Murder Is Our Mascot (21 page)

Emily leaned over him to read aloud, "Readers might be interested to know that Carrie Brannon is the pen name for Richard E. Barnes, school teacher by day, romance writer by night."

Emily dropped into the nearest chair, staring at Tad in disbelief. "A romance writer? Barnes? Please tell me this is a sick joke."

Tad continued to snicker as he pointed out, "It all makes sense. That's where he got the money for that car. It's probably also why he's so secretive. I highly doubt he'd want this information to get around. The students would have a heyday with it. He'd be the laughingstock of Ellington, no matter how much money he makes writing."

Emily fumed. Barnes? Life was so unfair. She was the English teacher with a creative writing minor. She was the one who dreamt of writing a best-selling novel one day. Barnes? Dang it all, there was no way he could be the bad guy in all of this if
this
was the secret he was covering up.

Tad read her mind. "Guess this puts Barnes at the bottom of the suspect list, huh? He'd have no reason to blackmail anyone. If anything, it would be the other way around."

"I guess so," Emily grumped. This was certainly an unexpected, and unwelcome, revelation.

She hated to ask it, but she had to. "You don't think Helen could have been blackmailing him, do you? She had to need the money, and clearly, Barnes has it."

"Then why was Jim the one murdered? And that still doesn't explain anything about his missing nephew."

"True," Emily agreed.

Before the bell rang and they both had to get back to work, she and Tad looked up the article on the missing Olsen child. It was a heartrending story. A young, wealthy couple, both on the rise in their law careers, had a baby boy. The mother was suffering from severe postpartum depression. In a move he hoped would help her, her husband, Stephen Olsen, hired a nanny, Bridget McMillan, to help care for their son. The nanny had taken him out to the park one day so that the young, overwhelmed mother could take a nap. A little girl had fallen off the swings and the nanny went over to help her up. When she turned back to the baby carriage, the baby was gone. The police searched and searched. At first, the nanny was suspected, but once the police cleared her, she moved away, apparently devastated by the kidnapping of the child on her watch. The parents were overcome with grief, offering all kinds of rewards for any information concerning the missing child. Jim Olsen, the younger brother of the father, became a spokesman for the family. He swore that he would not rest until his nephew was found.

In a follow-up to the article, Tad and Emily silently read about the suicide of the young mother. It was a tragic story. Years passed, and the father gave up hope of ever recovering his lost child. His world had been too completely shattered. Jim, however, had never given up the search.

"Wow," Emily whispered. "Who would have known Jim was hiding such a past?"

"Goes to show you never know what's going on in someone else's life behind closed doors. No matter how much of an open book they may seem," Tad said, echoing Gabby's sentiments the night of their stakeout.

Emily began to cry softly, once again filled with grief at the death of a good man, a kind man. Tad wrapped her in his arms, letting her cry. Emily dimly thought,
This is becoming a pattern
. She pulled back, looking into Tad's eyes. She saw a matching grief there. Wanting to soothe him and herself, she closed her eyes and leaned forward, and—the bell rang. They sprang apart like they'd been shocked with a cattle prod. Emily ducked her head, appalled that she had been about to kiss Tad right here in the middle of a school day. Without looking back, she hurried to her own classroom to get on with her day.

* * *

Emily ate lunch in her classroom, hoping to avoid both Barnes and Tad. She tapped out a new list of questions they still needed to answer:

1. Was Jim murdered because he was on the trail of his nephew?

2. Who did Jim meet with at the high school that night?

3. Was Stephanie involved? She had an inkling of Jim's past…

4. WHERE WAS HELEN? Was her disappearance tied to Jim's death, or was it something else entirely?

5. Who ran Gabby and me off the road? Who threw the brick through my window? Was it the same person?

Emily read over the list and tried to make connections between the questions. If all this was tied to Jim's nephew, did that mean the boy was here in Ellington? The true implications of that sunk in, and Emily found herself staring at the list of names in her grade book, wondering if one of the boys listed there could be the missing Olsen child. It seemed like quite a stretch, though, as she knew the parents of 99 percent of her students. She wanted to run her new idea by Tad, but the bell was ringing. It would have to wait until after school.

