Appliqued to Death Page 7

  “Blueberry,” Robert said. “Real big fluffy ones. They were laying out on the ground not far from his body, and even though they’d been there a while, I gotta say, they look pretty tasty.”

  “You would say that,” Beryl said poking him in the side. “You and your sweets.”

  “If you’d bake for me more often, I might not have to drool over a dead guy’s muffins.” Robert looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

  I sighed. “So they were really good-looking muffins?”

  He nodded. “Whoever baked them knew what they were doing.”

  The thought made me feel a little queasy. It was ridiculous to think that Peggy might have had anything to do with the murder, and just because they were good-looking muffins didn’t mean anything. I leaned back in my chair. They could joke and tease all they wanted, but if the police were going to seriously look at Peggy, I was going to have to do some of my own investigating.

  Chapter Ten

  I looked up to see Ellen Baines standing in my classroom doorway. She knocked on the open door. “Knock, knock,” she said and chuckled. “I hope I’m not disturbing anything.”

  “No, of course not,” I said. “Come on in.” It was the end of the day and Daniel had ridden with me to school. He had some students doing makeup tests and so I was busying myself with work around my classroom until he was done.

  “Oh good,” she said. “I guess everyone’s heard about Darren Peabody.” She pulled a chair up to my desk and sat down. Ellen Baines was in her mid-forties and was the choir teacher. I didn’t have a lot of contact with her except for during staff meetings, but she had always seemed pleasant enough. She had transferred to the high school two years earlier from the Indianapolis school district.

  I nodded, my gradebook open in front of me. “It’s a terrible shame. I don’t know who would want to kill a high school teacher.”

  She crossed her legs. “I just can’t imagine it. I mean, I lived in Indianapolis most of my life, and sure, sometimes there were murders, but it was never anyone that I had ever known. It just seems so strange that a teacher in a town as small as Salyers has been murdered. And not only that, but he worked at the same school that I do. It worries me.”

  “It is surprising,” I agreed. “I would never have thought it could happen here. Did you know Darren well?”

  She shook her head. “Oh no. I knew of him, of course, and I talked to him every now and then at staff meetings, but I really didn’t know him well. What about you?”

  “We stopped and talked every now and then since his classroom was right across the hall, but I guess I really didn’t know him very well either.”

  “I just can’t imagine what might have happened to him. But I’ll tell you one thing, if I were to take a guess, I would guess it was one of his art students that did it.” She looked at me and nodded knowingly. “He has the worst students in the entire school in his classes.”

  I wouldn’t have said that he had the worst students. He did have some students that were sometimes viewed as being a little different than other students in the school, but most of them were good kids. “Why do you think they’re the worst kids?”

  She shrugged. “Come on, Billy James, Sam Green, Ralph Connors?” She shook her head and made a clucking sound. “Those boys were trouble from the beginning. I told principal Jefferson they needed to be suspended when they hijacked the cafeteria cart.”

  I had to stifle a laugh. She was talking about the cafeteria cart that was used for transporting large items from delivery trucks into the walk-in freezer or storage room. The three boys had hijacked it and rode it down the hallway in the middle of third period last year. The main hallway’s floors sloped, and the boys had chosen the last day of the school year to take their ride. It wasn’t anything that I would’ve considered having them suspended for, and since it was the last day of the year, it wasn’t like much could be done about it.

  “Well, I’m not sure I’d go so far as to think they needed to be suspended for that.” Christine had said Darren thought she was spying on him for Principal Jefferson and it made me wonder about her. Why was she bringing all of this up?

  She pursed her lips together. “I guess some of us have different ideas of what discipline is, then. But when you allow children to get away with something like that, you can bet that something worse will be done later. The only thing good about those boys is that they’re seniors this year and they’ll graduate.” She relaxed then and chuckled. “I guess I’m making an assumption that they’ll actually graduate. I seriously doubt they have the grades to do so.”

  “I haven’t heard that they aren’t making the grade,” I said. That sort of thing usually got around. “I’m sure the police are looking into the murder and they would know if any of his students were involved.” Changing the subject from the boys in question was the best way to go, I thought. I didn’t like pointing a finger at them like that.

  Then she looked at me with wide eyes. “Oh, that’s right,” she said. “I forgot. Your father and your brother are police officers, aren’t they? Are they working on the case?”

  “My brother is the detective on the case,” I said. As soon as out of my mouth I wondered if I should have said it. I didn’t want people thinking they could get information about the case from me. If Robert decided to tell me something, it would be in confidence and I wouldn’t repeat it. I didn’t need people bothering me and trying to pry it out of me.

  “Well I’m sure he’ll have someone behind bars before we know it, then.” She smiled when she said it and for some reason, it made me uneasy. “But you might want to mention those three boys to him. Just in case he wants to investigate them.”

  Now I was wishing she would leave. I didn’t like saying unkind things about the students and I couldn’t see the three boys’ joyriding on the cafeteria cart being a crime anywhere near as serious as what she was making it out to be. “Robert will look into whatever he needs to, I’m sure.”

  “You know,” she said thoughtfully leaning back in her chair. “If I were an officer on the case, I might have a talk with Bill Woods.”

