Purrfect Haunt

by Louise Lynn

  Hazel felt her lips tug into a frown. "The sheriff wants to get the killer off the street for the holiday too. And he's doing everything he can." She believed what she said, one hundred percent, though the women didn't seem reassured.

  Paula sneered. "You would say that, considering."

  Heat rose to Hazel's cheeks. She figured they meant ‘considering Hazel was his girlfriend,’ something the whole town did seem to know now. It wasn't as if they walked down the street holding hands and blowing kisses at each other, but the news had spread due to typical small town gossip. Hazel wished she wasn't the center of it, but dating the handsome new sheriff had its consequences, she supposed.

  She would've said more, but she noticed Violet rushing down the street toward her, her black coat whipping behind her like wings and a rainbow scarf wrapped tight around her neck.

  In her wake was a boy who looked about fifteen as well. He wore a gray jacket, and what looked like a band shirt underneath with some sort of flannel in between the two. He had black wire frame glasses, and his hair was a dusty reddish-brown, cut short and messy. Either it was because of the wind or because he hadn't bothered to comb it carefully that morning. Hazel couldn't tell which.

  "Good, you're here," Violet said and pushed open the door. It jingled their arrival, and Hazel swept inside after Violet and the young man, ignoring the surprised looks the women gave her.

  It's not as if it was her fault someone had been murdered at Massacre Mansion. Nor was it Colton's. Sometimes the gossip in Cedar Valley got way out of hand, and this was one of those times.

  "It's true, isn't it?" Esther said from behind the counter. She had her hands on her hips, and her face set into a frown. Her long auburn hair was pulled back into a braid, and her apron was immaculate, as was the rest of her. Hazel wasn't sure how she managed it.

  "Is what true? Please don't say something about a ghost." Hazel said and bent to look at the cupcakes in the display case.

  At that time in the afternoon, the lunch rush had ended and the after school rush had yet to begin, so besides the four of them, the bakery was empty. Good thing since she had an idea where the discussion was going.

  Since it was a holiday, Esther had gone all out with the treats. She had an entire chocolate cake made up like a graveyard, with ghouls rising from the graves—cookie ghouls, not real ones.

  Hazel was half tempted to buy it as a surprise for Sheriff Cross, since it was chocolate, his favorite, but decided that might be in bad taste.

  "Someone was killed with an axe at Massacre Mansion!" Esther hissed as if someone might overhear them.

  Violet and the boy joined Hazel.

  "It's so true. I saw the blood and everything," Violet said, and the boy's eyes went wide.

  Hazel sighed. “Yes, someone was killed at the Pearl House, but that’s not why I’m here. Do you have any pumpkin cupcakes? I’ll have two of those and one of the devil's food," she said and gave her sister a sweet smile.

  Esther's eyes narrowed, but she bent to get the cupcakes anyhow. "One of these pumpkin cupcakes better be for Michael and not for you. You already had one pumpkin muffin today."

  Hazel didn't see how the pumpkin cupcakes and muffins were much different. The only thing separating them was the muffins had a sugar and spice nut topping while the cupcakes were covered with several inches of whipped frosting, and that was topped with a little bit of cinnamon sugar to make it crunchy.

  Her mouth watered just thinking about it.

  "You know I brought those dozen muffins to the Sheriff's Office. I didn't eat them all myself. So I think it's a little unfair that I'm not allowed to buy another dozen."

  Esther rolled her eyes and put the three cupcakes in a bright pink box with the bakery’s logo on top. "You bought it in front of a line of customers that were all looking forward to pumpkin muffins, and you bought the last twelve. It looks like nepotism to be selling them to you. You should've heard the talk after you left. I don't want to put up with angry customers every morning just because you like them. I can make them for you all year, but I only make them three months out of the year for everyone else. So please, deal with it," Esther said in a tone of voice that was harsh, for her.

  Hazel grinned at her sister. "Fine. I'll deal with it. But does that mean Colton can come and get a dozen if he wants and he's not held to the same rule?"

  Esther sighed. "Yes, I suppose. Now, what are you guys gonna do about this whole thing? Everyone who's come in today has been talking about how the town's not safe for trick-or-treating. And when Ruth finds out, she’s going to get nightmares."

