Murder without Mercy

by Tegan Maher

  Kristen stuck her spoon in and pushed it down through the layers so that the bite that she scooped out had a little bit of everything. She took the bite, then rolled her eyes. “Or maybe not. Thank you, Monty, for bringing two. I wouldn’t have wanted to share this either!”

  “Told ya,” I said around a bite. Monty set a bag with Hunter’s sandwich in it down along with the bill, and after we finished and I settled up, Kristen pulled me into a hug. “Thanks, Noe. For the tip on the job. For offering me the apartment. For lunch. Just for everything. This has been the best day I’ve had in a long time.”

  “Just go talk to Bobbie Sue and then start packing,” I said, hugging her back. “This is gonna be awesome for all of us.”

  Even though it was a new change, I felt like things were finally getting back to normal. Or at least the new version of it, and that made me happy.

  Chapter 18

  I tipped my head to the brass statue of General Thaddeus Washburn, Keyhole Lake’s very own Civil War hero, sitting proudly atop his horse. In addition to fighting bravely alongside his men in the US Army in a cavalry unit, he also played a huge part in working with the Underground Railroad in our region.

  He’d been a man of incredible scruples and, according to his wife’s diaries, a wonderful husband and father. Once the war was over, he’d returned to Keyhole Lake and raised his family there, serving as the mayor for over three decades and dying at the ripe old age of ninety-two.

  His descendants still lived in town, and a couple of them were even still active in local politics. Of course, there were some that regularly spent the night in jail after tipping back a few too many, too, but every family has all different shaped apples, and some fall farther from the tree than others.

  The sun glinted off his eyes in a way that almost made it look like he was winking at me, and I smiled back at him. After all, with what I’d learned about what existed in the magical world over the last several months, it just wasn’t worth being rude, just in case.

  As always, I felt the need to walk as quietly as possible through the two-story foyer of the courthouse. Both the floors and walls were tiled in gray-and-white marble that had streaks of gold running through it, and the wood-and-brass accents gave the entrance a timeless class that simply demanded reverence. It was one of my favorite buildings in all of Keyhole.

  Hunter’s office was in the back of the building, so I put the hustle to it so that his burger wouldn’t get cold. It was odd to see Peggy Sue’s desk empty, then I remembered it was Sunday. It was only recently that Hunter had convinced her that just because he was there didn’t mean she needed to be.

  I slipped around her workspace and down the hall toward Hunter’s office. His door was open, and he was flipping through some papers stuffed into a manila file folder.

  “Hey, handsome,” I said, pecking on his doorframe.

  He looked up and smiled, then rolled his neck. “Wow, a gorgeous woman holding a bag of what I’m praying contains a double bacon cheeseburger and onion rings.”

  I grinned and stepped toward him. “You guessed it. I figured you’d be hungry, and I knew you wouldn’t take the time to go get yourself something, especially if you were on to something.”

  “I’ll have you know I was just getting ready to go do exactly that,” he said, pulling the bag from my hands and fishing the cardboard to-go box out of it.

  “You were getting ready to go take a lunch break?” My tone dripped with disbelief.

  He gave me a one-sided grin. “Okay, fine. I was heading to the carnival to talk to that Georgio guy who runs the house of mirrors set up beside Mercy’s tent. He wasn’t around the morning of the murder and he’s about the only person we haven’t talked to. Honestly, I’m not expecting anything, but it wouldn’t be right to skip it. I figured I’d grab a corn dog while I was over there.”

  I shook my head. “That is not a lunch break. Eat your burger, then we’ll go talk to him. Also, we need to track down Frankie. She came into the Cat while I was over there, along with ... wait for it ... Mercy’s ex.”

  “Wait, what?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me this before? Or maybe call me from there?”

  “I tried to call you,” said. “It went to voicemail. I texted you, too.”

  He pulled out his phone and swore. “I had my phone turned off. Mercy’s brother and sister came in here demanding her personal effects.”

