by J A Whiting
“The history.” Angie moved a little further away. “Do you enjoy the area’s history?”
“Yes, very interesting.” Withers eyed the garden and the old oak tree.
Angie followed the man’s gaze and realized that he seemed to be looking at the mistletoe growing in the branches of the oak. She shook herself thinking she was just imagining that Withers was eyeing the plant.
“Mistletoe, huh?” Withers mumbled.
Angie’s eyes went wide. She didn’t respond to the statement, just waited to see if the man would say anything else.
Mr. Finch, leaning on his cane, sidled up next to Withers and Angie. Angie had never been so happy to see him. “Nice evening, isn’t it.”
“Mr. Finch. Good to see you.” Withers pumped Finch’s hand with such vigor that Angie feared he might dislocate Mr. Finch’s shoulder. “I haven’t been into town today. I plan to make a stop at your award-winning candy shop before I leave the area.”
Angie narrowed her eyes. How did Withers know that the candy store had won awards?
Mr. Finch said, “The store won its awards before Miss Courtney and I took it over.”
“Really? I was sure the place was owned by you when the awards were given.”
“You’re mistaking me for my brother, Thaddeus Finch. He owned the store prior to my acquiring it.”
“So candy-making runs in the family then.” Withers clapped Finch on the shoulder. “Where’d your brother up and run off to? He retire?”
Mr. Finch’s face was serious. “He was murdered.”
Withers stammered for a few seconds. “So sorry. Wasn’t expecting that. Someone unhappy with the product?”
Angie glared at the man for making such a ridiculous statement.
“The product was fine.” Mr. Finch straightened. “My brother was not.” He tapped his cane on the brick patio.
“Had a falling out?” Withers’ dark eyes bored into Finch, his tone a bit too eager.
“So to speak.” Finch moved to the treat table and chose an apple-cinnamon donut from the tray. “Miss Courtney and I have devised a new fudge flavor. We’re calling it Apple Pie. I believe you will be impressed with the taste.”
Angie grinned. “I’ll come by tomorrow.”
“I’ve never met a candy-maker before.” Withers held a bottle of beer since hard liquor was unavailable at the small gathering. “Tell me about your background.”
Finch swallowed a bite of donut. “I think we covered most of the interesting parts about me at dinner the other night. But we haven’t had a chance to hear about you.”
Angie jumped in. “Yes, tell us a bit about yourself, Mr. Withers.”
“Call me Walter.” He took a long swig from his beer bottle. “I’m afraid talking about myself would just bore you to tears. There are a lot better topics to engage in.”
“Nonsense.” Mr Finch dusted the sugar from his fingertips. “Everyone’s life is intriguing and unique. What does your work entail? Do you have your own business?”
“My work is very technical. No one understands it.”
“Really?” Angie eyed him. “It can’t be that difficult to understand. Can you explain it in general terms?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“What are you? A secret agent?” Courtney came up and joined the group of three. “Do you work for the CIA or something?” She had a wide smile on her face.
Withers gave a chuckle. He said to Courtney, “I hear you and your partner, here, have come up with a new fudge flavor. I’m quite partial to fudge. I’ll have to come by to give my opinion.”
Angie and Finch exchanged a look acknowledging how deftly Withers moved the conversation to something other than himself.
“You don’t like talking about yourself, Mr. Withers?” Courtney used a joking tone. “That can make people suspicious of you, you know.”
“It’s always best not to reveal too much.” Withers started away. He winked. “Better to keep people guessing.”
When he was on the other side of the yard and out of ear-shot, Courtney frowned. “What an annoying man. If he doesn’t want to reveal information about himself, then why doesn’t he just make stuff up instead of causing people to wonder what he’s hiding?”
“That would be the smarter thing to do.” Angie watched Withers standing near the fire pit talking with some other B and B guests. “I think we’d better do our research on Mr. Withers.”
