Toni Donovan Mysteries- Books 1-3

by Helen Gray

  Toni found fulfillment in teaching, but it wasn’t without its trials. She had a genuine desire to be effective, and she considered most of her colleagues worthy of their hire. But teachers were human. Some hated paperwork and did their best to avoid it, while others knew every trick in the book to dodge supervisory duties. Overall, though, she thought the Clearmount teaching staff functioned well as a team. Dissatisfactions and strain in recent months were primarily attributable to the top administrator. Although Marsha’s death was tragic, Toni hoped that working conditions and morale would improve under new leadership.

  *

  Tuesday was hectic. Toni went straight home after school, fed the boys a hurried meal, and rushed back to the school. She let them go inside the gym and find seats to watch the games.

  As mothers of students arrived with their pots of burgers and hot dogs, Toni set their crock-pots in place on the back counter. Students checked the soda tanks and got them ready to go. A large jar of dill pickles was placed at one end of the counter, with a supply of pickle sticks and napkins beside it.

  From the gym door Toni watched people fill the bleachers, while the visiting team ran drills on the floor. Jenny Zachary had chairs set up on the stage for her pep band. They would play the national anthem just before the first game, and then pep songs between games and at halftimes. Toni knew this was one of Jenny’s favorite after-school duties. It also provided a way for some of the non-athletic students to be involved in a sport activity—and got them into the game free.

  Everyone stood at attention while the band played the anthem. Then the noise resumed. Toni watched the beginning of the first game from the doorway.

  “Mrs. Donovan, where is the extra butter for the popcorn?” A student’s call drew Toni back to her post.

  At halftime she checked to see if the students needed any help with the concessions. They only had a small rush of business, but Toni knew things would pick up later in the evening. When play resumed, she returned to the doorway to watch more of the game—and her sons.

  She scanned the crowd. Gabe and Garrett still sat behind the home team bench, and it looked like they were having a good time. As the cheerleaders turned handsprings, did back flips and led cheers, the boys added their part to the racket.

  On the floor Lisa Baker paced in front of her seat, coaching the girls through their plays and weaving them on and off the floor.

  Lisa and Jordan each coached two sports. In the fall she coached volleyball, and he did baseball. In the winter they both coached basketball. Then he had baseball again in the spring. They both lived within a mile of the school, which was fortunate since they spent so much time there. Jordan had a home in the estates, not far from Toni and Kyle. Lisa lived in the new Middlebrook subdivision below the main junction at the east edge of town.

  As soon as the game ended, with a close win for the home team, Toni hurried back to her students and worked alongside them as they got busier.

  By the time the Junior Varsity game ended and the Senior Varsity game began, Toni was so tired that all she wanted was for the night to end. At halftime they had another rush of customers, the biggest yet.

  “I need a cold soda,” Lisa Baker’s husky voice announced at the counter, her face flushed and her expression angry. The assistant coach, a junior high social studies teacher, stood behind her. Lisa reached into the pocket of the team jacket she wore over a dark green tailored suit, in accordance with their dress code for coaches at games. “Tommy Hill was hot dogging again. Hanging on the rim got us a technical foul that may cost us the game.” She pulled some bills and coins from her pocket and slammed them down on the counter.

  Coins went bouncing off the countertop onto the floor, and Toni turned just in time to watch the assistant coach make an awkward grab at a spinning quarter. Her elbow jerked and hit the pickle jar, sending it into a slide along the counter.

  Lisa, seeing the jar move, made a grab for it, but missed. When it crashed on the concrete floor, glass shattered, sending pickle juice and pickles flying everywhere. Lisa slipped in the liquid and fell to her knees. People around them jumped back quickly.

  Hissing an expletive through clenched teeth, Lisa grabbed her left hand with her right as blood dripped onto the floor. She squeezed the hand and darted a quick look around to see if anyone had heard. Toni pretended she hadn’t read her colleague’s lips.