  “Yeahhhh,” I said. “I talked to Mercy about that. She seems to think one of them could have killed her. They need her laptop and whatnot to track down where she stashed her money.”

  “Ah,” he said, dragging an onion ring through the puddle of ketchup in the corner of the box. “That explains a lot. I was sure it wasn’t because they wanted a personal memento to remember her by, but I hadn’t quite figured out their angle yet.”

  “Trick’s on them, though. Mercy assigned Serena as the beneficiary to all her accounts.” I told him the story about the auntie and the glovebox.

  He smiled and shook his head. “That’s awesome. I wonder if that’s why she stuck around instead of crossing over?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “It seems so random, who goes and who stays. Though thankfully, it seems like the bad guys are usually gone for good.”

  He rapped his knuckles on his wooden desk. “So far, anyway. Let’s hope the streak continues.”

  He finished his lunch and we headed outside.

  “You wanna walk or drive?” he asked.

  I groaned and laid a hand on my gut. The cheeseburger, beer, and dessert were warring for space, and it was a brutal battle.

  “Drive, please,” I said. “I’m so full, I don’t know if I could walk all the way over there without losing my lunch.”

  “Phew,” he said, grinning and tossing an arm around me as we walked down the marble hall. “I’m glad you said that because I didn’t want to be the one to wimp out.”

  We’d no sooner climbed in his truck than Mercy popped in. Or rather, faded gently into the backseat, calling a “knock, knock” as she did.

  I grinned at her. “Now THAT is a great way to make an entrance. No heart attack involved and no noisy, inconvenient car crash, either.”

  “Ain’t it, though?” she replied, smirking. “And it’s not even hard. I don’t know why every other ghost on the planet has a problem with it.”

  “Right?” I pivoted in the seat so I could look at her while Hunter started the truck and pulled away from the curb. “Did you figure out what they were arguing about?”

  She nodded. “I sure did. Apparently, she was supposed to get me to sign the sale papers on the property for my brother. Somehow, he knew she’d figured out where I was, and he paid her to come to me, with a small advance upfront and the final payment when she delivered. And she was fighting with Felix because it seems he’s developed a gambling problem and blew what little money Brother Dearest gave her on some online horse-betting site. That’s why they were camping.”

  “That’s what they were arguing about?” Hunter asked.

  “Well, sorta. She was giving him hell for spending the money, and he was giving it right back to her for not telling me what a bind she was in and asking me for money.” She furrowed her brow and pressed her lips together, pushing them off the one side in thought. “I’m not sure how they ended up together. She never really liked him and tried to talk me out of marrying him, and he thought she was an airheaded snob.”

  “I thought you said she made a ton of money,” I said.

  “Yeah, well she did. She made a reference to needing the money because her company went under, so I guess Felix has blown through her savings.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Do you think she could have killed you over that? Or do you think he did?”

  She thought for a minute, then shook her head. “No. My money’s still on one of my two lovely siblings. Frankie didn’t stand to gain anything by killing me, and she was genuinely happy to see me. Plus, she backed out of asking me to sign the papers or give her m
oney.”

  I sighed, my shoulders slumping. That’s where my money had been.

  Hunter pulled into the carnival lot and shut off the truck. “Ready?” he asked.

  I turned my attention to my stomach. I wasn’t quite as queasy as I’d been a few minutes before. I was pretty sure I was gonna live without chucking up one of the best meals in town.

  “Ready,” I replied, taking off my seatbelt and popping the door open. “You coming, Mercy?”

  “Nah, I think I’m gonna pop over and see what my dear family is up to. I’ll talk to you two later.”

  We picked our way across the carnival grounds, carefully stepping over melted ice cream cones and tangles of industrial-sized electrical cords. Since the booths were lined around the outside perimeter of the carnival, we’d managed to score a parking spot close to where we were heading.

  When we got to the house of mirrors, a little shiver of sadness trickled over me when I saw Mercy’s tent. The flap was tied shut and the sign was gone. Somehow, that brought her death crashing down on me like nothing else had.

