My pacing took me to the window. Looking out, I saw a silver car in the parking area right outside. I turned back to where the secretary was tidying her desk.
“Tell me something Lydia. Does the mayor drive a silver sedan?”
“Yes he does. It’s the official mayor’s car. Assistant Mayor Crocker drives one too.”
“No kidding.”
Crocker drove one. I knew that. I’d seen him. But I supposed there were all sorts of people driving a car that looked very much like that. Too bad I hadn’t noted the license plate number. That would have helped.
Grace sat back down at her desk and slapped her hands down on the wooden surface, still all riled up.
“Anyway, I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I’m glad Scotty is dead and gone. He was a thorn in the mayor’s side for years. Nothing but bad news from that one. Now that he’s gone, maybe we can all lower the frenzy level a bit. At least, I hope so.”
We talked a bit more. I tried to get a little more from her, such as pining down the times when things had happened. But she was too frazzled right now. Finally, I promised to call the next day and then I said good-bye.
Toto was sound asleep in the lobby. I looked in at the Hall of Records, but that same clerk was still sitting there like a guard dog. I wasn’t going to get anything done in there tonight. With a sigh, I started up the street toward the candy shop. They were making fudge and I stopped to watch for a few minutes. Some latent memory tried to surface. Something about making brownies nagged at me. Was that what I liked best? Making brownies? Could be. Though that was totally different from fudge.
“Hello beautiful,” a seductive voice said very near my ear, and I turned to find myself practically touching my lips to Crocker’s cheek.
“Oh.”
I reared back but he laughed and put an arm around my shoulders. “Sorry if I startled you,” he said. “Where are you going with your little dog now?”
I smiled at him. Despite his suggestive air I thought I liked the guy—I remembered Shane warning me against him though. “We’re waiting to meet Deputy McAllister.”
“Ah. Still helping him on the murder case?”
I blinked at the way he said that. “I’m not helping him exactly, but I like to keep tabs on things, since I’m one of the main suspects.”
He grinned. “I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Scotty had so many enemies, it’ll take a year to sort them out.”
“Weren’t you and Scotty friends?” I pointed out.
“Friends?” He said the word as though it repelled him. “Why would you say that?”
“I saw you at the Bar and Grill when I first arrived.”
He shook his head and smiled. “I was just delivering some paperwork he hadn’t completed. As usual. I didn’t realize you were who you are at the time or I would have stayed and helped you out.” His smile broadened. “You being my favorite girl at the moment.”
I shook my head, suddenly finding his excessive friendliness a bit off-putting. “So you didn’t recognize me at first? But you must have heard me telling Scotty the Bar and Grill was mine.”
He shrugged as though it couldn’t possibly matter what he’d heard at the time. “Scotty. Hey, he was in your way. Now he’s gone. You should be grateful. Whoever did it did you a favor.”
I frowned, not sure I liked the way he’d put that, not sure I was liking him at all anymore. And as I studied his eyes, I saw very plainly that he could read that in me. He didn’t move a muscle, but I could feel him backing away from me. Suddenly, a quiver of fear sliced through my system. Crocker was not as benign as he pretended, and I could sense that from the look in his eyes.
“Oh well,” he said with another shrug. “It’s feeling a little chilly around here. I’ll catch you later.”
And he winked, then started off toward the City Hall.
I watched him go feeling confused. Had I just made an enemy I was going to regret? I wasn’t sure if that had really happened, or if I was misreading all the cues. Slowly it began to dawn on me that I seemed to have some new senses and instincts that I’d never had before—and I didn’t have a clue on how to deal with them.
Chapter Twelve
I gave a tug to Toto’s leash and we went on down the street on our way to find Shane. He was waiting for us, leaning against the sign that led to the sheriff’s station.
“About time,” he said, but he wasn’t really complaining, and he looked at my dog. “What’s his name?”
“Toto.”
He chuckled. “No kidding? Does that mean you’ve got some ruby slippers hidden away somewhere?”
“No, it does not. And I’m not searching for any Wizard.”
“Of course not. You’ve already got a Sorceress.”
I gave him a mock glare. “And you’re a hunter.”
He shrugged as though he considered himself an open book. “I am.”
He was. I searched my reactions, wondering if I was going to start noticing warning signs in Shane too, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yet.
“And you come from a family of hunters,” I said.
“I do.”
I studied him for another moment, my head to the side. “Does that mean we’re destined to be forever opposed to each other?”
He looked away for a moment before he answered and I found myself holding my breath, wondering what he was going to say. When he turned back, his eyes were unreadable, but I could tell he was mulling over the truth of our relationship the same way I was.
“That depends on how you want to play this game,” he said at last. “We don’t have to be enemies. Just keep from hurting anyone and we’ll do fine.”
I sighed. “Easier said than done. Your definition of ‘hurting someone’ might be different than mine.”
He nodded. “We’ll see.” He looked back at Toto.
“No tags, huh?”
“No. I’ll have to take care of that if I end up keeping him.”
