Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) (9 page)

She supposed Trisha’s parents had the right to raise their daughter however they saw fit. She might not agree with their methods, but there really wasn’t a thing she could do about it. Navigating parenthood was a difficult task. One wrong move and… Tj didn’t want to think about that. She’d just gotten to the point where she wasn’t second-guessing every little decision she made.

“It’s time to turn off the television,” Tj said to Ashley, who was watching a popular sitcom on TV.

“Just a few more minutes.”

“You can finish this program and then we need to find another activity. You know the rule about TV time.”

“I know, but it’s raining. We can’t go outside and there isn’t anything to do.”

“I just don’t want your brain to rot.”

“That wouldn’t really happen. Can Kristi come over?”

“It depends. I need to go into town in a little while to help Dr. Hunter decorate the gym for the homecoming dance. Where’s Papa?”

“He went into town. I think he was going to meet up with Rosalie. Are they going to get married?”

Good question.

“I don’t know,” Tj answered. “I guess Papa will tell us if he decides to take that step. Did Grandpa go up to his room?”

“He said he wasn’t feeling well. It seems like his back has been bothering him a lot lately.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. I’ll check on him, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have company if Papa and I won’t be here and Grandpa doesn’t feel well.”

“But it’s sooooo boring. Can we go over to Kristi’s?”

Tj realized that if Ben wasn’t feeling well it might not be a bad idea to get the girls out of the house, but she knew Jenna and Dennis were both working, so Jenna’s sister, Bren, was babysitting. Maybe Kyle would welcome some company.

“Kristi and Kari are over at Bren’s and I hate to ask her to watch two more kids, but maybe Uncle Kyle is home.”

Ashley grinned. “Can we call him?”

“Yeah, I’ll call him.”

Luckily, Kyle was home alone and was happy not only to have Ashley and Gracie over for the afternoon but Echo and Pumpkin as well. Kyle often said he got lonely living all alone in his great big house since his mom moved out and his ward, Annabeth, had been accepted into a boarding school that catered to students in need of an accelerated learning environment. Annabeth still came home during the summer and school holidays, but Kyle was usually up for some kid time while she was away.

“Thanks for letting the girls hang out for a while,” Tj said after Kyle ushered the girls inside.

“I’m happy to have them and I wanted to meet Pumpkin.” Kyle knelt down on the floor to pet the rambunctious puppy. “Gracie told me all about her.”

“You talked to Gracie?”

“She called me to tell me about the spelling bee and she mentioned that she found the puppy.”

Tj watched as Kyle’s dog Trooper greeted Echo. One thing was for certain: with two wound-up grade schoolers and three dogs, Kyle wasn’t going to be bored that afternoon.

“Did you hear Jada Jenkins isn’t coming to the reunion after all?” Tj asked.

“No.” Kyle sounded disappointed. “I’m sorry to hear that. I was looking forward to meeting her. She really does have an exceptional mind. I’m sure we would have had a lot to talk about. What happened?”

Tj looked over at the girls, who were watching them with interest.

“I have a bunch of new video games,” Kyle announced. “Would you like to check them out? There’s even one Annabeth wanted, about being a fashion designer.”

“That sounds dope,” Ashley announced.

Kyle turned to Tj. “If you have a minute maybe I can get the girls settled and then we can chat about what’s going on.”

Tj shrugged. “I can be a few minutes late. I’ll call Hunter to let him know while you get the girls started on the game.”

Tj called Hunter while Kyle headed toward the den with her sisters. During the two years since Kyle had inherited the house from Zachary he’d undertaken a major renovation. The lakeside estate no longer resembled the run-down mansion Tj had visited as a teen. While the house had always seemed so dark and dreary when Zachary had lived there, Kyle had added additional windows and opened it up so that the lake and surrounding forest felt as if it were part of the structure itself. The house was located on an isolated bay that was surrounded with old growth pines providing a feeling of both beauty and isolation.

“So what’s up?” Kyle asked when he returned to the living room, where Tj had taken a seat on one of the three sofas in the room.

Tj filled him in on everything that had occurred since her meeting with Samantha Colton the previous afternoon. It certainly seemed like more than twenty-four hours had passed since the domineering woman had sat in her office and made her doubt everything she had previously believed to be true.

“It sounds like her interview technique could have used some finessing,” Kyle commented.