  Hazel wasn’t sure if her eight-year-old niece would get the nightmare, or if Esther would. She took the cupcakes and sat down at one of the tables. “We’re going to do what we always do—solve the case."

  Sure, the other crimes that happened in and around Cedar Valley had affected the town as a whole, but none had been so close to a holiday. Nor had it felt quite this dangerous.

  Axe murder tended to do that to a town, she guessed.

  "That's why I'm here, actually. Well, besides working. When do I clock in?" Violet asked and smiled at Esther.

  "Two o'clock, so you have thirty minutes with Milo, right?" Esther said and gave Violet’s friend a stunning smile.

  Hazel raised an eyebrow. Esther knew about this boy before Hazel did? Well, Violet did work with Esther. Still. She thought she was Violet's confidant.

  The boy blushed, and asked for a raspberry brownie, while Violet herself chose the ghostly devil's food, which was just a chocolate cupcake with a mound of marshmallow icing on top, with little black eyes to make it look like a ghost.

  "Good, that's more than enough time. Did you bring the laptop, Milo?" Violet asked the boy.

  He nodded and took the backpack off his shoulders as he sat down across from Hazel. Violet sat between them and immediately dug into her cupcake as if she hadn’t eaten lunch. Knowing the girl, she probably hadn't.

  "So, you’re Milo? Nice to meet you. I hear you haven't met Violet's uncle yet," Hazel said.

  Violet's cheeks went crimson. "He hasn't. And if I have my way he never will. You know what Uncle Colton's like. He'd probably try to give Milo a lie detector test and then interrogate him for twenty hours."

  Hazel bit back the urge to giggle. That was mostly true. And she decided not to mention the background check either, lest Violet get paranoid.

  The boy set out his computer and smiled shyly at Hazel. "Hi. I heard a lot about you from Violet and Esther. It's nice to meet you. Your photo studio is really cool looking. Our whole family had an Old West picture done once, but that was last summer so you probably don't remember."

  Hazel squinted at the boy. Maybe, if she tried hard enough– "Oh, you had grandparents with you? I remember because your family was so big. We usually only get small groups coming in. I hope you liked the photo." Hazel said, since it wasn't often she got to talk about her little side business.

  Since Cedar Valley was a tourist town, the Old West studio brought in enough extra money to pay for itself and help keep her studio afloat. It didn’t make as much as the wedding photography, but it meant she could do all the nature photography she wanted without worrying about paying her bills, which was a blessing in more ways than one.

  Milo nodded quickly and turned the computer toward her. "This is it. We found it in our last class today."

  Hazel raised her eyebrows at both of them.

  "It was a computer class, so we weren’t fooling around. We were supposed to be doing some Internet research, and Milo noticed there was a new Ghost Hunters Extreme video up. Weird, huh?."

  If Hazel hadn't spoken to Josh earlier, she would've said it was odd. Now, she only wanted to see what happened in it. "Yeah, but I think I know why they put it out. Something about wanting the truth to be known."

  Though she wasn't sure how truthful the video would actually be, considering she’d been in the same house and hadn’t heard or seen much.

  "So can
we watch it now? Please, I know you and Uncle Colton probably don't want me involved because there’s an axe murderer on the loose, but we can at least help with this little bit, right?"

  Hazel glanced at Esther, who had her typical disapproving frown, and she sighed. "You do have a pretty sharp eye, so okay. Just this once. And anything you notice, you have to tell me and your uncle and promise not to go off and deal with it yourself." She nodded toward Milo. “And at least tell Colton about him. He's going out of his mind thinking you have a secret boyfriend."

  Violet nearly choked on her cupcake, and Milo's cheeks burned. "Boyfriend? I—I haven’t asked her out yet."

  "Yet?" Violet squeaked.

  Hazel grinned at both of them. "Well, if you're just friends, that's even better. Either way, let's watch this video. Which button plays it?" she asked and looked at the screen.

  Milo hurried and pressed play, either to avoid further embarrassment, or because he really wanted to see the video.

