And then it hit me. A particularly sleazy-looking, paunchy man in a black shirt and too-tight pants strolled past me, whistling. He was wearing sunglasses, even though it wasn’t bright out. He looked, well, like kind of a douchebag. He had to be involved with the club somehow; he just gave off that vibe. I followed him subtly, making sure to stay several yards behind him, and did a silent fist pump in celebration when he stopped in front of the club, pulling out a giant ring of keys. This was my chance.
When I called out to the man a couple of times and he didn’t answer, I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped a little, and I realized that he’d been wearing earbuds, which were plugged into a phone in his back pocket. He pulled one of them out and gave me an annoyed look.
“Yeah? What?”
“Are you the owner of the club?”
“Owner? No. I’m just a manager. And we don’t open for another eight hours. I’m just here to look over the books and do some cleanup. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
“Hold on,” I asked. He stopped and glared at me, peering at me over the rims of his crappy sunglasses.
“Yes?” The man was obviously impatient. I decided to get right to the point.
“Uh, do you know Jackson Long?”
He took off his sunglasses and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, obviously. He’s one of my bartenders. You’re not some journalist or whatever, are you? I don’t have time to give an interview. You want a sound bite? Jackson’s a mediocre bartender. The ladies dig him because he’s tall. I don’t know nothing about that stuff with his sister. Got it?”
“No, no. That’s fine. I was just wondering if you could tell me where he lives?” I asked. “I just wanted to drop in and see if he’s okay. I kind of know him. You know, with all this drama going on, I figure he might like a visitor.”
The man scoffed. “Jackson? He keeps to himself. I doubt he’d like anyone visiting. But you’re welcome to try your luck. He lives in those apartments at Coral Ridge Drive. I think it’s apartment C. You know, those apartments with the ugly pink siding over by the pond?”
“Yes. I know the area. Thank you!” I said quickly. Before the man could say another word, I was speeding off toward Jackson’s neighborhood. It wasn’t a particularly nice area, but there weren’t really any parts of Moonlight Cove one could truly consider seedy or dangerous. Jackson’s apartment complex was one of the few in town like it. Most of the buildings here were historic, but this complex was relatively new. It had been built as a sanatorium in the sixties, and once it closed down, the building was converted into apartments. They weren’t rundown by any means, but they weren’t luxury penthouses, either. It took me a good ten minutes on the broom to get there, and as soon as I began to slow down, I felt a sense of intense foreboding come over me, like I was about to walk into something much darker than I was prepared for.
“Oh well,” I sighed, looking up at the apartment marked C. “I’m already here. Too late to turn back now.”
Setting my broom against the side of the building, next to a few others that I assumed belonged to tenants here, I started climbing up the rickety staircase to the second floor. I took a deep breath and knocked at the door, wincing as I expected someone to yell or come running. But nothing happened. I frowned in confusion and knocked again. Surely, he was home. Where else would he be right now? His sister was dead, he wasn’t at either of his jobs, and I had the sense that Jackson wasn’t a super social kind of guy.
After a few minutes of wishy-washy indecision, I figured I might as well try the doorknob. It wasn’t breaking and entering if I was trying to check on someone, right?
Click. Creak.
To my surprise, the door was completely unlocked.
Even though this was Moonlight Cove and it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary for people to leave their doors unlocked, it still seemed odd for a guy like Jackson. After all, his sister had just been murdered. If that wasn’t enough to make him a little nervous about home security, what was? The apartment was lit up enough to indicate someone was home, unless Jackson was just overly generous with his electric bill. I pushed the door open a little more with my foot, and then, taking another deep breath, I stepped inside. I walked through the apartment slowly and quietly, looking around as I went. It was pretty sparsely decorated, though frankly for a young guy in his twenties I wasn’t exactly surprised.
