by Louise Lynn
Hazel took a few steps closer and raised her eyebrows. "I could ask you the same thing. I live in town, and I'm headed to pick up lunch. What are you doing here?"
Josh glanced through the trees at the lake, and then at Anthony Ray. Finally, his gaze settled on Hazel. Once he did, Hazel noted that his eyes were bloodshot and his face reddened with tears. "I just had to go for a walk," he said and shook his head. "Plus, I–"
Hazel's grip on Anthony Ray's leash tightened, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. What would she do if he confessed to the crime? Well, he didn't have a weapon on him that she saw, but anyone who could drive an axe with that much force into someone’s skull was obviously strong. Not to mention she was pretty sure he had something to do with the headless figure in her photo. It was the only rational explanation, and she wasn’t about to consider an irrational one. Not yet.
"You what?"
Josh let out something between a broken sob and a sigh. "I don't know what to do. I dedicated the last four years of my life to Cam and our YouTube channel, and now it's all gone. Poof! My entire life. Over!"
Chapter 9
Hazel raised a brow. “Your life is fine. But Cameron’s life is over because someone killed him."
Josh blinked and looked as if she’d slapped him. "Oh, you're right. I mean, Cam was my best friend, and I just can’t—how could this happen? I guess it's a stupid question. We both know what happened."
Hazel wasn’t sure they did. As far as she could tell, Cameron Killian was murdered in a locked room by an axe-wielding maniac. How the killer left the room was still up to debate. And how they’d managed to escape notice was as well.
To make matters worse, she hadn’t even gotten the chance to go over the facts with Colton yet. She’d just have to stick to what she knew and try to find out more.
For one, she needed a motive.
“Do you know anyone who had something against him?"
“Yeah, plenty of people."
Hazel sucked in a breath. "Did you give Sheriff Cross any names last night? If not, you can write me a list and I can give it to him." She supposed she wasn't stepping over the line with that request since she was an official part of the Cedar Valley Sheriff's Office now. Even if it was only as the forensic photographer.
Josh ran his fingers through his hair. "Number one is Xtreme_Skeptic, but I don’t know if that will do any good. No one knows who he is."
“Xtreme_Skeptic? Didn’t you talk about that person last night?" It was obviously some kind of Internet handle and not a given name, but saying it still felt silly. “And didn’t Cameron claim he was going to reveal this person’s identity?"
Josh nodded. “Yeah. Xtreme_Skeptic is this guy that picks apart every episode of our show to prove, unfairly, that we’re hacks. Then he writes a big blog post and makes a video with his voice all distorted. He’s been going after Cam for two years, and he or she, I guess, is relentless. If anyone hated Cam, it’s that guy. But Cam never got around to actually saying who Xtreme_Skeptic was last night."
That was a good lead, but there was no saying this Xtreme_Skeptic person lived nearby. Still, it was the best motive for murder that didn’t include a headless ghoul. “Did anyone in North Lake City have anything against him? It's not much of a stretch to think they could've popped over to Cedar Valley. Or that someone you grew up with could be Xtreme_Skeptic now." It was hardly a thirty minute drive in good weather.
Josh let out a puff of air. “I don’t know if anyone from North Lake City even remembers us. Besides Tess." He said her name like it was a a four letter word, which it was, but not the kind that he insinuated.
Hazel tried to keep the surprise from her face. "Tess? Is something wrong with Tess?"
"I don't want to say anything bad about her since you guys are friends," he said and kicked at the pine needles that surrounded their feet.
Well, that was interesting. "Technically, we’re not friends. More like vague acquaintances. I hardly even speak to her on a monthly basis. Plus, if you have some information pertinent to the case, you need to tell someone. Do you want me to call one of the deputies? I'm sure Simmons would be interested."
Josh blanched and shook his head. "No. Not necessary I…I guess I can tell you. It's not a huge secret. If you know Tess, then you get it."
