by Leslie Meier
She walked back inside, bolted the door shut again from the inside, and returned to the dining room.
Liddy quickly noticed the troubled look on her face. “What’s wrong? What did you find?”
Hayley shrugged. “That’s just it. I didn’t find anything. Mr. Candy’s Pennywise costume is missing. The mask, the clown costume, the big red shoes, everything.”
“Sit tight, girls, I will be right back,” Sergio told Jodie and Pia before standing up and crossing over to Hayley. “Are you sure he didn’t put it in his car after he changed?”
“No, I just checked; it wasn’t there. And he was wearing it right up until the end of the party, after most of the guests had gone, so it should be around here somewhere,” Hayley said.
“The sledgehammer, the costume, what else has disappeared without a trace?” Liddy pondered.
Randy marched over to them, clutching his phone.
Sergio turned to his husband. “See anything on your video that was out of the ordinary?”
“No, and I watched it three times,” Randy said, holding up the phone so Hayley and Sergio could see the video for themselves. “I started recording pretty early on during the party, and you can plainly see Mr. Candy walking around, mingling with the other guests, generally having a good time.”
They watched the video, following Candy, sometimes in the background, sometimes just for a flash as Randy moved the camera around, before stopping on Candy as Pennywise, towering behind Sergio, who casually turns around and screams.
Hayley glanced at the Chief, who grimaced.
“Can you fast-forward through this part, please?” Sergio groaned.
Randy snickered but did as he requested, before slowing the video back down to normal speed. “Now wait, here comes the interesting part. He’s having a perfectly good time, and then something changes. Wait, here it comes . . .”
They watched as Mr. Candy suddenly reacts to something, stopping in the middle of the room and spinning his head around frantically, before dashing out toward the kitchen.
Randy pressed pause on the video. “Something just spooked him real bad!”
“Why does he suddenly run to the kitchen?” Hayley asked.
Randy shrugged. “I have no idea.” He pressed the fast-forward button up to the point when Pennywise returned to the party. “But he comes back about ten minutes later as if nothing had happened.”
“That’s strange,” Hayley observed, watching as Pennywise threaded his way through all the costumed guests, as if on the hunt again to scare a few unsuspecting people. “Right about here, the party begins to wind down.” He paused the video again. “There you can see Jodie and Pia by the dessert table. They did come out to the dining room to get cookies, just like they said. And Mr. Candy is still alive and well. He’s right there, loading up on food as the other guests begin to file out.”
“When do you lose track of him?” Sergio asked.
Randy continued playing the video. “Right up to this moment, with only a small handful of people left at the party, you can see him heading out again by himself toward the kitchen and storeroom . . .”
The video froze.
“And that’s when I stopped recording because the party was pretty much over at that point,” Randy said.
Sergio paced back and forth, trying hard to put the pieces of the puzzle together. “So the murder had to have occurred after the point when Mr. Candy changed out of his costume. The back door was locked from the inside, so no one could have entered from there. And the only people left in the restaurant are the ones who are still here now . . .”
Cruella de Vil.
The Mummy.
Annie Wilkes.
Carrie.
Bride of Frankenstein.
A giant land shark.
Chucky the killer doll.
And two pint-sized witches from Hocus Pocus.
One of those movie monsters was definitely a killer.
But which one?
And how did the murderer manage to get rid of the clown costume and the sledgehammer, the presumed murder weapon?
“Well, I, for one, find it difficult to believe that any of us here could be some kind of maniacal butcher!” Dr. Reddy sniffed, adjusting her half-white, half-black Cruella wig. “It’s just too ridiculous to even consider!”
“Then who else could it be?” Randy wanted to know.
There was a long silence.
“A ghost . . .” a tiny voice squeaked.
It came from Pia, who hid behind her mother’s massive fur coat. Dr. Reddy turned, taking a step away from her. “Pia, there are no such things as ghosts!”