“That’s probably not even his real name.” Courtney went to the treat table, lifted an empty platter, and turned to bring it inside to the kitchen.
Without warning, a sense of dread shot through Angie’s body and shifting her gaze to the corner of the yard, she saw Police Chief Martin come around the house from the driveway. He stood looking about the crowd until he spotted Angie under the pergola with Mr. Finch and Courtney. Angie waved. Just one look at his face told her that something was wrong.
“Uh oh,” Courtney said. “Here comes trouble.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Finch put both hands over the top of his cane and leaned heavily on it waiting for Chief Martin to cross the lawn.
“Evening.” He nodded at the Roseland sisters and Mr. Finch. “I rang at the front door, but no one answered. I saw the lights back here and heard people talking so I came around.”
Jenna and Ellie hurried over when they saw the chief.
“What’s wrong now?” Ellie’s voice trembled and she shoved her hands into the pockets of her light jacket.
“Some vandalism on the town common.” The chief glanced around at the gathering. “The yard looks nice.”
“Would you like something to drink?” Ellie gestured to the table of goodies. “Something to eat?”
The chief sighed. “No thanks.”
Finch watched the chief’s face. “Do you need us to help you with something?”
Chief Martin’s jaw tightened. “I might.” He shifted from foot to foot.
“What is it?” Jenna asked. “What kind of vandalism took place on the common? Did something happen to some of the scarecrows?”
The chief’s eyes clouded as he looked from sister to sister and then at Finch. He cleared his throat. “Well, it has to do with you. All of you.”
Angie breathed a sigh of relief. “It must be a mistake. We don’t have a scarecrow entered in the contest yet so it can’t be anything to do with us.”
Chief Martin’s face took on a pinched expression. “I’m afraid it does. Can you come with me or do you have to stay here with your guests?”
“You need all of us?” Ellie’s voice went up an octave.
“I think all of you should come.” The chief’s eyes were dark and his lids were heavy.
“What about the cats?” Courtney questioned. “Should they come with us?”
The chief gave a quick nod. “The cats, too.”
Angie’s heart sank into a dark pool of dread.
7
Ellie drove behind the chief’s squad car until they reached the town common where she pulled up to the curb. The sisters, Finch, and the cats sat in the van and peered out over the common.
“I don’t see anything wrong.” Courtney sat staring through the windshield from the front passenger seat.
“Come on. Let’s get it over with and see what Chief Martin wants to show us.” Ellie sighed, opened her door, and slid out. The others did the same.
Walking to the chief’s car, they could see a group of people congregated at the far end of the grass. In the darkness, the scarecrows seemed to menace the area, their forms making long shadows like monsters looming over the common. A burning smell lingered on the air. A fire truck was parked at the end of the common, its lights flashing off the trees and buildings.
Ellie grabbed Jenna’s arm. “Everything feels wrong. You don’t think there’s a dead body, do you?”
“The chief would have warned us,” Jenna reassured her sister. “He knows how you feel about such things.”
The five people followed the chief with
the cats trailing behind them. Angie took a look back at Euclid. The orange cat sniffed the air and scowled.
Chief Martin gestured ahead. “Someone called it in. They said there were flames on the common. It turns out that some scarecrows were set on fire.”
Angie shuddered. “Why do you want us to see them?”
“Because.” The chief didn’t look at Angie. “I think there’s a message in what was done.”
Angie couldn’t keep a groan from escaping from her throat. As they approached the scene, their feet scrunched over the fallen leaves and a sudden breeze sent them swirling into the air. Several officers stood guard by the burned forms and police tape had been strung around the spot.
Courtney held Mr. Finch’s arm so he wouldn’t stumble on the uneven ground. When she saw what was ahead, she sucked in her breath. “Oh.”
Five simple, singed scarecrows stood side-by-side with two small forms shaped like cats positioned at their feet. A ring of small piles of hay surrounded the scarecrows and had been set aflame in order to call attention to the creations, but keep them from catching fire and burning up.
