The Once and Future Scream Queen: Marlene Ambrosia Mysteries

by Brianna Bates

  “No, sorry. I’m a vegan.”

  “A what?”

  “Never mind.” She opened the fridge and saw nothing for him to eat. Then she tried the freezer. There was a box of waffles that was of indeterminate age. “How about waffles?”

  “I love waffles!” He did a little circle while she got them out and put them in the toaster. “Cromwell is at the door.”

  “How do you know?”

  There was a tiny thump against her door. She wouldn’t have heard it if Jesse hadn’t mentioned Cromwell being there.

  Jesse lifted his ears, then let them flop back down. “I’ve got great hearing.”

  Marlene let Cromwell in. The owl walked quickly into the kitchen and at the sight of the dog, immediately took flight and perched on the far counter. Marlene knew without being asked to open some windows.

  While they waited for the waffles to toast, Cromwell peppered her with questions. Marlene brought him up to speed and closed with:

  “Artie has a son.”

  Cromwell nearly fell off the counter. “What?”

  “He and Gwen had a child. Artie never knew about it.”

  “Oh no. No. This isn’t good. This is really bad.” The owl was panic-stricken.

  “I know it won’t help with the election,” Marlene said. “Even though he knew nothing about the child, it will make him look promiscuous and people will judge him f—”

  “What is the child’s name?” Cromwell asked.

  “I didn’t ask.” The waffles popped up and looked a little burnt on the bottom. She scooped them onto a paper plate and put the plate on the floor. Jesse grabbed one and ran into the living room to eat on the carpet.

  “You didn’t ask?” Cromwell flapped his wings. “Why in the name of Mithras didn’t you ask?”

  “There are more important things happening right now,” Marlene said. “I was more worried about Artie being charged with murder.”

  “This is NOT good,” Cromwell said.

  Jesse came in for his next waffle and took it back to the carpet.

  “It’s not that bad,” Marlene said. “Like I said, Artie didn’t know about him—”

  “That’s the least of my concerns,” Cromwell said. “By Mithras, this always happens.”

  “What always happens?”

  “Have you studied the histories yet?”

  “In all my spare time, you mean? No. I’ve been busy trying to run a business and serve as Artie’s campaign manager, and now I have to help his attorney exonerate him.”

  “Who kills Arthur?” Cromwell asked.

  Marlene’s blood ran cold. She hadn’t read as many of the stories as she wanted, but in most of them it was the same person.

  “Usually his son. Mordred.”

  Cromwell nodded. “That’s right. His son. The son he doesn’t know about until years after the boy has been born. A son conceived in sin.”

  “Whoa,” Marlene said. She believed in getting married before having kids, but at the same time she didn’t think it was a sin to have a child out of wedlock. “Take it easy there with the moral judgment.”

  Cromwell shook his head. “History is always repeating itself. Always. That is why you need to study it.”

  “All the legends contradict each other. How am I supposed to know what’s true or not?”

  “The essence is what’s important. History always repeats itself. Always. One time it’s a man, another time it’s a woman, sometimes it’s Morgana, sometimes its Nimue, sometimes the Lady in the Lake gives Arthur Excalibur, while other times he draws it from the stone. The details aren’t important, Marlene. The essence is.”

  “Okay. But I can’t worry about Artie’s son right now. I’ve got to clear his name. Or we can kiss any chance he has at mayor goodbye.”

  Cromwell was quiet for a moment. “You’re right, of course. First things first.”

  Jesse came in for his third waffle. “If I can make a recommendation?”

  Cromwell sighed. “Jesse—”

  Marlene held up a hand. “Cromwell, we need all the help we can get right now. What are you thinking Jesse?”

  “You need to start looking for other suspects.”

  “The Dark One,” Cromwell said. “And Tom Gelder.”

  “They’re both good suspects,” Marlene said, then she remembered something from what she’d read. “Doesn’t the evil sorcerer challenging Merlin usually work for another evil character in the story?”

