Rivaled in Murder

by Helen Gray

  She frowned again. “It would be nice to visit your parents and sisters, but I really don’t see how I can do that right now. The weather is supposed to be turning worse. And I’m …”

  “You’re what?” he asked when she stopped.

  She hated to unload too much of her personal concerns on him when he was under so much stress himself. “I raised a stink today,” she said, hoping to divert him.

  As he read her expression, a twitch pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Did it have anything to do with chemicals in a lab?”

  “Yep.” A bit of her tension eased as she related the latest demonstration fiasco.

  He chuckled. Then he became serious again. “That’s funny, but it’s not what’s bothering you. Tell me.”

  She told him about the missing Brownville students and the connection to the two girls in her class. “My gut is telling me those missing teens are not alive.”

  His mouth tightened into a firm line. “I know you care about your students, and that’s good. But you take too much on yourself. Don’t let problems beyond your classroom weigh you down. Your gut could be wrong.”

  She drew a deep breath. “I know. But those girls are worried sick about their friend, and it breaks my heart.”

  “Let’s pray for them before we go to bed.”

  She rounded the table to give him a hug. “We’ll do that.”

  *

  During the night, Toni slid out of bed and went to the bathroom. As she started to crawl back under the covers, she heard sounds coming from the boys' room. She tiptoed down the hall and peered inside the doorway. Dimly she detected movement on Garrett's bed. She slipped inside and went to sit next to him.

  He turned over, mumbling.

  Gently she ran a hand over his brow in a soothing caress.

  He mumbled some more.

  Toni leaned closer, straining to understand his words.

  "Park ..." he said in a muffled breath. "The park," he repeated.

  "Yes, we'll go to the park this summer," she crooned, continuing to stroke him. When he quieted and began to breathe evenly, she eased away and left the room.

  *

  Thursday evening Toni and her Science Club students operated the concession at the home basketball games against Brownville. Between overseeing the cash box, work schedules and duties, and keeping inventory stocked, she was too busy to know anything about the activities inside the gym.

  “It’s almost half time,” someone announced. Within the next minute the hallway began to fill with people seeking refreshments and a chance to stretch their legs.

  A group of students approached the counter, chattering with animation and lots of hand gestures. Toni spotted Zoe and Melody in the mix of black-and-orange and black-and-red cheerleader uniforms. Her two students wore orange Pep Club tee shirts.

  “Wasn’t it a hoot when Forrest’s head fell off while he was jumping up and down?” someone said laughingly.

  “He’s a great one for losing his head,” another returned in a silly pun that garnered more laughs.

  “It didn’t bother him,” yet another said. “He just took a bow, picked up his head, and jammed it back on his shoulders.”

  Toni grinned, deducing that they were talking about their team mascot.

  “Did you see Linda run to help him?” a blond cheerleader asked. “She wants a date with him so bad she can’t stand it.”

  The comment was made with a laugh, but Toni was pretty sure she detected an underlying catty barb in it. She glanced over the group, trying to identify speakers, but couldn’t. Distracted, she had to be nudged on the elbow. “Excuse me, Mrs. Donovan. I need to make some change.”

  She raised the lid of the cash box. “Sorry.”

  The student grinned and exchanged a five for some ones and coins. “It’s nice to be this busy.”

  Toni nodded. “It’ll be good for our service project fund.”

  When the crowd headed back inside the gym for the second half of the game, the workers all breathed easier. They tidied the work area and restocked their best selling items in preparation for the break between games.

  By the time the evening ended, Toni was more than ready for home and rest. The hallway had emptied, and they were locking up the concession room when someone yelled from down the hallway. “It looks like there’s a fight in the parking lot.”

  The few students who remained raced in that direction. As they exited the building, a woman came running inside it. She halted and looked around. When she spotted Toni in the hallway, she came hurrying toward her. “Two young men drove up out there and started threatening some of the boys who were getting on the bus. One of them has a gun.” As she finished speaking, the sound of shots reached them.