* * *

As afternoon classes got under way, Emily was anxious to see how Stevie would react to the movie clips. She hoped that writing about his own odyssey would draw him out, giving him a chance to express his feelings about all the moves he and his mom had made. True to his word, he had been putting more effort into class. Small victories like this made teaching worthwhile, in Emily's opinion.

To her disappointment, though, Stevie wasn't in class. None of the students had any idea where he was. A couple of the football players said he hadn't been at practice the night before. Since she hadn't gotten a note for homework to be sent to the office, Emily was curious where he was. As soon as the final bell rang, she went down to the office to inquire what Arlene had said when she phoned in Stevie's absence that morning. The secretary double-checked her pile of notices twice, but Arlene had never called. Emily thanked her and headed back up to her classroom.

She tried to do some grading to pass the time until Tad was done with his Mathletes' practice, but she couldn't concentrate. An unsettled feeling was roiling in her belly, and she was too restless to sit still. The fact that Arlene hadn't called in to report Stevie's absence seemed uncharacteristic. She came across as the type of person who was always on top of things. She wouldn't want Stevie to have an unexcused absence on his record.

Emily began straightening her desk for something to do since she couldn't concentrate on grading. Shuffling a stack of mythology notes to one side, a Maxine Post-it Note fluttered to the floor. Emily picked it up and saw it was the contact information she had written down for Arlene Davis. Emily recalled Arlene's serious face and anxiousness to help her son in any possible way. But then she pictured Stevie, hair in his eyes, a hangdog expression on his face. True, he had promised her that he would do better in class, and he had been trying, but she couldn't forget the lost look he had given her when he said he was sick of moving. An idea struck Emily—could Stevie have finally decided to rebel against his mother? Did he cut class today? Or even worse, had he run away? Before she could second-guess herself, Emily scooped up her cell and dialed Stevie's home number. It rang and rang, but no one picked up, and the answering machine never kicked on.

The uneasiness she had been feeling grew to the point that she felt physically ill. She thought about interrupting Tad and telling him her worries, but she was sure he would think she was being hysterical. And maybe she was. But the fact remained that this all seemed out of character. She had to talk to Arlene to make sure Stevie was okay, but on the off chance he wasn't, she didn't want to alarm Arlene unnecessarily. It would be better to have this conversation in person.

Her worry building, Emily thought of Helen's disappearance. Could Stevie be in the same situation as Helen? There were too many frightening scenarios to consider. She had to focus on one thing at time. Stevie might very well be at home, too sick to answer the phone. The best way to find out for sure would be to talk to Arlene. She scooped up her purse and headed out the door. Halfway to the stairs she remembered she was lacking transportation. She stomped her foot in frustration. If she ever got her hands on the person who ran Gabby and her off the road, she'd throttle them. She missed her PT as much as if it had been a real live person.

After a quick internal debate, she decided not to interrupt Tad's Mathletes' practice again. He would be tied up for at least another hour, so she had plenty of time to borrow his Prius and dash over to Masterson Real Estate to talk to Arlene. They would probably have a laugh over her ridiculous imagination, and then she could be back before Tad even knew she was gone. In her years of teaching, she had learned it was better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission, and if things went well, she wouldn't have to ask for either.

Tad had left his classroom door unlocked, per usual, so she slipped inside without turning on the light. No need to draw attention to the fact that someone was in his room when he was busy with the Mathletes. Emily silently slid open the top, right-hand drawer of his desk. He kept a carved wooden box in there that a student had given him as a thank you gift his first year of teaching. That student had gone on to be a math teacher himself, and that box had become one of Tad's most prized possessions. He normally kept his keys and some loose change in the box. Emily prayed that he had not changed his ways. Lifting the wooden lid, she let out a whoosh of relief. Thank goodness—Tad was predictable even when nothing else in the world was. She grabbed the keys to his Prius and sent him a silent apology. Tad would never knowingly allow her to drive his precious car. But since she would be back before he could even notice she'd borrowed the Prius, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

