by Helen Gray
“She sounds like a strong suspect for his murder,” Russell said, grinning as Garrett popped the tab on a Coke and handed it to Toni.
“Thanks,” she murmured, taking a drink and watching him follow Gabe out the door. “I called Mrs. Goldman this morning to see if she could give me the address and phone number of the girl Brock was seeing when he came here. She said she doesn’t know where the girl lives now, but she did give me the number of her former employer. I called and was told she doesn’t work there any more, and they have no current information on her. So that was a dead end. But the trio was real excited a while ago when they told me they’ve located the house we’ve been wondering about.”
Russell shook his head in lack of understanding. “I don’t know a lot about all you’ve just shared, but I’ll go by and see Buck in the morning. I’ll pass the information on to him if you like.”
“That might be a good idea.”
Just then Faye entered the room, a broom in her hand. “Why don’t you and the boys stay for supper,” she invited, propping the broom against the wall.
The boys eappeared behind her. “Please?” they chimed pleadingly.
Toni shrugged and gave in. “Okay.”
Chapter 14
It was still daylight when Dack’s red Mustang parked in the school parking lot. A couple of minutes later Q’s big blue pickup pulled up beside it. Both boys got out and met in front of the vehicles. Moments later Jeremy’s little white Ranger came alongside, and he joined them.
“I’ll drive again,” Q said. “I’ve got plenty of room, and my truck’s a dark color that won’t be as noticeable when it gets dark.”
“Okay by me,” Jeremy said. “I’ll get my stuff.” As he returned to his pickup and reached inside for a backpack, Dack went to his car for his.
“I brought a flashlight and camera,” Jeremy explained as he climbed in behind Q, who was now behind the wheel of his truck.
“Me, too,” Dack said. “I also brought some snacks.”
Q started the truck. “I have some, too.”
Within minutes they were back on the county road they had explored that morning.
“Let’s go on up the road a little bit,” Dack said when they arrived at the lane that led to the big house. “If there’s another road or lane close, we can park there and hike in behind the house.”
Q nodded and drove very slowly. “This looks like a hunting camp trail,” he said, turning into a rough lane with weeds growing up the center of it. He drove into the woods, backed the truck under a tree, and parked it.
They climbed out, clutching their bags, and started hiking over the hill, back toward the big house. They were silent as they worked their way through the woods. When they stepped out into a clearing behind the house’s outbuildings, all three of them halted and gazed around.
Dack removed his backpack. “Why don’t we get comfortable and watch from here?”
They moved to the edge of the trees and sat on the ground to do surveillance. They were just getting settled when a white station wagon drove into view, rolled up the lane to the house, and pulled into one side of the double garage at the western side of the house. An older lady emerged, took a grocery bag from the back seat, and went inside.
“She’s not here to have a baby,” Dack said with a snort.
“She probably works here,” Jeremy decided.
There was no more activity, and they began to grow restless. When Dack dug into his bag and pulled out a candy bar, the others also reached for snacks. The sounds of munching and slurping from water bottles filled the next few minutes.
Jeremy glanced up at the sky. “It looks like they’re settled in for the night, and it’s starting to get dark. If we’re going to take pictures, I think we need to get going.”
“Let’s split up to get closer,” Dack said in his take-charge way. “Q, you go around to the left and get pictures of everything of interest over there. Jer, you take the right. Be careful about going around in front. Get pictures around there only if you’re positive no one can see you. I’ll cover the back. Meet back here in…” He peered at his watch. “Ten minutes.”
They nodded and started toward their assigned locations, stopping and snapping pictures from various angles, ducking behind anything they could find that would shield them from view.
Q took shots of the outbuildings, grounds, and portions of the house on the west side. Dack shot several views of the back of the house and side views of the verandah at each end.
Jeremy was doing the same at the east of the house, but then he moved in next to a window and took pictures of an inside room.
Dack looked up and saw movement on the second floor. He darted behind a flower bush and waited. A door opened and someone stepped out onto the verandah and stood at the rail, gazing around. Frozen in place, he flattened his lips and emitted a low chirping sound meant to sound like a bird—hoping his pals would hear and interpret it as a warning. He looked over at Q squatting next to the corner of the garage, and then to where Jeremy was backed up against the wall of the house, listening.
The girl on the verandah stood there for a few more moments. Then she turned and went back inside the house.
Dack released the breath he had been holding and emitted another small warble. Then he turned and sprinted back toward the woods. When he reached shelter behind a tree, he waited for his buddies. Q reached him first, with Jeremy not far behind.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said in a breathy whisper. “Someone came out and looked around. I sure hope she didn’t see us.”
They hurried back to Q’s truck and climbed inside.
“I got a picture of a room with medical equipment in it,” Jeremy said in breathless excitement. “It looked like a small clinic.”
Q started the truck, eased out onto the road, and headed back the way they had come. They all stared at the lane to the house as they passed it.
A white Cadillac came around a bend toward them, and Q eased over to the edge of the narrow gravel road to let it by. As it went past, Jeremy gasped. “That’s a nurse! She was wearing a nurse’s uniform. I bet it’s Nurse Vickers.”
