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Ryan could tell that Shandra didn’t care for the man’s actions. He didn’t condone them either. By not standing up to the man’s grandparents, he’d put others at risk and possibly caused the man’s death.
The phone on the principal’s desk buzzed.
“Yes, Rachel? Just a minute.” Pawner held the phone and looked at him. “Do you want them to all come back together or one at a time?”
“I’d like them one at a time and in another office.” Ryan couldn’t imagine the women would talk candidly with him with their superior who ignored their complaints in the room.
Pawner spoke into the phone. “One at a time. Send Ms. Trainor into Mr. Marlow’s office. I know he left early this afternoon for a doctor’s appointment.” He replaced the phone. “Shandra do you know where the athletic director’s office is?”
“Yes.” She stood and walked to the door.
Ryan followed, feeling her agitation.
In the hall, she turned to him. “Can you believe he ignored these women’s claims to keep funding for the school?”
“I don’t like it either. I want you to sit in on the questioning. They’ll feel more comfortable having another woman present. And one they can tell understands.”
She nodded and turned down a hall, stopping in front of a door with the words “Athletic Director Don Marlow” etched on the glass.
Inside sat a slender woman with her blonde hair in a bun. Her back was straight as a yard stick. Her head swiveled as they entered.
“Hi Yvonne. This is Detective Ryan Greer with the Weippe County Sheriff’s Department. He’s investigating Mr. Huntley’s death.” Shandra pulled a chair up beside the woman.
“Ms. Trainor.” Ryan held out his hand. “This is an informal questioning to learn about the deceased.”
The woman relaxed a bit. “I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”
“You work in the Art Quad, so you must have come in contact with Mr. Huntley.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Not if I could help it.”
Ryan had hoped she’d be more forthcoming. “I have a file with your harassment complaint. Care to fill me in?”
Her eyes narrowed. “He kept the file? I figured because nothing came of my complaint, Mr. Pawner had thrown it in the trash.”
“He kept yours and those of several other teachers,” Shandra said, drawing the woman’s attention. “Even one by a student.”
Ms. Trainor shot to her feet. “I knew he had to be bothering the students. He was too much of a pervert not to.” She sat down and stared at Shandra. “How much harm did he cause?”
“We’re not sure. We just learned all of this,” Ryan said, bringing the woman’s gaze back to him. “You didn’t answer my question. What did he do to you?”
“Comments, backing me into corners, touching me inappropriately. I caught him following me one evening after I left the grocery store.” Her mouth twisted as if she’d bitten down on something distasteful. “That’s when I went to the police. But they said I needed to have seen him on more than one occasion and he had to have threatened my life.” She narrowed her eyes. “I think he got what he deserved.”
Ryan had to agree with her, but it was his job to find out who killed him. “When did you go to the police, before or after you filed this complaint with the principal?”
“After. I thought for sure with my complaint here and seeing him following me, something would be done. But it wasn’t. He did stop catching me by myself in the dance studio. I didn’t think about it other than I was glad I didn’t have to always watch my back.”
“Then you think he found a new victim?” Shandra asked.
Ryan studied her. Had the man been harassing her? She hadn’t said anything, but he knew she’d been in a similar situation before he met her.
“That’s the only thing I could think of.” Her hand covered her mouth. “I hope it wasn’t a student.”
Ryan had the same thoughts.
He dismissed Ms. Trainor and asked her to send in Ms. Miller, the woman who found the body and had registered a complaint.
Shandra stood, pacing the room when the woman left. “I hope that man hadn’t turned his attentions on a student.”
Ryan put a hand out, stopping her movement. She glanced down at him. “Did he harass you?”
She shook her head. “No. He was obnoxious, having his shirt unbuttoned too much and his gaze hovered on my body instead of my face, but he didn’t say anything or do anything that felt threatening. But I was taller than him. These women are all his height or shorter. He was preying on the females he felt superior over.”
He had to agree with her pronouncement.
A soft knock on the door revealed the woman he’d found standing with Stanley when he’d arrived.
“Come in, Ms. Miller.” Ryan stood, motioning to the empty chair in front of his.