I tiptoed through a small living room and down a hallway to a bedroom. The door was closed, and when I pressed my ear against the door I couldn’t hear any signs of life inside. No voices, not even the sound of breathing. My heart beat picked up as I reached to open the door. I slowly, cautiously turned the knob and pushed the door open.
“Jackson?” I asked quietly as I stepped into the room. There was a weird vibe; something felt very, very wrong here. The bedroom was just as sparsely decorated as the rest of the apartment, with a small chest of drawers under the window and a twin bed in the corner. I realized as I got closer that there was someone in the bed.
More specifically, there was a body in the bed.
“Holy mother of the moon,” I gasped, stumbling backward. Running out of the room, I nearly tripped over the rug in my hurry to get out. I slammed the bedroom door shut and ran out of the apartment, shutting the front door behind me. I somehow managed to get my phone out of my pocket despite my trembling hands, and dialled the only number I could think to: Xander’s.
“Hello? Artemis?” Xander answered a moment later.
“You have to get here, Xander!” I exclaimed. “You have to. Oh my goodness, it’s awful.”
“What? What’s going on? What happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s Jackson Long. I’m at his apartment. I came here for - oh, it doesn’t even matter. He’s dead, Xander. The apartment was unlocked, and I went in, and found his body. I don’t know what happened to him, as soon as I saw his body I just ran.”
“Why are you at Jackson Long’s apartment?” Xander asked.
“I found out that he’s the one who robbed the jewelry store, and he and Arianna had fought before she was killed, and I thought he was the killer so I came here to confront him,” I explained nervously, expecting to get a bit of a lecture about confronting potential murderers.
“And now he’s dead.”
“Yes. I mean, I’m pretty sure.” He had certainly looked dead. And if he’d only been sleeping he definitely would have woken up when I ran out of the room.
“So, he’s definitely not the killer, then,” Xander said. I was pretty sure I detected just the lightest possible hint of teasing in his voice. I groaned.
“No. I guess not,” I admitted.
“Anyway, hang tight. I’ll be there soon,” Xander said. “It should go without saying, but with you, I’m just never sure. Don’t go back into that apartment, and if you see anything weird, get out of there, ok?’
“Sure,” I said absentmindedly, as right at that moment something caught my eye and I squinted, walking to the wooden fencing of the balcony. Walking across the courtyard was a vaguely familiar face.
It was Vince Bryant, Arianna’s ex-boyfriend. What was he doing here? And what was I supposed to do now? Run away? Hide? Where?
“Why in the world…” I murmured.
“Arti? What’s going on?” Xander asked. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure yet, just give me a second,” I replied slowly. I watched with rapt attention as Vince came trudging through the courtyard with a sour look on his face. That said, he seemed like the kind of guy who always had that perpetually annoying kind of look on his face, really.
“Everything’s fine,” I said to Xander. “A friend of Jackson’s just showed up. Come quickly, will you? Gotta go.”
I hung up the phone and figured I could maybe get some information out of Vince before he found out his friend was dead. After all, I couldn’t leave here without Vince seeing me, anyway.
Chapter 18
My day was quickly becomi
ng much darker than I’d expected when I woke up that morning.
As Vince made his way towards the apartment, I headed down to meet him. Halfway there I realized that not only had Vince recently lost the ex-girlfriend he had still been in love with, but now one of his best friends was gone, too.
I did not envy Xander having to break the news to him. And I didn’t envy my role either; I wanted to get as much information out of Vince as I could, but I also had to stop him from going into the apartment.
I could only hope Xander would come quickly.
“Hey. It’s Vince, right?” I said as I came down the stairs towards the man. He looked up at me, a mingle of recognition and curiosity on his face.
“Yeah, that’s me. You were the one who came by and asked about Arianna, right?”
I nodded. “Yup. Hey, do you know where Jackson was yesterday, or this morning?”
Vince shrugged. “Work, I guess.”
“Are you sure? Do you know of anyone who came by to see him?”
