School's Out for Murder (Schooled in Murder Book 2)

by Tracy D. Comstock

  The superintendent didn't respond and Emily wondered if he had stayed in the office or followed Larry out. Not sure whether to go or stay put, Emily stayed crouched until her legs were asleep and could no longer hold her up. Limping to the restroom door, she opened it a crack. The light was still on in the superintendent's office and Emily could see his silhouette seated at his desk. She decided to get while the getting was good and raced as quietly down the hall as she could, scooping up the box of ravens as she went. Her sudden burst of adrenaline at the fear of getting caught eavesdropping made the box feel much lighter than it had before. In seconds, she was stuffing the big box into her backseat. Slipping behind the wheel, she started to call Tad to tell him the latest, but decided it would be easier to explain in person. Besides, she needed to tell him about their plans for the evening. Gunning the engine, Emily headed her Nissan toward the carnival, anxious to hear Tad's take on her morning's findings.

  CHAPTER SIX

  When Emily got back to the carnival, she replenished their stock of prizes and then helped out during the afternoon crush. She felt like every child in town must have stopped by to play the Whac-A-Moles at least twice, by the way her feet were aching. She was looking for an excuse to sit down for a moment when she saw Helen and Barnes headed her way. When Helen waved her over to a nearby bench, Emily heaved a sigh of relief and slipped out of the booth to join them.

  The second she was within earshot, Barnes blurted out, "Well, was I right about Superintendent Johnson or what?"

  "What?" Emily asked, puzzled, until she remembered Barnes mentioning the night before that the superintendent had clearly had reason to be angry with the mayor. "Has something happened?"

  Helen laid a hand on Barnes' arm, and he smiled down at her fondly. Emily tried to repress a shudder. It was wonderful to see Helen look so happy, but for Emily, the thought of Barnes touching her was the equivalent of being crawled on by a spider. Helen said softly, "We ran into Principal Matthews earlier, and he told us that Superintendent Johnson had been called into the station and that Detective Welks had asked you some questions about him. What was your perception of the situation, dear?"

  Helen looked concerned, and Emily wanted to alleviate her worries, but she was afraid that Gangly-Arms definitely had an issue with Superintendent Johnson. Before she could tell the couple that, however, another voice spoke her name from behind her. Emily spun around to see Susanna Fowler standing there, looking as pale and thin as she usually did. The town librarian was normally smiling brightly, but today her smile was conspicuously absent. "Emily, I wanted to let you know that I put you on the waiting list for the latest Carolyn Hart book. I know how much you love her Annie and Max Darling."

  "Oh, thank you, Susanna," Emily answered. She turned to include Helen and Barnes in the conversation, but with a small wave, Helen let her know they would catch up with her later. Emily turned back to the unhappy-looking woman beside her and asked softly, "Are you alright?"

  "Oh," Susanna let loose a high, nervous-sounding laugh. It was obvious her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. "It's all this business with the mayor being murdered. I just can't believe we've had two murders in our beautiful town in the same year. What's becoming of our world, Emily?"

  Susanna started to wander through the still-bustling carnival crowd, so Emily fell into step beside her. "I don't know, Susanna. It's frightening to contemplate such violence existing in our safe little world. Did you know the mayor well?" Emily tried not to wince at the little white lie, but she decided she might as well feel the woman out while she had the chance.

  "Actually, we went to school together." The librarian scuffed the toe of her sandal lightly against the ground, not meeting Emily's eyes.

  "Oh, really? What was she like back then?" Emily tried to keep her question casual, but she was taken aback by the sharp glance that Susanna threw her way. Her eyes had turned absolutely glacial, and she gave a disdainful sniff.

  "I have to say, Janice was always a force to be reckoned with. What she wanted, she got, no matter what the cost." Besides the anger, bordering on hatred, which Emily saw in Susanna's face, she noticed a lingering trace of sadness. Could the librarian still be carrying a torch for Larry McBain? That would certainly put an interesting spin on things.

