Eat, Drink, and Be Scary (A Ravenmist Whodunit Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Olivia Jaymes

  “It is great here. So, what did you do today?”

  “You’re selling the inn, aren’t you? I figured this day would come.”

  I’d handled this badly. I was supposed to be a people person but you would never know it by this fiasco. “No, I’m not. Not at all. I love this inn and I can’t imagine ever wanting to sell it.”

  “Then why are you asking me about moving?”

  There was suspicion in his tone so I decided to come clean. I’d already screwed this up royally.

  “I looked at a house today and I really liked it. I haven’t made any decisions,” I said hastily. “I wasn’t even really looking to move but I have to admit that the house is fantastic. I just…well…if I go I’d want you to go with me. You know, if you wanted to.”

  As quickly as he’d appeared, he disappeared into the wall. The only sign I hadn’t imagined the whole thing was the puff of cool air that accompanied his entrance and exits. There was no answer to my question and I waited a long time, the minutes ticking by slowly. My stomach twisted into a painful knot as I sat there hoping he would answer me. After ten minutes or so, I gave up. Standing, I placed the chair back against the wall.

  I’d messed it all up. Terrence hated me.

  It had only been a few days but already I’d grown quite fond of the young man in my closet. Only a voice but we’d shared something precious. My Grandma Rose.

  I’d try and talk to him again tomorrow. I was walking toward the bathroom when he finally spoke, making me jump with surprise, although his tone was softer than normal.

  “Thank you, Tedi. Your offer is nice but I think that I’d rather stay here. This is my home.”

  I couldn’t argue with that and I didn’t try. My throat was tight at the mere thought of leaving my new friend. Square footage and big windows were nice but they couldn’t replace what I had here.

  “Good night, Terrence. Sweet dreams.”

  “Good night, Tedi. See you in the morning.”

  I wasn’t going to buy that house.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I’d barely dragged myself out of bed when my phone started chiming and lighting up. Missy’s ringtone. It must be important to be calling me so early in the morning. She knew I needed at least two cups of coffee before I liked talking to people.

  “Decent people don’t call this early.”

  I could hear Missy’s snort through the phone.

  “If you want me not to tell you my news, then I’ll hang up while you caffeinate. Your choice.”

  “I want the news.”

  I just wanted it an hour from now.

  “I ushered Roger Mullaney’s soul into the light about twenty minutes ago. He was murdered in the house you looked at yesterday.”

  In my shock, I lost hold of the phone and dropped it onto the maple flooring with a loud clatter. I muttered a few words that my mother wouldn’t have approved of and quickly picked it up, hoping I hadn’t lost Missy, too.

  “Sorry. So sorry,” I said immediately, pressing the phone to my ear. “I dropped the phone. Are you serious? Are you sure it was Roger?”

  “I kind of have to be sure, Tedi. I can’t go around harvesting souls willy nilly. They frown on that. I have to fill out a heck of a lot of paperwork so I have to know who is who. It was Roger and boy, was he upset that he was dead. He was madder than a wet hen. He practically stomped into the light saying that he was glad he was dead and anyplace had to be better than this.”

  “Did you ask him who the killer was?” I asked, excited that we might finally have broken the case. If Roger named his murderer, chances are we’d know who killed Jerome, too.

  Except that I had no clue why anyone would want to murder Roger. It didn’t make any sense. This was two murders in our little town in less than a week. It was unprecedented and I hoped it wasn’t a trend. That could really hurt tourism.

  “I didn’t have to ask him. He’d…written the name on the wall. Where he found a pen in that empty house I have no idea.”

  I did. There had been several felt tip pens next to the sign-in sheet for the open house. If he was close enough, he could have grabbed any one of them.

  Focus. He named his killer. This isn’t about pens.

  “What name did he write?”

  “Lorna. Well…almost. He wrote the L-O-R before he expired.”

  “Did you call the sheriff?”

