Keyed in Murder

by Helen Gray

  It looked like, whether she wanted to or not, she had just dipped her foot into this investigation.

  Chapter 4

  The past several days had held so much violence, stress, and heartache that Toni was glad to have them behind her. More than ready for some calm routine, she fixed breakfast for her family Wednesday morning, donned a serviceable black pant suit, and set out for school with the boys.

  “Look, Mom!”

  Gabe’s shout of dismay as she turned into the school parking lot drew Toni’s vision to the line of his pointing finger. And there, rather than calm routine, was what looked like another tsunami of trouble.

  The west end of the school building had been doused and spattered with paint and other messy liquids. The words MR. DOUGLAS SUCKS had been crudely scrawled along the brick wall with red paint.

  Janitors and early arriving staff members were pulling a large roll of what looked like tarpaulin across the lawn. Toni assumed they meant to conceal the lettering until all students and staff had arrived before tackling the chore of cleaning it. She wished they hadn’t arrived in time for her boys to see it. Life wasn’t fair.

  “Let’s get inside,” she said, anxious to get the boys away from the scene. “Everybody needs to stay out of the way of the workers.”

  “That’s awful,” Gabe said, hopping out of the van to stand staring up at it.

  Talk and speculation throughout the day, of course, centered on who could, or would, have vandalized the school and defamed the principal. After school Ken Douglas held a ten minute faculty meeting in the library simply to inquire if anyone had any idea who might have done it and encourage everyone to share any information, or even suspicions, they might have with either him or the police, and to keep their eyes and ears open to student talk and activities.

  Toni shrugged to convey her lack of knowledge when his glance paused briefly on her during his visual sweep of the room. When no one else responded, they were dismissed.

  Outside, great progress had been made on the defaced wall. All of the non-paint stuff had been removed, and workers were making progress on removing the paint.

  On the way home, Toni couldn’t stop wondering about the vandalism. She glanced over at Garrett beside her. She couldn’t imagine a middle schooler hearing anything that would shed light on the matter. Gabe, however, was in junior high. His classmates might possibly know something and be unable to keep it under their hats.

  “Did either of you hear anything today about who made the mess of the school building?” she asked, including both of them rather than make Garrett feel less insightful.

  “I’m clueless,” Gabe said quickly from behind her. “But I wish I did. I’d tell you.”

  Garrett was as uninformed. “The kids talked about it all day, but nobody knows who did it.”

  “Brian Brower was suspended,” Gabe said in a totally different tone of voice, somewhat sympathetic, but mostly sad.

  That came as a total surprise to Toni. “What did he do?”

  “Slugged Mark Breeden,” Gabe said matter-of-factly. “Mark’s a smart mouth.”

  Considering how Brian had to be feeling, Toni figured Mark must have said something bad about his dad. Rumors were flying through the adult community, and the kids were listening. Norman Brower was probably being convicted by word of mouth—and smart mouths. It made Toni’s jaws tighten and defensive anger boil up in her. Brian was a good kid, and his parents were good people.

  “Are you going to go see the Browers?” Garrett asked, his rounded eyes locked on her.

  “I think I will,” Toni decided on the spot.

  After supper she left the boys with Kyle and headed back across town. Clearmount had a population of about twenty-five hundred and was within easy proximity to Wappapello and Clearwater Lakes. It was also near Sam Baker State Park, the St. Francis and Black Rivers, and several other sites that made hunting, fishing, camping, and floating popular area pastimes. Toni had grown up here and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings.

  But she didn’t feel peaceful right now. Too many things were happening that disturbed their tranquility.

  At Patsy Brower’s home, Toni hurried up the walk and rang the doorbell.

  Patsy’s wan face registered surprise when she opened the door and recognized her. “Come in, Toni. I hope you have good news.”

  “I have concerns,” Toni said as she stepped inside. “Will you and your children sit down and have a serious talk with me?”

