by Helen Gray
There were also pictures of the car, taken from different positions and depicting the area around it. Then there were pictures of the interior. There was a shot of the keys lying beneath the floor mat that was being held up by a corner.
Toni started to put everything back in the folder when the last photo made her pause. She picked it back up and stared at the debris pictured on the floorboard. She turned it sideways and studied it more closely. The small item at the edge of the mat next to the passenger door looked like a piece of candy. Under careful scrutiny she could make out a small marking on it, probably a brand name. Squinting hard, she thought what she was seeing could be the base and one side of the letter M. What kind of candy started with the letter M? Suddenly Toni’s breath caught. It looked to her like part of an M & M.
Quickly she thumbed back through the written report and reread the list of debris gathered from the floorboard. It said a small piece of candy had been tested and male DNA found on it.
Closing her eyes, she thought hard. Then she remembered who she had seen eating M & M’s. She shook her head and opened her eyes.
“Here’s someone who just keeps popping up,” she muttered to herself, thinking how many times he seemed to be around. “We haven’t been paying enough attention to him.”
“He was in that car,” she continued her one-sided conversation. “I don’t know when, but he was there. It was probably sometime when he was delivering or picking up money or bets, but he’s involved more deeply than anyone realizes.”
In front of her, Quint had slumped in his chair and fallen asleep. He stirred and opened his eyes. When he looked at his watch, Toni checked her own—and gasped at the realization that it was after three o’clock.
“I didn’t realize we had been here so long,” she said with a grimace.
He straightened in the chair. “No problem. I got a little nap. Was your time well spent?”
“I think so,” she said, putting the files back in order.
On their way out, Quint stuck his head in the chief’s doorway to thank him and tell him they were leaving. Back at the apartment, they parked side by side in the lot.
As Quint was unlocking the door, Toni’s eyes strayed with longing to the pool where a couple was swimming. Quint noticed.
“Okay, let’s go for a dip and cool off.”
The water was cool and relaxing, and they spent the next two hours playing in it. But Toni’s disturbing thoughts still nagged her. When they pulled up onto the edge of the pool and sat with their feet dangling in the water, she brought it up to Quint.
“I think there are a couple of things you could follow up on,” she began slowly. “I wish I could do it myself, but I’m out of time.”
“You noticed something,” he said, reading her expression.
“I did,” she said without much excitement. “But they’re things the detectives have probably already noticed, and I wasn’t privy to their discussions.”
“Tell me anyhow.”
Toni explained about the silver nitrate on the door handle. “When you and I went to the Goldenrod together, Sonya Finch had a camera hanging around her neck and was snapping pictures. She said she works for a modeling and photography agency.”
He nodded. “I remember. That means she handles film and gets silver nitrate on her hands. You think she was in the car. But we can’t prove when she was there. I admit it’s one more connection, though. Anything else?”
”Photos of the car show that Jesse’s keys were under the floor mat. I think Sonya was looking for them when she took the knife from the crime scene.”
Quint listened without comment while she explained in more detail. “I think she must have called someone to come get her. I took another look at her phone bill and found that she made a call to Mitch Sandoval at ten-thirty-seven that night. I think he’s her right hand man and probably the killer.” She also described the letters and records indicating how deeply Sonya was involved.
Quint moved his mouth around in thought. “I’ll pass the thoughts along to the detectives when I report for work tomorrow. Maybe it’ll help and make me look good. It might even help me make detective some day.”
She kicked at the water, splashing him. “Do you think you’d like that?”
He thought a moment. “Yeah. I think I would.”
Her stomach growled, embarrassingly loud.
“Let’s go inside, and I’ll order pizza delivery,” he suggested, smirking.
“Canadian bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms and lots of cheese,” Toni ordered, getting to her feet.
As they disappeared inside Quint’s apartment, a black car drove past the complex.
*
As they devoured pizza and sodas in front of a televised ballgame, Toni held up a slice. With cheese stringing down, she tipped her head and worked her mouth around the gooey stuff.
“This is good,” she said, chewing with relish. “But I should have made us a salad to go with it, add a little green to our diet.”
“I don’t feel like a rabbit tonight, and who cares about diet,” Quint said just before taking a big bite.
As they ate, Toni still couldn’t shake the thoughts that weighed on her. Every time she tried to banish them from her mind, a new snippet would occur. She finished the slice and wiped her mouth and hands with a napkin. “It’s a shame.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a shame Jesse died that way. From all I’ve read and heard, he had a lot of potential.”
Quint gave her a rueful grin. “Still can’t let it go, huh?”
She made a grimace and shrugged. “It’s unreasonable, but I keep remembering that lifeless body and thinking what a waste it was.”
“And you can’t bear the thought of someone getting away with murder,” he added with a knowing gleam in his eyes.
“He was smart and athletic, but marriage vows meant nothing to him. Then there’s still something else about the whole case that angers me. His children didn’t deserve any of this. His killer needs to be caught—for their sake.”
“He was playing with fire,” Quint pointed out.
