by Kathi Daley
It was an unseasonably warm day, which served as a reminder that spring was just around the corner. Before long the snow would melt, giving way to the wildflowers that blanketed the area every year. The sky was a pale blue today, contrasting nicely with the dark blue of the lake. I found myself longing for the long, lazy days of summer. It had been a stressful winter and I was ready for the changing of the seasons.
“This warm weather is putting me in the mood to BBQ,” I said as we walked along the beach with our babies in backpacks and the dogs running just ahead of us. There were years when we still had six feet of snow on the ground in late March, so the urge to take advantage of the excellent weather was strong.
“I wouldn’t mind grilling something for dinner,” Ellie replied. “Zak has all those deck heaters we can light if it starts to cool off. I think some fresh air after the past few days will be good for all of us.”
“It would be fun to pretend summer has arrived early,” I agreed.
“Should we have chicken or steak?”
“Either is fine. We’ll go to the store when we get back.”
Ellie picked up a stick and threw it for the dogs. Charlie preferred to walk next to me and Zak’s dog Bella lumbered along at a slower pace, but Shep, Karloff, and Digger all took off after it, as if beating the others to it was the most important thing in their lives.
“I really appreciate you and Levi putting your lives on hold to help Zak and me with this crazy situation,” I said after Karloff returned with the stick and Ellie threw it again.
She took my hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. “You know we’re always here for you. No matter what. We’re family.”
I smiled. “You have no idea how much that means to me. The past two days have been almost unbearable, but it helped a lot that I knew I didn’t have to worry about Catherine on top of everything else.”
“I just can’t believe this isn’t over.” Ellie sighed as Shep ran up to her with the stick in his mouth. “My heart hurts for Will and everyone who knew and loved him,” she said as she tossed it again.
“Yeah.” I frowned. “Even though I have no reason to doubt Zak when he insists Claudia didn’t kill Will, I’m still having a hard time accepting someone else—possibly someone who knew him—put a bullet in his head.” I stopped walking and looked out over the glassy lake. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but I knew I needed to see the investigation into Will’s murder to the end. He’d been a good friend and an excellent employee. He didn’t have any family I knew of, but then again, we’d never discussed his family situation except that his wife had died several years ago and his father had passed away shortly after that. He’d never mentioned a mother or siblings to me, which led me to believe he didn’t have any. I guess Salinger would sort all that out.
“This weather is putting me in the mood to plant my annual flowers,” Ellie said, effectively changing the subject. “Of course, I know frost is inevitable at any time for another two months, so I suppose I’ll wait. I meant to put in some bulbs for early color, but I never got around to it.”
I knew Ellie was babbling about flowers to distract me from my thoughts about Will, but it wasn’t working. Still, there wasn’t a thing I could do to help him or to find his killer at the moment, so I smiled at appropriate intervals and asked a few relevant questions when she paused.
When we got back to the house Zak and Levi had lunch on the table. Zak had called Ethan and Phyllis and both would be attending the meeting with Salinger, who thought it might be worthwhile to speak to Brady, because he was also part of the mathematics department at the Academy. Scooter wasn’t interested, but Alex wanted to listen in, and after everything she’d done to help me save Zak, I was inclined to let her.
After lunch I took Catherine upstairs to feed her and get her down for a nap. Holding her in my arms as I rocked her while she suckled her bottle was quite possibly one of my favorite things to do these days. I loved the way her little hand cupped the bottle even though she wasn’t yet able to hold it on her own. I also loved the way her blue eyes looked directly into mine as she slowly sucked the warm formula from the bottle the two of us held.
After she had finished her bottle I changed her and put her down for her nap. When I got back downstairs Salinger had just arrived and Phyllis, Ethan, and Brady were just pulling into the drive. We all gathered around the dining table and Salinger began the discussion.
“Our purpose today is to try to come up with a list of possible suspects in Will’s murder. Any thoughts or observations are of value. If someone has a motive for wanting Will out of the way their name should be brought up even if your feeling is that the individual being discussed doesn’t seem the sort to shoot an unconscious man.”
Everyone murmured their understanding.
“Ellie has volunteered to take notes. By the time we’re finished we hopefully will have a starting point to launch the investigation,” Salinger added. “Who’d like to start?”
At first no one spoke. Everyone looked at everyone else. It was apparent there was strong emotion in the room. This conversation wouldn’t be easy for any of us.
“I’ll start,” Phyllis volunteered after a few minutes.
“Okay, go ahead,” Salinger urged.
