Murder At The Festival: A Witch Cozy Mystery (A Bluebell Knopps Witch Cozy Mystery Book 5)

by Nancy McGovern

  "Now, Jamie," Craig said. "Don't be too harsh on yourself. None of us could have known about it."

  Bluebell, who didn't quite agree with that statement, found herself silent.

  "Did you find Jack?" Jamie asked suddenly.

  "Charlie said he'd look for him and urged us to get to you," Craig said. "I have no idea where that boy is. He isn't answering his phone either."

  "Oh, Craig I'm scared," Jamie said.

  "Well the first thing we need to do is call the Sheriff," Bluebell said. "This knife that's lying at your door… I'm guessing the sheriff will like to do some tests on it. Fingerprints and such."

  "That's a great idea," Jamie said, and was interrupted as Craig pulled a buzzing phone out of his pocket.

  "Well speak of the devil," he said. "It's Henry himself." He lifted it to his ear and said, "Henry, you've got to come down here, we think Jamie was almost attacked and…" He paused, and his face slowly turned purple. "What?" His voice was barely a whisper. "No… you can't be serious?"

  "Jack!" Jamie exclaimed. "It's Jack, isn't it?"

  Craig waved a hand, shushing her, while nodding on the phone. "Yes. Yes! Right away! Of course!" He hung up. "We have to go down to the station."

  Jamie's face was white and she looked as though she was about to faint. "It's Jack?"

  Craig nodded. "They found him. Jamie, we need to find a lawyer fast. Henry's put him under arrest!"

  *****

  At the station, a thin faced Deputy named Mary Meyers filled out the paperwork while Jamie, Bluebell and Craig stood around anxiously. Jamie had dropped Jenny off at the babysitter's house, and was hopping from one foot to the other now, a ball of nervous energy.

  "I just don't see how it's possible that Henry could be so stupid!" Craig said. Craig, unlike Jamie, wasn't nervous at all. He was blindly furious. "Henry's just ganging up on a young kid instead of going out to find the real killer!"

  "Now, Craig, you know Henry's a good guy,” the Deputy said. “We aren't making any arrests yet."

  "But why would Jack want to kill Mrs. Lahey? It makes no sense at all!" Craig exploded.

  "It isn't Mrs. Lahey he was trying to kill, we think," Mary said, raising an eyebrow and looking over at Jamie. "Everyone knows Jack and Jamie aren't exactly best friends."

  "That's normal teenage stuff!" Craig yelled. "Every boy has a hard time if he's told what to do. Jamie's his mom!"

  "Step mom," Mary corrected. "Isn't that right, Jamie?"

  Jamie's lips thinned and her eyes narrowed. "I may not have given birth to that boy, but he's my son, Mary. There's no way he's a murderer."

  Mary leaned back in her chair. "All I can say is, you better have a lawyer over fast."

  "Hollis said he'd arrange one for me," Craig said. "Should be here any minute now."

  "But what led to Jack's being arrested anyway?" Bluebell asked.

  "Charlie found him," Mary said.

  "Charlie?" Craig roared, slamming a table with his fist. "I should have known! That fox-faced—"

  "Calm down, Craig!" Mary said. "Charlie did the right thing. Jack was slumped in an alley, unconscious. Craig picked him up and ran him to the ambulance."

  "Sounds like he was a victim rather than a perpetrator," Bluebell said quietly.

  "He had whiskey on his breath," Mary said. "Now where did a young boy like him get whiskey—"

  "He's 18," Craig said. "Fine, it's not strictly legal, but it's not like 18 year olds never drink! That's no reason to arrest him."

  "Honestly, at that point, we wouldn't have arrested him," Mary said. "Unfortunately, there's a lot more..." She pulled out her phone and showed them a photo. It was a photo of Jack, unconscious, his face looking much younger thanks to the harsh glare of light above him. But what struck Bluebell almost immediately were his hands. Jack was wearing a glove that looked very familiar. The same glove she'd seen flashing through the crowd, with a knife in its hand.

  The glove was splattered with blood, too.

  Craig stumbled backward, raising a hand in front of his face. "No, no, it can't be!"

  "Craig, I know this is hard, but Jack's had a few run ins with the law before," Mary said. "I'm really sorry but I think—"

  "It can't be!" Craig's knees seemed to give way, and he crumpled to the ground, hugging himself. "My son is not a murderer!"