“Jodie and I conjured up an evil spirit that murdered Mr. Candy, and then it must have just floated away . . .”
Dr. Reddy opened her mouth to protest but stopped short of speaking, because as they all pondered the little girl’s outlandish theory, the more they realized that, at this point, it was the only theory that made sense.
If everyone in the dining room was as innocent as they claimed, then the only other possible explanation had to be rooted in the supernatural.
And with no clues pointing in a more grounded direction, no one present in Hayley’s restaurant at this moment was prepared to rule out a ghost with an ax to grind.
Chapter Eight
“If you are finished tormenting my daughter with your barrage of questions, Chief Alvares, I would like to take her home now, because it is well past her bedtime,” Dr. Reddy said, grabbing Pia by the hand, anxious to bolt out the front door.
“I am done with Pia, Dr. Reddy, but not with you, so I would appreciate it if you would just take a seat and be patient,” Sergio sighed, at his wit’s end. “I do not want to have to ask you again.”
Dr. Reddy huffed and muttered to herself, but did as she was told, sitting back down at one of the dining tables, Fendi bag in her lap, while gesturing to Pia to take a seat as well.
Hayley held her hand out to Randy. “Mind if I take a look at the video?”
Randy gave her the phone. “Be my guest.”
Hayley pressed PLAY and reviewed the video footage of the party again while half-listening to Sergio.
“Liddy, you’re up,” the Chief said.
“Me? Why me? You certainly don’t consider me a suspect, do you?”
“I consider everyone here a suspect,” he said pointedly.
“Including yourself?” Dr. Reddy cracked, annoyed, as Pia stared at the floor, embarrassed by her mother’s obstinance.
Sergio chose not to respond. He just flashed her an annoyed look before turning his attention back to Liddy. “Liddy, it’s late; we’re all tired. Just try to be cooperative, will you?”
Liddy dramatically sighed. “Fine. You can ask me anything you want. I have nothing to hide. I scarcely knew Boris Candy. I hardly had any interaction with him whatsoever.”
“Ha!” Mona piped in.
Liddy turned to Mona, right eyebrow raised. “You have something to say, Mona?”
“Yes! What about the blind date you had with Boris when he first moved to town? Did you conveniently forget about that?”
There was a long dramatic silence.
“No, I did not forget about that, Mona,” Liddy spit out with a furious look. “I have just tried to bury that awful memory and put it behind me.”
Everyone in the room seemed to lean forward, curious.
“It happened a couple years ago, right before Boris started as the new music teacher at the high school. Mona, for some inexplicable reason, decided to play matchmaker. He had only been in town for about a week or so when he came into Mona’s lobster shop—”
“He had never tasted a Maine lobster before in his life; can you believe that?” Mona interrupted. “So I set him up good with a three-pack and gave him tips on the best way to steam them. He told me later that it was the best meal he’d ever tasted. He was hooked. He came back every week after that. He seemed like such a nice, decent guy; I don’t know what I was thinking
, fixing him up with Liddy!”
“Mona, Sergio is questioning me, not you. I do not need your needless and unsolicited color commentary,” Liddy seethed.
“Whatever,” Mona shrugged. “The floor’s yours.”
“Thank you,” Liddy said evenly, before turning back to Sergio. “In Mona’s cluttered, confused mind, she somehow thought the two of you would actually hit it off.”
“I’m assuming the two of you didn’t?” Sergio asked.
“No!” Liddy scoffed. “From the moment we sat down at the restaurant, there was this underlying tension between us. I knew right away the date was going to be a disaster!”
“What did he say that set you off?” Sergio asked.
“It’s not what he said. It was the rude looks he kept giving me as I told him about myself, like he was judging me. I found it very off-putting and uncomfortable.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“Yes, finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I asked him why he was being so quiet. And do you know what that obnoxious, rude man said? He had the gall to tell me that he found me self-involved, that I had been talking nonstop about myself for thirty minutes without showing even the tiniest bit of interest in him! Can you believe that?”