  “Shannon, find a janitor.” Toni buttonholed the nearest student as she ran out the door and around to the front of the counter where Lisa was getting to her feet.

  “Do you need a doctor?” she asked, trying to get a look at Lisa’s hand.

  Lisa got to her feet and opened her palm. “No, it’s not bad.” She examined where a cut ran in an arc across the fleshy area below her thumb.

  Toni reached over to the concession counter and grabbed a handful of napkins. “Here.” She placed several over the bleeding cut and pressed down. “This should protect it long enough for you to get to your first aid kit.”

  “Thanks.” Lisa held the napkins in place as Toni removed her hand. Lisa glanced around at the mess and grimaced. “Sorry about this. Order another jar and let me know the cost. I’ll pay for it.”

  Toni shrugged it off, also surveying the mess. “Accidents happen. Everyone stay back,” she ordered as spectators gathered to gape.

  She turned back to Lisa. “Go on and take care of yourself. I’ll deal with this.”

  Just then Phil Norton appeared. “I’ll take care of it,” the resource officer said to Toni. “You take care of your students.”

  Looking up the hall, Toni saw Shannon returning with one of the night janitors. About five four, Clay was slightly plump and balding, and had several teeth missing. He was pushing an industrial mop bucket.

  Within minutes Clay had everything clean and shiny. He had worked silently, but Toni was confident he would find an opportunity at some point to fill her ears with his opinion of students or staff who went out of their way to create extra work for him. She made a point of thanking him effusively before he could get going on that.

  When the janitor headed back the way he had come, Toni walked over to where Phil Norton still kept watch. “Thanks for the quick help. You’re a handy guy to have around.”

  He grinned. “Glad I was here.”

  By the time the game ended and they had the concession stand tidy, Toni was bone weary. The boys waited at their usual place by the door when she finally headed out of the almost empty building, one arm wrapped around a crock-pot and the other hand gripping a bag of soiled kitchen linens.

  “Let’s go home,” she said unnecessarily as Gabe and Garrett caught up to her. “Gabe, will you carry this for me?” She handed him the crock-pot.

  He took it and followed Garrett out the door.

  Toni looked out over the parking lot that was a huge concrete apron fronted by an asphalt roadway and saw only four or five cars left out there, highlighted by streetlights at the main entrance and a few strategic points.

  A lone car backed out of its parking spot at the west end of the lot. It stopped, and then rolled forward very slowly. Garrett was a few feet ahead of Toni and Gabe when suddenly the car accelerated with a lurch and a scream of rubber. It headed straight toward Garrett.

  Chapter 7

  With only a second to react, and oblivious to her own safety, Toni dropped her purse and the bag of linens. “Garrett!” she screamed, running at him and shoving him forward in a flying leap. He tumbled into a heap, and Toni landed behind him in a bone jarring crash on her elbows and knees. Her head jerked forward, cracking her forehead on the pavement as the car roared past. She saw stars and nearly blacked out, but a moment later she managed to lift her head enough to look out over the parking lot.

  Her eyes widened and her heart squeezed in horror as she watched the car skitter across the concrete surface. The driver braked, sending a spray of loose gravel flying, and made a U-turn. Then the car accelerated again. It veered and came back directly toward Garrett.


  Terrified she wouldn’t reach him in time, Toni stumbled to her feet and half crawled, half ran to where Garrett had staggered to his feet. Dimly she heard someone scream as she propelled her body forward and gave him another shove that sent him rolling end over end across the hard concrete. The car fender clipped Toni on the hip and sent her rolling after him. She hit the surface with such force that the wind was knocked completely out of her. She lay stunned, every bone in her body screaming in pain.

  Her vision so blurry she could hardly see, Toni fought for breath and forced her eyes open. Dimly she registered a dark blur swerving and screaming out of the east exit of the parking lot into the street. It sped toward town.

  “Are you all right?” A well-dressed gentleman knelt beside her, a woman standing behind him. He started to touch Toni’s arm, and then drew his hand back. “Should I call a doctor?”