“Get what? That she's odd?" Hazel said, not really sure what else she should get.
Josh let out a huff of laughter. "Yeah that. But I meant she's like Emma. Psychic."
Hazel fought to keep from frowning. "Right. She does have strange little prophecies she likes to tell me." Hazel didn't mention that they often had to do with murder. Or that Tess had said something strange the night before. Something Hazel hadn't even recalled until now. She’d have to relay that to Sheriff Cross as well since it sounded like a threat.
Tess said someone might die last night, and Cameron did.
"Well, she seems a lot different now than she did back in high school. Her and Cam were pretty serious. They even went to senior prom together. Everyone thought they were gonna get married after high school, and go away to college together."
Hazel’s brows rose. She couldn't picture Tess with a boyfriend, much less getting married to someone, but maybe that wasn't fair. That explained Cameron’s reaction to Tess the night before. What had he said to her? After what she'd done? It sounded bad, Hazel had to admit.
"So why did they break up?"
Josh scrubbed his unshaven cheeks. “They didn’t break up. She broke his heart and she was brutal about it."
Tess? Brutal? Hazel couldn't imagine that either. "I don't suppose you remember what she said?"
“She said a psychic vision told her they couldn't be together. That Cam needed to get away from Lake Celeste because his future was elsewhere, and if he stayed, he’d be nothing," he said and shook his head. “But it was six years ago, so I don’t know the specifics. I just know, after that, we both went to community college in Reno and then we started the ghost hunting gig. Cam changed a lot after Tess broke his heart. He wasn't always the way he was when you met him. He changed after the YouTube Channel got big too."
Hazel could imagine that sort of success going to a young man’s head, especially a young man who felt like he had something to prove. And while she didn’t say, thank goodness, she did think it.
She pointed at a picnic table tucked close by, and they walked to it. Anthony Ray jumped on it and started cleaning his paws. Hazel settled near him. “How so?"
Josh pursed his lips, and Hazel figured he didn’t want to say something bad about his recently dead friend. Which made sense, but she needed the truth. “He got really confident in college. Maybe too confident. I know what people thought, okay? That he was a jerk and a show-off. That he was using me and Emma for our skills and that he didn’t really care about us, but they’re wrong. Uh, not about him being a jerk and a show off, but about the other stuff. He really did want us all to succeed, and he was pushing the channel in new directions. We got some great evidence."
Though Cameron’s face was the only one anyone got to see. Hazel decided not to bring that up since Josh claimed it didn’t bother him. The mention of evidence is what bothered Hazel. “I don’t mean to pry, but real ghostly evidence? I heard rumors you guys may have exaggerated a touch."
Josh’s cheeks flared pink and he tugged his hood lower around his ears. “Have you been reading the comments on our videos? Those are just random people on the Internet and not to be trusted!"
Hazel shook her head. “I don’t read comments on YouTube. I heard from a fan of yours, actually."
Josh pinched his eyes shut and looked toward the lake. The white crested waves slammed against the sandy shore, and she thought that’s how Josh must be feeling inside—his emotions pitched and wild. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get good evidence on camera? We—we didn’t fake anything. Much. But when we started and nothing happened, it was so hard to get subscribers and fans. We had to do something to ke
ep people watching the videos. And that’s when Cameron decided we should kick things up a notch. Or twelve. And it worked! We got half a million subscribers and we made a living on the videos. Only now, without Cam. . ."
Hazel patted his shoulder. “Was Jimbo part of your kicking things up?"
Josh’s shoulders tensed. “Not yet. We were working on something. An idea Cam had about a really cool haunted house. But that’s not going to happen now."
“You realize it looks suspicious, right? Jimbo with an axe to the head, and then Cameron suffering the same fate?" She tried to put it gently, but Hazel didn’t think there was a gentle way to say ‘your best friend got an axe to his head last night.’
