Costume Corpse

by Marilyn Miggles

  * * *

  O V E R A N H O U R L A T E R and I was standing in one of the interview rooms watching through the glass as Eddy and Sheriff Mali interviewed Jonny Andrews in connection with Vera's death. The Zoro costume was spread out on the table before them.

  As I'd hoped, when they got to the garage they did see Jonny attempting to burn the costume and I was surprised with how he still strongly persisted in denying he had anything to do with Vera's death.

  "You're admitting you knew about the costume?" Eddy's voice came over the loud speaker in the adjoining room.

  "I knew about the costume, but I didn't use it to disguise myself so I could kill Vera. I swear to you!" Jonny cried anguishedly.

  "Then how did you know it was hidden at the garage?" Sheriff Mali asked.

  "I didn't know for sure. I had a feeling someone may have hidden there to frame me as they did Luke."

  "You admit Luke Pritchard was framed?" Eddy asked.

  "I think he was, but not by me!"

  Mali shook his head, "you're not making any sense." He said.

  "Do you know who the killer is? Is that what this is about?" Eddy asked.

  Jonny fell silent and put his head in his hands.

  "You know who did this, don't you?" Eddy persisted.

  "I can't say."

  "You're afraid of this person?" Mali asked.

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "I think you do. Tell us, Mr Andrews, or I'll have to charge you for obstructing police enquiries," Mali said.

  I had missed something major here. It looked as if Eddy had been right about this case being more complex than it seemed.

  "I can't tell you. I swore not to tell, we all did," Jonny said at last.

  "We?" Eddy asked.

  "Me, Vera, Sara Combs, Celia. We swore never to tell."

  "Never to tell what, Mr Andrews?" Mali asked.

  "Do you know the place called desert rock?" Jonny asked out of the blue.

  Sheriff nodded.

  "That's where you'll find your answer. There's a huge cave out there. At the entrance of the cave is where you'll find it."

  Mali and Shiller looked at each other as though trying to decide if he was in his right mind. Obviously they decided it was worth checking out what he'd said as they prepared to take him back to his cell.

  C h ap t e r11

  Luke was released and we had a long conversation at Lulu's diner where we had a banana and rum milkshake and raisin and pecan, maple traybake on the house to celebrate his release.

  I looked into his eyes and I was beginning to think we could go somewhere, though it still didn't feel as special as I thought it should if Luke was the one. Maybe these things took some time?

  "So, you know nothing about what happened at desert rock?" I asked, getting serious again.

  "Nothing at all. It seems my sister was a dark horse."

  "I'm dying to know what's happening out there. The Sheriff wouldn't let me go," I said, tapping my fingers on the table.

  "You'll know soon enough. Maybe Jonny is a lunatic and he made the whole thing up."

  "It's possible, but he seems sane."

  "They always do."

  "I don't think it's fair that I should be kept in the dark like this after I gave them the lead in the first place."

  "That's how it goes, I'm afraid. We'll just have to be patient."

  "That's right. Be patiently patient as my gran always used to say."

  "She sounded like a sensible lady."

  "I don't know about that. Some things she said made a lot of sense, though."

  * * *

  T H E S H E R I F F'S F O R E N S I C S T E A M had unearthed the remains of a teenage boy in the cave at desert rock. This was what the three of them had been sworn to secrecy about.

  Eddy had called round in the evening of that day to inform me of what was going on and I was ready to tear out my hair by the time he showed up.

  "You were right, Eddy, when you said the key to all this was something hidden in Vera' past."

  "I was, but we're still no nearer to finding out who the killer is."

  "Wasn't it all of them? Revenge for killing the boy?"

  "No, we're looking for one person. The other's are afraid of him that's why they're not saying anything."

  "Hm. I'll have to have a think about that. I suppose it's a question of which one of them is the most likely to have done it."

  * * *

  I W A S L Y I N G I N bed that night when it finally hit me what I had been missing! None of the people who were sworn to secrecy about the boys' death had killed Vera! It was someone yet unknown to me, but not unknown. Why, we had passed him at the garage. We had seen his feet!

  I dived out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater and grabbing a torch light, headed out to my car.

  When I got to the garage it was in total darkness. I looked up and saw that the streetlight had blanked out, so I switched on the torch light and had a look around the back.

  There were no houses for miles and it was eerily quiet. I shivered and moved on a few paces. I didn't really know what I was looking for, there just had to be some clue lying around.

  Crunching of feet on the gravel path startled me from behind and I spun around, shining the torch light in the face of a man I did not recognise. I had never seen him around town before.

  His face was difficult to describe except that it was a frightening face, so pale and calm and yet fierce at the same time. His dark eyes were staring at me and he didn't even seem to notice the flashlight full on his face.

  "Who are you?" I asked, for want of a better question.

  "Seb Coates is my name. I own this garage. You're tresspassing, Miss," he spoke low and he sounded friendly despite his face.

  "It was you who killed Vera? You who asked Jonny to get rid of the evidence?" I could feel my voice shaking.

  He was silent and he kept on staring straight at me with those frightening eyes.

  "Was she blackmailing you?" I asked.

  "She didn't know what was good for her. She was a fool. She should have kept her mouth shut."

  "You killed her to silence her about the boy you killed?"

  "It was an accident. Sam comb's death. I didn't mean for him to die. We were just fooling around and he fell. We were drunk see? We stole a car and Sam decided he would ride on the bonnet which was going swell until I hit a tree and he just fell. Just like that. I couldn't tell anyone what had happened."

  "What about the others? What about Sara Combs?"

  "Sara saw it all."

  "That is why she ended up in such a state. Not because of Vera's bullying like Leann thought."

  "I haven't seen her since."

  "What about Jonny and Vera? They were there too, and Celia?" I asked.

