Dog Days of Murder (Country Cottage Mysteries Book 2)

by Addison Moore

  Chapter 18

  Luke Parker darkens the doorway with his blond hair swept heavily to one side. He’s donned a T-shirt and jeans and he looks far more youthful than he does on a normal day.

  “Hey, Luke.” It takes everything in me to sound chipper as I greet him.

  He’s a two-timer. The very worst kind of a two-timer—one with a wife and two beautiful twin boys. “I’m glad you decided to make it out tonight.”

  The Monster Mash is just getting underway, and already there are far too many costumed bodies pressing their way in the direction of the ballroom.

  He shrugs, giving the place a quick sweep. “Thought I’d check it out. I guess the party’s that way.”

  “It sure is. In fact, I’m heading that way. What are you supposed to be this evening?” I try to freeze a smile onto my face, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Luke had the strongest motive to keep Shelby quiet. And now she’ll never tell anyone what she found out just before she died.

  Luke was frantic that night—with the exact kind of paranoia that can push someone over the edge.

  “Boy band.” He shrugs. “Just one member.” His chest bounces with a dull laugh. “Shelby always said that’s what she liked about me best.” He slaps his cheek lightly. “My boyish face.”

  “Well, you do have an adorable factor about you.” I snarl without meaning to. “I bet you’ll be snapped up by some beautiful girl soon enough. Men like you don’t stay on the market very long.”

  What? He shoots a wide-eyed look my way. Is she hitting on me?

  A breath hitches in my throat just as we enter the ballroom and I spot Deputy Leo Granger with a vixen strapped to his side and I quickly pluck him my way, sending the vixen flying. It’s not until I glance back do I realize the vixen in question was Mayor Mack Woods looking every bit like her true witchy self.

  Really, Leo? I shake my head at him.

  “Luke, you remember my boyfriend, Leo.” I glance over at my faux suitor to find he’s dressed exactly like a deputy. Perfect. Nothing like a Glock strapped to your side to make a prospective suspect want to suddenly flee the scene.

  Luke nods over at him. “Hey.” He shakes Leo’s hand. “How’s the boat shopping going?” He washes him with a quick glance. “Cool costume, by the way. Looks real.”

  “Thanks.” Leo’s chest expands with pride. With his dark hair and dark, mysterious eyes I can see why Mack has suddenly glommed onto him.

  Speaking of the witch…

  Mack pops up again. “We were just about to dance, Bizzy,” she grits the words through her teeth. With that black lipstick and that powder green face, her teeth look so bright they could glow in the dark. She’s donned a short black dress cut to ragged strips around the hem and silver tights that make her legs shimmer like night magic. It’s safe to say, Mack is a beauty queen no matter what putrid shade her face happens to be.

  Leo gives a wistful shake of the head. I thought so myself. He gives a quick wink as she stalks off to the dance floor with him.

  “Easy come, easy go.” I shrug over at Luke and I make a face as soon as I realize how tasteless that was. “Please excuse my crass remark. In no way did I mean—”

  He waves it off. “Trust me. It’s fine. I know what you meant.”

  The lights dim and a drumroll takes over.

  The DJ taps the mic as he garners the attention of everyone in the room.

  “Welcome, guys and ghouls!” The DJs voice echoes and vibrates over the walls. “Kicking off tonight’s festivities is the royalty who knows exactly how to land the man of any woman’s dream, Ginger King.” The room explodes in hoots and hollers as a riotous applause breaks out. “She’ll be signing books, and giving looks, at the table in the back. We hope you enjoy the music and the food. If you’re single, be sure to mingle. Eat, dance, stay late, and have a safe time.”

  An upbeat tune bounces through the speakers, a notch louder than it was before, and half the room is gyrating to the rhythm.

  Ginger takes her place at the book signing table, and soon enough a line snakes around the periphery of the room—mostly women, but there are a smattering of men, too.

  “She’s popular,” I say.

  “That she is.” Luke purses his lips. And I bet she’s drowning in dollars. Ginger’s given me the look before, so I know she’s interested. She didn’t care if Shelby was around. She wanted it. I could have jumped on the chance. Heck, maybe I could have really given them something to bicker about.

