I’m about to head over and suggest they speed up the ticket process. The last thing we need is the Starry Falls natives coming at us with torches and pitchforks due to slow service on opening night. But a flicker of light catches my eye off to the right on the expansive lawn and I dart past them, past the crowd of costumed people waiting to get into the Mortimer Manor, and hurtle my way over the sea of cats lounging on the front lawn until I hear a scream, and I pause once I see Stephanie near the enormous oak that sits off near the side of the structure.
“Steph! What is it?” I ask as I take up her hands and she quickly pulls away from me.
I glance down at our hands as the moonlight illuminates a dull red film over them.
“I tried to wake her up—that’s when I saw the knife,” she pants.
“What knife?” I ask as I spot a body lying next to us on the ground, a woman dressed as a witch with a blade buried in her back. “Oh my God.” I gasp as the woman’s pale face comes into focus.
Witch Hazel won’t have a chance to move up in the party-planning ranks.
Hazel Newton is dead.
Chapter 3
Stephanie screams so loud and long it feels as if the entire scene has morphed into an opera.
I’d join her, but one of us needs to keep our head together.
“Would you be quiet?” I hiss in the sweetest way I know how. There’s a hose around the corner. Wash your hands and run all the way back to my cabin. Shep’s old girlfriend, Nora, is large and in charge down at the sheriff’s department, and if she sees you here, she’ll take you in, and, unfortunately, Uncle Vinnie only set one of us up with a new identity.”
Someone screams behind me, and I quickly toss my baby sis into the bushes before turning around to find Miggy running this way.
“What in the fresh H-E-double hockey sticks is this?” she shouts and, honest to God, if I were doubting her country twang earlier, it’s here loud and clear now. “Oh my Gawd, is that… is she?”
I give a little nod, and without missing a beat Miggy picks up right where Stephanie left off with that aria.
Soon, an entire crowd of witches and goblins swoop in, and it looks as if a coven just descended on Mortimer grounds.
Shep heads my way, and all I can see are the whites of his eyes glinting in the night.
“Bowie?” he barks my name out like a reprimand. “Is that blood on your hands?” He glances down. “Is that a body?”
The sense of bewilderment in his voice is palpable.
Shep checks the poor girl for any signs of life before calling it in to the station, and soon the entire manor is crawling with sheriff’s deputies. The area is cordoned off with caustic yellow caution tape, and how I hate that the manor has become a crime scene yet again.
Nora Grimsley, Shep’s ex-fiancée, heads our way with her dark hair slicked back into an impossibly tight bun, giving her that inadvertent facelift look, but it does nothing to stave off those frown lines around her mouth from years of practice. She has on a long, black, trench coat that swings behind her like a cape, giving her the appeal of the biggest, baddest witch of them all.
“Bowie Binx.” She scowls my way. “Let me guess. You didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t do it.” My adrenaline spikes just hearing her mocking tone. “Shep, you have to believe me. I was coming out to say hello to Thea and Flo, and that’s when I saw someone lying on the ground.” It’s true for the most part, so I decide to go with it.
Nora gives him a look that says if you believe that, I have a haunted house I’d like to sell you—and the way things are going around here, Opal will have just that on her hands.
Four murders in four months have got to be a record. It’s no wonder Nora is glaring at me as if I’m America’s most wanted female serial killer. Just my luck to ditch the feds and the mob—only to be locked away for a string of homicides I had nothing to do with. Although, the blood on my hands speaks volumes.
Shep cocks his head my way, a quizzical look taking over his handsome face.
“Bowie, why don’t you clean up and I’ll talk to you in a bit?”
Nora huffs, “Bowie, go home. I don’t need another body winding up on the premises tonight. And I’m afraid with you here, the odds of that happening are in death’s favor.” She glares over at Shep a moment. “Are you romantically involved with this person?”
This person?
You’ve got to be pretty angry with someone to reduce them to the lowest common denominator of a noun. I didn’t even get a gender in that quip.
I join Nora in glaring over at Shep, and I’m not entirely sure why I’m so angry about anything.
Regina Valentine crops up, clearly having crossed the yellow line intended to keep civilians at bay, and I have a feeling she’s about to cross another line.
“I can answer that.” She winks Nora’s way. “No, they are most certainly not romantically involved. The only person Shep has been romantically linked to for any prolonged period of time since the two of you split ways is me.” She scoots in next to him. “Now, what can I do to assist the situation?”
Nora squints her rage toward Regina.
“Did you witness this murder?” Nora’s curt tone lets me know she’s not so keen on Regina either.
“Nope.” Regina offers a snide smile my way. “But I see that you’ve already caught your suspect. Don’t worry, Shep. I’ll let Opal know I’m willing to take my position back at the café. I’ll have your coffee and donuts ready in the morning just the way you like them.”
“Leave.” Nora doesn’t bother getting her message mixed up by way of adding words.
Shep carefully untangles himself from Regina’s tentacles.
“I agree with Nora,” he says. “Both of you should go. I’ve got to deal with the coroner. Bowie, I’ll speak with you soon.” He’s right back to frowning my way.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I head over to the hose around the building and about ten different cats yowl at me as they scatter.
A dark stain on the wall around the spigot looks to be smeared with dried blood, and I have no clue if it was from either my sister or the killer. To heck with it. If they haul Stephanie in, I’ll be the one who ends up behind bars.
I scrub down the wall, and myself in the process, and as I’m doing so a glint of silver catches my eye. I bend over and fish the object out of the rising puddle at my feet, only to discover it’s an oblong antique silver earring. The top is but a button and hooked onto that is an oval with an intricate filigree design. A clip-on no less.
Could this belong to the killer?
I shove it into my pocket without thinking twice.
Should I be looking for a woman with one earring?
I should give it to Shep.
I should stay away from Shep, especially with Nora around, and maybe Regina, too.
Without thinking, I scoop up the nearest cat, Bubba, a fuzzy, brown, long-haired cutie with neon green eyes, and we head back to the front where it seems all of Starry Falls is congregating.
“Bowie!” a female voice calls from behind, and it’s Tilly headed this way with Opal. “What the heck is going on? Regina is going around telling everyone you’re the killer!”