by Zoe Arden
"Do you recognize him?" Eleanor asked.
"No," I said.
"Me either."
"Who is he?"
Eleanor looked up at me, smiling. "Ava, I think we've just found the assassin.”
* * *
2 1
* * *
It seemed like I just couldn't get away from the sheriff's station. Everyone was here. Sheriff Knoxx, Colt, Eleanor, Trixie, Lincoln, and Felicity. My father was with Russell at Colt's apartment. He'd wanted to be here with everyone else, but I'd asked him to me this favor since Colt had called in a favor of his own to get me out of jail. My dad couldn't say no.
Eleanor, Trixie, Felicity, and I were not allowed anywhere near the assassin. Lincoln had tried desperately to convince Felicity to go home but she refused to budge. She'd been with Lincoln when Sheriff Knoxx had called to tell him what had happened, and she'd insisted on accompanying him to Sweetland Cove.
Eleanor kept glancing furtively at Sheriff Knoxx whenever he was around. He pretended he didn't notice but I saw him sneak his own furtive glances her way.
"Look, this is crazy," I said to Colt. "I'm the one who was attacked. Don't I need to identify him or something at least?"
"You already identified him," Colt said, but I could see him thinking. He whispered something to Sheriff Knoxx, who sighed and nodded.
"Okay, Ava, come with us."
Sheriff Knoxx directed Elwin and Otis to stay with the rest of the group and led me back to the sole interrogation room that was clean enough to actually hold an interrogation. The room had one of those two-way mirrors. I could see the assassin in the room, sitting in a chair, but he couldn't see us. I suspected he knew we were there though. He was calm and collected, like he was sitting at home watching television. This was a trained killer, and he seemed quite good at the job. Except, of course, he'd been caught. But then, everyone made a mistake now and again.
"All right," Sheriff Knoxx said. "Take a good look. Is this the man who attacked you in the hospital?"
I looked at the pink bulbous nose, the dark gray eyes, the sinister lips.
"Yes," I said.
Sheriff Knoxx checked something off on his clipboard.
"Okay," Colt said, "now look at him and tell us if this is the same man who attacked you at Mistmoor Beach. The one who tried to push you off those rocks."
I looked at Colt uncertainly. He hadn't even believed me about that up till now. No one had. I searched the man's face again, looking for something to latch onto. The memory of that day was clear in my head, but his face wasn't. Mostly because I'd never seen it.
"I'm not sure," I admitted. "He was wearing a black mask. I never got a good look at him, not even his eyes." My voice cracked. "Does that mean you can't hold him?" My knees started to shake, just the tiniest bit.
"Release him?" Lincoln laughed. "He's not going anywhere for a long time."
"You mean, you've got enough to hold him?" This was probably the one good thing that had happened in recent memory.
"Ava," Colt said, stroking my arm gently. "He confessed."
My eyes bulged out of my head. "He what?" I was certain I'd misheard him.
"The man in there confessed to killing Thaddeus Black. He even confessed to attacking Tazzie Singer, only..." He looked from me to Sheriff Knoxx to Lincoln.
"Only what?" I pressed. Sheriff Knoxx gave a slight nod of his head and Colt went on.
"He says that Tazzie's the one who hired him."
Colt's words hung in the air, confusing me more than anything up until now.
"What do you mean? Hired him for what?"
"To kill Thaddeus and the other candidates."
I laughed. That had to be a joke. "You can't be serious."
"I'm afraid so. The thing is, he says Thaddeus was the only one he was supposed to kill. The others were only supposed to be frightened into dropping out of the race; that's why their price tags were so much lower. Grayson and Amanda Hollyberry were targets, but never hits."
"This doesn't make sense," I said, trying to keep calm. "If Tazzie hired this guy, then why did he attack her? And what about burglarizing her house?"
"The first attack was faked. Designed to throw suspicion off her. It was her idea."
"No way," I said. "That's totally bogus and you know it."
"You have to admit," said Lincoln, "it makes sense. What better way to make people think you're the victim, not the perpetrator? I never even considered Tazzie as a suspect for one second."
