Jessie Delacroix_Fright Night at the Haunted Inn

by Constance Barker

  I nodded. “I’m going to see what’s going on with Wally and try to find out some more information.”

  Anika stood now too. “And let’s all reconvene right here at sundown, Jessie. Tell the Sheriff to be here with Wally and Molly, and we’ll solve this case to his rational satisfaction.”

  That got me very curious, but I knew it would be worth the wait.

  Inside the lobby, Tramador’s three men, who had checked in with him, were sitting on the bench, and the three women were sitting on the floor. They were all looking quite forlorn, still in the same clothes they arrived in, as they had brought no bags.

  Anika came in right behind me, and I turned to her. “Anika, we should probably get these folks back where they belong.”

  She nodded, but then stopped abruptly. “I have a better idea.”

  She asked the men and women a few questions in her native tongue. They each gave a brief response, as you might do in in small meeting, going around the room with introductions, but from their hand gestures it seemed that they were explaining their work or individual talents. After a few questions the women looked at each other and smiled, and then they nodded at Anika with a sense of excitement.

  “Okay, Jess. These are all circus performers, as you know, and they’ve agreed to do a three-ring performance for our guests tonight in the back. In exchange for their talents, you will feed them in the Tea Room…”

  “Of course. They’re welcome to eat whenever and as often as they’d like. They’re probably hungry right now.”

  “…and I’ll take them to the antique clothing shop for some fresh attire. Then we’ll get them all back home in the morning.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what she had up her sleeve, but I was sure it had something to do with solving our mystery in front of the Sheriff. One petite young woman in a blue and white checkered dress and a white bonnet seemed a little worried and had a question for Anika. I’m pretty sure she was wondering how we would be able to get them back home, to a distant place and time.

  Anika smiled and spoke to her, gesturing toward me. The round little witch clenched her hands into tight little fists in front of her and then quickly flung her fingers out wide.

  “Whoosh!” was all she said.

  The young woman looked at me skeptically. Then she looked at Anika and slowly shook her head. She was obviously quite skeptical of my ability to send her back home. Anika tilted her head towards me and spoke to me out of the side of her mouth.

  “Snap your fingers, Jessie,” she whispered, looking around to make sure no one else was there.

  I was willing to go along with her scheme, but I gave her a quizzical look since I had no idea what kind of magic she wanted to happen.

  “Just snap. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Okay. Well, she was a witch – so I snapped.

  Poof. Anika did an extra fast morph into Moondance, and the furry cat jumped into my arms. The young woman smiled brightly now and nodded, and then she led her companions around me toward the Tea Room entrance.

  “I guess they’d rather eat than shop for clothes, Moondance. But they smell a little ripe, and our other guests might not appreciate that.” As they passed the front desk I called to them. “Wait!”

  They stopped and turned towards me. I snapped again, and they were all clean and fresh, as if they had just stepped out of a bath, and they all had a clean set of clothing, suited precisely for what they most wanted to wear. The young woman had a very similar dress and bonnet to the one she arrived in, suited perhaps for a modest milkmaid, with a brightly colored apron. Another woman had a red satin gown with a long red feather bordered in blue and gold extending out of her hat, and her gentleman friend had a tuxedo with tails. She took his arm and they walked to the Tea Room entrance. All six of them were in much better spirits than when we found them just a few moments ago, and it made me feel happy.

  Lexi came to the doorway to seat them, and I told her to give them anything they wanted all day today.

  Moondance jumped down and strolled into the pawnshop just as the front door opened. Ralphie Moore walked in with Elmer and Joey. He took off his cap and smiled his toothless grin at me. “Hey there, Jessie. Is Ginny in this afternoon?”

  I saw Lionel out front tying down the big acrylic pieces of Tramador’s glass gazebo onto a trailer. It looked like our swampbilly boys that just walked in had helped him disassemble and load it.

  “She’s taking a nap, but she’ll be back…” I looked at my watch. “…in about eleven minutes. And you guys go ahead and order up a nice meal. I appreciate that you helped Lionel with that heavy tent thing.”

