Frank turned to the rest of the room. “Have any of you seen a woman in a blue peacock outfit tonight?”
Everyone only shook their heads in response. That wasn’t a good sign.
“When I go to do the interviews, the first thing I’ll do is search for someone matching that description. I promise.” He helped her up. “For now, I have to get to work with my deputies.”
Sonja gave a little bob of her head in understanding. While she felt frustrated to be leaving her own party, a party that was now in shambles thanks to a murder, she also was concerned about the omen as well.
She didn’t want to overlook the seriousness of it again.
“I’m so sorry this all had to happen, hon,” Marie said while they pulled out from the line of parked cars in the circle driveway of the estate.
Sonja snuggled down into her seat, feeling slightly uncomfortable in her costume. Despite the chilly October evening, she was overheated. “Yeah, me too. I’m sorry you have to basically take care of me.”
“No big deal. You and Frank are like family to me,” she waved a hand at Sonja. “I was so worried when I heard you’d passed out that I about passed out myself,” she joked with a big guffaw afterward.
Sonja chuckled. “You did look pretty flushed.”
“Well, I’m feeling fine now.” She said, pulling through the gate and heading down the skinny mountain road. It was one of the more treacherous roads in town, especially during the winter. One side of the road looked out over a steep drop off into a small valley below with a trickling stream. She glanced in the mirror at herself, pulling on the bag under one eye. “But, my oh my. My makeup looks a sight. I must have sweated it all away under the stress.”
“And your mask probably didn’t help,” Sonja noted, pointing to the mask still attached to Marie’s head but not over her eyes.
“Such a mess,” she complained.
“At this point, I’m not sure anyone cares. Not with a murderer somewhere on the estate.”
“You’re absolutely right. And don’t you worry. Frank will get this whole thing figured out. He always does.”
Sonja didn’t bother mentioning that most cases that had occurred in Haunted Falls had been solved because of her paranormal abilities. After all, Marie had no idea about ghosts or witches.
Suddenly, the car came to a screeching halt. “What the heck?!” Marie exclaimed.
“What? What happened?” Sonja gasped, looking all around. Finally, her eyes settled on what lay in the road before them. “Oh, my word.”
Dirt, bushes, and rubble were all mixed into a stew that now completely covered the road. Clearly, a rock slide had occurred sometime in the last hour or so.
The only way off the mountain was blocked.
Chapter Six
“Hey, what are you two doing back?” Frank questioned upon seeing the two women walk in the front door. He was standing in the hallway discussing the plan of action for the investigation with one of his deputies.
“You won’t believe this, but the road is blocked,” Sonja informed him.
“Blocked?” he and the deputy said in unison.
“That’s right. It’s completely awash with stones and other debris. There won’t be any getting down to the main portion of town tonight,” Marie added.
Frank looked pale and Sonja knew exactly what he was thinking—the omen. Sonja’s thoughts were along the same line.
“Did you find the woman in the blue outfit?” Sonja asked, jumping to the next thought. Maybe if they could track her down, they could get some answers and finally end the craziness that the evening had become.
Frank shook his head, his hands on his hips. “No. No one at the party is wearing anything like what you described.” As he spoke, he nodded at his deputy to head back into the ballroom, most likely to start doing interviews with the guests.
There were quite a few of them to get through and none of them would be able to leave now. Tensions would be high.
She balled a hand into a fist and punched it into her palm. “Darn. Whoever it is must have switched costumes.”
“Or,” Marie chimed in, “They’re still hiding somewhere here in the house.”
“You mean. . .”
“Perhaps after they bumped into you, they never even went back to the party and are instead somewhere here in the manor,” she finished her thought.
“Or on the estate grounds,” Frank added.
That meant the culprit could be hiding anywhere, Sonja realized.
Clearly, Frank was on the same wavelength. “Everything else needs to be put on hold. Searching the house takes precedence.”
“Got it. I’ll search outside,” Sonja offered.
“No,” Frank snapped.
His wife was taken aback by the attitude, but she knew that it was just another defense mechanism to keep her safe from forces he didn’t understand and couldn’t control.
“My men and I will do the search. You should wait in the ballroom with the rest of the guests.”
“He’s right, hon. Come on,” Marie encouraged her, pushing toward the ballroom. Reluctantly, and not too happily, Sonja obeyed.
After nearly thirty minutes of waiting around with the rest of the guests, Sonja began to grow impatient. She’d attempted to distract herself by trying to answer everyone’s questions. Many were shocked and some even frightened to hear that they were going to be trapped at the estate for the night.
