Rivaled in Murder

by Helen Gray

  Startled, Miss Mallory leaned backward. “Not everyone,” she said with a little less confidence. Then she regained her equilibrium and stiffened her back. “What’s the matter with you? We don’t even know one another. What’s bugging you?”

  Toni stood firm, hoping her gut was right. “I’ll tell you what’s bugging me. I’m betting you’re particularly good at spreading rumors. A teacher has been accused of something he didn’t do, and according to Facebook chatter, you have a grudge against him over a low grade. So you started a rumor about that teacher hiring a hit man to kill Brant for the trouble and vandalism you manipulated Brant into doing for you. I think you did it, and you don’t have the guts to admit it.”

  The girl’s face flushed bright red, and her eyes blazed. “I have the guts to admit it,” she snarled angrily. “And I have the guts to tell you to get off this property. If you’re not gone in two minutes, I’ll call the cops and tell them you threatened me.”

  “So you did it,” Toni said, stepping back and giving her a withering look.

  “Yep. And this talk is over.” The door slammed.

  Mallory was an insensitive smart aleck who had taken advantage of an opportunity to cause trouble for a teacher against whom she had a grudge, but Toni didn’t sense in her gut that the girl was the killer. Brant had done her bidding. She had no reason to kill him.

  As she drove back to Clearmount, Toni’s spirits sagged. She hadn’t learned anything that had her closer to knowing whether Roddy or someone else had killed those teens. But she had solved another matter.

  *

  When Toni entered the Clearmount gym, Gabe and Garrett were in the act of putting on their coats. They trotted across the floor to her. “We were going home with John,” Gabe announced, sounding disappointed.

  John turned from speaking to the coach and came to join them. “You weren’t gone very long. Any luck?”

  “I learned something interesting, but I’m probably wasting my time on the murder case.”

  He shook his head. “No, you need to see it through. Track down the rest of the squad and see what you can learn, settle the matter in your own mind. If you need me or Jenny to keep the boys, just say the words.”

  “Thanks. Come on, boys.”

  When she didn’t turn at the road to their house, Gabe groaned. “You’re going to the police station, aren’t you?”

  “I’ve learned some information that I need to share with Buck.”

  “Would it be okay if we play in the little park behind the police station?” Garrett asked.

  “Is your homework done?”

  “No, but we don’t have much, and we’ll do it when we get home,” he promised.

  Toni felt bad about dragging them along so much on her errands that held little interest to them, so she relented. “Okay.”

  As soon as she parked near the station, they took off around the building. She went to the door and peeked inside.

  The officer on duty looked up from his computer. “I’ll tell the chief you’re here.”

  He disappeared through the doorway, and reappeared moments later, his expression hard to read. “He said tell you to come on in if you have the nerve.”

  Toni bristled. “If he’s in that bad a mood, maybe I should just take my information to someone who’ll appreciate it.”

  “Oh, get on in here,” bellowed from inside the office.

  The officer raised his palms and backed away. “It’s your decision,” he said in a whisper. Then he grinned and resumed his seat.

  Toni marched inside and stopped before Buck’s desk.

  He looked up at her and leaned back in his chair. “The Brownville police have made an arrest, so you can stop poking around in things that aren’t our business.”

  She studied him. He looked tired—and sad. His job had to be an emotional drain. She felt guilty for pressuring him, but she had to say this. “I’ll talk fast and get out of your way. I’m not convinced they’ve arrested the right person.”

  Eyes narrowing, his fingers drummed on the desk top. “Based on what?”

  She grimaced. “I guess my not-so-famous gut instinct. Roddy Gorman’s a meth cook and not the brightest star in the sky, but I don’t think he knocked off his cousin. I don’t think it fits. He didn’t need to track Brant down on a date to settle their differences, and he had no reason that I can see to harm the girl. It just doesn’t feel right.”

  Buck’s mouth pursed a tiny bit, and he leaned forward on the desk. “Oh, it doesn’t, huh? What do you propose doing about it?”

