Page 2 of One Little Memory (Cherry Valley Novella)

Detective Phoenix Halston sighed to himself. “Mrs. Grossman, are you sure you parked your car here?”

“Mr. Halston, I may be old, but I am not stupid.” She pulled herself up to her full four feet ten inches.

Tilting her umbrella back to take in his over six-foot frame, she glared up at him.

“I park my car in my parking spot every day.” She pointed to the spot they were standing in.

“You should know that since you were one of my students. I expected more from you, Mr. Halston. Your brother, Falcon, maybe not so much, but you were always the smart one.”

Phoenix tried not to grimace as he wiped rainwater out of his eyes.

Mrs. Grossman had been his high school biology teacher.

Actually, she’d been everyone’s high school biology teacher if they’d grown up in Cherry Valley in the last fifty years.

She was a tiny, bird-like woman with a spine so ramrod straight Phoenix had always wondered if it wasn’t made from metal.

Her piercing blue eyes had struck terror in more than one heart when labs were due, including his own.

“When was the last time you saw your car?” Phoenix asked.

Mrs. Grossman’s avian nose wrinkled. “It was fifth period, right after lunch. I saw it when I was visiting Mr. Langston in his classroom.”

Mr. Langston was the Chemistry teacher that everyone loved. He was the only one who had a way with Mrs. Grossman. He made her smile, something no one else had ever managed to Phoenix’s knowledge. “You didn’t see it after school?”

“Did I say I saw it after school?” She shook her head dismissively. “I am disappointed in you, Mr. Halston.

“Actually, it’s Detective Halston. I’m asking questions to try and establish a timeline of your car’s disappearance. So, you went to the football game after school but didn’t notice your car was missing until now.”

She glared at him. “Yes, Detective .”

“Did anything out of the ordinary happen today?” The fact that she went to the football game seemed weird to him. The four years he’d played, he was sure he’d never seen her at a game. The teachers tended to sit together.

Her eyes narrowed and her lips turned downward.

“I went to the game if that’s what you’re referring to.

Parker Downey and Clayton Reeves did not turn in their labs.

I told Coach Moore that the boys couldn’t play because they currently had an ‘incomplete’ in my class.

I went to make sure that he followed the rules. ”

Oh, boy . Coach Moore would not be happy about that. Parker and Clayton were two of the best players on the team. No wonder they lost the game. Now he knew where to start asking questions. “Was that the only thing out of the ordinary today?”

“Well, Parker and Clayton came to see me after the game and asked for extra help. I just spent the last hour and a half with them going over the lab and helping them complete it.” She smiled with a grim satisfaction. “I doubt they will be late for any more labs this season.”

Phoenix knew for sure now that the football team had something to do with the missing car.

The football team was pissed at Mrs. Grossman.

Never a good thing. There was no way Parker and Clayton would willingly go see Mrs. Grossman after a game, no matter how much they wanted back on the team.

They would have waited until next week. No doubt they were sent to distract her.

He tried not to smile. There was no way they would know she’d keep them for an hour and a half.

“Okay, Mrs. Grossman. Let me have a quick look around and see if I can find your car. Do you want me to get an officer to drive you home?”

She harrumphed. “If you don’t think you’ll find it right away, then I suppose I’ll have to have a ride.”

“I’ll call and have a uniformed officer take you home. Why don’t you wait in the teacher’s lounge? He will come get you when he’s here.”

“That will do,” she said and then turned on her heel and walked back toward the school.

Phoenix wiped the rainwater off his face again.

His black jacket was wet all the way through, and so were his jeans.

He was pretty sure he would be able to track down Mrs. Grossman’s car.

As he slogged his way through puddles toward the stadium locker rooms, he checked the time.

Just gone eleven p.m. The game ended a couple of hours ago, but chances were excellent that Coach Moore would still be here.

He rounded the corner of the stadium and glanced through the fence at the field.

A burst of laughter tumbled free. Mrs. Grossman’s new Fiat 500 straddled the fifty-yard line.

