Candy Canes, Corpses and the Gothic Haunt

by Rachael Stapleton

  “Like what?”

  “She started leaving these letters for you on your truck. I used to find them first and destroy them. I didn’t want you worrying.”

  “What sort of letters.”

  “Threats.” Jack said as she shut off the engine.

  They both opened their doors and got out.

  “Jack, I hate to say it, but maybe we need to tell your cousin.”

  “I know. I just feel so guilty. Like this is all my fault. I don’t want her locked away but I don’t want her hurting people, especially you.” He reached for Juniper’s hand and leaned her against the truck. “I think what set me off the other night is that she’s still trying to control me by threatening to hurt herself or you. She thinks—well, it doesn’t matter what she thinks. I’m done with her. And you know what, I’m not going to let her ruin another night with you.” He leaned down and kissed her.

  Juniper felt herself grinning stupidly as his lips trailed down her neck.

  “Come on, let’s go inside to bed. I’ll come back out for the presents after. I think we’ve had far too much talk tonight.”

  “And not enough action,” Juniper agreed.

  Twenty One

  _____________

  T HE toast to Feliz was in full swing. Finn had made enough appetizers to feed a small army and Pike must have made a trip across the road because there was also a platter of reindeer shaped sugar cookies. Old Christmas carols played throughout the taproom while people mingled. Juniper and Pike had made a large display with photos of Feliz and red and white candles burned in honor of him.

  Juniper crossed the room and went behind the bar where Jack was placing fresh glasses near the taps. He looked handsome in his Christmas-themed tie.

  “Merry Christmas, my love. How about you pour me one of those cinnamon ciders everyone’s raving about?”

  “Will do. Does this mean I’m the bartender for the night?”

  “What an excellent idea. You’re hired.” Juniper said smarmily and swatted his backside.

  “That’s sexual harassment, you know. I’m calling HR.”

  “What? There’s mistletoe right there. I was just being festive.”

  Jack grabbed her and pulled her in for a kiss. “I have news for you, Palmer, that’s not what you do under the mistletoe.”

  Juniper winked as she pulled away and made the rounds, moving from table to table to make sure everyone had something to eat. It warmed her heart to know that many people had cared about Feliz.

  Pike, the Vianu ladies and Louise—sans Rudolph—sat at a table together. Cody, Penny, Penny’s father, Eve Banter, and the Mabels were at the table next to them. Of course, Cross, Snaub and the Baron family were absent. Juniper would have truly been shocked to see them here.

  Jasmine and some of the other staff took over for Jack behind the bar, fussing over food and drinks. Allowing Jack to be at Juniper’s side. On the rare occasion that they got separated, he’d wink at her from across the room and then return promptly, lacing his fingers through hers so she knew he was there.

  Later when it had quieted down, she approached Kaden. “I’ve been asking the neighbors some questions.”

  “What kind of questions?” Kaden leaned against the bar and crossed his arms.

  “About the vandalism. If anyone saw anything. Things like that.”

  “And?” His tone of voice told her he wasn’t happy about it.

  Juniper filled him in on what Star had told her the other day. “I’m sure it was Evan Cross.”

  Kaden sighed. “Junie, that description could fit any number of men. Just because Cross kind of fits doesn’t mean it was him.”

  “Maybe not, but combine that with the threats he made—”

  “Threats?” Kaden straightened up. “You didn’t tell me about any threats.”

  “I’m telling you now.” Sort of. She was going to leave out some things. Most things. “Sally doesn’t like me very much. She’s told everyone I stole Jack and now I’m after Evan’s customers. I went to the bar to talk to him, and they threw me out.”

  “They threw you out?”

  She nodded. When he didn’t say anything right away, she said, “So, what do you think? It has to be him, right?”

  Kaden let out a long breath. “Not necessarily.” Juniper opened her mouth to disagree, and he put up his hand. “Hear me out. It could very well be that Cross is involved, but there’s also a chance he’s not. Just because he tried your door, doesn’t mean he broke in later. Maybe he wanted to stop and talk to you.”

