Ghastly Glass (15 page)

“Maybe. Have you decided on your costume yet for the feast tonight? I guess you have to be there so Harry can praise your efforts. Dressed as a man, I take it. I’m sure he doesn’t mean to parade a woman fighter in front of the crowd.”

I smiled. “I’m sure he doesn’t. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

“I
know
that look. I’m glad I’m going to be there.”

We walked back through what had become a dorm. Chase called out as we left, “Make sure Bart reports to me sometime today, or I’ll be back.”

“Do you think they’ll remember to tell him?” We stepped into the sunlight and were confronted by several headless gentlemen complete with walking sticks and capes.

“Who knows. I have something for you. I don’t give these out very often, but this is an extreme case.” He produced a two-way radio. “If anything looks wrong or you see the wacky Death guy following you again, call me.”

“Yes!” I had finally attained status in the Village. Only a handful of the chosen elite were allowed to carry these radios. I was finally one of them. “Aren’t you going to give me a big lecture on using them in front of visitors? ”

“No. I don’t care who you use it in front of if you need it.”

I kissed him and we whirled around a few times outside the Frog Catapult. Merlin pranced by and winked at me but didn’t say a word. As we separated, I asked Chase, “Who is Merlin and why did Livy back off yesterday when he told her to? I didn’t think anyone around here had that kind of power.”

He laughed. “I’ll tell you if you promise not to blab it around.”

“You know I won’t. Tell me.”

“If I hear it from
one
person today, I’ll lock you in the stocks tonight.”

I wiggled my eyebrows. “Kinky! Tell me, Chase. I won’t tell anyone else.”

He glanced around. The street was deserted except for the Green Man, who was practicing on his stilts several yards away. Seemingly assured of secrecy, Chase leaned toward me and said, “Merlin is really the founder and chairman of the board for Adventure Land. He just enjoys being here.”

“You’re kidding me? I can’t believe he’s—”

Chase put his hand over my mouth. “I’m not kidding, Jessie. If anyone finds out, I could lose my job. Besides Livy and Harry, I’m the only one who knows. You can’t say a word.”

I promised not to say anything, even though it would be hard. We parted with a kiss in front of the Glass Gryphon. I saw Roger standing at the front door to the shop. The look on his face was anything but inviting. I took a deep breath and started toward him, all of the reasons he should hire me back bursting to come out. I’d rehearsed last night in the shower (including my needy speech that included not having enough money to get home), and I was ready to confront him.

But as I reached him and opened my mouth to speak, the large wooden sign above us creaked. I looked up and saw it plummeting down on us. I grabbed Roger by the shirt front and jumped out of the way. We ended up rolling across the cobblestones, finally stopping with me on top of him.

The heavy sign crashed to the street and smashed against the stones. It fell facedown. As people started to gather around us and ask if we were both all right, I looked and saw a now familiar phrase:
Death shall find thee.

“I don’t know about Death,” I said, “but I feel a headache coming on.”

“
A
re you okay? ” I asked Roger before I rolled off of him. I could only hope he wasn’t hurt because of me. “I’m fine.” He put his hands on my arms and gazed into my face. “If that crazy person who’s after me hurt you, I’ll never forgive myself.”

I was leaning close to him, worried that I wouldn’t be able to hear what he had to say. There was no way of knowing how badly he might be hurt. His words stunned me since they were what I was thinking, only the opposite way. But if I wasn’t prepared for his words, I was totally unprepared for him lifting his head and planting his lips on mine.

Stunned, I didn’t move for an instant. It was long enough for Mary Shift to fly out of Wicked Weaves across the street and push me roughly off of him.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Are you trying to make time with my man? ”

Taking into consideration that I’d almost had a sign in my head, my next words shouldn’t be judged too harshly. “I thought you two had broken up.”

I didn’t mean it that way, of course. It sounded bad, like I wanted Roger or something. That was the farthest thing from my mind, or any other part of my body. Just the idea made me feel worse than finding Death’s scythe on the bed last night.

“So you thought you’d move in and take him? ” Mary’s dark face was furious as she paced beside us where we seemed to be glued to the street.

“It’s not what it looks like, honey,” Roger assured her. “Jessie was here and I was . . . relieved. I don’t care anything about her like I care about you.”

“But you two can roll around in the dirt letting everyone else see your business while you accuse
me
of fooling around on the side.” Mary stamped her foot. “I’m through with
both
of you, you hear? I don’t want to see either of you again.”

I managed to get to my feet without stepping on Roger as Mary huffed back to Wicked Weaves. At least thirty residents were standing around watching the drama. Chase came up with Lonnie beside him as King Arthur set down Excalibur and helped Roger to his feet.

“Are you hurt?” Chase put his arms around me. “I got here as fast as I could. I think the Village needs to buy me a horse.”

“I’m fine. I pushed Roger out of the way as the sign was falling.” I was a little bruised, but I didn’t want to go into that. It was going to be hard enough convincing Chase again that I didn’t have to leave the Village because of this.

“
You
pushed
me
? ” Roger brushed the dust from his jerkin. “I saw the sign falling and pushed you out of the way. Lucky thing I still have those police officer reflexes.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter who pushed who,” Chase intervened. “I’m just glad both of you are all right.”

“I guess it wouldn’t matter to
you
,” Roger retorted. “As long as
you
look good, that’s all you care about. This kind of stuff has been happening to me the last few days. Someone turned my furnace on in the shed last week, locked the door, and almost roasted me in there.”

