Haunted Homicide

by Constance Barker

  “I don’t know,” Avery admitted, crossing her arms.

  “He didn’t do it,” Sam said.

  “How do you know?” Avery asked her.

  “How do you not know?” Sam countered. “Cody couldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “Gideon is very thorough,” Cookie jumped in. “He’s probably just looking at all the angles.” Obviously, she was just trying to diffuse the situation, but it could have been true. The three seemed to have forgotten where they were. Avery even jumped with surprise at the outside voice. “Sorry,” Cookie added blushing.

  “Thank you,” Sam said with a smile. “We’ve been trying to explain that to her.” Avery scowled at Sam, not appreciating being talked about as if she weren’t there.

  “If that’s true then why aren’t we suspects?” She retorted with a smirk, hoping to have finally gotten them with her logic. Verny didn’t blame her, it did look like Cody was guilty. She wondered how Avery was still with either of them if she thought him to be guilty.

  “Neither of you are tall enough to have pushed him over the ledge without breaking it,” Josie explained. She’d had the same question, the only difference was she knew the man who had the answer. Gideon had made the explanation much longer and more complicated than it actually was, essentially turning it into a physics lesson and making Josie regret ever asking him. He had taken nearly an hour to explain to her what she had been able to say in a single sentence.

  “Oh.” Was all the response Avery was able to get out before she started blubbering.

  “I’m sorry,” Josie said horrified at the reaction she had caused. Avery shook her head.

  “No, I’m sorry,” she said through her sobs. The apology wasn’t only to Josie, but also to Cody and Sam. Avery looked between them, ensuring that they both understood.

  “We get it,” Sam assured her. Cody seemed a little less forgiving, but he was the one that his friend thought was capable of murder.

  “I just want them to find out what happened to him.”

  “We do too,” Cody said, softening. “I hope they don’t waste too much time on looking into me, so they can find who actually did it.”

  “Weren’t you all together when it happened?” Verny asked. That had been bothering Josie as well. She had assumed they were together when it happened but she couldn’t remember if they had actually said they were or not.

  “No,” Cody said with a huff. “In the confusion of that night, when Gideon and Abel asked us where we all were when it happened, we said we were all in a room together and Simon had gone off on his own.”

  “But you weren’t?” Josie asked. Cody and Sam shook their heads.

  “Probably why I look guilty, because that part of our story changed.”

  “Where were you all then?” Verny asked out of curiosity. She was still convinced that Cody was innocent, but he had quite the act.

  “I was with Avery,” Sam said quietly. “We were in one of the upstairs rooms, filming some of our introduction shots with us talking to the camera.”

  “I was on my own in the bedroom, packing up some equipment,” Cody explained.

  “Which means you don’t have an alibi anymore,” Josie stated the obvious.

  “And I look as guilty as can be,” he replied. “I hope your detective friends are understanding and don’t just arrest me because I look guilty.”

  “I think they’ll hear you out,” Josie said encouragingly. “Cookie is right, they are thorough but they are also fair.”

  “I hope so,” Cody said looking at his phone for the time. “Because I’m supposed to be at the station in about fifteen minutes.”

  “We should get going then,” Sam said. Avery had pulled herself together a bit more.

  “Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s not make them more suspicious by being late.”

  “Good luck,” Josie said, meaning it.

  “I hope it goes your way,” Cookie echoed her sentiment. Verny chose to stay quiet, still unconvinced that Cody was innocent. The Paranormalists settled their check and headed out the door. A quick moving Cici and Mike almost knocked them down in their haste to get inside.

  “Sorry,” Mike said. “We should watch where we're going.”

  “No harm, no foul,” Cody said with a shrug. The three remaining Paranormalists left the deli. Cici stared them down as they walked out, concerned about something.

  “What’s up?” Verny asked. Gideon and Abel had tried to get their tech person to look into the case, but they were backlogged with transcribing analog files to digital ones. Their solution was to ask Cici and Mike to look into it more. It turned out that the two of them had met in a county-wide computer club for high school students. Cici was part of so many clubs that Verny couldn’t keep track of them all anymore.

  “We did some of the digging that Gideon asked us to do,” Cici huffed. She was out of breath from running into the deli. She and Mike had run all the way from the library to the deli, the information they discovered was too big to keep to themselves for even a minute longer than necessary.

  “What did you find?” Verny asked. She wasn’t happy that Gideon had roped her daughter into working a case where she could end up in danger, but was proud that they needed her help at the same time.

  “We think we found the killer,” Mike said.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Is it Cody?” Josie asked before Verny got the chance. Verny looked at her appreciatively. She always worried about her friends not being suspicious enough of people, thinking it might get them into trouble one day. It had already gotten Cookie into trouble in the past – she had more than one bad ex-boyfriend.

  “I don’t think so,” Cici said. “I think that the rest of them might be in trouble too.”

  “What kind of trouble?” Cookie asked looking at the Paranormalists as they headed down the street.

  “Financial,” Mike said pulling his laptop out of his book-bag.

  “Deep financial trouble,” Cici emphasized.

  “Debt?” Verny asked.

