Costume Catastrophe (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 21) (8 page)

“If Salinger is following up we’ll just wait to see what he comes up with. I’ll add Kenny to my list and put Clint back on.” I laughed. “Did I tell you Clint tried to sell me a car when I went in to speak to him today?”

“Your car
is
a couple of years old.”

“My car is fine. He tried to sell me a yellow Mustang. What in the world would I do with a car like that?”

Zak grinned. “I think you’d look cute in a car like that.”

“I don’t go for cute; I’m interested in dependable. By the way, did you speak to the gardening service?” Zak had hired the company at the beginning of the summer and it had started off okay but had become increasingly undependable. “I’m afraid if we don’t get the yard winterized we’ll have an early snow and be in real trouble.”

“I’ve pretty much given up on them. I’m not sure what happened, but they’ve all but stopped returning my calls. I’m planning to work from home tomorrow. I’ll winterize the yard myself and finish decorating if it doesn’t rain.”

“Finish decorating? Don’t we already have all the decorations?”

“I still need to put out Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein and I bought some new pieces for the graveyard that I can’t wait to try out.”

I rolled my eyes. My brilliant, sophisticated husband was like a kid when it came to Halloween.

“Did you talk to Ellie about the food for the party?” Zak asked.

“We’re all set. She’s just going to make it over here. We have a bigger kitchen and I told her I’d help. She tires easily these days. I’m kind of worried about her. I mean, I know that women who are expecting tire more easily, but don’t you think she seems overly fatigued?”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that as well. In my opinion it’s the stress of keeping her secret. Once the fact that she’s expecting gets out and everyone including Levi gets over the shock, I think she’ll start to feel a lot better.”

“I hope so.”

Zak got up and tossed another log on the fire. It was kind of nice hiding out in his office with him. Zak of course spent a lot of time within these walls, but I rarely joined him here because he was usually deep into cyber land. The office was both cozy and functional. The walls were paneled in natural pine, the fireplace was made of river rock, and a dark brown carpet offset the lighter pine furniture. One wall was lined with nothing but monitors and there was a glass cabinet filled with hard drives that buzzed throughout the day. On top of Zak’s giant desk sat a keyboard and a smaller monitor for everyday use.

“I ran into Rachael Conway today,” Zak informed me. “She was at the elementary school enrolling her daughter when I went by to pick up Scooter. She mentioned that she’d moved back to Ashton Falls, so I invited her to the Halloween party on Monday. I hope that’s okay.”

“That’s fine. Did you meet the daughter?”

“I did. She’s very mature and polite for a fifth grader. It seems Rachael has done a good job with her.”

“I’m sure it’s difficult to raise a child on your own, but Rachael always was the mature, independent sort herself. It’s a shame the father isn’t in the picture. Some guy is really missing out on a great kid.”

Zak settled back into his chair. “I can’t be certain, and I didn’t really ask any questions at the time, but Rachael said something that led me to believe she left town when she found out she was pregnant, so the father never even knew about the kid. It made me wonder if he’s still in town.”

I thought of the brown-haired, blue-eyed ten-year-old and once again wondered if Levi could be the father. Of course there were a lot of men with brown hair and blue eyes in Ashton Falls. There might be any number of men who could have fathered the child.

“I spoke to Will Danner today,” Zak said, effectively changing the subject. Will had been the math teacher for Zimmerman Academy until he resigned just after Christmas the previous year to move closer to his elderly father.

“How’s he doing?” I’d liked the man and been sad to see him go.

“I’m afraid his father passed away over the summer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I know he hoped to have more time with him.”

“He chose not to stay in Florida after his father passed and resigned his position with the college he signed on with in order to be close to his father.  He’s been staying with a friend for the past couple of months. Anyway, he wondered if we had any openings.”

I glanced at Zak. “You know how much I like Will, but what about Brady?” Brady Matthews had moved to Ashton Falls to fill the position created by Will’s departure and had been doing a wonderful job. “I wouldn’t want to see him displaced. He moved his whole family here and the kids love him.”

