Hopscotch Homicide (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 16) (13 page)

What is there about children’s sports that brings out both the best and the worst in parents? While most of the spectators were cheering their children on in a supportive and positive manner, there were a few adults who seemed to find a certain type of glee in bad-mouthing both the referee and the other team.

Talk about intense.

Zak and I had brought lawn chairs to sit in, but so far all I’d managed to do was pace up and down the sidelines cheering for Scooter when he did well and aching for him when he missed a play.

“Come on, buddy; you got this,” I yelled as he dribbled down the field. “Pass it to Johnny, pass it to Johnny, he’s wide open,” I screamed.

He didn’t pass it to Johnny.

I felt my heart sink to my knees when Scooter took the shot himself and missed.

The referee blew the whistle, indicating a break for the half, so I wandered back to where Zak was sitting with Alex. I was kind of surprised that Zak hadn’t been up pacing as well, but maybe he didn’t want to leave Alex sitting alone.

“Where’s Pi?” I wondered.

“Jeremy is here with Jessica and Rosalie,” Zak said, referring to Jeremy’s girlfriend and her daughter. “Apparently, he invited Pi to sit in with his band this weekend, and he went to talk to him to get the specifics.”

Zak handed me a bottle of water.

“Intense game,” he acknowledged.

I took a long drink. “Yeah. It’s really a close match. At this point it could go either way. I think our offense is better, but they definitely have the superior defense. It’s going to be hard to run up the score.”

“Scooter is doing pretty well,” Alex offered her opinion.

I smiled. “He is. He needs to learn to work with his team members a little better, but he’s fast and he has a strong kicking leg. Plus his stamina is unbeatable. I think he has a real future in the sport. Are you interested in any sports?” I asked Alex.

“Not really. I’m small for my age and not really very athletic. I used to be on the equestrian team at my old school, but I don’t think Ashton Falls has one. Besides, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be busy with school and my book, and the play Mrs. Reynolds asked me to participate in.”

“I need to get a rehearsal schedule so we can make sure we have everyone’s activities covered. Did Mrs. Reynolds happen to mention when rehearsals were going to begin?”

“When I spoke to her, she said she’d e-mail everyone, but she was shooting for mid-September. She did say the rehearsals would be in the evenings after her shop closed.”

“Maybe we should get a giant whiteboard to write down everyone’s schedules,” Zak suggested. “We can color code everyone’s activities so nothing gets forgotten.”

“Good idea,” I answered as I looked across the field to where Quinn Baltimore was speaking to another mother. I knew the game wouldn’t resume for at least another ten minutes, so I decided to go introduce myself and, in the process, see what I could find out about her new neighbor.

“I need to talk to Jeremiah’s mother for a minute,” I informed Zak and Alex. “I’ll be right back.”

Jeremiah Baltimore was a tall and lanky kid who looked like he’d do well on the soccer field but so far hadn’t really managed to find a way to coordinate his body with his intentions. In other words, he tended to trip and fall. A lot. I’d heard this was his first year playing the sport, so one could only hope he’d get better with time.

“Quinn,” I greeted the perfectly coiffed woman, who had been speaking to the team mom, “my name is Zoe Donovan. I’m Scooter Sherwood’s…” I paused. What was I really? I wasn’t his mother or even his legal guardian.

“I know who you are.” Quinn saved me the effort of coming up with a label. “It’s nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand in greeting.

“Jeremiah seems to have made a lot of progress since the first day of practice,” I said politely.

“I’m afraid he’s a bit uncoordinated after his growth spurt over the summer, but he understands the mechanics of the game; now he just needs to get his body to cooperate with what his mind is telling it to do.”

I smiled. The woman seemed to have a good attitude about her son’s struggle.

“Scooter has come a long way as well. He’s a natural athlete who really just needs to master the strategy,” Quinn offered.

“Yeah, he’s coming along. It’s nice that Jeremiah and Scooter ended up on the same team. I believe they’re in the same class at the elementary school as well.”

“They are,” Quinn confirmed. “I understand you’re the room mother. You can count on me to help out in any way you need. I was room mother for Jeremiah’s class last year, so I know how much work it can be.”

“Thank you for offering to help. I really appreciate that.”

And I did.

“I didn’t see you at the PTA meeting,” I commented. “Do you plan to join?”