Mona involuntarily gave a snort, but quickly pretended it hadn’t come from her when Liddy shot her a glowering stare.
Sergio tried getting Liddy back on track. “Was Mr. Candy right about that?”
“Of course, he was right! Why should I show interest in a completely nondescript, boring, utterly humorless human being? If I am going to get all gussied up for a date, I want the man I’m meeting to have a little kick to him, like a spicy chili, but Boris Candy was basically a bland bowl of applesauce!”
“So am I safe in assuming there was no second date?” Sergio asked, suppressing a smile.
“No, we didn’t even get through the first date. I was so insulted, I threw my glass of merlot at him. He got up from the table to go clean himself off in the bathroom, but then he never came back! Can you believe that?”
There were a few nods about the room that Liddy willfully chose to ignore.
“He ditched me! We had driven to the restaurant in his car! I was stranded!” Liddy wailed. “At least he had the good manners to pay the bill on his way out, but I had to call a taxi to take me home. We were at Jack Russell’s, which is outside of town. I couldn’t walk all the way home!”
“She called me the next day and demanded that I reimburse her for the cab fare,” Mona said, chuckling. “Which I did, because, I admit, it was my fault for thinking those two might get along.”
“Oh, I could have killed the man for abandoning me like that . . .” Liddy said, before realizing the implications of her remark and quickly adding, “But I didn’t! It was a long time ago, and everyone knows I am never one to hold grudges!”
There was more quiet snickering in the room over Liddy’s bogus claim about not holding grudges, enough for her to feel the need to add another caveat, “At least not in this case! Anyway, Mona was right about one thing! It was all her fault!”
“I was just trying to cheer you up after you got ditched at the altar!” Mona protested.
“Must we bring that up?” Liddy sighed.
“You’re the one still wearing the wedding dress!” Mona said.
“How many times must I say this? It’s my Halloween costume! I’m the Bride of Frankenstein!”
Randy wandered over to address Mona. “I am a little surprised you called Boris a nice, decent guy, Mona.”
“Why is that?” Mona asked.
“Because I remember you two having an altercation at my bar not too long ago,” he said.
“That was nothing!” Mona snapped.
“What is he talking about, Mona?” Sergio pressed.
“It was just a minor disagreement, that’s all! I went in for Chet’s parent-teacher conference at the school, and Candy told me that Chet had been acting out in his music-appreciation class lately, and that if he didn’t adjust his behavior, he was going to take disciplinary action.”
“And you thought he was being unfair to Chet?” Sergio asked.
“What? No,” Mona scoffed, glancing over at Chet, who was still slumped down in a chair in the corner, texting. “We all know the kid can be a hellion. I had no problem with making him pay for his bad behavior. But he insinuated that I was to blame for failing to keep him in line at home. Well, I stewed about that all day, and then I ran into him at Drinks Like a Fish, and yes, okay, I admit, I had a few beers in me when I approached him. I started yelling at him that maybe if he was a better teacher, he might be able to keep Chet interested in his boring class! It was not one of my prouder moments.”
“Imagine an education professional questioning your parenting skills,” Dr. Reddy whispered under her breath.
Mona whirled around, eyes blazing. “Lady, you are this close to a whole world of hurt!”
Dr. Reddy pointed an accusing finger at Mona. “See, if anyone is capable of causing bodily harm, it’s her!”
“Dr. Reddy, please stay out of this,” Sergio warned.
“The bottom line is, we resolved our differences shortly after that,” Mona insisted. “I even brought him free lobsters at the school as a peace offering because I knew how much he loved them. And we haven’t had a problem since. I actually like the guy . . . I mean liked.”
The dining room fell silent again.
And then Hayley let out a gasp as she watched the video on Randy’s phone.
“What is it, Hayley?” Sergio asked.
