A Peach of a Murder

by Livia J. Washburn

  “It’s been a long time,” Phyllis agreed. “I’m doing fine. How about you?”

  The question prompted a couple of minutes of complaints from Dolly, who had never been shy about sharing her problems. Finally, though, she said, “How is everything working out having Sam Fletcher living with you? He’s a darling man.”

  “Well, he’s not actually living with me,’ Phyllis said, “just boarding here.”

  “Of course, of course.”

  `But he does seem to be very nice. We’ve enjoyed having him here.”

  “I’ll bet Carolyn hasn’t,” Dolly said with a chuckle. “Carolyn had to go through a period of adjustment, let’s say. And I’m not sure, it’s completely over yet.”

  “Sam will win her over. He’s very charming. I tried for years to get him to come teach down here in Weatherford, but he was stubborn about staying in Poolville. He always said he liked a small school better.”

  Phyllis tried to steer the conversation around to the reason she had called. “Dolly, have you heard about what happened yesterday at the high school?”

  “You mean about Jani Garrett being run over by a car? Lord, yes! I heard about it yesterday afternoon and then saw the story in the paper this morning. A terrible thing, just terrible.”

  “Did you know her? I don’t think she and I ever met.” Phyllis knew that Dolly wouldn’t need any more urging than that. Dolly knew everybody connected with education in Parker County, and she still had a network of informants that would rival a European spy ring. And with an old, trusted friend like Phyllis, she would be very open in what she said.

  “Of course I’d met Jani, but I wouldn’t say that I knew her well. She was so much younger, of course, and today’s teachers are just so different from when you and I were there, Phyllis. Last school year was her first in Weatherford, and she’d only taught two or three years before that.” “Where did she come from?”

  “One of the suburban districts over around Dallas, I believe. I don’t remember which one.”

  “So she’s not from around here?”

  “Oh, no, not at all. I think she grew up over there. She’d probably still be there if she hadn’t been asked to leave.” That caught Phyllis’s interest, and despite feeling a little too much like a gossip, she asked, “What happened? Was there a problem where she taught?”

  “Well, from what I understand,” Dolly said, “some of her male students were a little too fond of her, if you know what I mean. And the real problem was that she returned the feeling.”

  “You mean she got romantically involved with some of her students?”

  “I don’t think there was any romance involved. Just good old-fashioned lust. Jani couldn’t resist those big handsome football players. That was probably true when she was in school herself, and it didn’t change when she got on the other side of the teacher’s desk.”

  That was Dolly for you always plainspoken. “Evidently she started carrying on a little too openly with some of the boys, and even though there were never any charges brought against her, she was told that her contract wouldn’t be renewed and was advised that she ought to seek employment in some other district, preferably a good long distance away.” Dolly paused for a second, then mused, “You know, it might not have been so bad if she had confined her attentions to one student. Still completely improper, of course, but we both know such things happen. It was her habit of flitting from boy to boy like she was still a teenager herself that caused the problem. She left too many broken hearts in her wake. And no one’s heart breaks quite as violently as that of a teenage boy.”

  Phyllis felt a chill go through her. As she had expected, Dolly had had a lot to say, and it gave Phyllis a lot to think about. She said, “The police think whoever it was who ran over Jam Garrett did it on purpose. Could she have been involved with some boy here in Weatherford, like she was back where she came from?”

  “And then had him get angry enough when she dropped him that he wanted to kill her?” Dolly speculated. “I suppose it could have happened that way, all right. What a terrible, tragic thing.”

  Phyllis had to agree with that. And everything Dolly had told her backed up the feeling Carolyn had about some of the teachers not liking Jani Garrett. If Jani had been a little too friendly with some of her male students, and if she had been a bit too indiscreet about the relationships, the word would have gotten around and most, if not all, of the other teachers would have disapproved. Everything pointed to a jilted young lover being the culprit in the hit-and-run.

  But even if that theory was right, what business was it of hers, Phyllis asked herself. She hadn’t known Jani, and chances were she didn’t know the driver who had run down the young teacher. This wasn’t like the cases of Newt Bishop and Donnie Boatwright. She hadn’t been there when it happened, and she had no stake in it herself. She could feel sorry about the tragic aspects of the incident, but that was as far as it went.

  So why, as she thanked Dolly and hung up, did she feel something pulling at her, something that told her she knew more about the attempt on Jani Garrett’s life than she thought she did? Had her brief taste of being a detective been so intriguing that she wanted more of it?

  She tried to put the whole thing out of her head, but it was difficult. More than difficult, she was finally forced to admit. It was impossible.