“She approached the task like she was orchestrating a military attack. I’m totally innocent, yet she made me want to run and hide. While the accident could have been just that, an accident, I’d be willing to bet Holly’s killer is still in the area and wanted to make sure he or she wasn’t found out,” Tj concluded.

“Maybe,” Kyle responded. “While it seems likely Colton spooked someone who didn’t want their secrets leaked, it doesn’t necessarily mean the same person who killed Holly killed her. Based on what you’ve told me, she’d dug up dirt on pretty much everyone. If she intended to air all that information as a ratings booster, anyone involved might have wanted her dead.”

Kyle was right. Jessie might not have wanted Brett to know, even now, that she was involved in a make-out session with Nathan, and Nathan might very well have a reason to want that fact kept secret as well. Samantha Colton had speculated that Jessie and Holly might have been involved in a romantic relationship, and even if it weren’t true, Tj doubted Jessie would want her speculating about their relationship on national television. Likewise, Dalton might not welcome the comparison of his infatuation with Holly to that of a stalker.

“You’re right,” Tj realized after she’d thought about it. “While Holly’s killer had the largest stake in wanting Samantha Colton gone, there are a whole lot of people who’ll sleep more soundly tonight knowing she isn’t about to expose their deep, dark secrets on national television.”

“Did
Second Look
send a cameraman along with Colton?” Kyle wondered.

“She didn’t bring one with her when she came to talk to me, and no one else has mentioned a cameraman, but it would stand to reason that she had one somewhere in the wings. I mean, it’s a television show. A cameraman would be essential.”

“Maybe someone should track down this person to see what they know. It stands to reason Colton had made some enemies, doing what she does. It’s even possible someone from another cold case she was working on followed her to Paradise Lake with the intention of killing her. That’s what I would do if I wanted someone like her dead.”

“Come again?”

Kyle adjusted his position on the sofa so he was looking directly at Tj. “Think of it this way: The woman dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after interviewing a bunch of people about a ten-year-old murder. The obvious conclusion is that someone involved in the current case killed her to prevent her from finding out the truth. But if you give it some more thought, you might come to the conclusion, as we did, that anyone connected to the case who held a secret of any type would have something to lose. If it’s determined that Colton was run off the road intentionally, the investigation, I imagine, will put even more of a focus on the people connected to the murder ten years ago.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“It does,” Kyle agreed. “And that may be where you’ll find your killer.”

“But . . .” Tj prompted.

“But if I wanted to kill Colton, running her off the road shortly after she spoke to me would make me an obvious suspect. I might wait until she moved on to the next town, the next cold case, follow her, and do the deed there. No one would be looking at individuals involved in the last story she researched or the next one she planned to research. It really is the smarter way to go about carrying out a murder.”

“You’re a scary man, Kyle Donovan.”

He smiled and shrugged.

“But you aren’t wrong. We would need to look at individuals involved in this case as well as individuals involved in other cases she was working on. Specifically, those that haven’t aired yet. I think I’ll suggest to Roy that he call the
Second Look
people to see if he can get that information.”

“It seems like that might be a good idea. I can poke around on the Web as well to see what I can dig up. If you could get access to her laptop we might learn quite a lot.”

Tj looked at her watch. She was going to be
very
late helping with the decorating, but this seemed to be more immediately important, so she decided to call Roy to fill him in on Kyle’s suggestions.

“Hey, Roy,” Tj greeted when he answered his phone.

“Hey, Tj. What’s up?”

She filled him in on her discussion with Kyle and suggested he might want to track down the missing cameraman.

“I spent a good part of the morning trying to find him with zero success,” Roy informed her. “I can’t even figure out where Ms. Colton was staying. Not a single lodging in the area has any information on her.”

“That’s odd.”

“It is, but that isn’t the strangest thing I found out.”

“Okay.” Tj was game to go along with Roy’s drawn-out explanation. “What’s the strangest thing you found out?”

“I called the
Second Look
offices to inform them about the accident and find out where she was staying and whether she had anyone with her. It took me three phone calls to get through to the right person, but when I did finally track that person down, he told me that while Samantha Colton does work for them, she was a production assistant, not an investigator. The man I spoke to informed me that the Holly Riverton case had been brought to their attention but they’d decided to pass on it. If Samantha Colton was in town asking questions she was doing it on her own.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Didn’t you check her out when she contacted you about talking to us?” Tj asked.

Roy sighed. “Not as much as I should have. She had identification that proved she worked for
Second Look
, and she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Her story about doing a feature for the show seemed reasonable.”