“I have no intention of laying Brady off. He’s doing a fantastic job and you are correct; the kids do love him. I wouldn’t even consider bringing Will back, but he does have a much broader background than Brady, and he’s done amazing work in theoretical mathematics, whereas Brady’s specialty is applied mathematics.”

“You’re thinking of having them both teach at the Academy?” I asked.

“I’m considering it. Brady is covering the basic mathematics courses excellently, but if we brought Will on board we could venture into original research. I know that’s a lofty goal for a small private high school, but when I think of the possibilities…”

Zak’s eyes shone brightly as he spoke. I could see he was intrigued by the idea of charting a new course and he could certainly afford to pay two math teachers. Will would most likely be able to help Zak with the math related to his software development as well. There was just one problem as far as I could see. “What does Phyllis say?”

Our principal, Phyllis King, had dated Will briefly before he left town. I knew it had hurt her deeply when he’d moved, but I also knew she wasn’t really angry at him because she understood his need to be near his father.

“She seemed fine with it. She was obviously shocked when I mentioned it to her, but after I explained my idea of having Brady continue with the classes while Will conducted original research on the Academy’s behalf, she seemed really excited. I know we want to keep the school small so it’s manageable, but if we could come up with some sort of breakthrough in math or physics it would really put us on the map.”

I loved seeing Zak so excited about a new project. “I’m all for it if you think it’s a good idea.”

“I do think so. I think I’ll call Will to invite him to come out so we can discuss it further. I’ll need to talk to Brady to make sure he understands that his job is in no way jeopardized. I think he likes living here. He’s commented several times how well his kids are settling in.”

Brady’s wife had died a year and a half before he moved in Ashton Falls, leaving him with three small children to raise. When he’d first arrived he’d seemed like a fish out of water, but Ellie had befriended him and my mom had gotten him involved with her toddler group, while Jeremy had introduced him around to the folks in his single parent group. Now that he’d married Jessica, Jeremy was no longer a single parent, but I doubted that would stop him from socializing with the people who had been there for him when Morgan was an infant.

I glanced at the clock. It was time I headed up to make sure my own “children” were wrapping things up. Scooter would stay up all night playing video games and Alex would stay up reading if I let them.

“I’m going to head up,” I announced. “Would you mind letting the dogs out?”

“Happy to. I’ll head up too as soon as I get the animals all tucked in. Does the otter need another feeding?”

“I’ll check with Alex, but I’m sure she has that taken care of it. Did she tell you she’s going to the dance with Tony?”

Zak frowned. “She’s a little young to date.”

“They’re going as friends. Tony is a bit older, but he’s a nice kid. I’m sure it will be fine. Don’t give her a hard time. She’s very excited and a little shy about it.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise, but you might want to talk to Scooter. He does like to tease.”

“Actually, I hoped you’d talk to him. He listens to you, while he has a tendency to ignore me completely.”

I got up and was gathering my things when the house phone rang. Zak answered the line on his desk. My heart began to pound when his smile turned into a frown.

“Okay, thanks,” Zak said before hanging up. “That was Salinger.”

“And…?”

“There’s been another victim.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Tommy Payton.”

“Tommy’s dead?”

“No. Like Joey, Tommy was shot, but his wound wasn’t fatal. In fact, he called 911 himself. Salinger said he’s in surgery right now to remove the bullet, but he’s expected to make a full recovery. I guess the note was right. There
was
a second victim.”

“Oh, God, Levi!”

“Levi?” Zak asked.

“The obvious connection between Tommy and Joey is football. Levi was the third leg of the unstoppable trio. It makes sense he’s going to be victim number three if there is one.”

Zak hesitated. “I don’t think we should panic or jump to conclusions, but it couldn’t hurt to call Levi and fill him in on the situation. I’ll go check on the kids while you make the call.”