Vince narrowed his eyes at me. “Why? Why are you asking about Jackson?”
I tried to keep my actions casual with a shoulder shrug. “I was just looking into something.”
“Look, lady, I don’t know what you’re doing, but Jackson wasn’t involved in his sister’s death. Trust me on that.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
“Now, let me by, I’m going to go up to see him.”
“No,” I said quickly, and Vince gave me a strange look. “I mean, you can’t go up there.”
“What? Why not?”
“Just… don’t, ok?”
“You’re a crazy person, you know that?”
“You really, really don’t want to go in there,” I warned him, shaking my head. “I’m serious.”
Vince gave me the look of a man who wasn’t convinced of what I was saying, but just then Xander bounded up to us, looking very grim. Not a second too soon.
“Stand back, Mr. Bryant, please,” Xander said.
Vince gave him a wild-eyed stare and shook his head. “No. Look, what’s going on? My friend’s in there, and she’s telling me not to go see him.”
“You okay?” Xander asked me quietly.
“Yeah. Took you long enough,” I remarked. He looked apologetic.
“Sorry. I was on the other side of town. Mrs. Tuttle was convinced her shed was haunted again and wouldn’t let me leave without writing up a report about it,” he explained. Even in the darkness of the moment, I felt the corners of my mouth twinge slightly in a smile. Everyone knew Mrs. Tuttle. She was probably at least one hundred years old and more than a little batty.
“Can somebody please just tell me what’s happening here?” Vince interrupted.
Xander grimaced, and I did not envy him for what he was about to have to do.
“You can go. Don’t tell anyone else about this, okay? Not yet. I’ll handle this,” he said to me.
“Thanks. Good luck,” I replied, heading further down the stairs. My heart ached for Vince and the bad news he was about to receive.
I all but ran down the stairs, eager to get as far away from this awful scene as I could. Snatching up my broom, I jumped onto it as I ran, kicking off powdery snow with my boots as I took to the air. I needed to get to the hospital. I had to get to Lara before anyone else did and keep her updated on the situation which was definitely getting more and more complicated. The body count was rising, and Lara seemed to be smack dab in the center of the target. Of course, Xander has explicitly instructed me not to talk to anyone about what I had just witnessed, but when had I ever taken his advice before?
I went straight to the hospital, which was slowly being covered in snow. The sky was pure white by this point, the afternoon settling into a cool, sleepy vibe. It hit me again just how tired I was. Maybe I was already too old to handle cavorting around at a club until one in the morning. I knew that probably wasn’t even that late for most of the kids who were partying there last night, but for me it was basically the equivalent of an all-nighter. I yawned as I set my broom against a maple tree in the front lawn of the hospital. I was exhausted and overwhelmed, and way too hungover to handle discovering a body. Though I supposed there was really no good time to come across one.
I smoothed down my outfit, took a deep breath, and strolled into the hospital. My favorite nurse, the one who loved cats, was sitting behind the front desk again. She was muttering to herself as she looked over some paperwork, but when I subtly cleared my throat and plastered a big smile on my face, she looked up and smiled back.
“Oh, hey!” she said cheerily. “Back to see Miss Lancaster?”
“Yup. Just here to check on my friend and tell her how her kitty is doing,” I said.
“So sweet. Well, you’ll be happy to know that she’s doing much, much better. Miss Lancaster is starting to look like her old self again. Yesterday she even put on makeup, just for the fun of it. Between you and me, it was kind of exciting getting to see how a famous celebrity goes from plain Jane to fabulous! I mean, she’s always pretty, but you know,” she rambled. “Come on! I’ll let you in.”
“Thank you,” I replied. I followed her down the hallway and up to Lara’s suite. I could hear humming from within, melodic and sweet. If that was Lara, she sure sounded a lot better than before.
“Here you go,” the nurse churped, pushing the door open.
