Battered and Buttered Waffle: Book 2 in The Diner of the Dead Series

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  The officer nodded.

  “Sheriff, shouldn’t you tell her?” Sonja asked, trying to be helpful.

  Sheriff Thompson raised his eyebrows to silence her.

  “Tell me what?” Maddy asked.

  Sheriff Thompson looked her directly in the eye. “Spook is dead.”

  All the color drained from Maddy’s face. “What?”

  “He was found in the barn.”

  Tears welled and trickled down her cheeks in forlorn streams. “He…he’s…dead?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “But…how…what happened?” she asked.

  “We aren’t sure yet,” the sheriff replied.

  “It could have been murder,” Sonja chimed in, eyes wide.

  The Sheriff sighed. “Sonja? Will you please wait in the other room?”

  Sonja didn’t budge.

  “Someone killed him?” Maddy asked, horror in her eyes.

  The officer grimaced. “It’s a possibility,” he said. “There’ll need to be an investigation.”

  The frightened girl was shaking, “And you think I did it? B-because of this note?” She said, pointing at the note on the table.

  “I haven’t formed any theories yet,” he assured her.

  Her shaking was getting worse. Sonja stepped in, “I think she’s going into shock.” She moved quickly over to the grief-stricken young woman. “Maddy, you need to lie down.”

  Sonja grabbed a sofa cushion and put it under her feet. “We’ll need a cold compress of some sort.” She stood up and headed into the bathroom. Sheriff Thompson followed.

  “It has to be murder,” she whispered, opening cabinets in search of a clean washcloth or towel.

  “Sonja, it’s way too soon to be drawing those types of conclusions.”

  “He couldn’t have jumped from the loft,” she paused, “his neck wasn’t broken.”

  “Well, I’ll have to actually take a look around when it’s light out,” the Sheriff commented. “I don’t want everyone in the house going into a panic. For right now, he died in an accident. Got it?”

  Sonja nodded. “Got it.” She couldn’t find washcloths anywhere in the bathroom. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, since Mr. Hinkley rarely had guests.

  “Sonja, I need to ask you something.”

  Sonja stopped cold. Oddly, she suddenly imagined him getting close, asking if she maybe wanted to grab a bite to eat sometime. She could totally see Alison talking to him, putting him up to it. “What’s that?”

  “If this does turn out to be a murder, I don’t want you to try to get involved.”

  Sonja sighed inwardly, not knowing whether she was relieved or disappointed.

  “I’m a witness.” she reminded him. “I found the body and that note. I think I’m already involved.”

  “I just don’t want you trying to help,” he said, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. I also don’t want you getting hurt, Sonja imagined him saying. After all, there had been attempts on her life before.

  She shook her head, trying to clear it. She was letting what Alison had said earlier get to her.

  “What about Maddy?”

  “She is my only suspect at the moment.”

  “What about everyone else in the house?” Sonja argued. “We all had an equal opportunity.”

  “I’ll have to get statements from everyone. But first I need to make sure whether this is actually a murder before I do anything else.”

  She nodded. “I don’t think there are any washcloths in here.”

  “Let’s try the kitchen,” Sheriff Thompson suggested.

  They walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” Mr. Hinkley asked. He was sitting at the table, his shotgun in front of him.

  “Will you put that thing away?” Sheriff Thompson shook his head.

  “I’m making sure that guy in the basement doesn’t get away.”

  “He’s not going anywhere,” the sheriff held out his hand. “Give me the shotgun.”

  “I have a right to protect my home,” the old coot argued.

  “I know you’ve used this once tonight, Sam. Give me the shotgun now and I won’t take it away for good.”

  The old man grunted as he pushed the shotgun across the table.

  “I’m taking this and keeping it until we are all gone. Then you can have it back.”

  “Ain’t hurting nothing,” Mr. Hinkley complained.

