Bright New Murder (8 page)

11

Jane’s phone dinged as she pulled into the Trillium Montessori parking lot. A new email—from PayPal? Jane opened it. Three hundred and fifty dollars from Jake for “expenses” paid through her Good Clean Houses business account. She took a deep breath. What was this new scheme of his? She checked her clock—only eight. She had time to call him before she went inside.

“Jake, what is this?”

“What is what? Do you know how early it is?” Jake yawned.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t up.”

“I’m not up.”

“You’ve been using your computer.”

“You are a very good spy.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “What expenses are you paying me for?”

“The expenses incurred for solving the murder that occurred at my first-ever fundraiser for educating homeless preschoolers.”

“You’re paying me for this?”

Jake yawned again. “I know. Crazy, right?”

“Thank you?” Jane wasn’t sure what to think. If she wanted to pursue detection, she needed paying clients. But taking money from Jake just felt wrong. On the other hand, he would be the one most likely to hire her in this situation.

“You’re welcome. And it’s cheaper than bringing you and that cousin of yours lunch and dinner six days a week.” Jake cleared his throat. “Just solve it, okay?”

“Jake…”

“I did not go out with Gemma last night. I called a guy and hung out doing guy things. Are you happy?”

Jane couldn’t hide her laugh. “Yes, I’m happy. The sooner Gemma realizes you’re just not that into her, the better for her.”

“Are you done lecturing me? I’d like to go back to sleep.”

“Yes.” Lecturing? Jane didn’t like the sound of that. She was his buddy, not his mom. “Sorry. And thanks for the expenses. I’ll try and use it wisely.”

“Just remember, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, working for God and not people, okay? Detecting, schooling, missioning, whatever. Just do your best and make God proud.”

Jane grinned. Sometimes Jake surprised her. “Yes. I will.”

She let him go and contemplated her expense fund. A little money could smooth the path to information. Did people want cash to talk, or coffee? She’d have to read each person as they came, and right now it was time to read Carrie, assistant to April Harms.

The reception desk was in the center of a small, colorful foyer fully decked out for every major winter holiday. “Carrie?” Jane offered her hand to the woman behind the desk.

“Yes, are you Jane?” She shook Jane’s hand.

“Yes, thanks so much for letting me stop by.”

“Of course.” Carrie’s thick brown hair hung in a braid that landed at the hem of her wooly sweater. With her skinny figure, makeup-free face, and outfit made from entirely natural fibers, Jane could see Carrie fitting in with Rose of Sharon’s Helpers. Maybe it did make sense that Michelle had once been a protester. “What can I show you?” Carrie waved her hand, indicating the hall that led to the classrooms.

“We can just chat, if that’s okay. I’m trying to learn a little more about Michelle. I know she has one son, married, living in Nevada. Does she have any other family in town?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she does, but I never talked to her about her family.”

“What made her decide to sell the school and retire?”

“Her grandkids.” Carrie sat down in her rolling office chair. She motioned to a bright green armchair.

Jane took a seat. “Did she seem excited for the change?”

“Yes and no. She was really excited to see her grandkids more and to live someplace warm and dry, but every now and then I’d catch her in a bit of a melancholy mood. But it makes sense, you know? She built this school from nothing.” Carrie sighed. “Change is hard, even when it’s something you’re looking forward to.”

“That’s true.” Jane relaxed back into her seat. “How did the parents take the change?”

“Everyone loves April, so that wasn’t a problem at all.”

“Everyone?”

“Oh yes, everyone. The PTO, the alumni. She’s just a lot of fun, and she’s kind of like an extension of Michelle. I don’t think it would have worked if Michelle had sold to a stranger.”

“Did anyone have a particularly hard time saying goodbye to Michelle?” Jane really wanted to know if anyone was especially happy to see her go, but wanted to work her way up to that question.

“Oh yes! A few of our families have been here for several years. We’re just a preschool and kindergarten, but if you are a big family, you could end up here for a decade. And one family, the Chadwicks, they are on their second generation! It’s hard to believe it’s been long enough, but…they had a lot of kids, and their youngest three went here. Now their oldest kids have kids in the school, if that makes sense. Lots of big families here.”

“What’s tuition these days?”

“It’s eight to twelve thousand a year, depending on what age, but there are family discounts.”

Jane swallowed. That was more than her tuition at Presbyterian Preparatory High School had been. “Does she ever run into trouble with families that can’t pay?”

Carrie rolled her eyes. “Yes. It drives me batty, too. Michelle was wonderful about scholarships, grants, and family discounts. There was no need for anyone to get into financial difficulty. I mean, of course, if you don’t have the money, you shouldn’t say you do and enroll in the first place, but if you are a Trillium family and run into hard times…Michelle—and now April—has always been willing to find a way to work with you.”

“Can you think of anyone who might have a grudge against Michelle—for anything at all? Tuition costs? Something that happened at the school? Or even something in her personal life?”

Carrie drew her eyebrows together. “I really didn’t want to have to mention this, but I’d probably better. If the police come in to talk, I’ll have to tell them anyway.”

Jane leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

“The Miters…” She shook her head. “Oh, I hate to even say this. The Miters actually owe us one hundred thousand dollars, and Michelle has been fighting the situation in court for the last three years.”

A thrill went through Jane. “That’s a whole lot of money. How does a family end up owing their preschool that much money?”

“They were another big family. They had four kids in the school for four years…”

“But they would have had to have all of the kids there the whole time without paying…they didn’t do that, did they?”

