Sweet Taffy and the Marshmallow Murder: Sweet Taffy Cozy Mysteries Book #2

by Dana Moss

  “But you just got here.”

  “And you seem to have things well under control, Ellie. Plus I’m rather handicapped without a cell phone. I’ll go run that errand, too.”

  Taffy packed up her stuff and left. If she could meet with the principal in person, she might be able to ferret out some information about the students at the campground that would be useful to Maria. She paused. Maybe Ethan was right about her being too eager to be involved. She did find investigating more compelling than Ellie’s bon-bon brainstorming sessions, but it was something else too. She’d seen that boy’s dead body, a body that shouldn’t have been dead at that age and in that way. She wanted to find out what had happened to him.

  ~

  The high school had been designed to look like a castle, with turrets at each corner and parapets and crenellated walls along the top. Fake coats of arms decorated the top edges of all four walls, breaking up some of the grey slab walls with splashes of red, blue, yellow, white, and green. The state and country flags flew at half-mast, indicating a recent death, which was a nice gesture.

  Taffy pulled into Visitors Parking and stared at the grey behemoth of an institution. Her own high school had taken up an entire city block on Park Avenue, and while more modern looking, it had also possessed a building that looked faintly castle-like. She shuddered as half memories flooded through her. She thought of high school as a happy time, but her body’s reaction told her she had blocked something out.

  Over near the school fields, a group of students had gathered. They huddled together, and Taffy thought she could hear some quiet singing. The start of a vigil? They stood near a fence on which hung a banner that said, We miss you, Tyler.

  Taffy tried to identify some of the teens she’d seen at the campground—she was sure they knew something—but she was a bit too far away from the vigil group to identify individual faces.

  She went inside to register as a guest at the main office and was told the principal was in a meeting and she would have to wait or come back later. She recognized one of the secretaries working at a computer on the far side of the office.

  “Janice?” Taffy waved.

  “Hey, Taffy.” Janice got up from her desk and walked over to say hi. She used to work for Lionel Davenport, the town’s previous lawyer, but had since switched over to educational administration work after Davenport moved away. Taffy knew her from yoga class.

  “How are the twins?”

  “Typical hellions. It’s actually a relaxing break to work in a high school. What brings you here?”

  “Got called down to the principal’s office.” She snort-giggled, but when Janice didn’t seem to get her joke, she looked down at her message from Ellie. “Ernest Ainsley?”

  Janice nodded. “He may be a while. He and Detective Salinas have been interviewing students all morning.”

  So that’s why Maria hadn’t answered her phone.

  Janice sighed and whispered, “Such a tragedy about Tyler Bradford. What’s happening to this town? Is that why you’re here? To help Maria?”

  Taffy shook her head. “Candy business actually. As a matter of fact…” She reached into her purse and pulled out a bag of cotton candy–flavored saltwater taffies. “For the office staff.”

  Janice smiled. “That is so sweet.”

  “As they’re meant to be,” Taffy said with a wink. “While I’m waiting, can I use the restroom?”

  “The closest one is the girls’ in the hall, unless you want to go upstairs to the staff room.”

  Taffy didn’t want to miss Maria, so she opted for the closer of the two.

  Leaving the office, she crossed the hall to the door marked Girls. She detected a faint scent of cigarette smoke and a rather pungent, flowery body spray. Her heels clacked across the black-and-white tiled floor. A couple of the stalls were locked, apparently without anyone within. She didn’t see anyone before locking herself in a stall, but as she sat down, she heard someone walk in after her.

  A voice said, “I got called in after him.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Not a thing, just like we talked about.”

  “But what if—”

  “There won’t be any ‘what ifs’ if everyone just stays quiet.”

  “It still doesn’t seem right to—”

  There was a flush, and the rest of the words were lost. They could have been talking about anything at all, but Taffy hurried with her business so she could get a glimpse of the girls before they left.

  The spray of sink water garbled what they said next, but she thought it was something like “… protect Rex.”

