by Kathi Daley
“Maybe it’s in one of the other drawers,” I suggested.
“It’s not in one of the others,” Salinger said. “Or at least it shouldn’t be.” Salinger pulled out his phone and called his deputy to confirm that the body had been left in drawer number two. He looked at Zak and me. “My deputy swears the body was there an hour ago.”
“Okay, wait,” I said. “The killer left the body for us to find, so that leads me to believe the killer didn’t want the body. If they had, why leave it in the first place and then call you to find it? If, however, it wasn’t the killer who took the body, then who did?”
“Maybe someone moved it,” Zak suggested. “Let’s look in the other drawers.”
The three of us began opening and closing the drawers. It didn’t take us long to find that all the drawers were as empty as the first drawer we’d opened. Ashton Falls was a small town, so unlike the morgues in larger cities, I was willing to bet that there were actually a lot of instances when the room was clear of bodies waiting for an autopsy.
“Do you have anything?” I asked. “Blood or skin samples? Fingerprints? Photographs?”
Salinger took out his phone. “I have photos taken at the scene.”
I almost puked when I looked at the photo of my face and body covered in blood. There was a large knife stuck into the chest of the victim who really did look exactly like me. She was holding a cardboard sign similar to the one Scooter had been holding. Scooter’s sign had said: What am I? which I assumed referred to the code on the sheets of paper that had been left in various places for us to find. The sign this woman was holding said: Who am I? What jarred me the most about the photo, wasn’t the sign or the blood, it was her blue eyes, my blue eyes, which were open.
“Her eyes,” I said. “They are so expressive, even in death.” I swallowed hard. “She looks so shocked — as if she simply can’t believe that what was happening was actually happening.”
“She really does look exactly like Zoe,” Zak said, looking as ill as I felt. “I’ve seen the videos, but these photos are so much more real. If Zoe wasn’t standing here with us, I might actually believe it to be her.”
I looked around the empty morgue. If a woman with my face died, I intended to find out why. “If the body has been stolen, we won’t be able to pull fingerprints, so we’ll need to find another way to figure out who she was. In order to do that, we’ll need clues. Evidence. Let’s head out to the site where you found the body and take a look around.”
Salinger nodded. “Okay. You can follow me out there, but once we arrive, don’t touch anything. The place is an active murder scene.”
“Are you okay?” I asked Zak as we drove out of town.
“Not really.”
“Yeah, me neither.” I thought of those eyes. Those bright blue eyes that had been dulled by death, but still looked so much like my own.
When we arrived at the site where the body was found, we found that the place had been taped off and there were a few uniformed officers taking dirt samples and photos. Salinger approached one of the men, I assumed to let him know that Zak and I had permission to be there. Given the fact that the murder occurred in the middle of nowhere, there weren’t any spectators to deal with.
Salinger handed gloves to both Zak and me while reminding us once again not to touch anything. I asked to be shown the exact location where the body had been found. I didn’t know what I’d find, but I did seem to have this overwhelming need to really understand why the woman with my face ended up dead in a place I’d visited many times in the past.
As Salinger led me across the graveyard, all I could see were those eyes. If I lived to be a hundred, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to get the image of those eyes out of my mind.
Salinger stopped walking when he arrived at the location where the body had been found. I felt my breath catch as the gentle breeze brushed my hair across my cheek. Pausing to look around, I cringed when I realized where I was standing.
“What is it?” Zak asked.
“This is the exact location where I found Duncan Wright’s body five years ago.”
“Duncan Wright,” Salinger said. “That was the man who died while you were working on the haunted house.”
I nodded. “Duncan was a member of the events committee who’d managed to get on every nerve I had during the short time he was with us. He managed to take over the event and made decisions simply to tick me off. I have to admit that I didn’t even feel all that bad when I found his body.”
“I don’t remember much about the murder,” Salinger said, frowning.
“That’s because you were out of town. A cruise, I think. One of the county deputies took over. A man named Lesserman was in charge. I remember not liking the guy from the very beginning. Lesserman knew about my rivalry with Duncan, and he’d heard about some of the unwise comments I’d made, which convinced him that I was the one who killed Duncan. I wasn’t worried at first. The guy did seem to be the most clueless cop on the planet, and I was sure it would all get straightened out, but Lesserman was convinced I was guilty and wasn’t backing down. Looking back, I suppose he did have cause to suspect me. Not only was my hatred of Duncan well documented, but I was the one who found the body.”
“I’m starting to remember a bit about the event,” Salinger said. “You left me a million messages.”
“I did, but you were out of range, so I tried to talk to Lesserman myself, but he was convinced I was guilty. I realized I really couldn’t trust the guy to put any effort into finding the real killer, so I decided to look into things myself. That led to me looking into Duncan’s background, which, as it turned out, didn’t appear to exist. It took some digging, but I eventually found out that Duncan Wright had shortened his surname from Wainwright and was, in fact, a descendent of Isaac. Of course, that realization led to a bit of a goose chase, but eventually, I figured it out.”
“So how does that relate to what’s going on today?” Salinger asked.
