I bent down and scooped Dep into my arms.
“Merr-ow!”
Shivering, I held her close. “Shh!”
I stepped out from behind the hedge and peeked up the street.
The white ghost had stopped. He was facing me.
Hoping that he wouldn’t notice the cat in my arms and also hoping that my tall conical hat with its cape-like veil and attached frizzy hair would fool him into thinking I was someone else, I headed back the way I’d come. Quickly.
An ambulance and a firetruck rumbled toward Wisconsin Street from the direction of my house. Neither used a siren, but the lights on the ambulance were flashing. The firetruck’s engine roared.
No wonder Brent hadn’t answered his phone. He had probably run up to my front door to find out what was going on. Check your messages, Brent, I thought silently.
Four costumed people ran across the intersection ahead of me. They were heading toward my house and were only about a half block from where I was trotting toward them. Two of them were exceptionally tall, one was almost as tall, and the fourth one was short. They had to be Misty, Scott, Hooligan, and Samantha, on the way to my party, and they were running because they’d seen the firetruck and the ambulance leave my section of the block.
Running too, I shouted, “Yoo hoo! Yoo HOO!” Would Hooligan, dashing farther and farther from me, hear the new nickname we’d given him?
A devil in a form-fitting leotard with a tail and horns sprinted behind my friends. She was carrying a pitchfork. She passed underneath a streetlight and looked my way. Even her face was red. She stopped in the middle of the street.
Footsteps were closing the distance behind me.
I ran faster. Dep howled her complaints about the bouncy ride.
Pitchfork in hand, the devil sprinted toward me.
Right behind me, Steve’s voice said, “Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you and that dress with all the sparkly things on it?”
I stopped and whipped around to face him.
Chapter 32
Steve lifted that pillowcase, overflowing with candy and I didn’t know what else, above my head. Clutching Dep firmly with my right hand, I raised my left hand to fend off the heavy pillowcase.
I shouted, “Rich didn’t kill Patty!”
Steve’s hand faltered, but he again raised it and the pillowcase.
I wasn’t clutching Dep firmly enough. She sprang out of my arms and toward the eyeholes in the ghost costume. Steve yelped almost as loudly as Dep yowled.
Ducking the full pillowcase, I dropped my basket. I also accidentally stepped on one corner of Steve’s sheet. That, plus the momentum of the overflowing pillowcase, the surprise attack of my cat, and the soles of the gymnastic devil’s red sneakers striking a double blow into Steve’s face sent him crashing to the sidewalk.
Spewing candy, the pillowcase thumped onto the ground beside the hedge.
Jocelyn completed her flip and landed upright without tripping over her forked tail. I thanked her.
“You and Dep did more than I did.” She didn’t seem the least bit out of breath.
Dep’s leash was still around my wrist. “Good cat, Dep,” I said. She was a puff of fur, staring at Steve lying on his back on the sidewalk.
“Is he okay?” Jocelyn asked.
Steve’s eyes were closed, but he was breathing. I wasn’t sure if he was unconscious or merely stunned. “I don’t know. Where’s your pitchfork?”
“I left it back there. It’s only cardboard.”
“Can you help me roll him onto his stomach?”
Together, we rolled him over.
I took off my hat. Jocelyn held his hands together behind his back.
Slowed by Dep pulling at the leash looped around my arm, I wrapped my hat’s veil around and around Steve’s wrists. Despite its yardage, it wouldn’t work well as handcuffs, so I sat, cradling my guard cat, on Steve’s back while Jocelyn sat on his legs.
My phone was, fortunately, still nestled in the basket with the chocolate bars. I reached for it.
Headlights shined in my face. A low black car with a kayak on top purred to a stop beside me. Brent leaped out. He was wearing one of his normal, well-tailored suits, an enormous, floppy bow tie, and a tiny clown hat riding on clouds of bright red hair. He shouted, “Get away from him, Em and . . .”
“Jocelyn,” I supplied. Still holding Dep, I jumped up, grabbed my basket with the candy and phone in it, and ran toward my street. Jocelyn kept up with me except for a second when she stooped to pick up her red cardboard pitchfork.