  Elmer’s eyes grew wide, and he leaned out from behind Ralphie. “You mean like we could have one of Carlo’s specials, Jessie?”

  “Absolutely, Elmer.”

  Ralphie was never one to impose. “Well, we’d be real happy with some grits and a couple of those little sandwiches, Jessie.”

  “Just go ahead and have something good…whatever you want, Ralphie. You too, Elmer and Joey. That was some hard work.”

  “Well, thank you, Jess.” Ralphie seemed most appreciative as he wiped his forehead off with a red bandana from his pocket. “You know, since Ginny’s been here it’s almost like having your Granny back with us, Jessie. That gal sure is a barrel of fun with all her stories.”

  I heard Arthur’s toenails clicking on the floor behind me, and he sat down at my side. I guess Granny heard her name.

  “Well, ’cept Granny had a lot more insults for us.” He smiled and almost got misty-eyed.

  Arthur let out a low growl and then one bark at Ralphie. I sent her a silent message.

  “Granny, I think that was meant as a compliment. Ralphie really misses you.”

  “I know. I miss the old coot too. Tell him he smells like duck farts on a muggy day.”

  I don’t think so. “Just tell Lexi to take care of you guys, Ralphie…and thanks!”

  I went out the front door to talk to Lionel before I headed out to see the Sheriff and Wally. He was just finishing securing it to the trailer.

  “A lot of heavy stuff, there, Lionel. I wonder how Tramador and his crew got it all here from…uh, wherever they came from.”

  Lionel smiled and wiped his brow with his forearm. “That came from right here in the garage, Miss Jessie. The previous owner of the mansion, way back during World War II, worked for Imperial Chemical Industries – it’s called Lucite now. He used to set a gazebo like this up at trade shows and get inside with his family. Then he’d have soldiers shoot bullets at them. He sold a lot of it to the aircraft industry for airplane windshields doing that. Then your Granny set this one up right next to your carriage house and had a couple of wild cougars in there for a while, until the animal protection folks got after her. You were still in diapers when we retired it. Besides, I doubt if they had Plexiglas and titanium where that guy came from.”

  Did Lionel know that Tramador had come through a wormhole from 1886 Vienna?

  “I hope you don’t mind if I use your little Silverado here to pull this over by the garage, Jessie. This is the last load, and it can just stay on the trailer for now.”

  “That’s fine with me, Lionel.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  It just took Lionel a couple minutes to pull the load over to a shady spot by the huge garage under my carriage house. Then I headed down Carlisle Boulevard for the courthouse, which was conveniently located upstairs of the Dairy Queen.

  On the weekends the foot traffic on antique row would spill over into the street, sometimes making it hard for cars to get through. But it was a Tuesday afternoon and, although it was always busy with tourists in Whispering Pines, the people were pretty much on the sidewalks. Still, they would cross the wide street in the middle of a block all the time – and when a few people started to cross, it seemed like everyone would keep the stream of pedestrians going for a while.

  I stopped, smiled, and waved as tourists crossed in front of me. “Well, Arthur,
I guess when you’re a local merchant in a tourist town you have to smile and be patient with all the people who are slowing you down.” I was anxious to get to city hall, since that’s most likely where Sheriff Muldoon took Wally and Molly. But I had grown accustomed to keeping my cool with the shoppers.

  Arthur stuck his head out the window and gave the pedestrians a few mighty barks. “Well, you’re a better man than I, Jessie.”

  It would be nice to have a little alone time with just me and Arthur once in a while. “Granny, cut that out! You’ve got no reason to be in a hurry – and I’m pretty sure we’re women, not men.”

  “Speak for yourself, girlie. Do these look like lady parts to you?”

  “Granny!”

  Arthur lay on his back with a big Granny smile on his face. The people crossing were mostly gone now, so I rolled a couple feet ahead slowly and then slammed on the brake. Arthur slid into a box of soft hoodies and sweatshirts on the floor that I’ve been meaning to donate to the thrift shop, and I let out a victorious laugh. “Ha! Now who’s the man?”

