Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) (12 page)

After
she’d spoken with Roy earlier in the day, Tj had called Jenna and Kyle and asked them if they could meet with her after she finished downhill practice for the day. Dylan was going to be tied up for the rest of the night, and if she was even going to consider getting involved in an investigation she had no business going anywhere near, she was going to need the help of her two best friends.

“So where do we start?” Jenna asked after the waitress walked away with their order
.

“I’m not sure
,” Tj admitted. “Chelsea is obviously protecting someone. She’s sitting in jail rather than telling Boggs who stabbed Travis, so it must be someone she cares about. Maybe we should start with a list of people with motives to kill Travis and
then
try to figure out who Chelsea might sacrifice herself to protect.”

“Good idea.” Jenna
grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from her purse and handed it to Kyle, who’d volunteered to be recorder. “We’ll put everyone we can think of on the list and then sort the suspects based on the likelihood that Chelsea would sacrifice herself to protect them.”

“
Right off the top of my head, I think we can put Barney Johnson on the list.” Tj explained to Kyle Johnson’s devotion to helping Travis get a start on the professional circuit, and Travis’s total disregard for his contribution once he’d made it big. “He has motive and has been very vocal about the fact that Travis shouldn’t be allowed to participate in the winter carnival. I saw him at Angel Mountain the day of the murder, so I know he had opportunity. The only thing I’m not certain of is whether or not Chelsea would feel the need to protect him.”

“And let’s not forget
Steve Parker,” Jenna added. “He gave up a chance to work with Sean Wright in order to coach Travis, who then dumped him to hire some guy by the name of Melvin Horton. I don’t know that Chelsea is particularly close to the man, but I can understand how he might be motivated to do harm to someone who has seriously derailed his career.”

“C
oach Parker is still in town?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah
. He runs the ski-and-snowboard clinic up at Angel Mountain,” Tj explained. “He still works with some of the local talent, but Travis was his ticket to the big time. I’m sure there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t find himself wishing he’d decided to dump Travis and get on board with Sean.”

“Isn’t Sean Wright the other snowboarder do
ing demonstrations this week?” Kyle wondered.

“Yeah,” Tj answered
. “He’s worked himself into a solid second place in terms of national attention, behind Travis. He’s staying at Angel Mountain, and I know he’s been meeting with representatives from some pretty big companies.”

“Which I guess gives him motive as well,” Jenna pointed out.

Kyle added him to the list. “Anyone else?” he asked.

“There are quite a few local businesses that threw money at Travis’
s career in the hopes of getting national exposure as a sponsor once he made it big,” Tj added. “I don’t know if any of the merchants affected by Travis’s defection are mad enough to kill him, but we can keep the possibility in the back of our minds.”

“Jeremy Young from Angel Mountain Sports and Pete Quinn from Quinn’s Boards and Skis were the largest contributors to Travis’
s bank account,” Jenna said. “I’m sure it stung when the guy dumped them without a how-do-you-do, although Pete at least appears to be doing well without Travis.”

“Why do you say that?” Kyle asked.

“He just completed a major remodel on his store,” Tj supplied. “It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“Ok
ay, are there any other local businessmen who might want to off the guy?” Kyle asked.

“There are a lot of local business
es that invested in Travis, but the list is pretty long and most sponsors were into the guy for a relatively minor amount,” Tj said. “My dad gave Travis money, but there’s no way I’m adding him to that list.”

“Agreed
,” Kyle answered. “So who else
should
we add?”

“T
he guy has been making waves since he’s been in town. I know Murphy was madder than hell when Travis started a fight that resulted in a significant amount of damage to his bar, and Albert Pitman complained that Travis was disturbing his other guests with his parade of women. And let’s not forget about me,” Tj added.

“You?”
Jenna asked.

“Everyone knows I wanted to wring his neck for messing with my kids
. My kids.” Tj paled. “Oh God, I think I know who might have done it.”

“Who?”
Kyle and Jenna asked in unison.

Tj felt
like she might cry.

“Are you okay?”
Jenna put her arm around her.

Tj took a deep breath
, then looked around the room to make sure no one was listening. “The entire time we’ve been making this list, I kept thinking that while each and every person on it had a motive, not one of them seemed like someone Chelsea would sacrifice herself to protect. And then I remembered Sarah.”

“Sarah from the bar,” Kyle realized.

“Sarah who from what bar?” Jenna asked.

Tj explained about the short
-lived love affair between Travis and one of the girls on her downhill team. “Sarah thought he cared about her. She was devastated when she found out he didn’t. Sarah was at the bar with Travis. Chelsea came in, said a few choice words, then stormed out. Travis followed her and I went to talk to Sarah. I was with her for a while, but I had to get going to be on time for the dress rehearsal. She was still at the bar when I left. What if she heard Chelsea and Travis fighting and went into the locker room? Maybe Chelsea’s ice ax was sitting conveniently on a bench and she picked it up and stabbed the bastard who broke her heart? And Chelsea couldn’t bear to turn her in, so they fled the scene of the crime?”

“I hate to say it,” Jenna admitted, “but that theory makes more sense than any of the other suspects we’ve come up with
so far. The question is, what should we do? If Chelsea wanted us to turn Sarah into the cops, she would have talked to Dylan herself. There has to be another answer, another way to look at things.”

“You make a good point,” Tj
said. “Maybe we should talk to Sarah ourselves and then take it from there.”