“Those scarecrows are supposed to be us.” Courtney scowled, anger flaming in her eyes.
Ellie covered her mouth with her hand and spun around to face in the other direction.
Jenna took a step forward. “What’s it supposed to mean?” She turned to the chief. “Is it a warning of some sort? Do you think it’s a harmless act or are we in danger?”
“Do you sense anything?” Chief Martin asked quietly.
“May we walk around the scene?” Mr. Finch asked Jenna. She nodded and the two set off side-by-side to check the scarecrows from the other side.
“Why would someone do this?” Angie tilted her head, her eyes moving over the charred piles of hay and the singed forms.
“We haven’t had a run-in with anyone.” Ellie spoke with her back to the scene.
“Not lately, anyway,” Courtney glanced down. “Where are the cats?”
Everyone looked about the common trying to see where the animals had gone. Lights reflected off of Euclid’s orange and white plume and they detected him almost immediately. He was sniffing around the scarecrow cats.
“There’s Euclid.” The chief pointed. “But where’s Circe?”
“She must be near the scarecrows, too.” Courtney started to duck under the police tape. “Can we go in?”
The chief nodded and lifted the tape up so the girls could enter the cordoned off space.
“Can I stay here?” Ellie didn’t want anything to do with the problem.
“Sure,” Courtney told her. “But watch out for the boogie-man.”
Ellie shuddered and stayed put where she had planted herself. “Hurry up, okay?”
Walking around the odd scene, they met up with Jenna and Mr. Finch and found their black cat sniffing around with Euclid.
“We’re hoping its just kids playing a stupid prank,” Jenna said as she came alongside Angie and the chief. She shrugged a shoulder and made a face indicating that she and Mr. Finch figured it was probably something more.
“That’s what I’m hoping as well.” The chief watched one of his officers taking photos of the area.
Angie heard the hesitation in his voice. “But what? You think it’s something else?”
“It’s pretty elaborate. Who would go to all this trouble? Putting together five human scarecrows and the two cats? Setting up the fire so it would bring the fire department, but wouldn’t burn down the scarecrows. It’s a lot of work for a prank.”
“It’s pretty clear that there’s a message in this mess.” Courtney walked another loop around the area.
The chief turned. “I don’t like it. I see it as a warning to all of you. But who did it and why, are the questions.” He rubbed his forehead. “I wonder if it’s someone involved in recent cases you’ve helped out on.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes in thought. “We should make a list of the cases, who was involved, and who might want revenge on us for bringing someone to justice.”
Angie looked about the common. “Do any of the businesses around here have security cameras that might have caught the action of whoever did this?”
“A couple of the officers are looking into that right now.” The chief glanced about the street. “People who were around at the time the scarecrows were probably being set up are being questioned about whether they saw anything. We won’t have any information until tomorrow at the earliest.” He took his hat off, smoothed his hair, and placed the cap back on his head. “I need to go talk to my men. Walk around some more, if you want. Let’s meet tomorrow and share thoughts.” The chief started away. “Thanks for coming out. I thought you should see it.”
Angie nodded. “Give us a call. We’ll do some thinking.”
Ellie took a peek at her sisters. “Can we leave?”
“I think we should try to pick up on anything, you know, floating on the air,” Jenna suggested.
“You can wait in the van if you’ve had enough,” Angie told Ellie sympathetically. “We won’t be long.”
“Try not to be. I want to get home.” Ellie headed for her vehicle, her long blonde hair swinging over her back as she hurried away.
The girls, cats, and Mr. Finch stood quietly here and there near the police tape, each one trying to get a sense of what happened and why. Angie closed her eyes for a few moments trying to clear her mind. She took deep breaths in and out and the smell of the burnt material suddenly tickled her nose. Courtney bent down and picked up some of the burned remnants of hay and she handed it to Mr. Finch. Jenna sat down on the damp grass and stared at the shadowy forms trying to sense the person who created the scarecrows. The cats continued to gingerly snoop around the objects, sniffing and pawing.