Toni exhaled heavily. “I know. He was a jerk for getting students involved in such a mess. He deserved punishment, but not murder. Where did he go off track?”
Quint’s face creased in thought. “I don’t think it was from lack of a good home life when he was growing up. Would it help to go back over what we know? I’ll begin. All indications are that his childhood was very normal growing up in Sedalia.”
“Where he and Grant Volner were close friends,” Toni continued. “Their relationship continued on through college and more. I assume they still kept in touch while Jesse was starting out at Glendale. He had a good experience there, won a lot of games, got married, and then moved on.”
“But he kept in touch with some of his former students there, one of whom we know eventually became a bookie for him.”
“I feel some guilt over Barry Kuzman’s death,” Toni admitted.
Quint’s eyes creased in surprise. “You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
“My brain knows that, but my emotions are confused. I helped find him because he hurt John. Then he was pressed for information. And when he started to talk, he was killed for it.”
“It was his fault for the life he was living and the people he was dealing with,” Quint said.
“I know that, but it stinks. I’m sure he wasn’t the only Glendale graduate Jesse had working for him, but he’s the only name I can identify. His next school, Branson, seems to be where he moved from small tricks to betting on games and stepping over the line with female students.”
“The individuals you’ve met who were from there were…” He stopped for her to supply the names.
“Sonya Finch, the girl he had an affair with; Nicole Warren, my student here at OTC; and Mitch Sandoval, Nicole’s ex and apparently one of Sonya’s current lovers and flunkies,” she enumerated for him.
“There’s no question that Sonya an
d Mitch are involved,” Quint said. “I know you like Nicole, and she seems to be innocent. But are you absolutely convinced that she is?”
“She has given me information and shown a real concern for my safety. She’s also genuinely afraid of Mitch. I can feel it radiating from her.”
“But what’s the motive for Sonya and Mitch?”
“She wants to take over the gambling operation,” Toni said, thinking out loud. “There’s big money to be had.”
“You think she killed both Jesse and Barry then?”
Toni rubbed her eyes in frustration. “I’m not sure. I don’t think she killed Jesse, but I think she decided to take over when he was taken out. It was an opportunity she couldn’t resist. And she knows the operation inside out.”
“So what you’re really saying is someone actually did her a favor by killing Jesse and clearing the way for her to take over. Then that same person killed Barry?”
“I think she ordered Barry’s assassination, probably by the same person who killed Jesse.”
“She knows who it was?”
Toni nodded. “I think that’s what fits. She knew and had the knife. She used it to force someone to do what she wanted. She and Mitch are pretty tight,” she added with meaning.
“He’s capable, but you say he’s the one she called the night Jesse was murdered. If she was really at the murder scene and called him to come get her, he didn’t do it. Just the same, I’ll see if anyone has checked his prints against those on the knife.”
“After Branson, Jesse was at Kickapoo,” Toni said, picking up on the timeline. “There are probably several current students and past graduates from there who are involved, but the ones we know about for sure are the secretary and her son. The woman was besotted with Jesse, and I don’t think she has what it would have taken to commit murder, at least not the physical method that was used.”
“The son is a former student of Jesse’s,” Quint continued. “But what’s his role in the gambling setup?”
“He seems to be just a runner. He’s not a thug like Mitch. But what motive would he have for murdering his old coach?”
“Maybe he didn’t like the man’s relationship with his mother,” Quint said, and then he paused. “He’s the one who showed up with the bail money for Mitch.”
“He’s a college student, and his mother just gets by. He doesn’t have much money, so that wasn’t his cash. He’s just a delivery boy,” she said with certainty. “My bet is Sonya sent it. She was in that apartment with Mitch and Dean, and she has access to the gambling money. That means Corey is another of her personal flunkies.”
“Okay, but I don’t know where that leaves us. Jesse’s next job was the construction company. Do you think he made any connections there?”
Toni chewed on her lower lip, shaking her head. “I doubt it. He took that job when he was without a school contract and probably broke. Up until that time I think he was playing around with the sports betting, but I doubt he was highly successful yet. In construction he was working with adults, and the gambling setup is centered on students and school sports. I think he worked that job during the day and built the gambling business during the evenings and weekends—except for time devoted to dallying with a married woman.”
“That makes sense,” Quint agreed. “By the time he was offered the job at Ozark he was ready to go big time.”
“He found a computer nerd there and branched out into online gambling,” Toni continued. “But then he got distracted by another woman and ended up married to her.”
“The Harcourt and Patrick boys are pretty young,” Quint said. “But murderers come in younger versions all the time. Would either of them have done it?”
“Like Sonya Finch, Vince Harcourt is ambitious,” Toni said quietly. “Both of them may have decided to take over after Jesse was dead. Barry’s death happened when one of them made a power play. Not only do I think Sonya is older and stronger, but I think Vince’s inexperience and being questioned by the police combined to make him back off.”
“He’s such a kid that, if he was involved in silencing Barry, he’s probably scared. If he wasn’t, he was probably scared out of his mind when it happened,” Quint theorized.