  “Yes!”

  Marlene nodded. “So we can assume the same about this Dark One, right?”

  “It’s a good place to start,” Jesse said, before snatching his fourth and final waffle off the plate and trotting out to the carpet. Marlene made a mental note to vacuum later. She didn’t want crumbs everywhere inviting ants into the house.

  “There’s only one person to work for in this town, if you’re not on the up-and-up,” Marlene said.

  Cromwell nodded.

  “The mayor.”

  ***

  Marlene grabbed her phone to check her email. Scrolling through her history and ignoring all the junk, she found her email chain with Gwen O’Vear.

  Gwen had emailed a week ago to let Marlene know she was coming back to Medboro. It was time to begin the next chapter in her life. She had given Hollywood and New York twelve years of her life and the only roles she was being offered were drying up. Younger woman with better bodies were being picked to be scream queens. She’d had enough.

  And, having enough, having to start over, had humbled her, she said. Gwen wanted to come home and find herself. She wanted to see her old friends and she wanted to make amends.

  Her words: make amends.

  Marlene remembered reading that the first time and not being surprised. No doubt an ambitious woman like Gwen who wanted to be a Hollywood star had probably stepped on a few people locally and looked down her nose at Medboro. She had had a taste of remorse.

  So she booked her tickets and scheduled her first meeting with Marlene. Re-reading the entire email chain now, Marlene noticed that Gwen had referenced the mayor a number of times. Six in total, in each of her substantive responses back to Marlene. Why had Gwen gone to see him?

  Then she remembered that rumor Ganny had shared. Gwen had torpedoed Alison Gelder’s career, presumably as a favor to the mayor.

  Why would Gwen do that for the mayor?

  And why would she meet with him on the night of her return to Medboro? Gwen might have made some enemies here, but she still had a lot of friends and admirers. Why not see them first?

  There was something going on between her and the mayor. If she were to believe what Bors had shared, Gwen had actually told Mal A. Gant she was going to meet with Marlene the next day. Had Gwen also told him about having a child? It was the only way the mayor could know.

  Right?

  No. That didn’t make any sense.

  Why would Gwen tell the mayor she’d had a child out of wedlock with Artie Ryan and then given that child up for adoption? The mayor was the last person you confided in. He would use a secret like that as leverage—

  Then Marlene had a thought. Maybe it wasn’t the mayor. Maybe she should have just paid attention to the rumors.

  Marlene threw on some jeans and a t-shirt and grabbed her light jacket out of the closet. She said goodbye to Jesse and Cromwell followed her out. Before she got to her car, Cromwell stopped her.

  “The omens are bad today,” Cromwell said.

  “What?” Marlene asked.

  Cromwell looked to the sky. A flock of birds flew overhead, not quite in V-formation.

  “We’re using augury now?” Marlene asked.

  Cromwell looked back at her. “Be careful, Marlene. The worlds are not lining up well on this day.”

  ***

  Marlene stepped into the convenience store.

  Tom Gelder was in the same spot, behind the register, with the newspaper six inches in front of his face. He lowered it a couple fingers to peer over the top of t
he paper at her as she approached the counter.

  “We need to talk,” Marlene said.

  “No, we don’t.” He pulled the paper back up.

  “What did you do to the mayor?” Marlene asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Marlene pulled the newspaper down so he had to look at her. “I think you do.”

  Gelder put the paper down on the counter, then palmed the counter and leaned forward. “I’d like you to leave my store now.”

  “Wait, just hear me out.”

  “I’ll drag you out of here.”

  Marlene took a deep breath. She had a plan. The more she thought about it, the more she liked Gelder for killing Gwen. He was right here the whole morning and had a pretty clear motive, if the rumors were true.

  But she had to get him to confirm the rumors. So for now, she was going to try to play him. “I think the mayor had Gwen killed.”

  “They arrested Artie Ryan.”

  “Bors arrested Artie Ryan. Need I say more?”

