Costume Catastrophe (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 21) (12 page)

I looked around the nicely decorated room. There were flowers on the tables, as well as a variety of photos displayed on almost every available surface. There was one in particular that caught my eye, of a beautiful woman with long black hair and black, or at least very dark brown, eyes. There was a contemplative expression on her face that led me to believe the photographer had caught her while she was daydreaming. There was a forest and a river in the background. It didn’t look like the photo had been taken locally, but the location did seem familiar.

“I’m happy you arrived on time,” the woman from the photo greeted me as she floated down the stairs.

I frowned. “On time? I’m afraid you might have us confused with someone else. We didn’t have an appointment.”

“No. I’m not confused. Tea?”

“No, thank you. We won’t keep you long. We just wanted to ask about the shooting down the road earlier in the week. We were hoping you saw or heard something.”

“
Saw
is such a tricky word,” the woman said as she sat down in a chair across from us.

I glanced at Zak, who shrugged. I was beginning to think this woman was some sort of a nutjob who wasn’t going to be able to help us at all when I noticed a letter on the table in front of me. The handwriting on the envelope looked an awful lot like the one on the notes I’d been receiving.

“You sent me the notes.”

“Yes. I assumed that was why you were here.”

“I’m here because the man down the road suggested we speak to you. Why did you send me the notes? And why all the secrecy? If you had news to share why not just seek me out and speak to me?”

She shrugged. “There are those who do not understand the nature of my gift. They shun me and deny that which I have to share, so I have learned it is best to remain in the shadows until I am sure.”

“Gift?”

She just smiled.

“The first note said ‘one has died, others will follow.’ I’m assuming you were referring to Joey Waverly and Tommy Payton. Do you know who shot them?”

“Joey is the one who died, but Tommy is not one of those who will follow.”

“I don’t understand. Tommy was shot on Wednesday. Are you saying someone else will die?”

“Unless you can stop it.”

“Stop it? Stop it how? I have no idea where to even start. Are you absolutely certain Tommy wasn’t the second victim you sensed?”

The woman sat back and looked directly at me. She seemed to be looking right through me, but she didn’t say anything. The experience was beyond creepy. It felt as if she somehow had entered my body in order to take a look around. Personally, I prefer the space within my mind be occupied by me and me alone.

“The first victim, Joey, was surprised by what occurred. I sensed a lot of dark energy surrounding him at the moment he died. I do not sense the same surprise or dark energy when it comes to the second victim, Tommy. My sense is that the initial reading I received, which indicated that one had died and others would follow, has not come to completion.”

“So someone else will die?”

“Perhaps.”

“But I have the power to stop it? That’s what you said. Right?”

“Yes. I sense you have the power to stop whatever it is that is destined to occur. I also sense your time to intervene is coming to an end.”

“So what do I do? How do I stop it?”

“You have what you need to find your answers; you simply must know what to see.”

Boy, did I wish this woman would speak in clearly understandable English and not in riddles that didn’t seem to lead anywhere. “Yes, I remember the note from last night. It said you had to know what to see. I’ve also been thinking about the second note and the reference to the mirror. Are you trying to tell me that the answer lies in the perspective? Like if I look at things from one angle I see one thing, but if I look at them from another I’ll see something else entirely?”

The woman smiled.

“Is there anything you can tell me specific to these shootings that will point me in a direction? Did you see or hear anything on the night Joey was murdered? Anything at all?”

She stood up. “I’m sorry. I’ve told you what I can. Sometimes the answer lies not in the image before you but in the empty spaces.”

“What do you think?” Zak asked as we headed back into town.

“I don’t know. Part of me thinks she’s just a kook and another feels like what she says makes perfect sense. If she’s correct that Tommy isn’t the one who follows from the first note, I’m back to being freaked out about Levi being the next victim.”

“She never said Levi was in any danger,” Zak pointed out.

“That’s true. I guess it just feels like he would be the one to follow based on what we know about Tommy and Joey. If Salinger is right and there are two shooters, though, everything we think we know is moot.”