This was insane. I had to make them understand that. "Yes but—"
"The burglary," said Sheriff Knoxx, cutting me off, "was a real threat to Tazzie."
"Why?" I asked. "Why threaten the person who hired you?"
Colt answered that for me. "Because she didn't pay him the money he was owed for killing Thaddeus. He was giving her one last chance to correct her mistake before killing her."
"He'd rather have his money," Lincoln said. "In his eyes, he had a job to do and he did it. He wants what he's owed."
I shook my head. "Uh uh. No way. This can't be true. Tazzie Singer is not a murderer. Do you really believe she wanted to be mayor so badly that she would kill for it?"
Sheriff Knoxx, Lincoln, and Colt all exchanged a look.
"I don't know what I believe just now," Lincoln finally said. "If you'd have asked me a week ago whether I thought Tazzie Singer could do something like this, I'd have told you were crazy. But now... the guy tells a convincing story."
"Yeah, but that's part of his job," I said. "He's a master of disguises, right? That includes telling people stories to go along with those disguises. He's just telling you what you want to hear."
Sheriff Knoxx sighed. "Well, we can certainly hold him. He's already been formally charged with Thaddeus’ murder and your attempted murder. Let's just get him in a cell and talk to Tazzie."
"I've got one of my deputies bringing her in as we speak," Lincoln said.
"You're arresting Tazzie?!" I screeched. "Based on something a known liar is telling you?"
"We just want to talk to her," Colt said. "She's not officially under arrest. Yet."
This was unbelievable. I didn't know what to say. I started to argue again and was finally shuffled back out of the room. I filled in Felicity, Eleanor, and Trixie. Felicity was particularly upset to hear what I had to say.
I realized standing here with them that we were a roomful of girlfriends of law enforcement. Eleanor and Sheriff Knoxx... despite what they said, I had faith they would work things out. Me and Colt, my sexy COMHA agent. Felicity and Sheriff Lincoln Maxwell. Trixie was the only one of us who wasn't involved with law enforcement, but she did have a vigilante vampire on her hands. I decided that was close enough. No wonder we were all so stubborn. We had to be, being in relationships with men like that.
"I can't believe Lincoln would buy a ridiculous story like that!" Felicity said, her face turning almost as red as her hair. Eleanor was pacing. Trixie was standing still as a statue except for her foot, which she tapped incessantly.
"Maybe we should go back to our place," Eleanor said. "We could all use a little dinner, I think. Ava, the hospital released you because I promised Nurse Sadie that I would make sure you got some rest. I don't want her getting mad at your father or me because you're not taking care of yourself."
"Fine by me," I said, my stomach grumbling. I suddenly realized how tired I was.
We turned to go when an alarm suddenly blared across the entire building, hurting our ears. It was as loud as a 747 and drowned out anything that anyone might've been trying to say. Sheriff Knoxx, Colt, and Lincoln suddenly appeared, guns and supercharged wands drawn, frantically scouring the ground.
"Shut that thing off!" Sheriff Knoxx yelled to Otis.
Otis ran for the alarm, fumbling with the controls. A moment later, the alarm stopped.
"What was that about?" Eleanor asked.
"Did you see him?" Colt demanded of us.
"See who?" I asked.
> "The assassin. He came this way."
"What do you mean, he came this way?" I asked. "I thought he was with you."
"He was." Colt shot Lincoln and Sheriff Knoxx a look.
Sheriff Knoxx's face was more tired than I'd ever seen it. His eyes were steely and red, ready for action despite his fatigue. "He escaped"
Suddenly, I was wide awake.
* * *
2 2
* * *
The whole island had gone crazy. Rumors were flying about Tazzie, Thaddeus, and Mayor Thomas. They were calling it a "love triangle for the ages." Tazzie and Mayor Thomas still denied any involvement with each other, but the picture that Hadley Miner had brought to the police had leaked to the press.
People were suddenly less concerned that Thaddeus was dead than they were with his relationship to the two most prominent suspects in the case. Though there was absolutely no proof of it, the general consensus was that Tazzie Singer was having an affair with both Mayor Thomas and Thaddeus Black. She had Thaddeus killed not only to win the election, but because he wouldn't leave her alone when she tried to break things off with him.