  The rattle of the paper towel dispenser told her they were about to leave.

  By the time she stepped out into the hall the girls had gone. Taffy wondered if one of them had been Monica, the girl with the nose ring. The tough tone of voice had sounded just a bit familiar. She hurried to the hall to see if she could recognize them, but they must have vanished into one of the many classrooms.

  Back in the office, the principal’s door was just opening. A young man emerged. He looked a little familiar. One of the boys from the campground? Dwight or Wade? He shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled past Taffy, his large, untied sneakers clumping against the industrial carpeting.

  Maria was framed in the office doorway. “Taffy, what are you doing here?”

  The principal stepped forward. “Miss Belair?” He held his hand out to greet her. His smile was warm and gracious and a bit searching. “I’m Ernest Ainsley, the school’s principal. It’s so good to see you.”

  She shook his hand. “Do I know you?”

  His gaze flicked to the side self-consciously. “Not exactly, but I used to know your mother.”

  “Oh?”

  “I haven’t seen her since she was a teenager, of course, but your resemblance to her is quite remarkable.”

  Taffy swallowed and tried to smile. Her mother’s death thirteen years earlier, when she was twelve, had been a well of blocked grief up until a few months ago. She’d processed a lot, even had a few therapy sessions with a local psychologist recommended by Maria, and so now references to her mother triggered just a tiny heartache and a little lump in her throat. But Maria knew it was still hard for her, and so she stepped in and asked again, “What brings you here, Taffy?”

  The slight lift of Maria’s eyebrow suggested a suspicion that Taffy might be snooping around in business that wasn’t hers. Yet again. But Taffy had an actual reason for being here.

  “Actually, I came to see Mr. Ainsley personally about the possibility of a school tour of the candy factory.” She turned to him. “You spoke to my manager, Ellie Frost?”

  “And you came down here yourself?” he said, smiling. “That’s beyond the call of duty but much appreciated.” He wouldn’t stop smiling and staring at her.

  Taffy pulled out a sheaf of papers that included some brochures and tour information. “You’re welcome to visit any morning or afternoon. Just set it up with Ellie at the office. The phone number is at the bottom there, but ignore the cell number.”

  “I’d love to invite you into the office to chat about old times, but Detective Salinas and I have been dealing with the tragic death of Tyler Bradford.”

  Taffy thought it was odd that he had referred to “old times,” as if she had been her mother. It was probably just a slip given the traumatic circumstances surrounding Tyler.

  “I don’t mind waiting.” It would give her a chance to observe more of the high school students coming and going.

  Mr. Ainsley glanced at Maria. “It can’t do any harm if Miss Belair sits in with us, can it?”

  Maria raised an eyebrow and seemed about to reply when Mr. Ainsley turned to Taffy and said, “We’re questioning some of the students he was close to to see if he might have had conflicts with anyone.”

  Taffy couldn’t help herself. “Did he?”

  Maria looked up from her notes and sighed as Mr. Ainsley filled her in. “None that I’v
e been aware of. He hasn’t been here long, just started after Christmas, but he was on his way to becoming one of our best students.”

  “He was a good student,” Maria added. “Just like his dad said.”

  “How many teens have you talked to so far?”

  Maria looked down at her notes. “Eight.”

  “That boy who just left was at the campground that night.”

  Maria checked her notebook and then looked up. “Wade Curtis? I thought Malcolm had spoken to everyone there.”

  “A group of teens slipped away before he got to that side of the campground. I tried to stop them. There was a girl with dark hair and a nose ring who seemed to be hurrying them out of there.”

  “Nose ring? That sounds like Monica Lewis,” Ainsley said. “We spoke to her already.”

  “But she was pretty tight lipped,” Maria said. “Claimed Tyler seemed perfectly normal the last time she saw him.”

  “Which was when?”

  “She told us Friday after school.”

  “Not at the campground?”

  “None of the students we spoke to said they’d seen or talked to Tyler either that day or that evening.”

