Tj Jensen Cozy Mystery Boxed Set 2: Books 6-10 Page 9

  “It sounds like her interview technique could have used some finessing,” Kyle commented.

  “She approached the task like she was orchestrating a military attack. While the accident could have been just that, an accident, I’d be willing to bet Holly’s killer is still in the area and wanted to make sure he or she wasn’t found out.”

  “Maybe,” Kyle responded. “Colton might’ve spooked someone who didn’t want their secrets leaked, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the same person who killed Holly killed her. It sounds like she dug up new dirt on pretty much everyone there that night. If she intended to air all that information as a ratings booster, anyone involved might have wanted her dead.”

  Jessie might not have wanted Brett to know, even now, that she had cheated on him with Nathan, and Nathan might’ve wanted that fact kept secret as well. Samantha Colton had speculated that Jessie and Holly had been involved in a romantic relationship, and even if it wasn’t true, Tj doubted Jessie would want that aired on national television. Likewise, Dalton might not welcome the comparison of his infatuation with Holly to that of a stalker.

  “You’re right,” Tj realized. “Holly’s killer had the largest stake in wanting Samantha Colton gone, but there are plenty of people who’ll sleep more soundly tonight knowing she isn’t about to expose their deep, dark secrets to the world.”

  “Did Second Look send a cameraman along with Colton?” Kyle asked.

  “She didn’t bring one with her when she came to talk to me, and no one else has mentioned a cameraman, but I assume she had one somewhere in the wings. I mean, it’s a television show. A cameraman would be essential.”

  “Maybe someone should track down this person and see what they know. Colton clearly made some enemies doing what she does. It’s even possible someone from another cold case she was working on followed her to Paradise Lake with the intention of killing her. That’s what I would do if I wanted someone like her dead.”

  “Come again?”

  Kyle adjusted his position on the sofa so he was looking directly at Tj. “Think of it this way: The woman dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after interviewing a bunch of people about a ten-year-old murder. If Colton really was run off the road intentionally, the obvious conclusion is that someone involved in the current case killed her to prevent her from finding out the truth or, as we surmised, from leaking their secrets. And that may be where you find your murderer. But if I wanted to kill Colton, running her off the road shortly after she spoke to me would make me an obvious suspect. I’d wait until she moved on to the next town, the next cold case, follow her, and do the deed there. No one would be looking at individuals involved in the last story she researched or the next one she planned to research. It really is the smarter way to go about carrying out a murder.”

  “You’re a scary man, Kyle Donovan.”

  He smiled and shrugged.

  “But you aren’t wrong. We would need to look at individuals involved in this case as well as individuals involved in other cases she was working on. Specifically, those that haven’t aired yet. I’ll suggest to Roy that he should call the Second Look people to see if he can get that information.”

  “We can get information about Samantha Colton’s past cases online,” Kyle suggested. “The television show has a calendar of both past and future episodes. Maybe we can narrow it down and then call Roy. I bet the poor guy is swamped.”

  “I’m supposed to meet Hunter at the decorating party but this seems more important. I’ll text him and let him know I’ll be late while you pull up the website.”

  Kyle pulled up the site while Tj texted Hunter.

  “That’s interesting,” Kyle commented.

  “What’s interesting?”

  “Each episode listed gives a brief description of the murder as well as the identity of the reporting team who covered the murder. For those episodes which have already aired it also describes the outcome of the investigation.”

  Tj looked over Kyle’s shoulder.

  “See here,” Kyle continued. “Last week’s episode was a rerun, so the last new episode to air was two weeks ago. The murder involved a young mother in Kansas. The investigating team are identified as Carl Miller and Bianca Tillman.”

  “So?”

  “So if you look back through the episode descriptions you will find that there is always a team of reporters, yet so far no one seems to have spoken to anyone other than Samantha Colton.”

  “Yeah, I guess that is odd. Can you find the last case she researched?”

  Kyle flipped through the episodes. “The last case I can find where Samantha Colton is listed as a reporter is three months ago. She was teamed with a man named Frank Ralston. They investigated the murder of a college student.” Kyle paused as he scanned down. “It looks like she was having an affair with one of her professors. Local police were sure the professor killed her, but it turned out it was really another student who had been involved with the same professor the previous year.”

  “How often do most of the reporters come up in the rotation?” Tj asked.

  Kyle opened the webpage for the other recent episodes and jotted down the names of the reporters. “It looks like there are eight teams of reporters which means if you take into account the weeks when there are reruns or the show doesn’t air for whatever reason, three months between episodes isn’t really all that far off. Still in every case there is a team, so where is the second reporter.”

  “Did Samantha team up with Frank Rolston every time?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ll keep digging and see what I can find out.”

  Tj looked at her watch. She was going to be very late helping with the decorating, but this was more immediately important. “I should call Roy. If there is a second reporter, he should know about it and if there isn’t a second reporter he should be made aware that covering a case alone is not the norm. Plus, how can you have a show without a cameraman? The whole thing seems odd.”

  “Okay, you call Roy and I’ll keep looking.”