  I was trying to keep him talking while I reached inside my pocket for my mobile. Seb didn't seem to notice as he had somehow zoned out. I managed to dial Eddy's number a few times and hang up. I hoped he'd guess where I was!

  "Yeah, they were all in it. They helped me bury his body."

  "And what of the Comb's? Didn't they search for their son?"

  "Sure they did, but they would never find him. To this day they don't know what happened to him."

  "That's why Leann was too upset to talk about her family," I said, partly to myself.

  "Vera just wouldn't keep to her side of the bargain. She kept on sending me these blackmail notes."

  "So, you confronted her at the party disguised as Zoro and then framed Luke by hiding his letter opener in the restroom?"

  He nodded.

  "How did you get hold of the letter opener?"

  "That was easy. I asked Vera to get it for me. She was afraid of me like the others in her way, but the urge to have me in her power was stronger."

  I realised we had come to the end and there was still no sign of Eddy! There was a long silence and then to my horror, Seb reached out and grabbed the torch light from my hands.
At that moment I could hear police sirens and cars came screeching to a halt in the car park.

  Sheriff Mali and Eddy Shiller came running towards us.

  C h ap t e r12

  "Whew, that was a lucky escape if ever there was one, Bry!" Lulu said, after hearing all about my close call at the garage.

  "You bet it was!" Luke cried, sitting beside me at the diner.

  "I've learned something from all this though," I said smiling.

  "Good, let us hope you'll give the detective malarky a miss from now on," Lulu said.

  "I don't know about that, Lu. I have learned to look beyond the surface, however."

  Lulu rolled her eyes, "I think this calls for another tray bake on the house!" She called, on her way into the kitchen.

  "Or maybe something stronger?" Luke asked.

  I giggled.

  "I'll see what I can find," Lulu replied with a wink.

  * * *

  L A T E R T H A T D A Y I was surprised by a visit from Sheriff Mali himself and I was even more surprised to see he had come in plain clothes, a rarity with him. Was he perhaps come to make a truce? I doubted that!

  I was dressed a little better this time in a denim dress and thick tights.

  "Evening, Sheriff. Have you come to tell me I've missed something?" I asked jokingly.

  He didn't take the joke, but continued to stare at me, stony faced.

  "That was a joke, Sheriff."

  "Miss Womack, Bryony. We need to talk about things," he mumbled out, whilst turning his hat around and around in his hands.

  "Okay, come through," I said, at a loss about what things we needed to talk about.

  He followed me into the sitting room but refused the chair I offered him. Instead he paced around the floor.

  I settled on the couch, Sunny by my side, and watched him pace up and down for what seemed like forever before he finally turned to me and spoke.

  "Miss Womack, Bryony," he repeated in that strange mumbling way again. I was used to his dithering but this was just too much.

  I stared at him irritably.

  "I'm afraid I'm not very good at this sort of thing," he said, still without looking up.

  "You don't say."

  He looked up at me now and his face was full of purpose.

  His voice was firmer when he spoke again and he said, "however, to leave this unsaid would be to widen the gap even further between us."

  I was beginning to get impatient with him now and I shuffled uneasily in my seat.

  "I'm trying to tell you of my feelings for you. We have been so often thrown together that my feelings have developed from out of nowhere, and seeing you in danger like that has made me think even more of the pain of losing you. So I have come to ask you if you would allow me to date you, Bryony?"

  He'd spat it out at last to my shock horror! I just stared at him with my mouth open.

  "You can't be being serious about this, Sheriff," I said eventually.

  "I most certainly am," he said firmly.

  "Haven't we always hated each other? And besides, you are the last man on earth I would ever consider dating."

  He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "can you give me a reason for this?" He asked quietly.

  "Well, firstly I have always considered you to be an enemy, and secondly, my strong dislike of you developed when I heard the story about deputy Williams. You won't even admit your part in his death!" I cried.

  He glared at me angrily, "you know nothing about it!"

  "Don't I? I know enough, believe me. Besides, I had already decided you were a mean, cruel, merciless man before this. It only confirms it for me."

  "This is what you think of me?" He asked, calmly.

  "Yeah, it is."

  "Then there is nothing more to be said. Goodbye, Miss Womack." He put on his hat and was gone, for good I hoped.

  I sat there for a long time staring into the fire. I really wasn't a good judge of people after all!

  D E S E R T D R I F T

  S N E A K P R E V I E W

  C h a p t e r1

  The Arizonian desert was a vast wilderness surrounding Sunshine Bluff and I was getting used to the feeling of living in the middle of nowhere by now as opposed to New York where I was from originally.

  I was finding that I liked open spaces now and quaint little town's like Sunshine Bluff were growing on me for sure.

  My mom, whom I'd left behind in New York, even said I had picked up the local lingo in my time here, which was worrying!

  I had just printed a newspaper article about the desert expedition organised by Midge Dexter, the local man who likes to think he is a real life cowboy, that would take place at the end of the week.

  They were looking for plucky volunteers and Sheriff Mali had promised his protection, as they sauntered through the desert at land mark speed.

  It didn't sound much like my type of thing, but I wasn't going, or at least I thought I wasn't! That was until I was roped in to make up a group of four as one of the volunteers had pulled out at the last minute.

  I had agreed because the town was counting on me, but to be honest I wasn't too keen on the idea of having to spend so much time with the Sheriff after his shock revelation of his feelings for me.

  I could see there was no other way of keeping the locals happy, however. So I had no choice in the matter, it seemed.

  I only hoped my tendency to invite trouble and intrigue wherever I went wouldn't follow me into the desert. Time would tell if I was losing my touch.

  So off I went to pack. How do you pack for a trip to the desert? I would just have to make it up.

  * * *