by Liz Turner
“Do you think it’s going to rain again?” Veronica asked her friend as they sat at the corner of a long table.
“I hope not. That would really put a damper on things.”
“Tell me about it.” The chefs glanced up from their food as Astrid, still in her jester costume, sat down next to them. “Okay that I sit with you?”
“Of course,” Veronica replied. “No problem.”
“Thanks,” Astrid said, and she began cutting up her chicken. “Anyway, the weather said the skies should be clear through the weekend. The Fair might have been canceled if they predicted rain.”
“That would stink,” Sakura said.
“But did you hear that they’ve closed off the Fair?” Astrid inquired. “Never mind, of course, you did. That’s why you’re still here.”
“Yeah, it’s old news by now,” Veronica said.
“Can you believe they’re keeping us here?” the jester asked, throwing her hands in front of her face as she shrugged. “The police won’t even tell us what’s going on!”
“I know,” Veronica answered, keeping the reason for the whole thing to herself. “You haven’t heard anything about it?”
“Not a thing,” she said. She took a bite of pasta and swallowed. “I can’t even find Julia so I can ask her. I bet it’s driving her nuts.”
Veronica and Sakura looked at each other, and Sakura gave her the slightest of nods. Renata had mentioned Astrid not liking Julia much either. Now was a good chance to find out if that was true or not.
Veronica turned back to Astrid. “Hey Astrid, speaking of Julia, what’s your take on her?”
“On Julia?” Astrid snorted. “What’s your take on her?”
Realizing she wasn’t going to answer without knowing what Veronica and Sakura thought first, Veronica decided that honesty was the best policy in this situation.
Got to remember to stay in present tense. Can’t let her think Julia’s dead, she thought before speaking. “Julia’s strict, but she’s never treated my chefs or me badly.”
“Lucky you,” Astrid said with a smile. “That’s not common.”
“But then again, Sakura and I both saw how unkindly she treats Sandra,” she continued. “And I’ve even seen her arguing with some people.”
“It’s pretty hard to like Julia. She’s always seemed selfish and rude,” the jester said, the bells on her hat clinked as she shook her head. “I guess she can be nice when she tries, but I think that probably has more to do with trying to get her way instead of being genuinely nice.”
“You hit the nail on the head there,” Sakura concurred, and they continued eating.
A few minutes later, Veronica noticed Astrid’s focus was distracted by the sound of a crying baby, sitting with her parents a few tables down. The baby’s face was red, and she was bundled up nice and cozy despite the relatively warm autumn weather. Veronica couldn’t tell what was wrong, as she was never an expert with infants. She could tell that both mother and father were at their wits’ end if their panicked expressions were anything to go by.
“Pardon me, my ladies,” Astrid said. She stood and did a quick flip over to where the family sat. “What’s the trouble going on here, young lady?”
Sakura chuckled as the jester made a few funny faces at the baby, making her laugh and forget about whatever was wrong with her world.
“She’s a real clown, isn’t she?”
Veronica smiled in agreement. “Nothing wrong with that.”
The chefs continued to eat while trying to keep the bland flavor from completely ruining the meal. It was certainly better than nothing, after all. Several minutes later, the rest of the tables were nearly full to capacity, and the noise under the canopy was amplified by the canvas above. The sound of clattering plastic cutlery became grating after a while, and Veronica hoped it didn’t last much longer.
“I just don’t know what to do.” Veronica froze, recognizing the sound of Shen’s voice behind her. She was about to turn around to say hello when Sakura grabbed her wrist. The younger chef put her index finger up to her lips, and Veronica nodded. “I just can’t believe the police aren’t letting Sandra out even for something to eat.”
“I know, right?” This time, Veronica recognized Natalie Dorota’s voice. “It’s weird, but I’m sure it’ll be okay. This will blow over soon enough.”
“I’m just sure Sandra had nothing to do with what happened to Julia,” Shen insisted. “And it’s not like she can leave the Fair anyway. Why are they keeping her cooped up like that?”
“I don’t know, Shen. I really don’t,” Natalie replied. “I’m more surprised someone would actually have the guts to kill her. Granted Julia’s not a likable person, but who would go that far?”
“Whoever it was, I can’t really blame them. She treated my cousin so cruelly I could’ve punched her in the gut!” Shen declared. “I wouldn’t kill, though. I’m not saying what they did was right, but I can understand why.”
Veronica watched as Sakura scribbled a note down in her notebook, and then she turned around and passed it over.
“I can’t believe they’re talking about Julia so openly,” the note said, and Veronica bit her lip. She grabbed Sakura’s pen and wrote a response. “Most people don’t know Julia died, but Shen must have shared it with Natalie.”
She passed Sakura her notebook back and then strained her ears to continue to eavesdrop.
“I’m not going to sleep tonight,” Shen said. “Even with tryptophan as a sleep aid, I can’t stop thinking about Sandra.”
“You know, tryptophan isn’t a good thing to use around archery competitions,” Natalie warned her. “It’ll make you too groggy the next day, and you might miss your target. You shouldn’t use it so much.”