  A middle-aged woman in a long, flowing skirt and a halo of curls framing her flushed face entered the office and dropped a stack of folders on Janice’s desk.

  “Here are the first few reports. I’m really running ragged this morning,” she said to Janice. “Between the vigil and the line outside my office, most of the twelfth graders and half the eleventh aren’t in class.”

  “Judith!” Mr. Ainsley waved her over. “Detective Salinas and Miss Belair, this is Judith Plutarch, our school counselor. Several of the students are availing themselves of her services in the wake of this tragedy.”

  “Several? You wouldn’t believe how many are using this as an excuse to get out of class. There’s a line down the hall.”

  “How is Jenny doing?”

  “She’s resting in the nurse’s office, and I’m going to recommend she go home once I get in touch with her mother.”

  Mr. Ainsley said, “Jenny and Tyler were a couple. She’s been hit the hardest by this event.”

  Maria nodded. “Noel Bradford mentioned her.” She turned toward Judith. “Think I could see her before you send her home?”

  Judith nodded. “The nurse’s office is just down the hall.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Jenny was laid out on a narrow cot in the nurse’s office. She had a dark cloth over her eyes and a hospital blanket tossed haphazardly over her long, skinny jeans–encased legs. She pulled the cloth away from one eye as Maria and Taffy entered.

  “Who are you?”

  “Detective Salinas.” She showed her badge.

  Jenny glanced at Taffy. “I’ve seen you before.”

  “Taffy Belair. I’m not with the police. I mean, I’m with the police, right now. Here. But I’m not with-with the police, if you know what I mean.”

  Taffy didn’t know why she felt so awkward all of a sudden. A strange anxiety had seeped into her as soon as she’d set foot in the high school, as if a part of her old teen self had been reawakened. But she’d been cool back in school, and ever since, really. Why was she losing it now?

  “What she means,” Maria said, smirking, “is she’s not an officer. But I am, and I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  Jenny sat up. Her hair slipped over her shoulders. It was dip-dyed at the ends. This was the girl with the toothbrush from the campground.

  Maria sat down in a chair across from Jenny so they were eye to eye. “I understand you’re Tyler’s girlfriend.”

  “Was.” Jenny blinked her swollen-from-crying eyes. The redness made the green of her eyes appear bright and glassy. She wiped her nose with the back of her hoodie sleeve.

  Maria cleared her throat. “I know this is a hard time for you, but I need to ask you a few things. The first is, where were you on Sunday night?”

  Jenny looked scared for a second. “Should I have a lawyer with me?”

  Maria leaned back. “No one’s accusing you of anything. I’m just trying to collect information at this point.”

  Taffy said, “And there’s no point in lying because I know you were camping on Sunday night.”

  Jenny turned to her. “That’s where I’ve seen you before?”

  “Just before that girl Monica made everyone drive away.”

  Jenny looked down at her hands. “I knew something was wrong. I saw that police car pull up, and someone was out on the lake…”

  Maria flipped open her notebook. “Was Tyler camping with you that night?”

  “Yes. No. I mean…” She pulled nervously at a ring on her finger. Then she looked at Taffy. “Monica just didn’t want us to get caught with the alcohol. That’s why she wanted us to leave. No one wants any police trouble before grad. Our parents would kill us.”

  “Was Tyler with you or not?”

  Jenny shook her head. “He didn’t come with us. He was somewhere else. But he knew I was there, so he came by later.”

  “Where was he before?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re his girlfriend. Why didn’t he tell you?”

  Jenny looked like she was going to cry. “We’d had a fight. A big one. And I didn’t want Rex to—”

  She clamped her lips shut.

  Maria flipped back through her notes. “Who’s Rex?”

  Jenny’s shoulders sagged. “My ex-boyfriend.”

  Taffy remembered that girl in the bathroom saying something about protecting Rex.

  Jenny looked up at them. “He didn’t like me dating Tyler. Tyler was the new kid from the city. All the girls wanted to date him. He picked me.” She smiled, a little proudly, but the smile quickly flickered and faded.

