by Kathi Daley
“I have no idea where you’re going with this,” Salinger countered.
I paused as a clap of thunder shook the old wooden structure. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would admire the artistry of the whole thing. I wondered if the storm was just a coincidence, or if whoever put this thing together intentionally waited for one to roll in. I cringed as a second clap of thunder followed the first, then returned my attention to the sheriff. “On almost any other day, there would have been someone else at the Zoo to respond to a routine barking dog call. Someone other than me. The fact that this place,” I swept my hand around the room, “is arranged exactly the way it is tells me that whoever killed this man wanted me, and only me, to find the body.”
Salinger still looked confused, although I thought I was being quite clear. “Don’t you see?” I continued. “A creepy old house, a dog in peril, and a body in the basement. Doesn’t it seem just a tiny bit familiar?”
Salinger rubbed his chin with his right hand, as if trying to work through the details with which he’d been presented. After a moment he spoke. “The scene does seem familiar.”
“The setup is the same as the scene I found when I stumbled upon the body of Coach Griswold five years ago. The way this body is posed is even the same, although the method of death is most decidedly different.”
Salinger bent down for a closer look. He gently lifted the sheet, took a closer look at the victim, and then looked back at me. “So we have a copycat.”
“Perhaps. But if I recall correctly, you and I are the only two people to have witnessed the scene of the first crime. I know I didn’t set this whole thing up so…” I raised a brow at Salinger.
“Of course I didn’t set this up,” Salinger huffed. “The details of Coach Griswold’s death are in the file. Photos and such. I suppose they could have been leaked at some point. It happens. But my real question is, if someone wanted to get your attention, why did they duplicate this murder? You’ve been involved in dozens of murder investigations over the years, so why this particular murder out of all the possibilities?”
“I don’t know. And I hate idea that a man is dead and it could very well be my fault indirectly, but I really do feel it’s possible all this has been arranged for my benefit.”
“You think this man was murdered as a prop for whatever sick game someone is playing with you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I hope not, but everything about the scene of this murder seems too perfect not to have been intentional. The call about the dog was made anonymously. The person I spoke to said they didn’t want to leave a name, but they felt they should call because they were afraid the dog was trapped inside the house. I was the one to respond because I was the only one at the Zoo. When I got here there was a dog in the house, tied up in the basement. I guess whoever set this up wanted to be sure I’d check the basement.”
Salinger stood up and took out a notepad. “Where is this dog now?”
“In my car, with Charlie. I didn’t want the dogs to have to wait down here with the body.” I glanced at the sheet on the floor. “Who do you think it is?”
Salinger shook his head. “I don’t know. The victim doesn’t have identification on him. I’ll run his prints after we get him to the morgue.” Salinger used his flashlight to look around the room. The storm had totally blotted out any light that would have been provided by the late afternoon sun, and the only window was a small area of glass high on the wall, at ground level from the outside. “So, if this little murder scene was set up for your benefit do you have any idea who might have done it? Any idea at all?”
“Well, my first thought, given the fact that the man seems to have died from a bite to the neck, is Dracula, although I suppose it could have been another vampire altogether.”
“Dracula didn’t kill this man. A vampire didn’t kill this man.”
“How do you know?” I asked with a slight lilt to my voice.
Salinger glanced at me. “Dracula isn’t real. Vampires aren’t real.”
I raised a brow. “Then how do you explain the two little puncture wounds in the man’s neck? I’ve watched my share of vampire movies. I know what I’m looking at. Maybe someone I helped send to jail was turned and has come back to enact his revenge.”
Salinger chuckled. “Enact his revenge. That’s precious. While I love your childlike belief in possibilities, I can assure you, a living person killed this man, not an undead creature of the night.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay, then, if not a vampire, who?”
“I don’t know. Yet,” Salinger said.
I could hear more thunder rolling in from the distance. Charlie wasn’t normally the sort to cower when we had lightning storms, but he’d been left in the car with a strange dog after witnessing me have a bit of a freak out when I found the body. I should wrap this up and go check on him.
“You said it seemed the stage had been set for your benefit,” Salinger said. “Say that’s true. Does anyone come to mind who might be motivated to do all this? Anyone human?”
I let out a little half laugh. “I’ll admit that as I was driving out here with the rain pouring down all around my car, I thought it might have been Zak who’d sent me on this fateful mission,” I said, referring to my husband, Zak Zimmerman.
Salinger dropped his jaw. “Why on earth would Zak kill a man and then stage this scene for you?”
“Oh, he wouldn’t,” I quickly answered. “It was just that after I got the barking dog call and realized the dog that was overheard seemed to be trapped in the Henderson House, I remembered I’d received the same call five years ago. As I made my way out here in the middle of a rainstorm, it occurred to me that my very caring and inventive husband might have set up a surprise to try to lure me out of my funk. Not that he would lure me with a dead body, mind you. I didn’t know we were dealing with an actual murder until after I got here. But as I made the trip out, it did occur to me that maybe Zak had arranged for me to respond to the same call I did all those years ago to bring some Halloween fun into my life.”