A sharply dressed man in a gray suit and a red power tie hopped up to greet Emily as she pushed through the front door of Masterson Real Estate. His rectangular, gold name tag read "Gil," she noticed as he flashed her a
trust me and I'll sell you your dream house
smile. Repulsed by his slightly desperate air, Emily took some small satisfaction in asking for Arlene Davis in response to his query of how he could help. Gil's trust-me smile momentarily disappeared as he emitted an unprofessional snort, but then a predatory shark smile, all teeth, spread across his face as he smelled new blood in the waters. "Unfortunately, Ms.…" He waited for her to fill in the gap, but Emily remained silent, returning his toothy grin. Gil shrugged and continued. "Arlene abruptly quit this morning."

"What?" Emily was startled into asking. She understood the words—she just couldn't fathom the meaning behind them. "Why?"

Gil attempted to pull off a sympathetic look, but Emily wasn't buying it. "Something about her son being unhappy at Ellington High. Her world revolves around that kid, I swear. Anyway, she said as how she'd already found a new job, she planned to leave immediately. If you were working with her, I'd be happy to help you. I've taken over her listings, and—" Gil continued his spiel even as she turned and pushed blindly back out onto the sidewalk.

Arlene had quit? Leaving immediately? She knew Stevie was upset about Coach Layton, but he'd been making strides in her class lately. He also appeared to have several new friends. Had she been too concerned with Helen's disappearance to see how miserable Stevie really was?

Glancing in the rearview mirror as she prepared to back the Prius out of its parking place, she spotted a dark-haired figure moving quickly down the sidewalk, chin tucked down into the collar of his jacket. Emily slammed on the brakes and watched as the man headed to a black Lincoln Navigator parked on the opposite side of the street. A dark SUV? Heart pounding, Emily threw the Prius in reverse and headed toward the parked car. As she passed the man, he was climbing into the driver's seat, and she got a clear look at his face. It was the same man she'd seen at Jim's funeral, and later, outside the school. Could he be following her? And that vehicle—could it be the same one that ran her and Gabby off the road? The Navigator looked brand new to her, but as Gabby had pointed out, there
had
been enough time to have any damage fixed by now.

Emily accelerated, avoiding meeting the man's eyes. Still, his face loomed before her, once again oddly familiar looking. As Emily turned onto the street that would lead her back to the school, she had a sudden recollection of Jim, larger than life, telling some ridiculous joke to Tad about how you could go to a concert for forty-five cents. When Tad had asked him how, Jim had set his face in serious lines and said, "You go to see 50 Cent, followed by Nickelback." Emily had read that same joke on Pinterest, but it wasn't the corny punch line that was bothering her now. It was Jim's face when he put on that serious look. It was the exact same look she had seen just now on the face of the man climbing into the Lincoln Navigator.

A horn blared behind her, and Emily gave the steering wheel a hard jerk to the right. Deep in thought, she had swerved over the center line, paying more attention to her new revelation than to her driving. She pulled into the teachers' lot and marveled at the discovery. It made perfect sense! The man had been at Jim's funeral because he was Jim's older brother, Stephen Olsen.

Focusing on his image in her mind, Emily could see that the man in the Navigator did clearly look like an older version of Jim. Detective Gangly-Arms had said there had been some difficulty in locating Jim's brother. He had been presumed to still be in New York. But now it looked like he'd been here in Ellington the whole time. But why hadn't he come forward and introduced himself? And furthermore, why was he still here? Did this have anything to do with his missing son? Was she right before? Was the missing Olsen baby one of the students currently in attendance at Ellington High?

The idea boggled the mind. If the strange man was Stephen Olsen and he was here for his son, then that meant Jim had probably located his nephew but been killed before he could do anything about it. Chances were high he had been watching the boy for a while, trying to find concrete evidence of his true identity. So why had he been killed
now
? And what about Helen? As the counselor, she had access to a lot of privileged information. Had she also discovered that the missing Olsen child was attending Ellington High? Had she known Jim's secret identity as the boy's uncle? Barnes had said he overheard them arguing about something and that they had mentioned the police. It galled Emily to admit the snake had actually not been a deceitful serpent this time.