  “I’m not sure,” she admitted cautiously, “but I’ve learned enough about some of the things going on among the students to make me think more of them need to be eliminated as suspects before settling on Roddy.”

  He deliberated for several moments, his eyes drilling her, before responding. “You think students, rather than an older guy who’s not in school, did it?”

  Toni paused, pulling her thoughts together. “I think that might be what’s bothering me.”

  “Can you let it go?”

  “Maybe. But I’d like to run a couple more things past you, just to get your take on them.”

  He stopped drumming his fingers. “Get it off your chest then.”

  She drew a deep breath and sank onto a chair. “Dione Gorski and Britney Thomas are pals, and they harassed Shelby because they resented her for dating the older guys, what they consider their turf.”

  He nodded. “I’m sure the Brownville authorities already know that.”

  Toni glowered at him. “If you’re not interested in what I’ve learned, I may as well leave.” She turned to go.

  “Toni, sit down.” His voice was still gruff, but softer.

  She hesitated, but then did as instructed. She stared across the desk at him.

  He raked a hand over his face. “It’s been a bad week. Sorry if I’ve been rough on you.”

  Suddenly she remembered. Yesterday had been the anniversary of his wife’s death. And he had a lot riding on his shoulders. He had been working with Brownville on a horrible murder case, in addition to the assault on Zoe and Melody, plus the nursing home death.

  “I’m a big girl. And I understand,” she added gently. Then she continued her recital, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. “I had heard that Brant fought with Todd Wilkins, a boy Shelby liked before Brant. The Brownville principal confirmed that the reason they fought had nothing to do with Shelby, but was because Brant had taken advantage of Todd’s little sister and took no responsibility when she ended up pregnant.”

  Buck picked up a pen and began scrawling on his desk pad.

  “Here’s another detail I just learned. One of the Brownville cheerleaders, a girl by the name of Mallory Johnson, just admitted to me that she started the rumor about the teacher hiring someone to kill Brant. She did it because he didn’t give her a better grade.”

  Buck’s lips tightened. “She told you that?”

  “She did.”

  His mouth did a funny little twist. “How much did you hurt her to get that confession?”

  Toni shrugged. “She’ll live. And maybe find a way to cause trouble for me. At least that’s what I would expect she’ll try, based on what I’ve seen and heard of her character.”

  Buck shook his head slowly back and forth. “Toni, you’re going to land in more trouble than you can handle if you’re not careful. Even if you do get results,” he added in a slow huff.

  She ignored what was becoming an oft repeated warning. “Miss Johnson is very sure of herself. I don’t think she realizes that there will be consequences for her spiteful actions. There will be, won’t there?” Her brows rose in question.

  “I’ll call the Brownville chief and tell him what you’ve told me. It sounds like making a false accusation, maybe even defamation of character, charges could be brought against the girl. He might not be able to prove all that, but he can put the fear of God in her. As for their murder suspect, I’ll see if he’ll even listen, or i
f he’s convinced it’s solved.”

  “In light of this, the Anderson guy may not be involved,” Toni pointed out.

  “You could be right. Are you done now?”

  Toni shook her head. “With that case, but not the nursing home. Have you gleaned anything from that notebook Mom found in the room where Mavis stayed?”

  His fingers resumed their monotonous tapping. “It appears to be the ramblings of a woman struggling to record her thoughts—maybe to remember things. I didn’t decipher anything that indicated she was in trouble or danger. I assume Faye showed it to you before she brought it to me.”

  “We looked at it.”

  His interest sharpened. “You wouldn’t have brought it up if you hadn’t found something. What did you notice that was significant?”

  “A name scribbled inside the front cover.”

  He frowned. “I couldn’t read most of it. Neither could anyone else who examined it.”

  “Mom and I agreed that the first word of that name could be Quincy. So I called Jeremy.”

  “One of your boy detectives.”

