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

by Olivia Jaymes

  “Please join us, Tedi,” Jack said, nodding toward the empty seats. They’d been seated at a four-top so there was room.

  He was only being polite.

  “I don’t want to intrude.”

  “Nonsense,” Jack replied briskly. “It will be nice to actually talk to a human being. Tyler just stares at his phone the entire time.”

  “I’m playing a game,” the teen protested. “I’m not staring.”

  “Playing, staring, it all looks the same, son.” He looked back up at me. “Seriously, you shouldn’t eat by yourself in the kitchen.”

  It would be churlish to refuse and besides, I really wanted to hear about the case from the source itself.

  “If you’re sure…”

  “We’re sure.”

  I sat next to Tyler who had given up his menu and was now, indeed, looking at his phone. Andrea took our orders and quickly brought me a tea from the beverage station. The chilled liquid felt good on my parched throat. I’d not only worked up an appetite, I’d worked up a thirst, too. I’d been too busy to get a refill this afternoon.

  Jack wanted conversation so I decided to start one. A nice neutral subject.

  “I would have thought you’d be home handing out Halloween candy,” I remarked, taking another sip of my tea. “Did anyone tell you it’s Halloween?”

  There were several people in the dining room in costume and all of my staff had dressed up as well. Andrea was wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope.

  “I did notice it but I made sure my porch light was turned off and we came here for dinner.”

  “That’s a good way to get your windows soaped and your trees TP’d.”

  Jack only smirked at my remark. “I’m the sheriff, Tedi. No one is going to do that.”

  He really didn’t have a clue.

  “Would you like to make it interesting? I’ve got five bucks that says you’re going to wake up to Charmin waving in the wind. It’s supposed to rain tonight, too.”

  His eyes narrowed and his lips turned up slightly at the corners. An almost smile.

  “I don’t think five bucks is all that interesting. How about twenty?”

  If Jack thought I was going to back down, he was mistaken.

  I held out my hand. “You’re on.”

  He shook it but that superior expression was still there. “How come you aren’t giving out candy? Aren’t you worried about having your windows soaped?”

  “We don’t do that here at the inn. We already threw a killer of a party.”

  Is it too soon? Okay, it’s too soon. I’ve always had a sort of morbid sense of humor and would make jokes in uncomfortable situations.

  “Very funny. You should be a comedian.”

  “I really should. I’m incredibly talented.”

  A total lie. I had no discernible talent at all. I couldn’t even whistle. When I was a kid, I’d always been in charge of lights or scenery whenever we put on a play. When I was five and the class learned to play “Hot Cross Buns” on the recorder, I flunked.

  I think you get the idea. But I have plenty more examples. Just let me know.

  “So…how was your day?” I asked oh so casually. “I kind of expected you to still be at the station.”

  Jack glanced at Tyler who was heads down over his phone. “If you want the details, Tedi, you only have to ask.”

  Well…fine.

  “Okay, I’m asking.”

  Jack shrugged as if putting two people behind bars for murder was an everyday occurrence.

  “You probably know most of it already. The state police pulled Lorna Bergstrom and Adam Taylor over because I’d put out a BOLO. We needed to speak to Lorna after finding Roger this morning.”

  “Gossip is saying that they were going to visit a friend.”

  “That was their story,” Jack agreed. “But I’m not buying it.”

  “Oh?”

  Rubbing his chin, he glanced at his son, absorbed in his video game. He leaned forward so only I could hear, lowering his voice. “There’s a piece of evidence that we haven’t made public.”

  “To anyone?”

  “No one. The state police told me about it but I haven’t shared the details with my deputies, the press, or anyone else, for that matter.”

  Now I totally wanted to know the details.

  “But you’re going to tell me, right?”

  Chuckling, he shook his head. “No, I am not.”

  “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Actually, I believe you. As I’ve said before, you’re about the only halfway normal person in this town. But I’m still not going to tell you.”

  Tyler put his phone down on the table and stood. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

  “You say ‘Excuse me, I’m going to the bathroom’, son.”

  “Excuse me, I’m going to the bathroom, son.”

  I coughed behind my hand to hide my laughter. Tyler was a funny kid.

  “You’re excused.”

  Tyler turned and wandered off in the general direction of the facilities. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to hurry back from the way he looked at the pretty girl at table seven. She also attended Ravenmist High School.

  “I’m a terrible father.”

  “You’re fine,” I assured him. “He’s a happy, normal teenager.”

  “Who hates my guts for moving him out of Chicago.”

  “All teenagers have moments where they hate their parents guts. It’s a rite of passage.”

  Jack’s phone buzzed and he quickly checked it, smiling at whatever it was.

  “Good news?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Spill it. Just spill it, for heaven’s sake. I won’t tell anybody and I can tell that you’re dying to tell me. Admit it.”

  He looked at his phone again and then sighed. “By tomorrow morning it won’t be a secret anymore. I’m holding a press conference in the town square so I can answer questions.”

  “So you’ll tell me? I won’t rat you out.”

  Maybe I’ve watched too many James Cagney movies.

