Red Velvet Waffle (The Diner of the Dead Series Book 15)

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  Unable to control herself, Sonja let out a wild scream as the rope snapped and the body fell down toward her. Throwing up her arms to shield herself from the impact, she stumbled backward down the stairs and right into Frank’s open arms. Both of them fell onto the floor.

  After they’d landed, they looked back up toward the stairwell.

  The body was gone as if it’d never been there at all.

  CHAPTER 8

  * * *

  “What’s happening?” Benjamin yelled as he ran down the stairs. “I heard screams.”

  “We're not staying another second in this house, that’s what’s happening,” Frank replied, pushing up from the floor and heading over to the couch. He frantically shoved things into his duffle bag.

  Sonja wanted so badly to say, I told you so, but refrained, figuring that having his first real supernatural encounter was enough poetic justice for one evening.

  “You can’t leave,” Benjamin insisted, coming the rest of the way down the stairs. “The ghost might come back and kill me.”

  “I’m not staying in this house for one more second,” Frank retorted, zipping his bag closed, catching a few pieces of clothing in its teeth. He didn’t care, he hefted the bag over one shoulder and headed for the door.

  “Frank,” Sonja argued, “he’s right, we can’t just leave. What if something else happens?”

  “I don’t want to be here for it,” he announced, opening the door and stepping out into the night.

  Sighing in frustration, she followed him out with Benjamin close behind. There was no way he was staying in the house alone. “Frank,” she yelled. “Come on.”

  “Nope,” he said, opening the trunk of his sports car parked just out front of the barn and tossing it inside. “Dead bodies and murders I can do, but this . . .” he shook his head and walked over to the door of his car. “I’m done.”

  Turning to open the door, he found himself facing the large opening into the barn. A low windy creak drew his attention. Glancing up, both Frank and Sonja saw it at the same time—the swinging silhouettes of two dead bodies tied to the rafters.

  A deep duo of laughter emanated from inside the barn.

  Within seconds, Frank was laying on his back in the dirt.

  * * *

  “Frank,” Sonja called his name. “Frank, wake up.”

  Blinking, his eyes widened a little as he tried to remember what had happened.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I-I think so,” he muttered, bracing himself on the couch in the farmhouse. “Did I pass out?”

  She nodded. “You did. You saw some pretty scary things.”

  Frank shivered, bracing himself on the side of the couch as he sat up. “Where am I?”

  “Back in the farmhouse. Benjamin helped carry you in.”

  “The farmhouse?” he blurted, turning to look at the empty stairwell. “I’m not staying in here,” he insisted, jumping to his feet.

  “Where are you going?” Sonja asked.

  “I’m calling it,” he announced. “We’re all leaving the farm tonight.”

  “Leaving?” Sonja protested. “We’ve only just started to see things.”

  “I need a better grasp of what’s going on before I can jump to any conclusions. In order to make sure we’re all safe,” he looked at both of them, “I think it’s best if we all leave and then come back in the morning.”

  “And where am I supposed to go?” Benjamin argued.

  “I’ll put up the cost for you to stay in the hotel,” he informed him “Either way, I’m taking this threat seriously and I want you somewhere safe and secure for the night. Also, I want to be somewhere safe and secure tonight, somewhere which doesn’t involve phantom bodies hanging from the ceiling.”

  * * *

  After some serious convincing, Frank got the two to leave the farm and follow him in their cars to the only hotel in town. After getting Benjamin a room, the sheriff handed him the key and instructed him to keep the door deadbolted and the windows locked.

  Sonja was amazed at how frightened her boyfriend seemed to be. In fact, she could hardly believe he had actually passed out.

  Both Benjamin and Frank were brave men, neither of them cowards in any situation she’d ever seen them in. She guessed that when it came to the unknown, to the strange supernatural world of the dead, anyone could lose face. It was just strange to see it actually happening.

  “Well, you head on home,” Frank instructed her as they stood outside of the hotel. “Meet me back at the hotel in the morning and the three of us will go back out to the farm together.”

  “Frank, do you think you’ll be okay tonight?”

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he said putting on a brave face. The man she knew was slowly coming back, but the experience at the farm was clearly affecting him on a deep level. “We’ll figure out who is behind this once the sun is up.”

  “So, you still think this is all a prank?” she pressed.

  “That’s what I’m sticking with,” he asserted his point of view, standing up straight as if trying to convince himself it were true. “And don’t try to tell me otherwise, because it won’t work.”

  Sonja shrugged, “And if it’s an actual haunting?”

  “It isn’t,” he retorted. “There has to be a logical explanation. There always is.”

  “And if there isn’t?”

  “Sonja,” he groaned. “I’m still not sure how you of all people believe in ghosts.”

  She gritted her teeth, angry that he still seemed intent on insulting her. If only he knew the truth, that she was a born medium who could see and speak to ghosts—more-so than any regular person.

  “I’m not sure how you don’t believe after what you’ve seen tonight,” she exclaimed, surprised that he was still choosing to hang onto the silly argument from earlier that day.

