by Zoe Arden
"Hurt?" she screeched. "Someone is hurt! Me! We have three weeks left. How am I supposed to find another DJ now?" She threw her hands into the air and banged them on his desk when she brought them back down.
You'd have thought the situation was life and death by the way she was carrying on. When Otis walked in carrying a large manila envelope, Tadpole on his shoulder, Sheriff Knoxx turned to them with a gigantic smile.
"Oh, Otis. I'm glad you're here. I, uh, needed to talk to you and Tadpole. Alone."
Otis looked confused. "You want to talk to Tadpole?"
"Yeah. He, uh..." The sheriff was squirming under Eleanor's gaze. No doubt he was wondering what had happened to the sweet, sane woman he'd proposed to. Later, if I had the chance, I would tell him all women acted like this before a wedding. There were entire TV shows devoted to it.
"You okay, Sheriff?" Otis asked.
"Yes, Otis, thank you." He spied the envelope in Otis’ hands, excited for anything that might serve as a diversion. "What have you got there?"
"Oh," Otis said. He'd almost forgotten he was holding it. "I found this on my desk. It has your name on it."
Sheriff Knoxx took the envelope. There was something about the large, black block lettering that looked familiar. Sheriff Knoxx's eyes widened when he read what was inside.
"Otis, do you know who sent this?"
Otis shook his head.
"What is it?" Eleanor asked, her grief over the DJ issue temporarily forgotten.
Sheriff Knoxx looked at her. I could tell he was debating whether or not he should say anything. Ultimately, he decided that giving her something else to focus on was safer than allowing her energy to remain on the wedding DJ.
"The person who sent this claims that Mayor Thomas has been getting blackmailed."
Eleanor and I exchanged looks.
"By who?" Eleanor asked.
"Thaddeus Black."
* * *
1 0
* * *
Mayor Thomas was not happy.
He stood alternating between his hands on his hips and his arms folded across his chest. "Now see here," he said, trying to sound authoritative. "I have nothing to hide. I have never been blackmailed in my life. It's preposterous."
He was loud, boisterous, and not at all convincing.
Sheriff Knoxx looked around his office, pulling open drawers and closet doors.
"I tell you there's nothing here!" Mayor Thomas yelled. He was clearly shaken.
Eleanor had initially tried to help Mayor Thomas relax.
"It's nothing," she'd assured him. "It's only that the sheriff has to check out every lead he gets, no matter how absurd."
Mayor Thomas had looked more irritated than ever after that. He was pacing the floor now, watching the sheriff and Otis like a hawk. Elwin Muster had disappeared into a back room. No one was entirely sure what they were looking for. Otis just mumbled "evidence" whenever Mayor Thomas asked them.
"Evidence, what evidence? I tell you there's nothing here."
I lingered on the outside of the office, watching the overall scene as it unfolded. The only reason that I'd been allowed in was because Eleanor was here. I'd managed to convince Sheriff Knoxx that she was more likely to stay relaxed if I was with her, and she simply refused to leave his side until they'd sorted out the DJ issue.
I texted Colt:
WHERE R U? WE R SEARCHING MAYOR THOMAS’ OFFICE.
He'd texted back, HAVE FUN.
Have fun? I'd hoped for a better response. A little more insight, like whether Colt thought that Thaddeus was really a blackmailer. Colt was almost as frantic as Eleanor had been the last couple of weeks. I hoped the stuff with his father was resolved soon. I wasn't sure how much more I could take.
"Sheriff?" Elwin said, walking past me into the room. He was holding something in his hands.
"Yes?"
"I found these, uh, in the, uh, closet. I thought they might, you know, be pertinent." He handed Sheriff Knoxx a stack of letters still in their envelopes. Mayor Thomas’ face paled when he saw them.
"Where did you find those?" Mayor Thomas demanded of Elwin. "Now see here, that's personal property." He tried to grab the letters back from Sheriff Knoxx but failed.
The envelopes, about a half dozen of them, had already been opened. Sheriff Knoxx pulled them out one at a time and read them. Eleanor and I crept closer, trying to read over his shoulder. Sheriff Knoxx turned away from us so that we couldn't see.