  “Of course, I did, Tedi.” Missy’s tone was a tad sarcastic. “As soon as I got the page, I changed into my reaper robes, guided his soul into the light, and then called the sheriff to let him know. We had coffee and donuts together while I told him all about my cool hobby with dead people.”

  “You could have just said it was a stupid question.”

  “It was a stupid question.”

  “What I meant was did you maybe make an anonymous call to 911 or something?”

  Another heavy sigh. “We both know that Ida is on the switchboard this morning and she’d recognize my voice.”

  That was true. Living in a small town had its blessings and its curses.

  “So he doesn’t know?”

  “Not as of twenty minutes ago.”

  Jack needed to know but I didn’t know how to tell him. Like Terrence seeing Lorna the morning that Jerome was killed, I couldn’t tell him that a supernatural entity had given me the information.

  “Maybe I could call Angela and tell her I want to see the house again. Then we can discover Roger.”

  “That’s a good idea. Can you act shocked and surprised?”

  “I’m a veritable Meryl Streep.”

  “Right. Okay, well give her a call. The sheriff isn’t going to find out until someone walks into that house.”

  I hung up with Missy but hadn’t put down my phone. It was early. Really early in the morning, the sun barely up. It would be weird to call Angela at this hour, no matter how much she might think I want that house.

  I’ll shower first. Then I’ll call. Roger – the poor man – wasn’t going anywhere.

  I sent Angela a text as soon as it was a decent hour to do so but she didn’t answer, which was weird. Normally she was right there, responding within seconds but I waited for twenty minutes and nothing. I triple checked that the text had actually been sent and then sent another one, but still no answer. I decided to drive to her office, hoping that she was okay. We’d had a rash of dead bodies in this town and I didn’t want my real estate agent to be one of them. She didn’t have any connection to Roger, but Lorna didn’t seem to be too fond of her.

  Lorna. I really hadn’t thought she was the one. I didn’t know anything about killers but I hadn’t gotten that feeling from her. Looks like I couldn’t trust my gut instincts when it came to murder.

  I didn’t get as far as the door, however. Jack strode into my lobby, almost mowing down a nice old gentleman who was looking for the local paper. From the set of his jaw and shoulders I had a feeling that I didn’t need to see that house again. Someone had already discovered Roger’s body.

  I needed to act shocked. I wasn’t supposed to know about this.

  “Jack, to what do we owe the honor?”

  “I need to speak to Cherie Mullaney and also Lorna Bergstrom.”

  Act casual. You know nothing.

  “I haven’t seen either one of them in the dining room for breakfast yet. Is it important?”

  Hooking his thumbs in his belt, Garrett’s eyes narrowed. “I would think so. Roger Mullaney is dead.”

  Roger was dead. Deceased. Passed on. Not alive. Jack certainly hadn’t sugarcoated it.

  Missy had already told me but this was confirmation. Not that I thought she would lie to me but the whole Grim Reaper thing was still sort of surreal at this point.

  And Lorna was the killer. It still didn’t make much sense to me. I could see her wanting Jerome dead but Roger? If they’d been having an affair why did she murder him? My head hurt from all of the unanswered questions.

  “Are you listening to me?”
r />   Not as closely as I should have been.

  “Yes, I am but there’s a lot going on here this morning.”

  What with people dying and one of my guests being a murderer…

  “Is there another murder I need to know about?”

  I didn’t think so but these days anything could happen. The town had gone crazy.

  “I would hope not,” I said in a huffy tone. “I’ll go find Cherie and Lorna. Maybe they slept in.”

  “I’ll wait in the drawing room. I need to speak to Cherie undisturbed, and then I’ll speak with Lorna.”

  Because she was the killer. Roger had said so with his last dying breath. Sort of.

  “I’ll go find Cherie first.” I paused before heading upstairs. Would he tell me? “Who do you think did it?”

  “I can’t really discuss that, Tedi. Can you get Cherie now?”

  “I’ll go find Cherie. You can drop into the kitchen and get some coffee and breakfast if you like. I doubt you’ve had time for any.”