  “Okay but keep it to yourself. The two suspects were belligerent and difficult when they were pulled over but did give the police the permission to search the vehicle. That’s when a bloody knife was found and it was immediately taken to the state lab and a rush has been put on it. It will be checked to see if it matches the wounds on either victim and it will also be processed for DNA and fingerprints. In the meantime, we can hold them without charges for at least twenty-four hours, maybe longer because this is a serious crime. That’s why the lab has put a rush on the testing.”

  Lorna was driving around Central Illinois with a murder weapon in the trunk?

  “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Which part? Lorna had motive to kill her husband.”

  “But not Roger,” I argued. “Why would she kill him?”

  Another shrug. “Maybe she wanted him to leave his wife and he wouldn’t. Maybe they argued. I’m not all that concerned with her motive, to be honest. That’s for a prosecutor to worry about. I will say this, though. Whomever committed these murders didn’t do them in a moment of passion. They put some thought in it.”

  “How so?”

  “Generally, people don’t die from stab wounds. A person has to be stabbed in a few specific areas of their body for that to happen. The killer did their homework. They knew exactly what they were doing. Bergstrom was stabbed in the neck and then drowned in water. Mullaney was stabbed under the arm where there’s a major artery.”

  “Lorna wouldn’t have known any of that.”

  “Ever heard of the internet? You can look up anything on there.”

  “Fine, then how about the knife in the trunk? Why on earth would she put the knife in the trunk? And then allow the police to search the car? That doesn’t make sense either.”

  It really didn’t.

  “Maybe she didn’t know it was there. Taylor might have placed it in the trunk. Or maybe she didn
’t think the police would find it. I don’t know, but I do know that we have reason to suspect them of a double murder.” He gave her a shrewd look. “You doubt their guilt?”

  “I dunno,” I sighed. “It just seems…flimsy.”

  To my shock and utter surprise, Jack nodded in agreement. “I agree. That’s why I’m not charging them with anything yet. I’m waiting for the forensics and the state lab owes me a few favors from when I was back in Chicago. We need to know for sure. Right now, Bergstrom and Taylor are swearing they’re innocent.”

  “They might be.”

  “They might be, but might I remind you that most people in prison say that they’re innocent. They were also caught with a bloody knife in the trunk of their car and the second victim wrote Lorna’s name on the wall. That’s a huge clue.”

  News of the bloody writing had made it around Ravenmist in record time and had pretty much sealed the town’s opinion of Lorna.

  “If Roger did it. The killer could have done it to throw off the police.” I pointed to Jack. “That would be you.”

  “I agree that could be a possibility. That’s why the lab is checking out the writing. If Roger wrote it, they’ll be able to tell us. But that sort of analysis takes weeks. They can do fingerprints fast but DNA takes much more time.”

  Slightly deflated, I sat back in my chair. “I thought you’d argue with me.”

  Chuckling, Jack rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “Sorry about that. I do agree that we need more evidence, but in the meantime, I would be foolish to let those two out so they could flee the state. As far as I’m concerned, they’re a flight risk, although they claim they were only going to visit a friend.”

  “They did leave all of their belongings at the inn.”

  “There are explanations for that too, Tedi.”

  “I know. I think this whole murder thing has thrown me. We don’t normally have violence in Ravenmist. It’s not something we ever worry about, frankly.”

  “I hope that once this is over the town can go back to that,” Jack replied earnestly. “But the world is a dangerous place, Tedi. You can’t shut your eyes to it.”

  Danger must have been the magic word to get Tyler back to the table because he groaned and rolled his eyes as he sat down. “Dad thinks there’s danger around every corner. He’s sure that everyone is a violent psychopath.”

  “I’m just cautious. You should be, too.”

  Far be it for me to get between a father and a son, so I stayed quiet.

  “When are we going ghost hunting again, Tedi?” Tyler asked. Apparently, ghosts were cooler than video games. “I heard that the inn was haunted. Can we investigate here?”

  “Maybe,” I said, thinking about Terrence but also about Edward. He’d said that there were lots of ghosts all over Ravenmist and that they were beginning to have more energy. They were “waking up” in a way, able to show themselves when they couldn’t before. “There are lots of places in town that are said to have spirits. I’ll call a meeting next week and we can talk about it. Choose our next location.”

  Andrea slid our plates in front of us, the smell of hot food making my stomach growl again. I really was hungry. It was going to be a struggle not to wolf down my food. My mother would be appalled.

  “You’re welcome to investigate the sheriff’s office,” Jack offered with a grin. “Your group can clean out some old, dusty files while you’re at it.”

  “Does that mean that you’re resigning from the club?”

  “Not in the least. The Ravenmist Paranormal Investigation Society is stuck with me.”

  This could become a sticky situation. Since ghosts were real, eventually Mr. Non-Believer was going to see a real honest to goodness ghost.

  What would the smirking jerk do then?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I was still thinking about my conversation with Jack later that night as the dining room closed down and the bar livened up. The patrons were going to be there until last call, I was sure of it. Already it was loud with laughter and music. Many of the customers were in costume and the whole evening had a festive air. There was much to celebrate as Lorna and Adam were behind bars.