  Sheriff Thompson ignored him and headed over to Sonja. She reached for the dish towel from behind the sink and ran it under cold water. “I guess we’ll just use this for now.”

  “What now?” Mr. Hinkley asked.

  “There’s been an accident,” Thompson replied.

  The farmer looked a bit alarmed. “One of those durn fool kids?”

  The officer nodded. “Yes, one of the film crew.”

  Suddenly, Benjamin came in from the study. “Did you say there was an accident?”

  “I’m sorry, who are you again?” Thompson asked.

  “I’m Benjamin Simon, the cameraman for the Spook Crew.”

  “Well, Benjamin,” Thompson said, “there’s been an accident.”

  “Is it bad? What happened?” he asked urgently.

  “Yes, it’s bad,” Sonja nodded somberly. “Spook is dead.”

  The cameraman’s jaw dropped “Spook is dead?”

  “Alright,” Sheriff Thompson quickly intervened. “Look, we don’t know that what exactly happened yet, but I’ll need to get statements from all of you in the morning.”

  “You mean we have to stick around in town?” Benjamin asked.

  “That’s correct, no one who was here on the farm tonight can leave town until this whole thing is cleared up,” the Sheriff verified, “but for right now, I want everyone to get a little shut-eye. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

  “How do you expect me to sleep after telling me that one of us is dead and you don’t know what’s going on?” Benjamin was aghast.

  “I know, it’s rough, and I’m sorry, but it’s the best we can do for now. I’ll know more in the morning,” Sheriff Thompson headed out into the living room.

  “Do the others know?” Benjamin was wide-eyed and shaken.

  “Maddy knows,” Sonja replied.

  Somehow she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping at all that night.

  CHAPTER 9

  In the early hours of the morning, the storm finally cleared up. Sonja had tried to sleep, but was ultimately unsuccessful. As the first rays of daylight brushed the sky, she got up from the lounge chair on which she had been tossing and turning all night. Needless to say, she was ready to get away from the Hinkley farm and back to normal life. The whole night seemed like an awkward nightmare.

  She finally remembered the waffles and ice cream she had intended to give to Mr. Hinkley the night before—which was the entire reason for making the trip out. By now, the waffles would be soggy and stale and the ice cream melted. Luckily, it was in a plastic container and hopefully wouldn’t have gotten all over her car.

  Sonja walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Muffled sounds seemed to come from behind the study door. She drank down the glass in huge gulps, then knocked on the door. The muffled noises stopped and someone moved around, shuffling something back and forth, then the door opened. Benjamin stood there, looking just as tired as Sonja felt.

  “Oh, hi,” he smiled wanly. “Sonja, right?”

  “That’s right,” she nodded, smiling back. “I heard noises in here.”

  “Oh, yeah, I was just reviewing some of the footage from last night,” he motioned to the desk where he had some equipment set up.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, mostly trying to see what happened when Daniel Marston dropped in and assaulted Tech.”

  Sonja bit her bottom lip and then asked, “Do you mind if I have a look at it with you?”

  She felt her heart flutter in her chest, but in a good way. It was a sensation she hadn�
�t felt in quite a while.

  Benjamin let out a breath, “I guess not, but I’m not sure what there is to see.”

  He stepped into the room and sat back down at the desk. Sonja walked in and shut the door behind herself. The cameraman had a small setup of equipment on the desk. A laptop sat open, connected to the camcorder. Wires ran between the two devices.

  Sonja moved around the desk and looked at the laptop. A still image from inside the barn sat on the screen. The image was filtered in green. Night vision, Sonja guessed.

  “So this is from last night?” she asked again, pretending to be ignorant.

  “Yep,” Benjamin replied. “Let me just rewind a little.” He pulled back on the progress tab at the bottom of the video. “This is just before Daniel dropped in from the rafters.” He hit the play button. Sonja watched Spook, still alive and well, yelling at the camera.

  The image spun, catching Daniel just as he toppled out of the rafters. Tech went down, apparently trying to protect The Seer that was still in his hands.