“Do you sense anything, Mr. Finch?” Courtney came up beside the man.
“The person was clever. Whoever was involved with this was wearing gloves so I am unable to pick up on much.” Finch lifted the hay to his nose and inhaled. “I get a whiff of an accelerant like lighter fluid or gasoline, but it’s faint.”
Angie reported to them that when she was concentrating on the scene she’d gotten a whiff of gasoline as well. “It’s funny though. I didn’t smell any of that when we were walking around and I don’t smell it now.
“We should ask Chief Martin if an accelerant was used to start the fires.” Courtney inhaled a deep breath. “I don’t smell anything other than that burnt odor.”
Angie noticed Professor Tyler, the researcher and new B and B guest standing with a group of people at the edge of the common and she walked over to speak with him.
“A strange bit of mischief.” Professor Tyler was dressed in a dark raincoat. “But it’s the season for mischief, isn’t it?”
Angie nodded. “I wonder if it was kids.”
“Most likely it was some teenagers looking to scare the townspeople with their silly prank. I was out to dinner and saw the crowd here as I was walking around.” Tyler adjusted his blue and red scarf against the evening chill.
Angie’s eyes widened. “Did you happen to notice anyone on the common who might have been up to no good?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t. I just got here really. I heard people talking about what happened.” The man shrugged. “It’s nothing to be concerned over, just a Halloween prank.”
Jenna waved to her sister and Angie nodded to her. She wished Professor Tyler a good evening. “See you at the B and B.”
When she returned to her family, Finch asked, “Shall we go back to the van? Miss Ellie will be getting nervous.”
“I think we’re done here. Here come the cats.” Angie noticed that Circe was carrying something in her mouth as she walked towards them with Euclid by her side. Angie knelt on one knee. “What do you have, little one?”
Circe dropped the thing onto the lawn and Angie reached for it. “It’s a piece of a plant.” She handed it to Mr. Finch.
“How odd.” Finch examined the sprig. “M
istletoe.”
* * *
ELLIE SAT in the driver’s seat of the van. She had her arms wrapped around herself and her heart was pounding. She almost wished she had stayed at the other end of the common with her family. The van was parked under a large Maple tree and its bare branches hung over the vehicle like arms reaching out to grab anyone moving past. Ellie knew her imagination was running away with her and she tried to focus on something pleasant to distract her thoughts from the vandalism and its seeming intended threat.
She closed her eyes and pictured Jack. She smiled at the image of the young attorney and his ever-present bow tie. As Ellie was thinking how nice it would be to have Jack sitting right next to her, a sense of fear raced through her body causing her to shoot up straighter in her seat. Her head whipped around from side to side so she could look out all of the van’s windows. Seeing her sisters, the cats, and Mr. Finch approaching from the far end of the common, she leaned back with a sigh brushing off her flash of anxiety.
Trying to calm her breathing, she glanced out the through the windshield and saw a figure standing at the corner of the street ahead of her. The figure was in shadow, but she could see it was wearing a long dark coat that reached nearly to the ankles. The hood was pulled up over the head. Ellie could see that the figure was watching her family walking towards the van. The person took a step as if it was about to move away down the street, but then it paused and the shadow-covered face turned slowly towards Ellie.
For a long second, Ellie felt the figure’s eyes bore into her and a shudder of ice cold fear ran through her core. The figure whirled, rushed down the street, and was gone.
8
Angie and Jenna headed down Main Street to the Sweet Cove Police Department. Chief Martin stopped in at the bake shop early that morning and asked if the Roselands and Mr. Finch might come by in the afternoon to sit in on an interview with a person claiming to have seen a man on the common last night. Finch and Courtney couldn’t go along because two employees called in sick and they both had to work at the candy store. Ellie had no interest in being present at the interview so she promised to watch Jenna’s jewelry shop while her older sisters went to see the chief.