Four costumed adults raced up the sidewalk toward us—Misty, Scott, Hooligan, and Samantha.
Scott and Samantha reached us and stopped, arms out for hugs and protection. Misty and Hooligan passed us and sprinted to the tableau on the sidewalk. The headlights of Brent’s car lit everything. Steve was still facedown with a witch hat at his side and a mound of spangled veil around his wrists. Crouching beside Steve, Brent removed the veil with, apparently, some difficulty and snapped real handcuffs on Steve’s wrists. Although the situation was far from humorous, the bright silver reflective spangles on the veil and the fluffy gray hair attached to the hat looked so silly that I wanted to giggle.
“Are you okay?” Samantha asked.
Keeping a firm grip on Dep’s leash, I set her down on the sidewalk. “Probably better than you. What are you supposed to be, Snow White?”
“Yes. Can’t you tell?”
“Don’t eat any apples.”
“Don’t worry.” She pointed toward Hooligan bending over Steve. “Prince Charming has already awakened me from my deep sleep.”
“What is he wearing?” He looked like a giant cardboard circle with legs and a head.
“He made his costume. He’s a donut.”
My giggles erupted, and Jocelyn joined in. “With pink icing and sprinkles,” I managed. “It’s a good thing he cut armholes in the front, or he wouldn’t be much help to Brent and Misty. I think Brent is dressed as a clown, but I don’t know what Misty’s supposed to be. Something green, apparently.”
“I’ll let her tell you,” Scott said.
I looked up at my tall friend in his pirate hat and cape. A toy garden hoe stuck out of one suspiciously long sleeve. “You’re Captain Hook, I guess.” Maybe Misty was Peter Pan.
A marked police cruiser pulled up behind Brent’s kayak-topped car. Two uniformed officers jumped out. With help from Brent, Hooligan, and Misty, they got Steve to his feet. The uniformed officers put Steve into the back of the police car and shut the door. Instead of climbing into the cruiser right away, they returned to Brent, Misty, and Hooligan, and stood talking.
The pillowcase and the candy that had spilled from it were still on the ground. I picked Dep up again and told Jocelyn, Samantha, and Scott, “I have to go talk to them.” With the handle of the basket over one wrist and Dep firmly in my arms, I ran toward the five officers. Captain Hook, Snow White, and the she-devil came with me.
Seeing us barreling toward him, Brent closed the distance between us. He was still wearing the ridiculous hat, wig, and bow tie, and he was carrying my hat, complete with its veil and its hair. “Are you okay?” He held out his arms.
I placed Dep, still in her harness, into them. The leash was around my wrist with the handle of the basket. “I’m fine, but see that pillowcase and all that candy near the hedge? Steve was carrying it, so the officers need to take it as evidence.”
Brent glanced down toward the hem of my black velvet dress. “Em, are you responsible for the hat and hair and whatever else is attached to it that we found tangled around Steve’s wrists?”
I gulped. “They’re mine. Including the tangling. Sorry about that.”
His mouth twitching, he gave me the hat.
I put it on and tossed my head to straighten the veil and allow it to trail down to the hem of my gown the way it was supposed to. “My costume is elegant,” I informed him. “You win the prize for funny.”
He gla
nced toward our other friends. “Maybe.” The grin won out over his attempt at keeping a straight face. He gave Dep back to me and returned to the uniformed cops. While the rest of us stood back, the uniformed officers put on gloves, picked up the pillowcase and the candy, slid it all into a supersized evidence bag, and shut the bag into their trunk. They drove away with Steve and his bag of loot.
Jocelyn, Scott, Samantha, and I joined Brent, Hooligan, and Misty beside Brent’s car. The headlights were still on. Brent told us, “The injured woman was taken to the hospital to be checked out, and the firefighters said your range did what it was supposed to do, Emily. It shut itself off.”
Samantha looked about to do a physical on me, right there on the sidewalk in front of a porch full of gaping onlookers.
I quickly asked Misty, “What are you supposed to be?” She was wearing green-and-black plaid pants, a green-and-yellow-striped vest, a bright green jacket with huge white buttons, and an olive hat with an iridescent teal feather sticking out of it.