"Those letters aren't mine," Mayor Thomas said. He was blushing. "I mean, they were sent to me, I admit that, but... but..." He looked around the room, from Sheriff Knoxx to Otis to me, and suddenly took off running. Sheriff Knoxx tossed the letters on the desk and ran after him, followed by Otis and Elwin.
"Don't let him get away!" Sheriff Knoxx yelled. I was tempted to follow them, but the letters caught my eye. They were sitting right there...
Eleanor and I couldn't help ourselves. We walked slowly over to the desk and each took an envelope. What had Mayor Thomas been so eager to protect? Eleanor's eyes bulged slightly in their sockets when she scanned the first letter.
"Oh, my roses," she said. "Ava, what does yours say?"
"It's from Thaddeus," I told her, reading through it quickly. "He says that he knows about Mayor Thomas and Tazzie. That if Mayor Thomas wants to make sure this stays between them, then he should pay him..." I blinked, thinking I was misreading this, "fifteen thousand dollars."
"Mine's the same thing," Eleanor said, "only ten thousand."
"Mayor Thomas doesn't have that kind of money."
"If this is true... if Mayor Thomas and Tazzie Singer had some kind of relationship... why keep it a secret?" Eleanor asked.
"Unless the relationship started when Mayor Singer was still alive," I said.
Eleanor looked at me, horrified.
"An affair?"
I shrugged. "I like Tazzie, but... people make mistakes."
There was a knock on the door. We jumped guiltily and put the letters back down on the desk. Hadley Miner stood at the door.
"Hello," she said uncertainly. "Um, I was looking for Sheriff Knoxx. I was told he might be here."
"He is," I said. "He'll be right back, he's just... chasing down something. What are you doing here?" Hadley pretended to be very interested in the ugly green table lamp to her right.
"I just... I got something in the mail this morning." Hadley twiddled her thumbs nervously. She was having trouble looking at us. "Normally, I'd ignore something like this. I mean, it can't be true, but given the circumstances..."
"Circumstances? What circumstances are you talking about?" I asked. Then I noticed the manila envelope in her hand, the same black block lettering scrolled across it.
"Is that another threat against Tazzie?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"No, it's just..." She sighed and pulled something from the envelope. It wasn't a note; it was a picture. Eleanor and I looked at it.
Tazzie Singer stood in the photo with her hair flying out behind her, a strong gust of wind blowing against her and the man she was kissing. He was holding his hat to his head while he kissed her. They looked happy. The man was Mayor Thomas.
Hadley shrugged. "It came this morning. There was a note with it; it said to give the photo to Sheriff Knoxx or else."
"Or else what?" I asked.
"Or else something bad would happen to my mom." Her face was sour, grim. "I'm sure it's just a joke, but my mother's older, not in good health. Even if someone only meant to frighten her... I don't want to get anyone in trouble, I just don't want anything to happen to my mom."
"You haven't done anything to feel guilty about," Eleanor reassured her.
There was a series of loud noises from outside. A moment later, Sheriff Knoxx reappeared. "We got him," he cried triumphantly. I could almost see the goblin in him as his square jaw set into a grin. He suddenly noticed Hadley there, the picture she'd shown us back in her hands. Sheriff Knoxx grabbed it,
his eyes widening.
"Where did you get this?" he demanded.
"It was sent to me," Hadley said, showing him the envelope with her name on it. Otis was suddenly in the doorway. A very frustrated-looking Mayor Thomas was with him.
"Sheriff Knoxx, Mayor Thomas says he refuses to come down to the station with us and answer our questions."
Sheriff Knoxx turned to him. "It's too late for that."
"What do you mean?" asked the mayor.
"I mean, Mayor Quinn Thomas, you don't have a choice anymore. You're under arrest for the murder of Thaddeus Black."
* * *
1 1
* * *
Word traveled fast. It always did. Only this time, it ran through both Mistmoor and Sweetland like wildfire. Neither town wanted to believe it was true, yet both towns decided it was undeniable before even hearing the facts.
Thaddeus Black was a blackmailer, but a noble and kind-hearted blackmailer. The curse removal business had left his mind weak, addled with darkness. He desperately needed to get away from the evil that he had so bravely faced in his youth. He did the only thing he could think to do, forge a new career as a blackmailer.