  "I'm really sorry," Mary said. "But right now, we're just asking all the questions we're supposed to. Get him a lawyer as fast as you can."

  *****

  Chapter 8

  Both Craig and Jamie seemed completely stunned. They were allowed to meet Jack only very briefly - since he was technically above 18, he was being treated by the law an adult and not a juvenile. Still, Bluebell couldn't help but feel bad for her friends when she saw their faces as they came out of the holding cell. Craig still looked stunned and horrified, while Jamie looked as determined as any mama bear.

  "Anything you need, anything at all…" Bluebell said. "I'll be right here for you."

  Craig nodded mutely. The air seemed to have gone out of him, in the space of an hour, he looked ten years older, and his skin seemed to sag against his bones, while his shoulders were hunched over. Clearly, he was devastated.

  "What did he tell you?" Bluebell asked. "Did he say anything at all?"

  "He just looked stunned," Craig said. "He didn't say a word to either of us. He just sat there staring ahead like he was seeing his whole life crumble away."

  Pulling on some inner strength that she didn't know she had, Jamie said, "Craig, we need to be strong for him, both of us. We can fall apart later on. There'll be plenty of time to mull over exactly how bad the situation is. What we need now is action. I'm going to organize a candlelight vigil for Mrs. Lahey and I'll try and talk to as many people as possible. We need to convince them that Henry's protecting Boyd. Since that's what he's clearly doing. We know Jack didn't kill Mrs. Lahey."

  "Do we?" Craig asked. Jamie gasped at the note of doubt in his voice.

  "Craig, it's Jack. Our baby. Your son," Jamie said. "How can you possibly doubt him?"

  "Thing is..." Craig paused. "Like it or not, Jack isn't a kid any more. He's an adult, and he's always had his problems."

  "But Craig..."

  "I just... I need some fresh air," Craig said. "I need to clear my head. I'm going for a walk. Maybe..." He paused. "Maybe if I just think things through, I'll see something I'm missing."

  Jamie tried to stop him, but Bluebell put a hand on her shoulder. "I think he's right, Jamie," she said. "Staying here will just affect him more. Let him go if he wants to."

  Jamie nodded, and headed out to the car. Once she and Bluebell were seated, Jamie leaned her head against the steering wheel, and squeezed her eyes shut.

  "This feels like a nightmare," she said. "I'm trapped in some sort of alternate planet, so please tell me none of this is true!"

  "I wish I could." Bluebell stroked her hair. "I'm so sorry, Jamie. Did Hollis call yet about that lawyer?"

  "The lawyer's out of town," Jamie said. "So his advice was for Jack to stay absolutely silent and refuse to talk to the police until he comes back tomorrow morning."

  "Good advice," Bluebell said. "Is there really a solid case against him?"

  "The main evidence is the bloodstained glove on his hand," Jamie said. "No one can explain that one, not even Jack himself."

  "Tell me a little bit about Jack," Bluebell said. "What kind of a boy is he? I know you had some disciplinary problems with him..."

  Jamie sighed. "Only in the last few years. But he's got a heart of gold beneath all his bluster. I was so sure he'd grow out of this rebellious phase."

  "So what happened to him?" Bluebell asked.

  "Jack?" Jamie sighed. "Thing is, before he met me, Craig was married briefly to a woman who was... quite unsavory."

  "Ah," Bluebell said.

  "Beatrice was Craig's high school girlfriend. She was one of those flighty women who wanted to wander the world, and was horrified whe
n she found out he'd managed to get her pregnant. The two of them got married almost the day after they graduated, and it was horrible right from the start. She refused to work, she refused to do any housework either. The only thing she would do was berate Craig over every small thing he did. She resented him for "trapping" her into being a housewife."

  "What an unhappy woman," Bluebell said.

  "Yes, I rather think so." Jamie sighed. "I don't think she was evil, really, I think she was just... selfish. She never saw Jack for the brilliant little boy he was. She just saw him as a lead weight holding her down."

  "So what happened?"

  "About 5 years after they got married, she decided to run away. She was very sneaky about it, too. She drained all the money from their bank account, and went off to Mexico without telling anyone. Craig was frantic at first. He actually thought she'd been kidnapped or something."