There was a second, though smaller, faction of the population who thought the opposite. That Mayor Thomas had hired the assassin to kill Thaddeus because he was jealous of Tazzie's affair with him. He wanted Tazzie all to himself. Now that Thaddeus was dead, she still didn't want him, and so he had decided to frame her for Thaddeus’ murder by paying the assassin extra to say she'd hired him.
If you believed the first story, you were angry with Tazzie. If you believed the second story, you were angry with Mayor Thomas. Some were angry at both, some people were angry at everyone, including the sheriffs for letting the assassin escape.
They still couldn't figure out how he'd done it. They'd put him in the jail cell and shut the doors. He'd asked for some water and when they'd returned with it, he was gone. I supposed that it was all part of being an assassin.
Sheriff Knoxx, Lincoln, and Colt had just enough time to see the assassin's foot as he ran around a corner and completely disappeared. No one had even gotten his real name. Every time they'd asked, he'd give them the name of a celebrity. He'd first told them his name was Mickey Mouse, followed by Sleeping Beauty. The last name he'd given them before escaping was Conway Twitty. It was a mess, and it made everyone involved look bad.
"I can't believe Tazzie's in jail," I told Eleanor as we worked on a fresh batch of blueberry optimism cupcakes. They were my idea. I thought Sweetland Cove could use a little optimism right now.
"I know. They should never have arrested her. Zane really has gone too far this time."
I hesitated. "You know, Aunt Eleanor, Sheriff Knoxx is just doing his job. I think, maybe... you could give him a break." I held my breath, waiting for her reaction. "I mean, it can't be easy to have everyone mad at you all the time, and when you're a sheriff, someone's always gonna be mad at you about something. Right?"
Eleanor looked like I'd slapped her. I hoped I hadn't just made a huge mistake. I ignored the look she was giving me and busied myself with mixing some new mood extracts. I tried not to notice the way Eleanor had suddenly started slapping her dough against the table like she was taking her anger out on it instead of me.
Trixie was out front with my father and Melbourne, who was making a rare public appearance. Trixie had begged, pleaded, and finally demanded that he leave his house. He was grumpy, moody, and glared at everyone, but at least he was out somewhere, no longer a hermit. His pale vampire skin was the same as always, and his dark hair looked washed and combed. Last time I'd seen him, he'd look like he'd been run through a dishwasher.
"Nothing's wrong!" he snapped at anyone who dared to ask. Those of us with any brains stopped asking.
I knew he just missed his coffee shop. I wondered if William Carney would ever give it back. There was no compelling legal reason for him to let Melbourne run it again. It had legally been signed over to William months ago but Melbourne seemed lost without it. Maybe I could talk to William; we'd always gotten along well enough. He might listen to me.
Melbourne wasn't the only significant other helping out today. Sadie, who was fast becoming my dad's girlfriend instead of just "someone I'm sort of seeing," as he had initially put it, was helping out, too. It was her day off from the hospital, and she had volunteered to help us since we'd been so busy the last couple of days. She just wanted to spend time with my dad, which I thought was sweet.
I still couldn't believe how packed we were. Sweets n' Treats had taken a hit in their business the last few days. Lottie Mudget had gone down there to give them a second chance after finding that Band-Aid in her sugar cookie and had gotten seriously ill eating a chocolate pecan peppy brownie. It turned out that Wilma Trueheart's peppy extract was contaminated. It hadn't just been Lottie who had gotten sick; it had been a half dozen other people from Sweetland. Dr. Wallace had to shut the place down for a day while the Witch's Council sent in a team to investigate.
Wilma's bakery had reopened the next day, but if our business was booming, hers must have been nonexistent at this point. I brought out a tray of marble fudge fidget cake and set it on the counter.
Lottie Mudget shouted to Eleanor, "I'll take one of these, too. Add it to my order, please."
Her hand shot out like a bolt of lightning and grabbed the largest slice off my tray before I could stop her.