  “Right. He’s the computer guy. He located a Quincy Insurance Company and told them …”

  “Go on, spit it out,” he ordered brusquely when she faltered.

  “Well, he might have led them to think he was related to Mavis, and learned that there was a policy on her with the company.”

  He leaned forward on the desk, fully alert now. “Was there a claim made?”

  She nodded.

  “Who collected that money?”

  She gave a shake of her head. “They wouldn’t tell him.”

  Buck reflected for a moment. Then he pulled a folder from the basket behind him. He thumbed through it, pulled out a sheet of paper, and reached for the phone. “I’ll call Ida.”

  Toni sat in silence while he spoke to Mavis’s sister, thankful the woman had answered her phone this time.

  “She knows nothing about such a policy,” he said when he disconnected. “She said she’ll confirm with her nephews, but she says she remembers them saying during the planning of the funeral that Mavis had no life insurance other than the policy related to her teacher retirement. It’s time to play hard ball with that company.”

  Listening to him call and lay down the law to a company executive was rather satisfying. Toni silently cheered him on when he threatened to have authorities at their office within hours if he wasn’t given the information he wanted.

  When he disconnected, his expression was somber. “The policy was taken out a year ago, in force just long enough for the policy holder to collect in case of a death. And that policy holder is the woman’s stepdaughter, Delia Cunningham.”

  Toni’s brain spun so fast it made her dizzy. “It’s very hard to take out a secret policy,” she said, more to herself than to Buck. “A medical exam would surely have been required. But Mavis wouldn’t have thought anything about blood samples being drawn by nursing home personnel.”

  “And she would have signed anything any nursing home employee told her to,” Buck added, following her thought process.

  “Especially if it was the Delia I met briefly,” Toni added. “She’s a nurse’s aide at the manor, and Mavis told Mom and me that last time we visited her that Delia writes letters to her sister for her. Mavis might have been in the habit of signing those, and would have signed anything Delia put in front of her and told her to sign.”

  Buck shook his head in a sad gesture. “Mavis had lost so much of the sharpness she displayed during her career.”

  “And Delia took advantage of that,” Toni said, anger rising up in her. “She claimed to be a stepdaughter and took out a policy with a sizable benefit, not large enough to send up red flags, but large enough to make the scam worthwhile. But how does a low income nurse’s aide afford the premiums? And the whole scheme seems too much for someone like Delia without advanced training.”

  Buck nodded in slow thoughtfulness. “I have to find out more about this Delia. And, yes, I’ll let you know what I find out,” he added before Toni could ask. “Now go spend time with your boys and take care of that husband of yours.”

  Toni saluted smartly. “Aye, aye, Sir.”

  He grinned. “Go on. Get out of here before I change my mind about being nice to you.”

  Toni exited the police station and glanced over at the little community park. It was deserted. She began walking that way, visually searching for the boys. As worry slithered through her, she walked faster. Tense, she started around the perimeter fence, but relaxed when she spotted both boys sitting on the ground underneath the bleachers. She headed that way.

  As she reached them, Garrett held up a battered yellow Frisbee and stared at it, his head tipped. “This reminds me of a big ball I dreamed about,” he said whimsically. “It’s the same color and size. But the one in my dream made a face at me.”

  “Where did you get it?” she asked.

  He pointed. “It was over in the corner of the field by the fence. It’s so beat up, I guess somebody threw it away. But I’m glad I found it.”

  “Oh?” She sensed a story.

  Gabe glared at his little brother, got up, and headed for the van. What was that about?

  “A girl chased him and caught him. She sat on him,” Garrett continued, undeterred. “But I saved him.”

  “How did you save him?”

  “I whacked her with this.” He knocked his knuckles against the Frisbee.

  Toni wanted to laugh, but thought better of it. “Come on, before we freeze.”

  He was on his feet before she finished speaking. Both boys were quiet on the drive home.