  Toni held up a hand, struggling for breath, her head pounding till she could hardly see. When she finally managed a gulp of air, she whispered, “No,” and pushed herself upright.

  Phil Norton skidded to a halt beside her. “Toni, what happened?”

  “Garrett,” she gasped. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

  “I’m okay, Mom.” Garrett came crawling to her side and wrapped an arm around her, his little body shaking.

  Toni squeezed him to her, unable to speak past the tears choking her. Finally she eased her youngest son back to examine him through the haze of tears. His face was scratched and bleeding, and he held one arm cradled to him.

  “A car came from down there.” The older woman behind them pointed, her voice shrill. “It sped up and came right toward the little boy. This lady pushed him out of the way. Then it turned around and came back and tried to run him down another time. She pushed him out of the way again.”

  “Can you describe the car? Which way did it go?” Phil pulled a cell phone from his pocket as he spoke. Bareheaded and gloveless, he seemed oblivious to the bitter cold.

  The woman nodded but held her tongue until he had thumbed through his cell addresses, called the police, and requested assistance at the school.

  “It went back toward town.” The woman spoke again as soon as he broke the connection, pointing that direction.

  “It was a dark blue Taurus or Sable,” the man, apparently her husband, added. “It was kind of beat up, and the rear passenger window had strips of duct tape on it.”

  “What about the driver?”

  The husband shook his head. “I couldn’t see a face. It looked like there was something over the driver’s head.”

  By now Ken Douglas had joined them, and a smattering of spectators had gathered, drawn by the commotion. “Did anyone else see anything?” Ken asked, scanning the small group.

  “I heard squealing tires and burning rubber,” came from a young woman holding a baby. “But I was on the other side of my car and didn’t see what happened.”

  Since not many people had been left in the parking lot, the only good description of the car came from the couple who had been behind Toni.

  “We came to watch our nephew play ball and had left a few minutes earlier,” the husband explained. “But Gloria missed her gloves, and we came back to look for them. We found them under the seat where we sat during the game.”

  “It was when we were leaving for the second time that we saw that car try to hit the little boy,” the woman interjected. “It was terrible.”

  An hour later the police report had been written up, and the police told Toni that she and the boys could go home.

  “I’ll call an ambulance.” Ken pulled out his cell phone.

  “No, don’t do that,” Toni nearly shouted, her teeth chattering. “Call my mom. She’s a nurse practitioner and perfectly capable of taking care of us.”

  He considered for only a moment. “What’s the number?”

  She quoted it.

  He made the call. Apparently Faye didn’t waste time on questions, since he disconnected immediately. “She’s on her way. Stay home tomorrow. Use some of the sick time you have accumulated. I’ll get someone to cover your classes.”

  “Don’t bother. I’ll be here,” she said, fighting the pain in her head and hip. “I’ll be fine,” she assured her principal when he started to argue.

  Reading her determination, he shook his head in resignation. “Have it your way.”

  But she didn’t refuse her mother’s comfort and medical attention when Faye arrived and took them to the clinic.

  *

  “Grandma Faye took good care of us,” Garrett said softly as Toni tucked him into bed later that night. His eyes drooped from the sedative he had been given. “You saved me, Mom.”

  “I love you, Son.” She sat on the side of his bed, struggling to hold back tears, and the rage that had her about to explode. How dare someone try to hurt her son.

  She held his small hands in her own, palms out. “We’re quite a pair.”

  He grinned wanly at the matching scrapes and scratches. There was an elastic bandage wrapped around his left wrist, and another bandage covered a cut on his jaw. Toni had a big purple bump on her forehead and a hip that was stiffening.

  “Let’s get some sleep now,” Toni said, hoping they could. She needed another of the pain pills her mother had given her.

  “Okay.” Garrett’s eyes closed.

  Toni left him and went to her own bedroom. Gabe waited on the edge of her bed, his expression troubled.