  His features softened and he actually looked grateful. “That would be good. Thank you.”

  This friendship might work out after all.

  But first he had to arrest Lorna Bergstrom and tell Cheri Mullaney her husband was dead.

  Chapter Twenty

  Crying women in my drawing room were becoming a terrible habit. This time it was Cherie sobbing into a box of tissues while Jack paced back and forth asking questions.

  This time, however, I wasn’t hiding in the closet listening. I was hovering in the doorway ready to deliver news that wasn’t going to make the sheriff happy in the least. Jack was asking questions and Cherie was tearfully answering them. Her story was that she’d been tucked up in bed all night and hadn’t even realized Roger had left their bed.

  That sounded familiar. Who had said that? Right…Lorna.

  “Do you know why he might do that?” the sheriff asked. “Does he do that often?”

  Cherie sniffled into her tissue. “Lorna must have lured him there.”

  Apparently, she’d been told about Roger’s last dying message.

  Jack stopped his pacing, his fingers rubbing at his temple. He looked uncomfortable. “Mrs. Mullaney, did you know about your husband and Lorna Bergstrom?”

  Dabbing at damp cheeks, Cherie nodded. “He told me not long ago. He said they were done and he wasn’t going to see her anymore. That’s why we were looking for a house here in Ravenmist. Sort of a new start. We both thought a weekend home in the country would be nice. It’s what we’d talked about for years.”

  I’d been married in the past, folks. I must tell you that I would have been hard pressed to go on a couples weekend with my husband’s ex-fling. I wouldn’t care that it was over. I would care that he’d had an affair with a woman who was supposed to be my best friend. I wasn’t the type for a catfight but I sure wouldn’t be all chummy with her either.

  “Yet you came here with Lorna and Jerome this weekend,” I said before I could stop myself. Jack and Cherie hadn’t even known I was standing there and now I was asking questions. “She had an affair with your husband. You’re a much nicer person than I am.”

  Scowling, Jack shot me a warning look that said I’d be hearing about my transgression. I was out of line but my mouth sometimes ran ahead of my good judgment.

  “Tedi, I’ll ask the questions here.” He turned back to Cherie. “But it’s actually not a bad one. You don’t think it’s strange to travel with your husband’s ex-mistress?”

  “The vacation was planned months ago. After this I would only have to see them at social events where we were both invited. Besides, I loved and trusted Roger. If he said it was over, it was over.” More sobs from Cherie, her shoulders shaking with their force. “We came here for a vacation and look what’s happened. This town is cursed.”

  Cherie probably wouldn’t be buying my parents’ home anymore. She wouldn’t want to settle down in a town where two husbands had been murdered.

  Both husbands? Seriously, what were the odds? They had to be astronomical.

  “Tedi, did you need something?”

  I was pulled from my reverie by Jack’s sharp tone.

  “Yes. I need to speak with you.”

  “Unless it’s important–”

  “It’s important.”

  He sighed heavily and gave me another look. I was definitely going to hear about it when we were alone.

  “Will you excuse me for a moment, Mrs. Mullaney? I’ll be right back.” He followed me out of the drawing room and into the hallway. “Tedi, I’m working. You cannot just waltz in there–”

  “I can’t find Lorna.”

  That stopped Jack in his tracks. His eyes widened and he took a minute before replying.

  “What do you mean you can’t find her?”

  “I can’t find her. Or Adam Taylor, her attorney. They’re both not in their rooms or anywhere on the grounds. My front desk clerk said she saw them walk out of the inn about a half hour ago. I checked the parking lot and Adam’s car is gone.”

  “They’re gone?” Jack growled. “They walked out and left?”

  “If it helps, all of their stuff is still in their rooms. Maybe they just went out for breakfast.”

  “That doesn’t help. We have to find them. I’ll put a BOLO out for the vehicle.”

  He pulled his phone from his pocket and barked orders into, presumably to some poor deputy back at the station. When he finished his call, he tucked it away again and moved to head back into the drawing room. But…

  “Jack, did you ever see the movie Strangers on a Train?”