“Why would this woman come to Paradise Lake to investigate a murder she hadn’t been assigned to?”

“The man I spoke to had no idea. He did say Ms. Colton was in the meeting at which Holly’s case was discussed in a note-taking capacity. He also confirmed that she’d put in for her vacation shortly after they decided to pass on the case and was in fact away from their office this week. He theorized that she might have wanted to solve the case as a means of obtaining a promotion to full investigator. Apparently, she’d been lobbying for the promotion for quite some time.”

“Wow.” Tj let out a long breath. “This was already pretty complicated, but now…”

“Yeah, the whole thing just keeps getting odder and odder.”

“Kyle offered to look at her laptop. If you have it maybe he can find an itinerary or notes or something. Have you checked her phone? It might help to know who she’s spoken to in the last week or so.”

“I haven’t yet, but I will. To be honest, I’ve been swamped. I really could use some help.”

“Did you call the county office?” Tj asked. The Serenity branch of the Paradise County Sheriff’s Department was just a tiny satellite for the main office in Indulgence, on the south shore of Paradise Lake.

“I did. They said they’d try to find someone to send over, but it didn’t sound promising. That big poker tournament is going on over at the casinos and there are a million people in town. I think they’re pretty busy.”

“The gang and I will do what we can,” Tj offered.

“Thanks. I was counting on that. I’ll see if I can find out about a computer and call you back. I do know there wasn’t anything in the car other than her purse, so unless we can figure out where she was staying…”

“Check her purse for a small notebook,” Tj suggested. “She was jotting down notes the entire time I was talking to her. Maybe everything we need to know is inside. If nothing else, her notes should provide us with a suspect list.”

Tj decided to go head over to the decorating party. For one thing, she’d promised Hunter she’d meet him there, and for another, she knew several of the
suspects
would be there. Tj was operating under the assumption that everyone connected to the party the night of Holly’s murder was fair game for Samantha Colton’s intensive investigative campaign and therefore a suspect in her possible murder until proven otherwise.

Tj drove slowly through town on her way to the high school. The orange and white twinkle lights that had been strung in all the trees along the main drag really did look pretty as they reflected off the wet pavement. Hopefully, tomorrow would be sunny and warm as forecast, allowing the football field time to dry out before the big game on Friday afternoon. Serenity High School had a good team this year, creating a buzz among local football fans that this could be the year the team made it all the way to the state finals.

The rain had slowed to an occasional drizzle and the areas where seasonal streams had overflowed onto the nearby roadways were already beginning to recede. It seemed reasonable that school would be in session the following day, and because the schools were already scheduled to be closed for Nevada Day on Friday, tomorrow was Tj’s best opportunity to carry out the plan she’d developed with Chantal to lessen Lexi’s embarrassment over the shower video. 

Tj pulled into the high school parking lot and decided to head to her office to call the girls she had identified as being willing to help her with her plan before going to the gym. Tj was a popular teacher, so she had no problem convincing the girls on her team to help. If things went as planned, the sting from the video would be minimized, allowing her to return to school with her head held high.

Tj let herself into her office and began looking up phone numbers. She was about to call the first name on her list when her phone rang.

“Hey, Roy. What’s up?”

“I located that little notebook you were talking about. It appears Ms. Colton wrote in a sort of shorthand that looks to be something she made up, but I did manage to decipher a few things. It seems she ranked her suspects based on the likelihood that they’d killed Holly, and you’re ranked number five on her list.”

Tj laughed. “It’s true. I did it.”

“I figured.”

“Seriously, though, who did she rank as numbers one through four?”

“Brett Conrad is number one, followed by Mackenzie Paulson, Jessie Baldwin, and Jada Jenkins. In all, there are twenty people on the list. Dennis, Jenna, and Hunter are all at the bottom.”

“What are the next five names after mine?”

“Mia Monroe was sixth, but her name was crossed off.”

“Colton mentioned to me that after she thought about it she didn’t believe Mia had done it. Who’s seventh?”

“Dalton Fowler, followed by Doreen Sullwold, Nathan Fullerton, and Vicki Davis.”

“Most of them should be here. I’ll mingle and see what I can find out. Let me know if you figure anything else out.”

“Will do.”

“Did you find any evidence one way or the other as to why Colton’s car swerved off the road?”

