Costume Catastrophe (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 21) (5 page)

Salinger looked up from his notes before he answered. “No one reported him missing, but I’ll check with the power company to verify that he didn’t arrange to be off for some reason. Other than Levi, none of you have spoken to Joey in the past forty-eight hours?”

We all confirmed that we hadn’t.

Salinger looked at me. “Do you have any new information to provide concerning the note you received last night?”

“No. When there was no body reported this morning I pretty much decided it was a hoax, so I didn’t follow up. Do you think the person who sent me the note killed Joey?”

Salinger sighed. “I don’t know. I hope not.”

We all looked toward the road as we heard the sound of a car we assumed belonged to the medical examiner turn into the drive.

“I’ll be tied up for a while,” Salinger said. “You’re all free to go. I know where to find you if I have additional questions.”

Salinger went inside and the four of us, along with Charlie, decided to go over to Zak and my house to eat the sandwiches I’d purchased and to discuss Joey’s murder. I knew the people in my life preferred that I stay out of these kinds of things, but I was pretty sure they all realized my taking a backseat was most likely not going to happen, so they might as well help out if they could. Zak opened a couple of bottles of wine while Levi built a fire and Ellie helped me make a fruit salad to go with the sandwiches. Charlie went upstairs to visit with the other dogs while we gathered around the kitchen table and served ourselves before I picked up where we’d left off with the suspect list.

“Okay, so number one on the list will be random passerby.” I wrote this in my notebook as a sort of placeholder for the unlikely but still possible idea that the killer was a squatter or drug dealer who just happened to be on the property when Joey arrived. “Who else do we have?”

“Margo.” Levi suggested Joey’s ex. “Joey mentioned to me that he’d fallen behind on alimony payments he didn’t even think he should have to pay because they didn’t have children, and that Margo was on the warpath about making him get caught up. He said she was even threatening to sue him. Joey seemed genuinely stressed out over the argument the last time I spoke to him. In fact, he seemed almost irrationally angry over a situation that didn’t seem all that impossible to resolve with a little communication and compromise. I don’t know if Margo was as emotionally invested in the conflict as Joey was, but if she was I could see her being the killer.”

Margo did have a fiery temper. I could almost picture the fire in her emerald green eyes, which seemed to flash in an eerie sort of way when she was angry.

“Of course if you’re trying to get money out of the man, killing him seems to be counterproductive,” Ellie pointed out.

“Unless he had a life insurance policy left over from when they were married or she knew that his will had never been updated and everything he owned would go to her.” I wrote
Margo Waverly
down below
random passerby
. “Who else?”

“I know Joey has been drinking lately,” Levi said. “A lot. One of the guys at work told me he’d even been involved in some bar fights.”

“Bar fights? Was Salinger called in to mediate any of them?”

“Not as far as I know. Based on what Joey told me, he was just asked to leave the bar. Everyone knows Joey and no one wanted to rat him out to the cops if they didn’t need to.”

“In terms of these bar fights, does anyone specific come to mind as a possible suspect?” I wondered.

“I know he gave Todd Binder a black eye,” Levi supplied. “There are others, but Todd is the only one I can think of at the moment. I suppose we could ask the local bartenders who else might have been caught up in Joey’s fighting spree.”

“I think Todd is a good suspect. I’m pretty sure Margo is—or at least was—dating Todd,” Ellie said. “I’ve seen them together a few times.”

I added Todd Binder to the list. “Anyone else?”

No one responded, but I could tell everyone was still thinking about my question. Joey had taken his breakup with Margo hard. I had gone to high school with both Joey and Margo and I knew them fairly well, although we hadn’t maintained our friendship lately. It seemed to me that both Joey and Margo had contributed to the failure of their marriage. Margo was a prima donna who seemed to care only about her own needs and Joey had tended to be irresponsible.

“What about the person who left the note for you? Maybe the reason they knew one was dead was because they’re the killer,” Ellie said.

I added
woman with the note
to the list. As sorry as I was that Joey was dead, I couldn’t help but hope his death had been carried out by someone with a personal grudge and not some random killer bent on turning it into the first incident of a spree.