Sarah Blakely lived with her widowed mother on the outskirts of town. Tj knew the family had struggled since Mr. Blakely’s death, as evidenced by the number of times Sarah had had to miss class or downhill practice because she was needed at home to babysit her younger siblings. Kyle, Jenna, and Tj had discussed it, and they’d decided that Tj would go alone to talk to the girl. If she did kill Travis, she was most likely frightened, and a large group coming at her all at once might do more harm than good.

“Coach Jensen?”
Sarah answered the door. Her face was pale and the swelling around her eyes made it appear that she hadn’t stopped crying since the previous day. “I’m sorry I missed practice today. I had to stay home to watch my brother and sisters.”

“Is your mom home?”
Tj wasn’t sure she should question a minor without her mother’s presence.

“No
, she’s at work.”

Tj could hear the sound of kids arguing over the cartoons playing in the background
. She could leave and come back at another time, but if Sarah had killed Travis, the poor girl was probably stressed to the max. Leaving her alone with her brother and sisters when she might not be emotionally stable didn’t seem like the right thing to do either.

“Would it be okay if we talked for a minute?”

Sarah looked nervously behind her. Tj could see that a boy who looked to be around ten and two little girls who seemed to be a couple of years younger than that were watching them from behind the couch. “Maybe we should talk outside,” Sarah suggested. “Just give me a minute to get my coat.”

“I’ll wait here on the bench
.”

Tj sat down on a hardwood bench that was situated to the left of the front door
on a covered front porch. A black cat sat in the living room window and a small tan-and-white dog peered at her from a doghouse on the edge of the enclosed porch. She prayed Sarah hadn’t killed Travis, but deep in her gut she felt she most likely had.

“I think I know why you’re here
.” Sarah sat down quietly next to Tj, who waited for her to continue. “I didn’t mean to do it.”

“Can you tell me wha
t happened?” Tj placed her arm around the girl, who had begun to cry.

“I was a virgin
, you know. Eric and I have been dating for a long time, but I told him I wanted to wait. I dated a few guys before Eric, and they broke up with me the minute I told them I wasn’t ready to . . . well, you know, but Eric was different. He not only didn’t break up with me, he didn’t even get mad. When I told him that I wasn’t ready to,” Sarah hesitated, “become intimate, he looked me in the eye and told me he loved me. He told me he’d wait forever if need be.”

Sarah started sobbing so hard
, Tj was afraid she’d hyperventilate. Tj tightened her arms around the devastated teenager and held her until the tears lessened. Finally, after several minutes, she looked up and accepted the tissue Tj handed her. “I really blew it,” she continued. “I was so stupid. Eric loved me, and I threw it all away to pant after some jerk who could barely remember my name.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened
with Travis?” Tj asked gently.

“I was at the lodge after practice
. I was supposed to meet up with Brittany and Jilli, but they were late. Travis walked in, and I recognized him immediately. He used to hang out with my older sister. She’s in college now, but I used the connection to introduce myself. He was so nice and
so
charming. He said he remembered my sister, and he complimented me on what a ‘babe’ I’d grown into. He offered to buy me a drink. I know I’m too young to drink and should have said no, but I was flattered that this famous guy would be interested in me. I guess I sort of lost my head.”

Tj sat quietly and waited for Sarah to
go on. She’d learned a long time ago that, when speaking to her students about matters of the heart, it was usually best to let them set the pace.

“We hung out over the next few days
. At first it was casual, but as time went by, things got a little more physical. When it came time to”—Sarah stopped speaking and looked at the ground—“well, you know, I sort of freaked. I mean, I’d never done it before, and it didn’t feel right. I told him I didn’t want to do it, but he called me a tease and he . . .” Sarah started to cry again, “he forced me.”

“Oh
God,” Tj breathed. “He raped you?”

Huge tears streamed down Sarah’s face
. “I don’t know that rape is the right word. It started off as consensual, but when I got scared and told him I didn’t want to go all the way, he called me a tease and made me finish anyway. The next day, when I saw him walking toward the bar, he apologized. He said he was drunk and didn’t know what he was doing. Fool that I am, I believed him. He offered to buy me a drink so we could talk. I knew we had the team meeting, but it seemed so important, so I agreed.”

“Then Chelsea came in,” Tj supplied.

“Yeah. She was yelling and cussing, and I could tell she was mad as hell, but then I looked at his face. He was totally into her. She slapped him and left, and before I knew it, he’d left me sitting alone to go after her.”

“And that’s when I came over.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m so sorry I left you
. I should have made sure you got home safely.” Tj hugged the fragile girl.

“It’s not your fault
. I told you I’d go home, and I would have, but I remembered that I’d left my jacket in the locker room. I went back to get it, and Travis and Chelsea were in there fighting. She was accusing him of seducing another girl she knew. She said he’d ruined her life. He admitted it, and then the bastard started laughing like it was some big joke. I don’t know what happened. I saw the ax sitting on the bench and I totally lost it. I picked it up,” Sarah started sobbing again, “and stabbed him in his cheating heart.”

“And Chelsea?”
Tj asked after a few minutes.

“She told me to go home
. She told me she’d take care of it. I came straight home and haven’t left the house since. I didn’t even know the guy was dead until an hour ago. I know I stabbed him, but he seemed mad rather than dead. He was yelling at me, and I thought he was going to hit me or something, but then he started to stumble around like he was totally tanked. He got this strange look on his face and fell on the floor.”

“H
ow’d you find out he was dead?” Tj wondered.

“Eric called
. I told him everything.”

“Is he the only other person who knows?”

Sarah’s eyes filled with tears. “I guess. Unless Chelsea told someone.”

Tj was trying to decide how to proceed when her phone rang
. She looked at the caller ID. “Hey, Roy.”