“I don’t use it that much,” Shen debated. “Only when I’m nervous.”
Natalie hummed. “I get that. I use it too, just not during competitions. Do you think I could borrow some? I’ve been having some trouble sleeping too, and I’ve run out.”
“Sure thing.”
The conversation moved on to archery techniques, so Veronica and Sakura turned back to their own meals, a little worried about how quickly news of Julia’s death would spread over the next twelve hours.
Chapter 11
The remainder of dinner and the evening was relatively uneventful. Except for the two men who started a fight over who got which tent and sleeping bag (something Veronica couldn’t understand for the life of her, considering there were plenty of tents and sleeping bags for everyone), nothing particularly interesting happened. Veronica kept waiting for someone to try and break the rule of leaving the Fair without the police knowing, but to her knowledge, it didn’t happen. If anyone had tried to escape, she didn’t hear about it.
Since The Rare Catch had its own tent, Veronica and Sakura decided to bunk there for the night. True to his word, Max made sure there were two cots, two sleeping bags, and plenty of blankets to keep them warm while they slept. He pushed the center table to the side to make room for both beds. He offered to go to Veronica’s home to take care of Amber, but she told him how she already had Liam taking her home. Max looked a little sad at the news.
He really has become attached to Amber, Veronica thought.
While Veronica made herself comfortable on her cot, Sakura laid on her stomach on her own sleeping bag. She was reading the notes she had jotted down during the day.. She kept flipping back and forth between pages, and occasionally went to the last page to write down more details. After about fifteen minutes she groaned and shut the book.
“I don’t know what to think anymore!” she proclaimed loudly. “What do you make of Julia’s death?”
Veronica laughed but answered when she calmed down. “I doubt it was actually a heart attack. The way Sandra described it didn’t sound like a typical one, but then again I’m not a doctor.”
“Neither is Sandra, so maybe she couldn’t tell?” Sakura suggested. “But yeah, it sounds different, and
that doesn’t make Sandra look good.”
“You think she did it?” Veronica asked. “Really?”
“I hate to say it, but she seems to be the most likely person,” Sakura said with a sigh. “Being Julia’s assistant, she spent a lot of time with her, so she had plenty of opportunities to poison her. She also had access to Julia’s antidepressants. Overdosing her would be a snap. And she certainly had the motivation for it. Plus there was no evidence of foul play...”
“That we noticed.”
“...That we noticed.” Sakura stared at her notebook. “I mean, who else had that chance?”
“I get your point, but I have a hard time believing it,” Veronica debated. “Sandra seems like a good person.”
“She might be putting on an act, though,” her friend argued. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned about this Fair is that nothing is as it seems.”
“What about our other suspects?” Veronica asked. “Liana certainly isn’t any more friendly towards Julia than anyone else, and she seems like someone who would want revenge for losing her job as a financial advisor.”
“Shen didn’t like how Julia treated her cousin,” Sakura offered. “Maybe she wanted revenge in Sandra’s stead.”
“Julia didn’t take Renata’s special Renaissance knowledge seriously, so maybe she wanted to get back at Julia for it.”
“Astrid and her friends were cut from the Fair’s program. Maybe she decided her being at the Fair anyway wasn’t enough revenge.”
Veronica tried to hold in her chuckle but failed, and she snorted it through her nose and teeth. “Sounds like everyone just wants revenge on Julia.”
“It does seem to be the trendy thing around here,” Sakura joked.
“We forget one thing,” Veronica recalled. “That fight between Julia and Natalie we saw after the Archery Contest.”
“Yeah, but what was it about?” Sakura inquired. “I’d say it could be something small, but since Julia managed to make nearly everyone around her angry, I somehow doubt it.”
The side canvas of the tent suddenly moved, flinging back and forth from inside the tent and out, and the two chefs jumped in shock. They stared at each other and then looked back at the canvas.
“Did I just imagine that?” Veronica asked.
The canvas moved again, but this time, it came with a voice. “Hello? I don’t know how to knock on these things.”
It was Renata. Sakura stood from her cot and walked to the canvas so she could pull it aside. The historian had removed her armor and was now in normal clothing, clearly meant to be comfortable enough to sleep in. She smiled as she walked into the tent, but remained standing next to the tent wall.
“Hi. Sorry to bother you two so late,” she stated.
“No problem,” Veronica replied. “Is everything okay?”
“I was just thinking about our conversation about Julia earlier,” Renata explained. “I thought it was strange that people like you were asking about her, so I did a little digging myself.”
“Digging?” Sakura echoed. “What kind of digging?”
“Anything that would give me an idea of why you’d be asking about her,” the historian continued. “I overheard some of the other joust competitors talking about her and something about who would win the competition so they could get the most money.”
“Get the most money?” Veronica scratched her chin. “Wait…Were they talking about gambling?”
“That’s what I thought too,” Renata answered. “I talked to a couple other people participating in the Fair’s contests this year, and there’s apparently some kind of gambling ring going around and convincing people to place bets that certain individuals would win their respective contests.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Veronica said.
“I didn’t either so I kept looking into it,” she resumed. “Some people are more willing to talk about it than others, but the gambling wasn’t the biggest shock. Can you guess what was?”