The woman was petite, average looks, mousey brown hair. She scurried in and took the seat, smiling timidly at Shandra.
“Ms. Miller, it’s been brought to our attention, you are one of the teachers who filed a complaint against the deceased,” Ryan said.
The woman’s face blanched at the mention of the complaint. “I thought that had been tossed out when I realized Roger was the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Dalforth.”
“You were willing to forgive his behavior because his grandparents funded the Art Quad?” Shandra asked in a reproachful tone.
“No! I told him if he didn’t stop bothering me, I’d tell his grandfather. But I figured that was why Mr. Pawner didn’t move forward with it. He prided himself on getting the Art Quad when he took over as principal here.” Ms. Miller studied Ryan. “It was an accident, wasn’t it?”
“We won’t know anything until after the forensic lab finishes their evaluation. I’d like to know everything you can remember about this morning. Particularly any actions of the deceased.”
Ms. Miller glanced at Shandra. “I heard his third period class laughing and stopped outside the door. He said something unpleasant to a boy in his class who is challenged. The rest of the class laughed at the boy and he ran out of the classroom.”
Shandra couldn’t stop the anger bubbling up. That was why Boyd had cornered the nasty little man. “It was about Travis wasn’t it?”
“Who is Travis?” Ryan asked.
Here was her dilemma. Shandra was sure Boyd would not have hurt the man on purpose. He was just giving the bully a piece of his own medicine, but to withhold what she knew from Ryan would make his job harder and have her anxious he would find the truth and learn she’d known all along.
“Travis is a young man with Autism. He’s in my pottery class and doing really well.” She sighed. “I came in the art building after lunch and found Travis’s older brother, Boyd, pushing Mr. Huntley up against the wall.”
Ms. Miller gasped.
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Ryan accused.
“Because I could tell that Boyd was trying to make Mr. Huntley feel like a victim, like he’d done with Travis. Boyd wouldn’t kill anyone.” She had to make Ryan realize the boy wasn’t a killer.
“You don’t know that. You’ve been around enough murder investigations to know it can be anyone.” Ryan turned his attention to Gertrude. “Did you see Boyd or Travis when you went into the commons?”
The teacher shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone until I got to the office.”
“Who was in the office?”
Shandra understood by Ryan’s questions and his lack of eye contact with her, that he was upset.
Gertrude stared at the wall across from her as she thought about the question. “Rachel, Nancy, Mr. Shepard.”
“Rachel is the secretary at the desk,” Shandra said, filling Ryan in. “Nancy would be Ms. Tait, who had a complaint as well. Mr. Shepard is one of the custodians.”
Ryan jotted all this down in his notepad before glancing up at the teacher. “Do you have anything else you can think of? Any other times you saw someone talking with the deceased? Or anyone hanging around the Art Quad who usually didn’t?”
“No...” Gertrude shook her head.
“Why did you register a complaint about Mr. Huntley with your principal?”
Shandra wanted to reach over and tug on Ryan’s coat sleeve to get his attention and show her unhappiness at his blunt questioning. But she knew that wouldn’t help matters.
“Because he would catch me in the media room alone and would get into my bubble until I’d find myself backed into a corner. He’d say things that made me uncomfortable and even skimmed his hand over my breast once.” She shuddered. “And I think he followed me home one Saturday after I’d been shopping. I had the feeling someone was watching. I kept looking and thought I spotted him sitting in a car across the street from my house.” She scowled. “That was creepy.”
“Did you ever see him make the same advances on a student?” Shandra couldn’t stay out of this, worrying young women may have been exposed to the man’s disgusting ways.
“Once or twice he had a student cornered like he’d done with me. I’d get his attention and wave them away.”
“Did you tell Mr. Pawner about it?” Shandra couldn’t believe the woman had let the man get away with bothering the students.
“What good would it have done? Russ didn’t believe my allegations against the man, so why would he do anything if I told him about students?”
Shandra sat back in her seat. She had thought this was a caring environment for kids to learn, but she was seeing a seedier side to the school and the teachers, and she didn’t like it.