  "I take it you two weren't friends?" Emily tried to lighten the tone of the conversation.

  This time Susanna let out a harsh laugh, and the lines of her face went hard. "Hardly. But come to think of it, I'm not sure Janice ever had a true friend. You have to be a friend to have one. She was better at making enemies."

  Emily wanted to prod her a little more, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tad headed their way. Susanna glanced up and saw him, too, and Emily watched as she worked to compose her face back into its normal, placid lines. "Tad, I'm glad to run into you. I've placed the new Richard Castle novel back for you, also."

  "Thank you, Susanna," Tad replied, smiling down at her. When Susanna didn't answer, he frowned over her head at Emily, clearly wondering what he had walked up on. Before either one of them could say a word to the silent librarian, however, she suddenly turned and headed in the opposite direction.

  "See you both later," she called hurriedly over her shoulder, and then she was gone, swallowed up by the boisterous crowd.

  "Was it something I said?" Tad asked, only half-joking.

  Emily turned back in the direction of her booth, heaving a bone-weary sigh. "Tad, sometimes I wonder if we ever truly know the people around us. It seems like everyone has a secret to hide." To her surprise, her voice had gone thick with tears.

  "Hey, hey," Tad said softly, stopping to pull her into the circle of his arms. "Rough day?"

  "You could say that," Emily murmured into his broad chest, inhaling the musky, yet fresh smell that was so uniquely Tad. "But we have something fun planned for tonight," she told him, looking up into his concerned eyes.

  "Oh, do we?" Tad questioned, tucking his arm securely around her as they continued on toward the English department's booth. His eyebrows waggled suggestively. "A quiet night in, perhaps?" he asked, his voice husky.

  "'Fraid not," Emily laughed, giving him a light nudge in the ribs with her elbow. "After our lunch with Amelia, we decided she could definitely use some more fun in her life. We suggested a girls' night out, but she wanted us to do a couples' night instead. She's anxious to introduce us to her boyfriend."

  "Amelia has a boyfriend?" Tad asked, sounding as surprised as Emily and Gabby had been. "You'd think that information might have been circulating in the gossip mill, especially since you said she's been accused of having an affair with Larry."

  "Well, hopefully, we can all have a nice evening and help Amelia put some of this unpleasantness behind her. We're doing a barbeque at Gabby and Greg's at 8."

  "Sounds good to me. Pick you up around 7:30?"

  "You got it," Emily said, rising up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

  Tad ran his hand down her cap of hair, and she shivered. They tried to avoid PDA in front of the students in order to set a good example, but even the lightest touch from Tad went straight to her heart. "See you then," he smiled and headed off to start closing up the Mathletes booth. The police presence that Detective Gangly-Arms had posted at the carnival was circulating, encouraging everyone to close up for the evening so they could herd the crowd home.

  Seeing that her kids were already working to close up shop, she took a quick detour by the history department's booth. They were the ones selling funnel cakes this year, and Emily figured if she had one now, she'd be hungry again by the time they got to Gabby and Greg's. The whole school carnival experience just wasn't complete for her until she'd had her funnel cake.

  Sharon Grimes, the senior high history teacher, flashed her trademark barracuda smile to Emily as she placed her order. Sharon, a nice enough woman, but a terrible gossip, clearly had something to ask Emily. While Emily waited on her funnel cake, Sharon leaned against the cou
nter of her booth, her ample hips digging into the corner edge. She didn't seem to notice, however, as her attention was focused solely on Emily. "So," she began, her toothy grin never wavering, "I saw Tad escorting that cute new junior high math teacher home last night." She continued to stare at Emily, but Emily was giving her nothing to work with. When Emily remained silent, Sharon continued, "I certainly hate to see people getting the wrong idea about those two, what with them working so closely together in the math department and all." She tried to put on a look of sympathy, but her predatory smile refused to be pulled down. There was nothing Sharon Grimes loved more than a hot piece of gossip.

