Maid in Teaberry

by R A Wallace

  “When is Megan getting here?” Victor asked loudly as others continued their own conversations about Josh and Dan.

  “Any minute. She wanted to talk about the old elementary school,” Josie explained.

  “Is it for the town web site?” Victor asked. He knew Megan was the one who handled it. He always thought she did a wonderful job with it.

  “No, she wants to talk about Jonah Simms,” Josie said loudly. Everyone in the restaurant grew quiet.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Megan drove to the Teaberry Retirement Community and was glad that she’d thought to call Mayor Reynolds in advance. It had occurred to her that while Susan and Bev were students of the elementary school at the time of Jonah’s death and had their own memories, people their parents’ age may have more adult memories of the event. She didn’t know anyone in particular who lived at the retirement community. She was sure she might recognize former members of the Teaberry community once she got there, but she hadn’t been able to come up with any specific names of people she could simply drop in on.

  Barbara had come up with a plan. She called someone in advance at the community and asked them to get together a group of people who may have stories to share about the old elementary school and Jonah’s death. Anyone who may have knowledge would be waiting to speak with Megan as she worked her way down the list.

  The contact name that Megan was given to meet with first was Josie Klingerman. Megan vaguely remembered it as soon as she heard it but wouldn’t have come up with it on her own. She hadn’t known the woman who ran the cafeteria.

  Barbara told Megan to go into the main office first. They’d give her directions to Josie’s villa. After speaking with Josie, Josie would give Megan directions to the next person who may have information. Megan found the building marked office and parked her truck. She entered the air conditioned office and spoke with the woman working at the front desk who looked to be of retirement age. Perhaps she worked in the office part-time, Megan thought.

  The woman introduced herself as Gina and pulled out a colored map. She drew directions to a parking area near Josie’s villa. “You can leave your vehicle in that lot and then walk to Josie’s. There may not be room in her driveway with her car and her golf cart already there.”

  Megan thanked the woman and followed the directions to the parking lot. She saw some vehicles with Anderson’s Landscaping logo on the side as she drove. After parking in the designated area, it was a short walk to Josie’s villa.

  A woman with dark hair answered the door to the villa and invited Megan in. Megan introduced herself to Josie and took a seat in the attractive living room.

  “Thank you for speaking with me,” Megan said politely.

  “Barbara said you were interested in the day that Jonah died?” Josie asked.

  “Yes, that day or anything else you can think of that stood out for you around that time,” Megan explained. “You worked in the cafeteria there, right?” She watched Josie nod in agreement. “Did your work cause you to spend much time with Jonah?”

  “Not really. I spent most of my time in the kitchen,” Josie explained. “I usually only saw him during the day if I had an incident that I needed to call him about.”

  “An incident?” Megan asked.

  Josie let out a chuckle. “Whenever you mix food, drinks, and small children, you will have incidents.”

  “I see,” Megan said. She hadn’t considered that, but it must have been a common event. There would have been hundreds of children in the cafeteria each day. There had to be a lot of incidents. “Does any particular incident stand out in your memory?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it since Barbara called. There was one in particular when I called Jonah and he didn’t show for over an hour,” Josie frowned as she thought of it. “The child had the stomach flu and it was a particularly bad mess that remained for over an hour as I fumed about it in the kitchen.”

  “Was that unusual?” Megan asked.

  “Now that you mention it, Jonah had been hard to pin down a lot around that time. He was always off somewhere. That was before cell phones and pagers and whatnot,” Josie explained to Megan. “It was hard enough to get in touch with someone. Harder still when they seemed to be hiding out somewhere.”

  “Hiding out?” Megan asked.

  Josie lowered her voice. “At the time, I wondered if he was, you know. With one of the teachers.”

  Megan translated that in her head. “Oh. Was he?”

  Josie shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know that he’d been acting secretive-like and he was never around when you needed him. He must have been up to no good.”

  Megan followed Josie’s directions to the next person on the list that Josie had given her.

  Megan recognized the woman as soon as she saw her. Annie Hopkins had been Megan’s kindergarten teacher. Annie led her to an attractive living room in her villa.

  “I’m not sure how much I can tell you,” Annie said apologetically.

  “Were you working at the old elementary school at the time of the death?” Megan asked as she perched on the edge of a chair.

  “Yes, but it was my first year. I was still just learning the ropes and didn’t really have my head above the work yet,” Annie explained.

  “I remember you from kindergarten,” Megan said with a smile.

  “Yes, you were in my class. You and Josh both.” Annie shook her head as she thought back. “I could have told you that wouldn’t work out, dear. That Josh, he was quite the handful.”

  Megan asked several more questions but didn’t get much information. Annie gave her directions to the next person on the list.

  The elderly gentleman that answered the door looked like someone she should know. Looking down at the name on her list again, she figured out why. “Mr. Muncie?” Megan asked. She wouldn’t have recognized him without the name. When he’d been the superintendent, he’d seemed larger than life. The man standing in front of her now was barely an inch taller than she was.