  Toni whirled, grabbed her phone from her purse, and dialed her principal. “Where are you?’ she demanded when Ken answered. “A lady here says there are guys on the parking lot threatening Brownville players, and we just heard gun shots.”

  “I’m on my way,” he said in breathless urgency. “Norton called me while I was dealing with a problem at the other end of the lot.” The line went silent.

  Toni returned her attention to the woman. “The principal is on his way, and the resource officer is already there.” As she spoke, a siren sounded.

  The woman pulled her coat tighter around her, shivering, apparently from fear as well as the cold. “Thank you,” she said. “I think I’ll wait at the door until the parking lot’s clear.”

  Toni looked over at where her sons waited, their arms full of concession supplies she had brought from home. She grabbed her own load and beckoned. “Let’s go.”

  The three of them followed the woman to the glass paned doorway, but didn’t continue out onto the sidewalk with her. Outside, the light bar flashed on a police car that pulled to a stop by the Brownville school bus. Headlights of the bus and other vehicles illuminated people moving about. Toni wanted to go out there and learn more about the situation, but she didn’t want to take her boys into an unsafe scene. “We’ll wait a bit,” she said.

  When the few remaining cars began to drive off the lot, she pushed the door open. They walked out to where the woman had stopped to watch.

  “I think it’s safe to go to our cars now,” the woman said, leading the way down the inclined sidewalk.

  Toni recognized Phil Norton, the resource officer, near the bus, and Ken Douglas, the principal, talking to a small group of people. She recognized the man standing near the right headlight of the bus as the bus driver.

  The woman ahead of Toni and the boys approached the driver. “Did they catch the ones with the guns?” she asked loud enough to be heard from where Toni had paused to listen.

  “They were gone by the time the police got here,” the driver responded.

  “I saw them get out of a car and run up to those two students.” The woman pointed at the two boys with the principal and resource officer. “They must have been waiting to jump ‘em. When I saw one had a gun, I ran inside to report it.”

  The driver nodded. “Thank you, Mabel. I also saw it and called the police. There was some pushing and shoving, and I was afraid somebody was gonna get hurt—or killed. When I hit the horn, it distracted them, and I ran out here. But they took off and jumped in their car. They peeled away, the driver waving his gun out the window and yelling more threats at those two.”

  Toni swept her gaze over the entire scene. There was nothing she could do, except stay out of the way. She motioned to her sons and headed on to her van.

  *

  Friday morning during her free hour, Toni’s classroom phone rang. She hurried across the room to it.

  “We didn’t find anything out at the Taylor pond,” Buck said as soon as she answered.

  “Thanks for the update. I hope those kids are found soon, and that they’re okay.”

  “People all over the area are out looking for them.”

  “Have you caught those two guys from last night?” she asked before he could disc
onnect.

  He heaved an audible sigh. “Not yet, but we will. We got what we think is a good description of the car they were driving. What’s confusing is that the atmosphere at the game was normal, with no disturbances. There was no anticipation of trouble. We’re pretty sure they weren’t Clearmount students, and it doesn’t seem they were Brownville ones either.”

  Toni agreed. “If I hear any talk that sounds helpful, I’ll call you.”

  “You do that.” The phone went silent.

  Toni returned to her desk.

  Later, while she was in the teacher’s lounge getting a soda from the vending machine to go with her lunch, the local news began on the small television mounted on a shelf like those in the classrooms.

  “Two bodies found in a car parked in a secluded lane not far from the entrance to the Brownville City Park are believed to be the teenagers reported missing this past Tuesday.”

  The young woman making the report was pictured standing near the park entrance.

  “The bodies of the young people are believed to be Brant Gorman, nineteen, and fifteen-year-old Shelby Warren. They reportedly left together after school Monday afternoon about four-thirty and failed to return home that night. Neighboring police departments have assisted in the search for them.”