“You,
too
? ” I looked at Roger. “Somebody’s been after me, too. I thought the sign was headed for me. But maybe it was after you.”

Roger puffed out his less than substantial chest. “I’ve made a few enemies in my day. Sometimes they come back to haunt you. Maybe whoever’s responsible is after you because you’re my apprentice.”

I only picked up on one part of that statement. “You mean I can have my job back? ”

“Sure. I was upset yesterday. I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that, Jessie. Shakespeare told me that after you left. He also told me what happened with Henry. I had a talk with him. He won’t bother you again.”

“Thanks! I—”

“Never mind all that!” Chase glared at both of us. “This isn’t the time to think about going on here as an apprentice or anything else. Somebody tried to kill one or both of you. I don’t know if
either
of you are safe here.”

Lonnie had shinnied up the drainpipe to the roof of the Glass Gryphon, anticipating Chase wanting to know how the sign fell. “Looks to me like someone cut through the chains that were holding the sign up here. Guess they were just lucky it fell when their targets were standing right under it.”

“That sounds like a lot of guesswork.” Chase appeared to be unhappy with Lonnie’s conclusion. “Otherwise that sign could’ve fallen on anyone.”

“Maybe that’s the idea.” I felt a brainstorm coming on. I pulled Chase to the side of the group. “Maybe it just
seems
like someone’s gunning for me or Roger. Maybe it’s more random. Like you said, it could’ve been anyone.”

“What are you saying? That someone has it out for the Village and you and Roger are convenient targets? ”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. It was a very miniscule brainstorm. More like a brain spurt.

“I don’t know, Jessie. What’s happened to you doesn’t seem too random to me.”

“What about me?” Roger interrupted. “Why does it seem like someone has it in for me? ”

“What about Ross?” Marcus, the Black Dwarf, added his thoughts. “Somebody sure had it in for
him
.”

The crowd agreed, talking urgently about the need for greater security in the Village after everything that had happened. The funniest part was watching the witches discussing security with a group of vampires. How often do you see something like that?

We heard the Myrtle Beach police car before we saw it. It sneaked in through one of the side gates reserved for emergency personnel. Detective Almond wiped his sweaty brow as he pushed out of the passenger side. An officer got out from behind the wheel to accompany him.

The detective waddled through the crowd as though they weren’t there. “Now the place is falling apart, huh?” he said, taking in the fallen sign lying on the ground. “What’s next?”

“It’s been a rough few days,” Chase agreed. “I’m not sure what happened here. It looks like someone cut through the chains holding the sign up there.”

“Could’ve killed anyone then.” Detective Almond nodded. “Not just your pretty girlfriend.”

Chase didn’t say anything, but I could see he was holding back. A golf cart came in through the same emergency entrance behind the privies and careened toward us. I recognized one of the reporters from the local news station right away. Lilly Hamilton. She’s the worst. That’s all we needed—more bad publicity.

“I want forensics up on that roof in twenty minutes,” Detective Almond told the young officer with him. “I want to know for sure what happened up there.”

Lilly Hamilton and her cameraman were already working the crowd of residents to find out what was going on. Chase told them they couldn’t park the golf cart in the street, and she grinned. “It’s important for people to know what’s going on. You don’t want to stand in the way of that, do you, Prince Charming? ”

Chase explained that the police bringing in a vehicle that didn’t fit in with the Renaissance Village theme was one thing, but a golf cart full of reporters was another. “I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Lilly, a tanned little blond (I’m sure she’s had nose surgery), rubbed her hand on his chest. “Why don’t you just show me around? What’s your name again? I can send Mark outside with the cart. You can give me a
personal
tour.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I sure didn’t like her and her fake nose. I went to stand next to Chase and smiled at her. “I think you can do your job and get out of here before we open for business. How about that? ”

She glared at me. “How about you mind your own business? What are you supposed to be anyway, some kind of pirate reject? ”

“Ladies, please!” Detective Almond interjected. “You with the golf cart, move it out of here. And you, Ms. Morton, I’ll need your statement about what happened.”

This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but since he’d gotten rid of Lilly, I obliged him with a detailed statement of what had happened. He talked to Roger next, then said our statements were the same, except for who saved whose life.

“I don’t know what to tell you about this, Manhattan.” Detective Almond scratched his chin. “If this keeps up, we’re gonna have to shut the place down until we figure it out.”

There was a collective indrawn breath from the residents around us. Unfortunately, Lilly was close enough to hear what he’d said. No doubt his words would be on the news later.

We all stood around talking until the big bell at the main gate sounded, letting us know visitors were arriving. Everyone scurried to their prospective places. I kissed Chase for luck, then darted inside the Glass Gryphon before he could give me a lengthy sermon on why I should leave the Village.

I glanced around inside the shop and was surprised to find that Henry wasn’t there. Roger was already at his workbench, putting on his goggles and heating up his torch. “Are we alone today? ”

“Henry mentioned something about going into town,” Roger explained. “Are you going to worry about him all day or are you going to get busy? ”

Naturally this was all the encouragement I needed. I went back to my workbench and tried to remember how to light up my torch. After a moment or two, Roger sighed and came to help me. “Nothing fancy now. Just practice putting the glass together like I showed you, okay? ”

“Yes. Thanks for giving me another chance.”

“It’s okay. I was kind of a jerk yesterday. This thing with Mary is driving me nuts. I know something is going on over there with Damian. I haven’t caught them yet, but I can
feel
it.”

I put on my goggles. “Roger, Mary thinks there’s something going on between us. Things are not always as they appear.”