“What?”
“It turns out Julia was at the head of the gambling ring,” Renata said, throwing her hands up dramatically. “She’s the one making the most bets and passing around all the money!”
The two chefs jumped and looked at each other in shock. Veronica turned her eyes back to Renata.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely!” she insisted. “She was bribing some of the competitors so a certain person would win, and then Julia was going to get a lot of money from these bets.”
“Did she bet on anyone in particular?” Sakura asked.
“I don’t know, but I would bet it would be…” Renata trailed off and scoffed. “I would bet. Sorry. Bad pun. Anyway, she probably bet on people who others wouldn’t expect to win.”
“The underdog,” Veronica concluded. “Yeah, most people would hesitate to bet someone like that would win.”
“And leave it open for Julia to collect the winnings when the underdog wins,” Sakura added.
I wonder if someone lost a lot of money to Julia, Veronica thought. Someone who then would be willing to kill her over it.
“I think it might have to do with why they’ve closed down the Fair,” Renata deduced. “Did you two hear about what happened?”
Wondering if someone had tried to escape the Fairgrounds, Veronica shrugged. “What?”
“Apparently someone decided they’d had enough of Julia,” Renata reported. “She was killed in her tent earlier today!”
Sakura’s eyes darted to Veronica, and her mouth dropped open. “How do you know?”
“Word has spread around,” the equestrian answered. “Almost all the Fair knows about it. Even if they don’t know Julia, they know that someone’s been murdered.”
“How do you know it’s murder?” Veronica asked, trying to play dumb so she wouldn’t blow their cover.
“Well, what else could it be?” Renata questioned.
“I bet the police had to share it eventually,” Sakura reasoned. “If enough people were demanding to know why they were forced to stay here.”
I bet Chief Maerune didn’t like that, Veronica thought to herself.
“I wanted to let you know in case the police go after the two of you,” Renata said. “Since you’ve been asking about Julia all over the place.”
“Thanks for that,” Sakura said.
“Please don’t let anyone else know we’ve been interviewing anyone about Julia,” Veronica requested of the historian. “Since it’s suspicious and all.”
“No problem,” Renata agreed. “I don’t see either of you doing something so stupid anyway. My lips are sealed.”
“Thank you.”
Renata said her goodbyes and took her leave of the two chefs. They had waited several minutes before they spoke again, just in case Renata was still around. After some time had passed Sakura let out her breath.
“Looks like we weren’t as covert about our interviews as we thought.”
“Well we weren’t trying that hard to be secretive about it,” Veronica reminded her.
“Do you believe Renata’s story?” Sakura asked. “About her eavesdropping to find out about the gambling ring? Or that the gambling ring even exists?”
“I don’t know. Why would she mention it if it wasn’t true?”
“To try and throw suspicion off her?”
“I guess.” Veronica yawned and laid down. “This is giving me a headache.”
“Me too,” Sakura concurred. “Let’s just get a good night’s sleep and pick it up fresh tomorrow.”
“Sleep sounds wonderful right now,” Veronica commented.
The two were about to crawl into their sleeping bags when the side of the tent moved again. Sakura shrieked in surprise and then laughed.
“We’re never going to get to sleep at this rate,” she joked.
“Veronica? Sakura? Can I speak to you?”
Veronica recognized the voice instantly. “Come on in, Max.”
Detective Bernard poked his hea
d through the edge of the canvas, glanced around and then fully entered the tent. He still wore his same suit and sneakers from before, although he had removed his sunglasses when the sun set behind the mountains. He glanced around the stall again.
“Are you two comfortable?” he asked.
“We’re fine,” Veronica replied, standing and giving her boyfriend a hug. “It’s just like camping. Don’t worry about us.”
“You’re warm enough?”
“We have enough blankets to make the equivalent of a furnace!”
“Okay, just making sure!” he teased with a smile. His face slowly fell as he looked Veronica straight in the eye. “I just wanted to warn you two to be more careful with your questioning.”
“We’ve already heard that people have figured it out,” Sakura added.
“Yeah, that includes Erica,” Max informed them. “She’s not really happy about your ‘off-the-record’ interviews.”
“You said we could do whatever we wanted while we were stuck here,” Veronica reminded him.
“I know, and I told her exactly that,” he replied. “But I just wanted to warn you that she might be unhappy with you the next time you see her.”
“Thanks for the warning, but there’s nothing illegal about asking people their opinion about a person,” Veronica said, trying to keep the hiss out of her tone. “Erica has no reason to be upset.”
“True enough,” Max agreed. “And it’s not like you’re the only ones who’ve been doing interviews. The problem with me is that most people know I’m involved with the police, so they’re more tight-lipped about what they know.”
“Can’t blame them for feeling that way,” Sakura proclaimed. “Has Erica gotten anything from the lab rats yet?”
“Not yet, but these things take time,” the detective said. “We probably won’t have anything until tomorrow morning.”
“Well that’s time we don’t have, isn’t it?” Veronica declared. “Better to gather information now than later. Bread always tastes better fresh than stale.”