I walked into the room and Lara’s face lit up with an infectious grin. The nurse left and I walked over, pulling up a stool to sit by Lara’s cot. She sat up in bed and tucked her hair behind her ears.
“Hi, Artemis,” she greeted, leaning over to hug me tightly.
“How’s it going,” I replied kind of awkwardly, not expecting such a warm welcome. “You seem like you’re in a good mood today. How are you feeling?”
“Wonderful!” she answered brightly. “Well, compared to how I felt before. The doctors say I’m going to make a full recovery, and when I do, they’ll discharge me so I can go home.”
Instantly, her smile faded and her face went pale.
“What is it?” I asked. She stared down at her lap despondently, as though she’d just remembered something horrible.
“I just realized I don’t quite know if I want to go home,” she murmured. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m eager to get out of this hospital bed. I would love to take a bath somewhere that doesn’t smell like disinfectant. But after such a horrible thing happened there, I’m afraid that if I go home, I’ll just be reminded of it. I suppose I’ll have to get over that, though. Obviously I can’t just stay here in the hospital forever.”
“I’m sure it will be different when you get home,” I assured her, hoping I sounded more convincing than I felt. If I’d ever been attacked in the B&B – by more than Luna’s snide remarks, anyway – I wasn’t sure how I’d react having to go back there. “I’ll help you remodel it or something, so it looks different and doesn’t remind you so much of, well, what happened.”
“Would you really?” she asked.
“Yeah, of course! I’m in the midst of renovating my own place anyway,” I said with a shrug. “It could be fun.”
“You’re so nice to me,” Lara mused. “It’s wonderful to have a new friend, especially now that Arianna is, um, gone.”
I nodded, my heart sinking. “Listen, Lara. There’s something I need to talk to you about. It’s not very pleasant, but I think you have a right to know.”
“Oh no. What is it?”
“I just found this out and I’m not supposed to tell you, but I can’t keep it from you,” I prefaced. “But I’ve just learned that Jackson, Arianna’s brother, is also dead. And that means I don’t have any new leads on who could have attacked you and killed Arianna. I thought for sure he had done it, but he didn’t.”
Lara squeezed my hand.
“You’re doing everything you can. I believe in you. And I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, really. You’re doing too much already? How’s Lucy?”
&n
bsp; “She’s fine,” I said, giving her a faint smile. “She and Luna have been getting on a little better. But of course she misses you.”
“I can’t wait to get her back. It’s lonely, being away from my familiar this long,” she sighed. “Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got a lot of your own work to do. I’ve got a doctor coming to check in and run some tests any minute now.”
“Okay. I’ll come see you again soon, alright?” I told her as I got up to leave.
“Thank you,” she said earnestly.
“Don’t mention it,” I replied with a smile. I left the hospital and set off toward home, my mind racing. I wondered how in the world I was going to continue pursuing this mystery if all my leads kept meeting dead ends, in this last case, literally. I shivered under the falling snow, hurrying home as fast as I could. When I arrived back, I realized with dismay that my mother was here.
“Oh boy. Here we go,” I murmured as I walked into the house. I was almost immediately inundated by the sound of laughter and loud talking. I found Mom chattering excitedly with my still-hungover guests in the living room and I hurried over to rescue them. She was droning on and on about her plans for renovations, asking them for their opinions and showing them paint samples. My moon, she was a menace lately.
“Mom!” I said sharply. “I think my guests would prefer to relax in the peace and quiet.”
“Oh, they’re lovely. We’ve been having a fantastic chat,” she said cheerfully.
Tabatha and Blake gave me pleading looks and I groaned. “Mom. Seriously.”
“Come on over, let’s talk about the paint colors for the hallway,” she said.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. Finally, she seemed to realize that I was in no mood to entertain discussions about fixing up the Manor. She walked over and linked her arm with mine, leading me into the kitchen where we’d have some privacy.
Thank my Lucky Spells: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery (Moonlight Cove Mystery Book 3) Page 12