  A tall, dark-haired guy in his late twenties was outside the house of mirrors, his hip propped on the railing leading inside. He saw us coming and took one last pull off his smoke before flicking it into the gravel walkway.

  “I wondered when you guys would be around,” he said, taking a couple strides to meet us. “Everyone else said they talked to you, so I figured I was on the list, too. I can tell you right now that you’re wasting your time. I was helping the boss man all morning.”

  He seemed open, and I pushed out my fickle telepathy to see if I could get anything. Nothing but a vague sense of curiosity came from him.

  “Yeah,” I said, “I talked to Doris right after they found Mercy,” I replied. “She didn’t have much nice to say about you, no offense.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I bet she didn’t. Up to last month, we were kinda dating, but she got so clingy that I broke it off. Super jealous and co-dependent. It surprised me, though looking back, it shouldn’t have.”

  “I feel ya, man,” Hunter said, and I shot him a dirty look.

  “How did you get along with Mercy?” I asked.

  His mouth curled up in a sad half-smile. “Great, actually. She was a good chick. I probably would have asked her out, but I got the feeling she was in a different league.”

  “That’s funny,” I said. “Doris said you two didn’t get along and that Mercy had to help her set up the house of mirrors half the time because you were always off flirting.”

  He cocked a brow. “Did she, now? That would be funny if I didn’t think she was trying to set me up to take the fall for Mercy’s murder. The two of them didn’t get along at all. She was insanely jealous of Mercy, always accusing me of wanting to be with her just because I’d help her put her tent up.”

  I weighed his words. I had a practically infallible bullshit meter, and it wasn’t dinging even a little. I was a little irritated with myself for having been so distracted the day before that I hadn’t bothered to use it on Doris.

  “And lemme guess,” he continued. “She also told you that I was chasing the cotton candy girl and the sister of the guy who runs the rifle game.”

  “Close,” I said, smiling. The dude was telling the truth. “The girl who takes the tickets.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” he said, shaking his head. “Lindy’s barely eighteen. Now you see why I broke up with her?”

  I strolled closer to the house of mirrors. I’d never been in one and was curious. I poked my head inside.

  “Go on in,” he said. “I just finished cleaning them, so you’ll get a clear view with no fingerprints. We tell the kids not to touch the mirrors, but they never listen. Dried candy apple is a pain to get off the glass, too.”

  The inside was super cool. Strands of lights were draped across the tops of all the mirrors, adding to the effect. The mirrors were arranged so that when you stood in the middle, you really couldn’t tell which one was the real you.

  We strolled on through, and there was one that made me look tall and thin, which was awesome, and one that made me look short and barrel-shaped. Not so awesome. One was stretched so that my mouth looked super wide, like it was the biggest thing on my face. I couldn’t figure out how they'd warped the mirror to make that happen, so I stepped forward, examining it closer. When I did, my face was visually cut in half with a strand of lights, which made me look even stranger. Then I noticed I had a little mustache. Scrunching my face, I stepped so close that I was almost touching it. A ball of blond hair was wrapped around one of the lights and several were tangled around the cord.

  Mercy’s image flashed before me. Hair the color of sunshine. “Hunter! Come here, please.”

  He and Georgio were talking about the technical side of things and were still back in the wall of mirrors.

  “What’s up?” he asked, striding past the ones that made you look fat and skinny without even looking into them.”

  “That is,” I said, pointing to the glob of hair.

  “Is it cracked?” Giorgio asked, stepping closer. “Somebody complained that one of them had a crack in it last night, but I couldn’t find one anywhere.” He squinted to see better, then all the color drained from his face.

  “Oh, Doris. What did you do?” he said, so softly I barely heard him.

  “Are these just standard Christmas lights?” Hunter asked. “The ones that are like twenty feet long?”

