Halloween Hijinks (A Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 1) (15 page)

I knew Gage had been troubled when he lived in Ashton Falls
. He was in and out of juvenile hall throughout high school. I thought it odd that he was hanging out with kids so much younger than he was. Sure, they were all football players, but Craig and Darian were still in high school.

“Why would Gage kill Griswold?
” Zak asked.

“I haven’t worked it all out
, but we know Gage was in a lot of trouble as a teen, we know he played kiddie league for Griswold, and we know he’s back in town and hanging out with other kids we suspect of being former victims of Griswold,” Ellie pointed out. “You mentioned the tagging in the house where you found the body. Gage was known for his illegal artwork. It just seems to fit.”

“Yeah
, it really does,” I agreed.

“I’m pretty sure I heard them say they were heading to the haunted
barn. I figured I’d meet you guys for backup and then head over. You up for a little interrogation?” Ellie looked at Zak.

“Absolutely.”

“Zoe should stay here, though,” Ellie said. “Maybe you can drop in on Warren before he leaves the hospital. That will give you a good alibi.”

“Warren is leaving?” I asked.

“His family got an anonymous donation for the money they needed for Warren’s surgery. They’re moving him to a hospital down the hill tonight and hope to do the surgery tomorrow or Monday at the latest.”

I glanced at Zak
, who looked away, but I knew he had to have been the anonymous donor. Who else would have the kind of money it took to simply write a check to pay for surgery and a hospital stay? I guess technically my mother and her family would have the funds required to accomplish such a feat, but I also knew she’d left the area and had most likely never even heard of Warren Trent.

I hated to stay behind
, but I did want to visit with Warren before he left, and I
really
wanted to keep my job.

“Okay,
” I agreed. “I’ll head over to the hospital. Text me when you’re done and we’ll meet back up.”

When I arrived at the hospital there were five boys sitting outside under a tree: Gage Wexler, Craig Masterson, Darian Wellington, Michael Valdez, who must have finished his gig at the haunted maze, and Cody Blunt, the mascot I’d met at Bryton Lake. All the boys were football players or involved in football and, I was willing to bet, all victims of Griswold’s extreme coaching. I thought about calling Ellie to tell her that the boys she hoped to interview weren’t at the haunted barn after all, but it occurred to me that the group could scatter before she and Zak had a chance to make their way here and the opportunity to talk to them would be lost. I thought about my job and how much it means to me, but as much as I love my job, I love Levi more. I walked toward the group.

“Hey
, guys,” I greeted.

“
Hey, Zoe,” Craig returned. “Did you come to see Warren? He told us you’ve been bringing him food.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t bring
anything this time. I really came to talk to him about Coach Griswold’s murder. They’ve arrested Coach Denton again. I guess they found fingerprints on the body,” I lied, and carefully looked at each face as I did so. “It looks bad.”

“Coach Denton didn’t kill him,”
Darian spoke up.

I noticed that Gage, who stood next to him, nudged him with his elbow.

“Do you know who did?” I prompted.

D
arian looked at the other boys. Cody was staring intently at the ground; Craig, and Michael were staring at one another, and Gage looked like he was preparing to run.

“We can’t let Coach Denton go to jail for this,” Da
rian insisted. He looked me in the eye. “We did it. All of us.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened?
”

I kept my eye on Gage as the other boys worked up the courage to speak
.

“We didn’t mean to kill him,” Michael admitted.

“We were just trying to help Warren,” Cody said in a quiet voice. “He’s a good guy; he didn’t deserve this.”

“Go on,” I prompted.

“When we found out Warren might not get the surgery he needed because of his family’s financial situation, it occurred to us that Griswold really ought to be the one paying for it,” Michael explained.

“
I mean, he was the reason Warren was in the hospital in the first place. We couldn’t prove it, but we knew it was true, so we came up with the blackmail plan,” Darian added.

“I swear, all we were going to do was get enough money out of the guy to pay the hospital
.” Cody was crying. “We never meant for anyone to die.”

“Okay,
what happened?” I encouraged.

“Darian came up with the idea to blackmail the
coach,” Michael informed us. “Gage tagged his truck to emphasize the fact that we knew what had happened and weren’t going to keep quiet. We used letterhead my dad had in his office, figuring  Griswold would think one of the adults was blackmailing him. We thought he never would have gone along with the blackmail demand if he knew it was coming from a bunch of kids.”

“And did he?
” I asked. “Go along with it?”

“We thought he did
.” Darian paled.

“We told him to meet us at the Henderson place with
ten thousand dollars. We knew he had that much because he used to brag all the time about the money he inherited,” Craig informed us.

“But when he showed up he had a gun,” Michael continued
. “He was drunk and threatened to kill us if we didn’t hand over whatever proof we had. The problem was, we didn’t actually have any proof. He didn’t believe us and pointed the gun right at Cody’s head.”

“
I picked up a baseball bat we had been using to break stuff earlier in the night and hit him,” Craig admitted. “I didn’t mean to kill him, I swear. I just wanted to stop him from shooting Cody.”

“It sounds like what was done was in self-defense,” I reasoned. “You’re a minor, and you were trying to help your friend. I’m sure Salinger will take that into consideration, but we have to tell him.”

“I’m not a minor,” Gage pointed out
. “And I have a rap sheet.”

“That could be a problem
,” I admitted.

“Besides, I wasn’t anywhere near the Henderson house when this whole thing went down.”

“Do you have proof of that?” I asked.