“You haven’t found his owners?”
I shook my head. “I’ve given a description to the local Humane Society and they promised to call me if his owners show up asking about him.”
He seemed satisfied with that. “You ready to go across the park?”
I took a deep breath and straightened my shoulders. “I guess so.” But I sure wasn’t looking forward to it.
He nodded. “Good. Shall we go?”
We went.
I won’t pretend I wasn’t nervous. My heart was beating like a caged bird. We walked past the bench where I’d had my latte the day before, then by the koi pond and the rocky stream that ran through it, the brushy area where Toto had started chasing the bunny. Nothing happened, but Shane looked over at me and took my hand in his, so I must have looked as nervous as I felt. We went past the tennis courts and the basketball hoop and the center fountain and over a bridge. Toto barked at a squirrel and pulled on the leash, whining to be released so that he could go after it. I pulled him back. We walked on. No bunnies. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Today there was no fog. The sun shone down through the trees, displaying patterns on the grass. It was just an everyday American park. Nothing weird or paranormal going on. Nothing to be afraid of.
Still, I was relieved once we got to the other side and hit the sidewalk. I took a deep breath and smiled at Shane.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Any time.” As he let go of my hand I had an impulse to reach for him, to curl into the protection of his arms—as if I’d done that before. I looked at him quickly, wondering if he would be accepting of a move like that, then wondering why I even let myself think about it. With a little shiver, I moved further away instead.
We could see the building right across the street clearly now. I couldn’t call it the Bar and Grill anymore, because that was the last thing it looked like. Where before it had the aspect of a cabin in the woods, now it was painted light and airy colors, pastels and whites, bold strokes, almost cartoonish. It was b
right and cheerful and welcoming. A total transformation and totally in keeping with the theme of the town’s new happy spirit.
“Well what do you know,” Shane said softly. “It no longer looks like it’s auditioning to be the next portal to hell.”
I grabbed his hand again. There was something I needed to know.
“Tell me this,” I said, leaning close so I could ask softly. I didn’t want any demons hearing me. “What was the place like when my parents were running it?”
He hesitated. “I don’t think we should talk about that or your life then until you’ve got your memories back,” he told me. “But I will say this. The place was a family café in those days. Scotty turned it into a den of thieves. Now it looks like it’s going back to its roots.”
I nodded, happy he’d told me that much. I let go of his hand and we headed for it.
A large, muscular man in a tee shirt, jeans, a hardhat and a tool belt came out to greet us. He nodded at Shane and turned to me.
“Are you Haley Greco?”
“Yes,” I said as I tied Toto to the railing, ignoring his little whimper. He was getting tired of the leash and he was making no bones about it.
“I’m Hank Jeffers, foreman on this site. We got a rush order from your grandmother, I grabbed twelve of my best men and we’ve been moving right along, but I’m glad you showed up. You can answer a few questions.”
I looked around, curious. “Where are they?”
“Where are who?”
“The workers. I don’t see anyone working.”
“Oh.” Hank laughed as though I’d made a good one. “Don’t worry about that. My men do their best work when no one is looking.”
“Huh?” I didn’t get it, but he was going on.
He waved a hand toward the newly painted walls. “What do you think so far?”
I shook my head. I was at a loss. It was so clean and bright and inviting, I couldn’t believe it was the inside of the same building I’d seen the day before. “I think you’re going a great job. Thanks.”
He grinned. “Glad you like it. But we need you to help on some color choices for the apartment upstairs. I understand you’ll be living there so I thought you ought to sign off on the samples.”
“I’d be glad to.”
“We’re going to need another day or two to get some new furnishings in here. But you should be able to move in and start selling sandwiches by the end of the week.”
“Wonderful.” I felt a little foolish saying the words that were clearly expected when I didn’t know if I was really going to be living here or not. I was no longer nervous about being prosecuted for murder, but there were a lot of other issues that had to be ironed out and soon.
For instance…it was obvious I’d left this town and hadn’t been back in years. Had that been a good decision? What about the life I’d started somewhere else? Were there other people somewhere in the world who depended on me? Hadn’t I better find out the truth before I made long term commitments?
Something told me that it was all going to be up to my grandmother in the end. But since a lot of hints had been thrown out that I’d been a rebellious youth—who could guarantee that the rebellion had died out in me? For all I knew, it might come back with a vengeance.
Hank, the foreman, was still talking and Shane was asking a question.
“Did someone come by and gather up any documents or relevant paperwork found in the office?”
“We packed all paperwork away in regulation boxes but no one has come to claim them yet. You’ll find them locked in the back closet. As for the personal effects of the gentleman who was murdered…they were taken by the sheriff and are being held for his family.” He shook his head. “I have to tell you, we’ve had more people coming by wanting to look through everything. One person even claimed he’d lost his wedding ring here last night and wanted to take a look for it.”
“No kidding.”
He leaned close, “And believe it or not, that was the mayor.”
“Tried to pull rank, huh?” Shane quipped.