  Georgio nodded, licking his lips nervously. “Yeah. We just replaced this section, though. We usually keep them in sections of three so that they’re easier to hang, but these are all new. Doris just took them out of the box yesterday morning.”

  “Don’t touch anything else, and I need you two to get outside.” Hunter reached for his cell as Giorgio and I shuffled toward the exit.

  “But why would Doris have killed her?” I asked.

  Giorgio’s face was white as a sheet. “We had a big fight yesterday morning about Mercy. I’d gone over the evening before to help her fix the leg on her table, and Doris accused me of sleeping with her. That’s why I wasn’t here when y’all talked to her.”

  “Where is she now?” Hunter asked, holding his phone away from his ear a little.

  “Over at the boss’s trailer pickin’ up her check,” he said, then pointed toward a cluster of travel trailers situated behind some food trucks.

  Hunter relayed the information to whoever he was talking to. “Yeah. You two pick her up. I’ll wait here until the crime scene techs show up. We’re not sure it’s hers, but it sure looks like it could be, and there’s no other real reason why a chunk of hair would be wound around the lights. The cord is the right size to be the murder weapon.”

  Georgio bolted off toward the trailers, rage etched on his face. I raced to catch up but trailed him until he skidded to a halt between the food trucks. I almost plowed into him.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, scanning the trailers for one that might indicate it belonged to the boss. Sure enough, there was one that was much newer than the rest. “You can’t warn her.”

  His face was thunderous. “She’s insane. Doris murdered one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met because of me, and she’s not going to get away with it. In a way, it’s my fault. I knew she was jealous.”

  I laid my hand on his arm and he glanced down at me, his hands clenched into fists.

  “There’s no way you can blame yourself for this. And what are you going to do?” I asked. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, and you know that.”

  He took a deep breath and slowly released it, and I was glad when some of the tension left his shoulders.

  “Why don’t you go back and wait with Hunter? I’ll stay here and make sure she doesn’t leave. That’s where she’s at, right?” I asked, motioning toward the new trailer. Now that we were quiet, a man’s voice and a woman’s voice floated toward us. I’d only spoken to her once, but I was almost certain it was Doris.

  He nodded
, disgust scrawled across his features. “And I doubt she’s in any hurry. It’s not like I suspected anything. I’m sure she thinks she’s gonna get away with it.”

  “Then go ahead back. I’ve got this, and the deputies will be here soon.”

  Georgio nodded and turned back toward the House of Mirrors.

  I took a seat at one of the picnic tables within sight of the trailer, perched on the bench so that if I needed to move in a hurry to keep her from getting away, I could.

  Within just a couple of minutes, she emerged from the trailer, glancing around. I gave my on-again, off-again telekinesis another shot, and this time, it actually worked. Thoughts are weird because people don’t think in complete sentences. It’s usually a combination of images, emotions, and random associated words. She glanced toward the House of Mirrors and a flash of fear burned through her. An image of Mercy laughing with Georgio flashed through her head, then rage as she snuck up behind her and wrapped the cord around her neck. Strangely enough, there was no guilt.

  She’d started toward me but made an abrupt course change toward a trailer a couple behind the new one. Two deputies strode toward her from farther down the aisle between the trailers and food trucks, their gazes locked on her.

  A flash of fear crossed her mind, and she reached into the purse she had strapped across her chest. My heart shot into my throat when she pulled her hand back out and sun glinted off metal, and she had it pulled before I could respond.

  I only had a split second to make a decision, and I pushed my hands out toward her, throwing every ounce of magic I had into it. I’d deal with the consequences later.

  The world froze in place. The officers paused mid-stride. A little kid’s ball hovered midair, his lanky arms reaching toward it. But most importantly, Doris and her gun were frozen, a bullet erupting from the muzzle.

  A flash of flowing bright colors caught my eye as I started toward her.

  “Tsk, tsk, Cher,” A smoky voice said in a thick Cajun accent. “How is it every other time we run into each other, you’re breaking the rules of magic and nature by stopping time?”