“There’s a suspicious dent on the left front fender of her vehicle that doesn’t look to have been caused by the impact with the tree. The crime scene guys are still looking at it. At this point I’d say that the likelihood that someone might have hit Ms. Colton, sending her over the edge of the road, exists, but the evidence is inconclusive.”

“Let me know what you find out. Right now I’m going to operate on the assumption that she was murdered.”

After Tj had called all the students she needed to speak to regarding her plan to help Lexi, she headed over to the gym. The merry band of volunteers seemed to have everything well in hand.

“I’m glad you were able to make it.” Hunter kissed her on the cheek.

“It looks like things are almost finished.”

“Not quite, but we’re making good progress. We should be able to wrap everything up in a couple of hours. Would you like to grab some dinner when we’re done?”

“I have the girls, and we have a new twist to the case, so maybe a sleuthing dinner with the gang? Kyle is on board, and I’m going to ask Jenna if she and Dennis want to meet with us as well. I’m thinking Rob’s, so the kids can play video games while we talk.”

“It’s not quite the romantic dinner I was hoping for, but I’m game.”

“You don’t seem to actually need my help, so I think I’m going to mingle,” Tj informed Hunter.

“By mingle do you mean investigate?”

“You know me so well.”

Hunter returned to his task while Tj scanned the room. In addition to Hunter and Jenna, who she could speak to later and who she knew hadn’t killed either Holly or Samantha Colton, there were seven other suspects in the room. Dalton Fowler had shown up with his wife, Marianne. Tj remembered Colton had interviewed Dalton just hours before she died, and Marianne had indicated that the interview had upset her husband. Back in high school Dalton had been obsessed with Holly, and while his obsession could have turned to murder, Tj sort of doubted he was the guilty party. Still, until she could prove otherwise he would remain firmly on the suspect list.

Brett and Jessie were also in the room. Tj was surprised they hadn’t left after his interview. The fact that Colton was dead wasn’t widely known at this point, yet the couple were laughing and seemed to be having a good time. Was it possible they knew about the accident because they had caused it?

Doreen Sullwold and Vicki Davis were also in the room. Both had attended the party on the night Holly was murdered and Tj was certain Colton had planned to speak to them. She hadn’t interviewed them prior to the time Tj had spoken to the woman, but it was reasonable that she’d made arrangements to speak with them through Roy, as she had with her.

Mackenzie Paulson, the class valedictorian, was also there. Tj was surprised to see that she’d come to town early. She had an important job that kept her busy most of the time, but here she was, chatting with Teddy Bolton, a local dentist who had surprised everyone when he became one after spending the majority of his high school years completely stoned. Both Teddy and Mackenzie had been at the party the night Holly was murdered.

Tj decided to start with Mackenzie. She’d been second on Samantha’s list, which was surprising, and she hadn’t seen her since she’d visited three years ago, so she was anxious to catch up with her.

“Mac,” Tj greeted her enthusiastically.

“I was hoping to run into you.” Mackenzie turned and hugged Tj. “When I saw Hunter and Jenna I thought you’d be here, but she said you were dropping your girls off at a friend’s. You surely haven’t had children since I was here last.”

“No, the girls Jenna referred to are my sisters.”

Mackenzie frowned. “Sisters? I remember you as being an only child.”

Tj explained how Ashley and Gracie had come into her life.

“Wow. That’s quite a lot of responsibility.”

Tj laughed. “Coming from a woman with top-level clearance who’s responsible for software that ensures our national security.”

“That’s a different kind of responsibility from raising children. I don’t think I could do it.”

“It’s not so bad if you ease into it sort of slowly,” added Teddy, who had two sons of his own.

Mackenzie looked around the room. “It’s so odd to see everyone married and settled into their roles of raising families. I work a lot of hours, and when I’m not working I tend to hang out with people from work who likewise are single and child-free. Then I come to Serenity and the main topic of conversation is soccer camp and school carnivals. I feel like I’ve been dropped into another dimension. I’m probably the only one from our class without a couple of little rug rats.”

“Hardly,” Tj countered. “Brett and Jessie don’t have children and Vicki isn’t married. Neither Jada nor Mia are coming to the reunion, but neither of them has children.”

“Jada and Mia aren’t planning to be here? I just spoke to Jada a week ago and she told me she was definitely going to come. She said you’d even fixed her up on a blind date.”

“She was planning to attend, and I did fix her up with a friend of mine,” Tj confirmed. “I understand she and Mia both changed their minds after speaking to Samantha Colton.”