  What followed was nearly twenty-five minutes worth of footage that Hazel thought only vaguely resembled the night she'd had. For one, whoever held the camera, either Emma or Josh, didn't have a very steady hand. Every few minutes, it shook with enough force that it made the entire house look ready to topple over.

  They’d dimmed all of the lights, so everything was draped in heavy shadows and difficult to make out. In certain rooms, they were in complete darkness, though they seemed to have some night vision apparatus on the camera because everything shone in a sickly green.

  Cameron was there, of course, putting on his best P.T. Barnum impersonation.

  It was exactly how Hazel remembered hearing him, with plenty of: “Oh what's that noise? Did you see that?"

  While she hadn’t seen or heard anything, in the video there were rattles of glass from the windows, and barely heard whispers that Cameron swore said ‘Dora’ on more than one occasion.

  At one point, toward the end, there were even horses hooves stomping about outside—something Hazel did remember.

  She frowned.

  Finally, it came to a head on the second floor when Ghost Hunters Extreme got to Dora's bedroom. Cameron made a note of the rusted nails in the windows, and said: “This place feels bad. Emma, you think this is where he caught her? You think this is where he did it?"

  Offscreen, Emma's voice shook. "I'm sure of it. The presence is so strong. It feels like the killer is here in the room right now."

  Cameron Killian smiled at the camera for the last time, all bravado and cocksureness. "Ghosts can't hurt me, babe. You'll see."

  Then the video cut to Cameron shutting the door, and an exaggerated sound of a lock turning. Hazel figured that bit had been added in post production. It also felt rather abrupt. She swore Cameron was going to say something more, but the video didn’t show what that was.

  But this proved Cameron had locked himself in the room of his own accord.

  The video hovered on the door for several minutes with Emma whispering to herself, and then, as suddenly as Hazel remembered, a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the house. As it did, the lights went out.

  Hazel shook her head. There had been more time between the scream and the lights going out. She’d had time to start down the stairs, at least.

  "Cam? Cam?" Emma whispered in the video.

  No one answered from behind the door, and Emma swore and turned to run down the stairs. "Josh, we need the key. Cam is in that room. The lights, what happened?"

  The camera swiveled and caught Josh's startled expression, he shrugged. "I don't know. I thought it was—Wait. Cam’s in there alone?"

  Hazel started at that. If Josh knew Cameron was in the room, why had he acted as if he didn’t?

  The camera nodded, and the footage ended.

  It was followed by a wall of black with white text that read:

  The headless ghost of Massacre Mansion killed Cameron Killian. He died trying to find the truth. RIP.

  Chapter 11

  "Whoa, is that really how it happened?" Milo asked and looked at Hazel.

  Hazel worried her bottom lip and wiped the crumbs from her mouth. She’d long since finished her cupcake, and she could use some hot cider right about now. Thankfully, Esther had a sense about those things and carried a tray to the table.

  Several high schoolers wandered in while they were watching the video, and Violet jumped up with her bag and moved to get ready for work. "You can tell Milo anything you’d tell me. He's cool," Violet said and grinned at Milo.

  Milo looked down at his empty plate, his cheeks flushing crimson.

  “That’s high praise coming from her. And no. Not really. Only some of it," Hazel said, and wasn't quite sure she wanted to admit to the sound of horse hooves. It could’ve been something non-ghostly. Someone taking a midnight ride on the beach.

  Only who took midnight rides on the beach in October? Plus, she couldn’t think of anyone in Cedar Valley proper who owned horses.

  Something else nagged at the back of her mind. The Pearl family had owned horses.

  Milo gave her that shy smile again. "Yeah, I figured. Mostly because Ghost Hunters Extreme fake a lot of evidence. I’m a bigger fan of Xtreme_Skeptic, actually."

  Hazel nodded slowly. There was that name again. She wished they knew the identity of this Xtreme_Skeptic since they hovered around Cameron like a ghost. Pun intended.

  “I talked to one of the surviving members about that, and he admits they did exaggerate."

  Milo's eyes brightened. “Really? So what did happen that night? Did the lights go off in the whole house?"

  Hazel nodded. "Yeah, the deputies claimed it was an overloaded circuit that tripped."