“How did we miss this?” Hayley whispered, running the video back a few seconds and playing it again.
Sergio and Randy rushed over to her, surrounding her on each side to see what had suddenly piqued her interest.
The scene on the phone was Boris Candy walking up behind Sergio and scaring him, causing him to scream.
Sergio sighed, annoyed. “Yes, Hayley, we have already had a good laugh over it. We do not have to watch it yet again.”
“No,” Hayley insisted. “Look, in the background. We were all laughing at you screaming, and we completely missed what was happening just a few feet away.”
Behind Sergio and Candy, they could clearly see Mona’s son, Chet, holding a cup of hot chocolate and distinctly dropping some kind of white pill into it. Moments later, he approached Mr. Candy, offering it to him. Mr. Candy happily accepted and chugged the hot chocolate down in a couple of gulps.
“Chet, get over here right now!” Sergio demanded.
Chet looked up from his phone, worried. “What?”
“Now!” Sergio roared.
Chet hauled himself up out of the chair, pocketed his phone, and shuffled slowly over to Sergio with a heavy sigh.
Sergio walked up to Chet so he was inches from him, towering over him in an intimidating manner. “What did you put in the hot chocolate you gave to Mr. Candy?”
There was a flicker of panic on Chet’s face.
“Nothing,” he said, obviously lying.
Sergio gestured toward Randy’s phone. “We have it all recorded. You spiked the hot chocolate with something. Now tell us what it was!”
Mona barreled over to her son, sticking a finger in his face in a threatening manner. “What did you do, Chet? Come clean now, and you may live to see your high school graduation!”
Chet stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and shuffled his feet some more, staring at the floor, and then finally said in a tiny, defeated voice, “Mr. Candy kicked me off my trombone spot in the jazz band . . .”
Mona’s eyes widened in surprise. “What? When?”
“A few weeks ago. He said I wasn’t taking music seriously. I didn’t want to tell you and make you mad,” Chet said, hemming and hawing before mumbling, “I wanted to pay him back, so I slipped some Ex-Lax in the hot chocolate, and I sort of gave it to him as a peace offering.”
Hayley wanted to laugh, but stopped herself.
“That woul
d explain why he ran out of the party so fast,” Randy said, smirking.
“There is a bathroom in the back next to the storeroom. The two out front were probably occupied, and Mr. Candy was in a code-red situation,” Hayley surmised. “He must have switched to red wine after that, which would explain why he came into the storeroom to get a bottle and stumbled upon Jodie and Pia practicing witchcraft.”
“What else do you want to tell us, Chet?” Sergio asked.
“That’s it! It was just a stupid joke! I swear that’s all I did!”
Mona shook her head in disgust. “What a rotten, despicable thing to do! I am ashamed of you right now, Chet! Where on God’s green earth did you learn such a thing?”
Chet stared at his mother, slack-jawed. “From you, remember? You told all us kids that story from when you were in high school, and you slipped Ex-Lax in your soccer coach’s water bottle because he benched you for three games after you deliberately kicked a girl on the opposing team in the shins so you could steal the ball away!”
“I was trying to teach you a lesson about what not to do when you’re angry!” Mona argued.
“But—” Chet protested before Mona cut him off.
“Do as I say, not as I do! You’re grounded until your eighteenth birthday!” Mona roared.
Another deafening silence.
Even Dr. Reddy knew well enough not to comment.
Chapter Nine
Sergio put an arm around Chet’s shoulder. “Okay, son. We’re done for now. You can go sit back down.”
Chet bounded back to his chair in the corner, his phone in hand, to resume texting his friends.
“That’s it? He’s no longer a suspect?” Dr. Reddy scoffed.
“He came clean about the Ex-Lax,” Sergio said.
Dr. Reddy folded her arms, agitated. “Exactly! If he was willing to poison a man, why abandon the credible possibility that the boy took it one step further and bludgeoned him to death?”
