Ghastly Glass (6 page)

Only a trickle of visitors were walking out the main gate past the turrets where the minstrels played and sang their good-bye songs. Flower girls tossed petals at their tired feet, and ladies of the court bid them adieu. Tomorrow night, the first official night of Halloween, Renaissance Village would be open until midnight. The mist would cling to the streetlights and pool in the shadows. Shopkeepers would hang their lanterns in the doorways to welcome visitors.

God, I love this place!

I walked quickly through the large visitors’ parking area to the smaller parking area for residents. It seemed strange and almost spooky being here this time of year, and I hadn’t even seen good, dead Queen Bess drive by yet. The summer brought the visitors from the beach and the hotels along the Grand Strand with their countless accents and languages from all over the world. The fall would be the same, I supposed, but the difference in the air was more than just a few trees shedding their leaves. It was a good idea to deck the Village out for the holiday.

I picked up my two bags (no point in bringing more since I’d be wearing a costume every day) and locked my car again. Plenty of other cars remained in the residents’ lot, but the visitor parking was empty on this side. The only way into the Village was through the main gate, even for residents. The single entrance was supposed to cut down on shoplifting, but Chase didn’t find that to be the case. Occasionally, someone got in through a hole in the eight-foot-high wall that enclosed the Village just as one would have in Renaissance times.

I walked back thinking about Chase, swinging my bags and deciding which cute nightie I would flaunt that evening. A loud baying sound caught my attention and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

It sounded like a wolf. Of course, I assured myself, this was Renaissance Village. What did I expect? There was bound to be a werewolf or two here for Halloween. Just like Chase’s banshee. It wasn’t real. No doubt the last time anyone had seen a real wolf in this starkly urban area was when Sir Walter Raleigh first got here.

Still, I walked a little faster. I heard the wolf again and laughed out loud. “Good one!” I said for the benefit of anyone who might hear me. I was completely alone, but the jaunty tone seemed to help.

I could see the gate from the parking lot now. All the day’s visitors were gone, as were the minstrels, who had probably set out in hopes of free food from one of the many pubs and restaurants that served the residents leftovers after hours.

The shadows grew longer and deeper as I neared the gate. I walked even faster, though my reasonable assistant professor’s brain told me this was all being set up for the visitors. Wasn’t this what I’d worked so hard to be part of? And here I was, about to be in the Renaissance version of
A Nightmare on Elm Street
.

A wolf (I swear it sounded like a different wolf) howled again, and I noticed a full moon rising over the castle and Great Hall, visible from the parking lot.

That was it. I clutched my bags and ran for the gate. I wasn’t sure what was going to save me once I got there, but being inside the Village wall seemed safer than being out here alone in the parking area.

I pushed open the heavy portal that would be locked for the night at some point, and a hand came down on my shoulder. I’m sure my scream made a few other residents pause and wonder if it was real or theater.

“
H
ey! I didn’t mean to scare you.” Detective Almond cleared his throat and moved his hand. “I’m looking for Manhattan. It seems I was wrong about death stalking the Village.”

“What are you talking about? ” My heart was still pounding and I was breathing hard. Terror does not become me.

He pointed behind me. “Death stalking the Village, like the poster says. Only in real life.”

I turned around to study the recently hung poster, which said that Death would be stalking Renaissance Village. There were other references to ghosts, goblins, witches, and demons. I hadn’t noticed it before.

“Don!” Grigg, an ex-Myrtle Beach police officer turned Village resident, greeted his former boss. “I got your message. What’s the problem? ”

Grigg was looking very much a part of the Village. He’d started as an undercover officer for the police but had enjoyed the Village so much he’d decided to stay. He’d spent some time as the Piper’s son but had evidently graduated to become one of the pirates. He wore an eye patch, bandana, and shiny gold earring. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t seen him with Detective Almond.

“Grigg. There you are.” He looked his former officer up and down and pulled at his pants, which always seemed to be sliding down. “You look like you’ve gone native, boy. I need some help here. Are you feeling up to it? ”

“I’m a pirate now.” Grigg showed him the required pirate tattoo on his right arm. “Where’s Chase? I’m sure he’d be glad to help you out.”

“That’s just the problem.” Detective Almond glanced around, saw me, but continued anyway. “Manhattan is a fine young man, but he doesn’t have your experience. He needs a hand here, Grigg. There’s likely been a murder.”

Grigg and I exchanged looks. “You mean one of the heatstroke victims? ” Grigg asked.

“No, I mean that tall boy that was pretending to be Death or whatever. The ME’s preliminary showed the chances are good it wasn’t an accident after all.”

I heard a footstep before I saw Chase. He didn’t look happy. “And why aren’t you telling me about this, Detective? I’m responsible for what happens here. I had to put Grigg in the dungeon twice last month for stealing.”

“Stealing?” He stared at his former officer. “You’ve been taking things that don’t belong to you? ”

Grigg laughed. “It’s all part of living here, Don. I know you don’t understand, but it’s a great life. The Merry Men steal toaster ovens and the occasional loaf of bread from the bakery. The pirates steal more personal things, items closer to the heart.”

“Like underwear from the dancing girls at the Caravan Stage,” Chase continued. “And garters from the Lovely Laundry Ladies. Sometimes the wings right off a fairy.”

Grigg burst out with a hearty combination laugh and pirate yell. “That’s what we do! It makes the place worth living in.”

Detective Almond shook his head. “You people are all crazy! If workers are stealing, Manhattan, why aren’t you turning them in? ”

“We handle our own internal problems, sir,” Chase said. “I only give you visitors who create a problem.”