“I’d love to be involved. In fact, I’d already spoken to Virginia Wilson about it and planned to attend last night’s meeting, but I’m afraid we had a situation at home that needed to be dealt with.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I hope everything’s okay.”

The woman’s smile turned to a scowl, but she assured me things were going to work themselves out.

“Are you good friends with Virginia?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t say good friends. I attend the same book club she does, and we chat from time to time. Virginia is dedicated, hardworking, and focused, and we get along to a point, but she can be pushy and opinionated and tries to group her friends into cliques. I like to enjoy the company of a wide variety of people.”

“I know what you mean. I happened to run into her the other day and all she could talk about was getting rid of Mrs. Brown. I kind of felt uncomfortable with the whole thing.”

“You heard what happened to Mrs. Brown,” Quinn offered. “I get the fact that the woman wasn’t all that good a cook, but I certainly didn’t feel her cooking was bad enough to kill her over it.”

“You think someone killed her because of her cooking?” I asked.

Quinn shrugged. “Honestly? Probably not. But to listen to Virginia, you’d think she was serving the kids rat poison. She did manage to get quite a few mothers on board to join in her witch hunt. It’s amazing how low people will stoop when they gang up and feed off one another.”

“Wow, I hope that isn’t what happened. The woman seemed to be nice enough, although I didn’t know her well. I understand you live in the same neighborhood as Mrs. Brown did.”

Quinn looked surprised that I knew that but answered anyway. “Yes, we moved in next door to her almost a year ago.”

“I spoke to one of her other neighbors, Yolanda Snyder, who seemed to think Mrs. Brown didn’t get along with her neighbors all that well. It occurred to me that it could have been a neighbor who killed her,” I fished.

Quinn frowned. “I’m not one to gossip, but Mrs. Brown was quiet and tended to keep to herself. Yolanda, on the other hand, likes to rule over the neighborhood like some sort of a warden. Jeremiah is about the best-behaved kid in town, but Yolanda still complained when he drew a hopscotch course on the sidewalk in front of our house when his six year old cousin came to visit. It was harmless enough. He drew it with chalk that would easily wash away. Yolanda had a fit about the aesthetic feel of the neighborhood and wouldn’t give it a rest until Jeremiah washed it off. When I first moved into the neighborhood it seemed like a good place to raise a child, but I’ve been having second thoughts since Yolanda moved in. When the family two doors down from me moved out and the house became available for rent, she managed to convince the property owner to rent to an older couple without children.”

I frowned. “That’s really kind of odd. Yolanda has three children of her own. You’d think she’d welcome other children to the neighborhood.”

“Yolanda’s children are kept busy in organized activities. I know they have piano lessons, Scouts, and other afterschool activities they participate in. And they went to camp over the summer. I’d hoped Jeremiah would have kids to play with over the summer, but our block was totally deserted.”

“It seems like Scooter and Jeremiah get along well. Jeremiah is welcome to come over to our house to hang out whenever we can arrange a time. Tucker comes over on a regular basis, so the three of them could all hang out together.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that.”

“It looks like the team is returning to the field. It was nice talking to you.”

All in all, it was a successful night. Scooter’s team won and he was responsible for two of the goals. Even Jeremiah managed to do well as a guard. I never realized how fun and invigorating kids’ sports could be.

“Does anyone have homework?” I asked when the five of us arrived back at the house.

“Not for the first week,” Scooter answered.

“I did mine earlier,” Alex said.

“Pi?” I asked.

“Done.”

“Can I watch television in my room for a while before bed?” Scooter asked.

“Shower and jammies first.”

“I’m going to go up to call Phyllis about my story,” Alex informed me.

“Yeah, and I have a date with Brooklyn,” Pi announced.

“You’re going out now?” I asked.

“Skype.”

“Oh. Okay, then, I’ll see you in the morning.”

In my experience, once Pi retired to his room he didn’t emerge until the next day.

“It looks like it’s just you and me,” I said to Zak.

He gathered me into his arms. “I guess it is getting late.”

It was eight o’clock.

“So, so late,” I agreed.

“Perhaps we should head upstairs.”

“Perhaps we should.”

“I can’t believe how excited I am about football season,” I said to Ellie, who was sitting next to me in the high school auditorium while we waited for the kickoff to the season pep rally to begin. Zak, Phyllis, and Will had brought the students from Zimmerman Academy over for the event and were sitting in a group several rows in front of us. Zak had talked Dezil’s aunt into letting him join the varsity team, and both Pepper and Chad were members of the cheerleading squad.