  I was surprised to hear her say this, and I looked at her carefully. “Bill Woods? Why do you say that?”

  Bill Woods was the boys PE teacher and football coach. I knew him well enough to know he was a nice guy. He was very old-fashioned, but he enjoyed his work and he enjoyed the students. Any teacher that still enjoyed the students after thirty years on the job was a hero in my book.

  “He didn’t like Darren,” she said looking over her shoulder toward the open door. She turned back to me. “He always complained about him and said, Principal Jefferson needed to fire him.”

  “Did Bill ever say why he didn’t like him?”

  “He thought he was a troublemaker,” she whispered and looked over her shoulder again. “He said he was a communist, and he didn’t have a problem saying so.”

  “I never thought of Darren as being a troublemaker,” I said. “He was just a little eccentric and there’s nothing wrong with being eccentric.”

  “Eccentric. Yes, that was the word I would use for him, too. I never understood what Bill’s problem with Darren was. But it seemed like every time I saw him, he was complaining about him. One time, Darren had parked in his parking spot and he became absolutely livid about it.” She nodded. “I told Bill that it wasn’t worth getting so upset over and that he should just go talk to Principal Jefferson and he would make him move. But he just couldn’t get over it. He complained and complained about it for weeks.”

  “I guess I wasn’t aware he had an issue with Darren,” I said thoughtfully. “I’m sure Robert will be interviewing some of the staff here at the high school at some point.” I didn’t want to tell her that I would talk to him about Bill, because I didn’t want it getting around school. But it was definitely something to look into.

  “Do you really think he’ll be questioning the teachers and staff here at the school?” she asked, looking surprised.


  “Well, he hasn’t exactly said that. But I think it probably makes sense, don’t you? Darren spent his days here at the school and somebody might have heard him say something that’s important to the case.”

  “Oh, of course,” she said, nodding and smiling. “That does make sense. I don’t know what I was thinking. He may have had a casual conversation with someone, and they may have picked up on something that didn’t seem important at the time, but it might help with the case.” Ellen laced her fingers together and looked toward the open door again and it made me wonder about her.

  “It’s not that he’s told me he’s going to do this, you understand,” I said for emphasis. “It’s just that it’s something that sounds practical to me.”

  “Oh, of course,” she said, agreeing with me. “That’s exactly right. I just hadn’t thought about it. All I want is for the killer to be caught. With Salyers being such a small town, we can’t afford to have a killer on the loose.”

  “That’s exactly right,” I said. “The sooner the police can get the killer off the street, the better.”

  She smiled at me. “Well, I just thought I’d stop in and see how you were doing. I’m sure it had to have been a terrible shock to find out that the teacher that was the closest to you, I mean had the closest classroom, ended up murdered.”

  “It was a real surprise. The students are the ones who are the most shocked, though. I worry about what this has done to them. They tend to worry so.”

  “It’s all they’re talking about,” she agreed. “I can hardly get any work out of my students since this has happened. And you know how small towns are, and especially small-town high schools. Everyone has an idea about what might have happened, and they spread the rumors around. And then they hear something new, and they all believe it and spread that around.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “The imagination of the average high school student can get pretty crazy.”

  “I can’t argue with you on that one,” I said and chuckled. “I’ve heard a handful of the rumors and I’ve tried to quell them when I can.”

  “It’s all we can do,” she said, getting to her feet. “Well, I don’t mean to keep you. I better get going now.”

  “It’s no problem. I’m just waiting for Daniel to finish up in his classroom and then we’ll be on our way, too.”

  She stood and looked expectantly at me. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and slowly headed to the door.

  “Sure, I’ll talk to you later.”

  I watched her go. Our conversation made me wonder if she was trying to get information out of me about the investigation. She wasn’t someone I was close to, so there was no way I was going to confide in her. Sometimes small-town gossip wasn’t confined to just the students.

  Chapter Eleven

  I sat at my desk thinking over what Elaine Baines had said. Was it possible Bill Woods could have killed Darren Peabody? It was hard for me to imagine. Bill had always seemed like an upstanding person. His wife had died when he was in his early thirties and he had never remarried. Although some considered him a rough person, he was wonderful with his boys. He was the football coach, as well as one of the boys’ PE teachers. He was likable in a good-old-boy kind of way.

  I glanced at the clock. It would be another half hour before Daniel was free and we could go home. I put my lesson plan in my desk drawer and picked up my classroom keys. Bill usually stayed late nearly every day, and I thought the chances were good that he was still here. I locked my classroom door and headed for the boys’ gym.

  The day had turned warmer than expected and I wished I had worn a lighter weight dress. My heels clicked in the empty hallway as I headed out of the home economics wing and out onto the blacktop.

  I passed some boys playing basketball on my way to the gym. When I pushed open the heavy door, the gym itself was empty, so I headed back to where Bill and the other coaches had their office.

  When I knocked on the closed door, Bill hollered at me to come in. “Hi Bill,” I said when I pushed it open. Stanley Jones was at one of the other desks and I smiled at him. “Hi Stanley.”