  Chapter 28

  Somewhat to her surprise, Phyllis found herself sitting the neat day outside the office of George Hayes, the principal of Weatherford High School. She had known George since he was a PE teacher and coach at the junior high, before he had gone on to be the head football coach at the high school, then vice principal, and ultimately principal. For a while there, the trend in education had been not to promote from within, so that every time an administrative position opened up, an outsider had been brought in to fill it. Phyllis had never agreed with that stance and was glad that it was less prevalent than it once had been. Promoting from within kept good people like George Hayes in the district instead of forcing them to seek advancement elsewhere.

  Phyllis wasn’t quite sure why she was here. She kept telling herself that it was none of her business. But it was for her own peace of mind, she supposed, that she wanted to know if the rumors about Jani Garrett were true. Two days after being run down in the parking lot, the young teacher was still alive but in critical condition, although the doctors were beginning to be guardedly optimistic about her chances for survival.

  Unlike a doctor’s office, there were no old magazines in the little waiting room outside the principal’s office. The receptionist and the secretary were both gone at the moment, running errands elsewhere in the school, so Phyllis was alone. She passed the time by looking around. She hadn’t spent much time in this school-hardly any, in fact. Even though it had been open for a few years, everything still had the gloss of newness on it. Eventually the thousands of students who would pass through here over the years would give the place a life of its own, perhaps, but right now Phyllis didn’t care much for it. It just didn’t feel lived-in.

  Which was silly, of course, because people didn’t live at school, she thought. This was just a place where they came for a period of time each day during certain seasons of year.

  And yet it was more than that, although she knew that anyone who hadn’t devoted their life to education would never understand all the nuances of it. A good school really was like a home away from home for the people who worked there.

  A bad school, of course, was more like hell on earth. The sound of loud, angry voices startled her out of her reverie. She sat forward in her chair and looked along the hall toward the door of George’s office. It was closed, but it wasn’t soundproof enough to keep the sound of outrage in. Phyllis couldn’t make out most of the words, but she heard “that woman” and “shameful” and “lawsuit” A few minutes later, the door opened and a man and a woman came out of the office. Both of them looked angry, the woman more so than the man. In fact, she looked mad enough to chew nai
ls. The way the man had hold of her arm told Phyllis they were probably husband and wife. With their faces set in taut lines, they stalked past Phyllis and left the school office.

  George Hayes stepped out into the hall, lines of strain etched on his beefy face. He still wore his hair in the same crew cut that he had sported for as long as Phyllis had known him, only it was gray now instead of brown. He looked exactly like what he was. a football coach turned administrator.

  “Phyllis,” he said as he saw her sitting there. He smiled,

  but that didn’t completely relieve the tense look on his face. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was wondering if you could give me a few minutes, George.” Back in the old days, she had occasionally called him Gabby, since he had the same name as the old cowboy movie sidekick Gabby Hayes, but she didn’t think this was really the time or place for that.

  “Sure, I can always make a little time for an old friend,” he said. He held out a hand to usher her in.

  When they were both sitting down, George grimaced and said, “I guess you heard the uproar going on in here before.” “Upset parents?” If he wanted to talk about it, that was fine with Phyllis, because she had a feeling from what little she had overheard that the argument had something to do with the same thing that had brought her here.

  “Yeah. Ever since Jani Garrett got hurt in the parking lot the other day, certain things have come out that have people blowing their tops. By the way, I saw you out there in the parking lot that day, but with all the confusion going on, I didn’t get a chance to say hello.”

  Phyllis smiled. “Don’t worry about that. I know you had your plate full.”

  “Yeah, and it’s getting fuller all the time,” he said with a sigh. “That was Mr. and Mrs. Dietrich who just left. Parents of Shawn Dietrich, who’ll probably be the starting quarterback on the football team this fall … if I don’t wind up having to expel him.”

  Phyllis raised her eyebrows. “Expel him? For what?” “Having an inappropriate relationship with a teacher.” “Jani Garfett.”

  George nodded. “Yeah. And the Dietrichs aren’t the only parents who’ve come in here to see me about the same thing. That gal … sorry, that woman … whatever you call her, she cut a pretty wide swath through the male students. Their parents are just finding out about it, and they’re plenty mad, especially the mamas.”

  “You can’t blame them for not wanting their innocent little boys corrupted.”

  George grunted scornfully. “Innocent, my hind foot. I tell you, Phyllis, if you knew what went on in the schools these days … well, you should just be glad that you retired when you did, that’s all I’ve got to say. Another couple of years and I’ll be out of here.” He sighed, shook his head, and then sat up a little straighter in his chair. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent like that. I guess I just needed to blow off a little steam. Those parents don’t realize that if they can’t control their kids, I sure can’t!” He held up his hands. “Wait a minute. There I go again. Tell me, Phyllis, before I rant some more … what can I do for you?”

  “I wanted to let you know that Mattie Harris won’t be able to do any more tutoring for the summer school students. She’s upset about what happened to Ms. Garrett, and to tell you the truth, George, her health just isn’t very good these days.”