Misty piped in a squeaky voice, “I’m hurt that you can’t tell. I’m a leprechaun.”
“Of course,” I answered. “You’re just the right size.”
Hooligan fretted in faked sad tones, “I bent my donut costume. I made it in your honor, Emily, and it didn’t even last until the party.”
“I have a worse complaint,” I said. “A murderer sat in some of the donuts I was going to serve tonight.”
Brent pointed out that my house was now a crime scene.
I wailed, “My party!”
Brent squeezed my shoulder. “Tom is among other guests waiting for you outside your house. He offered to have the party at Deputy Donut. I’ll take you back so you can talk to him and the others.”
“Do you mind if I walk? Dep isn’t fond of riding in cars, and the little heroine deserves special treatment. Twice tonight, she slowed Steve down and made him easier to find and catch.” I couldn’t help a laugh that might have sounded hysterical. “She tripped him, and he sat in fudge frosting without knowing he was a marked man. I mean ghost.”
Brent turned to Misty. “Can you drive my car to Emily’s? I’ll walk with her.”
Misty accepted the keys he dangled in front of her. “Glad to.”
“I’ll go with you, Misty,” Scott said. “To make certain you don’t take Brent’s car for a three-week joyride.”
“Okay, only two weeks.” She closed herself into Brent’s car. Scott smiled at Samantha, Hooligan, Brent, and me. He took off the pirate hat, tossed it into Brent’s car, folded himself into the passenger seat, and closed the door.
Brent asked me, “Are you warm enough?”
“That’s why I brought Dep.”
“Here.” He took off his jacket and draped it around my shoulders.
Tilting my head forward to loosen the jacket’s grip on my trailing veil and fake hair, I thanked him. “You’ll be cold.”
“I’ll carry Dep.”
“You already look strange enough without adding a cat to the effect. She goes better with a witch, even a witch with a blazer over her gown.” Now that Brent had removed his suit jacket, his shoulder holster, complete with revolver, was plainly visible. It did not go well with the clown hat, the puffs of red hair, and the huge purple-and-yellow polka dot tie.
“Then I’ll walk close to you.” He slung his right arm, the one farthest from the holster, around my back and grasped my elbow through his jacket.
The five of us humans—Hooligan, Samantha, Jocelyn, Brent, and I—walked more quickly than we might have if we’d merely been out for a stroll.
I asked Hooligan and Samantha why they’d been walking to my place instead of driving.
“We changed at the police station,” Hooligan told me. “And walked from there. Misty did, too. Scott was waiting for us at the fire station. He’d already put on his costume.”
“Fallingbrook will never be the same,” I moaned.
Hooligan explained, “We figured the walk back to our cars at the police and fire stations would be good for us at the end of your party.”
Brent said, “I maintained my dignity. I hid in my car in the police station parking lot and put on my hat and bow tie.”
“Dignity,” I repeated, smiling up at the red fuzz sticking out above his ears. “I see.”
“I walked from my house,” Jocelyn said. “Except when I was doing cartwheels and flips.”
Dep was becoming heavy, and carrying her and the wicker basket was awkward, but I liked her furry heat. Walking in the slinky gown and trying to match my steps to Brent’s longer ones wasn’t easy, especially since he seemed to be trying to shorten his steps. Without stumbling into each other much, we made it to my place.
Brent’s car was behind my red car and the donut car in the driveway.
Yellow tape was draped around my porch. My front door was standing open. The living room light was on, and a uniformed officer stood in the doorway.
Tom, Cindy, Nina, Misty, and Scott were in my front yard. Dressed as a burglar, Tom held hands with Cindy, who was in a cat costume. Nina had made a gray plush Eeyore costume with drooping ears and baggy arms and legs.
Cindy told me, “You and Dep can spend the night with us and go to work with Tom in the morning if you feel up to it.”
I thanked her. I didn’t think anyone in the group knew that I’d been stunned by a skillet, and I wasn’t going to let them think a little thing like chasing after a murderer in a fudge-stained ghost costume had been overwhelming. “I’m sure I will.”