  My blood boils just listening to his sickening thoughts. Now that he’s knocked Shelby out of the way, all he can think about is where his next sugar mama will come from.

  “Luke”—I block Ginger from his line of vision—“I think Leo is cheating on me.”

  “What?” He inches back with wild eyes. This chick is certifiable.

  “No, it’s true. I think he’s seeing some woman in Whaler’s Cove. Why do men do it? What makes them cheat?”

  Whaler’s Cove? He takes in a long, soothing breath as if reliving a memory. That’s where I met Shelby. I had it hot for teacher, all right. He cranes his neck as he looks at Ginger. And I have it hot for her student, too.

  He looks back my way. “Men cheat.” He shrugs it off as if it were no big deal. Get over it, lady. “My dad did it. My brothers do it.”

  “But why? Isn’t one woman enough to satisfy you?”

  “It’s not that.” He gives a long blink before stepping to the side to study Ginger. “Different women fulfill different roles.”

  “Just like Shelby filled a role in your life?”

  Luke’s lips part as he looks my way. “I know what you’re thinking. I know what everyone is thinking. That I don’t deserve that job at Harris Financial.”

  “No, Luke.” My heart thumps wildly. “What I’m thinking is that Shelby was very upset the night she was killed.”

  “Darn right, she was,” he says, shooting a dark look in Ginger’s direction.

  My God, it’s as if he’s suddenly hypnotized by her. Sure, she makes a glamorous movie star, but can he not focus on the task at hand for a single moment?

  I try to block his view of her. “What do you think she was upset about? I mean, clearly you knew what you were doing at the finance company. You gave Leo and me the right forms.” That might be true, but I’m not above rubbing his ego to get a confession out of him.

  “I did.” His brows furrow. “And I think I deserve to stick around.” And with Shelby gone, I will. Her old man caved to my pleas. And now he thinks it’s exactly what Shelby would have wanted as well.

  Luke might be dressed like a one-man boy band, but he’s a snake through and through.

  “Luke”—I say, trying to pull him out of his Ginger King stupor once again—“what do you think had Shelby all worked up that night? I bumped into her in the foyer and she said it had something to do with you.”

  His eyes twitch my way again as bodies crush us from every side.

  I’m not sure how many people have filed into the room, but I’m guessing the fire code is about to be tapped.

  “She was angry with me. Okay? We were having a fight over something stupid.” He tries to get a better look at Ginger, and I step in front of him again.

  “She said something about a wife,” I lie through my teeth and don’t mind at all. “What do you think she meant?”

  His Adam’s apple rises and falls. “I don’t know. But it’s not important anymore.” His entire body sags. “That wife sent her husband packing.”

  A small gasp emits from me.

  Luke glowers into the crowd a moment. Sarah gave me the boot and I thought it’d feel like a relief. She said she met some angel at the pumpkin patch who gave her perfect clarity. He rolls his eyes. I bet it was some dude. Here I thought I was the only player in the family. Go figure. He lets out a hard breath. If Shelby had lived, we could have had something real. I know it.

  “Look”—his gaze falls to mine—“I’m not like my dad or my brothers. Not anymor
e. I’m sorry about your boyfriend. I hope it works out for the two of you. I really do. But I need to get in that line before Ginger runs out of books—and looks. Wish me luck.”

  Luke gazes over at Ginger as he heads that way. Maybe this one won’t die or walk out on me.

  “Bizzy!” Georgie comes at me with a couple of pooches in tow and a tiny pirate hat bobbing in the background. Her long gray hair is flying every which way and she’s got an ear-to-ear grin. “This is magic! I vote we have a Monster Mash every weekend.”

  “That might turn me into a monster,” I say, looking back at Luke. His thoughts sure didn’t sound very guilty, but then, sociopaths are incapable of feeling anything.

  Fish entwines herself between my ankles. And I vote we never have a Halloween again.

  Sherlock gives a spastic glance in every direction at once. Where’s the bacon, Bizzy? Where’s the bacon?

  “I’m afraid I don’t have any bacon on me, Sherlock.” I shrug down his way.

  Georgie waves me off. “Ignore her. Both you and Peanut will get plenty of bacon. Stick with me, kids. I know how to have some real fun.”