  Accepting her funnel cake from one of the students working the booth, Emily looked Sharon straight in the eye and said, "Yes, it would certainly be a shame for someone with nothing better to do than to start some kind of ridiculous rumor. Especially when all Tad was doing was helping out a colleague who had just experienced a devastating loss."

  Sharon's eyes went wide, and her barracuda grin changed to a gaping guppy's mouth. Before she could come up with a retort, Emily gave her a saccharine-sweet smile and turned on her heel. She tried a few bites of the funnel cake, but unfortunately, Sharon's nastiness had ruined her appetite. Passing by a trash barrel, she dumped in the powdered-sugar goodness. What a waste! she thought with disgust.

  Her kids had most of the booth packed away for the night by the time she got back, so she sent the remaining crew on its way and finished securing the tarp over the booth herself. One of the boxes of stuffed ravens she had brought back was holding up one side of the tarp. As Emily bent to push it more securely under the booth's covering, she tried to brush off the vaguely uneasy feeling that was sneaking up her spine at being left at the scene of the crime, so to speak, by herself. Get ahold of yourself, Emily, she told herself firmly. There are still plenty of people around, and you have nothing to be afraid of. Still, when she caught a flutter of white out of the corner of her eye, she gave a nervous gasp and let go of the rope she was trying to secure. Patting a hand over her racing heart, she looked closer and saw that the flutter of white was actually a piece of paper half-caught under one of the boxes of stuffed ravens. Securing the final rope, she reached down and grabbed the now-unfrightening piece of white paper.

  What did you think it was, silly? she berated herself. A ghost? Despite her admonitions to her scaredy-cat self, when she saw what was typed on the piece of paper, her heartbeat ratcheted back up to gallop. The scrap of paper read: "Dear Mayor, Meet…" That was all that was there, but Emily had no doubt that whoever had killed the mayor had written that note.

  * * *

  "It must have gotten stuck to the bottom of one of our boxes of stuffed ravens when they were moved to the new booth," Emily was explaining to Gangly-Arms not ten minutes later, setting a land speed record getting from the carnival to the police station. "When I moved the old boxes around to make room for the new ones, it must have been dislodged."

  "Still, I can't believe our guys missed this last night." Based on the thundercloud hovering over Gangly-Arms' face, Emily saw a severe dressing-down in some officer's near future. She did not envy that person or persons.

  "It has to be from the murderer, right?" Emily went on excitedly. "Do you think it will contain any useable prints?"

  "I think that is a matter of police business," Gangly-Arms replied stiffly, his face still creased in a threatening frown.

  "Yeah, but since I found it and all, I thought maybe…" Emily trailed off as Gangly-Arms' frowned deepened.

  "You thought what?" the detective asked severely. "That I would let you play CSI with us, Ms. Taylor? You did your civic duty by bringing this to our attention, and for that we thank you. Have a nice evening."

  Emily stood stock still a moment, thoroughly irritated by Gangly-Arms' brush-off. After a few seconds, however, the detective turned and disappeared through a door into the back of the station, leaving her staring at nothing. Turning back to the exit, Emily tried to reign in her extreme irritation with the close-lipped detective. After the ordeal they had all been through that past fall in uncovering Coach Layton's murderer, Emily thought they had formed a somewhat amicable working relationship. Apparently not, she thought bitterly, pushing through the front glass doors and stomping over to her waiting vehicle.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Emily continued to grumble once she was home. She knew that she had no business actually getting involved in the case, but it still irked her that Gangly-Arms would shut her out after all she had done to help the investigation into Coach Layton's death. Well, maybe it had been more hinder than help at times, but still, she had virtually put her life on the line. Didn't that count for something?