  "Poor Craig! What a horrible thing to do."

  "Poor Jack, too." Jamie sighed. "A five year old can't understand why his mommy left him. I'm told he was inconsolable. Craig didn't have too many relatives in town either. Just Charlie and his parents. Luckily, the three of them stepped up and really supported him. It's one of the reasons I tolerate Charlie even though he doesn't do any work. He was a good brother when Craig needed him to be."

  "So what then?"

  "Well, Jack was about ten when I married Craig. He took a while to adjust, and he was always standoffish. I think he has trouble trusting women after his mother. He always preferred Craig. I didn't mind, I loved him just as much as I love Craig. When he was fifteen, Jenny was born. That was also the year Jack found out that his biological mother was dying of cancer."

  "Oh!" Bluebell gasped.

  "She'd smoked five packs a day for the last ten years," Jamie said with a shrug. "It was still really sad, and she begged us for money."

  Bluebell narrowed her eyes. "What?"

  "Yes," Jamie said. "The only reason she came back into contact with Jack was because she'd run out of money and thought Craig would give her some. It was horrible, really. She didn't care a whit about Jack, she was just so utterly fake. But Jack…" Jamie sighed. "Jack was delighted to see her again. He was delighted, and he was devastated that she might die. He begged me to lend her all the money she needed."

  "But you didn't," Bluebell said. "Did you?"

  "I didn't mind," Jamie said. "In fact, despite everything she'd done, I was willing to give the woman what she needed."

  "So what happened?"

  "Craig," Jamie said. "He very grudgingly lent her five thousand dollars, and found out that instead of spending it on treatments, she'd wasted it in Vegas."

  Bluebell sighed. "Do people that foolish really exist?"

  "Unfortunately, yes," Jamie said. "After that, Craig cut her off. He told her she was welcome to make as much noise as she liked, but he wouldn't give her a penny more."

  "I'm guessing she didn't take it well."

  "Oh, boy." Jamie sighed. "She showed her true colors almost immediately. Every day, she'd be talking to Jack for hours at a time on his cell phone. She'd tell him that this was all my fault, that I was preventing his father from giving her money. That I was a cruel woman who wanted her to die."

  "That's horrible!" Bluebell exclaimed.

  "I was so busy with Jenny - a newborn is a job all by itself, you know - that I didn't notice her effect on Jack until it was too late."

  "Oh, no..." Bluebell said.

  Jamie nodded. "Beatrice died a few days after Jack's sixteenth birthday, and poor Jack was just... shattered."

  "I can imagine!"

  "He started hanging out with some bad influences at school," Jamie said. "He started drinking and smoking. He finally came to his senses after he and his friends went for a joyride and ended up crashing the car," Jamie said. "Luckily, no one was hurt. But boy, did we get tough with Jack after that. We grounded him, and we made sure that he straightened up."

  "He probably didn't like that," Bluebell said.

  "As usual, he blamed me for being a terrible mother." Jamie sighed. "The wicked step-mother. Such a convenient stereotype."

  "How did you feel?"

  "Hurt, but... he's my Jack. I still see the sweet ten year old inside him. I thought... I thought the older he grew, the more he'd see the truth. He'd see that I truly cared for him, and that his mother wasn't the saint he thought she was."

  "And college?" Bluebell asked. "He was fighting you about college, wasn't he?"

  "Jack wanted to take a year off, and travel over the world." Jamie sighed. "Both I and Craig put our foot down and told him he wouldn't get the money from us. Cue more resentment and tears and typical teenage ‘you are horrible parents!’ speeches."

  "Oh, dear," Bluebell said.

  "Right," Jamie said. "But... look, Bluebell, despite everything, I know Jack. I know how he behaves with Jenny and Leo. I know how he's behaved with his girlfriend in the past. He's the sweetest of boys. His friends all say he has a heart of gold."

  "But still, he was found with the blood stained glove, and… it sounds as though he hated you," Bluebell said. "Isn't it possible that he saw Mrs. Lahey in the panda hat, thought it was you, decided he'd had enough of you and—"

  "And murdered her?" Jamie shuddered. "It can't be! It just can't! I know the evidence is against him but—"

  "Evidence!" Bluebell clapped a hand to her head. "Jamie we've all been such fools!"

  "What?" Jamie looked confused.