“I know! But I didn’t have a thing to do with it. I swear. Everything that happened last night was one hundred percent real. If you want to know who might’ve hurt Cam, you need to talk to Tess."
“You think Tess could've had something to do with what happened last night?" she asked, and immediately wanted to bite her tongue. She could just imagine her mother’s frown.
Josh's eyes widened and he glanced around. "I don't know if she would be strong enough to do something like that, but she could have riled up the spirits there. Emma claimed they got restless once she arrived. Plus, we both know who the killer was." His voice held a tone of finality that rung through the air around them.
"I do?" Hazel asked carefully, and readied herself to run.
She still hadn't asked him about the headless figure, and she needed to do that soon. But at least she’d found out some interesting information about Cameron's past and his relationship with Tess.
Josh nodded vigorously. "The headless ghost! You had to see it, right? We got all kinds of stuff last night. Didn't you guys experience anything?"
Had they been in the same house? The most noise she heard was from Cameron Killian’s mouth. “What?"
Anthony Ray meowed, and then he batted at a pine cone on the table like it was one of his toys.
"Yeah. After everything that happened last night, Cam decided to go in that room alone. He thought it would make a great finale for the video, and now he’s…." Josh's voice cut off.
And now he had an axe through his head, or he had. The coroner had probably removed it at this point.
“What exactly happened?" Hazel asked.
“We heard disembodied voices. We saw figures moving in the dark. One was even headless! It was crazy. Emma kept telling us that Dora’s spirit was there and she was very upset. Then, she said the killer was there—the headless murderer!"
"I don't think the police can convict a ghost of murder." She decided not to mention what else occurred to her. If the ghost was headless, how was it also the axe murderer?
Josh wrung his hands. "It doesn't matter who the police can convict or not, it matters what happened. Emma's putting it all on the Ghost Hunters Extreme channel. She was doing that when I left. She said the world had a right to know the truth and she was afraid the cops were gonna take the footage. So now, they can't."
Hazel jumped to her feet. "She's doing what? Listen, I'm pretty sure Sheriff Cross won’t be thrilled with that, but you said there were figures last night? Did you see the headless ghost on the horse?"
Josh nodded vigorously. "You saw it too? It was there. He killed my best friend!"
Hazel sighed. "Would you mind going to my studio for a moment? I did take a picture of something odd, and I want to see if it's the same thing you witnessed."
Josh looked hesitant. She couldn't blame him, especially if he was the one that rigged up the headless ghost gag in the first place.
No way was she going to believe it was an actual ghost.
"Yeah. Sure. Where is it?"
Hazel gave directions, and would've walked him there herself, but she needed to get to the Mexican restaurant and pick up their food before it went cold. Thankfully, Josh followed her directions and was at the studio when she came back with the bag of take-out.
It looked as if Michael had already showed him the photos, because he was white as a sheet and shaking his head.
Hazel forced a smile as she set out the food. "Did he see it?"
Michael nodded, a bit unnecessarily. "I didn't know what else to do until you got here. He said he was in a hurry anyways."
Hazel wondered at that. "In a hurry where?"
"That's proof. That ghost was there, and it killed Cam!" Josh cried.
Hazel nodded slowly. She didn't mention that it was a photo taken at night from quite a distance, and that it only looked like a figure on a glowing horse. There was no chance it was a ghost.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t the killer trying to look like a ghost.
“Well, I'll be sure to show this to the sheriff, and I suggest you do the same with your footage. What do you have to run off to do, if you don't mind me asking?"
Anthony Ray yowled, his way of letting her know he wanted one of the meatballs from her Mexican wedding soup, and with a sigh Hazel cut him a bite.
Josh rubbed the back of his neck, and wouldn't meet her eyes. “Didn’t I say? I decided to find Tess."
“You're on speaking terms with Tess after what she did to your best friend?" That was a surprise. How Josh talked about Tess made Hazel think he'd never speak to her again. He hadn't really paid a lot of attention to her the night before, after all.