  “We’ll do anything you want if there’s a chance of it helping.” She gripped Toni’s arms and stared into her face. “You heard about Brian getting in trouble, didn’t you?”

  Toni didn’t flinch. “You know how fast word gets around.”

  Patsy’s shoulders slumped. “I know. Come on,” she said before Toni could offer any words of comfort. “I’ll call Allison and Brian from their rooms.”

  Toni perched on the sofa and waited while Patsy left and returned with twelve-year-old Brian and fifteen-year-old Allison trailing behind her. They both seemed cautious, as if unsure about being summoned. Seeing the hurt in their downcast expressions tore at Toni.

  “I just want to go over some things with you,” she said as the two took seats across the room. Patsy sat next to her.

  “Are you mad at me, too?” Brian asked. He bit his lower lip.

  Toni shook her head. “No. I heard that you ran into some trouble, but I don’t know all the facts.”

  “The facts are,” he said, raising his chin, “that Mark has a big mouth and a little brain. He called my dad a murderer, and he’s not.”

  “Some people may believe that,” Toni said, groping for the right thing to say. “The police are still investigating. Mark was probably just repeating what he’s heard from others and not thinking about the feelings of your family.”

  “Some people will believe anything,” Allison spoke up angrily. “It makes me mad enough that I’ll probably slug someone, too, if they talk like that to me.”

  “Please don’t talk that way,” Patsy begged, agony in her tone and expression.

  “I understand,” Toni said sympathetically. These two were too young to have to carry the brunt of this kind of thing.

  They all sat in silence for a moment. “You don’t think he did it, do you?” Allison asked, her voice forlorn, but with possibly a trace of hope in it.

  Toni wanted to be honest. “I don’t know your dad very well, but I want to find out the truth, and I hope to find out that he didn’t.”

  “Can’t you prove he didn’t do it?” Brian pleaded.

  Toni debated how to phrase her response. “We have to let the police do their job, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some checking of our own. We need to look for a way to eliminate him as a suspect by finding the person who did do it. Do you know where Norm was during the time Jake was killed?” She turned her focus on Patsy.

  The woman’s face blanched. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “He worked late that night and went out again after supper. What time was Jake killed?”

  Toni didn’t know either. Buck had said there was an autopsy, but hadn’t shared any results. She pulled out her phone and dialed him.

  “What do you want?” he growled.

  “I want to know the coroner’s estimation of Jake’s time of death.”

  Silence echoed over the line before he spoke. “He estimates between ten p.m. and three a.m. and if you’re thinking Brower has an alibi for that time, he hasn’t provided one.”

  She thanked him for the information and disconnected. Then she addressed all three Browers. “Norm needs an alibi for the time from ten p.m. to three a.m. Can any of you remember anything he said about where he was going or what he was doing that night?”

  The kids wore blank looks.

  “I’m going to visit him after work tomorrow,” Patsy said. “I’ll try to make him account for the part of that time frame that he wasn’t here. He came home around eleven, but I don’t know where he was during the hour
before that.”

  As she left them and drove home, Toni felt as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Rather than a lessening of stressful issues, they had only increased.

  She glanced out through the windshield at the sky that was beginning to darken, and recalled her pastor quoting a scripture about how that there would be tribulations in the world, and explaining that even God’s children were not promised a life of ease, prosperity, or good health. The reminder brought no comfort, until she recalled him going on to say that God would be with us even when we pass through deep waters. That it wasn’t necessary to understand God’s purposes in the trials of our lives, but it was crucial that we trust our God of love.

  “Okay, God,” she whispered, glancing upward again as she drove. “All these things are in Your hands.”

  *

  To Toni’s relief, Thursday began better than the previous days. She conducted her first two classes without incident and was settled at her desk with a Coke and grading a stack of papers when the door opened and Patsy Brower entered the room.

  “I remembered that this is your free hour,” she said, taking a seat. “So I took my break now.”