Chapter 6

Thursday, October 27

I spent another sleepless night worrying about friends who didn’t have the common sense to worry about themselves. When I’d called Levi all in a panic the night before he’d laughed it off, insisting he was sure he was in no way a target. He pointed out that he hadn’t been part of the unstoppable trio for a very long time, so there was no reason for anyone to want him dead at this point. I tried to talk him into leaving town, but he reminded me that he had the football game of the year in two days’ time and therefore wasn’t going anywhere. He was, however, worried about Tommy, so we both decided to head to the hospital to see exactly what was going on. Somewhere around two a.m. the doctor informed us that, although he’d lost a lot of blood, no vital organs had been hit, and he was stable and should make a full recovery. By the time Levi drove me home it was almost time to get up.

Ugh! I didn’t do well with only a couple of hours of sleep.

“Coffee?” Zak asked as he handed me a hot cup. I accepted it and drank it down before it even had time to cool. “Why don’t you call Tiffany and tell her you won’t be in today? Or at least that you’ll be late,” he suggested.

“I’ll be fine once I have another cup of coffee and a shower. It’s going to be a busy weekend and Jeremy is getting back later this evening, so I want to be sure all the cleaning and chores are caught up so he doesn’t return to a mess.”

Zak laughed. “You do know that
he
works for
you
, right?”

“Honestly, given the fact that he’s pretty much running things and I just pop in and help out when I can, it sometimes feels like it’s the other way around.” I took a long sip of my second cup of liquid adrenaline. “Once I check in and make sure things are taken care of at the Zoo, I thought I’d go by to see if Tommy is up to having visitors. Maybe he saw something. I know Levi isn’t worried that he might be another target, but I am.”

“I planned to work from home today anyway. How about if I come to the Zoo with you and help you get your chores done, and then we can go visit Tommy together.”

I smiled. “Really? I’d like that. And maybe afterward we can go see Levi and you can help me talk some sense into his thick head.”

Zak frowned. I knew him well enough to realize I wasn’t the only one worried about Levi. High school football wasn’t the only link between Joey and Tommy, but considering Tommy was in Ashton Falls for the big game, things seemed to point in that direction. I’d filled Salinger in on the fact that Albert had been in town for both shootings and that he’d as much as told me the previous day that he planned to look up Tommy. I’d also made sure he understood just how angry Albert was that circumstances had derailed his plans for a football career and Salinger had said he’d have a chat with the guy.

I really did think that we’d find out that the killer had a motive having to do with the victims’ participation on that long-ago football team, but I also supposed it would behoove me to look for other connections between Tommy and Joey. The two had known each other for a long time, which made it entirely possible they’d had something or someone else in common. I remembered Tommy had told me that he and Joey had had a falling out a ways back. Suddenly I was very interested in the reason for that falling out.

By the time Zak and I arrived at the shelter Tiffany was halfway through the morning chores. She informed me that the dog that had been reported missing earlier in the week had been found safe and sound, and that the new bear cub we’d brought to the shelter after his mother was hit by a car was settling in nicely. We chatted about what needed to be done before Jeremy returned and then Zak and I headed to the hospital before visiting hours were suspended while lunch was being served.

Tommy was awake and coherent when Zak and I arrived, but all he remembered was that one minute he was taking a walk along the lakeshore path and the next he was in the hospital hooked up to more machines than he deemed necessary.

“Given the fact that you were shot in much the same way as Joey, we’re assuming there’s a link.”

“Yeah, that occurred to me.” Tommy adjusted his position in the bed. I could see he was in pain, so I didn’t want to stay too long.

“Do you know of anyone who would want both you and Joey dead?”

Something flashed across Tommy’s face before he quickly masked it. “No. I can’t think of a single person who would want either of us dead, let alone both of us. Who would do something like this?”

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”

“From what I’ve heard about Joey’s death, we were both alone in isolated areas when we were shot. Do you think the shootings could be random based on opportunity or geography?”

I supposed it was possible the shootings were random based on location at the time of the shooting, not history, but it seemed unlikely. Still, in a small town you were likely to find a common variable between any two people if you looked hard enough, so I supposed it didn’t necessarily mean anything that the two men shared a history.