  The principal frowned in concern. “I’m sorry to hear that. Mattie’s always been one of my favorite people. And for somebody as, ah, old as she is, the kids really respond to her pretty well.”

  Phyllis smiled and said, “That’s because Mattie is still young at heart.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. Well, I’m sorry that she won’t be helping us out anymore, but the summer session has less than a week to go. It really shouldn’t make any difference.” He paused. “Was that the only reason you stopped by, to tell me about Mattie.”

  “And to say hello to an old friend.”

  George leaned back in his chair and grinned. “I don’t suppose I could interest you in taking over and being acting principal of the high school for a while?”

  “George,” Phyllis said honestly, “there’s not enough money in the world to get me to do that.”

  She felt a little uneasy about the whole thing. It was true that Mattie had asked her that morning to let George Hayes know she wasn’t coming back, but Phyllis could have called the school and told George about that.

  Instead she had driven out to the school to talk to him in person … and, she might as well admit it, to confirm what Dolly Williamson had told her about the injured teacher, Jani Garrett. As luck would have it, she had seen firsthand some of the results of Jani’s poor judgment. The Dietrichs had been angry and upset when they left George’s office.

  As Phyllis drove home, she wondered if either of them had been angry enough to get behind the wheel of a convenient car and race it straight at the woman they thought had seduced their son.

  That was a crazy idea, she told herself. No one would go to such lengths just because they were upset about an illicit affair between teacher and student. At least, no one who was sane.

  But she didn’t know all the parents of all the students Jani Garrett had carried on with, Phyllis reminded herself. Maybe one of them was just unbalanced enough to do such a thing. Maybe someone-like Mrs. Dietrich, say-had discovered that her son was involved with a teacher and had gone to the school to complain to the principal, or even to have a showdown with Jani herself. That parent, upon seeing Jani walking toward her, might have seized the moment, jumped into that little redheaded student’s car, started it up, and gunned it right at the object of her ire. Then, having struck Jani down, it would have been simple enough for the driver to get back into her own car and drive away.

  Or his car. Phyllis couldn’t assume that it had been a woman who had run into Jani. But she agreed with George that it was more likely to be the mothers who were really upset about what was going on. Some fathers, no matter how they might bluster and carry on, deep down were probably a little proud of their sons for getting involved with a beautiful older woman, whether they would ever admit to such feelings or not.

  By the time she got home, she hadn’t reached any conclusions about what had happened to Jani Garrett, but she knew the whole situation was going to bother her until it was resolved. She wasn’t sure why it was so important to her that the driver of the car be found, but it was. She supposed that everything that had happened over the summer had sharpened her appetite for justice. If Newt Bishop had indeed been murdered-and Phyllis was convinced he had-it appeared the murderer had gotten away with his crime. And since the police still had no fresh ideas about Donnie Boatwright’s killer, that murder might well go unsolved, too, unless it was pinned on someone innocent, like Carolyn. Now there was the near-fatal attempt on Jani Garrett’s life, and again, the suspects were numerous, and as far as Phyllis knew, the authorities weren’t any closer to finding out who had done it than they had been two days earlier when the hit-and-run took place.

  All of that rankled Phyllis. She knew that life wasn’t fair, but she liked to think that the universe was an orderly place, at least at times. Cause and effect, that was what history was. If you knew the effect, you could trace it back and discover the cause, and once you knew the cause, you knew who was responsible for the events in question. But could you ever know for sure, the skeptic in her asked, while the part of her that still had faith said that the reason was there, if you just looked hard enough. There always had to be a reason….

  Her head was full of those thoughts-too full, all stuffed up like a person having an allergy attack-as she parked the Lincoln in the garage and went into the house through the kitchen. Sam wasn’t at his workbench-odd how she thought of it as his workbench these days-and she didn’t know where he was. Eve, whose checkup at the doctor’s in Dallas the day before had gone just fine, was back out at the high school, finishing up her own tutoring sessions. Carolyn and Mattie were probably upstairs, since the house was quiet. The
ringing of the phone suddenly shattered that quiet and seemed unnaturally loud to Phyllis. She grabbed the receiver off the phone that was hanging on the wall in the kitchen. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Phyllis, this is Walt Lee,” the voice on the other end said in a pleasant twang. Although both of Dr. Lee’s parents had been born in Taiwan, he had been born and raised in. Texas and sounded like the native of the Lone Star State that he was.

  “Oh, hello, Dr. Lee. Did you want to talk to me, Mattie, or Eve?”

  “Actually, I want to talk to you, Phyllis … but it’s about Mattie.”

  Phyllis stiffened in alarm. She had assumed that Mattie was here when she came in, but she didn’t know that. It was possible that while she was gone something could have happened to Mattie; she could have gotten sick or had an accident or “Is she all right?” Phyllis asked anxiously.

  “Right now, you mean? You’d know that better than I would, since I assume she’s there at your house.”