“I’m not sure it does. Well, at least not beyond providing an explanation as to why the body was found here.” I took a breath and paused to look at the remains of the old house we’d used for the Haunted Hamlet in the distance. “We found Marlow at Henderson House, Scooter at the house where I found the gold that had been left for Oz’s father, and my double here at the gravesite of Isaac Wainwright. I doubt the sites used in this little game are random. In fact, they seem quite intentional. I already suspected this little game was all about me, but now I’m even more certain.”
“So, what now?” Zak asked.
I remembered the sign the woman had been holding. It said: Who am I? “I think we need to figure out a way to identify the woman who died.” I paused and looked around. “This is a bit different. A challenge has been issued, but no one is in danger this time, and there doesn’t seem to be a clock ticking down.”
“Are you sure about that?” Salinger asked.
Actually, I wasn’t. I knew Alex, Scooter, and Catherine were at home, but there were a lot of other people I cared deeply about. I supposed I should get on the phone and start checking in with folks, beginning with my parents and Levi and Ellie.
Zak and I spoke to Salinger a while longer. He promised to find out what he could about the woman and to try to locate the missing body. After Salinger left, Zak and I headed home. Even as Zak drove toward the house, I began making calls. By the time we pulled into our drive, I was convinced that everyone I loved was safe. At least for now. To be honest, after the explosion yesterday, I realized that I might never feel safe again.
Still, I wouldn’t put it past whoever was pulling the strings to take someone I loved if Zak and I weren’t able to provide the answer to who the woman with my face had been before she pretended to be me. I wasn’t sure how we were going to do that. We didn’t have a body. There didn’t seem to have been any physical evidence at the location where the woman’s body was found. She looked like me and not like herself, so facial recognition wasn’t goin
g to help.
“She was someone before she was you,” Zak pointed out. “Maybe someone is missing her. Maybe we should start by looking at missing persons reports.”
I wasn’t sure that would help, but at least it was something to do.
Zak logged onto his computer and began looking for missing people who had the same general build as me. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but deep inside, I knew that we’d entered the final phase of this crazy game. The fact that Fake Zoe was dead felt like an ending of sorts. Identify the woman who’d been sacrificed at Claudia’s alter and we’d complete the game and allow the crazy woman who’d been the bane of my existence to fade into the woodwork once again. Or at least that was my theory. At this point, it still bothered me just a bit that she hadn’t secured anyone to act as leverage to get us to do what it seemed she clearly wanted us to do. I’d warned those closest to me. My parents, Pappy and Hazel, Ellie and Levi. But what about those living on a slightly different tier of my life? People like Jeremy, Phyllis, Ethan, and Nick. People I cared deeply about who might end up on Claudia’s radar. Deciding to call those I considered as tier two relationships, which was everyone who was only slightly removed from my inner circle, I took my phone out to the deck and sat down in the sun while Zak continued to work on the computer.
Zak came out onto the deck a couple hours later to let me know that, while he had his software continuing the search, no names had surfaced right off the bat. I’d asked everyone I’d spoken to if they knew of anyone from the local area who’d simply disappeared within the past year or so, but no one had. It worried me that Claudia, or whoever, had issued a challenge without offering an incentive to complete that challenge. The note that had settled on the chest of Fake Zoe after she’d been laid across the long-dead prairie grass of the old graveyard had asked: Who am I? But there wasn’t a threat offered to go with the challenge. No blinking lights. No missing friends. No reason for Zak and me to even bother to solve the mystery. At least no reason clearly evident on the surface. Knowing Claudia, if she had offered the challenge, the threat wouldn’t be far behind.
Chapter 11
I’d been holding my breath since Sunday, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but here it was Thursday, and nothing had happened. Sheriff Salinger still hadn’t found the missing body, and Zak and I still hadn’t figured out the identity of Fake Zoe, but no one had been kidnapped, nothing had exploded, and no further notes or threats had shown up. I was actually beginning to relax a bit as I prepared to head into town for the opening weekend of the Haunted Hamlet. Of course, knowing Claudia the way I do, I should have expected that she’d simply been waiting for me to let my guard down before swooping in and delivering the fatal blow.
Today was the opening of the haunted barn, which meant that Zak and I had a full day ahead of us. Alex and Scooter had school until three, and then they planned to head to the Haunted Hamlet. Catherine would be at preschool until two today, but I needed someone to watch her for a few hours in the afternoon until the barn would officially open, and Zak and I would be able to make it home. Ellie planned to get a sitter for her two children so she could help out at the food court, and Levi would be tied up at work until after five, after which time he planned to join Ellie in town.
My dad’s assistant at the store was back, but he was busy with the spooky maze today, and my mom was still on crutches, so I’d asked Pappy to pick Catherine up from preschool and then babysit until I was able to pick her up from his home later that afternoon. Pappy loved Catherine and was happy to have the chance to spend time with her. Hazel would be working at the library until five, but she mentioned that she and Pappy would take Catherine out for dinner once she completed work for the day so that Zak and I could take our time in town. That sounded like a reasonable arrangement to me.
