The Diva Haunts the House (23 page)

She leaned toward me and whispered, “Dana’s completely in love with his British accent.”

“June! You little matchmaker.”

She grinned. “What’s life without a little love?”

I handed bags of candy to children, but my mind wasn’t on my job. In between tours, I hurried up the back stairs to find Nina.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed.

“Will you come with me when we’re done here tonight? I need to do a little nosing around.”

She perked up. “You bet! Count me in.”

I scuttled across the hall to Mars. “Could you watch the girls for a few hours tonight? Maybe take them out for pizza?”

“Sure.”

I could hear the tour coming through and dashed down to the kitchen and through to the lair. Minutes later, when I was handing out treats, Mars showed up.

“Do you have a date with Wolf?”

“Wolf? No, I have plans with Nina.”

“Oh. Okay.” He disappeared into the kitchen, and I could hear his footsteps on the stairs.

Officer Wong burst through the gaggle of kids exiting. “I thought all of Old Town came through here yesterday, but the line outside seems even longer tonight. And the merchants on this street are making the most of it. Did you know that Ray has set out an ancient soft drink machine? He’s making a bundle.”

June lifted an eyebrow. “He jumps on every opportunity, doesn’t he?”

Wong motioned for her to come closer to us. “I called my granny to ask her what she remembered about your Viktor Luca. She almost got the vapors just hearing his name.”

That piqued June’s interest. “Your granny knew him?”

“She used to help out the Widow Nagle. Did a lot of the baking for her.”

“Is your granny Opal Jones?” asked June.

Wong smiled. “Do you know her?”

“Know her? Opal was famous for her sweet potato pie. She made it for the Widow Nagle to serve to her boarders.”

“She’s living in Florida, but she still bakes those sweet potato pies for a local restaurant down there.”

June focused on me. “You see? I’m not a loon like Natasha thinks. Other people remember Viktor.”

“Granny couldn’t believe it when I brought up his name. She said she has nightmares about him. That she’d be here, in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove, and without any warning, he would be behind her, watching. No footsteps, no sound at all, like he appeared out of thin air. She said dove necklaces were really popular with the peace movement and all, and a lot of people wore them, but Viktor wore a necklace with a bat on it that grossed her out.”

June clasped her hands in excitement. “We found pictures of him wearing that bat. It was silver with glowing ruby eyes.”

“Granny said it looked silver, but he refused to touch silver. Not even when Mrs. Nagle brought out her good silver flatware. He wouldn’t eat with it. He insisted on using stainless. Granny thinks the bat was white gold.”

June beamed. “You kids thought I was making all this up. Viktor was a vampire.”

Was I the only person in the world who didn’t believe that vampires exist? I didn’t know Wong well enough to read her yet.

“Did you know about the cat?” Wong asked June.

TWENTY

“The black cat! I’d forgotten all about it,” said June.

Wong eagerly filled me in. “There was a huge black cat, solid black, no white whatsoever. It hated Viktor. It would hang out in the backyard and screech like a Halloween cat when it saw him.”

“It was a stray,” added June. “He loathed that cat. It would show up in the oddest places, like it was following him.” She gasped. “Like that cat Nina is looking for!”

Wong looked at me. “Is that true? There’s a black cat on the loose?”

No amount of coaxing or bribes could possibly have persuaded me to reveal the fact that the murderer nearly tripped over a black cat when he ran from the scene of the crime. I wasn’t going to feed the vampire hysteria.

I tilted my head. “Don’t you think there’s usually a stray black cat around?”

June made a little sputtering noise as though she was pooh-poohing me. “Officer Wong, we’re having a midnight meal at Sophie’s house tomorrow night.” She lowered her head a bit in a coy manner. “You know, that’s when the dead are best able to communicate. Won’t you come? It’s a buffet. Maybe you could bring Opal’s sweet potato pie?”