  Toni dropped onto the edge of a chair, the air whooshing from her lungs as her horrified thoughts flashed to Zoe and Melody, and then to the poor parents of those teenagers. The very idea of losing a child—or friend—in such a manner made sobs gurgle up in her throat. She listened in horror as the report continued.

  “At seven-thirty this morning the park caretaker found the car and called the police. The pair allegedly had been shot. Autopsies are being performed, and a murder investigation is underway. We’ll provide more details as they become available.”

  Chapter 2

  Melody and Zoe entered the classroom as the bell for sixth hour class finished ringing—which was technically a tardy. But that was the least of Toni’s concerns. They were crying. So they knew.

  When they had taken their seats, she addressed the class. “Start reading chapter twelve. I'll be with you shortly."

  Toni went to the girls, who sat staring at their unopened textbooks. They raised grief-stricken faces, their eyes glistening with tears.

  “I heard a news report in the lounge. Is it your friend?” Toni asked quietly, knowing from their expressions that it had to be.

  They both nodded.

  “I ran outside where I could get cell service and called Shelby’s mother,” Zoe choked out miserably. “She said it’s her.”

  “Let’s go out in the hall.”

  They followed her like automatons and sagged against the wall near the door. Toni kept an eye on the class through the small rectangular window pane in the door while wrapping her arms around the girls. “I’m so sorry about your friends.”

  “Brant was no friend,” Zoe snapped in a strangled voice, her shoulders heaving.

  “He was a jerk,” Melody wailed. “I'm sure he's the reason they’re dead. Shelby’s dead because of him.”

  “She’s only fifteen,” Zoe moaned between choked sobs.

  Toni squeezed their shoulders, at a loss for words. She had learned to shift from teacher mode to stand-in parent during emergencies, but this was beyond her experience. They needed more comfort than she could give them. Her class was waiting. “Let me call the counselor to come get you. Don’t worry about class today. We’ll find a way for you to make up the assignment you’ll miss.”

  They stood in silent anguish while Toni stepped inside the classroom and used the phone by the doorway to dial the counselor’s extension. She was relieved when Kelly Graham answered. “Can you come get Melody Haynes and Zoe Cahill?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the girls in the hallway. “The girl in that pair of teens found near the park was a close friend …”

  “I’ll be right there,” Kelly said before she could finish.

  Toni put the phone down and spoke to the girls from the doorway. “I have to take care of class. You two wait right there for Mrs. Graham.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Donovan,” Melody managed to say. Then she turned to Zoe. They clung to one another, sobbing. At least they had each other. Spotting Kelly coming up the hall, Toni nodded and returned to her classroom responsibilities.

  *

  As soon as Toni arrived home after school, her cell phone rang. She glanced at the ID. “Hi, Mom. What’s on your mind that merits calling from work?” Her mother was a nurse practitioner at one of the local clinics.

  “I need to make calls at Sunbeam Manor in the morning, and I thought you might like to go along for a visit with Mavis Thornton while I do my rounds.”

  While you can, she heard in her mother’s tone. Mavis had been Toni’s junior high science teacher years ago and instilled in Toni her love of science. Now Mavis had Alzheimer’s—and might not be capable of visiting much longer.

  Toni swallowed her disappointment at not being able to sleep in and spend Saturday morning relaxing. Unable to refuse the invitation, she was still caught on the activity merry-go-round. “What time are you going?”

  “I know you’re bound to be tired, so I won’t pick you up until about nine.”

  “Okay. See you.”

  Her mother had a good heart—and a part-time job that had a tendency to become full-time. Doctor Edwards supplemented his income by serving as the nursing home’s medical director, a position that required him to spend about ten hours a month at the home. But his schedule sometimes became so hectic, or he had to go out of town, that Faye did weekend rounds for him.