  “Not the traditional kind of financial trouble,” Mike said. He pulled up a screen on his laptop detailing the financial records of the Paranormalists and their website. How he and Cici got the information was best left unknown.

  “So what then?” Josie asked, thinking about how they might say the same about her if they were to look into her finances. School loans, business loans and a particularly nasty divorce had left her in what some might call financial trouble.

  “We weren’t really sure what we were looking at, at first,” Mike started. “But, we got into their business email and things began to make more sense.”

  “How did you do that?” Verny asked, suddenly concerned that her daughter might have broken the law in order to aide it.

  “Don’t worry about it, Mom,” Cici said evasively. “Gideon said by any means necessary.” Verny frowned. She doubted he meant illegally.

  “I might have to have a word with Gideon about this,” she warned.

  “Regardless about how it was done,” Cici continued, ignoring her mother’s comment. “We got into their email account and it turns out they were in the process of getting investors and turning The Paranormalists into a full-time business. It looked like they were adding a podcast, upping the quality of their videos with new equipment and even hiring an editor. From what we read everyone was really excited about it.”

  “That all sounds great, not like trouble at all,” Cookie said.

  “That’s what we thought too,” Mike replied, pulling up a new page on his computer screen. He was attempting to show them what they had found, but most of it looked like gibberish to the women. “But when we looked into it deeper, the time-line didn’t work out – all these things would have already been put into place if they had. Plus, the Paranormalists all said that it was still just part time.”

  “How does this make Cody innocent?” Verny asked impatiently. “Maybe Simon wanted to keep it part time and he killed him because of it,” sh
e suggested.

  “Honestly, we thought the same thing at first,” Cici admitted. “But, we needed evidence of that, so we looked deeper. If he was guilty, there was sure to be some kind of paper trail. The investments never happened and they kept it part-time, but why?”

  “It didn’t make sense,” Mike said. “They were all on board, the investor seemed excited about the prospect of what they could be making if they invested all their time into the website, not just part of it. They were bringing in half a million a year from ad revenue and sponsorships alone. All of them made more with the blog than they did in their day jobs.”

  “That much money?” Josie asked dumbfounded. She hadn’t realized how lucrative an online presence could be.

  “Part-time,” Mike emphasized. “So it was a no brainer that an investor might approach them, and it should have been a no brainer that they became a business.”

  “But it didn’t happen,” Cici said. “Because Simon was killed. We thought we might find something in his personal email that could lead us to an answer. Simon was in charge of the business side of things – everyone was involved, but he ran things and made decisions. He had created the Paranormalists, the whole thing was his idea. When we got into his email we couldn’t find anything at first.”

  “He had deleted and hidden the emails well, we had to really dig to find them.”

  “What emails?” Verny asked.

  “We found emails between him and the investor that explained everything. The investor had gotten a little too invested, for lack of a better word,” Mike answered. “He thought that he should have a say in the way things were run, what was or wasn’t said in the videos and be involved in the new podcast. Basically he wanted to make all executive decisions for their content, approve everything before it was put out.”

  “On top of that,” Cici added. “He wanted to push Cody out.”

  “What? Why?” Cookie asked stunned. She had watched some of their video’s after meeting them the first time and felt that Cody was the most likable of the group. From a business perspective she couldn’t see how it would make sense to get rid of him.

  “He had a vision for the Paranormalists. For some reason, Cody didn’t fit that vision. Cody had been vocal in negotiations, making sure that their creative voice was kept intact. Maybe he thought that without Cody, he could make the changes he wanted without opposition. Or at least with less opposition,” Cici said. She was pacing around the deli as though she was putting the pieces together as she spoke. With each new fact revealed she spoke more passionately and excitedly. For a moment Verny glimpsed a future as a detective for her daughter, though she wished for a safer profession.

  “Simon said no,” Josie said, feeling guilty for thinking so lowly of him before.

  “He said that there was no way that would happen,” Mike confirmed. “He used a few choice words that I won’t repeat here.”

  “The investor wasn’t too happy about that, obviously,” Cici said still pacing. Buttercup followed her back and forth around the room, probably getting a better walk than she would have with Cici later on. “He doubled down, said he would pull his support if they didn’t get rid of Cody. Simon basically told him to go ahead and they wouldn’t work with him anymore.”

  “The thing is, Simon didn’t tell any of them this. He didn’t want Cody to feel like he was making them miss out on an opportunity or feel like they wanted him to leave,” Mike said sadly. For a moment, guilt permeated the room. Everyone had thought negatively of Simon before learning this, not that it was their fault. He presented as very surly.

  “That’s why there was and is so much tension between all of them,” Josie said, understanding their dynamic more. “They lost out on this great opportunity and don’t know why. All they know is that Simon spoke with the investor and suddenly everything changed.”

  “I bet that’s why he was so quiet,” Cookie said. “They were all angry with him.”

  “So who was the investor?” Verny asked. “That’s who killed Simon, right? He lost out on a lot of money because of Simon and must have been mad.”