“No…they had sent six kids through the school altogether. And for each one of them, there would come a time where their checks stopped clearing. They would rack up a debt with us, tuition, fees, and then the bounced-check fees.” Carrie rubbed her eyes in exasperation. “But when fall enrollment came around, they’d enroll whoever was old enough at the time. They’d pay a couple of months’ tuition up front plus some of their back fees. Michelle was always willing to work with them. But then, at the end, when they had the four kids here at once, they just stopped paying.”

“But still, the fees could hardly have reached one hundred thousand, could they?”

“Michelle had to take them to court for the money, once it got over thirty thousand. She just couldn’t pay her bills with that much outstanding. The court decided for us, and included legal fees. Michelle didn’t want them to have to pay that much, she really didn’t.”

“If they couldn’t afford tuition, how were they going to be able to afford the judgment?”

Carrie shook her head. “You got me. Personally, I think hitting them with such a huge amount made it even less likely that they would pay up.”

“I’d have to agree. So what do the Miters look like?”

“Jason is about forty-five, greying hair. He’s kind of tall and skinny. Tammy isn’t much younger, I’d say. She’s cute, a butterball, but all dimples and smiles. Every time she told you she would pay up right away, you just believed her. She’s that type of person.”

“How tall would you say Jason was?”

“Average tall, I guess. What’s that, six feet maybe? He wasn’t short at all, but he wasn’t bumping his head on the door, if you know what I mean.”

“Sure, I get it.” Jane stood up. “I really appreciate the time you gave me.”

“I don’t think the Miters would have killed Michelle. They’re terrible with money, but they’re really nice.”

“Oh, of course! I know what you mean. But the whole conversation was helpful.”

Carrie walked Jane to the parking lot. She looked back at the school for a second, and then repeated her affirmation of the Miter family. “I mean it, they are good people.”

Jane paused. “Would you ever let kids of theirs back in the school?”

“Well, no, but that doesn’t make them killers.”

Jane smiled. Of course it didn’t. It just made them suspects. Really, really good suspects.

***

Beth from the event center security called Jane back shortly after Jane got home. She jumped right into her purpose before Jane could even say hello.

“I’m a bit frazzled, to be perfectly frank. I think you might know why.”

“Because Del wasn’t supposed to be at work, even though he was there?”

“That would be it. He’s on administrative leave—a disciplinary action—I don’t even know what he did.”

“Why was he pretending to be at work?” Jane perched on the edge of her seat, pen in hand. This call couldn’t have come at a better time. She could get all of her Del questions answered and then compare the Del situation with the Miter family. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t have to follow up with the questions about Michelle’s time with the HLP at all.

“It was a shift we were working together. We had plans for the day. Dumb little things you do when you’re dating a coworker. He would bring me coffee, I would page him to the office for a kiss. Just dumb stuff. But if he didn’t come, he’d have to tell me why.”

“What about the person who was supposed to cover his shift?”

“That’s a good question too.” Beth sounded exhausted. “That person seems to have colluded with Del on this little scheme, and now he’s on admin leave too…guess who has to cover all of their shifts?”

“That would be you.” Jane chuckled sympathetically.

“Yup. And I don’t have time for it. But I can’t turn it down.”

“How many of you are there in security?”

“About a dozen,” Beth said. “More like ten now, though. And that’s hardly enough. You’ve seen the place. It’s huge. And it’s open crazy hours.”

“What did Del do to get in trouble?”

“He won’t tell me, so it’s got to be bad. He’s acting all heroic about it like he’s protecting me, but that’s stupid. We’ve been together seven months now. He can tell me anything.”

Seven months. Jane stifled a smirk. Practically married. “What are you going to do now?”

“Work too much, I guess. I don’t want to be a jerk to my boyfriend at Christmas, but I need a little space if he’s not going to be honest with me.”

“Is Del from around here?”

“Sure. He’s from Gladstone. He’s always lived here.”

Gladstone? That little suburb wasn’t too far from Trillium Montessori…basically just across the river, if Jane was picturing it right. “How old is he?”

“See, that’s the other thing, older guys are supposed to be mature, responsible. Del is thirty-two, but he’s acting like he’s twelve.”

Thirty-two…Jane considered that. He was just, almost, young enough to have been in the first class at Trillium. On the other hand…he was also old enough to have a kid that went there. “Does Del have family in town? Parents, brother or sister? Kids?”

“Yeah, sure. His parents are here. He also has a brother who lives in Seattle. No kids.”

No kids… “So what do you think Del did to get in trouble at work?”

Beth sighed. “Honestly? I hate to even say it because it makes me sound like a jealous loser, but I kind of wonder if he had some girl up in the office with him. I mean, what else could it have been that he can’t tell me about?”

What else indeed? Maybe sneaking out of the office to kill Michelle Smith.
Jane kept the thought to herself, but considered it carefully nonetheless. “Does the security room have a security camera on it? Could you go back and watch the video of it?”

Beth was silent. “Well, now that you mention it, I feel really stupid. There is a camera. We all know it’s there. We just don’t get to monitor it ourselves. I don’t know that it is monitored, actually, or who does it. But probably someone reviewed it, and that’s how they know what he was up to. Then again, maybe he only got caught because there was an actual security issue.”

“If you could find out more about that camera, you could find out what he had going on that night.”

“Man, I’d like to do that.” Beth sounded wistful.

“Why don’t you?” Jane desperately wanted to be invited to view the film, but tried to keep her hope out of her voice.

“It’s not a bad idea. At the least I can ask the boss about it. She might just tell me what he did, anyway.”

“Lafayette?”

“Yeah, Meryl Lafayette. She runs the show here. How did you meet her?”