  “Megan, come in, come in. I hope you don’t mind but Silas Granger is here also. We figured it would be easier for you to meet with us at the same time. Two birds with one stone and all that.” Victor led Megan to his living room. He introduced her to Silas before waving her to a seat.

  “Did you work at the school also, Mr. Granger?” Megan asked.

  “No, my son went there though,” Silas explained. “It was an exciting time for the young kids when the accident happened. That was the first brush of death for some of them, you see.”

  “I imagine it stayed with them for a long time.” Megan tried to remember what she would have been like at that age.

  “Oh, my yes. Those boys never stopped talking about it. My son and his friends told story after story.”

  “About the death?” Megan asked.

  Silas lifted his hands. “Not in any specific terms, you understand. They all seemed pretty convinced it was just an accident at the time. But afterwards, there was always so much talk about ghosts and about the school being haunted. That sort of thing.”

  “Ah.” Megan turned to Victor. “What about you, Mr. Muncie. Do you remember anything specific?”

  Victor steepled his fingers together. “It was a difficult time for all of us, and especially for Jonah’s family, of course. You may have heard about the treasure map?” Victor glanced at Megan. She nodded, so he continued. “I didn’t want to believe it had anything to do with the death. I can’t see how it did.” Victor shook his head, his thoughts turned inward back to that time.

  “I understand the body was found at a particular reference point on the treasure map,” Megan murmured.

  Victor sighed and brought himself back to the present. “Yes, that’s just it. I didn’t want to believe it had anything to do with it, but Jonah just happened to have an accident where the red X was marked on the map.”

  “Did the police look into it?” Megan asked.

  Victor shook his head. “No, it was ruled a
n accident and, at first, everyone really believed that. It was only after, when the stories started circulating, that anyone began to wonder. And the stories began to impact us in profound ways. The older children would taunt the younger children. Don’t let the school ghost get you, that sort of thing. The younger children were having nightmares. The staff were uncomfortable working there. It was a difficult time. As you know, the building was closed soon after.”

  Victor checked Megan’s map of the retirement community and explained how to get to Laura Davidson’s villa. Megan rang the bell, wondering why the name sounded familiar.

  The woman answering the door looked to be in her seventies. She welcomed Megan in and offered her refreshments. Megan declined but took the seat Laura indicated.

  “You’re here to ask about Jonah, I understand,” Laura said.

  Megan smiled at Laura. “Your married name is Davidson?” Megan asked.

  Laura nodded slowly. “Yes, my maiden name was Smith. My husband passed away a couple of years ago now.”

  Megan murmured her condolences. “Were you both teachers at the school.”

  Laura’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, yes we were both there at the time of the accident.”

  Megan felt one puzzle piece fall into place. “Where were you at the time the accident occurred?”

  Laura looked away for a moment as she considered her answer, then turned sharp eyes back to Megan. “I have a feeling you already know.” Laura watched Megan shrewdly for a moment, then nodded once, apparently coming to some sort of decision.

  “Frank and I weren’t married at that point. We had both managed to finagle the same planning period. We would sneak away and find somewhere to meet for a few minutes each day,” Laura said. “It sounds pretty tame now, but at the time I was scared I would lose my job.”

  “You and Frank didn’t make it back to your classes on time?” Megan prompted.

  “That’s right. I’m still not certain what happened. We were in the supply closet and couldn’t get out. The door somehow had locked behind us.” Laura drew her brows together, trying to remember.

  “Where was the supply closet?” Megan asked.

  “Oh, it was far enough away from the other classrooms that no one should see us,” Laura answered. “At the time I wasn’t really frightened because I was with Frank. It was so dark. But we were very worried about losing our jobs.”

  Megan had trouble following the story. “It was dark?”

  Laura nodded. “The light switch for the closet was outside in the hallway. We turned it on when we went in. But somehow it got turned off while we were in there and the door was locked from the outside.”

  Megan raised her eyebrows in surprise. “How did you get out?”

  Laura shrugged. “It’s been so long ago,” she said hesitantly. “Someone let us out, of course. It’s the only way we could have gotten out. It might have been Ronnie. We went back to our classes as quickly as we could. I was so worried we’d be fired. The teachers next to us had watched our students for us. But, in the end, it was all forgotten about when Jonah’s body was found. It was such a sad time for everyone.”

  Megan asked a few more questions before leaving. She thanked Mrs. Davidson for her time and drove back to town thinking about everything she’d learned. She had plans to meet Dan for lunch. Maybe she could find some more people in town who remembered Jonah Simms?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ava wrote meticulous notes in her worn notepad about the jobs she had already completed then checked the list of things she still had to do. She was slowly getting further behind each day. So far, she was managing to keep up with her current client list, but barely. And there were several messages on her phone that she hadn’t yet returned from others who wanted to hire her.

  She knew that taking any more clients would put her even farther behind. She was barely keeping up now and she was working between twelve and fourteen hours a day. But she needed the money for Bella. They were doing okay now, just making ends meet, with the limited expenditures that Ava allowed them to make. But college would be expensive. Ava didn’t want Bella to turn down a big name school because she couldn’t afford it.

