Murder by the Slice (25 page)

“Unless Mrs. Gonzales didn’t have anything to do with the murder,” Mike said.

Haney shook his head. “Not likely. But we don’t rush to judgment around here.”

It seemed to Mike that was exactly what Haney was doing yet again, after jumping to the conclusion that Gary Oakley was guilty. But he knew what the sheriff meant. Under normal circumstances, Royce Haney was a solid, more than competent lawman. He had to be feeling a lot of public pressure, though, because a murder being committed in an elementary school—in the middle of a school carnival, at that—really got people’s attention.

They stood there in the hall waiting for several minutes before the door opened again and Juliette Yorke said, “My client is ready to talk to you now, Sheriff.”

Haney went into the room, followed by Mike. They all sat down, the two lawmen on one side of the table, Lindsey Gonzales and her attorney on the other. The sheriff started the tape rolling in the recorder and announced the details of the interrogation. Then before he could ask any questions, Yorke said, “My client would like to make a statement.”

Haney leaned forward eagerly. Mike knew he was anticipating a confession. “All right. Go ahead, Mrs. Gonzales.”

Lindsey still looked pale and scared, but her voice was relatively strong as she cleared her throat and said, “I did not kill Shannon Dunston. I had nothing to do with her death.”

Haney’s expression hardened. “We have eyewitness testimony that you were engaged in an argument with her not long before her death and even threatened to kill her. Then you were the one who found the body and started screaming your head off so everyone would know you found it.”

Lindsey took a deep breath and said, “I did not kill Shannon Dunston and had nothing to do with her death.”

Haney’s expression was darkening with anger as he switched his gaze to Juliette Yorke and said, “Counselor, you should advise your client that it would be wise to answer our questions.”

“You haven’t actually asked her any questions,” Yorke pointed out. “You’ve simply made a statement, Sheriff, and so has my client. One that covers things sufficiently, I believe.”

Haney sat back in his chair, looking stunned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Mrs. Gonzales has denied any involvement with Ms. Dunston’s murder, and she won’t be making any further statements or answering any questions. Since that’s the case, I suggest that unless you have any actual evidence against her, you release her now.”

“But … but we have a witness’s testimony—”

“That an argument took place. Does your witness claim to have seen my client kill, attack, or otherwise harm the victim in any way?”

“Well … no.”

“Do you have any physical evidence to link my client to the actual crime?”

“No,” Haney snapped. “But I have a history of ill feeling between the victim and your client, and I have the testimony regarding that argument … which I notice your client hasn’t denied.” A note of stubbornness came into his voice. “That’s probable cause to bring her in for questioning.”

“We’re not denying that. But Mrs. Gonzales has cooperated with your investigation and now has nothing more to add.”

“Damn it, stonewalling’s not going to get her anywhere!”

Juliette Yorke didn’t appear to be fazed by the sheriff’s frustrated outburst. She said, “On the contrary, it’s going to get her out of here … unless, as I said, you have some other evidence against her.”

With a visible effort, Haney brought his anger under control. He turned to Lindsey and said, “Mrs. Gonzales, did you see anyone attack Shannon Dunston on the afternoon of the carnival at Oliver Loving Elementary School?”

Lindsey glanced over at Yorke, who nodded. Lindsey swallowed and said, “No, I didn’t.”

“Just before you discovered her body, did you see anyone leaving the area?”

Lindsey shook her head. “No.”

“You walked up that hall, didn’t see anyone around, went around the corner, and found Ms. Dunston’s body?”

A little shudder went through Lindsey’s body as she closed her eyes, obviously remembering the scene. “Yes,” she replied in a half whisper.

“And when you saw the body you started screaming?”

Lindsey nodded. “Yes.” She glanced at Yorke, who gave her a tight but reassuring smile.

“Do you know of any reason why someone would want to kill Shannon Dunston?” Haney asked.

“No,” Lindsey answered without hesitation. She added, “A lot of people didn’t get along with her, including me, but I don’t know anyone who wanted her dead.”

Mike saw a flash of irritation in Juliette Yorke’s eyes, as if the attorney wished that Lindsey hadn’t added that last comment, but Yorke didn’t say anything.