“Maybe someone should talk to the hostess at Rosie’s again,” Zak suggested. “I know you said she didn’t know who the woman was, but given the circumstances maybe we should try to stimulate her memory.”

“I’m sure Salinger will do that now that we have a murder that might very well be related to the note. Maybe the girl won’t blow him off the way she did me.”

Once we’d exhausted our list of suspects, which admittedly was pretty slim, I began to think about the haunted house. I wasn’t sure how long Salinger would quarantine the place, but I doubted we’d regain access to it in time to use it for the Hamlet. I hated to bring up such a trite subject when a man we all knew had just died, but I figured we were going to need a plan B and it wasn’t too soon to begin discussing it. I doubted we’d be able to pull together a replacement house with the amount of time left, but maybe we could replace the event with something else this weekend.

“I guess we should let Willa know what happened,” Ellie said when I brought up the subject to the others. “I’m beginning to think we should just give up on the idea of having a haunted house as part of the event permanently. It never seems to work out.”

“I guess you can add a
random person bent on stopping the haunted house
to your suspect list.” Levi sighed.

“I doubt someone would shoot some innocent guy just to mess up our event,” I said.

“I agree, but maybe we should look at the location,” Zak jumped in. “I’m not saying there’s a maniac out there who’s so bent on stopping the haunted house that they’d randomly kill the first person who showed up there, but we’ve had the last three events canceled after a body was found. What if the killer chose that location specifically hoping we’d focus on the location as the motive?”

I didn’t disagree with Zak, but I wasn’t sure how to list it, so I just added
haunted house killer
under
woman with the note
.

I read from my list. “Okay, this is what I have. Random person in area, Margo Waverly, Todd Binder or some other bar fight victim, woman with note, and haunted house killer. Levi, why don’t you talk to Todd because you know him the best, I’ll talk to Margo, and we’ll ask Salinger to speak to the hostess from Rosie’s about the woman with the note?”

“I’ll do some digging around into Joey’s finances and whatnot,” Zak offered. “There’s a good chance we haven’t stumbled onto the true motive yet, so it seems smart to keep digging into his life. I’m sure Salinger will do that as well, so I’ll talk to him to coordinate. He seemed to appreciate my help the last time, and I do like to keep my snooping legal if possible.”

“What about me?” Ellie asked.

“You look exhausted,” Levi commented. “I think you should have an early night. Hopefully you aren’t coming down with something. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

After Ellie and Levi left, Zak went to my parents’ to pick up the kids and I took all three of the family dogs out for a walk. I was glad Charlie, Bella, and Digger got along so well. They were all so different in terms of size and temperament that it wasn’t a given they would. Charlie, my little Tibetan terrier, was kickback and easygoing. As far as energy level, he tended toward the middle and wasn’t as energetic as Scooter’s dog Digger, a lab, or as lazy as Zak’s Newfoundland, Bella.

As I walked with a flashlight along the lakeshore, I thought about the note I’d received. I wondered if I should be worried. There was no way I’d let Zak know how much the note had freaked me out or he’d insist that I stay out of the investigation and leave things to Salinger. The thing was, I felt responsible. The note had said one was dead and others would follow unless I could stop it. It seemed personal, like it was my job to prevent another murder. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the selection of Joey as the victim had more to do with me than with him. He wasn’t as close a friend as Ellie or Levi, but I had known him a long time, and his death had acted as a catalyst for my involvement in the investigation of the murder. The thought that someone might be killing people connected to me freaked me out more than just a little bit.

I called the dogs and turned around when I saw the lights from Zak’s truck pull into the private road that led to the house. I didn’t suppose I was going to figure this out tonight, but I also didn’t think I was going to get a whole lot of sleep. Maybe I should have left the kids at my parents’. Were they in danger when they were in proximity to me? One thing was for sure: I needed to figure this out and I needed to do it before victim number two met his fate.