“That’s why Chase is your man.” Grigg clapped his ex-boss on the shoulder. “Avast, ye landlubbers! We set sail at high moon.”

We all watched Grigg dart away and blend into the shadows. Garbage trucks collecting the day’s trash and electricians setting up new lights for the Halloween season were moving through the streets, making his departure even harder to track.

Chase looked back at Detective Almond. “If you’d like to join Jessie and me, we were about to have some dinner at Peter’s Pub. We can talk over whatever you like there.”

“Peter’s?” I wondered what happened to the Pleasant Pheasant.

“The Pheasant’s out of food already.” Chase shrugged, taking my bags from me. “It’s the extras. Everyone has to be fed.”

“But does everyone have to eat
together
?” I linked my arm in his and gave him what I hoped was a meaningful look. After all, this was our first dinner together in a month. Surely we deserved some alone time.

“Jessie!” My brother Tony decided to join what was becoming a parade through the Village to Peter’s Pub. “I didn’t know you were here yet. You could’ve called.”

I noticed his arm was looped around a slender wraith whose lipstick was way too red to be on her pale face. That never changed. Whether they were fairies or wraiths, Tony was bound to have a female with him at all times.

“Sissy, this is my sister Jessie. Jessie, Sissy. Sissy’s the sexiest little wraith in the Village.” Tony gave her an extra squeeze at the thought and Sissy giggled. “Where are you guys headed? Maybe we could all have dinner together.”

So Tony, Sissy, and Detective Almond all fell in line behind me and Chase. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind for tonight,” I told Chase.

“Me either. I was wondering what was taking you so long.”

I told him about the weird wolf howling while I was in the parking lot.

“I heard it, too. I guess it’s some kind of Halloween thing. It’s going to be a strange couple of months. Stranger than usual.”

We trooped into Peter’s together and managed to find a table big enough for all of us. There was no menu since the food was free. Whatever was left over from the day’s visitors was what was offered after the Village closed each night. Tonight’s fare was some kind of stew with bread from the bakery and apple pie, and there was cold ale to wash it all down. A good supper, even considering the crowd.

“What happened to the guy playing Death that made you suspicious? ” Chase asked Detective Almond.

“The ME says it’s the angle the rebar entered your dead man.” He belched and excused himself. “Also the force with which it entered. There are hundreds of smudged fingerprints on the rebar, but there are two or three clear prints we might be able to lift. That might tell us something else. I guess it
was
suspicious from the beginning, given that weird crap written on the dead man’s chest.”

No one laughed, so Detective Almond went on to explain his attempt at humor. “Get it? Dead man’s chest? Pirates? Lord, you people have no sense of humor.”

As if on cue, the door to the pub blew open bringing in a gust of rain and cooler air. It left behind the scent of the ocean, only a few miles away, even after one of the waiters closed the door.

“I guess we should get going.” Tony tickled Sissy and they started kissing. “I wouldn’t want my little wraith to get wet.”

“Yeah.” Detective Almond lumbered to his feet, tossing some change down on the old oak table for the waiter. “I guess this party’s over. Just keep your eyes open, Manhattan. It may be nothing, or it may be something more.”

The big pub door blew open again. How did they get something like that to happen? I was amazed and scared at the same time. I knew no one had a secret button that made the door fly open every time a dramatic statement was made. It was as if the Village
knew
what was going on.

“I’m really tired.” I stood up and glanced at Chase. “I have to go to bed before I start wondering if the stuff around here is real.”

“I’m right behind you,” he said with a grin.

“If I could have a word.” Detective Almond leveraged himself between us as the rain began to fall more steadily on the roof of the pub.

“Go ahead. I’m going on to the dungeon,” I said to Chase. “I’ll be fine. You disconnected the banshee, right? ”

“She’s gone.” He snickered, then sobered. “No, really. There shouldn’t be any more howling or evil laughter. I’ll bring your bags.”

I saw the look in his beautiful eyes and my heart responded by pounding faster. Even though the day had been a total mess, the night was going to be perfect. With that exciting, yet soothing assumption blanketing me from the real truth of life in Renaissance Village, I ran out through the rain to the dungeon, only a short walk away.

But what a walk! The black bunting was everywhere. There were glowing eyes peering through holes in the brick wall that surrounded the Village. A group of laughing vampires wearing long black capes ran by me as I passed the Dutchman’s Stage.

Good Queen Bess, her white face staring at me through the glass window of her black carriage, rattled by the privies. I don’t know where they found such a faithful replica of a funeral carriage from the 1500s, but it was frighteningly realistic. What made it even worse was that they had somehow managed to make the two horses that pulled it look as though they were headless.

It was awful, terrifying, and would probably increase the visitors to the Village by several thousand or more in the next few weeks. I’d been to Disney World and Knott’s Berry Farm at Halloween. Neither one had anything on Renaissance Village. I was proud to be part of it.

Soaked by the time I reached the dungeon, I opened the door to run inside and was met by the banshee. After hearing the wolf in the parking lot and seeing headless horses, I couldn’t help but jump at the banshee screams. How was it that Chase could be so incompetent in this matter? Maybe I was wrong about what was going to happen tonight.

Ten minutes later, Chase came whistling up the cobblestone street with a bag in each hand. I was sitting in the tree swing as he opened the dungeon door and the banshee wailed for him, too. He swore and ducked inside for a moment before he came back out and looked around. “Jessie?”

“I’m not going in there with that thing.” I twisted the swing that hung from the old oak tree that had somehow managed to survive everything this land had gone through between being an Air Force base and then the Village. “Obviously you can’t control her like you thought you could. She and I can’t stay in the dungeon together.”