  “I like Bors. He’s a good fella.”

  Gelder was stonewalling her but she kept her cool. “I think the mayor had a hand in this, and I want to prove it. Wouldn’t you want to help me with that?”

  Gelder stood there silently, his face screwed up tightly. She was way out on a limb here. Basically, she was treating the rumor Ganny had shared with her as gospel and hoping against hope that Gelder had an axe to grind.

  Slowly, the skin around his eyes loosened and the tension went out of his arms. Gelder stood a little taller and a little more neutrally.

  “I have nothing against the mayor,” Gelder said. “We’re just speaking hypothetically here.”

  “Of course.” That was how it was in Medboro. You didn’t speak out too strongly against the mayor, especially if you owned your own business. He would find a way to make your life hell. She’d heard of it happening before. “This is all hypothetical.”

  He sat back down and folded his arms.

  “You’re a member of the Medboro Chamber of Commerce,” Marlene said.

  “That’s not a hypothetical.”

  “A high-ranking member.”

  Gelder said nothing.

  “And, let’s say you can influence the other members. They listen to you.”

  Gelder was silent.

  “The mayor would want to work with a man in your position.”

  Gelder didn’t respond.

  “Let’s say someone close to you wanted to be an actress. And let’s say you would do everything in your power to help that someone chase their dream of making it big in Hollywood.”

  “I would do everything I could for someone like that.”

  “You would.”

  “Could,” he emphasized.

  “Could,” Marlene frowned, not getting the significance of the word choice. “Okay, could. And that’s what you do. You maybe try to contact Gwen O’Vear. She’s local. You figure she would be happy to help another local girl.”

  “I would do something like that.”

  “Okay.” Marlene smiled, building up some steam now. “Okay. But just because she’s local doesn’t mean you know her at all. Or that she knows you. And Gwen is known to be a little flighty and not the most mindful person when it comes to others. So maybe she’s less than helpful.”

  “Maybe she is.”

  The electronic bell buzzed as someone else came into the store. Gelder made a motion for Marlene to step away from the counter. Marlene picked up on his cue and pretended to shop a couple aisles away from the man that had just entered. After what seemed an eternity but was really only a couple minutes, the man bought a couple soft pretzels, a soda, and some chips and left.

  Marlene came back to the counter.

  “But a man like you isn’t going to be deterred,” Marlene said. “Not when it comes to helping out someone he loves more than anything else in the world.”

  “Not likely,” he said.

  Marlene nodded. “A man in your position, a high-ranking member of the Chamber of Commerce, someone like you would have talked to the mayor a lot in the last twenty years or so.”

  He said nothing.

  Marlene went on. She was tired of speaking in a roundabout, hypothetical fashion so she just came to the point. “Because the mayor knows a lot of people. He knows you’re trying to help your daughter get into acting. The mayor also knows Gwen O’Vear. He is, or maybe was, friends with her father at one point or another. Maybe he still is, as much as the mayor can be friends with anyone.”

  Gelder folded his arms.

  “The mayor says he can help you. He knows Gwen personally and can make a call. Maybe he even says that Gwen owes him a favor.”

  “He would say something like that.”

  Marlene let out a big breath. She was on the right track. “That’s what the mayor does, right? He promises to call in a favor with Gwen. But of course he wants something in return.”

  “That’s how politics usually works. Quid pro quo.”

  Marlene smiled, the excitement building. With each sentence, she could see more and more of the puzzle pieces, and more and more of those pieces fitting together.

  “He wants the Chamber to vote a certain way. Maybe on something big and important to him, like opening a big box store for the first time in Medboro.”

  “That would be big and important to someone like the mayor.”

  “So you hypothetically promise to get him the support he needs for something like that.”

  “Hypothetically.”

  Marlene nodded. “But it’s an empty promise, isn’t it? Because you can’t tell somebody how to vote or not vote.”

  “I could not, hypothetically or not hypothetically, do that.”