“Don’t slow down,” Dack ordered. “Go up the road and come back.” He and Jeremy twisted around to look over their shoulders and watch the white car turn into the lane.
Q drove on up the road about a half mile, turned around in a lane, and headed back.
“Let me out at the road,” Jeremy said. “I’ll hike up there and see if I can get any pictures.”
“Good idea,” Dack said. “You have the best camera, and you’re the best photographer. We’ll go back to where we parked a while ago and wait.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ll be back at this spot to pick you up in fifteen minutes.”
Jeremy pulled his camera from his bag, looped the cord around his neck, and jumped out of the pickup as it made a rolling stop. He shoved the door shut and took off at a run.
Fifteen minutes later he was back, waiting at the edge of the woods when the truck rolled slowly past the designated spot. He jumped over the ditch and grabbed the passenger door handle as they made another rolling stop, pulled the door open, and hopped inside.
“I got some good shots of the nurse,” he said breathlessly. “She was just coming from the garage when I got to the fence. She was carrying two big boxes.”
“Let’s meet at McDonald’s for breakfast in the morning,” Dack said when they arrived back at the school parking lot. “Bring copies of the pictures you took. We’ll look them over, and then go see how many more festival workers we can find and question.”
Q nodded silent agreement.
“See you there,” Jeremy said, exiting the back seat of the truck.
*
Tuesday was uneventful and passed quickly for Toni. During seventh hour she tidied her room, finished grading papers, and realized she was actually caught up on everything. It was a liberating sensation. She gathered her personal belongings and left her room as soon as the dismissal bell rang.
“You going to the game?” John asked from his doorway.
“Yep. See you in the morning,” she said brightly, marching on down the hall. She met Gabe and Garrett in the lobby, and they hurried to the parking lot and stowed their things in the van. Then they hiked down to the field, stopping at the gate to pay and get their hands stamped. It was a bright sunshiny day, perfect for baseball.
To Toni’s surprise, they found Buck already seated when they got to the stands.
“You want a Coke now, or after the game gets going?” he asked as she stopped next where he sat at the end of the third row toward the top.
“I can wait,” she said, stepping over the first two benches and perching beside him. “You boys should stay here if you want to watch the game,” she advised her sons. “These seats are filling up fast.”
They looked around, surveying the stands. “Can we go sit with Marty and Justin?” Gabe pointed at a pair of his classmates on the top row at the other end.
“May we,” Toni repeated automatically.
He grimaced. “May we?”
“Sure,” she said, and they took off.
“You have some good kids,” Buck commented. “I guess I appreciate them because I see so many who are messed up and in trouble.”
“I try not to take them for granted.” Toni watched them climb up to join their friends, laughing and high fiving as they met. “I’m assuming they’ll want to try out for the baseball team when they’re old enough—and no telling what other extracurricular activities. I figure I’ve got a long road of this kind of thing ahead of me.” She surveyed the scene where orange shirts and white pants filled the Clearmount Tiger dugout. Red and black uniforms dotted the field.
“Your dad tells me your terrific trio has been busy.”
Toni nodded, not sure how Buck felt about their snooping. “They not only found where Charity Haven is located, but they seem to be proving that Wendy Rutherford is a liar, which makes her seem like a mighty strong murder suspect to me. It looks like I’m wasting my time looking for Hillary Dayton, but I still think I’ll try to find her parents and talk to them.”
“Thoroughness is never a mistake. Are you ready for my finds of the day?”
“You bet.”
“I talked to Evan Hicks again, and he says Brock’s accounts showed a number of sizable cash deposits. I can’t tie that to anything, but it sounds like he was getting chunks of money from more sources than just preaching, and the fact that it was cash makes me wonder about those sources.”
Toni also wondered. “The only thing we know about is counseling services for some organization, probably this Charity Haven.”
“I asked Evan about that place’s financial records,” Buck said. “He indicated they look normal for what they’re supposed to be doing, deposits and checks about what would be expected of an operation of that sort.”
“Have you been out there yet?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I know where it is, but I want to do a little more checking before I talk to them.”
“Whoever killed Brock took his wallet with his credit cards. They also had to have gotten his house keys, and then gone into the house and found his banking information before hauling off his household belongings,” Toni reasoned. “His car key would also have been taken, in order to get rid of the car.”
“That’s the big news I have,” Buck said with a grin. “When we entered the car’s VIN and listed it as stolen, we got a signal from a LoJack system.”
Toni’s breath caught. “How helpful is that?”
“LoJack is a vehicle recovery system that’s fully integrated with the police. Each system has a unique code that’s tied into the Vehicle Identification Number. It has a small transmitter that is hidden in your vehicle.”
“But can’t thieves find it when they chop the car?”
His mouth curved slightly. “It’s very small, and there are about twenty to thirty places in a vehicle where it can be hidden. Unlike GPS equipment, it has no external antenna or aerial to give away its presence.”