“You suspected Zak would send you to a house where you previously found a dead body as a prank?”
“Not a prank exactly. More like a gift. I suspected that when I arrived I’d find a bunch of decorations. Maybe a mannequin mimicking a murder victim.”
“I have to say, the two of you are the oddest couple.”
“Not odd really,” I countered. “Zak knows I usually love Halloween and appreciate a genuine scare. Normally, it wouldn’t occur to me that he would go to such lengths, but I’m afraid I’ve been complaining to anyone who will listen that I’m having a hard time finding the magic of the holiday this year. It seemed like a Zak thing to do to scare the Halloween back into me. He’s sweet that way.”
Salinger chuckled again before taking out his camera. “I wouldn’t be too worried about not feeling the usual magic this year,” he said as he began snapping photos. “You do have a lot on your plate, and I suppose at your age, the level of excitement you feel over holidays—or anything, actually—fades somewhat.”
I leaned a hip against the wall. “But that’s just it. I don’t want the fantasy to fade. Yes, I know I have a baby who requires a lot of my attention, and I’m raising two teenagers as well as seeing to Zak’s adopted grandmother. I do understand that a certain level of fatigue comes with all that. But I don’t want to settle into old ladyhood quite yet. I want to feel happy anticipation. I want to go crazy at the Halloween store picking out decorations, and I want to look forward to the Zoe Donovan Halloween Spooktacular rather than dreading all the extra work it’s going to generate. I hate that I find myself wondering if we shouldn’t have just skipped the party this year.”
Salinger stopped snapping photos. He reached out and put a hand on my arm. “I understand how you feel. I feel the same way sometimes. But you have a long way to go before anyone is going to consider you old. Fatigue might be dimming your enthusiasm right now, but Catherine is getting older, and
soon she won’t require as much care, and Nona seems to be settling into her new situation.”
I let out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess. Zak says I should try to focus on the things in my life that fit the way things are now, like finding a cute costume for Catherine rather than worrying about the fact that I don’t have time to organize the zombie run this year. I know he’s right. I’ve never been good with change, and there have been a lot of changes in my life lately.”
“I can agree that your life has undergone a lot of change in a short period of time,” Salinger said. “But no matter what life throws at you, you’re the most capable person I know. Give yourself a break and try to enjoy what you have instead of fretting over what you’ve had to give up.”
I smiled. ‘Thanks. That helps. Zak, Levi, and Ellie have all been saying the exact same thing, but somehow it’s a bit more convincing coming from you.”
Salinger took out a plastic bag and, using a gloved hand, bagged a discarded bottle cap as well as a partially smoked cigarette. “Glad I can help.”
I glanced at the door leading out to the hallway. “I can hear a car in the drive.”
“It must be the medical examiner. I’ll need to chat with him for a while. Why don’t you go on home to that family of yours? I think it would be best if you stayed close to home until we get this figured out.”
I nodded. “Will you call me when you know whose body it is we found?”
“I will. I’m hoping we know this by evening, but if not, maybe tomorrow morning. Of course, if the man’s prints aren’t in the system, our job is going to be a whole lot harder. He doesn’t look at all familiar to me, so I don’t think he’s a local. He could just be someone passing through. If I don’t get a hit from the fingerprints and he doesn’t match any missing persons reports, I’ll start looking at the lodging properties in the area.”
“If I can help let me know.”
“You can’t. You’re retired from the sleuthing game. Remember?”
I nodded. “I remember. That’s just another change I’m trying to get my head around. If I don’t hear from you this evening I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
After I left the basement I left the house through the rear; the back of the house was the closest to the basement, and suddenly, I felt claustrophobic. It was still raining, but getting wet seemed preferable to spending even one more minute in the stale air that had been trapped inside. I stepped from the small porch into the yard behind the house, turned, and looked back. I knew from previous visits that the structure was two stories, with an attic and a basement. It sat toward the back of a large, overgrown lot surrounded by an iron fence and an impenetrable gate that opened onto a dirt drive leading to a walkway comprised of four rotted steps and an equally rotted porch. The house, once owned by Hezekiah Henderson, certainly had seen more than its share of death.
Hezekiah was already an old man when I was a child. A crazy old man, I’d like to add. Although he’d seemed to have adequate financial resources, he’d chosen to live as a recluse who rarely, if ever, left his creepy old house. When I was seven, one of my classmates told me that in his youth, Hezekiah had murdered and then dismembered over a hundred people. It was rumored he’d buried the body parts under the floorboards in the basement and then settled into a life of seclusion to maintain the spell he’d used to trap the souls of his victims in limbo for all time. Of course, I didn’t necessarily believe the story to be true, but, like I said, the house had seen more than its share of death. Hezekiah died when I was nine, and for years after that, no one dared enter the creepy place, though as time went by the rumors ceased, and vagrants began to use the building to ward off cold winter nights. The legend of Hezekiah Henderson and the haunted basement faded.