Haney turned toward her and said, “
Now
your client has cooperated with our investigation.”

“So you’re going to release her?”

“Wait here,” Haney said as he got to his feet. He didn’t have to tell Mike to come with him. They stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind them.

“Are you going to let her go, Sheriff?” Mike asked.

“We can hold her for a while without charging her—” Haney stopped and shook his head. “But what would be the point? That woman’s not gonna let her say anything else, and the evidence we have now isn’t strong enough to get the DA to bring charges.”

Mike was glad to see that the sheriff was going to be reasonable about this. He knew that Haney wasn’t really a vindictive man by nature. Clearly, the sheriff didn’t like Juliette Yorke very much, but he was professional enough not to let that influence his decision.

Haney nodded as he made up his mind. “Go back in there and tell them they can go,” he said. “Warn Mrs. Gonzales not to leave the area without letting us know, though.”

“Sure.”

Mike waited until Haney had gone back down the hall to his office; then he opened the door of the interrogation room again. Lindsey looked up anxiously from the table.

“The sheriff said for me to tell you that you’re free to go, Mrs. Gonzales, and he also thanks you for your cooperation,” Mike said. Haney hadn’t said any such thing as that last part, but Mike figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to add it. “Please don’t leave the area without letting us know first, though.”

“Does that mean I’m still a suspect?”

“We just, uh, might want to ask you a few more questions.”

Juliette Yorke got to her feet and picked up her briefcase from the table. “I assume that the sheriff won’t be unreasonable about this matter?”

“No, ma’am.”

Lindsey said, “I know your mother, you know.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mike said. Lindsey’s comment struck him as odd. It was the sort of thing a grown-up would say to a child, and she probably wasn’t more than two or three years older than he was.

“Ask her if she thinks I’d kill anybody,” Lindsey said. She was starting to look angry now, and she might have gone on to say something else if Yorke hadn’t touched her arm and murmured that they should be going.

Mike couldn’t really blame Lindsey for being mad, he thought as he perched a hip on the table and watched the two women leave the interrogation room. Somebody who was innocent never liked being accused of a crime. Their first reaction was usually fear, as Lindsey’s had been, but once that started to wear off, they began to get angry that anyone could believe such a thing of them. Law enforcement officers saw similar reactions all the time. In this case, Lindsey’s anger tended to make Mike think she was telling the truth.

Or maybe she was just a good liar and actress. Maybe she really had gotten mad enough to stick that knife in Shannon Dunston’s chest.

Haney appeared in the doorway. “They gone?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Find out everything you can about that woman. And about all the other members of the PTO board, too. And everybody else who had any possible connection to Ms. Dunston.” Haney shook his head. “That woman,” he said again.

“Mrs. Gonzales, you mean?”

“The lawyer,” Haney said.

Mike couldn’t tell what he heard more of in the sheriff’s voice—anger or admiration.

Chapter 24

The call from Marie came sooner than Phyllis expected. “We’re getting together at the school this afternoon,” the younger woman said. “Can you and Carolyn make it?”

Phyllis had already talked to Carolyn, who was reluctant to continue their involvement with the PTO board, but felt like they could do some good by helping out. “We’ll just give them some advice and let that be it,” she had said when Phyllis told her about Marie’s earlier phone call.

Now Phyllis told Marie, “All right, this one time. But really, you and the other members of the board will have to decide what to do.”

“Sure, we know that,” Marie said. “We’ll see you at one thirty.”

Phyllis went upstairs and told Carolyn about the meeting. Carolyn said, “I’m starting to believe Marie thinks of you and me as surrogate mothers. She wants us to tell her how to fix things.”

Phyllis nodded. She had a feeling that Carolyn was right. Marie was in over her head these days. Unfortunately, things were even worse than Marie thought they were, because she didn’t even know about her husband’s involvement with Shannon.

Nothing had really happened between Shannon and Russ, Phyllis reminded herself. At least, that was what Russ had claimed. And Phyllis was going to make herself believe it until she had evidence to the contrary.

Carolyn asked, “Did Marie say anything else about Lindsey?”

Phyllis shook her head. “I guess she hasn’t heard anything more. It can take quite a while when someone is brought in for questioning, I suppose.”

