Hopscotch Homicide (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 16) (14 page)

Zak prepared macaroni and cheese in the Crock-Pot so we could enjoy a quick meal before heading to the first football game of the season. I was totally stoked to see how Levi’s new team was going to work out. He’d had such a successful season the previous year, it was going to be hard to top that.

“Pass the salad,” Alex requested.

Pi passed it to her.

“That pep rally was tight,” Pi offered. “Maybe I should think about a sport.”

“I thought you wanted to concentrate on your music when you weren’t doing the cyber thing,” I commented.

“I do, but those cheerleaders are hot.”

“How come I didn’t get to go?” Scooter whined.

“Because you were still in school,” Zak answered. “Pi and Alex were done for the day.”

“How come I have to go to school longer than them?”

“You don’t. Normally. It’s just that Pi and Alex would usually be in the accelerated learning program at the Academy during the afternoon. Today the staff and students of Zimmerman Academy decided to go to the pep rally instead of holding classes,” Zak explained.

“Doesn’t sound like accelerated learning to me.”

I laughed. Scooter had a point.

“It’s going to be chilly once the sun goes down, so everyone needs to be sure to wear long pants and to grab a heavy sweatshirt or jacket,” I warned the kids.

“Can we get snacks at the game?” Scooter asked.

“If you get hungry,” Zak agreed.

The three minors living with us headed upstairs to get ready, and Zak and I began to clean up the kitchen. Doing dishes had never been one of my favorite activities, but Zak and I had settled into a predictable routine that I found I quite enjoyed.

“Did Salinger ever call you back?” Zak asked.

“No, not yet. I heard there was a house fire out near the old sawmill that spread into the forest and he was out there, evacuating the people in the area in case the fire spread toward the housing development to the south. If I haven’t heard back I’ll try him again once we get to the high school. I’m going to head upstairs to check on the kittens and grab a jacket. Do you want me to get yours?”

“Yeah. I’ll take the dogs out while you do that. We should leave in about fifteen minutes.”

As it does every year for the first home game of the season, half the town of Ashton Falls had come out to the football field to cheer on the team. Luckily, Ellie had gotten to the field early and saved us all seats. Of course as soon as Pi found Brooklyn he announced that he was going to sit with her, and then Alex asked if she could sit with Phyllis and Eve while they cheered on Chad and Pepper, which left Ellie, Zak, Scooter, and me.

“Can I sit with Tucker?” Scooter asked. “It’s going to be boring with just you guys.”

I looked at Zak.

“I’ll take Scooter to see if we can track down Tucker, but save both seats just in case we aren’t successful.”

“And then there were two,” I said to Ellie.

“I never did get any dinner,” Ellie commented. “I think I might go to the snack bar. Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m fine. I’ll save the seats,” I offered.

Which is exactly what I did until I saw my new number-one suspect standing alone near the far edge of the track surrounding the field. I knew the likelihood of our seats being available when I returned were slim to none, but I saw the chance I’d been looking for and decided to take it.

“What are you doing over here all by yourself?” I asked when I’d run around the back of the bleachers and around to the field.

“Looking for a friend. I thought finding her would be a lot easier, but it’s packed.”

“You here by yourself?” I asked.

“Yeah. My husband is home with the kids. As ironic as it may seem, I love sports, but he isn’t into them in the least. Where’s your crew?”

“The snack bar,” I simplified. “I guess you heard they have a new suspect in Mrs. Brown’s death,” I fished.

“They do? Who?”

“I don’t have all the details, but it seems Mrs. Brown has a history of obsessing over other people’s babies. It looks like one of the protective mamas got fed up with all the inappropriate attention and killed her.”

“I wouldn’t wish an untimely death on anyone, but that woman gave me the creeps.”

“So she was obsessing over your little one as well?” I asked.

“She was, and we weren’t even friends. I made the mistake of bringing the baby in when I was on campus to register Artie and she happened to be there. She immediately started giving me unwanted advice. She even looked up my address in the school records and began sending me letters about all the things I should watch for when raising an infant. It totally freaked me out.”

“So you killed her.”

“What? I didn’t kill her.”

I frowned. “I saw you at the school the day Mrs. Brown died.”

“Yes, I was there. Several parents were there, including you.”

Virginia had me there.

“If you didn’t kill her, who did?” I asked.

She paused to think about it. “I don’t know for certain, but if you want my opinion, I think it was Yolanda.”

“Yolanda? Why?”

“Mrs. Brown found a family to buy her house on her own. Yolanda was furious that she was going to be cut out of the deal. Plus Yolanda wanted to choose her own neighbors, and the family Mrs. Brown chose wasn’t to her liking at all. I know Yolanda was at the school that day. Maybe you should talk to her.”

“I will.”

After I finished speaking to Virginia I called Salinger, and this time he picked up. I filled him in on everything I had learned that day and he promised to head over to the football field. He instructed me to stay put, which I promised to do.

I didn’t.

It wasn’t that I intended to disregard Salinger’s direction; it was more that I saw Yolanda in the crowd and decided to waylay her in case she decided to leave. My big mistake was in letting Virginia go. How was I to know she’d call and warn Yolanda when she was the one who gave her up in the first place?

By the time I made my way over to the place where I’d seen Yolanda, she was gone. I searched the crowd until I recognized her up on the hill behind the football field. She was obviously headed into the forest. She’d probably decided it was safest to head out that way and then double back in case Salinger was waiting for her in the parking lot. I took off running as fast as I could. I was certainly getting my workout in today.