Meanwhile, Alison had called emergency services to fill them in on what was going on and to request a road crew to come and begin working on the rockslide as soon as possible. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be available until early morning.
So, Sonja got to work trying to figure out where everyone could stay that night. Thankfully, the manor was large and had many rooms and bathrooms. Without leaving the ballroom, she worked on sleeping assignments but knew that, depending on what Frank and the police said, could be upended.
After all, many of the guests were nervous and apprehensive about the prospect of having to sleep in a house where a murder had just taken place and the killer was still at large. Some suggested they all sleep in the same room together, others insisted they would feel safer in a room of their own that they could lock.
Sonja quickly realized she couldn’t appease anyone in the chaos of the evening and furthermore couldn’t make solid plans without consulting Frank first anyway. These people were all her friends and family, but tensions were high. She simply wished she had a better grasp on the current situation.
Despite it all, she drew up plans anyway—even if they were tentative—and gave the list of room assignments to Alison. Maybe if people had an idea of where they would be spending the evening, they would feel better about being stuck there.
However, when she was done, Frank still hadn’t come back, and she was feeling anxious. While he was aware of a few of the passages and secrets the house held, she knew he didn’t know the layout like her—or like Belinda.
“That’s it. I’m going to search on my own,” she told Alison.
“Wait, you’re leaving the ballroom? Won’t you get in trouble?” she asked. Sonja’s father and Marie had been given the joint assignment of keeping everyone in the ballroom and only allowing two guests at a time out to use the bathroom.
“I can’t sit and wait anymore. All the stress from the guests is overwhelming and the sooner we can figure out this mystery the better. I know the house better than anyone,” except for Belinda, she thought, “and I intend to get to the bottom of things.”
Alison hesitated but finally agreed. “You do what you need to,” she whispered.
Checking the room of guests to make sure things had calmed down a bit, she got up and walked out.
Thankfully, Marie had fallen asleep in her chair and her father was busy talking to her mother, so Sonja was able to slip out without anyone noticing right away. She was sure as soon as her father realized she was gone he’d come after her.
He was just as wor
ried about the outcome of the omen as Frank was.
She didn’t understand what it was about men that made them feel like they needed to constantly shelter and protect the women in their life. She was more than capable of handling herself.
Peering down the hallway, she saw that the coast was clear. Stepping out, a voice stopped her. “Where are you going?”
Freezing, she turned back to face the familiar black cat.
“I’m going to search the manor, of course.”
“All on your own? Aren’t you worried about the omen?” she asked, trotting on all fours until she stood at Sonja’s feet.
“Of course, I’m worried, but if I spent my life being afraid, I’d end up never doing anything. After all, I can see ghosts, can’t I?”
“Too true,” Belinda agreed. “When I said to be careful, I didn’t mean to put your life on hold. I’m not so overly frightened of what might happen as your father or husband.”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“We’ve both come out of worse before,” she noted, bobbing her head down and indicating her feline body. “I survived my last encounter with a witch.”
“You really think it’s a witch?” Sonja inquired, having hoped that it wasn’t.
“I’m leaning in that direction, yes. Come with me. I’ve found something that I think will interest you.”
Sonja followed her friend without discretion, trusting what she had to share was valuable. Heading down the stairs into the basement, the women found themselves in the familiar setting of the kitchen. From previous experience, they both knew that this one room alone had multiple secrets. The pantry, for one, had a hidden tunnel leading to a room behind it. That was where Belinda and Sonja had been keeping books on the occult. It was a place they could use to study any strange phenomenon they encountered.
Additionally, a secret passage led from the walk-in freezer to the upstairs library.
“This way,” Belinda noted, heading into the pantry.
As soon as Sonja stepped inside, she saw that something wasn’t quite right. The secret door at the back of the pantry stood slightly ajar. “Did you open that?”
“It’s open further now since I went inside, but no. It was unlatched when I came to look around.”
Sonja smirked with one half of her mouth. “It’s a good thing you’re a cat and can go around investigating without anyone the wiser.”
“Except Frank, of course.”
“True.”
“But I’m also small and quick. He wouldn’t see me searching by myself.”
Belinda slipped through the crack in the secret door. Pushing it further open, Sonja followed. Walking down the stone passageway, she emerged into the small room where the books were housed. That’s when she froze stiff.
Hanging delicately off the back of a wooden chair against the wall was a long peacock blue dress with a matching boa and mask.