  Jerome and Roger. Two victims. What did they have in common?

  The obvious answer was Lorna. She was the link between the two men and that was what bugged me. I’d watched more than my share of television crime shows and the spouse was always the first to be suspected. If Lorna was going to murder her husband, she should have had a better alibi than she’d been sleeping.

  And then the whole knife in the trunk. Just how dumb was Lorna? If she was smart enough to kill two men, one would imagine that she’d be smart enough to at least try and hide her crime.

  Jack had said that the killer had been intelligent enough to do their homework, learning exactly where to stab someone to kill them. I certainly had no idea where the best place to do that was located on the human body. They made it look so easy in the movies. A knife in the back…and then dead. Apparently, it wasn’t that simple.

  After checking with the kitchen staff that we were ready for breakfast tomorrow morning, I headed to my little apartment. It had been one incredibly long day and all I wanted to do was soak in a hot tub and sip a glass of wine while I watched an old movie.

  Not Strangers on a Train. Nope. No murder. Something happier instead. Perhaps a little Fred and Ginger might help my mood. Top Hat, anyone?

  I said goodnight to Andrea who was clearing off the tablecloths and tossing them into a giant hamper on wheels when I looked out of the window to the back patio and saw the glowing tip of a cigarette. Someone was smoking and I didn’t allow it that close to the building. The designated smoking area was the gazebo on the side of the inn and for the most part guests were good about following the rules. I’d just ask this one nicely to move.

  The glare on the windows from the lights hadn’t allowed me to see which guest it was but now that I was outside, the cold seeping into my bones and making me rub at my sweater-clad arms, I could see that it was Cherie. She was leaning against the black wrought iron railing, her elbows resting on the metal and her gaze staring out somewhere far away. I didn’t have to wonder what she was thinking about.

  “Mrs. Mullaney.”

  Cherie took a long drag on the cigarette and then exhaled, the blue smoke curling around her head. I had to steel myself not to wrinkle my nose in distaste. Smoking was one of my pet peeves and my parents had to talk me out of banning it altogether from the inn.

  My ex used to smoke cigars every now and then just to annoy me.

  “Hello, Tedi. I thought I told you to call me Cherie.”

  “Cherie,” I repeated dutifully. I cleared my throat, hating having to bring the old hammer down but I didn’t want cigarette smoke this close to the exits. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to move to the gazebo. That’s the only place we allow smoking here. I am sorry.”

  I wasn’t all that sorry actually, but I was sorry that I had to tell her when she’d been through so much.

  She held up her cigarette. “I quit for awhile but now I’m back to smoking. Do you smoke?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

  Mom and Dad would have had a cow if I’d smoked. My parents were sticklers for clear lungs.

  “Good. It’s a nasty habit. Roger always hated it.”

  I didn’t know what to say, especially since she’d brought up her now deceased husband. I didn’t need to worry about it, though. She was happy to do that talking.

  “He made me quit when we started dating. I’ve started back up now and then through the years but I always stopped again.”

  “That’s good. Quitting, I mean.”

  “I should never have started,” Cherie said with a sigh, blowing out a billow of smoke. “It was the stress from my job that got me into it. I worked as an emergency room nurse before I married Roger. Very hectic and often tragic. The stress got to me and next thing I knew I had started smoking. Roger, of cour
se, hated it and I wanted to please him so I quit.”

  “You were a nurse?”

  Cherie smiled sadly and tossed her cigarette down on the concrete, pressing on it with her shoe. “For twelve years in one of the busiest emergency rooms in Chicago. Then I married Roger and he didn’t want me to work. I held onto my job for a while but eventually I quit.”

  A nurse. Cherie was a nurse. She had extensive medical training.

  She’d know where to place a knife because she would have seen multiple stab wounds in her job.

  It wasn’t the cold air that sent a chill down my spine but this woman standing next to me. I needed to call Jack. He needed to talk to Cherie before she left town in the morning.

  I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms, my teeth chattering. I’m an idiot who didn’t have the sense to put on a coat. “What will you do now?”

  Cherie was looking out onto the large backyard again. “Go home. Try and pick up the pieces of my life.”

  “You must be angry with Lorna.”

  “I wouldn’t waste the emotion on her. She’ll get what she deserves.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The rest of her life in prison to think about what she’s done.”

  “She might not be guilty. The evidence isn’t conclusive.”

  An eyebrow raised, Cherie snorted. “I would think a bloody knife wrapped up in my husband’s jacket would be pretty conclusive.”

  If Cherie’s earlier statement about being a nurse had sent a chill up my spine, this one stopped my blood cold. According to Jack, the one detail no one knew was that the police had found a knife in the trunk of the car. She shouldn’t know this unless…

  Cherie had killed her husband.

  Cold sweat had pooled on the back of my neck and under my arms. I was standing next to a killer.

  What do I do now?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  That little voice in my head whispered to stay calm and cool. Don’t show how rattled I actually am. The test of my acting skills started now.

  “I didn’t realize Jack had told you about the knife. They’re keeping that quiet.”