  “I’m the last person on earth he wants to talk to. He made that clear. I’m sure he’s the one breaking into the taproom.”

  “I know you are, Junie.” He smiled sympathetically. “But like I said, there are dozens of red coats and black hats. Unless I can prove it’s Cross, and prove that he broke in, there’s not much I can do about it.”

  No matter what Kaden thought, she was convinced Evan had been the one Star had seen. Kaden wanted proof—well, she’d see that he got it. Tomorrow she’d make another visit to the Guitars and Cadillacs.

  Juniper turned to Pike and Jack’s mother. “Thanks for helping Finn with the food.”

  “It’s the least I can do,” Ginger said. “He’s quite a cook. I was impressed.”

  “He’s very impress—” Pike stopped herself.

  Ginger had a twinkle in her eye. “You two seem to be getting along nicely.”

  Trying to save face, Pike said, “He’s an asset to the Gothic Haunt.”

  Ginger smiled. “That’s not what I meant, but yes, he seems to be.” She squeezed Pike’s hand. “You should let him know.”

  “I’ve already told him he’s a good chef.”

  “Not that. Let him know how you feel. He likes you, Pike.”

  “Like a sister, maybe,” she grumbled.

  Juniper spotted Finn coming their way. He looked good in his dress shirt and chinos. “Let’s drop this, okay?” Pike said to Ginger.

  Kaden finally spoke up. “You could do a lot worse, you know.”

  “Thanks for everything,” Juniper said as she went to intercept Finn. “Your food is a big hit.”

  “You’re welcome. It was nice to have Pike helping me.”

  That certainly wasn’t a brotherly remark. Could Ginger be right? “You couldn’t handle her, Valentine.”

  “Oh, really?”

  Juniper tried to hold back a grin. “Especially if your game is as bad as it was in college. As I recall, you never made a move on her then, either. Too busy playing in your garage band.”

  “Ouch, Palmer. Cut a guy some slack, would you?”

  Juniper laughed and took a seat in the empty chair next to the deli owner, Rocco Deer, thanking him for coming.

  “I wouldn’t have missed it,” he said. “Feliz was a good guy.”

  “Yes, he was.”

  “Amen,” Mallory said, taking a seat at their table.

  Rocco waved an arm. “Your place is fabulous. Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe it was just an empty run-down shell. I’m so glad you decided to stay.”

  “Why would you think I wouldn’t stay?”

  “I heard you were putting the place up for sale.”

  Pike chimed in. “Who in the jingle bells is spreading that crap? Junie isn’t going anywhere.”

  Louise had mentioned something similar when she’d gone to see her last week. Juniper glanced across the table at her; she was texting furiously on her cell phone.

  Rocco thought for a moment. “It was probably someone talking about it in the deli.” He smiled. “I hear a lot of things that way.”

  Sally came to mind but her method was more hands-on than that. Then the lightbulb came on—Hatti. If she started a rumor Juniper was leaving, she’d be able to drum up support for her museum idea. “If you happen to remember,” Juniper said to Rocco, “would you let me know? I’d kind of like to set them straight.”

  “Will do.” He stood. “I really have to get going.”
Juniper thanked him again, and he promised to be back for the opening.

  Things wound down after that. Ginger and Pike helped Finn clean up in the kitchen while Kaden watched the kids. Jack and Juniper put the taproom and bar area back in order. With the popularity of the cinnamon ciders and Spanish wine tonight, she needed to restock the bar. It could wait until tomorrow, but Juniper figured she might as well get it over with. Especially since Jack offered to help her. Juniper made her way down the foyer hall. From the direction of the basement, she heard the soft thud of a door closing.

  Her senses went on high alert. Was someone in the cellar? She approached the basement cautiously, listening, taking in deep breaths, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling that plagued her. Juniper kept casting compulsive glances over her shoulders and searching her peripheral vision where she had recently seen the ghost.