  She still wasn’t certain of that. A circuit could be manually tripped.

  "But he was killed in a locked room alone?" Milo asked, his voice cracking a bit on the word killed. Hazel couldn't blame him.

  "As far as we know. Those windows were nailed shut. And it locked from the inside. It took Violet a while to pick it, actually."

  Milo rubbed his thumb on his bottom lip. "Okay, but did you hear any of the noises they heard? Like the whispers? Or did you see any of those shadows they claim they saw in the background? That's what they do most of the time. They have a shadowy figure move in the background and claim it's a ghost when it's obviously not. It's just one of their crew members dressed up."

  Hazel raised an eyebrow. That seemed pretty over the top, even for Cameron Killian. "I mostly heard Cameron carrying on the entire time. But those horse hooves, I heard that. And I got a photo of a horse in the yard from the third story window," she said with a frown.

  Milo stared. "You heard and saw the horse? I really thought they put that part in during post. I can’t wait to see Xtreme_Skeptic tear this one apart. I, uh, mean, the evidence, not say bad things about Cameron since he’s dead and all."

  Hazel nodded. She would have thought the same thing if she hadn’t been there. “Since you’re a fan, do you have any idea who Xtreme_Skeptic might be?"

  Milo shrugged. “That’s part of the fun. Whoever it is is completely anonymous, but I’m sure with some cyber sleuthing, it’d be easy enough to find them."

  Hazel blinked. “Really? Can you do that?"

  Milo looked between Hazel and his computer. “I can track the ISP address and see where Xtreme_Skeptic is, but that’s it. And that’s only if they post something new. Do you want me to?"

  “Yes. Please. I have a feeling Xtreme_Skeptic might be useful to solving this case, one way or the other."

  She just wasn’t so sure how yet, but she figured that would come later.

  As Hazel left, she heard the high schoolers whispering about a headless ghost and a glowing horse wondering Cedar Valley’s streets.

  Like wildfire, the rumor was spreading, and Hazel didn't know how to stop it.

  Chapter 12

  "I only have one rule. We don't talk about the case tonight. We can compare notes tomorrow morning."

  Hazel fe
lt a wave of relief wash over her as she stared at Colton's weary smile and the bag of take-out in his hand. She hadn't expected him to come to her house, but was glad he had before she ate the leftovers Esther had provided. From the spices that wafted forth, she could tell he'd gone to the Indian restaurant.

  She could use some comfort food after the day she'd had, and it looked like Colton could as well.

  "Deal," she said and let him in.

  Even though Anthony Ray had already had his supper, he still meowed and wound around their legs as they readied their plates and settled on the couch to eat. It was a bit of a tradition with them now. Colton came over to either cook, or bring takeout when he was too tired for the cooking part, and then they settled on the couch to eat. The table seemed too formal, and it didn't make cuddling easy.

  They headed for the couch now. It was tucked in front of the fireplace with the TV over it, and one of the features Hazel liked best about her cabin’s open floor plan.

  "Oh good, you got the saag paneer," she said and inhaled a deep breath full of spices. Sure, the deep green of the cooked spinach and cheese curry didn't look particularly appetizing, but the taste was out of this world.

  “It's one of your favorites," he said around a yawn and dug into his own food.

  Not talking about a case while they ate wasn't particularly new, but since they hadn't had a chance to chat all day, Hazel wasn't expecting it. Still, she did need something to take her mind off axe murders and wild rumors, and this was the perfect remedy.

  "And Violet?" She asked and scooped up a mouthful on a slice of naan.

  Anthony Ray blinked at them from the coffee table, eyes wide and expectant, even though he wouldn’t be getting any table scraps from this meal. It had too much onion to be safe for a cat.

  “She's staying with a friend tonight. Gina Hersey. They’re working on a project together for English. And she told me about some friend of hers named Milo, said you insisted." He nudged her shoulder.

  Hazel let out a sigh. At least Violet had followed through quickly. Hazel told the girl months ago she wasn't going to keep secrets from Colton on Violet's behalf, and thankfully Violet had listened. "He seems like a nice kid."