Chapter Seven
Surprisingly enough, Frank wasn’t furious when he found out Sonja had snuck out of the ballroom to have a look around. While he certainly wasn’t singing her praises, he seemed content that at least some semblance of evidence had been found to help in the case. (It also helped that Belinda had been the one to find the new piece of evidence, not Sonja.) He didn’t like so many people being stuck in the manor with a dead body and a murderer. The sooner he could find the culprit, the sooner these people would feel at ease having to stay the night.
As it was, they were stuck sitting in the ballroom anxiously contemplating the true horror that had occurred at their festive Halloween party.
When Sonja tracked him down on the third floor, he had quickly followed them all the way down the stairs to the basement kitchen.
“We didn’t touch anything,” Sonja informed him as she led the way through the secret corridor to the tiny library at the back.
Stepping into the room, Frank got a closer look at the outfit by kneeling next to it. “And you’re sure this is what the person was wearing when you saw them coming down the stairs.”
“I’m ninety-nine percent sure. She went by me so quickly that I hardly had any time to notice anything. However, that shade of blue is accurate and those feathers as well,” she pointed at the costume.
Frank sighed, standing up from his crouched position. “Which means, our culprit is most likely someone else at the party.”
“That was my thought,” Belinda added her two cents. “Whoever did this changed outfits.”
“And knew about this room,” Sonja added with bewilderment.
Frank’s face grew slack with a sense of overwhelming stress. “Did anyone else know about this room beside the two of you?”
Both Sonja and the cat shook their heads. “Not that we know of, at least,” Belinda said.
“But clearly someone does,” Frank grunted unhappily.
“But who?” Belinda wondered out loud.
The three of them stood silently thinking to themselves, trying to make sense of the situation.
“Perhaps, someone from town. Someone who has lived here for a while and been to the manor before?” Sonja asked.
Frank bowed his head regretfully. “I was really hoping that none of our friends here at the party could be capable of this.”
“What about that picture of me on the victim? What could that possibly mean?” Sonja inquired, unable to unravel the tangled web that seemed to be growing. After all, who was this man? Why did he seem to be looking for her? Who knew about the secret room in the basement? Worst yet, could it really be one of their friends?
“I believe he was hired for some purpose. What, I don’t know yet.”
“Hired?” both women responded in unison.
Frank hesitated on his next comment but answered anyway. “I have reason to believe he is a private detective.”
Sonja and Belinda looked at each other with questioning glances. “Who could possibly be looking for me?” Sonja wondered.
Heading up the stairs from the basement, Belinda and Sonja walked in silence. Frank had remained in the basement to cordon off the room and investigate everything closer. Unfortunately, without access to much of his crime scene tech items that would usually be present either at the station or in his patrol vehicle, trying to secure valid clues was even more difficult.
Additionally, trying to keep civilians—like his own wife—out of everything.
“I think there is a whole lot more to this case than meets the eye,” Belinda commented finally once they’d reached the top of the stairs.
“You’re not kidding. I just can’t see who could possibly be behind this one. Not to mention, I don’t know nearly enough about the victim. I mean, some private eye who decided to come looking for me. What for?”
“Unless the private eye thing is a ruse.”
“True, but how would Frank know he was a private eye?”
Belinda hopped up onto a side table in the hallway. “He probably didn’t want to tell us too much, seeing as we’re not part of the police force.”
“He likely already said more than he should have.” That’s what Frank always said whenever he let some bit of information slip. However, it seemed that as her husband neared the end of his term as Sheriff, he was a little bit looser with the rules.
It could also have something to do with Sonja being a potential target for something. Why would a private detective be watching her so closely?
“My guess is he had his license on him,” Belinda pointed out, swaying her tail back and forth.
“That makes sense. He only asked about the picture he found on the body because he wanted to know if I had recognized the man.”
“It would have been helpful if he’d told us a name, you know?” the feline said.
“Yeah, but he can’t.”
“I can’t help feeling that this is all tied into something supernatural. I mean, the circle on the floor upstairs is enough to point in that direction.”
“But how so?”
“I’m not sure
yet, but it is one more reason I wish Frank had shared all of his knowledge about the case. If there really is something paranormal going on here, he won’t know how to deal with it or even how to make the right deductions.”
Sonja knew that was true. After all, so many of the strange and obscure deaths in Haunted Falls had been somehow related to ghosts, witches, or black magic. Those cases had only ever been solved because of Sonja or Belinda’s involvement to some degree—even if it was small.
“Hold on!” Sonja exclaimed.
Halloween Waffle Murder Page 4