  He paused, his brows drawn down into a scowl. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

  He really did have a healthy ego. We were friends and that’s all. I was still getting used to not being annoyed by him.

  “Heavens to Betsy, no. I’m asking you if you’ve seen the movie.”

  He shrugged and sighed heavily. “Maybe. I don’t know. If I did it wasn’t memorable. Do we have to talk about this now?”

  “You’d remember if you saw it. It’s an Alfred Hitchcock film starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker. An old black and white.”

  The only kind of movies I watched when I was taking a break from baking shows.

  Rubbing the back of his neck, he shifted impatiently on his feet. “Can you get to the point here? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

  “I’m trying. It’s about two people who meet on a train. I won’t go into detail–”

  “Thank you,” Garrett interrupted, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “But basically, they decide to switch murders. They both want someone to be eliminated from their lives so Robert Walker suggests that they each murder the other’s problem person. That way they’d never get caught because they have no connection to the victim. Farley Granger thinks it’s all a joke and agrees but doesn’t think that it’s actually going to happen. Robert Walker, on the other hand, thinks he’s perfectly serious and goes and does the murder. Then he pressures Farley Granger into killing his problem person. They made a deal, after all.”

  “And?”

  I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Can’t you see it?”

  “Pretend I can’t.” He checked his watch. “And make it fast because Mrs. Mullaney is waiting for me.”

  “What if Lorna and Cherie are Robert Walker and Farley Granger?”

  “Then they’re the dumbest criminals on the planet. They’d be the first suspects and they haven’t alibied each other. Sleeping is not an alibi. The movie sounds really interesting and I think I should rent it, but I don’t think Lorna and Cherie came to Ravenmist to kill each other’s husbands. If they did, they should have worked on the plan a little longer. It sucks.”

  I threw up my hands in frustration. “The probability of both their husbands being murdered has to be a billion to one. Don’t you think it’s odd?”

  He leaned down so we were almost nose to nose. “Of course, I do. You’re absolutely r
ight, the odds are out of the stratosphere. But you’re forgetting one thing. We already know who the murderer is. Mullaney told us. Lorna Bergstrom.”

  “She might have killed him but that doesn’t mean she killed Jerome.”

  Although Terrence had seen her walking around early that morning. That detail was still not known by Jack.

  “The knife wounds were similar, although I don’t have all the details. The state lab is running more tests. I’ll ask this question. Do you have reason to believe that this is a Strangers on a Train scenario, other than you watch too many old movies?”

  “No,” I admitted. “It just seemed strange.”

  “This whole town is strange. Can I go now?”

  “Yes, you can go. I was just trying to help.”

  “I know and stop it. Investigating a murder isn’t for amateurs and it can be dangerous. Stick to running the inn, okay?”

  What could I say? I had to agree.

  “Okay, I let the professionals handle it.”

  “Thank you. Now if you really want to help me, keep an eye out for Lorna Bergstrom and Adam Taylor. If they return, call me.”

  If Lorna Bergstrom killed her husband, she’d be an idiot to come back.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I tried to concentrate on spreadsheets and purchase orders but my thoughts kept drifting back to Lorna, Cherie, Jerome, and Roger. Adam too, although I wasn’t sure just what role he played in all of this mess. The whole situation was bad on so many levels I couldn’t see how Jack was going to make any sense out of it.

  Finally, I gave up and sent a text to Missy to meet me at Daisy’s for a late lunch. The special today was chicken and dumplings. I didn’t want to miss it.

  The cafe wasn’t far so I pulled on a pair of gloves to go along with my coat and headed down Maple. The weather was sunny but crisp, a perfect autumn day. The town center was bustling as usual with shoppers and tourists checking out the funky antique shops. I waved to Chet who owned the newsstand and Sandy who ran the beauty shop. Both places were good for gossip but everyone in Ravenmist knew that the best stories could be found at Daisy’s. Some of it was even true.