  Toni sat next to him, realizing that he wanted to talk to her without Garrett hearing. “What’s bothering you?”

  Gabe started to speak, but hesitated. Then he tried again. “Do you think the person who killed Mrs. Carter tried to hurt Garrett?”

  Toni wasn’t sure how to answer. Behind her headache the same question nagged. “What do you mean?” she asked, stalling.

  “Well, Garrett finds things,” he said slowly. “Do you think that person is afraid Garrett will find him?”

  Did she?

  “I don’t know,” she said carefully. “I don’t see how the person could know such a thing. But there’s something I do know.”

  His big brown eyes fastened on her. “What?”

  “The rules around here have to change. From now on I want you and Garrett to stick together like glue. I can’t pull you out of school, but I can keep you with me more. I’ll drop you at your building each morning, and then you’re to wait inside the building or by the door for me to pick you up after school. No more walking around anywhere on your own. Okay?”

  His ten-year-old frame seemed to swell with responsibility. “Okay. I’ll take care of Garrett.”

  “I’ll go over it with him in the morning. I don’t want you worrying. Remember, it may not be anything like that. But it won’t hurt for us to be extra careful for awhile.”

  “Should we call Dad?”

  “I don’t think so,” Toni replied after a moment’s hesitation. “We’re fine, and he has a busy schedule that we shouldn’t interrupt.”

  Seeming satisfied, Gabe slid off the bed and went back to his and Garrett’s room, his shoulders erect.

  Toni took two pain pills and crawled into bed. Fierce anger and a sense of urgency sizzled inside her. Someone had deliberately tried to hurt her child. Finding Marsha’s killer was no longer just a matter of curiosity or the challenge of figuring out a puzzle. She had to protect her son. At last she fell into a drug-induced sleep.

  It seemed only moments later when the lights flashed on, blinding her. Toni squinted up at the sight of Kyle standing in the bedroom doorway. “What are you doing here?” She pushed upright in the bed. The digital clock on the nightstand read four a.m.

  “Checking on my family.” He dropped his overnight case and came to sit by her on the bed. “I had to see for myself that you’re all right.”

  “The brat called, huh?” Her voice muffled against his neck when he pulled her to him.

  “Of course,” he said gruffly. “Gabe knows the right thing to
do, whether you do or not.”

  Toni drew back to examine his face. “I didn’t want to worry you. I truly didn’t think it was necessary to call you, because I was afraid you would feel you needed to …“

  “Come home,” he finished for her, his expression somber.

  She had no argument. “I don’t understand what’s happening. I’m mad.”

  He brushed her hair back to examine her bruises and scrapes. “You have reason to be.”

  “Why are these things happening?” she wailed, clinging to him in an uncharacteristic display of helplessness.

  He eased back and peered into her face. “I don’t know. But I know God cares what happens to us. We need to pray for His guidance and protection.”

  She frowned at her husband. “I didn’t know you had taken up preaching.”

  He grinned. “I’ve had some experiences in the air that have forced me to rely more on prayer.”

  It unsettled her to think of him getting in trouble while flying an airplane. She needed to question him more about his work, and those experiences. It sank ever deeper into her how much they missed in one another’s lives. Kyle wasn’t the only one spending too much time at work and being too absorbed in things beyond their home life. He wasn’t the deficient one here. The acknowledgement sent guilt zinging through her.

  His eyes narrowed. “Gabe tells me you plan to go to work in the morning.”

  Toni nodded. “I told you I’m fine.”

  “You need to stay close to the boys—and out of the murder investigation.”

  “How can I?” she snapped, bristling. “Someone tried to hurt Garrett. Whoever it was has to be stopped.”

  “But it’s not your job,” he pointed out. “Your priority is the boys.”

  “Right. And that means protecting them, stopping someone from hurting them.”

  He drew a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re being stubborn,” he said when he looked back at her a few moments later. “But I see your point.”

  “I appreciate that you’re concerned, but I can’t just hide in the house with them. I’ll be careful,” she promised.