Halloween Hijinks (A Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 1) (14 page)

“He said that although
it’s weak, Salinger has put together a case. We know Levi has demonstrated many times in the past that he’s protective of his kids. We know it’s has recently come to his attention that Griswold was abusing at least some of his players. We know they had an altercation on the day Griswold was murdered. What we didn’t know was that Levi has been arrested once before for assault.”

I groaned
. I knew about the assault charge. And it had been my fault. Once again I’d stuck my nose in where it didn’t belong and gotten myself into a dangerous situation. Levi had come to my rescue, but in the process he’d been arrested. Ellie had been away at the time, and we’d decided not to tell her. In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea.

“Assault?
” Ellie asked.

“It was a long time ago and probably wo
uldn’t carry much weight with a jury, but for now it’s enough to hold him,” Zak said.

“
Poor Levi,” Ellie sympathized. “I feel so bad for him. I keep hoping Salinger will find a better suspect and move on.”

“Which is why we’re gathered together,” I reminded everyone, “to generate a list of potential suspects we can check out
. I brought paper.” I held up a small notepad.

“Where do we even start?” Ellie sighed.

“If we continue with the assumption that the blackmail is related to the murder, I think we have to go back to looking at people who have access to Ashton Falls Events Committee letterhead,” I pointed out.

“We aren’t narrowing things down enough,” Ellie stated the obvious
. “Anyone could have gotten hold of that letterhead. There’s a pile of it on the desk in Mom’s office. Anyone could wander in and help himself to a piece.”

I had to agree with Ellie
. We needed something more, something that would cast a hook into our fish pond rather than a net. I felt like we were missing something obvious. Some small detail that, once revealed, would pull everything together.

“Coach
Griswold is tall,” I pointed out. “He was hit on the head hard enough to kill him. Whoever hit him had to be tall as well. I mean, I certainly couldn’t hit the man in the head. The bat or whatever weapon I used would hit his shoulder at best.”

“Lot
s of tall people in town,” Zak argued, “including Levi.”

“Yeah, I guess.
” I watched the kids lining up for the costume parade as I paused to let everything process. I couldn’t help but let their enthusiasm transport me back to my own childhood, and the memories I had of what had to be my favorite holiday. I remembered dressing up in my fantasy of the moment, decorating a special trick-or-treat bag to hold the orgy of candy I planned to get, meeting up with my friends just as the sky was turning dark, then running from house to house as my über-protective dad watched from the sidelines.

I thought of the smell of wood smoke
as friends and neighbors built fires to ward off the chill in the air. I remembered the feel of maple leaves, which had turned bright orange and red and fallen from the trees, crunching beneath my feet.

Every year I’d enter the costume parade
, but I never won. Girls with mothers who crafted homemade costumes wooed the judges and took the prize. I remembered longing for something special that would set me apart but settling for ordinary because a store-bought costume was all my poor dad could manage. The more I longed to stand out, the more I seemed to blend in. Of course, my diminutive size didn’t help. No wonder I seemed to forever get lost in the crowd.

“Is there anyone on that list who is tall now but started his football career as the team runt?” I asked
.

“
Michael Valdez went through an amazing growth spurt his freshman year, and so did Craig Masterson and Darien Wellington,” Zak answered. “Why?”

“When we talked to Ryan today he mentioned that
Griswold targeted the smallest kid on the team. It makes sense that if our killer is a student, and not a parent or mentor, he would have been a runt when he played for Griswold.”

“
When they played for Griswold the three boys I mentioned were the shortest kids on the team. All three are well over six feet today,” Zak confirmed.

“And all three stil
l live in town,” Ellie added.

“It looks lik
e we have a place to start,” I concluded. “I’d be willing to bet that all three are here in town for the Haunted Hamlet. Should we split up?”

“Craig
Masterson and Darien Wellington both signed up to work the haunted barn,” Ellie informed us. “I’ll head over and talk to them, if you want to try to find Michael. I don’t remember seeing his name on any of the volunteer lists, but I’m sure his dad knows where he is.”

“Okay, and we
’ll meet back here later,” I said.

“Let Zak do the interviewing
. You need to stay out of the spotlight,” Ellie reminded me.

“Yes
, Mom,” I teased.

“Cromwell will fire you if he’s given a good enough reason,” Ellie reminded me.

“I know. I’ll hang back and let you and Zak do the detective thing. If you think of anyone else, text me.”

“Is your phone on?
” Ellie asked.

“Yes
, my phone is on. Geez. You forget a time or two and you’re labeled for life.”

Michael’s dad, Frank, didn’t know where he was, but he did confirm that he had been planning to hang out at the Haunted Hamlet with friends. He suggested we try the spooky maze, which was set up using hay bales in the field next to the haunted barn. The line was long, but not as long as I thought it might be. Someone had decorated the entrance with creepy scarecrows and jack-o’-lanterns. I’d visited the maze before and knew that there was a hanging corpse, headless body, or evil skeleton around every turn. The maze was a fund-raiser for Gilda Reynolds’s theater arts program. Kids from the program were dressed as various incarnations of zombies, vampires, witches, and other undead or evil beings. When you least expected it, one would jump out at you and send your heart rate racing.