  Toni couldn’t determine if Patsy was emotionally up or down, so credited her with enormous control. “How did your visit with your husband go?”

  There was a momentary lapse in that control, but Patsy quickly regained it. “It’s hard to see him there in the jail,” she said candidly. “And equally hard to hear what he said. But I convinced him that only the truth—the complete truth—will do at this point.”

  Everything else forgotten, Toni waited while Patsy steeled herself for whatever she had to reveal.

  “Norm says he went to the dentist after lunch. Then he returned to work and caught one of his construction employees stealing from Jake’s store just before quitting time that afternoon. He had a swollen jaw and wasn’t in the bet of moods, so he fired the guy on the spot and made him return the stuff he was loading in his truck. Then he followed him to be sure he didn’t return to the store or construction project to do any kind of damage for revenge. Once he had seen the guy—who is really only a kid—arrive at his house, he ran some errands. It was late when he got back to the job site.”

  Patsy paused again, her lips tightening and trembling. “Norm said he cleaned up around the area and made sure all the tools were put away, that no one had left anything out when they went home. He has three other employees,” she explained. “Then he came home and ate a late supper. But after that he left again.” She heaved a deep breath. “He said he drove to Jake’s house to tell him he needed to tighten the security in his store. But …”

  Again Toni waited.

  “Jake was dead,” she said in a whoosh. “Norm said he saw him as soon as he opened the gate, and he could tell the man was dead. He panicked and bolted out of there instead of reporting it, and then he spent hours sitting in his truck in shock. He was afraid of being blamed. Now he knows how stupid that was. And he got blamed anyhow.” Tears leaking from her eyes, she stood. “I need to get back to my desk.”

  Toni raised an index finger. “One question before you go. Do you know the name of the employee Norm fired?”

  Patsy swiped a hand over a cheek. “Ray Fillmore.”

  When she was gone, Toni returned to her paper grading, but she couldn’t concentrate. She sipped at her Coke and debated what to do with Patsy’s information. She probably should relay it to Buck. And she would. But she wanted to meet Ray Fillmore first.

  At noon she took her brown bag lunch next door to John Zachary’s room. “Do you know Ray Fillmore?” she asked as she took a ham and cheese sandwich from its baggie.

  He removed the lid from his microwave-heated lunch plate. “I think he’s Sean’s big brother.”

  Sean Fillmore was a sophomore who had been in Toni’s General Biology class last year. She wondered if the older brother, who had somehow avoided being in any of her classes, was as arrogant and lacking in studiousness as Sean. “Do you know where I could find Ray?”

  John studied her for several seconds. “I think Sean mentioned him being in construction work, and he said the two of them had built a storage shed on their parents’ place out on Crowley Ridge Road. If you drive out there and check the names on mailboxes, you should find the Fillmore place. Is this related to Jake’s murder case?” He swigged from his soda.

  “Ray worked for Norman Brower.” She related what she had learned from Patsy.

  John blew air through pursed lips. “Would you like me to go with you to find him? I know Jenny would be glad to take the boys home with her.”

  As Toni considered the offer, it occurred to her that it would be wise if she didn’t go alone. Safer. “Right after school?”

  Agreed, they concentrated on wolfing down their lunches and preparing for their afternoon classes.

  *

  It took several minutes, but they found a mailbox with the name Fillmore on it, located the house up the lane, and were told by Mrs. Fillmore that Ray was at work and didn’t live there anymore because he had his own place. Toni exchanged a look with John that said their interpretations matched. Mrs. Fillmore didn’t know her son had lost his job.

  “Do you have any idea where he goes after work to unwind?” she asked the portly woman she estimated to be in her fifties.

  “No,” Mrs. Fillmore said abruptly. She turned and went back inside the house. The door slammed.

  John grinned at Toni. “I guess we know where the boys get their manners.”

  Toni headed back to the van.