  Tj pulled out her cell and dialed the number to Roy’s private cell.

  “Hey, Roy,” Tj greeted when he answered his phone.

  “Hey, Tj. What’s up?”

  She filled him in on her discussion with Kyle.

  “I don’t really watch the show and wasn’t aware that there should be a reporting team but it did occur to me that there should be a cameraman. I spent a good part of the morning trying to find him with zero success,” Roy informed her. “I haven’t even figured out where Ms. Colton was staying. Not a single lodging in the area has any information on her. And that isn’t even the strangest thing I found out.”

  “What’s the strangest thing you found out?”

  “I called the Second Look offices to inform them about the accident and find out where she was staying and whether she had anyone with her. It took me three phone calls to get through to the right person, but when I did finally track that person down, he told me that while Samantha Colton used to be a reporter for them she no longer works for them.”

  “What? That makes no sense? If she no longer works for them why was she running around town interviewing everyone?”

  “The man I spoke to said that the Holly Riverton case was brought to their attention two months ago but they’d decided to pass on it. Samantha quit shortly after that. If Samantha Colton was in town asking questions, she was doing it on her own.”

  “Didn’t you check her out when she contacted you about talking to us?” Tj asked.

  Roy sighed. “Not as much as I should have. She had identification that proved she worked for Second Look, and she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Her story about doing a feature for the show seemed reasonable.”

  “Why would this woman come to Paradise Lake to investigate a murder she hadn’t been assigned to?”

  “The
man I spoke to had no idea.”

  “Wow.” Tj let out a long breath. “This was already pretty complicated, but now…”

  “Yeah, the whole thing just keeps getting odder and odder.”

  Tj glanced at Kyle who was looking at her. She made a motion to let him know she’d fill him in when she completed her call.

  “Did Samantha have any personal possessions with her when she had her accident? A laptop or cell phone perhaps?”

  “We didn’t find her laptop but the crime scene guys did find her phone. I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet, but I will. To be honest, I’ve been swamped. I really could use some help.”

  “Did you call the county office?” Tj asked.

  “I did. They said they’d try to find someone to send over, but it didn’t sound promising. That big poker tournament is going on over at the casinos and there are a million people in town. Sounds like they’re pretty busy.”

  “The gang and I will do what we can,” Tj offered.

  “Thanks. I was counting on that. I’ll see if I can find out about a computer and call you back. I do know there wasn’t anything in the car other than her purse which is where we found her phone, so unless we can figure out where she was staying…”

  “Check her purse for a small notebook,” Tj suggested. “She was jotting down notes the entire time I was talking to her. Maybe everything we need to know is inside. If nothing else, her notes should provide us with a suspect list.”

  After Tj hung up she filled Kyle in on her conversation with Roy.

  “That’s nuts. How could this have even happened? It seems like the first thing Roy would have done was check to verify that the woman was investigating on behalf of Second Look.”

  “You know I love Roy. He is a wonderful and caring man who I have known most of my life. But to be honest he’s only a so-so cop. Add that to the fact that he’s alone since Dylan left and Tim was arrested with only the temporary help the main office sees fit to send, and I can honestly understand how the fact that Samantha no longer worked for Second Look could have slipped through the cracks.”

  “Okay so if he doesn’t have help let’s help him,” Kyle suggested. “Where should we start?”

  “If she was working on her own there most likely isn’t a cameraman to find. Roy is going to check her phone and notebook. Maybe we should try to find out where she was staying. I really need to get to the decorating party but maybe you can use your techy know-how to check her credit card purchases or something.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll see what I can find out. We’ll compare notes once you are finished decorating.”

  Chapter 10

  Tj headed to the decorating party. She hated to leave Kyle to investigate Samantha’s movements the last few days on his own but she’d promised Hunter she’d meet him there and she knew several of the suspects would be there. Tj was operating under the assumption that everyone connected to the party the night of Holly’s murder was fair game for Samantha Colton’s intensive investigative campaign and therefore a suspect in her possible murder.

  Tj drove slowly through town on her way to the high school. The orange and white twinkle lights that had been strung in all the trees along the main drag sparkled as they reflected off the wet pavement.

  Hopefully tomorrow would be sunny and warm as predicted, allowing the football field time to dry out before the big game on Friday. Serenity High School had a good team this year, creating a buzz among local football fans that this could be the year the team made it all the way to the state finals.

  The rain had slowed to an occasional drizzle and the areas where seasonal streams had overflowed onto the nearby roadways were already beginning to recede. Because the schools were scheduled to be closed for Nevada Day on Friday, tomorrow was Tj’s best opportunity to carry out the plan she’d developed with Chantel to lessen Lexi’s embarrassment over the shower video.

  Before heading to the gym, Tj made a quick stop at her office to call the girls who’d offered to help pull off their plan. Tj was a popular teacher, and Lexi a genuinely sweet girl, so she had no problem convincing the girls on her team to help. If things went as planned, the sting from the video would be minimized, allowing Lexi to return to school with her head held high.