  “Hello, Mary,” Bill said, placing a notebook in his open desk drawer. He slid the drawer shut and looked at me, grinning.

  Stanley nodded at me and then went back to the lesson plan he was working on.

  I turned to Bill. “Bill,” I said, glancing at Stanley again. “How are you today?” Now that I was here in front of him, I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. I didn’t know if he would say anything that might be helpful in figuring out who killed Darren, but with Stanley in the room, it made it harder to ask questions.

  He nodded. “I’m doing all right Mary,” he said. “What brings you down to our neck of the woods?”

  Bill had thick black hair that he kept slicked back with Brylcreem. I could smell it from where I stood. I approached his desk, and he motioned to the chair in front of it and I took a seat. “Daniel is giving some make-up tests, so I’ve got some time to kill. I took care of everything I had to do in my classroom, so I decided to take a walk around campus.”

  He chuckled. “I take it you rode together today?”

  I nodded. “We did. His car is in the shop.”

  He sat back in his chair. “That sure is a sweet ride you’ve got. I’d love to have a car like that.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Daniel gave it to me for Christmas and I’m rather fond of it myself.”

  We made small talk for a few minutes and I had to keep myself from glancing over my shoulder at Stanley. I needed him to leave if I was going to ask any pointed questions.

  “It’s a shame what happened to Darren Peabody, isn’t it?” I finally asked him.

  He rolled his eyes. “It’s not a surprise, if that’s what you’re saying.”

  I brightened. Bill liked to talk and if he knew something, he’d say it. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Everyone knew Darren Peabody was up to no good. I heard he was always throwing parties at his house, and you can tell by the way he dressed that he was doing drugs.”

  I looked at him wide-eyed. “Do you think so?” I had heard the rumors before, but I wondered if he had any concrete evidence of it.

  He nodded his head. “I know so. Don’t say I said it, but my cousin Frank Reynolds went to one of those parties once. He was dating a gal that was in Peabody’s class three years ago, and she wanted to go to it, so he took her. Can you believe it? He was having parties and inviting his former students.”

  “That’s surprising to hear,” I said. “But I guess if the students had already graduated and were adults, it’s not exactly unethical.”

  “Well, it’s certainly not ethical in my opinion. A teacher just doesn’t do that sort of thing,” he said, disagreeing with me. “But that was the kind of person he was. Honestly, I’m not surprised at all that he ended up dead.”

  “So, what kind of drugs were going on at his party?” I asked.

  “My cousin said he didn’t actually see anything, but people kept disappearing into another room. He asked his date what was going on and she shrugged, but he said he was sure she knew. He said he wasn’t real comfortable being there, and he left, but his date didn’t want to go, so he left her behind.”

  “Really?” I said, thinking this over. But this wasn’t enough information to go on. Hs cousin suspected drugs, but never saw anything.

  “Oh yeah. That Darren Peabody was something else,” he snorted shaking his head. “He kept parking in my parking space after I told him he better not do it anymore. He did it just for fun you know.”

  I nodded. “I could see Darren Peabody doing that kind of thing. It seemed he thought he was above the rules.” Darren showed up when he wanted to and if he knew it bothered Bill when he parked in his spot, he’d do it again and again just to get at him.

  “You can say that again. You know why he thought he was above the rules, don’t you?” His eyebrow raised up when he asked the question.

 
“No, why did he think that?”

  He glanced around me at Stanley. “Stanley, why don’t you go see what those boys are doing out on the basketball court?”

  We waited until Stanley left the room and then he turned back to me. “Stanley is a new coach, and he doesn’t understand how things are done around here. I didn’t want him to hear what I was about to say because I don’t want it repeated.” He looked at me meaningfully.

  I nodded. “It probably isn’t good to have certain things spread around campus.”

  “You can say that again. The reason Darren Peabody thought he was above the rules was that Principal Jefferson was afraid of him.”

  I sat back in the chair. “Afraid of him? Why would he be afraid of him?” I had always wondered why Darren was allowed to get away with so much and I wondered now if I was unaware of certain things going on at the school. Peggy had mentioned she thought Jefferson was afraid of Darren, but I wasn't sure if that was true or not.

  “Because Principal Jefferson is a bully and a coward. That’s why he always picks on certain teachers. Honestly, the reason you and Peggy got stuck with all those art students is because he knew you weren’t going to fight back.” He looked at me, taking in my reaction to what he had just said.

  “It’s hard to fight back when nothing’s ever done about it,” I said carefully. I didn’t want to get myself into trouble, but Principal Jefferson and I had never seen eye to eye on a lot of things and I never did seem to come out on top when we disagreed.

  He nodded. “I’m not blaming anyone. But Principal Jefferson wasn’t the one who wanted to hire Darren Peabody. He was hired by the school board because his uncle is Gerald Garrison and he insisted on it.”

  Gerald Garrison was on the school board and things were starting to come together for me now. “Why would he need to insist on hiring Darren?” I asked.

  “Because he got into trouble at the last school he was teaching at in Indianapolis. Seems he didn’t just like to have parties with former students, but had his eye on a current student, if you know what I mean.”