“The
Second Look
lady?”

“That would be the one. Did she speak to you?”

“Yeah, she called me and asked if I was planning to be in Serenity this week. She said she was investigating Holly’s murder for the show. I told her that I really didn’t know anything, but I agreed to meet with her. I’m seeing her tomorrow afternoon. Why would her interviews with Jada and Mia cause them to cancel their trips?”

Tj hesitated. She was uncertain whether she should mention Colton’s death. She should have asked Roy whether he wanted to keep the fact that the woman’s accident might have been intentional quiet until he could complete his initial investigation and track down the next of kin. If Mackenzie was still expecting to meet Colton the next day it was clear she hadn’t killed her. She still could have been responsible for Holly’s death, but TJ sort of doubted it.

“Colton can be pretty brutal when it comes to digging into your past. From what I understand, Jada and Mia were offended by some of the accusations she made.”

“I thought the woman was investigating Holly’s death, not the sordid past of the alumni of Serenity High School,” Teddy commented.

“She was. I mean is. It’s just that she seems to consider every person who was at Brett’s party that night as a suspect, so she’s digging around in everyone’s past, looking for motives.”

“Yikes; that’s not going to bode so well for me,” Teddy murmured.

Tj glanced at Mackenzie, who hadn’t said anything but was frowning.

“Has she arranged to talk to you as well?” Tj asked Teddy.

“Yeah. Tomorrow morning. I doubt I can be of much help. I was so stoned my entire high school career that I can’t remember much. I know I was at the party; there are photos to prove it. But I honestly can’t remember anything that happened after we were all standing around in the parking lot.”

“How did you ever manage to graduate college, let alone dental school?” Mackenzie asked.

Teddy shrugged. “I guess I had a few unfried brain cells. Once I got clean and sober, they started working again.”

“You have those pictures?” Tj asked.

“Yeah. A bunch. A couple of the cheerleaders were running around with disposable cameras at the party.”

“I remember that. I’m not sure who brought them, but I do remember having my photo snapped more than once. How did you end up with the photos?”

“I really don’t know. Somehow the cameras ended up in my backpack. I didn’t notice I had them until I got home. When I saw Brett at school the next week I asked him what I should do with them, and he said he didn’t know who’d actually brought them, so I should just toss them. I’m not sure why I didn’t do just that. I went ahead and had the film developed. The photos were pretty bad. I’m not sure why I kept them.”

“Would you be willing to show me the photos?” Tj asked.

“Sure. I’ll need to dig them up, though.”

“Can you bring them to the reception tomorrow?”

“That should work, as long as I can remember where I put them.”

“Fantastic.” Tj turned to Mackenzie. “I’d love to have a chance to catch up some more. Are you in town through the weekend?”

“That’s the plan, unless that reporter lady scares me off too.”

“Don’t worry. Next to Hunter, you were the most serious, responsible student in our class. I doubt she has anything on you.”

“We all have secrets.”

Tj wanted to ask Mackenzie what she meant by that, but she realized this wasn’t the best place to get involved in a serious conversation. She said her good-byes to the pair and headed over to where Brett was chatting with Dalton. Both men had already had their interviews, which moved them higher on the suspect list, at least in regard to Samantha Colton’s death.

Despite the tension that had been created by Colton and her investigation, it seemed the room was filled with positive energy. Classmates who hadn’t seen one another for years were chatting happily as they strung streamers and hung old yearbook photos someone had blown up. There was a part of Tj that wanted to leave the investigating to Roy so she could join in the fun, but a bigger part wanted this increasingly complex mystery solved.

“If it isn’t little Tj Jensen,” Brett said as he lifted her into the air in a giant bear hug. “I was hoping you’d show.”

Tj laughed. “It’s wonderful to see you. How have things been?”

He set her back down but didn’t answer.

“Brett and I are both recovering from the brutal interviews we had to deal with yesterday,” Dalton shared. “Has the witch from the cold case show talked to you yet?”

“Yes, I’ve had the pleasure of her company,” Tj answered. “She definitely isn’t shy about tossing around allegations. She almost had me believing
I
had killed Holly, which of course I hadn’t.”

“Here’s what I don’t get,” Dalton continued. “The woman is supposed to be here to investigate Holly’s murder, but it seems like what she’s really doing is running around digging up dirt on everyone who was even remotely connected to Holly. She seems to have found what she feels is a plausible motive for everyone at the party to have killed her. Even you.”