  “Killjoy. You need to grow a sense of humor, Jessie.”

  “I must have a sense of humor, Gran, because that seemed pretty funny to me.”

  The Sheriff’s car was in the little lot behind the DQ by the wooden stairs that went up to City Hall. Well, it’s Kyle’s office, and the part-time mayor uses it once in a while too. Oh – and there’s a little holding cell there for possible criminals – usually teenaged shoplifters or women who got carried away fighting over an old dresser. Arthur and I went upstairs and opened the door.

  “Hi, Sheriff…Audrey.”

  The desk faced away from us toward the window in the front of the building, and the Sheriff swiveled his chair around towards us.

  “If you’re looking for Kyle and Zach, they’re out fighting crime in the metropolis of Whispering Pines, Miss Delacroix.”

  Audrey was in the wooden chair on the other side of the cluttered desk, and Wally and Molly were locked in the cell.

  “So are these two being charged with a crime, Sheriff?”

  He folded his arms on his chest and put one ankle up on his other knee. “So are you counsel for these folks now, ma’am? I know you have a lot of talents, but I didn’t know you were a lawyer.”

  “Actually, Sheriff, I do have one year of Law School and a year working for a law firm as an investigator. But they’re just my friends. You got to sell a lot of donuts to afford a real attorney, Sir. But, I was wondering if I might have a few minutes to talk to them alone.”

  “You’re not going to break them out now, are you, Miss Delacroix?”

  “Matthew…” Audrey shamed her big boyfriend with a single word.

  “Actually, Audrey and I were just talking about going downstairs to get a cup of coffee and an ice cream sundae. The only thing close to my office in Stony Point is a sushi place,” he said with obvious disgust, “so this is kind of a treat for me when I come here.”

  “That would be perfect. I only need a few minutes, Sir…”

  The couple got up to go.

  “…and Molly likes chocolate and Wally likes vanilla, if you were thinking of bringing them each a cone when you come back.”

  The Sheriff nodded and put on his hat.

  “Oh – and, Sheriff…if you’re interested, there will be a little circus performance in back of the Inn at eight o’clock…”

  “Well, I’m not really much for that kind of thing…”

  “Anika and Ginny and I will be solving the Tramador case. We would really like to have you and Audrey there with Wally and Molly, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  Muldoon let out an audible breath of dubious exasperation and tipped his hat as he put his hand on Audrey’s back. She turned away from the Sheriff to give me a wide-eyed smile and an enthusiastic nod. Then she looked back at her man.

  “Come on, big fella. Let’s give them the room.”

  “I’m tired of this life, Jessie. Just let them lock me up – or send me to France so they can chop off my head and get this over with.”

  That was an odd and pessimistic thing for Wally to say – not to mention, quite a coincidence since I had just recently left the Reign of Terror there. “I would never let that happen, Wally. You have too much to live for.”

  He sat on a chair in the cell with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands while Molly slept peacefully on the small cot. His cuffs were rolled up a couple of times, and the tattooed image of a snake’s head, about the size of my thumb, protruded out from the sleeve near his wrist. I had never really noticed that before. He seemed tired and despondent. I could tell he was in no mood for a pep talk.

  “Look, Wally, I just need a little more information from you so I can put together a story that the Sheriff will buy. I know you saw some terrible and traumatizing things behind that curtain of pine trees. I just really want to know what actually went on back there. Were there really two…beasts? Why did Tramador ask Lilianna to help him if she was the one tearing him to pieces? Let’s start with those two questions.”

  He sat up and looked at me and took a deep cleansing breath. He pulled his chair closer to his sleeping wife and put his hand on Molly’s arm. After a moment of silence he spoke.

  “Yes, there were two werewolves – but only one, really.”

  “Wally…”

  “Jessie, I’m not playing games with you, but that’s all I can tell you for now. There were two. But there was one. The thing I told Kyle about the fight and the dog chasing one of them away…I just made that up.”