But to her surprise, when she and Carolyn walked into the meeting room at the school that afternoon, Lindsey Gonzales was sitting there at the table with the other members of the PTO board. Lindsey’s face was pale and drawn, as if she’d been through an ordeal, but otherwise she seemed to be all right.

Of course she was all right, Phyllis told herself as that thought crossed her mind. It wasn’t like members of the sheriff’s department shone bright lights in the eyes of suspects and beat them with rubber hoses. Things like that only happened in old black-and-white movies.

Phyllis noticed how Lindsey looked away from her as she and Carolyn sat down. An awkward silence had fallen on the room as they entered. She said, “I’m sorry. If you’d like for Carolyn and me to go, or just me—”

“Of course not,” Marie said quickly. “We need you here. Isn’t that right, Lindsey?”

“Yes.” Lindsey met Phyllis’s eyes and went on, “We were just talking about it, so we might as well go ahead and get it over with. Clear the air. I’m not mad at you, Mrs. Newsom, or your son. He was there, but he was just following the sheriff’s orders, I’m sure. I don’t think he really believed I was guilty.”

“Mike’s always prided himself on doing his job properly.”

“Well, you can tell him for me that I didn’t kill Shannon. That’s about all my lawyer will let me say.”

“They didn’t charge you?” If Lindsey was willing to talk about it, Phyllis certainly was, too.

Lindsey shook her head. “No. They didn’t have any real evidence against me, just somebody who said they saw me arguing with Shannon earlier that afternoon. And that part was true.” A note of defiance came into Lindsey’s voice. “I finally got fed up with the way she treated me all the time and told her to stop it.”

Kristina Padgett said, “Good for you. It was about time somebody stood up to her.”

Holly Underwood looked around the table and said, “I think all of us here probably wanted to tell Shannon off more than once.”

“I would have,” Irene Vernon said, “if I hadn’t been afraid that it would just make things worse.”

“Look,” Abby Granger put in. “Shannon was a bitch, no two ways about it. All of us knew it, none of us liked her, and I don’t mind saying it now.” She looked at Phyllis. “But none of us would have killed her. No way. You should tell your son that.”

Phyllis began to feel a little irritated. “I’m not here working as a spy for the sheriff’s department, if that’s what you’re all thinking. Marie asked Carolyn and me to come to this meeting.”

“That’s right. I did,” Marie said. “Please don’t get mad, Phyllis. We’re all just shaken up by what’s happened.” She looked around the table and went on, “Why don’t we put the tragedy aside for now and get down to business? The carnival was a major fund-raiser, and it looks like most of that money is gone for good. How are we going to replace it?”

“I don’t know that we can,” Holly said. “The parents won’t sit still for it if we try to hold some other fund-raising event right away. They’ll be sorry about Shannon, of course, and sorry that the money got stolen, but they feel like they’ve already done their part for a while.”

Marie said, “Surely they would understand—”

“I’ve had four kids go through the school system,” Holly stopped her. “When you’re already struggling with taxes and credit card debt and house payments, you get tired of the PTO coming around with their hands out for more money, even though you know it’s for a good cause. There’s
always
a good cause that needs money.”

A couple of the other women nodded in solemn agreement. Kristina shrugged and said, “Maybe we just won’t do as much for the school this year as other boards have. It’s not our fault.”

“We can have something else in the spring,” Abby suggested. “A pancake supper or spaghetti supper or something like that. That’ll replace some of the money. But for now I think we just have to let it go.”

Marie looked disappointed. Clearly she had hoped for a more enthusiastic response. She turned to Phyllis and Carolyn and asked, “What do you ladies think?”

Carolyn said, “Holly’s right about the constant fundraising from all the different groups. We saw it as teachers. We always bought the PTO candy, too.”

“It’s true that the school relies on the PTO to provide things that the budget just doesn’t have room for,” Phyllis said. “But nobody’s going to blame you if you just don’t have the money. Like Christina said, it’s not your fault.”

“No, it’s the fault of the son of a bitch who stole that cash box,” Marie snapped. “And because of that, we’re going to wind up letting Shannon’s memory down.”