“Maybe Tommy remembers who shot him now that he’s had some time to think about it,” Zak said again.

“Maybe. Let’s head there next.”

When we arrived at the hospital we learned Tommy had checked himself out earlier that morning.

“What do you mean, he checked himself out?” I asked the nurse. “He was shot just two days ago. There was no way he was ready to be discharged.”

“I agree. The doctor agreed. Mr. Payton left against doctor’s orders. While it was an unwise choice, it was one he was free to make.”

“Do you know where he went?”

“I’m afraid I don’t. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have patients to see to.”

I looked at Zak. “What in the world is going on?”

“I wish I knew. I wonder if Salinger knows about Tommy.”

“Let’s head over to his office. If he’s there we can compare notes before the rally.”

As it turned out, Salinger hadn’t been aware that Tommy had left the hospital. “Seems suspicious that the man would check himself out when he clearly needed to be there just hours after we discovered there were two different guns used in the shootings.”

“You think Tommy knows something about one or both of the shootings that he doesn’t want to share?” I asked him.

“Seems like he’s trying to hide something. What can you tell me about the relationship between the two victims?”

“They were on the same high school football team and, along with Levi, provided a force to be reckoned with. I’d say the three were good friends both on and off the field. Tommy left this area to go to college and never moved back. Joey never did go to college, and of course Levi went to college but then returned to Ashton Falls. I’d say by now they’re more acquaintances than close friends.”

“Was there any discord between them?”

I thought about Salinger’s question. “They had their tiffs while still in school. I know they all dated the same girls at different times. I imagine that led to short-term discord, but overall they were really close.”

“Do you remember the names of any of these girls?”

“Rachael Conway, for one. I’m pretty sure she dated all three of them in high school. She moved away shortly after graduation, but she just moved back to town a week or so ago.”

Salinger wrote down her name. “Anything else?”

“Tommy did mention that he and Joey had a falling out five years ago that was never resolved. I asked him what the conflict was about, but he declined to say.”

“Five years is a long time to stay mad.”

“I agree. And so did Tommy. He told me the main reason he was in Ashton Falls now was to try to mend fences with Joey, but he died before he had the chance.”

Salinger made a few more notes. I thought about mentioning that I’d met the woman who had sent me the notes, but for some reason I hesitated. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with this piece of information yet. I chatted with the sheriff for a few more minutes before heading to the high school for the rally, where we found that Ellie had saved us seats. Zak noticed a friend in the crowd and went to say hi while I joined Ellie on the wooden bleachers.

“It seems like the whole town is pumped up for the big game,” Ellie commented as I settled in.

“It is a big game. State champion two years in a row would be quite an accomplishment. I wonder if Levi has all his players available for the game. As of last week two of his starters were out for medical reasons.”

“He told me last night that he had the full team back for the first time this year. He’s really stoked about his chances. Oh, look; there he is now.”

I watched Ellie as she waved at the father of her child. I couldn’t help but experience a feeling of déjà vu as I witnessed the look of love on her face. It was at a pep rally for the big game three years ago that I’d first realized Ellie’s feelings for Levi had changed from friendship to more. At the time I’d been afraid her feelings would ruin the foundation of the connection the three of us had shared for most of our lives, and while so much had happened since then, I had that same fear now regarding her pregnancy. It was funny how much things had changed while not really changing at all.

“So I met a witch today,” I shared with Ellie while we waited for the cheerleaders to begin their routine.

“A witch?”

“I don’t know if she’s a real witch, but she sure looks the way I always pictured a witch would. The friendly kind, not the scary ones. Anyway, it turned out she was the one who’d been sending me the notes.”

Ellie turned and gave me her full attention. “Is she the shooter?”

“No, I don’t think so. At least she didn’t seem like the sort to go around shooting people.”

“So why all the secrecy?”

“She wasn’t sure I would be open to what she had to tell me if she just walked up and said it. You know, she’s probably right. I most likely would have thought she was a nutjob that first night. She has an odd way about her that I really had to look past.”