  Except Juniper didn’t see or sense anything here this time. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a large wooden door to the wine cellar. It was closed, but it had a large window insert so Juniper could see inside the room.

  From her position on the stairs, the coast was clear. Juniper had a perfect view of the wine racks.

  And yet.

  Juniper’s neck was tingling.

  The stairs creaked below her even though Juniper stood still. Juniper turned to see if Jack was behind her but he wasn’t.

  When Juniper turned back around, a woman was reflected in the cellar door’s glass.

  The woman in the window appeared worried. She motioned for Juniper to come.

  Startled, she reached for the rail to steady herself.

  When Juniper looked back at the door, the ghostly woman was gone.

  Since they’d bought this house, she’d been trying to explain away these visions: a trick of light, strange reflections in uneven glass. Surely not a woman out of time and place. Surely not.

  And yet that was exactly what it was.

  Juniper pushed through the door into the cellar and switched on the light just as she heard Jack coming down the stairs behind her. Juniper stopped and stared.

  “Hey, next time wait for me.”

  Juniper couldn’t answer. Her heart was in her throat. Someone was lying on the hardwood floor beside the wine rack. That someone was the very dead Sally Snaub.

  Twenty Two

  _____________

  J ACK spotted the body a second later. He stepped in front of Juniper, and said, “Go get Kaden.”

  Juniper was frozen in place. A hundred thoughts ping-ponged through her head, but none of them made any sense. Sally was dead. In her wine cellar. Not again.

  “Junie!” Jack’s tone was sharp enough to snap her out of her daze.

  “I’m going.” Juniper went back upstairs. Kaden sat with Jack’s brother and his family. Jack’s nieces were bugging Kaden to see his police badge. Kaden looked up when he heard her come in.

  “Kaden?” Juniper sounded calmer than she felt. “We need you in the cellar.”

  Kaden studied her face. “Is something wrong?”

  “You could say that.”

  He seemed to know Juniper didn’t want to say anything in front of the kids. “Something to do with your latest issues?”

  “Yep.”

  Kaden slipped the girls off his lap, took them by the hand, and led them to the kitchen. He returned seconds later. “Want to tell me what’s going on?” He fell into step beside her.

  “Sally… ” Her voice caught.

  “Junie, we had this conversation already.”

  “Not this one, we haven’t.” Juniper went back down the stairs and pointed to where Jack stood near the body. “It’s Sally.”

  Kaden went into what could only be called cop mode. He ordered both Jack and her upstairs and told Jack to ask his brother to take the kids home. While Jack did as ordered, Juniper considered the instructions a mere suggestion. She hovered just outside the cellar door. Kaden pulled out his cell phone and called it in.

  “White female, approximately twenty-five years of age. Blunt force trauma to the head.”

  To hear it described that way made her stomach lurch. No one deserved to have that happen to them, not even Sally. He requested the medical examiner and also asked dispatch not to send it out over the radio. Juniper knew the reason for that was to keep the Mabels from listening in. Then he disconnected and made another call.

  “Hey, Cody.” Cody Lumos was one of Bohemian Lake’s newer homicide detectives. He and Juniper had met in October when the mayor’s daughter was found murdered in the attic. They’d briefly flirted and even had lunch together once but nothing had come of it. “Dispatch will be calling you.” As Kaden explained what they’d found, he looked her way and spotted her. “I’ll fill you in on the rest when you get here.” He slipped the phone into his pocket and came toward her. “I thought I told you to go upstairs.”

  “You did. But I need to know what’s going on.” Juniper voice was steady.

  Kaden put a hand on her shoulder. “Like it or not, this is a crime scene.”

  He walked her up the stairs. “Go. I promise I’ll keep you posted.”

  Jack sat at the bar. Juniper crossed the room and took the stool beside him.

  “Finn’s making coffee,” he said.

  “Good.”

  “You okay, sweetie?”