Phyllis shifted nervously in her seat. “Will told me maybe a month ago that he’d begun dating a woman named Alyssa Colter.” Phyllis cleared her voice before she continued. Of all of us, I knew this would be hardest on her. “Will met her at a lecture in Bryton Lake. When they realized they both lived in Ashton Falls they decided to have lunch, which led to dinner, which led to weekly dates. At some point they established a physical relationship.” Phyllis paused and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. We all waited in silence, giving her the time she needed before continuing. “A week ago he said he’d decided to break things off with her. He told me that he had only been looking for something casual, but it was becoming apparent Alyssa was interested in something more. The relationship also had become complicated due to the presence of an ex. He didn’t say who that was. I suppose you can ask her who she dated before Will. Anyway, the day after we spoke Will came to work with a large scratch on his cheek. I asked him about it and he said he’d talked to Alyssa the night before about taking a step back and she hadn’t taken it well. He implied it was a complicated situation with several aspects he didn’t want to discuss.” Phyllis paused again and looked around at us. “If you’re wondering if I think this woman killed Will, not necessarily. I’ve never met her and have no idea if she has it in her to kill someone. But you did say to bring up the name of anyone who might have a motive to want to hurt Will, and Alyssa sounded pretty upset that he wanted to break up with her.”
“Okay. I’ll have a chat with her,” Salinger said. “Do you happen to know where she lives?”
“Actually, I do,” Phyllis answered. “Will mentioned she lived in the condos on River Street. I don’t know which unit, but I imagine the property manager can tell you.”
“Thank you, Phyllis. That’s a good lead.” Salinger looked around the table. “Anyone else?”
Alex raised her hand.
“Alex?” Salinger asked.
“I might know something, although I’m pretty sure it’s nothing.”
Salinger gave her a gentle smile. “We’re just gathering information and anything can be helpful. Once we get a list we can start to weed people out.”
Alex glanced at me. I nodded.
“Well, I saw Mr. Danner arguing with a student last week. I was called into the office during class to help fill in the blanks on some paperwork my parents had turned in but hadn’t completed. I was on my way between the computer lab and the office when I heard shouting. I made a slight detour toward the math wing to check out what was going on. When I turned the corner I found Mr. Danner and Cleveland Brown arguing. They sounded pretty mad.”
“Do you know what they were arguing about?” Salinger asked.
“Not really, although i
t sounded like Cleveland thought Mr. Danner had been treating him unfairly. He said something about his grades affecting his future and some random teacher at a Podunk school wasn’t going to derail everything he’d worked for. Mr. Danner said he treated all his students the same, which seemed to make Cleveland even madder. I didn’t want to snoop, so I turned around and went on my way.”
“Cleveland was carrying a D in Will’s class,” Zak said. “Cleveland felt the grade was unfair because he’d turned in all his assignments and had done well on the midterm. Will felt that because the class was a practicum, which required participation in class activities and discussions, the grade was fair. He made it clear on the first day of class that most of the students’ grade will come from their active participation, not from assignments completed outside of class. Will told me that Cleveland rarely showed up to class and when he did he usually blew off whatever they were doing. It was his opinion that Cleveland felt he didn’t have to participate because he was already smarter than everyone else, including the teacher.”
Phyllis joined in. “Cleveland has a brilliant mind, but he has an ego and attitude to go with it. I spoke to him about the D, and to Will as well. It seemed to me that Will made it perfectly clear what was expected of students in the class and how it would be graded. He didn’t waver from that for any of the other students; everyone was evaluated using the same standards. Apparently, Cleveland felt he should be an exception to the rule; Will disagreed. Cleveland has threatened to get his parents involved, but they’re out of the country and can’t be reached until sometime next month.”
Salinger looked at Ellie. “Add Mr. Brown to the list.” He glanced around the room. “Anyone else?”
At first no one spoke. It felt odd to verbalize the observations we made every day that most likely would turn out to be nothing but could, in the end, change a person’s life forever, with Salinger in the room. I was aware of the sounds we made as we moved around. The cooling system in the computer room clicked on, seeming abrupt in the otherwise silent room.
“I might know something as well,” Brady spoke up after a minute. He swiped at his hair, which had grown long and partially covered one of his eyes. Brady was one of the younger instructors at the Academy. He was a widower with three young children to raise and I appreciated him taking the time to attend the meeting. “But first I want to say I too have had problems with Cleveland Brown, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if his anger turned to violence. Having said that, I have no actual reason to suspect him of any wrongdoing, though I think it would be worth finding out where he was on Sunday.”
The others murmured their agreement.
Brady continued, “Will and I had lunch on Friday of last week. He told me that he was supposed to meet with an old colleague the following day and seemed nervous about it. I asked if he wanted to talk about it, but he was pretty vague. What he did say was that early in his career he worked on a project with another mathematician. He didn’t say what the project entailed or who the other mathematician was, but he did share that although they both contributed to the project, for some reason he ended up getting all the credit. Apparently, that led to the relationship with this individual being damaged beyond repair, and he hadn’t seen the man in more than two decades. It seems the guy called him out of the blue and wanted to meet. Will didn’t want to turn him down, but he was concerned about the reason for the call. I don’t know how helpful this is because I don’t know who the man was, the location of the meeting, or the name of the project they worked on. Given what happened, I thought it might be important.”
Salinger looked around the room. “Did Will mention this to anyone else in the room?”
There was no positive response.
“I can do some snooping,” Zak offered. “I might be able to find a paper trail of some sort. If Will was involved in a project for a university or if it was a private contract, there might have been an article written about his findings.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Salinger said. “Anyone else have anything to add?”