  Ava got out of her car and began gathering the things she would need to carry in to her next job. She was reaching into her trunk to grab something else when she dropped one of the cleaning buckets that she also used to carry her supplies into the work site. Bottles of cleaners and other supplies rolled out of the bucket. Before Ava could bend down to retrieve them, a tall figure in a uniform got there first.

  Rhys grabbed the items quickly, then stood and looked at Ava. He thought he detected a coolness on her part. He held out the cleaning supplies and Ava snatched them quickly and put them back into her bucket. She muttered a thanks and turned to leave.

  “Wait,” Rhys said to Ava’s back. “I’d like to apologize.”

  Ava turned around slowly and faced him. “For what?”

  Rhys shrugged. “For whatever I said, or did, that upset you. Whatever it was, I didn’t mean to.”

  Ava looked at him for a moment. It was obvious that she was debating her answer. “Okay, thanks.” She turned to walk away again.

  Rhys took two steps and caught up with her quickly. “Wait, please.”

  Ava stopped and looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with curiosity.

  “I’ve been patrolling the old elementary school whenever I know you’re there in the evening,” Rhys said. He wasn’t sure how to get through the icy exterior she had cloaked around her.

  “You have?” Ava asked.

  “Yeah. I thought it might make you feel more comfortable about working there.”

  “I didn’t think you even wanted to show up when I called.” Ava looked away for a moment. “I know you can’t be there the entire time I have to be in the school. I appreciate that you’re even making the effort. Thanks.”

  Rhys thought the icy exterior may have warmed a fraction of a degree. “Have you had any more problems?”

  Ava looked away quickly.

  “You have, haven’t you? You didn’t call the police. I know, I’ve checked.” Rhys had a sick feeling that he may have been the reason why she hadn’t called.

  Ava wrapped her arms around herself. “I tried to get a tape of the voices, but I couldn’t get it in time.”

  Rhys was flabbergasted. “You heard the voices and you stayed in the building? Why?”

  Ava shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

  Rhys wiped his face with his hand in exasperation. “I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I didn’t believe you, I’m sorry. Here.” Rhys pulled out his phone. “What’s your number?”

  Ava rattled it off. Rhys dialed her number and her phone rang. She looked up at him in confusion.

  “Now you have my phone number. That’s my personal phone. Whenever you need me here, or anywhere else, you just call me, okay?”

  Laser blue eyes looked directly at Ava. She found herself nodding numbly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Megan met Dan for lunch at the Jammin’T. As usual, there was quite a crowd, but Dan had gotten there before her and snagged a booth. He’d also placed their orders and their food arrived shortly after Megan took her seat.

  “Was your visit to the retirement community helpful?” Dan asked as he poured ketchup on the plate next to his fries. He then took a large bite of his burger.

  Megan liberally coated her fries with vinegar. “I may have gotten some good pieces to the puzzle. It will take a little more time to figure out exactly where they all fit though.” Megan shook her head at Dan as she lifted the top of the bun from her fried chicken patty sandwich to let it cool. She’d never understood how he could eat such hot food without burning his mouth.

  “I called my parents to see if they remembered Jonah and the day he died but they had already moved into a higher grade in another building when it happened,” Dan said.

  “Mine too,” Megan said. “But I appreciate
you checking, thanks.”

  “Who are you hoping to speak to this afternoon?” Dan asked.

  Megan looked around the room. Betty had seemed too busy when she’d dropped their food off. She’d still had half a tray of food to deliver to another table and Megan hadn’t wanted to bother her. But it looked like she might have a free moment now. Megan caught her eye and Betty quickly walked over. Although both Bert and Betty were too old to have been in school at the time of Jonah’s death, they would have been around when he was alive.

  “Betty, do you have a second to tell me what you remember about Jonah Simms?” Megan asked.

  “Bert and I were just talking about him,” Betty said as she scanned the room. “He used to come in here, of course. At some point, everyone in town has been here, but he was pretty regular.”

  “What was he like?” Megan asked.

  Betty held up a finger to a couple across the room trying to get her attention. “We both remember him as a quiet guy. Bert thought he was the gullible type. You know, Jonah was always talking about entering new contests and winning money.”

  Megan filed that away. “And you?”

  “I remember that he was pretty excited before he died. He was always talking about finding treasure and being rich someday.” Betty shrugged. “That never happened of course. I gotta go. Here’s your bill.”

  Megan watched Betty walk briskly to the other table but then her attention was pulled toward a couple walking their way. Stan Jiblonski and his wife Carol took the booth next to them.

  “Hello, you two,” Stan said to Dan and Megan as he slid into the booth.

  Megan and Dan exchanged pleasantries with both of them but then Megan remembered that Carol was in her mid-fifties.

  “Carol, do you remember Jonah Simms?” Megan asked.

  Carol and Stan fit the old adage that married people begin to resemble each other over time. Both were short in stature and carried a few extra pounds. Both were friendly and warm.