“Levi is about as pumped as I’ve ever seen him. I really think he expects to go undefeated this year now that Dezil is on board.”

“I was worried he might have an off year because all his best players graduated last spring,” I commented.

I waved at Pepper, who had filed out with the rest of her squad onto the wood floor of the large building.

“He said the kids who came up from junior varsity are equally talented. He’s really optimistic,” Ellie informed me. She looked toward the group sitting several rows in front of us. “It looks like the kids are all getting along.”

“They seem to be,” I agreed. “Pi and Dezil seem to have bonded, and I’m pretty sure Pi and Brooke are toying with a flirtation. Pepper and Chad are getting along like two long-lost puppy siblings, and Alex and Eve seem to be getting along well in spite of the age difference. Dex, Abby, and Hacker have formed their own alliance, so I’m happy to say it doesn’t appear anyone feels left out.”

“And Phyllis and Will?” Ellie asked. “I couldn’t help but notice they’re sitting together.”

“Alex told me that Eve told her that Will has asked Phyllis out on a date for tomorrow.”

“Wow, we have a real senior romance in our midst.” Ellie grinned.

“I’m not sure I’d go that far quite yet, but I have to say that both of them seem like people who need someone special in their lives. I hope they can build something over time. They seem to have a lot in common.”

“Oh, here comes the pyramid.” Ellie pointed toward the front of the room, where the cheerleading squad was performing their first of several routines.

“Woo, woo,” I cheered as the squad executed a perfectly orchestrated routine before segueing directly into the next.

“Isn’t that Principal Bower over there with the lady with the long blond hair?” Ellie asked.

I looked where she was pointing. “That’s his wife.”

“Wife? She looks like she could be his daughter.”

“She used to be a first-grade teacher before they fell in love and got married. They had a baby a few months ago.”

“I don’t see a baby,” Ellie pointed out.

“They must have gotten a babysitter. It was nice of Bower to attend the event. I bet most of the kids who go to the high school came up through his elementary school. I’m sure they appreciate his support.”

“Do you still think he’s a suspect?” Ellie whispered in my ear.

“Maybe. I know the evidence shows otherwise, but I haven’t ruled him out. Oh, here comes the team.”

Ellie and I both clapped and whistled as Levi and his team filed into the auditorium. The guys certainly looked like they could win the war and take no prisoners. It made my heart glad when Levi decided to stay in Ashton Falls. This is his home and the young men gathered around him are his boys. It just wouldn’t have been the same if the high school had been forced to replace him.

“How did the PTA meeting go?” Ellie asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about it.”

“It went okay. Zak is going to be the vice president and I’m the chairperson for the fund-raising committee.”

“When are you going to have time to do that?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t.”

“Then why did you volunteer?”

“I didn’t. I went to the bathroom and when I came back it was a done deal.”

Ellie laughed. “You really need to start timing your bathroom breaks a little better.”

“Tell me about it. I probably wouldn’t have volunteered, but it won’t be too bad. I have a lot of experience with fund-raising after being involved with the events committee all these years. It has to be easier to raise funds for a school than an entire town.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ellie cautioned.

“I think I was set up. Yolanda told me that Virginia Wilson had already told her I was interested in doing it before I even showed up at the meeting.”

“Sneaky.”

“Yeah, it was. Did you know Virginia had another baby?”

“No. When was this?” Ellie asked.

“I guess the baby must be about ten months old. I hadn’t seen Virginia in ages, so I guess it’s not so odd I hadn’t heard.”

“Speak of the devil,” Ellie said.

“Devil?”

Ellie glanced toward a side door, where Yolanda and Virginia were standing. They looked around and then crossed the room to find seats near the front of the auditorium.

“What are the odds that my three main suspects would all be in the room at the same time?” I whispered.

“Three?”

“Principal Bower, Yolanda, and Virginia.”

“I thought you said you no longer suspected Yolanda,” Ellie pointed out.

“That was before I found out she lived across the street from Mrs. Brown.”

Ellie frowned. “Really? I thought you said she was selling her property. Isn’t that a conflict of interest or something?”

“I think so, considering that she admitted she didn’t tell Mrs. Brown she’d recently moved into the neighborhood.”

“It looks like the cheer squad is coming back out,” Ellie commented. Levi had introduced his team while Ellie and I were chatting. It was a good thing we were sitting in the very back row, where there weren’t a lot of people to overhear us. “I heard the new principal for the high school is going to give a speech after the cheerleaders are done. Have you met him?”