  “Listen, this could turn out to be a serious investigation. If this threat is real, and not just a sick joke, we could have some serious trouble on our hands.”

  “It is serious,” Sonja asserted.

  “The only reason I’m letting you tag along tomorrow is because Benjamin has specifically requested your assistance. If not for that, I’d treat this like any other case and take care of it by myself or with my deputies.”

  “Except, I’ve helped solve almost every murder case in Haunted Falls,” she shouted, her voice growing in pitch.

  “Let’s not do this right now,” he begged. “We’re both tired.”

  With that, he walked to his car and got in.

  Sonja stood by her van, fuming silently as she watched him drive away.

  CHAPTER 9

  * * *

  The next morning, Sonja exited her house to find Frank’s police cruiser sitting out front. Groaning inwardly, she wished she didn’t have to deal with this right away. As she approached the car, he rolled down his window. “Morning, Sonj,’,” he called as if nothing had happened the night before.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked in a somewhat snippy voice. “I thought we were meeting over at the hotel this morning.”

  “Already been there.”

  “Then where the heck is Benjamin?”

  Frank shrugged. “When I knocked, he didn’t answer. He’s probably asleep. He had a hard day yesterday, and a hard night, so it’ll do him some good to get extra rest.”

  “I guess.”

  “So, I thought you and I could go take a quick look at the farm first, just to see if we spot anything obvious.”

  Sonja knew this was a ploy to be alone with her, to try and talk things through, and she didn’t much care for it. She wondered if he had even bothered knocking on Benjamin’s hotel room door, or if that was all a lie to get her alone. Either way, she was eager to take a look at the farm, and therefore relented to her boyfriend’s wishes.

  “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll come with you on one condition.”

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “You keep an open mind to
this being an actual haunting.”

  Frank hesitated, his smile disappearing into a serious straight line. Eventually, he nodded. “All right. I’ll try to keep an open mind, for your sake.”

  “For both our sakes,” she retorted. “And Ben’s.”

  “I suppose I owe you at least that much,” he admitted as he leaned across and opened the passenger side door for her. “Here,” he offered.

  Sonja climbed in.

  * * *

  “Look,” he cut into the silence after about five minutes of driving (which felt more like five hours of tension). “I owe you another apology.”

  “You’re right,” she pouted. “You do.”

  “I haven’t been very fair to you. I’ve let my emotions run away with me.”

  “You sure have,” she agreed.

  “Yesterday in the diner, I got a little defensive because of Benjamin. I know I have nothing to worry about, and I do trust you, but something just came over me.”

  The whole jealousy thing didn’t bother Sonja nearly as much as the rudeness about her belief in ghosts.

  “And about the whole believing in ghosts thing,” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “I guess the idea of death and the afterlife make me uncomfortable, so it’s easier just to make fun or completely discredit things like hauntings.”

  At this, Sonja perked up a little bit. “Oh?”

  “I thought about it a lot last night and realized I was the one with the problem. You’re clearly comfortable believing in ghosts, so I should be comfortable with your belief. It isn’t up to me to judge you or try and make you change your mind,” he paused, glancing over at her. “So, I’m sorry about that.”

  Sonja looked at his handsome face, the scruff he hadn’t shaved and his full head of blonde hair, and sighed. She really did love him. “I’m sorry, too,” she admitted. “I shouldn’t have been so defensive about the whole thing. I guess I just feel ghosts and hauntings are a big part of me for some reason.” She wished she could explain the truth and hoped that someday she could. “It was wrong of me to try and convince you that ghosts were real.” She shifted closer to him and touched his knee, “Although, after last night, I was wondering if you were a little more convinced.”

  He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. I’m still going to dig around and try to prove that it’s someone trying to scare Benjamin with tricks.”

  “I understand.”

  “I just think I’ll have a hard time explaining that body suddenly appearing and disappearing on the stairs,” he admitted. “If that was a prank, it was some professional haunted house quality special effects.”

  “You have no idea,” Sonja laughed.

  * * *

  In the daylight, the farm looked harmless—nothing but an old house and an old barn made up of mortar, stone, and wood. Parking the car in the same spot from the night before, Frank opened his door.

  “Let’s start with the barn. I figure we’ll wait until Benjamin’s here to go in the house at all.”

  “Good plan,” she agreed getting out with him.

  She sighed as the warm morning sun rays hit her face. She was glad the argument was basically over between her and Frank. She hated the constant tension and hoped to never have it happen again.

  Together, the couple walked into the barn.

  There were no bodies hanging from the rafters, not even a single noose. The place looked downright cozy.

  “No more silhouettes,” Frank noted, looking up at the ceiling. “If they were dummies, someone took them down.”

  Sonja wasn’t sure if they were dummies or ghosts, but she did know that everyone else had seen them. Additionally, Frank had seen the ghost on the stairs.

  In her experience, normal humans couldn’t see ghosts most of the time—not unless the ghost itself had some driving force behind it, granting it more and more spiritual energy to affect the real world.