We all had a good laugh, but Shane gave me a significant look while Hank went on, obviously a bit annoyed at the mayor.
“The mayor and his wife were the worst ones. They wanted to go through everything. I had to order them off the property.”
Interesting. Both the mayor and Rennie had been over here to see Scotty time and time again the day before. What could they have left behind? Besides a wedding ring?
And that brought up a new thought. What about the mayor? I was wondering once again why I hadn’t heard any speculation from Shane—or anyone else-- about the mayor being the guilty one. But when I thought about it, I realized Shane hadn’t really been telling me much about the thinking at the sheriff station. I only knew about my status because of the way I’d been questioned, and I only knew about Luanne because I’d peeked and seen the chalk board with her name after mine. But the mayor was looming large as far as I was concerned.
After all, he had motives piling up all over. He’d been been hearing Rennie’s complaints about the Bar and Grill forever. He himself had been threatening Scotty for ages and had finally hit his limit. He’d gone over to post a closure notice, only to have Scotty yell obscenities at him on the phone. He’d been in a major fight with Scotty—and then had a physical fight with him as well. Scotty had pulled a knife on him and hurt him badly. Scotty had held off a sort of pseudo attempt on his life by Rennie, which ended with him hurting her. Then the mayor had posted a demolition order on the bar. If I searched hard enough, I had a feeling I could dig up more things to add to his litany of grudges against the man. With that much pain and anger built up, I was almost surprised he hadn’t called him out into the street and killed him there.
Yes. The mayor did it. I was almost sure of it.
Shane’s cell buzzed and he pulled it out, turned away, and spoke softly to someone on the other end. When he turned back, he gave me a wink and went outside. I smiled at the contractor and quickly followed him.
“Ballistics says the gun we found by Scotty’s body is indeed the gun used to kill him. They’ve also got a match on the prints on the gun.”
That sent a chill through me. It had to be the mayor. “Who?” I asked softly.
He looked at me. I knew he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone yet, but I knew he was going to tell me anyway.
“Looks like the mayor’s wife,” he said softly. “Keep that under your hat, okay?”
I nodded numbly. Here I’d finally decided it must be the mayor, and instead of confirmation, we got conflicting evidence.
Rennie? Not Rennie. Oh no! But after her husband had been knifed badly by the man, I could imagine that she’d been so angry, she might have done almost anything. She was a passionate sort. But I truly hoped it hadn’t been her, and that she had a good alibi.
“I’ve got to go in to the station,” Shane said, leaning close in a way I had to admit I really liked. “You going to be okay?”
I looked at him. Why was it that his presence felt like such a comfort? “Sure,” I said. “I’ll be fine. I can walk over to the motel from here.”
“Without going through the park.” He nodded. “Okay. Call me if you need to. See you later.”
And he was gone. I went in and did some paint color selecting for the foreman. I’d just finished that when I noticed someone was trying to get into the workshop out back—the place where Scotty had died. I went out on the back porch and saw that it was Luanne.
“Hey there,” I said, going out to see her. “The workshop is still taped off. It’s a crime scene and we can’t go in there.”
She turned and stared at me. She looked awful.
“I’m the bookkeeper,” she said stubbornly. “I have a duty to go through the books at this point.”
I cocked my head to the side and tried to smile at her. “Yeah, but I’m the owner. Maybe we had better go through them together.”
She looked startled, then resigned as she though
t it through. “That would be fine.”
“But we’re both going to have to wait until we get the all-clear from the sheriff.”
She looked lost and defeated. I tried to think of something to talk about that might cheer her up. I failed miserably, but I did get her mind off bookkeeping.
“Uh…isn’t that where you found his body?” I said tentatively, gesturing toward the workshop.
She looked up at me and her lower lip trembled. “Yes. I told you I didn’t do it.”
I nodded but I just had to ask. “Do you know who did?”
She bit that quivering lower lip. “I’ve got some ideas of my own.”
She looked pretty shaken and I had a thought. She might be vulnerable to telling more now than she would usually when she was much more guarded. No point in letting the moment go to waste.
“You were here around midnight, weren’t you?”
She gasped. “I told you, I was down at the beach with Molly.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I know you were up here. People saw you.”
“Who?”
“Rennie for one.”
“Rennie!” She leaned against the porch railing. “Okay, so I did come up here. I waited until Molly was sound asleep and I snuck out and came up here.”
Well, that was a bit of ground gained, wasn’t it?
“What for?”
She stared at me, then began to hiccup for a moment. I had the feeling she was on the edge of hysteria. I felt sorry for her, but this was important, and if I had a chance to learn the truth, I had to take it.
“What were you trying to do, Luanne?”
She groaned and shook her head. “Okay, Haley,” she said at last. “I’m going to tell you what really happened. Mostly because I just can’t stand to keep it bottled up any longer. Okay? But you have to promise you won’t tell anyone else. Can you do that?”
I nodded, wondering if I was going to regret this.
“I was going to kill him.”
“Oh Luanne.”
Even Witches Get the Blues (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 1) Page 13