  Kyle entered the house as Toni was taking a meat loaf from the oven. “Smells good,” he commented, inhaling deeply. He dropped a peck on her cheek as he passed through the kitchen. “Can you and the boys help me out a little at the airport tomorrow?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “It’ll have to be after lunch.” She set the baking dish on an iron trivet on the table.

  He paused and turned around. “You have something else on your agenda?”

  She removed tea glasses from the cabinet. “Nursing home rounds with Mom in the morning. She’s covering for Doctor Edwards and offered me the opportunity to visit with Mavis.”

  He frowned. “Sounds like you’re burning the candle at both ends.”

  She shrugged and set the glasses on the table. “I’ll clone myself and send my double to the airport.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You sure?”

  She turned to face him. “I’ll manage. We need to pay some bills and round up documentation for the tax return so you can take it to the CPA this week. I don’t want to wait until the deadline to find out where we are financially on the new business.”

  He didn’t say any more.

  They went to bed early that night, but Toni didn’t go to sleep immediately. Melody and Zoe’s grief-torn images haunted her. It was well after midnight by the time she was finally able to force her mind to go blank and drift into slumber.

  The next morning she and Faye arrived at the reception desk of Sunbeam Manor a little after nine. “Is Mavis Thornton still in room eighty-two?” Faye asked.

  “She is,” the receptionist answered. “But she’s in the dining area working on a jigsaw puzzle right now.”

  Inside the pleasantly furnished and carpeted lobby, a large-screen television blared news reports that no one watched. Two women in wheelchairs sat staring out the window. Beyond the lobby was a huge tiled room with dining tables arranged around it. Mavis sat hunched over in her wheelchair before one of them, ignoring the puzzle on the table and writing in a notebook. Faye and Toni headed that way.

  “Mavis?” Toni said quietly when they neared the table.

  The woman looked up. Her thin white hair drifted in flyaway wisps about her head and face, and her right eye drooped at the corner, the after-effects of a stroke. The corners of her mouth curved upward. “Why, hello, Toni.”

  Faye nudged Toni’s elbow. “I�
��ll be back in about an hour. Have a nice visit, and I’ll check Mavis when I return.”

  “What are you doing these days?” Mavis asked as Toni watched her mother’s white clad figure go soundlessly up the hallway.

  Toni took a seat to the woman’s left. “I’m still teaching science at the high school.” She would have to answer the same question tomorrow if she were to see Mavis again.

  “You always did like science. I’m glad.” Mavis moved her near useless right hand up onto the table next to her left. It curled inward, more damage from the stroke that had been the reason she had finally agreed to live in the nursing home. She had refused to move in with either of her two sons, even though both had pleaded with her to do so.

  With an unsteady left hand Mavis pushed a batch of puzzle pieces toward the center of the table. “I remember that volcano you made and entered in the science fair in sixth grade. Your momma told me how you made one at home and used too much vinegar and baking soda. She said foam and bubbles went everywhere.”

  Toni smiled. “She still holds that over my head.”

  From there Mavis rambled on about more things they had done back in those days. She was in the middle of recalling another memory when an aide in a striped smock paused in passing the table. “It’s good to see you up and about, Mavis,” the woman said. She looked to be around forty. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  Mavis shook her head. “Not right now, Delia. But I’ll be ready for a nap after Toni and I finish our visit.”

  The aide smiled and patted her arm. “Just have the receptionist whistle for me when you’re ready to go, and I’ll be here in a jiffy.”

  Mavis chuckled as the woman walked away. “She knows I’ll probably get lost if I try to find my room by myself.”

  “I’m glad you have help available when you need it.” As she spoke, Toni wondered if she would one day end up like her beloved teacher, who could talk endlessly about the past, but couldn’t remember what had happened yesterday, or even how to find her room. Short-term memory loss was a terrible thing.

  “Delia’s especially good to me,” Mavis continued. “She even helps me write letters to my sister Ida who lives in …somewhere around here,” she explained, her left hand moving back and forth over the near useless right one that made writing difficult for her. She was right handed.