  I give her orange and black kaftan an approving once-over. She has on an arm full of bangles, large hoop earrings, and enough necklaces to sink a battleship.

  “What are you supposed to be, Georgie?”

  “I’m a hippy artist.” She snaps her fingers up near her ears. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’re a hippy artist every day. And I think you make a darn good one.”

  “You bet I do, sister.” She bumps her hip to mine. “Come on, friends! It’s time to show these kids a real fright on the dance floor.” She takes off and immediately starts a conga line in the process. Leave it to Georgie to be the life of the party.

  Too bad I don’t feel like partying at the moment.

  Close to an hour drifts by as I watch Luke slowly making progress in the book line until he finally gets his turn at bat with Ginger. She all but throws a book at him and sends him on his way—and he doesn’t look too happy about it either.

  Luke looks fit to be tied for all of ten seconds before a sultry temptress dressed as a mermaid catches his eye and he heads on over.

  Luke seems just fine bouncing from one woman to another. He does seem rather easygoing. Ginger all but slapped him in the face with that book she wrote.

  Something in me lurches.

  That’s it!

  I know who the killer is, without a shadow of a doubt.

  Chapter 19

  The crowd at the Monster Mash grows increasingly boisterous with each passing minute. And it looks as if the person I’m tracking has had quite enough of the party themselves—at least for the moment.

  I thread my way through the thicket of bodies until I hit the cool exterior of the courtyard and I step on out into the crisp fall air. Night has fallen hard, and it’s virtually empty out here, save for the hundreds of jack-o-lanterns glowing and flickering, giving the night the haunted appeal it deserves.

  Sherlock, Peanut, and Fish scuttle out behind me, but my gaze is unbreakable from the sight before me.

  Standing next to the makeshift shrine Jordy placed over the very spot where Shelby Harris breathed her last breath is the very last person I would have suspected. But I should have. The truth was there before me all along.

  She places a single red rose over the large pot brimming with pumpkins of every size.

  “Ginger?” I whisper her name as I come upon her and she spins on her heels. Her dress glitters purple under the duress of the lavender twinkle lights, and everything about Ginger King is a bewitching sight.

  “Bizzy,” she hisses my name like a reprimand. Her eyes flit to the furry creatures surrounding me and she looks as if she’s about to be sick.

  Is it her, Bizzy? Is it? Sherlock dances left then right, alive with nervous energy.

  Fish lets out a ferocious meow and Ginger lifts a brow her way. But Peanut scuttles off toward the woods, whimpering and whining as if he were afraid she was about to chuck her shoe at him—something I have no doubt she’s done before. She’s capable of far worse.

  “You put a flower over the very spot where Shelby was killed,” I say the words so low I wonder if she’s heard them.

  Ginger sniffs hard, her eyes glinting with tears. “That’s right. Shelby and I were friends.”

  “You were friends. You were very close friends, weren’t you?”

  She glances out at the woods lit up like a supernatural wonderland. “Some might say too close.”

  “You did a lot together.” I take in a steady breath, trying my best not to spook her. “You were good friends. She let you borrow her dog to make you more affable to the crowds.”

  She gags as if the thought offended her. “I never cared if anyone liked me, let alone because I was holding some silly little dog,” Ginger grunts as she plucks the rose back from where she laid it and tosses it to the ground, grinding her shoe over the bloom as if she were putting out a cigarette.

  Fish runs up to get a better look at the floral malfeasance, and she looks adorably like a miniature pirate ready to wreak havoc with that tiny sword stitched to her costume.

  Did you see that, Bizzy? Fish twitches her head my way. She just killed that flower—the same way I bet she killed Shelby.

  I clear my throat. “Shelby was a great writer, wasn’t she? I heard she helped teach English at Whaler’s Cove Community College a while back. I bet she gave you great input on your book.”

  Her eyes widen a notch. Her lips pull down, giving her that beauty queen gone feral look.

  I take a steady breath. “Luke said there was something going on between you and Shelby. Is that what it was? The book?”

  She blinks hard as if she were trying her best to look affronted. However, according to her clenched fists, she looks angry.