Josh shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for you guys to figure out who killed my best friend when I know who did it?"
Hazel figured this had more to do with psychic mumbo-jumbo she didn't believe.
She tossed a quick glance at Michael and caught her assistant raising his brows. "Are we talking about the same Tess here? That pretty girl who doesn't say much?"
Hazel giggled. "Michael, I didn't know you had a crush on Tess. Why didn’t you say something sooner? My mother would love to set you up with her."
Michael's cheeks turned crimson, and he shook his head. "I never said that I just—never mind."
Hazel patted his back and watched him dig into his lunch.
Hadn’t her mother said something about Tess disappearing from the shop that morning?
Hazel was about to ask when Josh's phone chimed. He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and headed toward the door. “It's Emma. I’ve gotta go. We’re staying at the Lodge if you ever need to speak to us," he said.
“Yesterday Patricia said you were staying in the caretaker’s cabin," Hazel said, more out of surprise than anything else.
Josh straightened suddenly. “Uh, no. We couldn’t stay there. Not after what happened."
“You guys must make pretty good money to afford the Lodge and pay whatever Patricia was asking," Hazel said.
Josh stared at her. “Huh? We didn’t pay Ms. Corning. She invited us. Honestly, we wanted to do the Rockwell Manor or the Castle, but they didn’t want ghost hunters on the property. This was our third choice," he said and left.
Hazel chewed on a meatball as she watched him go. "What did he do when you showed him the photo of the ghost?" She tried not to say the last bit through clenched teeth.
Michael ripped off a chunk of his quesadilla. "Oh man, you should've seen it. He didn't say anything, but all the color drained from his face. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. He kind of did."
Hazel nodded, and Anthony Ray meowed for another bit of meatball. She gave him a tiny piece, against her better judgment, and went back to slurping her soup.
Like he'd seen a ghost, huh?
Well, maybe this case did have to do with ghosts, but she had a feeling it wasn't the type people normally thought of.
Not spirits of the dead but rather those of the past.
Chapter 10
Hazel had hardly finished her soup when she got an urgent text from Violet.
It read: Meet me at the bakery after school. Super important!!!
"When does the high school let out again?" she asked and wiped her lips.
Michael glanced at the time on his
computer screen. "Soon, I think. Why? Need to pick up Violet?"
Hazel gathered her coat, once again, but opted to leave Anthony Ray at the studio this time. "No, but I do need to pop over to Esther's for some dessert."
She usually enjoyed walking down Cedar Valley’s streets during October. Everyone had their Halloween decorations in full display, although most of them were cute rather than scary. Beautifully carved pumpkins sat in shop windows, and cut out skeletons danced around them. Carol Collins, who ran the Christmas shop, was the only one that didn't seem to be in the Halloween spirit. Her shop was obviously still only Christmas oriented, and Hazel shook her head as she passed.
However, today she noticed a different air had settled over the town. As she neared Esther's bakery, a group of women around her mother's age huddled nearby whispering.
“Is it even going to be safe?" One of them said and shook her head—Hazel thought the woman's name was Paula.
Then all three of them glanced at Hazel as if anything wrong in the world was her fault.
"Is what going to be safe?" she asked and paused near Esther's Halloween display. It was all smiling pumpkins and cheerful looking witches on broomsticks. One of them stood over a boiling cauldron and stirred, which was rather fitting for Esther.
"The town after everything that’s happened. Especially this horrific incident at the Pearl House!" Paula cried and shook her head.
The other two women adjusted their sweaters over their shoulders and wouldn't meet Hazel's eyes.
"I can assure you the sheriff is doing everything he can to solve this crime. And–"
"Solving it isn't the problem. We don't want any of our children to get hurt. And they're supposed to hold the Halloween Fair in a couple of days?" Another of the women said.
Hazel couldn't remember her name. Though Cedar Valley was a small town, all the year-round residents weren't familiar to her.