Once we got the kids to bed Zak and I settled down with a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire. It was beginning to sprinkle outside, and the weather forecast showed rain on and off for the next week or so. I enjoyed the warm weather we’d been having, but some rain would be welcome.

“I received an e-mail from my doctor’s office today,” I informed Zak. “They said everything looks fine and we should be good to go.”

“That’s good?”

I glanced at Zak. The look on his face mirrored the question in his voice.

I wanted to bring up my doubts in regard to timing, but I didn’t want to disappoint Zak with my on-again, off -gain enthusiasm for the idea. I really didn’t know why I was so hesitant to move forward. “I’m sorry. I know I don’t sound overly enthusiastic. I’m just tired, and Joey’s death is weighing on my mind.”

“He was a friend. That’s normal.”

“Yeah, but it’s more than that. I keep thinking about the note. What if the fate of the next victim, if there actually is one, depends directly on what I am or am not able to discover in the next few days? If someone else dies it’s going to be my fault.”

Zak put his arm around me and pulled me close. “First of all, we’re going to figure this out. Second of all, if we don’t, any death that might result won’t be your fault. It’ll be the deranged killer’s fault. You can’t put so much pressure on yourself.”

I wanted to agree but couldn’t, so I didn’t respond.

“Besides,” Zak added, “we don’t know for certain that Joey’s death had anything to do with the note.”

“How can we find out?”

Zak kissed the top of my head. “I don’t know. Maybe the lab will find fingerprints or DNA or something to help us identify the person who wrote it.”

“Maybe.”

“We can’t do anything about the note or Joey’s death right now, so why don’t we try to get our minds off it? Would you like to watch a movie? I downloaded the Halloween movies you wanted to watch.”

“Yeah, okay. Maybe something funny rather than a horror movie.” I leaned my head against Zak’s shoulder. Halloween was my favorite holiday. I wished I could snuggle up with the man I loved and enjoy a movie, but all I could think about were the innocent people who might die if I didn’t figure out what it was the killer wanted me to.

A half hour into the movie the sound of the doorbell announced a visitor. Zak got up and went to see who was dropping by at this late hour while I waited for him to return. When Zak did come back he was alone.

“Who was it?”

“No one.”

“No one rang the doorbell?”

“Well, it must have been someone, but by the time I answered this was taped to the door and whoever put it there was long gone.”

I looked at the envelope in Zak’s hand. “What is it?”

“It has your name on it.”

I took the envelope from Zak. My hands shook and my heart pounded as I opened it. I knew in my gut that the note was most likely from the killer. Inside the envelope was a single sheet of white paper with the words
Beware of
a mirror that does not cast a reflection
written in black pen.

“It’s another note in the same handwriting as the one I received last night. Are you sure you didn’t see anyone?”

“Not a soul. I didn’t see or hear a car. Whoever it was must have been on foot. What does it say?”

I handed Zak the note.

“Okay, that’s pretty strange. What does it even mean?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the killer is a vampire. They don’t have a reflection, and it
is
Halloween.”

“I doubt a vampire shot Joey.”

“Probably not, but someone did. What should I do? How can I stop this? The first note referred to a second victim. How can I figure out who the second victim will be?”

“I’m calling Salinger.”

I looked at the note again as Zak made the call. The script was bold and flowed in rounded letters. If I had to guess, a woman wrote it. I remembered the hostess at Rosie’s saying that the woman who’d left the note had said a woman had given it to her. Finding the woman who’d delivered the note seemed to be the key to finding the killer.

“Salinger is on his way over,” Zak informed me. “Maybe the person who delivered the note left behind some physical evidence.”

“Like what?”

“A fingerprint on the doorbell or DNA on the note or envelope.” Zak sat down and pulled me into his arms. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

“I hope so. I don’t know what I’m going to do if someone else dies.” I looked at the note again. “What do you think it means?”

“My guess is that the person who left the note is simply trying to get you to question what you think you see because what you’re seeing might in some way be camouflaged or distorted.”

I rested my head on Zak’s chest. “If I can’t trust what I see what can I trust?”