“I would if she’d share the recipe! I made her promise to write it down and put it in a safe so I can inherit it. Maybe I can coax it out of her with information about the black cat and Viktor. She’s afraid Viktor is back and warned me not to end up like Peggy!”

Fortunately, I could hear another group coming through. I tried to wind up the conversation on a realistic note. “I’m sure Peggy died of natural causes.”

Wong snapped her fingers. “Of course. They must have performed an autopsy.” She waved good-bye to June and me and fled before the oncoming troop of ghosts and goblins.

At eight o’clock, I was thrilled to close for the night. Only one more night to go. The next day would be Halloween and the insane vampire craze would finally fade away.

I sought out Jen. “Sweetie, you’re having dinner with Mars and Vegas tonight, okay?”

Her face wrinkled in dismay. “Who will protect you?”

“Nina. We’re . . . going to visit a sick friend.” I hated lying, but if I wasn’t careful, Jen would insist on coming with us. Besides, it wasn’t a total lie. I did hope to stop by Maggie’s house.

She cast a suspicious glance my way. “All right. But you better be careful. Do you have your cell phone?”

I pulled it out of my pocket. Even better, I retrieved my bag and returned Jen’s cell phone to her.

She wrapped her arms around me. “Thanks for having faith in me.”

Excited chatter filled the house as the participants filed out. I locked the front door behind them and we scattered in all directions.

Nina grinned at me. “You’re wearing that?”

I smoothed the skirt of my witch outfit. “I don’t want to waste time going home to change. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“Hart Wine.”

“Ohhh, you picked the right gal for that. I love to haunt wine and liquor stores.”

“Do you know anything about it?” I asked.

“I know I never shop there. Frank’s prices are way too high. You can buy the same thing a couple of blocks away for significantly less. What are we shopping for?”

“Nothing. We’re sleuthing.”

“Interesting. I assume this has something to do with Patrick’s murder?”

I talked as we walked. We didn’t have much time before the store closed. “Frank was at Mars and Natasha’s party the night of the murder, placing him at the scene. The next night, when Mars and I went to Maggie’s house, someone hid from me and there were two empty glasses in the sink. His car was parked half a block away from Maggie’s house.”

“The night after Patrick died? That’s fast! Unless they’d been seeing each other all along.”

“That’s what Mars said. Then Humphrey asked why anyone would go to the trouble of making it appear that a vampire killed Patrick. I couldn’t imagine a good reason, but it turns out that”—we stopped in front of Hart Wine—“well, you can see for yourself. Frank Hart is using the vampire excitement to sell wine.”

We walked into the store, which was silent except for the sound of a ticking clock. A bored clerk leaned against the wall behind the cash register, texting on a phone.

“Pretty quiet in here,” I said.

“Yeah.”

Evidently, he wasn’t the talkative sort. “Is the vampire in the window bringing in business?”

He slid his phone under the counter. “You’d think so. A lot of people stop and look at it, but they don’t usually come in. You interested in a bottle of wine? The Vampire wine is actually pretty good.”

Nina had migrated toward the cash register. “Do I smell licorice?”

“Everybody asks that. You’re probably smelling the licorice sticks we sell.” He pointed to a jar full of black licorice. Some people think eating licorice when they drink red wine brings out the nuances.” He straightened the Vampire wine bottles. “Frank is into gimmicks.”

“Is it always this dead?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It is when I’m here. But hey, Frank’s usually on time with my paycheck and that’s all I care about.”

I felt obligated to buy something. I picked out a bottle of ChocoVine, a French Cabernet combined with chocolate, and paid four dollars more for it than I would have at the grocery store.

We thanked him and left. “I think we have our man. The place reeked of licorice!” I hated what it would do to Gabriel. The darling little boy with everything going for him would soon see his world collapse. “I guess I should call Wolf and tell him.” I pulled out my cell phone.

In front of the gruesome skeleton vampire in the window, Nina grabbed my elbow. “Tell him to come right away. We have company.”

“Where?”

