Deadly Games

    The body of Elizabth Hanlon, controversial Dean of Girls at Kennedy High School, is discovered in the boiler room of the girls' gymnasium. Her murder casts a pall over the waning days of the school semester. The eight teachers in the girls' Physical Educ-ation department are the primary suspects. Each has had a serious run-in with Dean Hanlon due to a severe clash with her philoso-phical approach to education, and each admits to disliking the woman, her attitude and her disciplinary methods.

Teri Hunter, popular tennis instructor, has been extremely outspoken in condemning the dean's antiquated methods in dealing with the problems of high school students of the nineties. Her passionate concern for the rights of students frequently places her in a contentious position with the school'd administrators. When the murder weapon, a tennis racket, is found in her locker, she becomes the prime suspect.  

Marty Arnold, young dance teacher who discovered the body, is another suspect. She's been on the dean's shit list for opening the dance studio for special practices on week-ends and for refusing to search students' lockers for contraband. Marty was heard having a violent argument with Dean Hanlon the day prior to the murder.

Teacher Pat Masterson was conducting a class in the swimming pool right next to the boiler room where the crime took place. The swim teacher is high on the list of suspects as the dean was high- ly critical of Pat's living arrangement with her fiance, and Pat had had numerous arguments with her.

Adie Ames, gymnastics coach and rumored lesbian, and Erin Dempsey, her black partner, were constantly harassed by the dean who left religious tracts in Adie's school mailbox and nasty messages on the couple's phone machine. The police discover that the two were involved in a furious fight in a Santa Rosa gay women's bar and are capable of violent actions.

Teacher Susan Patrick claims not to have been on campus at the time of the murder. She will have to prove this to the satisfaction of the investigating officers, for they have learned that she was in the dean's doghouse due to her lack of cooperation with many of the dean's pet projects, and she's incensed the old timers on the staff for discovering and exposing the existence of a department slush fund supported by illegally charging students for services.

    Barb Clark, the other dance teacher, who coordinates student productions between the music, drama and dance departments, is another suspect. The dean accused her of questionable and inap-propriate behavior for conducting private, extracurricular sessions with the handsome male student lead in the school's current prod-uction of 'Carousel'.

Thelma Hendricks, middle-aged and overweight member of the department, is another faculty member with a grievance towards the dean. She was unfairly accused of embezzling Athletic Club funds. In addition, the dean continually criticized her for the actions ofher daughter, Candy, a school drop-out, who has run off with a local drug pusher.

Sharon Garrett, the Chairman of the Department and the dean's best buddy, appears to be the one teacher above suspicion. They had similar philosophical approaches to the problems at Kennedy High School. During the course of their investigation, however, police officers Jim Collins and Harry Leonard uncover a torrid love affair going on between Sharon and a young male English teacher--certain to have been disapproved by the narrow minded dean.

Other possible suspects include a maintenance worker fired for exposing himself to girls on the tennis courts; an irate father whose daughter was injured in a gymnastic accident; a male stu- dent arrested on campus for selling pornographic photos of his girl friend; the leader of a gang whose girl friend was benched by the dean and not permitted to play in a championship basketball game; the local school drug supplier; an outstanding girl athlete who was punished for being caught smoking on school property; the high school prin-cipal's daughter who has always hated the dean for having a long ago love affair with her father; and a fiery, cause oriented hist-ory teacher who has threatened the dean for having him followed by the police.

    Detectives Collins and Leonard have the unenviable task of sorting out the problems inherent in the large, multi-racial high school leading to the murder. Evidence builds up implicating Teri Hunter who had a violent argument with her live-in boy friend the previous night and came to school in a bad mood the day of the murder. Lt. Leonard focuses on her as the protagonist. He has his own personal problems. His wife, Georgia, has taken his two young sons and temporarily left him due to his extra-marital affair with a female police associate.

    Detective Collins, a swinging single, has grown increasingly tired of this lifestyle. He yearns for a permanent arrangement with an old fashioned female, and he feels a growing romantic attachment to the attractive, out-going teacher, Teri Hunter. He desperately struggles not to let his feelings influence his duty. Despite her intense belief in the rights of her students resulting in volatile confrontations with the school's administrators, Jim does not believe that this warm, sensitive and attractive woman is capable of murder. He repeatedly points out to his partner the circumstantial nature of the evidence.

An attempt to drown Teri in the school swimming pool is designed to look like a suicide. A second attempt to push her off the San Francisco Bay Bridge results in a high speed chase through the East Bay to catch the real culprit. As the two detectives work diligently to unravel the mystery, the reader is presented with a poignant slice of what life is like in an urban high school.