  Maria nodded and wrote a note. “And how did Tyler feel about Rex?”

  “Hated him. He was possessive of me.”

  “Had Tyler and Rex ever fought?”

  “Once.”

  “About what?”

  Jenny looked away. “I don’t know.”

  “Was Rex at the campground Sunday night?”

  Jenny nodded.

  “Could they have had an altercation then?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Why?”

  Maria turned to Taffy. “We’ll need to talk to Rex as soon as possible. Can you ask Mr. Ainsley to call him in?”

  Jenny rubbed her nose and sniffed. “You can’t. He left this morning with the baseball team. He’s their star pitcher. They have games in Salem and Eugene. He’s not back until Friday.”

  Maria flipped her notebook shut. “All right, we’ll talk to Rex on Friday.”

  Jenny pulled at the dark ends of her hair. “Am I in trouble?”

  “No, you’ve been really helpful. We don’t know yet what happened the other night, so we have to ask a lot of questions. Thanks for cooperating. I might need to speak to you again though. And if you think of anything else, give me a call.” Maria pulled a business card from her pocket. Jenny took it and held it between two fingers. Her chipped blue nails were bitten down to the nubs. She looked up at them.

  “Did either of you know Tyler?”

  Taffy and Maria shook their heads.

  “He was a nice boy.” A tear slid down one cheek. “A really nice boy.”

  The nurse returned and handed Jenny an early dismissal slip. “Your mom will be here in ten minutes.”

  Jenny leaned back and put the cloth over her eyes.

  ~

  Taffy and Maria left the nurse’s office and headed down the hallowed halls of Abandon Secondary. Some of the doors were open, and they heard the click of chalk on boards, the whir of overhead projectors, and the drone of teachers lecturing on Greek tragedies, the definition of pi, and some kid reporting on the War of 1812.

  Maria muttered, “I don’t miss this one bit, do you?”

  “Just the parties, drugs, and wild sex.” Taffy winked.

  Marie smirked. “Why am I
not surprised?”

  Honestly, Taffy didn’t miss anything about high school. She’d had a good time, been popular enough, got through pretty unscathed, but she’d never want to go back. Maria had moved away from New York while they were both in middle school.

  “Hey, where did you go to high school?”

  “You’re looking at it.”

  “Seriously?” Taffy looked around with new eyes. “Doesn’t it make you feel weird to be back here?” It wasn’t even Taffy’s alma mater, but she still felt oddly spooked.

  Maria shrugged. “Not so much, since I’ve come back every year since graduating the academy to give talks about drinking and driving.”

  They passed a set of large wooden double doors, which opened, releasing half a dozen chattering students exiting a dimly lit auditorium. Taffy stopped and peeked in. The stage was partially lit but bare, except for a couple of chairs and a false door. Something about the smell, the rows of flipped-up wooden seats, and the glowing stage made her skin tingle.

  Maria had stopped beside her and was also looking toward the stage. “Where you one of those vivacious drama students back in the day?”

  Taffy laughed. “I think I lasted one semester.” She backed away from the auditorium. She suddenly felt a craving to be outside, to see the sky.

  As they walked toward the exit, Taffy breathed easier. “I didn’t see your car out front when I arrived.”

  “Malcolm dropped me off.” Maria checked the messages on her phone. “And he was supposed to pick me up now, but it looks like he’s been detained by a vandalism call down at the Resort.”

  “Want me to drive you back to the station?”

  “In your pimpmobile?”

  “It is not!”

  They walked across to the parking lot, where Taffy’s black Bentley gleamed like ebony in the sun.

  “Guess it’s a little too classy for pimps and drug dealers. It’s also a bit overkill for this little town.”

  “You haven’t ridden in it yet.” Taffy hit the unlock button on her key fob.

  Maria looked across the parking lot toward the field, where the small vigil was still underway.

  Taffy followed her gaze and they were both quiet for a moment.