  Frowning, she flipped through her closet until she found the perfect outfit for an evening at an outdoor barbeque. The May evenings were still cool, so she snatched a cardigan to toss over her white sheath dress with eyelet trim. To keep the outfit from looking too Swiss Miss, Emily paired the sweet dress with a wide canary yellow belt that matched the sling backs she had picked up on a whim at Nordstrom's the last time she and Gabby had gone shopping in the city. While Emily didn't miss living or teaching up north, she did miss the shopping. Gabby had thought the shoes were too edgy, but Emily knew she would find the perfect outfit for them. Looked like her superior shoe-fashion sense had been spot on once again. Giving a little twirl in the mirror, she decided to slick back her hair to look a little more like Audrey Hepburn to fit the style of the outfit. Once she felt completely Roman Holiday-ish, she settled down to wait for Tad with one of her constant companions: her journal.

  Chewing on the end of her pencil, Emily turned to a fresh page and then began to pour out her thoughts. By the time her hand was cramping, she felt calmer and in better spirits. Writing always did that for her. Looking over what she had written, Emily summed up her journal writing with a list of people who seemed to have a reason to want Mayor McBain out of the picture. Adding notes to her list of names, Emily decided that the ability to keep her nose out of things just wasn't in her DNA.

  1. Larry McBain—Rumored to be having an affair. But there is no way Amelia is, was, or ever will be involved with another woman's husband. But if Janice believed the rumor, would she have changed her will to leave everything to Maclaine anyway? And what about what Superintendent Johnson said about Larry being "cuckolded"? Was Janice the one having an affair? Did Larry need to get her out of the way for the sake of his relationship with another woman? Or was he jealous of someone Janice was involved with?

  2. Maclaine Forrester—If the rumors were true and Janice changed her will, Maclaine would be an heiress. Janice supposedly had a large family fortune and Maclaine was her only relative. In fact, could Maclaine have moved to Ellington because she knew of Larry's supposed affair? Maybe Tad would know something.

  3. Susanna Fowler—Again, if the rumor mill was true, and it rarely was, Janice and Susanna were old high school enemies. Could Susanna have gotten Janice out of the way so that she could have the love of her life all to herself? Janice was also threatening to cut library acquisition funding, so unfortunately, that just added fuel to the fire where Susanna's hatred of Janice was concerned.

  4. Amelia Franklin—Rumored to be the one who Larry was having an affair with. Clearly, the rumor is nothing more than that—a rumor. Larry was obsessed with dental hygiene, but Amelia had told him that was no longer comfortable acting as his dentist. Was someone trying to frame Amelia? And who was her boyfriend? He might be…

  Tad sounded his usual rat-a-tat-tat knock on the front door before Emily could finish her thought. Laying her journal aside, she hurried to let Tad in. Even though things had been strained between them the past couple of days, Emily's heart still sped up at the sight of his tall, lean form in dark jeans, loafers, and a teal plaid button-down with the sleeves rolled up to show his tan, muscled forearms. The color brought out the blue in his gray eyes, turning them the color of a stormy sea. She reached up to run her fingers th
rough his dark hair, going curly at the ends. She swallowed the drool pooling in her mouth before she said, "Hey, handsome, you look amazing."

  Tad's eyes warmed as he smiled down at her. Then he grabbed her hand and spun her out in a fast twirl, tugging her firmly against him when he was done. "I'd say the same goes, Em. Are you a runaway princess in disguise?" Emily giggled (something she only did around Tad) pleased that he, too, had thought of Roman Holiday. She had made him sit through more than one screening of it, as it was one of her favorites.

  "I just might be," she told him. "So be sure and show me a good time before I have to go back to my regal, yet boring, duties."

  "Your wish is my command, Your Highness," Tad said, tucking her arm securely in the crook of his elbow as he led her out to his spotless Prius.

  They enjoyed the first few minutes of the ride out to Gabby and Greg's sprawling farmhouse on the edge of town in companionable silence. The sky was a riot of colors as the sun sank below the horizon, and the rolling hills of green were a welcome sight after a particularly bitter winter. "Gorgeous night, isn't it?" Tad finally broke the silence.