Ellie waved as Levi looked in our direction. “Odd how?”

“She talks in riddles rather than just coming out with whatever it is she wants to say. I still have no idea whether she knows anything or not. On one hand she has the look of someone with a secret, but on the other, if she knew who shot Joey and Tommy why wouldn’t she just give me a name?”

“Are you sure she isn’t the shooter and she’s being vague to throw you off?”

“Like I said, I didn’t get that vibe, but who knows? This whole thing has been so random up to this point.” I lowered my voice, though it really wasn’t necessary with all the cheering going on. “Did you hear that Tommy and Joey were shot with different guns?”

“Seriously?”

“Salinger thinks we might be looking at two different shooters.”

Ellie smiled. “That means Levi might not be a target after all.”

“If someone killed Joey because of some beef they had with him and then someone else turned around and shot Tommy for an unrelated reason, then yeah, Levi might be off the hook as a potential target. But the witch said Tommy wasn’t the one who would follow, leading me to believe there’s someone else who’s still potentially in danger.”

Ellie looked skeptical. “Are you sure this woman really has some sort of a gift and knows what’s going to happen? The whole thing seems pretty weird to me.”

I shrugged. “The vagueness of the messages she sent me make it all but impossible to verify their legitimacy. Right now I’m not going to discount anything.”

“Okay, let’s look at the two-shooters theory. What are the odds there would be two shooters with two different motives?”

“Honestly, not great,” I answered. “The only thing I can think of is that someone had a beef with Tommy and used the fact that his old friend Joey had been shot to his or her advantage. We haven’t even looked at suspects specific to Tommy. Once he was shot we all just assumed the attempted murder was related to his relationship with Joey.”

“That theory actually makes sense. If I had a beef with Tommy copying the method used to kill Joey would be a perfect way to divert attention away from myself, assuming I wasn’t related to Joey in any way. Do you have any suspects specific to Tommy?”

“Not yet. It’s going to be harder to come up with suspects related to Tommy but not Joey because Tommy doesn’t live here anymore and hasn’t for quite some time. He only just got into town on Wednesday and was shot that day. Not much time for someone to plan to kill him.”

“Tommy didn’t get into town on Wednesday.”

“He didn’t? He told me he’d only been here for a few hours when I spoke to him that day.”

“I ran into Stephanie Bird on Monday, and she told me she’d had drinks with Tommy over the weekend. I don’t see any reason she’d lie about it.”

It did seem unlikely Stephanie would lie. The question was, why would Tommy? He had to realize that if he’d been in town over the weekend his lie wouldn’t hold up in the long run.

The witch had said you had to know what to see. Tommy had shown up at the Zoo claiming to have been in town for just a few hours, during which time he’d heard about Joey and hoped I’d have additional information about the murder. At the time I’d accepted that at face value, but now that I thought about it I realized there had to be more to it.

Chapter 9

“You look adorable,” I told Alex later that afternoon. We were upstairs and I was helping her put on her costume in preparation for the Halloween dance at Zimmerman Academy.

“Tony is going to dress as a pirate too. He thought it would be fun if we matched. How’s my hair?”

“It’s great. Zak is already at the dance, so Tony’s mom is going to pick you up. Zak will bring you home, though.”

Alex twirled in front of the mirror. “How come you aren’t coming if Zak is?”

“I’m going to do something with Scooter. The rain stopped, so we’ll probably go to the Hamlet. He was going to spend the night with Tucker, but Tucker got sick.”

Alex let out a long breath. “I’m kinda nervous.”

“I remember my first school dance,” I said. “I was in the seventh grade and I was sure I was going to trip over my own feet when I got out on the dance floor. But I didn’t. I had fun, and I’m sure you will too.”

“I hope my hands don’t get all sweaty if we dance a slow dance.”

I hugged Alex. “Things are going to be fine. Remember, Tony is probably just as nervous as you are.”