“He’s standing in a dark, recessed doorway across the street, watching us.”

I tried not to be obvious, but there was no way to see across the street without turning around. I lifted my arm and pretended to look at a watch even though I wasn’t wearing one. My heart pounded in my ears, but I reasoned that the search for the killer might soon be over. Nina and I needed to keep him engaged until Wolf arrived. My head bent, I raised my eyes to look for him. If Nina hadn’t pointed him out, I never would have noticed him lurking there. I could make out the outline of a person, but little more.

“Let’s move away from the show window so it won’t be so obvious that I’m calling someone.” I inserted an earbud in my ear and pressed in Wolf’s number while we strolled.

When Wolf answered, I told him where we were and that the killer was behind us.

“Stay on the line with me and head toward King Street where there are lots of people.”

“No problem. We’re already doing that.”

“I’m just a few blocks away in my car. Don’t turn to look for me. I’m hoping I can spot him from behind.”

More to Nina than to Wolf, I said, “He must have been watching Bubble and Trouble. He probably tailed us from there when we closed up. Wolf, we’re turning south onto King Street.” I welcomed the brighter lights and bustle of pedestrians.

“Slow down,” Wolf replied. “We’re not going to be able to identify this guy once he makes it onto King Street and mixes with the crowds.”

A restaurant door to our right burst open and teenagers in costumes poured out onto the sidewalk. Whooping and hollering, they danced and ran with youthful exuberance across the street where Wolf was driving. There were so many of them, I thought they would never stop streaming past us.

I heard Wolf grunt. “Where did the circus come from?”

Circus was the perfect description. The kids wore colorful costumes, some danced, some walked backward, a couple swung around the lampposts. It was the worst imaginable timing.

“You lost him, didn’t you?” I asked. “Where are you?” I tugged at Nina and we retraced our footsteps.

Wolf walked toward us on the side street. “What a lousy break.”

“No worries. We figured out who the killer is. It’s Frank Hart. He’s having an affair with Maggie.”

Wolf rarely showed much emotion, but this time his face registered surprise. “Frank?”

I explained about the licorice connection.

Wolf rubbed his forehead before slinging an arm around me.

Nina flashed me a grin. “You’re so adorable together.”

“I appreciate the help. Really, I do. But I can’t base a case on licorice. Do you know how many people eat licorice ? A lot of them probably buy it at Frank’s store.”

“But what about his affair with Maggie?” protested Nina.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be looking into that.” He gently squeezed my shoulder. “You didn’t actually see him at Maggie’s house, right? It could have been someone else.”

I wrenched away from him. “Excuse me. He was with Maggie when she found the dead doll, and he’s the one who accompanied her to the hospital.”

“Maybe they’re just friends. Maybe Frank was a buddy of Patrick’s and he’s helping her get through a rough time,” said Wolf.

“That’s not how it looks to me.” Nina frowned at him.

“I’m not saying that Frank isn’t our guy.” Wolf maintained his cool. “But I have to be able to make a case against a suspect. I can’t just arrest someone on suspicion of a love affair and a fondness for licorice.”

He could not have said it in a nicer way. No sarcasm, frustration, or anger tinged his voice.

I felt a fool. Of course he needed more information. “I’m sorry. I was just so eager to pin this on him and get him off the streets. It was totally selfish of me. I’m looking over my shoulder with every step I take and overreacting to the smallest things. I guess I wanted to have it over with.”

“Who could blame you?” Nina shot me a sympathetic look. “I was a basket case when I thought someone was after me last year.” She scowled at Wolf. “Don’t you have any leads yet?”

He suppressed a smile and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “None that I can share with the likes of you. Be careful, Soph.”

He strode away into the night, and Nina tugged at me. “Visiting a wine store without sampling anything is just a cruel tease. C’mon, I need a drink.”

It was the least I could do for her since she’d been kind enough to come along and protect me. “Think we should walk up to Bernie’s? The killer might still be hanging around here.”