Brent asked me to go inside with him and show him where everything had happened. “And if you can without disturbing evidence, you can pack a bag for the next few days until we let you back in here.”
He conferred with the officer who had taped off the house. I handed the basket and Dep and her leash to Jocelyn. She told Dep what a good kitty she was. Brent and I ducked underneath the crime scene tape and went inside. I showed him the skillet and the platter of smashed donuts on the living room floor. In the kitchen, I showed him where I’d played dead while listening to Steve confess what he’d done and why. We both double-checked the stove’s burners. They were off.
“I’ll take your full statement later,” Brent said.
The firefighters had closed my back door and windows. Brent and I made certain they were all locked.
“Did Steve go upstairs?” Brent asked.
“No.”
“Then you can go up and pack a bag. Let me know, though, if anything has been disturbed.”
“Okay.” I started up the stairs.
“Em?”
I stopped and leaned over the bannister. “Yes?”
“Pack some warm clothes for kayaking. The moon is full tonight, but if we don’t make it tonight after your party, the moon will be almost full tomorrow night. And thanks to you, I won’t have to work tomorrow night.”
I smiled. “Okay.” I packed enough clothes, including some warm ones, for several days and took my bag outside.
Tom and Cindy had parked Tom’s SUV on the street. Tom was happy to drive the donut car, even with Dep howling in the cat carrier in the rear seat. I put my bag in the trunk. Samantha and I sat beside Dep’s carrier. Our presence didn’t seem to placate the meowing and obviously insulted cat. Hooligan rode in the front passenger seat.
Cindy took Scott, Jocelyn, and Nina in Tom’s SUV.
Brent got into his own car, with Misty in the passenger seat. She appeared to be complaining about not being allowed to drive Brent’s car again.
We left my car, still with the kayak on top, in the driveway.
Naturally, Tom turned on the car-top donut’s sprinkle lights and set them to flash at their fastest rate. He dropped Hooligan off at the Fireplug Pub and let the rest of us out near the office door of Deputy Donut.
Samantha carried Dep, still muttering about her incarceration, to the back door. I took my bag and unlocked the office door. In the office, I let Dep out of her carrier. She ran up to the highest cat
walk and looked down as our costumed guests paraded from the office to the serving counter and the tables closest to the kitchen. The office would have been nice for a party, but it wasn’t big enough for everyone. I stuffed my bag underneath the desk with the cat carrier and followed the others into the shop. I dimmed the lights, giving the shop a party ambience. Still in her Eeyore costume, Nina made coffee while Tom-the-burglar offered soft drinks.
Jocelyn was supposed to join her boyfriend at another party, so Brent ushered her to a table near the front windows and took her statement first.
Samantha wasn’t about to let me do anything. Her hands on her hips and her expression stern for someone wearing a Snow White costume, she cornered me. “The 911 dispatcher reported two injured women at your address.”
“I wasn’t badly injured, only a little shocked. And mostly scared because of smelling gas.”
Samantha didn’t let up. “Was there some reason that you couldn’t stop the attacker from turning on the burners and blowing out the flames?”
“I fell on the kitchen floor.”
She glared at me.
“Okay, he hit me with the skillet, too.”
“Where?”
“The back of my head. If I lost consciousness, it was only for a second or two.”
Samantha sighed. “Let’s have a look.”
She sat me down. The others, except Brent and Jocelyn, who were talking at a front table, must have decided that Samantha’s use of the word “let’s” meant they were supposed to have a look at my head, too. They crowded around while Samantha gently ran her fingers through curls on the back of my head.
“See?” I demanded. “No blood.”
Samantha muttered, “It doesn’t look too bad, but there’s a lump. You should go to the hospital to have it checked out.”
“And miss my party, on a Halloween that’s on a Saturday night? When there’s also a full moon?”
Nina understood. She went into the kitchen and came back with ice wrapped in a kitchen towel. I obediently held it against the lump on the back of my head.
Hooligan came in with wine and beer. Samantha gave him a big hug.
Brent finished taking Jocelyn’s statement and told her she was free to go to her other party. He asked her if she wanted a ride.
Boston Scream Murder Page 24