One of the
zombies at the entrance told us that Michael was helping out inside the maze, dressed as the grim reaper. Zak and I decided to head inside to see if we could find him. As we entered the main part of the maze, Zak took my hand. I told myself it was so that we wouldn’t be separated, but I had to admit that I rather enjoyed the tingling sensation that worked its way up my arm and caused my heart to beat even faster. Not that I was falling for Zak. I mean up, until a week ago I could barely stand the guy. I’d been under a lot of stress lately, which I assured myself was the
real
cause of my shortness of breath and sweaty palms.

“This is
really fun,” Zak said as he peeked around the intersection we’d come to. “I haven’t done the haunted maze since I was in high school, and even then I just brought girls here to make out.”

“Really
? This place seems a little crowded to be a good make-out spot.”

“Not if you come at night and carelessly take a wrong turn and get lost
.” Zak grinned.

I rolled my eyes
. Guys were all the same. They had one thought and one thought only. Any deviation from that was usually a variation of the original thought. Still, I was having more fun than I’d had in a very long time. If Ellie and Levi got together, I’d need someone to keep me from feeling like a third wheel. Maybe Zak would make an acceptable fourth after all.

“There he is
.” I pointed toward a tall figure carrying a scythe.

We carefully made our way through the crowd to the corner of the maze
, where Michael was waiting to jump out and scare people.

“Hi
, Michael. Your dad told us you might be here. Can we talk to you for a minute?” I asked as we approached.

Michael looked around
. “Yeah, okay. Let’s head out. There’s a shortcut through here.”

Zak reminded me that I was supposed to hang back while he did the talking as we followed Michael through the ma
ze toward an exit at the back. I agreed to watch from a distance. Normally waiting on the sidelines isn’t my thing, but I love my job and am willing to put up with a certain amount of irritation in order to keep it.

“What’s up?
” Michael asked Zak.

“I guess you heard about Coach Griswold,” Zak began
.

“
So?”

“We heard you used to play kiddie league for him.”

“A long time ago,” Michael confirmed.

“We spoke to another former kiddie league
player who said Griswold had a tendency to pick on the smaller kids.”

“Guy was an ass,” Michael confirmed
. “He not only picked on the smaller kids but he did everything he could to get them to quit. I hate to say it, but the world is better off without him.”

“Do you know of anyone who might have hated the guy enough to kill him?
” Zak asked.

“I know a
lot
of people who hated him enough to kill him,” Michael confirmed. “If what you’re really asking is if I know who killed him, though, the answer is no. Now if we’re done, I really should get back.”

“Yeah
, okay. Thanks for your time.”

“He knows something he’s not saying
,” I suggested after Michael returned to the maze and I’d rejoined Zak.

“I got that feeling
, too.”

“Ellie texted
. She has one more lead and wants to meet up in an hour,” I informed him.

Zak looked at his watch
. “You want to pick some pumpkins? The pumpkin patch is right around the corner, and we have time.”

“You want to
pick pumpkins?”

“We have an hour to kill
. It’s Halloween. Let’s take a minute and do something fun.”

“But Levi…”

“Unless you have another lead, there’s nothing we can do until we meet Ellie,” Zak reminded me.

“Okay
.” I smiled. I hate to confess it, but, although I always bought my pumpkins from the patch when I was growing up, I’d been so busy the past few years that I’d been getting my gourds at the market. It would be fun to wander the hillside where the patch was located, drink cider or hot spiced wine from the stand near the entrance, and search row after row, looking for the perfect candidate.

It was a quintessential
fall day. The pumpkin patch was crowded but not packed, the sky was blue with just a few wispy clouds for atmosphere, and the red, orange, and yellow trees on the nearby hillside were breathtaking. The patch was part of a farm that featured a large pond, horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. It was fun to watch the kids chasing the chickens and feeding the larger animals.

“Remember our class trip in the seventh grade?
”  Zak asked after we’d paid our entrance fee and secured one of the wagons provided to transport your pumpkins from the patch to your car. “Levi caught a bunch of garter snakes and set them free in the pumpkin patch. There were girls running and screaming everywhere.”

I laughed
. “He never did get caught. Everyone figured the snake invasion was some natural occurrence brought on by recent rain.”

“I had to admire the guy
’s ingenuity,” Zak added. “He volunteered to help round up the harmless creatures, and all the girls thought he was a superhero or something. I couldn’t believe how much play he got out of it.”

“Levi always has had a way with the ladies,” I agre
ed. “He has a theory that those of us of the fairer sex become much more agreeable when we’re scared. It seems like he took every date he had in junior high to a horror movie or a roller coaster.”

“What about this one?
” Zak bent down to uncover a long, narrow pumpkin that would make an interesting jack-o’-lantern.

“Has potential,” I agreed
. “I think I’ll get two: a big one, and one with an interesting or unusual shape. How about you?”

“I guess I’ll get two as well.
” Zak picked the long, narrow pumpkin and set it in the wagon.

“They have a pick
-your-own-apples orchard down near the road, if you want to pick a few up when we’re done here,” Zak said. “I’ve been thinking about making an apple pie.”

“You bake?
” I was surprised.

“I think you’ll find I’m a man of many talents
.” He winked.

“I’ll bet
.” I grinned.

“I think we have a new suspect to add to our list
,” Ellie informed us the minute we met. “Gage Wexler.””

“I thought Gage
left town to go to college,” I said.

“
He’s back, apparently. I saw him hanging out with Craig, Darien, and some other kids. I tried to talk to them, but they took off.”