“Yolanda, wait,” I yelled when I was still too far away to grab her. That turned out to be a dumb move because she took off running. She wasn’t as fast as me, but she wasn’t exactly old and feeble either. I picked up my pace and flung myself at her. I grabbed her from behind, causing the two of us to roll down the hill end over end. I hung on for dear life, hoping I could find a way to stop our momentum before we reached the bottom of the hill. On my way up the hill I’d noticed a huge mud puddle that had been created by the sprinklers on the grass on the field.

Unfortunately, we didn’t stop rolling until we both hit the slime. The entire football stadium began to whistle and cheer as Yolanda and I wrestled around in the mud.

“Are you crazy?” Yolanda yelled. “You could have killed me.”

“Hey, you didn’t have to run. Why did you do it?” I asked as I fought to maintain the upper hand.

“I didn’t mean to.” Yolanda flung a handful of black muck into my face. “I just went to the school to talk to her. Things got out of control.”

“I should say so,” I shot back as I grabbed her around the legs, causing her to fall backward into the muck. “The woman is dead.”

The entire stadium continued to cheer like we were some planned sideshow.

“I busted my butt looking for the perfect family to buy her house and she goes and makes a deal with some farm hicks from the valley with five undisciplined sons. Can you imagine? The family would have totally ruined the neighborhood, but she said they wanted the house and she was anxious to sell. I had to do something, so I dug deep and found this totally wonderful family to make an offer for even more money than the hicks had promised.”

Yolanda pulled my hair, which made me fall even farther into the mud.

“So why kill her?” I said as I threw my body against hers in an effort to pin her down.

“I went to the school to tell her about the new offer, but she said she’d already promised the first family and didn’t want to go back on her agreement. I’m afraid I lost it. I threatened her with the rolling pin and she took off through the back door. I have no idea why I followed her. I was just so mad.”

Salinger walked up while we were talking. He’d heard enough. He pulled me off the top of her and then pulled her to her feet. He cuffed her and led her away as the crowd, still watching, went wild with cheers and catcalls.

My impulse was to flip them off, but I remembered the kids, so I took a bow instead and followed Salinger to his squad car.

“Mrs. Brown had a button from a man’s dress shirt in her hand,” I commented as Salinger ushered Yolanda into the backseat. “Was it yours?”

“No, it was Principal Bower’s. He tried to stop Mrs. Brown when she first ran out the back door. He must have been out on the playground having a smoke. He grabbed her, but she managed to get away. I guess she pulled the button off his shirt at that point. I came barreling out the door after her and hit her with the rolling pin as soon as I caught up with her.”

“So Principal Bower knew you had killed Mrs. Brown?” I verified.

“He saw the whole thing. He was shocked at first, but I guess she had been harassing him for months, so he understood how I could be driven to violence. I begged him not to tell and he said he wouldn’t. I went home and he went back to his office. We figured that with all of the rain the body wouldn’t be found for quite a while, and no one would ever figure out what happened.”

I looked at Salinger. “Principal Bower is the one who suggested that I check out the new playground equipment. He must have wanted me to find the body before some random kid happened by.”

“I’ll pick him up after I deal with Mrs. Snyder.”

Later that evening, after I had washed the mud out of my hair and changed into my pj’s, I sat on the bed next to Zak. The kids were all settled in their own rooms, so we took advantage of the quiet to share a bottle of wine and watch a movie. I was actually pretty sore after my mud-wrestling match. Maybe I wasn’t in as good shape as I thought. Of course it could have been the roll down the hill that did me in.

“So we made it through the first week of school.” I held up my glass in a toast.

“Barely.” Zak laughed. “I thought I was going to die when I saw you rolling down that hill with Yolanda.”

“I guess it
was
pretty funny. The way everyone was cheering and whistling, I think they must have figured it was part of the pregame festivities.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Yolanda seems like she’d be the type to fight dirty. I still can’t believe she killed Mrs. Brown over a real estate transaction.”

“I actually feel kind of bad about the whole thing. Both Yolanda and Principal Bower have families and are active members of the community. I don’t suppose he’ll be looking at too stiff a penalty, but I’d be surprised if he doesn’t end up being fired from his job for covering up a murder and lying to Salinger. I wonder who’s going to take over for him next week.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” Zak pulled me back into his arms as he leaned into the pillows, which were stacked against the headboard. “For now, how about we talk about something else?”

“Like the kids?”

“Like us. As much as I’m loving our new life, I do realize we need some alone time. I’ve been asked to attend a conference in San Diego at the end of the month. It’s really just a long weekend. I hoped you would want to go with me. Maybe we can rent a house on the beach for a few days.”

“Sounds fantastic, but what about the kids?”

“I spoke to Levi and Ellie and they’ve assured me they’d be happy to stay here with the dogs and the kids, but it also occurred to me that it might be worth having a conversation about hiring some help.”

“What kind of help?” I asked.

“Someone to help with transportation for the kids and maybe some of the errands. Alex is going to start rehearsals for the play soon and Scooter has soccer through November. The kids are all on different school schedules, and now that my new software has launched, I’m going to have to attend out-of-town meetings and conferences from time to time. It would be nice if you could go with me. I thought we could hire someone to help out during the week and stay at the house when we have to be away for a few days.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?” I asked.

“Not yet. I just thought we should enter into a discussion about the subject. We have a lot going on and a lot of different things to juggle. It seems it would be helpful to have a third arm.”

I smiled. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to put out a few feelers. I do want to have time to spend at the Zoo, and I still have my obligation to the events committee. Now that Yolanda is going to be serving time for killing Mrs. Brown, I bet you’ll be promoted to PTA president.”