“But after this long…” Toni shook her head in doubt.
“The transmitter is powered by the car’s electrical system, but it has an additional backup battery. When a theft is reported, a routine entry is made into the state police crime computer and matches the LoJack system’s code against the state VIN database. That automatically activates the LoJack System, which emits an inaudible signal that law enforcement vehicles equipped with LoJack tracking units are always listening for.”
Toni’s look of puzzlement slowly turned to a grin as he explained. “Are you saying you found the car?”
“We found the engine,” he clarified. “It was traced to a woman’s car in Millerville. That’s where I’d been when I got back to town and saw that the game was about ready to start. Not that we’re paying that much attention.” He looked out at the field where a batter was coming to the plate.
“So the car was chopped. Whoever killed Goldman took his keys and just drove off with it, and it ended up all over the country.” Toni shook her head at the enormity of it.
“I drove out to this woman’s house and talked to her,” Buck continued. “She lives in a rundown trailer just outside Millerville, and she had no idea she was driving around with a stolen engine. I believe her. She’s older and divorced, with kids and grandkids who are in and out of trouble all the time and hitting her up for help. She’s poor, and they’re keeping her that way. She works as a housekeeper at a motel in Jackson.”
“How did she end up with the engine?”
“Her car quit her, and she couldn’t afford to fix it, which meant she had no way to get to work. So when her son-in-law offered to take it to the shop where he works, she accepted. She said the bill wasn’t too bad, and they let her pay it off in payments.”
“I hope you found out where the son-in-law works.”
He nodded. “She gave me the name and address, and I drove on over to Jackson for a visit. This has really been my day, because the guy was there. I leaned on him pretty hard, and he finally told me where he got the engine and a couple other parts. He named an auto wrecking shop the other side of town, but insisted he didn’t know the owner’s name. I’m not sure I believe him, but I didn’t push the issue. I figure he knows he’s buying hot stuff, whether he knows who’s selling it or not. We can come back to him if the investigation implicates him further.”
“Did you find out who owns the business?”
Now he grinned. “I went right on over there, and the owner is none other than Harold Fisher.”
Toni instantly recognized the last name. “Is there a connection to Donnie Fisher here in Clearmount?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s an uncle,” he confirmed, nodding in satisfaction.
Donnie Fisher was a Clearmount graduate who had frequently been in trouble during school—and since. One of Toni’s students had gotten caught up in an abusive relationship with him last fall. About four months ago he had been caught in a robbery attempt and critically injured in a high-speed chase that had ended in a crash. He would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
“We’ll be following up on it,” the chief assured her. “But right now I think I’d like to watch a ballgame.”
By now the stands were nearly full, and the game was well underway. They watched it and rooted for their home team, cheering when good plays were made and groaning when the boys made poor ones. It was tied after three innings when Buck went and got Cokes for fortification. It was a tough battle, but the Clearmount team pulled off a win in the last inning.
“Wow! I feel like I’ve worked,” Buck said, chuckling as the boys came off the field.
They climbed to the ground and headed for their vehicles. Gabe and Garret ran ahead of them toward Toni’s van.
“Hey, Mrs. Donovan.”
They stopped and looked back to see Dack, Jeremy, and Q trotting up behind them.
“We play for the championship Thursday,
” Dack said excitedly, halting near Toni. “It’s scheduled for two o’clock. Can you come?”
She calculated quickly. “I no longer have a seventh hour class. If nothing comes up, I should be able to come down right after sixth hour. That would only make me about ten or fifteen minutes late.”
“I don’t know if I can get away that early,” Buck told the boys. “But I’ll be here if I can.”
“We talked to some more people about money from the festival,” Dack informed the chief before he could get away. “Most of them don’t remember or weren’t real sure, but they think it was Mrs. Rutherford who collected it—just like the ones we talked to yesterday.”
“Thanks, boys,” Buck said, his expression a bit grim. “I’ll take it from here.”
Jeremy reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a large manila envelope. “Here are some pictures we took. He extended the packet to Toni.
She took it and pulled out the pictures. She studied the house, its outbuildings and portions of the grounds, passing each one to Buck as she finished examining it.
“We’ve never had any reports of trouble from there,” the chief commented when they had seen them all. He eyed Jeremy. “May I keep these?”
The boy grinned. “Sure. We can always print more if they’re needed.”
“Gotta run,” Dack said. “See you.” The three of them took off to their separate vehicles.
Toni and Buck parted at his patrol car, and she hiked on up by the school to her van. Gabe and Garrett sat on the sidewalk next to it, waiting.
“This feels like a pizza night,” she said as they climbed into the van. Of course there was no argument.
Toni drove to the local Casey’s, got a large pizza—half supreme and half pepperoni—and took it home with them. As they were finishing eating, she thought longingly of bed and sleep, but knew she was too keyed up to go to bed so early. She picked up the phone.
“Would it be okay if I drop the boys with you for about an hour,” she asked when Jenny Zachary answered.
“You know we’d love to have them,” Jenny assured her. “See you in a few minutes.”