  “But you promise it anyway, because you’re doing this for someone you love very much. And you would do anything for your daughter.”

  He said nothing.

  “The mayor holds up his end of the bargain. He calls in a favor with Gwen O’Vear. Right?”

  He still said nothing.

  “Come on, Tom. They’ve arrested Artie.”

  “How will this help Artie?”

  “It will help me show that the mayor had reason to kill Gwen.”

  “How?”

  Marlene hesitated, like she was reluctant to show him all her cards. But it was all an act. She wanted to lay out her theory to gain his trust.

  “You’ve got to trust me, Tom.”

  He reached for his paper. Before he could open it again, Marlene slapped it back down on the counter. “Okay. Okay. But you have to promise this stays between us.”

  “I promise.”

  She looked deep into his eyes. “A man’s life hangs in the balance, Tom.”

  “I said I promise.”

  She took her hands off the paper. “Gwen came home. She quit Hollywood. She wanted to come home and make amends. Everybody has secrets. Gwen is no different. Hers was maybe just a little more scandalous in a small town like Medboro. The mayor had been holding it over her head for years and using it as leverage to call in favors. She couldn’t let it get out.”

  Gelder said nothing.

  “She couldn’t let it get out, until she no longer cared about Hollywood. She was coming home to make amends. Her words. Make amends. She was going to tell everybody what happened. She was going to tell Artie Ryan and then apologize to you for doing whatever she did to hurt Alison’s career. But you see, it’s not just her secret to share. Is it? If she comes home and tells people about the child and about how the mayor used it against her, then that makes the mayor look really bad in an election year.”

  He nodded, reluctantly.

  “That’s why I think he did it,” Marlene said. It was one theory, anyway. Her other theory was that the man before her had killed Gwen.

  Gelder didn’t say anything for a long time. His eyes drifted away and looked across the street, toward her office. She thought he was going to deny everything or say nothing. Or ju
st ask her to leave again.

  But instead, his eyes drifted back to her. “How are you going to prove any of that?”

  “I’ve got some ideas,” Marlene said. “But now I need you to tell me what I need to know. You’re the first piece of the puzzle.”

  Gelder looked away for a moment. She thought he was going to shut down on her. But then he looked her in the eye.

  “I will tell you what happened, but if you ever share it publicly I will deny it to my dying day. Is that clear?”

  “I’m going to have to confront the mayor—”

  “The mayor is a different story. He won’t want this getting out.”

  “He’s going to lose,” Marlene said.

  Gelder laughed ruefully. “If you’re betting on the mayor losing, you’re not a very smart woman.”

  “He will lose,” Marlene said. “He has to.”

  Gelder looked at her strangely for a moment, then figured it out. “Artie Ryan? He’s just been arrested for murder.”

  “And I’m going to clear his name.”

  Gelder laughed harshly again. “Even if you do, do you honestly think people will vote for him?”

  “But he’s innocent,” Marlene countered, knowing Tom Gelder was probably right.

  “A lot of people go free, but that doesn’t mean they’re innocent. You would need to find the real killer to take away any and all doubt anybody had about Artie Ryan.”

  Gelder was absolutely right. She needed to find the real killer.

  “I’ll figure that out. Now—”

  “Your case better be watertight if you’re going after the mayor,” Gelder said. “Or else you’ll be ruined.”

  Marlene nodded. “Tell me what I need to know.”

  “I promised him the votes and the support,” Gelder said. “For my little girl. It wasn’t an empty promise—I believed I could get him what he wanted.”

  “Okay.”

  “And you’re right, he said Gwen owed him a favor. So he called it in. Within a week, my daughter got a few casting calls and did a commercial. She was on her way. But I was having trouble. Most of the other people on the Chamber didn’t want a big box store here. It would take revenue away from the small business owners. Bottom line, I couldn’t get the mayor the support he needed.”

  “And pretty soon after the vote went sideways, Alison stopped getting casting calls. Didn’t she?”