  Daniel kicked Tech’s leg. In the video, Tech screamed and moaned. “Go back again,” Sonja instructed.

  Benjamin did, rewinding the video and then pressing play.

  She leaned in to get a better look at the screen and felt her arm brush Benjamin’s. Goosebumps tickled her skin. She tried to ignore the sensation and pay attention to the video.

  Daniel dropped down and kicked Tech’s leg again. Tech screamed.

  “It’s amazing that with just that one kick, Daniel was able to break Tech’s leg,” she commented.

  “Yeah, I knew the guy was big, but with that kind of strength, I would not want to go head to head with him.”

  Tech’s leg looked so mangled the night before. The swelling and bruising only seemed to intensify as the night had gone on. She figured that Daniel must be extremely strong. It frightened her to think of what kind of damage he could do if he really wanted to.

  If he hadn’t been locked up in the cellar all night long she would have instantly singled him out as the main suspect in the killing. He had the motive and the strength, that was for sure.

  “It surprised me that Spook decided to go toe to toe with him,” the Benjamin noted.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Spook deliberately stole and sabotaged Daniel’s newest idea.”

  She looked at the video, at the Seer in Tech’s hands.

  “You mean that device?”

  Benjamin nodded. “The Seer.”

  “Well, what’s so special about it?”

  “It has a special camera on it that senses differentiation in the air flow. When it picks up a disturbance it highlights it in orange with a special app. It then reveals the shape and movement of the disturbance in the air flow.”

  “You mean it’s supposed to reveal ghosts?”

  “That’s the long and short of it, yes.”

  “Does it actually work?”

  Benjamin smiled mischievously.

  “Of course not. It’s just a gimmick to increase ratings on the show. The device actually does pick up disturbances in the air flow of a room. But after that, the program basically makes out a shape that is intended to trick viewers into thinking it's a ghost. It’s a smoke screen, just like everything else we do on the show.”

  “So everything you guys do is fake?” Sonja asked.

  “Of course it is,” he replied with a nod. “None of it’s real. Reality TV is all a sham. But,” he shrugged, “the viewers eat it up.”

  “And all of your equipment that appears on camera is mostly for show.”

  “You got it. In fact, I often set up different tricks, sound effect boxes, strings on doors, stuff like that before a shoot even begins. I find that creating the environment—organically on camera—makes a far more convincing experience than using computer editing afterward.”

  “I see,” Sonja remarked.

  She was honestly disappointed. Lately, she had felt insane with how many ghostly things she had seen herself. In fact, she had seen—what looked like—a ghost at the diner twice now. She had honestly believed for a while that it was the ghost of Ronda Smith, the woman who had died there. She’d also experienced seeing quite the frightening “apparition” during a séance only a few nights ago. Add last night’s apparition in the barn on top of that and this small town diner owner felt like a grade-A nutcase. Sonja had honestly hoped that by agreeing to let them film and investigate at the diner that they would find something that proved what she had seen was real. Then she wouldn’t feel quite so paranoid.

  “Does any of the team actually believe in the supernatural?”

  “I don’t,” Benjamin commented, “and I’m pretty sure all the others are faking it. To be honest, it isn’t just the ghosts they are faking. They fake their relationships, too. It’s all one big sham to get higher ratings.”

  “I see,” she bit her lip.

  Perhaps Maddy was just an excellent actress, faking her way through every conversation they’d had together.

  “After the dust from all of this settles, I think I’m about done with television,” the cameraman confided.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, these three kids, they’re the biggest pains in the petunias that I’ve ever had to work with. After dealing with them on this show I think I’m just about done with television and movies altogether.”

  “And what would you do instead?”

  Benjamin pushed back from the desk and walked over to the window. “I’d probably choose to live someplace like this.”

  Sonja felt her heart leap in her chest. The thought of him living in Haunted Falls, close to her, was exciting. She might even consider the prospect of dating again.