“Your logic is garbled, but I agree…I think,” she said. “I’m certain there are a lot more kids involved from all the schools.”
“I agree, but the only way we can stop them is by shutting down the whole operation. We’re doing our best to accomplish that.”
They both reached for another slice of pizza. For the next few minutes neither spoke.
“I think I’ll take a shower and get rid of the chlorine,” Quint said when he finished eating.
Chapter 24
Once she was alone, Toni continued to sit there, lost in her private thoughts and taking an occasional sip from her soda. In sudden decision she stretched over and fished her phone from her purse. She punched in Mickey Carringer’s number.
“Mickey? This is Toni Donovan. Sorry to bother you again, but I was wondering if you’ve talked to your kids any more.”
“Oh, hi, Toni,” Mickey greeted her brightly. “I was just thinking about calling you. No, I don’t have anything exciting to report,” she said quickly. “But I did have another interesting conversation. The last time I saw you I had only talked to Mike, but today I managed to catch Julie long enough to question her a little. She’s only a sophomore, but she hears the gossip and knows about pretty much everything that goes on in the school, even in the summer. She says her friends have talked about the murder a lot.”
“Did she know about Jesse’s affair with your secretary?” Toni wasn’t sure why she was asking that question.
“Oh, yes. She was only in middle school when Jesse was our coach, but she remembers him and the talk about him. She and her classmates and friends have older siblings who have kept up with him and can provide the latest scoops. She told me all about how Jesse and Joyce had an affair back then, and how they started up again after he got back into coaching.”
“What about her son? Did she say anything about him working for Jesse?”
“She did. According to the kids who have older siblings his age, he was quite a hot shot. He made no secret of the fact that he was going to be a pro basketball player. When he didn’t even make a college team, it turned into kind of a joke around school. The kid thought, because his mom was the coach’s mistress, that he would get some kind of special help and make it big. But he was only an average player and also average in academics. Everyone knew he didn’t have the athletic talent for anything beyond high school.”
“Sounds like maybe he decided that if he couldn’t get rich playing the sport, then he would do it playing the odds.”
A husky chuckle came from Mickey. “Could be. Julie says it’s common knowledge that he was a gambler in high school. Oh, and she said the word is that he’s on academic probation right now.”
“What about his finances?”
“I asked Julie about that. She said she’s heard he’s a bad gambler, and he’s been losing big money.”
Toni couldn’t think of anything else to ask.
“Like before, none of this probably helps,” Mickey said, “but I like talking to you. Unfortunately, it seems Jesse got what he asked for. I don’t feel happy about his death, but I’m glad he can’t mess up the lives of any more students.”
After thanking Mickey and ending the call, Toni sat motionless, the phone in her hand. She felt tired, but she also had a sense of relief and satisfaction. She was free of responsibility now and anticipating the arrival of Kyle and the boys. She was anxious to know if Kyle had made a decision about his job and their future. But there was still an itch inside her that was not related to his job uncertainty.
She recognized that it was lack of closure. She was disappointed at not seeing a murderer brought to justice. She hated having to leave with the case incomplete. She believed she knew who the killer was, but she couldn’t prove it.
Los
t in thought, she jumped when the phone jangled jarringly in her hand.
“Toni, do you still have the key to my classroom door?” Kara asked.
Toni clenched a fist and shook it at herself in aggravation. “Drat. It’s in my pocket. I meant to turn it in at the office for you to pick up later, but I forgot. I left your textbooks and grade book in the top left drawer of your desk like you asked.”
“I don’t want you to make a special trip over here just to return it,” Kara said. “You could just leave it with Quint. But I’d love for you to come over and spend a little of your last evening in town with me. There’s no telling when we’ll get another chance.”
“I’ll be right over.” Toni disconnected and went to the closed bathroom door. “Quint,” she called through it. “I forgot to leave Kara’s key at the office. I’m going to run it over to her.”
She heard like a sputter that told her he must be brushing his teeth.
“Wait,” he called. “Don’t go alone. Give me a few seconds and I’ll go with you.”
“That’s not necessary,” she called back, hitching her purse onto her shoulder and digging out her keys. “It’s only a little before nine and not quite dark yet. I’ll be careful.”
As she headed to the door, she heard a commotion in the bathroom, but she kept going. “I won’t stay out real late,” she called over her shoulder as she went out the door.
The parking lot was still light enough to see that it was sparsely inhabited. Automatically Toni checked her surroundings, but didn’t see anything unusual, no one sitting in any of the parked cars. She got in her van and backed out.
She didn’t see a figure rise from a slumped position behind the wheel of a dark car parked about a block and a half up the street. She was rolling down Ingram Mill Road when it eased into the street in the distance behind her.
The drive across town was pleasant. The streets were quiet and peaceful, with light traffic at that time of evening. Toni relaxed in the calm scene. She had enjoyed her time in the town, grown familiar with it, and learned to love it. But it wasn’t home.