  Sometimes that energy was driven by anger, love, or revenge. Other times it came as a result of someone feeding the ghost’s energy.

  That was how a poltergeist was made. Usually, a teenage boy or girl, with really strong ups and downs of stress and emotion, would feed into the entity, granting it the power to throw things across the room or even appear briefly.

  So, the next question was, what was feeding into the ghosts of the Hinkley Farm?

  “Hey, Sonj’, check this out.” Almost as if in response to her own inner dialogue, Frank pointed at the dirt at their feet.

  Looking down, she saw the faint outline of a circle there, drawn with what looked like chalk into the dirt. Parts of the circle were completely gone, covered over with footprints.

  Sonja groaned. “Looks like we destroyed part of the evidence just by walking in here.”

  “Maybe not,” he noted, squatting. “There is more than just our footprints.”

  Crouching down, she tried to take in what was left of the circle, as well as the other markers.

  “These look like women’s shoes,” Frank said, indicating one that looked pretty clear. “Sneakers, I’d say. Size seven.”

  “You can tell all that by the print?”

  “It says 7 right there in the middle of the sole,” he chuckled.

  He was right, whoever was in here wore a woman’s size seven shoe.

  As she studied closer, she also began making out details of the circle. It looked like there were faint remnants of runes drawn along the edges, accompanied by a large half-formed pentagram in the middle.

  “This seems like some sort of witchcraft,” she noted out loud, taking out her phone and opening the camera app.

  “Witches?” Frank raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you believe in those, now, too.”

  Sonja shook her head at him. “Not like cauldron stirring, broom riding witches. I mean real witches. There are people who perform ceremonies and believe they can call upon the spirits of the dead.” She held up her phone, “may I?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Pointing the camera, she snapped a few pictures of the clearer parts of the circle to go over later. She felt like they may come in handy.

  “I suppose we have witches here in Haunted Falls.”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. Panelope is one.”

  “Oh?”

  She nodded. She wasn’t about to tell him that there were real witches who could do real magic as well. It would have to be a whole other argument for another day.

  “But why do it here?” he wondered out loud.

  “Maybe because they believe the spiritual energy here is strong. Maybe they wanted to communicate with those who died in the barn.”

  Frank stood up. “Now this is just getting a little too weird for me,” he sighed, straightening his uniform. “Mostly, it just proves my point. Someone else was out here, and someone most likely has been trying to scare Benjamin. The only question now is, what for?”

  Sonja was about to mention Corrie when Frank’s phone began to ring.

  “It’s the hotel,” he announced.

  “The hotel? Do you think it’s Benjamin?”

  “Maybe his cell died?” Frank answered the phone. “Hello?” he paused, his face growing worried. “What? Are you sure?”

  Sonja suddenly felt sick. Something was wrong.

  “I’ll be right there.” He hung up.

  “What is it?” Sonja urged.

  “Benjamin’s dead. He hung himself in his hotel room last night.”

  CHAPTER 10

  * * *

  The hotel was a swarm of the sheriff and his deputies, the local paramedics, and the coroner. Sonja wasn’t allowed to go into the hotel, so she waited impatiently outside for any news about Benjamin’s death—wondering what exactly had happened.

  She was waiting for someone to come out and say, it was all a mistake, he’s fine, or the jokes over.

  That didn’t happen.

  Instead, Frank left the building with his head held low.

  Sonja perked up upon seeing him and walked toward the h
otel doorway. “Well?” she asked eagerly.

  “It looks like suicide,” he informed her, “plain and simple.”

  “Suicide?” she blurted out. “The man who was threatened just yesterday committed suicide?”

  “That’s right,” he told her, “and I’ve already told Greg to file it away as such.”

  “What about the coroner? What did he say?”

  “No sign of struggle on his body. No sign of a struggle in the room. He died of strangulation.”

  “Will there be an autopsy?” she pressed.

  “Yes, there will be, just as an ordinary procedure to affirm what we already know.”

  “That it’s suicide?” she was still skeptical.

  “Yes.”

  “How can we really know that?” Even if Benjamin was scared, it just didn’t fit his personality to kill himself. No, she believed this had to be murder.

  Frank put a hand on her shoulder. “Believe it. Everyone at the diner yesterday morning saw how somber he was. He looked like death.”

  “He looked sleep deprived.”

  “Still.”

  “I can’t believe this,” she protested.

  “The door was chain locked from the inside and the windows were all shut tight. There was no sign of forced entry.”

  “Maybe someone at the hotel did it,” she blurted, trying to think of any logical explanation. “They had a key to the room.”

  Frank shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to unlock the chain with a key.”

  “Then how did they even realize he was dead?”

  “When the maid knocked around eleven—which is after checkout—and no one answered, she tried to let herself in, but couldn’t because the chain kept it from opening more than an inch. She realized someone must be inside and knocked again, even called out. When no one answered again, she called the manager.”

  “And they just decided to try to go in?”

  “The maid said she had a sick feeling like something was wrong. With your intuition, you should know all about that sort of thing.”

  “I guess, but how did they get in?”