Didn’t need to be a rocket scientist, or even a police detective like him to know what had happened.

A grin broke out, and then he laughed some more.

He chuckled all the way to the coach’s office.

“Coach Moore,” he said as he knocked once on the open doorway and walked in.

“Phoenix.” Moore offered his hand. “What brings you by?” the big man asked.

Phoenix knew the man was older, but he still looked the same as he had when Phoenix played for him in high school.

He was a tall man with a bald head, a big belly, and kindly brown eyes.

He was a true teddy bear ninety percent of the time, but that other ten percent?

No one wanted to be the target of that. Ever.

The scariest thing Phoenix had ever witnessed was when Coach found out that one of his classmate’s father was abusive.

Coach had set the man straight in no uncertain terms. It had been something to see. Something he would never forget.

Phoenix grinned and then started to laugh.

“What?” Moore demanded.

“I think Parker and Clayton and the whole team were a bit pissed at Mrs. Grossman.”

Coach Moore leaned back in his creaky chair. “Ya think? That woman.”

“I know, but I need you to call all the guys back here. Tell them they won’t get in trouble, but they need to put the car back where they stole it from.”

“What car? What are you talking about?”

“Come with me.” He escorted Coach through the hallway to the VIP section where they could see the field from the windows.

“Oh, shit!” Coach Moore stared at the small yellow Fiat in the middle of the big field. Then he let out a gut-splitting guffaw. Phoenix joined him, and the two laughed for a full minute. Finally, Coach Moore wiped his eyes. “That’s priceless.”

“I know. I wished we’d have thought of that when we were in school.”

“She drove a big SUV then. She switched to this one for sustainability reasons, or so she said.” Coach Moore sighed. “I’ll call them.”

“Just have them move it back into her parking spot so it’s there in the morning when she shows up. Tell them not to do it again, or else I’ll come looking for them.” Phoenix looked at the little car once more and laughed again as he walked away. “See you later, Coach.”

Coach’s goodbye was a garbled grunt which caused Phoenix to laugh harder.

Ten minutes later, soaked to the bone and dead tired, he was on his way home.

He was also damn hungry. At least the rain had started to slack off.

He was looking forward to having the weekend off.

When he’d first joined the Cherry Valley Police Department eight years ago, he’d thought the job would be exciting, interesting all the time.

Now he’d come to understand that his job mostly entailed things like Mrs. Grossman’s missing car or other small issues that were easily taken care of.

He’d come to appreciate it, too. These were his people, his town.

He liked to know they were safe at night.

The road curved to the left ahead of him. The highway department still hadn’t replaced the barrier on the embankment on the right yet. It was scheduled for next week. He’d be glad when it was done. The gaping hole made nerves tighten in him each time he drove past.

When his headlights displayed tire tracks in the dirt on the shoulder right above the embankment, his heart clutched.

He slowed to a stop and put on the red and blue lights on his police SUV.

The rain had tapered off to a drizzle. He reached over and grabbed the flashlight from the glove box and then climbed out of the SUV.

At the side of the road, he shone the flashlight downward into the darkness, which lit up the trees and rocks.

Moving his flashlight along to his left, he caught a reflection.

He steadied the flashlight. Broken glass it looked like.

He directed the beam forward, and a bumper came into view, and then he saw the rest of the car.

It was leaning precariously against the trunk of a pine tree.

He pulled out his radio and immediately called dispatch.

He asked for fire, ambulance, and more officers.

He had no idea if anyone was in that car, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

The car couldn’t have been there long because it had been raining off and on all day but very little water had pooled in the tire tracks, and he’d driven this road about an hour previously on his way to the high school.

The missing barricade caused enough anxiety that he’d have noticed the tracks.

His radio crackled. Everyone was on the way. He ran his beam over the car once more and decided he needed to get down there now. He couldn’t wait for the others. If someone was in the car, every minute counted.

He started down slowly, turning sideways and taking it one step at a time. It seemed to take forever, but in reality, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes. He touched the trunk of the car and then moved around to the side. “Hello?” he called out.

No response.