He knew that Mayor Thomas and Tazzie were having an affair, even while her husband was still alive. He'd blackmailed Quinn, unbeknownst to Tazzie. Quinn had more money than Tazzie, plus the people of Mistmoor loved her. He thought it would be dangerous to blackmail her. Mayor Thomas, however, already had a spotty reputation.
Mayor Thomas had paid the ransom at first but finally grown tired of it. He stopped paying. Thaddeus threatened to come forward with his information, and Mayor Thomas had killed him.
That was the official story according to the rumor mill. According to Mayor Thomas and Tazzie, none of that was true.
"I have never had an affair with Mayor Thomas," Tazzie Singer said. "Or with anyone, other than my husband." She'd been brought in for questioning by Lincoln after he received a phone call from Sheriff Knoxx.
Lincoln and Knoxx had decided to question Mayor Thomas and Tazzie separately, but in the same location. Since Mayor Thomas was already in a jail cell in Sweetland, they intended question them here. It was my good fortune that, just as Lincoln arrived with Tazzie, Tadpole sent a massive spray of perfume from one end of the sheriff's station to the other, literally filling the entire space with his scent.
Eyes watered, noses ran, it was all we could do to get out of there before people started passing out.
Sheriff Knoxx had no choice but to move the questioning to a new space. Our bakery was the perfect location, he decided, since no one was there right now. It sort of stung that Mystic was slow enough to use as an interrogation center, but it meant that I got to see what was going on. I might have been mistaken but I could swear that Tadpole winked at me as we exited the building. I had the feeling that Otis’ familiar was much cleverer than people gave him credit for.
Mayor Thomas sat in the back room, saying the same thing that Tazzie had. "I've never even touched Tazzie Singer, let alone had an affair with her."
"Explain this picture then," Lincoln said.
Mayor Thomas couldn't. That was part of the problem. Neither he nor Tazzie could explain anything, only deny it.
Trixie was sitting in a chair out front, spinning a cupcake around in a circle, bored, or maybe just frustrated. "It doesn't make sense," she said, frowning. "Why would they have an affair?"
Eleanor looked at her younger sister with an expression I had often seen Colt use with me. "Why shouldn't they have had an affair? Sometimes people just do stupid things."
"Yes, but the picture... what if it's fake?"
"Fake?" I asked. "You mean like Photoshopped?"
"Maybe. Or maybe just... I don't know. Sheriff Knoxx had a body double out there. Why shouldn't Tazzie and the mayor?"
I scowled. "That's a good point, actually. How do we know the people in those photos are actually who they look like?"
There was a knock on the front door of the bakery. Elwin opened it. "Sorry, Ma'am, the Mystic Cupcake is closed for the next hour."
Elwin was nice, if not a little goofy. He was always smiling at inappropriate times. Otis had stayed back at the station, cleaning up after Tadpole, so Sheriff Knoxx had placed Elwin in charge. He was supposed to keep us out front, away from the interrogations, and keep customers from entering our store. So far, there had been no customers, and between the three of us, Eleanor, Trixie, and I had managed to hear everything that was going on back there.
When Trixie decided she needed to make more strawberry frosting, she'd gone into the back for her supplies and heard Colt asking Mayor Thomas about the photograph. When I needed to work on my mood extracts, I'd gone in search of tanzanite powder and met a frustrated Colt who was attempting to get Tazzie to confess to the affair.
Sheriff Knoxx had yelled at Elwin, telling him that if any of us went into the back one more time, he'd be in charge of Tadpole for the next week. I wasn't sure that Elwin saw it as the threat that Sheriff Knoxx had meant it as.
"Thank you, Sheriff," Elwin said. "I sure do like that little guy, Tadpole's awful cute. I think he likes me, too, though not as much as he likes Otis, I know."
Sheriff Knoxx had sighed and moved Tazzie into our frosting closet, which was essentially a large, walk-in pantry.
Hadley Miner cleared her throat as she shoved her foot between the door so that Elwin couldn't close it on her.
"I'm not here for pastries," Hadley said. "I've come to post Mayor Thomas’ bail."
"Bail!" Elwin cried, his eyes widening. "Well, uh, I don't know, I mean, I'm not even sure if bail's been set yet." He smiled widely at her.
"Well, I'm here either way, so you better find out."