The decorating committee had done a wonderful job with the barn, but there were always a lot of last-minute chores to complete before opening. Props needed to be tested, and the ticket booth needed to be set up with the tickets and cash the volunteers would need. The barn officially opened at four, but by three, there was already a line snaking through the cornfield and down the long dirt drive.
“The lid on the coffin in room three keeps sticking in the closed position,” one of the volunteers dressed as the victim of a serial slasher informed me.
“Have Zak look at it. Maybe it just needs to be lubricated. Does it stick every time?”
“No. Just some of the time. You can hear the click where the gear to lift the lid kicks in, but then nothing.” She looked around the room where I’d been repositioning a pair of mechanical monsters. “Everything looks really good.”
I stood back, placing my hands on my hips. “It does look good. What we have now isn’t nearly as elaborate as what we used to have, but I feel like the terror factor is just right for a family event.” I turned back toward the monster I’d been working on. “If you find Zak, let him know that all the modifications we talked about are complete. I’m going to run into town and pick up pizza for the volunteers. I ordered it ahead of time since I had a feeling that once we open, we won’t have a moment to breathe until the event closes at ten.”
When I arrived at the pizza parlor where I’d preordered twenty pizzas to go, I noticed a group sitting at one of the tables near the bar. I recognized one of the women sitting with the group as having worked at the local costume shop in the past, although she hadn’t been working the day I’d been there with Ellie to buy costumes for Catherine, Eli, and Alya. I raised my hand to wave a greeting when she lifted her arm and motioned me over. I was trying desperately to remember her name, which had completely escaped me when she introduced me to the other three women at the table. There was something about the woman she introduced as Jasmine. Something I’d seen in her eyes that I couldn’t quite explain. I felt like I’d met her before, but no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t place her.
“Do you all live in town?” I asked the women in the group.
“We do,” a woman with red hair that had been introduced as Lisa spoke up. “I work at Dobber’s Insurance, and Kim works as a hairdresser at Curlz and Cutz.”
“And you?” I asked Jasmine.
“I’m not a local. In fact, I’m only here for a few weeks for work.”
“Oh, and what sort of work do you do?” I asked.
“I’m a writer. I’m here researching the history of the area.” She turned toward the woman to her left and smiled. “I ran into Evelyn at the library, and she invited me to have lunch with her and her friends.”
Evelyn was the woman who worked at the costume shop, and now that I stopped to think about it, I had seen her at the library on more than one occasion. I made a comment about her spending a lot of time in the library, and she commented that she’d been volunteering with Hazel three afternoons a week for the past couple of years.
“Do you want to join us?” Evelyn asked.
I turned and looked at the counter behind me. “Thanks, but I’m picking up pizzas for the crew volunteering at the haunted barn. You should come by.” I looked around the table, pausing to look more closely at the woman who was visiting from out of town. “All of you. It’s opening night, and it’s going to be awesome.”
Everyone said that they’d try to stop by. I walked up to the counter, paid for the pizzas, and then began loading my car. I needed to get back with the pizza, but I wished I’d had longer to linger. I would have liked to join Evelyn and the others. There was something about Jasmine that caused a shiver up my spine. She hadn’t really looked all that familiar. She had long black hair, dark brown eyes, high cheekbones, and a tall thin frame. Her makeup was applied with a heavy hand, and the bright red lipstick she wore was truly awful. I sensed an intensity when I’d been introduced to her that I hadn’t experienced with the others. It actually flashed into my mind that perhaps Jasmine was Claudia’s current incarnation, but why would Claudia be sitting in a pizza parlor, having lunch with a random group of local
s? She couldn’t possibly have known I was going to show up. Could she?
The line to buy tickets when the booth opened was twice as long by the time I made it back to the barn with the pizzas as it had been when I’d set out thirty minutes earlier. I tossed a pile of paper plates on the table next to the stack of cheese pizzas in the little shed we were using as an office and break room. I knew there were those who preferred toppings, but I decided that cheese would be less messy to eat, and it would be easier to feed a crowd if all the pizzas were the same. I’d debated whether twenty extra-large pizzas would be too many, but the volunteers had them devoured before the ticket booth opened, and everyone was encouraged to take their positions for the scheduled opening of the front door at four-thirty.
Zak and I didn’t plan to stay until the end. We figured once we opened and everyone became comfortable with his or her role, we’d slip away and head home. Pappy and Hazel planned to bring Catherine to the house after dinner. If we weren’t home yet, Hazel had volunteered to give her a bath and get her ready for bed. I was sure we’d be home in plenty of time to tuck her in, but given the fact that tonight was the opening night of the haunted barn and there very well could be kinks to work out, I was happy we had a backup plan in place.
By the time eight o’clock rolled around, Zak and I felt comfortable about leaving. Everything was running smoothly, and there were quite a few haunted barn veterans on hand to deal with minor glitches. It had been a good day. Everything had gone smoothly, and I’d found myself relaxing and enjoying the fun. It had been a while since I’d been able to relax. A while since fun had even been on my radar. We still hadn’t figured out the identity of Fake Zoe as the person who’d killed her had challenged us to do, but it had been four days, and nothing bad had happened, so for just a moment, I allowed myself to believe nothing would.
Chapter 12