Gage hesitated
.

“Maybe we can leave him out of it,” Cody suggested. “All he did was tag the truck. Darian came up with the blackmail plan, Michael wrote the letter, and Craig is the one who actually hit him with the bat.  The guys and I can vouch for the fact that he wasn’t there when the whole thing went down.”

“
Let’s go see Salinger. We can leave Gage out of it for now.” I took a deep breath, mentally kissed my future good-bye, and made a decision. “I’ll go with you.”

Michae
l looked like he might faint, and the others looked as if they wanted to run, but they all followed me back into town.

I sat on the beach, Charlie and Maggie at my side, and watched the moon rise over the lake. Somehow I’d survived the hardest couple of days of my life. I was physically and mentally depleted and unsure of how I’d be able to go on. After I’d accompanied the boys to the sheriff’s office and they’d told their story to Salinger, I’d met Zak, Ellie, and a newly released Levi for a victory celebration. For that brief moment in time I really believed everything was going to be okay. That all the lives involved in this horrible affair would once again reach the equilibrium we’d all enjoyed prior to Griswold’s murder.

Boy, was I wrong.

“Hey, there.” Zak sat down next to me.

“Where’d you come from?” I asked.

“Down the beach. Your grandfather let Lambda and me move into the lake house while the paperwork is being completed. It looks like we’re neighbors.”

I smiled, finding I was glad for Zak’s company. I laid my head against his shoulder and stared at the moonlight on the lake. I felt empty inside. Like a hollow shell of what once was and would never be again.

“How are you holding up?” Zak asked.

“I’m not,” I answered honestly.

“Have you talked to Jeremy?” Zak asked.

“No. I can’t. Not yet.”

“You did the right thing.”

“I know.”  In spite of the fact that I had managed to solve the case of Griswold’s death in a calm and peaceful manner, Commissioner Cromwell had followed through on his threat to fire me. To make matters worse, he’d decided to close the Ashton Falls facility and provide satellite service from Bryton Lake. Not only was I out of a job but Jeremy was as well.

“Did they come for the animals?” I asked. Most of the animals had been adopted on Sunday, but there were several that weren’t yet ready for homes. I prayed they’d be placed with loving families. I couldn’t help but think of the mama cat and her babies. I’d grown fond of them during the short time that they’d been with us. At least I still had Maggie with me. She was doing better, gaining weight. I hated to think what would have happened to her if I hadn’t brought her home.

“They did, but when they got there they found all the animals had been adopted.”

I sat up and looked at Zak. “Adopted? All of them? By whom?”

“Me, actually,” he confessed. “For the short-term, anyway. Even I don’t have room for seven dogs, three cats, and four kittens.”

“You have them at your house?”

“For now. I need to find them homes.” Zak used his thumb to wipe away the tear trailing down my face. “I was sort of hoping you would help.”

“And the wild animals?” I hated to even ask.

“Released or relocated. I have a raccoon in one of my extra bedrooms.”

I smiled.

“I’m not sure I should bring this up, but I actually came down the beach because I have news,” Zak informed me.

“What kind of news?”

“It’s about Griswold’s murder.
Craig Masterson didn’t kill the guy.  Once the autopsy was completed they found that, although Craig did hit Griswold, the blow he delivered didn’t kill him.  Someone came along after the boys left and finished the job.”

“I know.” 

“You do?”

“I’ve had a few days to think about things, and there was something that just wasn’t adding up.”

“Such as?”

“First of all, I found Griswold’s body in the basement. The boys didn’t mention anything about dragging him down there. They told Salinger they lured him to the house on the pretext of having proof that he’d run Warren off the road. Their goal was to get the money to pay for Warren’s medical bills, but when Griswold turned on them Craig hit him over the head with a bat. They freaked when they saw the blood and ran.”

“So the question is, how did Griswold get to the basement?” 

“Exactly.
I also realized that Griswold’s body had suffered multiple fractures which most likely occurred when he was drug down the stairs. And what about the dog that brought me to the house in the first place? Where did he come from, and how did he get locked in the basement?” 

“So you think whoever finished the job dragged the body to the basement and the dog was trapped inside in the process.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, who?”

“I realized that whoever came along and finished the job would have had to have known the boys were meeting Griswold in the Henderson house. Initially, the only person I could think of who knew the guys were meeting him was—”

“Gage,” Zak finished for me.

“He said he wasn’t with the guys when the whole thing went down and they backed him up, but he never really said where he was at the time.”

“Perhaps we should ask him.”

“I did.”

Zak looked surprised.

“What? Do you think I’ve been doing nothing other than sitting around moping for the past few days?” 

“Actually, that’s exactly what I thought.”

“Okay, I will admit that moping has been the main course on the Zoe menu, but I managed to do a little investigating as well. I was able to catch Gage just as he was preparing to leave to go back to college. I confronted him about the murder, which he adamantly denied having any involvement in.”

“He could be lying,” Zak pointed out.

“He could have been, but he has a pretty solid alibi.”

“Such as?” Zak wondered.

“He was in the process of relieving Donovan’s of some of our pesky inventory. My dad had security cameras installed a couple of years ago, after that rash of robberies we had. When Gage confessed that his alibi to murder was petty theft I had my dad look at the tapes.”

“So Gage is the random bandit?”

“It would seem. The security tape my dad has is time and date stamped, so we’re pretty sure based on the time line the other boys provided that Gage couldn’t have been involved in Griswold’s murder.”