  “Okay? There’s a dead body—the second one in a week. I am definitely not okay.”

  Jack stared at her. “Are you mad at me?”

  “No. It’s just someone is breaking in here and killing people. Your ex-girlfriend, for heaven’s sake. This is my Inn. My life. I don’t understand why this is happening…” Juniper’s voice broke. “If I’m not yelling, I’m going to fall apart.” She burst into tears.

  Jack slid off his stool and folded her into his arms. It seemed like she cried for a long time, but it was probably only a few minutes. She was pulling herself back together when the front door opened and Detective Cody Lumos entered, followed by a crew from the medical examiner’s office. Juniper wiped her eyes with a napkin decorated with Christmas trees, and Jack went to greet them. Jack showed them to the basement while she remained at the bar.

  Pike and Finn came in carrying a stack of take-out cups and a stainless steel pump pot that Juniper assumed was filled with coffee. They set everything out on the bar.

  “I should have helped you with that,” Juniper said.

  “No way.” Pike poured coffee into two paper cups and passed them to her and Jack just as he returned.

  Juniper’s hand shook when she took the cup from her.

  Jack put his hand on her shoulder. “Junie, what else can I do, babe?”

  “Nothing,” Juniper said. He slid onto the stool beside her and they sat holding hands, sipping their coffee in silence. Juniper only wished she knew what was going on. How had Sally Snaub ended up murdered—and she was sure she was—in her Inn? “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Jack said.

  Juniper didn’t realize she’d spoken the words aloud.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “It’s just, after we talked last night, I was so sure Evan and Sally were the ones breaking in here, the ones who’d murdered Feliz, but obviously I was wrong.”

  Jack shifted to face her. “Maybe not.”

  “How do you figure that?” Juniper said.

  “Maybe Evan did it. Maybe they were breaking in here and Evan turned on her.”

  “He did seem kind of angry when he overheard her tell me she was still seeing you.”

  Juniper didn’t get a chance to say anything further. Jack’s cousin and Cody Lumos came through the door. Kaden talked to Jack and asked him a few questions while Juniper went to the parlor with Cody and gave him her statement. Juniper went over everything again and again—the vandalism, Feliz, the threats from Evan and Sally, the chat with Ron Baron and even Evan’s aggression toward Sally. By the time they finished, mostly everyone had cleared out except for a few forensic techs who
were still doing their thing in the basement.

  Kaden and Cody headed to the station while Juniper waited for the others to finish up. Kaden hadn’t said what time Sally was killed. Juniper was still bewildered how she’d slipped by them unless she’d been down there all day.

  Juniper was too exhausted to think about it anymore. She didn’t even bother washing her face before she collapsed into bed with Jack.

  Twenty Three

  _____________

  Y ELLOW crime-scene tape was not a good look for the Inn. And it definitely wouldn’t be good for business. Juniper wasn’t looking forward to it, but she needed to get in there today, tape or no tape. Unfortunately she was banned until they finished up.

  Since it was Boxing Day, the neighborhood was understandably quiet. Most of the businesses were either closed or would have limited hours today, which was ill-timed because Juniper could have really used a coffee right about now.

  Although the murder had been kept quiet so far, it was just a matter of time before everyone found out.

  Thankfully Pike answered her phone and invited her over. “I can’t believe it happened again!”

  “I can’t, either.” Juniper replied.

  “What in the world was Sally doing there?”

  “That’s the question of the day.”

  “To think she was lying down there bleeding while we were upstairs drinking and eating in the taproom.” Pike shuddered. “It’s creepy.”

  Juniper couldn’t disagree with that. “I don’t understand how she got in without any of us noticing—unless she came in earlier in the day while I was out, but then she would have had to get past the alarm.”

  “Are you sure you set it?”

  “I don’t remember. I thought I did but I was doing a lot of running around. In any case, I need to have the alarm company come out again. If I did activate it, either I’m doing something wrong or it’s not working right.”