflattering karaoke session and then post it online for everyone to see.
“The video was posted from a burner cell, so there’s no way to trace it back to a specific student,” Gina said. “I spoke to Lexi, who is quite predictably horrified. She went home halfway through my class, and I’m not sure she’ll be back tomorrow. We were able to have the video taken down but I’m afraid the damage has been done. The poor girl is devastated.”
Tj shook her head. With the advent of social media and the tendency for teens to use it as a weapon, cyberbullying had become an increasingly serious issue at the school.
“I’ll do some snooping to see if I can figure out who posted the video,” Tj offered. “If it happened after soccer practice it was probably one of my girls. I’ll figure out who did this and make sure they’re punished accordingly.” Tj looked at her watch. “I guess we should get to the staff meeting.”
“Didn’t you hear? This afternoon’s meeting was canceled. I was in the admin office earlier and ran into Principal Remington. He’s going to be tied up with Lexi’s mom all afternoon. I bet there’s a note on the message board by now.”
“Actually that works out well for me. I have a ton of paperwork to weed through.”
Gina looked around the office and laughed. “I’m not sure that an extra couple of hours is even going to make a dent but it’s a start. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Do you know anything about grant proposals?”
Gina shrugged. “I’ve written a few.”
“I’m currently working on two. If you have some spare time and want to help me I would be very grateful.”
“I have time this weekend.”
“I have my ten-year reunion this weekend. Maybe next week?”
“Sure just let me know. One of the tricks I’ve learned over the years is to…”
“Coach Jensen, you have a call on line one,” the student aide announced over the intercom interrupting their conversation.
Tj glanced at the phone.
“Go ahead. It might be important.”
“Coach Jensen,” Tj greeted as she picked up the phone.
“Hey, Tj. It’s Roy.” Roy Fisher was the deputy sheriff who served the Serenity branch of the Paradise County Sheriff’s Department.
“Hey, Roy. Why didn’t you just call my cell?”
“I tried to, but you didn’t pick up. This is kind of important, so I decided to call the school line. I figured if you weren’t in your office I could at least be certain you’d get a message.”
“What’s wrong?” Tj asked with a tone of dread in her voice. Roy calling her at work was never a good sign.
“Samantha Colton.”
“Who’s Samantha Colton?” Tj asked.
“She’s one of the investigators on Second Look.”
“Second Look as in the show that investigates cold cases and then airs their findings on television?”
“That’s the one. She’ll be in town tomorrow, taking a ‘second look’ at Holly Riverton’s murder. She wants to talk to everyone who was at the party the night Holly died, including you.”
“I’m happy to talk to her, and you know I’m always happy to help you out, but I’m really swamped this week.”
“I arranged for her to come to you,” Roy informed her.
“She’s going to stop by the school tomorrow during your prep, so it shouldn’t interrupt your day in the least.”
“Oh, okay. I’d planned to grade midterms then, but I can take them home and tackle them tonight.”
“I appreciate your meeting with her. There’s one thing you should be aware of, though. She’s known for being aggressive in her bid to find the truth. Anyone who might have a secret of any sort should be prepared to have it revealed.”
Tj glanced at Gina and frowned. “What do you mean by aggressive?”
Roy sighed. Tj could tell he was feeling uncomfortable about asking her to meet with the woman, but apparently he had little choice but to cooperate.
“She does her homework and it seems like she sees a motive in almost every situation. She’s good at what she does. I think you’re her first appointment in this area, but she stopped off in Los Angeles yesterday and spoke to Mia Monroe and Jada Jenkins. Both women called me in a rage and indicated they no longer plan to attend the homecoming reunion this weekend.”
“What could this woman possibly have said to convince them to change their plans at the last minute?”
“I think it’s more how she said it and what her comments implied. Do you remember Mia as being passive-aggressive in high school?” Roy asked.
Tj sat back in her chair as she thought about it. Mia definitely tended to march to the beat of her own drum, but passive-aggressive? “Not really. She was always very self-confident. A drama geek who had no use for the popular kids, like she thought herself to be above their crowd. Though a lot of those kids still made fun of the way she dressed and her odd interests.”
“Odd interests?”
“She was really into supernatural stuff like astrology and past lives. And she liked to dress in loud colors. I’m talking bright green pants paired with a hot pink t-shirt topped with blue hair. She also tended to do things she knew would invite ridicule. I think she liked the negative attention.”
