Free School's Out for Murder (Schooled in Murder Book 2) by Tracy D. Comstock

Gabby and Greg's at 8."
    "Sounds good to me. Pick you up around 7:30?"
    "You got it," Emily said, rising up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
    Tad ran his hand down her cap of hair, and she shivered. They tried to avoid PDA in front of the students in order to set a good example, but even the lightest touch from Tad went straight to her heart. "See you then," he smiled and headed off to start closing up the Mathletes booth. The police presence that Detective Gangly-Arms had posted at the carnival was circulating, encouraging everyone to close up for the evening so they could herd the crowd home.
    Seeing that her kids were already working to close up shop, she took a quick detour by the history department's booth. They were the ones selling funnel cakes this year, and Emily figured if she had one now, she'd be hungry again by the time they got to Gabby and Greg's. The whole school carnival experience just wasn't complete for her until she'd had her funnel cake.
    Sharon Grimes, the senior high history teacher, flashed her trademark barracuda smile to Emily as she placed her order. Sharon, a nice enough woman, but a terrible gossip, clearly had something to ask Emily. While Emily waited on her funnel cake, Sharon leaned against the counter of her booth, her ample hips digging into the corner edge. She didn't seem to notice, however, as her attention was focused solely on Emily. "So," she began, her toothy grin never wavering, "I saw Tad escorting that cute new junior high math teacher home last night." She continued to stare at Emily, but Emily was giving her nothing to work with. When Emily remained silent, Sharon continued, "I certainly hate to see people getting the wrong idea about those two, what with them working so closely together in the math department and all." She tried to put on a look of sympathy, but her predatory smile refused to be pulled down. There was nothing Sharon Grimes loved more than a hot piece of gossip.
    Accepting her funnel cake from one of the students working the booth, Emily looked Sharon straight in the eye and said, "Yes, it would certainly be a shame for someone with nothing better to do than to start some kind of ridiculous rumor. Especially when all Tad was doing was helping out a colleague who had just experienced a devastating loss."
    Sharon's eyes went wide, and her barracuda grin changed to a gaping guppy's mouth. Before she could come up with a retort, Emily gave her a saccharine-sweet smile and turned on her heel. She tried a few bites of the funnel cake, but unfortunately, Sharon's nastiness had ruined her appetite. Passing by a trash barrel, she dumped in the powdered-sugar goodness. What a waste! she thought with disgust.
    Her kids had most of the booth packed away for the night by the time she got back, so she sent the remaining crew on its way and finished securing the tarp over the booth herself. One of the boxes of stuffed ravens she had brought back was holding up one side of the tarp. As Emily bent to push it more securely under the booth's covering, she tried to brush off the vaguely uneasy feeling that was sneaking up her spine at being left at the scene of the crime, so to speak, by herself. Get ahold of yourself, Emily , she told herself firmly. There are still plenty of people around, and you have nothing to be afraid of. Still, when she caught a flutter of white out of the corner of her eye, she gave a nervous gasp and let go of the rope she was trying to secure. Patting a hand over her racing heart, she looked closer and saw that the flutter of white was actually a piece of paper half-caught under one of the boxes of stuffed ravens. Securing the final rope, she reached down and grabbed the now-unfrightening piece of white paper.
    What did you think it was, silly? she berated herself. A ghost? Despite her admonitions to her scaredy-cat self, when she saw what was typed on the piece of paper, her heartbeat ratcheted back up to gallop. The scrap of paper