He ushered her inside and went to get Sheriff Knoxx. I watched her, wondering why on Earth Hadley would want to post bail for Mayor Thomas. I didn't even think she knew Mayor Thomas, not well enough to post his bail, that is.
A moment later, Sheriff Knoxx appeared with Lincoln. Lincoln nodded to Hadley, who smiled back at him.
"I understand you want to post bail for Mayor Thomas," Lincoln said. "Mind if I ask why?"
"Why?" Hadley repeated, confused. "Because I think he's innocent and this is all my fault. I should have torn up that stupid picture as soon as I got it."
"You sure that's it?" Sheriff Knoxx asked.
"What do you mean? Why else should I want to post his bail?"
Sheriff Knoxx shrugged and looked at Lincoln. "Well, you work for his mistress, don't you? Maybe you thought you'd be helping her if you got him out of here."
"Mistress? You mean Tazzie?" Hadley suppressed a laugh. "You don't really believe that, do you?"
"A picture's worth a thousand words," Sheriff Knoxx said.
The back door swung open, and Colt poked his head out. "Sheriff Knoxx, Lincoln, you better get back here. I think we just got a confession."
Lincoln and Sheriff Knoxx shot a surprised but happy look to each other as they hurried to the back.
Elwin tried to follow but Knoxx told him to stay out here with Hadley. His face turned glum.
"I never get to do the good stuff," he lamented to us.
Trixie offered him a happy jalapeno cake, and when his attention was diverted, Eleanor, Trixie, and I crept to the door to listen.
"Tell them what you just told me," Colt said.
"I didn't kill anyone, it was Tazzie," Mayor Thomas cried. "She knew about the blackmail letters because I told her. It wasn't even the letters that bothered her so much, it was Thaddeus beating her in the polls. She already wanted him gone. The blackmail was just the icing on the cake. Tazzie wanted to get rid of him, and she found a way to do it."
"You're saying that Tazzie Singer killed Thaddeus?" Sheriff Knoxx asked.
"That's right."
Tazzie's cry echoed shrilly from the frosting closet. "I did not!"
Mayor Thomas ignored her. "She told me she was going to kill him."
The frosting closet door o
pened. Tazzie stood with her hands on her hips. "I said I could kill him, not that I was going to."
"What's the difference?" Mayor Thomas yelled.
"The difference is you're trying to set me up!"
"I don't have to set you up; you did just fine by yourself!"
"I hate you! How anyone could think we were having an affair is beyond me!"
"I couldn't agree more."
"ENOUGH!" Sheriff Knoxx yelled. He turned to Colt. "Get her out of here, will you?"
"Where to?"
"Lincoln?" Sheriff Knoxx asked, looking at his counterpart.
"Sure, we'll go to my station. Next time," he looked at Sheriff Knoxx, "you might want to leave your skunk outside."
"It's not my skunk, it's Otis’." I could almost see the eye roll the mention of Tadpole induced in Sheriff Knoxx.
When they were gone, Sheriff Knoxx turned back to Mayor Thomas. "Bottom line?" he asked the mayor.
"Bottom line is that Tazzie Singer would stop at nothing to win the election. Including killing the man who beat her."
* * *
1 2
* * *
"Whistle if you see anyone coming," I said.
"Whistle?" Lucy asked, laughing. "This isn't a film noir movie."
"Just do it," I snapped. We were both on edge tonight. Lucy had had a rough day at work. Melbourne had come in for the first time since getting back to Sweetland Cove, and he and William Carney had gotten into an argument. Apparently, William didn't want to give up running Coffee Cove. He liked working there. He liked being in charge.
William's point, which I thought was valid, was that Melbourne had been declared dead for several weeks. Therefore, he had forfeited any ownership rights to the Coffee Cove. I felt bad for Melbourne, who was only trying to get his life back, but I wasn't sure it was fair to William to be forced out of the place.
"What are we looking for, anyway?" Lucy asked, still huffy. "I thought this place was already searched."
"It was." We were standing outside Mayor Thomas’ office. It was late, dark, and no one was around. It was the perfect time to do a little reconnaissance work. "The search got interrupted. Mayor Thomas made a run for it and when Hadley Miner showed up with that photograph, and the search was sort of forgotten."