  “She must suspect they’re not above stealing,” John added, climbing into the passenger seat beside her. “I think we should stop by the pool hall.”

  Toni grinned across the seat over at him. “You think so, huh?”

  “Yep. Buddies Ray hung out with in school hang out there.”

  She drove to an older frame building at the edge of town that had been converted from a restaurant to a pool hall. When they entered the small foyer, a quick survey told them that John had guessed right. Short, red-haired Ray and three other guys were gathered around a pool table at the rear of the large room. She started toward them.

  Ray poked a ball and watched it carom and go into a pocket. He yelped, and then his gaze swung around. “Well, well, if it ain’t Zachary and Donovan,” he called sarcastically. “I can’t believe the lab rats have actually come to play pool. Do your spouses know you’re out together?”

  “My wife is keeping her sons while we take care of some business, not that it’s any of your business,” John returned sharply. “We’d like to talk to you.”

  Ray’s smirky grin turned sour. “What if I don’t want to talk to a couple of teachers? I ain’t in school anymore, you know.”

  “That’s your prerogative,” Toni said, and then added, “We know why you’re free to play pool during working hours.”

  Now his gaze hardened and turned calculating. He sneered. “You ain’t in your classrooms now. You’re in my space. And I want you out of it.”

  John stepped over next to the belligerent young man, his body pulled to his full height, and peered down at the little pipsqueak. “Maybe you’d prefer talking to the police.”

  Toni thought she heard the clang-clang of alarm bells in the fellow’s brain. Suddenly his manner changed, becoming compliant, if not welcoming. “Why don’t we step outside,” he said, suddenly desiring privacy.

  Together John and Toni returned to the entrance with Ray and stepped out onto the wide concrete steps. There were only four cars on the lot, and no sign of humans. Maybe business would pick up later in the day or evening.

  “We know Norman Brower fired you because he caught you stealing from his client’s business,” Toni stated bluntly as soon as the door closed behind them.

  “I wasn’t stealing,” Ray interrupted angrily. “I was just taking what Jake owed me.”

  “Without his permission or knowledge?”

  He glared.
“I did some extra work after hours that he said he’d pay me to do. But then he refused to pay me. So I took enough stuff to equal what he owed me.”

  “Life’s not fair,” Toni said, wondering if Jake had refused to pay from orneriness, or if Ray’s work had been unsatisfactory. She leaned toward believing the latter. “You took the stuff on Norman’s watch, and he was duty bound to stop you.”

  “He stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong,” Ray blustered.

  “Did you kill Jake?”

  Her abrupt question brought him up short. He mouthed an expletive. “I never went near the guy. I figure if he bilked me, he bilked others, including Norm. Since Norm’s such an upright kind of guy,” he sneered the last words, “he found out he was also being bilked, and he blew his lid and killed the guy.”

  When Ray turned and stomped back inside, Toni shrugged at John. “I’m not sure how much of that to believe, but I’m not sorry we talked to him. Now I need to relieve your wife of babysitting and feed my hungry family.”

  At the Zachary house, she pulled into the driveway and waited while John exited the van and the boys crawled into the seats.

  She thought Buck might be interested in her latest cage shaking, but he was probably heading home from his office by now, and she didn’t have the time or energy for another stop.

  That evening the land line phone rang while Toni was loading the dishwasher. She stopped and grabbed it from the counter. “Hello.”

  “This is Karen Lawson,” the caller said. “I’m sorry to be calling you this late, but Loretta Mullins is able to sit up in a wheelchair now, and she asked me to call you for her. I tried doing that from work, but didn’t get you.”

  “I didn’t come straight home after school,” Toni said, wondering why the nursing home physical therapist was being so persistent to please a patient.

  “I’m off work tomorrow, and Loretta wants to know if you’ll come back and visit her again. She seems agitated and kept asking me if I had reached you yet. I have no idea why she wants to see you so urgently.”