  “I’d like to work on a farm, do something meaningful with my life,” he mused. He turned and looked at Sonja. “Now that Spook is dead, they’ll probably cancel the show. I might finally get my chance to escape.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Within a few hours of everyone waking up, a rescue team was able to get the bridge back up and functional. The paramedics came in to work on Tech, and it turned out that he had a high fever to go along with his broken leg, so they quickly loaded him up and rushed him off to the Haunted Falls Hospital.

  Maddy wanted to go along with Tech, but Sheriff Thompson wouldn’t allow it. She was a suspect and the Sheriff was planning on taking her in for questioning as soon as he finished examining the crime scene. His deputies cordoned off the investigation area with the usual yellow tape and got right to work.

  Sonja wanted to believe that the young woman was innocent, but after what Benjamin had said about the whole team being a sham, she worried that she had been deceived.

  Daniel was retrieved from the cellar, but Tech said he wasn’t going to press charges. That surprised everyone, especially Maddy, and it meant that Daniel could just walk away.

  “Don’t leave town,” Sheriff Thompson instructed Daniel as they stood on the front drive of the farmhouse. “I still need to question you later on about Spook’s death.”

  “Why do I need to stay around?” he demanded. “I was locked in that spider-infested hole all night, and I have a class to teach back in LA tomorrow afternoon.”

  “A class?” Sonja inquired, standing on the farmhouse porch.

  “I train and certify professional stuntmen on the side for extra cash.”

  That explained why he was so fit and strong.

  “I don’t care if you have a meeting with the President of the United States,” Sheriff Thompson replied. “We’ll still need your statement before you leave town.”

  Daniel’s face darkened ominously. “If you’re accusing me of killing that little twerp, you couldn’t be more wrong. You locked me in the cellar, I couldn’t have done it.”

  That was true, Sonja thought. How could he have done it?

  “No one is accusing you of anything, but I’ll need to get your statement before you leave.”

  “I’m a free citizen of the Un
ited States of America. You have no right to order me to stay in this little nothing town.”

  “Well,” the officer retorted, “If you choose to leave before I can question you, I have no other choice than to believe you were somehow involved in Spook’s death.”

  Daniel scowled, but realized that he didn’t have a choice.

  “Fine, but once this is over I am out of here for good.”

  “Thank heaven for that,” the sheriff groaned. He turned toward Sonja. “And what did I say about becoming involved?”

  “Sorry,” she apologized. “You haven’t interviewed me yet.”

  Sheriff Thompson chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll get your statement along with everyone else’s,” he replied. “After all, you did find the body.”

  “That’s what I said last night.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “Well. I promise not to skip out of town,” Sonja teased.

  “I’m not worried about it.”

  One of the deputies came out of the barn, stepping under the yellow caution tape. “Well, Sheriff. I’d say there is no way that guy could have killed himself. There was not a single thing nearby he could have jumped off of.”

  “What about jumping from the loft itself?”

  “Not with the way the wire was tied up there. It looked like someone needed to actually pull on one end to lift the guy up. He couldn’t have done that himself.”

  “Alright,” the Sheriff said. “Let me know if you find anything else.”

  Sonja folded her arms and stared at Sheriff Thompson. “So it was murder.”

  He sighed. “Looks that way. But, remember,” he said shaking a finger, “just keep your nose out of it.”

  * * *

  Sonja finally left the farm and immediately headed for The Waffle. She at least needed to check in on things before she ran home, took a shower, and changed her clothes.

  As she drove, Maddy was still on her mind. Sonja’s gut feeling was that Maddy was telling the truth, that she wasn’t just acting. After all, Maddy had reached out and apologized after the incident at the diner. She hoped that the young woman had nothing to do with the murder. Perhaps the note found on the body was just a coincidence—or it was planted. Either way, she wouldn’t know for sure if Maddy was telling the truth or not, not until she talked to her again.