Then, seventeen years ago, a bunch of counselors from a nearby summer camp decided to have a party in the old house. Before the night was over, four counselors were dead. Which brings us to five years ago, when I found Coach Griswold’s body in the basement. That murder had had a very human explanation, but that didn’t stop a ghost hunter from coming to town four years ago to research paranormal activity in the house. He seemed to be on to some sort of a revelation until his body was found at the bottom of the stairs a few days later.
When I returned to my car my best little pal and constant sidekick, Charlie, was waiting impatiently with the very pregnant cocker spaniel I’d rescued from the house. “I’m sorry it took so long.” I grabbed a towel from the back seat and dried my face and hair. “I knew you’d be worried, but having you both wait in the car seemed the best course of action.” I looked at the spaniel. “So, what are we going to do with you?” The dog cowered on the back seat, which I guess I understood. The poor thing had probably been dognapped, then tied up in the basement of Henderson House for who knew how long. “I guess I’ll take you home until we can find your humans. It looks like those pups could come at any time, and it will be much more comforting to be around people than to be locked up in a pen at the Zoo.”
Fortunately, the Zimmerman clan was between fosters. In addition to Charlie, we had two full-time dogs and three full-time cats. More often than not, we also had a dog, a cat, or both, we were fostering as well. Currently, however, the spare room was free of any temporary furry guests. I called the house and spoke to Alex, the fourteen-year-old girl who lived with Zak and me. I told her what had happened and that I was on my way, and she agreed to and start dinner. Scooter, the fourteen-year-old boy who lived with us too, had soccer practice after school, which had been moved to the gymnasium due to the rain. That was where Zak would be picking him up. I was fairly certain both would be home shortly. I’d left my almost-ten-month-old daughter with my best friend, Ellie Denton, so I’d need to stop at the boathouse where Ellie lived with her husband Levi and toddler Eli, before heading home for the evening.
Charlie settled in the front seat and the mama spaniel curled up with the blanket I’d found in my trunk in the back, and I started the car and started slowly down the rutted dirt drive. The pouring rain had created large puddles that I navigated carefully so as not to jostle my pregnant passenger any more than I had to. While the rain was still coming down, it seemed the thunder and lightning had moved on, at least for now. The sky was still heavy with dark clouds, so I had no doubt another round of thunderstorms could be in our future.
The rain had caused minor flooding in low-lying areas, so I took it slow once I reached pavement as well. I turned on the radio to the easy listening station in an effort to provide a distraction from my thoughts, and to introduce a calming element to the overall atmosphere of the vehicle. I felt tense, and if I was tense, Charlie would be too, and the poor mama spaniel looked scared to death.
A few minutes later, I glanced in the rearview mirror to the seat behind me. It appeared the spaniel had gone to sleep. I didn’t blame her a bit. The whole ordeal must have been very trying for a mama so far along in her pregnancy. I’d need to put Catherine in the back seat once I picked her up, so I decided to run by the house, drop off the dogs with Alex, then head over to the boathouse to pick up my baby.
******
“You found another body in Henderson House?” Ellie asked after I’d greeted Catherine, who was sitting on the floor playing with Eli. Or at least playing near him. It didn’t seem as if she necessarily cared whether he was there or not. “Doesn’t that make three bodies you’ve found in that house?”
“I didn’t technically find the parapsychologist who died four years ago, so in terms of bodies I’ve found in the house, this only makes two. This is the third murder that’s taken place in that house in the past five years, however.”
“Someone should just tear that place down. The number of people who have died in that house over the years is ridiculous. I’m not one to be superstitious, but I’d almost be willing to bet the place is cursed. Do you know who this victim is?”
I shook my head, lifting my lips on one side in a sort of half grin. “I didn’t recognize him, but I can tell you that t
he killer was a vampire.”
Ellie lifted both brows. “A vampire?”
“The guy had these two little holes in his neck that looked exactly like a vampire bite.”
“You know vampires aren’t real.”
I lifted one shoulder, enjoying the look of disbelief on Ellie’s face. “Maybe.”
She began to catch onto my game and rolled her eyes. “Why would someone make a murder look like a vampire attack? It feels weird and intentional.”
“It was weird and intentional.” I went on to explain my theory that the killer had specifically intended for me to be the one who found the body. I shared my thoughts about the dog being tied in the basement and the call to the Zoo when I would be the only one there.
“So you think you were lured there?” Ellie gasped. “That terrifies me.”
I bit my lower lip, a more serious mood overtaking me. “Yeah. The fact that the scene seemed to have been set for my benefit is bothering me as well.”
“You don’t think it was Claudia…?” Ellie asked.
Claudia Lotherman was a woman I suppose could be classified as my archnemesis. Not only had she tried to kill me twice in the last several years but she’d kidnapped Zak the previous spring and made me pass a bunch of tests to get him back. The last I heard, she was still in the wind and no one knew exactly where she’d holed up, but I had a hard time believing she’d come back to Ashton Falls when so many people were looking for her. Still, she had concocted an elaborate scheme when she kidnapped Zak.