  She was about to call the last name on her list when her phone rang.

  “Hey, Roy. What’s up?”

  “I located that little notebook you were talking about. Looks like Ms. Colton wrote in a self-made shorthand, but I did manage to decipher a few things. She ranked her suspects based on the likelihood that they killed Holly.”

  “Okay so what are the rankings?”

  “Brett Conrad is number one, followed by Mackenzie Paulson, Jessie Baldwin, Jada Jenkins, and you.”

  “Terrific.”

  “Mia Monroe was sixth, but her name was crossed off.”

  “Colton mentioned she’d changed her mind about Mia as a suspect. Who’s seventh?”

  “Dalton Fowler, followed by Doreen Sullwold, Nathan Fullerton, and Vicki Davis.”

  “I spoke to Doreen Sullwold at the costume store the other day. She said that she and Vicki Davis came to the party together and then left together. Vicki spent the night with Doreen so we can cross both of them off the list. Most of the others should be here other than Jada. I’ll mingle and see what I can find out. Did you manage to find out who Colton spoke to prior to her accident?”

  “The number was blocked.”

  “That’s unfortunate. By the way, did you find any evidence explaining why Colton’s car swerved off the road?”

  “There’s a suspicious dent on the left front fender of her vehicle that doesn’t look to have been caused by the impact with the tree. The crime scene guys are still looking at it, but the evidence is inconclusive at this point.”

  “Okay, but at this point I’m going to operate on the assumption she was murdered. The woman ruffled a lot of feathers. Call or text if you get anything else.”

  “Will do.”

  After Tj had called all the students she needed to speak to regarding her plan to help Lexi, she headed over to the gym where the homecoming dance was to be held. The merry band of volunteers seemed to have everything well in hand.

  “Glad you made it.” Hunter kissed her on the cheek.

  “It looks like things are almost finished.”

  “Not quite, but we’re making good progress. We should be able to wrap everything up in a couple of hours. Want to grab some dinner when we’re done?”

  “I have the girls, and we have a new twist to the case, so maybe a sleuthing dinner with the gang? Kyle is on board, and I’m going to ask Jenna if she and Dennis want to meet with us as well. I’m thinking Rob’s, so the kids can play video games while we talk.”

  “Not exactly the romantic dinner I was hoping for, but I’m game.”

  “You don’t seem to actually need my help, so I’m going to mingle,” Tj informed Hunter.

  “By mingle do you mean investigate?”

  “You know me so well.”

  Hunter returned to his task while Tj scanned the room. In addition to Hunter and Jenna, who she could speak to later and who she knew hadn’t killed either Holly or Samantha Colton, there were seven other suspects in the room. Dalton Fowler had shown up with his wife, Marianne. Tj remembered Colton had interviewed Dalton on the day she died, and Marianne had indicated that the interview had upset her husband. Back in high school Dalton had been obsessed with Holly, and while his obsession could have turned to murder, Tj doubted he was the guilty party. Still, until she could prove otherwise, he would remain firmly on the suspect list.

  Brett and Jessie were also in the room. Tj was surprised they hadn’t left after his interview. The fact that Colton was dead wasn’t widely known at this point, yet the couple were laughing and having a good time. Was it possible they knew about the acci
dent because they had caused it?

  Doreen Sullwold and Vicki Davis had both attended the party on the night Holly was murdered but unless they both lied about being together, which Tj doubted, she’d cleared them.

  Mackenzie Paulson, the class valedictorian, was also there. Tj was surprised to see that she’d come to town early. Her job with NASA kept her busy most of the time, but here she was, chatting with Teddy Bolton, a local dentist who had surprised everyone when he became one after spending the majority of his high school years completely stoned. Both Teddy and Mackenzie had been at the party the night Holly was murdered.

  Tj decided to start with Mackenzie. She’d been second on Samantha’s list, which was surprising, and she hadn’t seen her since she’d visited Paradise three years ago.

  “Mac,” Tj greeted her enthusiastically.

  “I was hoping to run into you.” Mackenzie turned and hugged Tj. “When I saw Hunter and Jenna I thought you’d be here, but Jenna said you were dropping your girls off at a friend’s. You surely haven’t had children since I was here last.”

  “No, the girls Jenna referred to are my sisters.”

  Mackenzie frowned. “I thought you were an only child?”

  Tj explained how Ashley and Gracie had come into her life.

  “Wow. That’s a lot of responsibility.”

  Tj laughed. “Coming from a woman with top-level clearance who’s responsible for software that ensures our national security.”

  “A different kind of responsibility from raising children. I don’t think I could do it.”

  “It’s not so bad if you ease into it,” added Teddy, who had two sons of his own.

  Mackenzie looked around the room. “It’s so odd to see everyone married and settled into their roles of raising families. I work a lot of hours, and when I’m not working I hang out with people from work who likewise are single and child-free. Then I come to Serenity and the main topic of conversation is soccer camp and school carnivals. I feel like I’ve been dropped into another dimension. I’m probably the only one from our class without a couple of rug rats.”