  "The evidence to free Jack is right in front of your house! The knife!"

  Jamie's mouth fell open. "Of course!"

  "We forgot all about it when we got that call from the sheriff about Jack being locked up," Bluebell said. "But it couldn't be Jack, could it? He was unconscious and with the Sheriff around the time Craig and I drove up. It couldn't be him we saw at the door, so then who was it?"

  "The real murderer!" Jamie's entire face was shining with happiness. "Of course! That's brilliant Bluebell! Let's go in and tell the Sheriff!"

  Unfortunately, Sheriff Henry was more than a little skeptical.

  He sat at his desk, twirling around his roller chair, and sipping coffee. His eyes were cool as an excited Jamie, Craig and Bluebell told him about the mysterious man who had been at Jamie's door.

  "So what you're telling me..." the Sheriff said when they were done, "…is that some mysterious man accosted you at your doorstep?"

  "Well, I mean, I didn't exactly see him, I can't be sure it was—"

  "So you didn't see him. All you saw was a knife on the ground," Sheriff Henry said. "And you're supremely confident that it means the killer is still on the loose."

  "I understand why you're skeptical," Bluebell said, trying to keep her cool. "But Craig and I definitely saw someone dart away from the house while we were driving to it."

  Henry sneered again. "Sure you did. I've sent a deputy out there, you know. All he found is a single knife, with no fingerprints on it. A common knife at that, the kind anybody could buy from a WalMart."

  "Why don't you say what you want clearly?" Jamie said angrily.

  "Sure I will," Sheriff Henry said. "You're trying to draw attention away from the facts by concocting your own. I'd like to remind you that's a criminal offense when we're dealing with a murder."

  Jamie pushed her chair away angrily. "We all know what's going on here, Henry. You're just trying to protect Boyd and pin the crime on my son!"

  "Your step-son," Henry said. "Kid hates you, and never made much of a secret of it. We figure when you wouldn't sell the factory to Hollis, it spoilt his vacation plans and he got mad. Decided he wanted revenge. Poor Mrs. Lahey just came in the way of it."

  Jamie's hands balled up into fists. "I'll prove it was Boyd, see if I don't! I'm pretty sure nobody would want you as sheriff once he's convicted, too!"

  "I'm not impressed by threats, Mrs. Leimbach," Henry said, his jaw tightening. "Shut the door behind you. I've got work to do."

  Craig pulled Jamie
back as she started to protest, and whispered something into her ear. Jamie's shoulders slumped. "Fine," she said, and quietly walked out. Bluebell stayed back just a second.

  "You really think he's done it?" she asked, looking at the Sheriff. "I promise, they aren't making up the story about the man in her house."

  Henry shrugged. "I can tell you it wasn't Boyd who did it. I'm very sure of that."

  "Why?" Bluebell asked. "You must know that your brother hated Jamie ever since she fired him. He's been looking for a way to get back at her. Just yesterday, he threatened her."

  Henry sighed and rubbed his face with his hand, trying to shake off his weariness. "So you see, I'm not some coward sheriff who's sticking up for his brother instead of the truth. I know the truth. Boyd might be the very definition of fool, but murderer he is not."

  "You're just covering up for a loved one because—"

  "A loved one?" Henry gave a mocking laugh. "Boyd? Oh please. My brother is by far the most unpleasant person in my life. I've come close to beating him up several times a day, sometimes! Yet to my family, I was always the scapegoat and he was the golden child. The two of us didn't have proper parents, but my aunt adored Boyd. She treated Boyd as the big man about town, while I was just a nobody. I don't know what women see in him, sometimes. At least now, as we get older, his true colors are coming out. Time always tells the truth."

  "If you believe time always tells the truth, you should believe that Boyd is at least a suspect. He had a very strong motive for killing Jamie."

  "It isn't that he didn't have motive, Ms Knopps. My brother simply couldn't have done it. At the time of Mrs. Lahey's murder, he was locked up in jail, watched over by Deputy Meyers."

  "What?"

  "I'd arrested him earlier that day for disorderliness," Henry said. "He started a brawl in a bar, and I had to do something."

  "Oh." Bluebell had nothing to say.

  "Exactly." Henry smiled. "I'd personally love nothing more than to arrest him if he were in fact the killer, but I am very sure that despite his many faults, Boyd is innocent."