  “I think he was trying to talk sense into Simon, convince him to go ahead with the plan. When Simon was still unconvinced, he got angry and killed him,” Mike said. He and Cici seemed to enjoy the drama of being the only two who knew who the killer was. They were savoring weaving the tale that lead to Simon’s death.

  “You think he might go after the others?” Josie asked, remembering that they said they were concerned about them.

  “I’m not sure...he was unstable enough to kill one of them,” Cici shrugged. “I know they were on the way to talk to Gideon, I figured they are in the safest place they can be whether or not the investor goes after them.”

  “True enough,” Josie agreed. “So who was it?”

  “Remember the family with that young boy?” Cici asked, implication thick in her voice. “The father is one Johnathan Anderson, the investor. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he was on the tour with us.”

  “You think he killed him with his kid there?” Verny asked. She, as a rule, didn’t trust people, but even that seemed too far fetched to her.

  “I think that when his boy was sick and his mom was looking after him, Mr. Anderson went to talk to Simon and things got out of hand,” Cici said.

  “You’ve got to tell Gideon and Abel what you found,” Cookie said. “He’s probably accusing Cody of murder right now.”

  “Mom, can you give us a ride to the station?” She asked.

  VERNY’S CAR WAS REALLY only made for a maximum of four people, even that was pushing it. Two could sit comfortably, four could fit, but five was stretching it. The only saving grace was that Cici didn’t insist on driving. Otherwise, Josie and Cookie might have opted out of the adventure in it’s entirety despite their desperate curiosity.

  “That doesn’t look legal,” Abel said laughing as he watched all five of them crawl out of the tiny vehicle as if it was a clown car.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Verny replied dryly.

  “I won’t,” Abel assured her.

  “We know who killed Simon,” Cici said as she cracked her neck. She’d ended up on Cookie’s lap in the front, and her head was at an awkward angle the entire drive over. Thankfully it was only a few minutes away.

  “So do we,” Abel said. “Cody’s being processed right now.”

  “It wasn’t Cody!” Cici exclaimed, running into the station. Abel looked at the four remaining in front of him confused, and then ran after Cici.

  “What do you mean it wasn’t him?” He yelled after her.

  “It was Jonathan Anderson,” Cici replied. “He killed Simon.”

  “Slow down, and explain it to me,” Abel said, catching up with Cici who was already at Gideon’s desk.

  “It wasn’t Cody,” Cici said, this time to Gideon.

  “What did you find?” Gideon asked. He looked overwhelmed by the cavalry Cici had brought with her. “Let’s go to the conference room, get a little privacy.”

  “Okay,” Cici said. “You need to find Jonathan Anderson right now.”

  “The dad?” Gideon asked.

  “Yes,” Mike said out of breath. “He killed Simon. We have proof.”

  “I’ll send someone out to pick him up. I asked everyone on the tour to stick around until this was taken care of. Hopefully he listened,” Gideon sighed. He didn’t seem surprised that it wasn’t Cody. The evidence had pointed to him, but nothing in Cody’s demeanor seemed capable of killing someone, let alone a friend. After telling an officer to pick up Mr. Anderson he led them to the conference room. Cici and Mike delivered a very similar, but paired down speech of their findings to Gideon and Abel.

  “Why didn’t they recognize him?” Abel asked. He bought the story, but wanted to make sure there weren’t holes. Since the beginning his gut had told him that the motive was a financial one, not a personal or romantic one.

  “They never met him,” Cici said plainly. “Every
thing was still in the early stages when it fell apart. They would have met had it gone further or at least video chatted with him, but they never got the chance.”

  “What about his name? Didn’t they get that on the tour?” Gideon asked.

  “He introduced himself as Jack,” Josie said thinking back to the tour. It felt like it had happened ages ago, but it was only a couple days prior. “They wouldn’t have known who he was.”

  “But you think it was an accident?” Abel asked.

  “Unplanned,” Mike clarified. “I don’t think he went there with the intention of killing anyone, but clearly things didn’t go as planned.”

  “The evidence is sufficient,” Gideon said. Cici breathed in with pride, as she had discovered a new passion, and appreciated the recognition that she was good at it. “We’ll let Cody go, and process Mr. Anderson for the murder. If he was innocent he would have disclosed to us at the beginning that he knew the Paranormalists. His only alibi is his wife saying they were both looking after their sick kid. She might not even be lying, the stress of a sick kid is enough to distract anyone.”

  “You did good work,” Abel said, still stunned by all they had been able to discover in such a short amount of time.

  “There’s always a paper trail – or an internet trail in this case,” Cici said with confidence. Mike stood beside her, also proud of their accomplishment.

  “Of course, a confession is always nice,” Gideon said as he noticed Mr. Anderson being brought in. Apparently he had listened to the request to stay in the area.

  Chapter Twelve

  Johnathan Anderson had burst into tears and confessed before Gideon or Abel could even ask him a question. He hadn’t meant to kill Simon, and the guilt was eating him from the inside out.

  “It wasn’t on purpose,” He sobbed. “I was so excited to work with them, I’ve watched them for years. I wanted to help them grow their business, I’m one of their biggest fans. All I wanted was for them to get rid of Cody!”