  “Excuse me?” She squints over at me. “Are you trying to imply something about my writing?” What in the heck is happening here? Does this nitwit think she’s about to outsmart me?

  “I’m not implying anything about your writing,” I say. “The other day in the café when we were discussing the party, you mentioned that you couldn’t write your way out of a paper bag.”

  Her mouth rounds out. “Oh, that.” She does her best to laugh it off. Thank God. For a second there I thought she had me.

  “But Shelby wrote the book.” I nod as I say it. “That’s the secret she was about to spill the night she was killed, wasn’t it? That’s why Shelby told Luke that the truth was going to come out and you wouldn’t like it.”

  Ginger’s face bleaches out of all color.

  Oh God, she knows. She’ll tell everyone—I’ll lose everything. The whole world will know I’m a fraud.

  I shake my head at her. “The whole world is going to know you’re a killer.”

  “What?” Her eyes bug out in horror. There’s no way she just read my mind. I must have said that out loud. Her fingers float to her lips as if to conceal any more truths from seeping out.

  I take a bold step forward. “Chelsea said the three of you took a safety course together at the range with Nessa.” My adrenaline picks up and I begin to pant.

  “So?” She eyes the door to the ballroom.

  “You knew how to handle a gun. Not just any gun—the same gun you used to kill Shelby with.”

  Ginger takes a stumbling step backward as she staggers toward the woods and I’m quick to follow.

  The air grows cold and damp and our breath crystalizes in long, papery plumes.

  “Ginger, you asked me to put your things underneath the counter tonight. You knew that’s where Nessa kept her purse that night, didn’t you?”

  She takes a breath and shakes her head in horror as she backs into the woods.

  “You took Nessa’s gun and killed Shelby, then placed it right back where you found it. Did you wipe your prints? Were you wearing gloves? You had thought about it, after all. This was no accident, was it?”

 
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turns and runs into the forest and I’m right there after her.

  “Then why are you running?” I shout after her as I try to keep up pace.

  Ginger stops short as she comes upon one of those oversized spider webs Jordy scattered throughout the woods to keep the guests from wandering into the endless labyrinth of evergreens.

  “Get out of my way.” Ginger barrels past me and tries her best to exit the woods, only to hit one dead end after another. “What the heck is wrong with this place?” Her voice thunders through the forest with an echo.

  Fish jumps up between us, and Ginger lets out a sharp yelp.

  “Oh God, that thing scared me.” She cranes her neck past me as Sherlock and Peanut scamper this way. “What is this? The pet parade?”

  Peanut gives a few aggressive barks. Let me know when you want me to bite her ankles, Bizzy. It’s been a long time coming, and it’ll be a pleasure to do it.

  “Fine.” Ginger tosses her hands in the air. “I killed her. I killed Shelby right here at your stupid inn because she couldn’t keep her ridiculous mouth shut. If you think I’m a piece of work, you should have known Shelby. Now she was a real witch with a capital everything. Of course, she wrote my book. And if she were smart, she would have kept that little tidbit to herself. I was giving her a share of profits under the table. But Shelby came from money. She didn’t need it or crave it. The only thing she craved was power.”

  “You’re right.” My breathing is uneven. “She made Chelsea take the fall for the jewelry she stole. She made sure Scout and her aunt kept quiet about the thefts she was responsible for at the open houses. Did she threaten you, too?”

  “Ha!” Ginger belts it out so loud, her voice shoots straight to the moon. “She knew better. I’m no amateur. With me, her power lay in actually pulling off the threat. She wanted to humiliate me.” The veins in her neck distend as she says it. Her red hair shines like fire under the duress of a paper-white moon. “She was about to pull the plug on everything I’ve worked for. I’m sure it’s what she was aiming for all along. The only thing she cared about was her persona, her fans. She wanted them to see how wonderful she was. She wanted them to feel pity once they found out that I took advantage of her—and she was going to make sure of it. Shelby thought it was going to propel her to new heights—and in a way she was right. That is, if you believe in the afterlife.” Her left eye twitches. “Do you believe in the afterlife, Bizzy?” She takes a careful step forward. “Because if you do, I’d make peace with your maker right about now.”