"Mmmm, looks delicious." She shoved the whole thing into her mouth. "It is delicious. Simply perfection." She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and eyed the rest of the marble cake like it was Christmas dinner. I didn't mention the fact that just a week ago she'd been busy stuffing her face at Sweets n' Treats, declaring them to have the best pastries ever.
There was a lull in the lines, and Lottie took the opportunity to spread some gossip.
"Did you hear about Kayla Singer?" she asked.
I'd been on my way to the back but paused at the mention of Kayla. I didn't know her well, but Tazzie's daughter had always struck me as an extremely nice person.
"What about her?" I asked.
"She's taking her mother's place in the election. She's actually running against her own boyfriend now, can you believe that?"
Since Tazzie had been arrested, she'd been forced to drop out of the election, leaving just Grayson Redfern, Amanda Hollyberry, and Hadley Miner. With this new edition of Kayla Singer, it was a four-person race again. I had no idea who might win with these candidates. Last I'd checked, Grayson and Amanda were neck and neck. Hadley had a slight advantage simply because she'd been Mayor Herbert Singer's official secretary. People recognized her and respected her for the job she'd done for him.
"Who do you think's going to win?" Sadie piped in. She had short hair and dimples. I thought she looked good standing next to my father, her arm linked in his. She always looked so happy to be with him, and he looked happy to be with her. She was the first woman he'd dated since my mother's death more than twenty years ago.
"Hadley Miner," Lottie said without blinking an eye.
The door chimed, and Sheriff Knoxx walked in just as Eleanor stepped out of the back with the finished blueberry cupcakes. She almost dropped them when she saw him and started blushing like a school girl.
"Hello... Zane," she said.
"Eleanor," he said, nodding. They looked at each other a long moment while the rest of us kept quiet, even Lottie.
"I have some fresh peanut butter dream bars in the back if you'd like one," Eleanor said out of nowhere.
Sheriff Knoxx's eyes lit up. "Thank you, I'd love that." He followed her into the back, and I stayed out front. I wanted to give them some time together. When they were gone, our conversation continued.
"What makes you think that Hadley is going to win?" asked Melbourne. Trixie beamed, thrilled that he had actually spoken. He was participating in a real conversation with someone other than herself. It was a good first step toward coming out of his shell.
"Word on the street is that Hadley is
a sure thing," Lottie said. "She knows the old mayor's routines and is planning on coming out with a plan to bridge the gap between Mistmoor Point and Sweetland Cove. She wants to work to unite us, just like Mayor Singer did when he was alive."
"Yeah, but Tazzie wants the same thing," I said. "So do Grayson and Amanda."
"Yes, but Hadley actually has a plan. All the others have is talk."
I frowned, not certain I quite believed everything Lottie was saying. I'd heard Amanda Hollyberry's speech on the radio the other day and it seemed to me like she, at least, had very detailed plans about improvements she wanted to make to Mistmoor and how to do them, including making our two towns friends again.
I thought that the amount of cooperation between Lincoln's sheriff's station and Sherriff Knoxx's should go a long way to helping fill that gap everyone was talking about. But then, the sheriffs had always gotten along. Colt said law enforcement had to stick together, especially on a tiny island like this.
The back door suddenly burst open, and Sheriff Knoxx hurried through it. "Sorry," he said when he almost knocked my father over. "I've got to go. Otis just radioed. Hadley Miner's been attacked."
"Attacked!" Lottie cried. "By who? Is she okay? Tell me everything." She leaned in, eager to be the first to get this information. How jealous her friends would be that she was the first to know about this.
"No time, Lottie," Sheriff Knoxx said. She pouted at him but he ignored her.
Eleanor ran after him. "Wait, don't forget your peanut butter dream bars," she called, handing him a box. He kissed her gently before running out the door. Despite the urgency of the situation, he was beaming. When he was gone, we all turned to Eleanor, who was still blushing.
"The wedding's back on," she said, then returned to the back as if nothing had happened.
Trixie and I looked at each other, smiling. For once, a piece of good news had come our way.
* * *