  I stood up and grabbed the bars with my face poking slightly into the cell. I could tell that he was done talking about it. “What was it you were going to ask me to do for you at the Tea Room earlier, Wally – before the Sheriff walked in?”

  He gave me a perplexed look and then remembered what I was referring to. “Oh…it’s nothing. It’s not something I can ask from you now that I might have a murder charge hanging over my head, Jessie.”

  “Wally…”

  “No. Not now.”

  “Well, I asked the Sheriff to bring you and Molly to the Inn tonight. Anika says she might have a way to clear your names.”

  He looked interested. “Anika? That’s good. Will Moondance be there?”

  “The cat? Um…I usually don’t see him much when Anika is working, but he could probably show up for a visit. I didn’t know you were a cat lover.”

  Wally just smiled and stroked Molly’s arm.

  “Ask him if Lilianna killed that Colonel guy.”

  I had forgotten that Arthur and Granny were with me; they had been so quiet.

  “I don’t think he wants to talk about that, Gran.”

  “Just ask him.”

  “So…Wally, did Lilianna kill Tramador? Or was it that other werewolf?”

  “Lilianna?”

  “Yes – the young girl that came here with Colonel Tramador and turned into a werewolf in that glass tent in front of the Inn.”

  “Yes, yes, I know who she is.” He got a faraway look in his eye. “That young girl was far too sweet to kill that man, Jessie. So, no, she absolutely didn’t. Well, yes. Perhaps she did.”

  Swell – another contradictory answer.

  “Chocolate for the lady, and vanilla for the gentleman!” Audrey sang as she came through the door, treats in hand and the Sheriff behind her.

  Wally thanked her and took the two cones. “Sweetheart, the Sheriff and Audrey brought you some ice cream.”

  She awoke slowly and sat up on the bed. “Hi, Jessie! Thank you, Audrey…Thank you, Sheriff.”

  Arthur scooted out the door while the Sheriff still had it open, and I followed behind him.

  “I’ll see you all tonight!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Twilight was descending, and the setting sun shone through the tall pines behind the Inn with the trees casting their long shadows over the entire bustling lawn and courtyard. The rising moon seemed harmless now with some of its ful
lness eroded since the Fright Night super moon that had created so much havoc just two nights ago.

  “I must say, I’m impressed!”

  Ginny and Anika smiled proudly as I looked in awe at the magnificent circus arena they had created in back of the Inn. There was a high wire that was maybe twelve feet off the ground, a trapeze, and a large stage, complete with spotlights and a sound system. There was a huge heavy weight – a 500-pound block of metal with a handle on it – in the corner of the stage, perhaps for a strongman act.

  “Well, Jess, we couldn’t have done any of it without Lionel and Beth.” Ginny was proud, but always humble. “Lionel fashioned the tight rope and swing out of some guy wire cables and metal poles from an old ham radio tower that used to stand right next to the mansion back in the 1930s.”

  “I guess all the clutter in my garage is full of tricks!”

  Lionel had even set up a section of bleachers on one end of the back lawn and added more tables on the patio blocks of the courtyard, which were filling up quickly now. Anika took it from there.

  “That’s right. And Beth Yates somehow heard about our circus event and offered to set up the wireless sound system and laser show that they use for the festivals out on the Boulevard.”

  Beth was the wife of Carson Yates. He’s the brother of my cowboy, Travis, and he and Beth took over the new Carson Yates Ghost Walk and remodeled the old Swamp Fox Saloon south of town. It’s a really nice restaurant and nightclub now.

  “I see. And…uh…how did Beth happen to find out about our little circus?”

  Ginny had her head down but raised her eyes towards me sheepishly. “Well, we might have accidentally gone down to the Swamp Fox for a late lunch and just casually mentioned it.”

  “And then we couldn’t keep her away!” Anika smiled and blinked.

  “Of course.”

  Anika was right. That’s just the way Beth is – and they knew it.