  “Hey, look at that,” Gabe exclaimed angrily as she pulled into their driveway. “Someone smashed our soccer ball.” The mutilated object lay in front of the garage door.

  Toni parked in the driveway and pressed the remote. As the door rose, both boys scrambled out and raced to their mangled soccer ball. She could see that a crude face had been drawn on it, probably with an ink pen. When Gabe picked it up, he gazed back at Toni in shock. Then he yelled, “There’s a note taped to it, Mom.”

  Feeling certain it was not good, Toni hurried to them and took the folded piece of paper he pulled loose and handed to her. The printed words on it stole her breath.

  STOP MEDDLING AND STAY OUT OF BROWNVILLE. WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. THIS COULD BE YOUR KID.

  Chapter 13

  For a moment Toni’s heart stopped, fear ripping through her. Then sheer rage outranked fear. How dare someone threaten her children? Her hands shook.

  Help me, Lord. Please.

  She pulled a long breath, struggling for control. She couldn’t let the boys read the note—or see how much it affected her. They had taken their poor crushed soccer ball into the house. She reached for her phone to call Buck and followed them, but before she could dial, the phone rang, startling her so badly she dropped it on the garage floor. She stooped, snatched it up, and answered without looking at the ID. “Hello.”

  “Mrs. Donovan, I’ve found some more information.”

  At the sound of Jeremy’s voice, Toni closed her mouth. She had meant to tell the caller she couldn’t talk then, but hearing that he had more information stilled her tongue. She would call Buck as soon as she heard what Jeremy had to say. “Tell me quickly. I’m dealing with another urgent matter right now.”

  “I contacted an instructor I’ve gotten to know rather well. When I explained the situation, he saw the seriousness of it and agreed to help,” he explained in a rush. “He somehow got a list of that nursing home’s personnel and researched the insurance company some more to see if any other employees had policies on Mavis with them. None did. But he did some cross referencing and found that another employee had a policy on her with another company.”

  “I need the name of that employee.”

  “It’s Connie Ebert. The staff list says she’s a nurse. I’ll keep searching.”

  “Thanks, Jeremy,” she said when he wound to
a finish, making mental note of that name.

  As she disconnected, the boys returned to the garage, their faces and manner suggesting they had been hovering by the doorway. Gabe held the land line phone that had to be from her and Kyle’s bedroom.

  “I called Buck,” he said forthrightly.

  Toni pulled her finger from her cell phone just before pressing Buck’s number. “What did he say?”

  The boy’s mouth resembled a monkey. “He’s on his way.”

  As he finished speaking, the sound of a motor reached them. Toni whirled and rushed back out of the garage, arriving at the van just as Buck pulled up behind it. He emerged from the police car, his expression grim.

  “Let me see that.” He reached for the note she held.

  When he looked up from reading it, Garrett approached and held out their soccer ball. “See what somebody did.”

  Buck’s scowl turned fierce. “I’ll personally see that you guys get a new ball. No, I insist,” he said when the boys chimed their thanks and Toni started to protest. “This happened on my watch, and I want to replace it. I’ll keep this one and see if we can get any prints off of it. I’ll take the note, too. Now why don’t you boys go inside where it’s warm?”

  Without argument, they did as he suggested.

  Toni clenched her fists. “I’m just one person, and I don’t even live in the community where those kids were murdered. How can I rate so much hate?”

  Buck eyed her critically. Then, ever so slowly, his mouth pulled back at the corner. “Have you ever tried to sleep with a mosquito in your bed?”

  His unexpected comparison of her to a mosquito caught Toni off guard. But then it made her laugh in spite of her agitation.

  He slapped the note against his left palm, his head shaking. “I don’t think Roddy has the magical power to do this from jail—and I don’t think it’s a random vandal—which leads me to believe you’re on the right track. He’s not guilty of those murders.”

  Although it felt good to have him agree with her, it meant the killer was still on the loose. Suddenly she remembered another detail. “I meant to ask you something else while I was in your office, but I forgot.”