“No, not yet. Have you?”

“Yeah. I came to the campus to pick Levi up from football practice one day and he introduced me. He seems like a nice guy. He must be in his midforties.”

“Has he lived in the area long?”

“I think so. Levi said he worked as a teacher at the middle school until his wife died in childbirth about six years ago. After she passed he quit his job and moved up north, where he worked in an office of some sort. I guess he got sick of office work and decided to return to what he loved, so he applied for this job when he heard it was open. Levi seems to think he’ll fit in with the existing staff. Oh, here he is now.”

I gasped. The man who took the podium was the same one I’d met at the cemetery. The same man who had met Evelyn Brown on the third of every month.

“What happened to the baby?” I asked.

Ellie looked at me with a frown.

“The new principal. You said his wife died in childbirth. What happened to the baby?”

“Oh, he lived.”

“He’d be five now?”

“I guess so. I know he’s starting kindergarten this year. Why do you ask?”

“The new principal is the man I met in the cemetery. The one I told you about, who lost his wife and came to visit her once a month.”

“Wow, that’s quite a coincidence.”

“Is it?”

“What are you saying?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t know. I need to think.”

Trenton had sent me to the cemetery. He’d told me to speak to Mike Parks. He must have wanted me to find out about the man who visited with Mrs. Brown. He had a young son. I knew Mrs. Brown was obsessed with babies and young children. Could she have driven the man as crazy as she drove everyone else?

Probably not. If she had, the man would have stopped coming to the cemetery when he knew she’d be there. But what if she didn’t know about the child until after he moved here? Ellie had said the man’s son was in kindergarten. What if he ran into Mrs. Brown when he came in to register his son for classes and, in true Mrs. Brown fashion, she began to obsess over him? Might the man have decided to get rid of the woman to make the school a safe place for his son?

Of course the timing was off to an extent. Mrs. Brown had been fired a month ago. I wondered when the new principal had moved to Ashton Falls.

“Do you know what the new principal’s name is?” I asked Ellie.

“Gordon Welch.”

“Do you know when Mr. Welch took the job with the high school?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I know it was before Levi was offered the job at the college because he mentioned that at least the school had a new principal to deal with hiring a new coach if he decided to take the job.”

“So over a month ago.”

“Yeah, I guess. What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“I’m not sure.”

I bit my lip and considered the entire situation. Mr. Welch’s wife had died in childbirth six years ago. He’d buried her in Ashton Falls and then, at some point after that, moved with his son up north. He then began to come to Ashton Falls once a month to visit his wife’s grave. He ran into Mrs. Brown during one of those visits and they found comfort in each other’s presence. Mr. Welch told me they never spoke, so assuming he never brought his son with him, Mrs. Brown would have had no idea he had a child.

He took the job in Ashton Falls and went to the elementary school to register his son. He ran into Mrs. Brown, who recognized him. Once she found out about the son, she began to obsess over him, as she had been known to do. Mr. Welch spoke to Mr. Bower, who had been experiencing the same sort of thing since the birth of his own son, about the situation, and he finally realized the only thing to do was to fire her.

Mrs. Brown had already arranged to use the kitchen to make the hamburger gravy for the Scouts, so Mr. Bower gave the new lunch lady the heads-up and she made herself scarce. At some point during her time on campus someone entered the kitchen, picked up a rolling pin, chased the woman onto the playground, and hit her with it.

Mr. Bower told Sheriff Salinger that he didn’t know she was on campus, but I didn’t believe that. He was the one who arranged for her to be there. He might have lied because he was the killer, but why would he kill her at that point? He’d already fired her. Unless of course the woman was harassing him at his home.

He might have lied because he was protecting someone else. Maybe a fellow principal in the area? Perhaps Principal Welch came to the elementary school on the day of the murder for some other reason. I remember the kindergarten teacher had been on campus earlier in the day because I had spoken to her and she’d told me she had seen Mrs. Brown lurking in the hallway. What if Mr. Welch had seen her as well? What if, after speaking to the kindergarten teacher, he had gone to the kitchen to find out why Mrs. Brown was on campus? What if she had said something that made him feel that his son’s safety was threatened?

Of course there was one other option.

“I think I know who did it,” I said to Ellie.

“Who?’

“I need to call Salinger.”