The room feel into silence once again. No one spoke, but from the look of contemplation on the faces around me, I suspected we were continuing to access our memory banks. Everyone wanted to help, but no one wanted to bring up anyone’s name out of turn. Simply suggesting someone could have had a beef with Will was likely to make them a suspect.
“Did you locate his next of kin?” I asked Salinger. “A lot of times crimes of passion are carried out by relatives.”
Salinger nodded, then dipped his head to consult his notes. His gray hair was beginning to thin a bit on the top, an irrelevant observation, but it struck me as odd that I’d never really noticed it before. I guess he usually wore his hat.
“Danner had no siblings and both of his parents are dead,” Salinger began. “The closest relation I found isn’t a blood relative but an in-law. It seems his wife had a brother. Danner and the brother-in-law, Evan Strong, seemed to have been close and shared a strong friendship at one time, but after his wife got sick the two disagreed on how to handle her treatment. It seems that drove a wedge between them. After the wife died the two came to blows. I have no reason to believe Strong came to Ashton Falls and shot the man he believed was responsible for his sister’s death, but I did find it interesting that when I called him to ask about any relatives he might be aware of, he informed me that he happened to be in town and would bring a list of Danner’s distant kin to my office.”
I frowned. “He was here? In Ashton Falls? Why?”
“He said he was here to ski,” Salinger answered. “And I have no proof that skiing isn’t exactly why he came. However, I did find the timing suspect and plan to look in to it further.”
After Zak agreed to do the computer thing and obtain phone and banking records as well as all the background info he could find on the four people on our list, Salinger left to begin setting up interviews. I found myself left with nothing to do, which felt unnatural, but I’d promised both Zak and Salinger I’d help where I could while remaining investigation adjacent, so staying out of the fray was exactly what I’d do.
Ethan, Brady, and Phyllis all left as well, and Ellie and I decided to run to the store to get what we’d need to BBQ. We’d chosen a carb-heavy meal of chicken, homemade potato salad, and spicy baked beans, tossed in a salad to add some green, and I suggested strawberry shortcake for dessert, strawberries being a fruit making it a healthy option. I’d been fortunate that I hadn’t gained a lot of weight while pregnant with Catherine and after she was born I’d quickly lost what I’d gained, but I still wanted to pay more attention to my diet. I tended to eat a lot of junk and I couldn’t help but feel that my terrible diet was the reason I hadn’t been able to nurse Catherine for more than a couple of weeks before it became apparent she needed nutrients she wasn’t getting from the mama smorgasbord.
“Oh look, they have corn on the cob,” Ellie said as we walked down the produce aisle. It was nice to see the spring fruits and veggies beginning to become available. “I haven’t had corn on the cob since last summer. Should we get some to grill?”
Personally, I thought potato salad, corn, and beans was a bit much, but it did sound good and I’d missed quite a few meals over the past few days. I could certainly afford the extra calories.
“Yeah, let’s get some. We’ll grill some asparagus as well. I can’t wait for watermelon to come in to season. All this summer food is definitely putting me into the mood.”
“Oh and peaches.” Ellie sighed with a look of longing on her face. “Really juicy ones that drip down your chin when you take a bite.”
Yup, it was official: The nice weather had given us both a case of spring fever.
“Is that Zoe Donovan and Ellie Davis?” I heard a loud screech from behind where Ellie and I were picking out ears of corn.
I turned around. “Della Stone?”
“It’s me,” the plump, cheerful woman standing behind the apples squealed.
“I t
hought you moved to Kansas.”
“I did.” Della confirmed as she made her way around the apple bin, trapping me between the bin with the corn and the one with the broccoli. “I followed Donny Baxter to Kansas when he went to work for his uncle’s tractor business, but it turned out Donny was a lot more interested in tractors than he was in settling down and starting a family, so I headed to Connecticut, where my cousin lives. I met a guy there who owned his own yogurt shop, and I really thought he would turn out to be my one and only true love, but as it turned out, he’d already given his heart to the Gummy Bear distributer, so I left for Florida, where the men are a bit more mature.”
I suddenly remembered why I’d avoided Della in high school. Her tendency to ramble had been legendary. I looked around for Ellie, but she’d managed to make her way down the aisle, leaving me trapped with the overly cheerful woman.
“In Florida I met a man who seemed just perfect for me.” Della’s monologue slowed a bit and her face grew contemplative. A flash of anger crossed her face, but then she smiled and continued. “He was nice-looking, intelligent, and a lot more mature than any of the guys I’d dated before. He was perfect, but then damn if he didn’t up and move away right when I thought he would propose. Anyway, long story short, I made the rounds, but after all was said and done, I ended up right here where I started.”
“Welcome back,” I said politely, all the while trying to figure out how to extract myself from the conversation without offending Della. In high school she’d been the moody sort. Downright bipolar. And she had a mean streak too. Of course, that was years ago and she was an adult now. I assumed she’d learned to level out her emotions a bit. “Are you planning to stay in the area?”
Della paused and then said, “I’m really not sure. Things haven’t gone exactly as I hoped, but it’s a new day, so who knows? Things have a way of making themselves right.” Della’s smile expanded and her eyes grew soft. “I heard you and Ellie both got married and had babies.”