Haunted Hamlet (Zoe Donovan Mystery) (2 page)

“
Nothing.”

“Come on
, Ellie. You’ve been down all week, and we both know that you usually love Halloween.”

“I know
, and I do love Halloween. It’s just that . . .” Ellie paused. She took a deep breath as she struggle to get her emotions under control. “You know, I think I’ve changed my mind about the costume. I’m just going to wear something I already have. Can you put this back for me?” She handed me the ghost costume.

“
Can I help?”

“I have a bit of a headache. I think I’m just going to head home.”

I watched as she turned toward the side door that exited into the parking lot.

“You don’t want to come to dinner with us?”
I called after her. The four of us had planned to go out for pizza and beer.

“Not tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I watched Ellie put her head down as she hurried away. Poor Ellie was really having a tough time. As her best friend, I felt like I should be able to do something to help her. The problem was that I had no idea what that something might be.

“Ellie leave?” Levi asked as he walked up behind me with
the pirate costume in his arms.

“Yeah. I guess she wasn’t feeling well.
She said she was going to skip dinner and catch up with us tomorrow.”

Levi frowned. “I guess I’ll s
kip dinner too.”

“Are you sure? You love beer
-and-pizza night.”

“I know
, but I don’t really feel like playing a third wheel and Darla is busy. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

“Okay
. I’ll see you at the game. Maybe we can do something after,” I suggested.

“Yeah, that would be fun. I’m sure we’ll have a victory to celebrate.”

“I’m sure we will. Mulligan’s at six?”

“Sounds like a plan. Darla is out of town for the entire weekend at some yoga retreat
, so it will just be the four of us, assuming Ellie comes and doesn’t bring one of her many-in-a-long-line of dates.”

“I’ll ask her
, but she hasn’t mentioned a date. Are you sure you don’t want to come with Zak and me tonight?” I tried one last time.

“Yeah
, I’m sure.” Levi kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I felt bad that my friends were going to miss out on a weekly tradition
, but as I looked across the store, I realized that their defection meant that I was going to have Frankenstein all to myself.

“What do you think?” Zak asked as he walked toward me with a mask over his head.

“It’s perfect.”

Zak is tall. Before I stopped resenting him and starting loving him, I often referred to him as
Frankenstein freakishly tall
.

“Maybe I should go as
the Bride of Frankenstein,” I suggested.

“Did you say bride?”

“Maybe,” I answered. “Although I guess I really should wait to see if Frankenstein is all freak and no show.”

“Oh
, I’ve got show,” Frankenstein promised.

I couldn’t see Zak’s face under the mask
, but I was certain he was grinning. He’d asked me to marry him last July, and as of today, I’d yet to give him an answer. I know that he knows that one day I’ll take the leap and formally accept his offer, but for now, we’re just getting used to each other as full-time roomies.

“Is there a costume to go with that mask?” I
asked.

Zak pulled his head off.
“Of course there’s a costume. A really great costume. Where did the others go?”

“To pout. How about we pick up the pizza and take it home? I want to watch the
John Carpenter marathon that’s on tonight.”

Zak grabbed a shopping cart from the front of the store. “Sound good to me
. I could go for some classic horror, but I need to pick up a few things I found for the house.”

“More monsters?”

“You can never have too many monsters,” Zak reminded me. “Or lights,” he added as he tossed at least twenty boxes of orange twinkle lights in the basket.

“It’s a good thing we don’t have neighbors. You have enough lights to land a plane.”

Zak filled two carts in record time. I had to admit that the house was going to look awesome. Zak had even picked up an orange light for the pool so that it would glow with Halloween colors, although I doubted anyone would be swimming. The pool was heated, but there was a definite crispness to the air as the long days of summer waned toward the short days of winter.

“I’
ve been thinking about the mailbox.” Zak paused to consider a display of mechanical decorations.

“The mail
box?”

“Maybe we should rig it so that a hand reaches out at you when you open the door on the front.”

“Our mailman is seventy-two years old. You wouldn’t want to give Mr. Hanover a heart attack, would you?”

“No, I guess not.” Zak returned the mechanical arm to the pile.
“I thought Mr. Hanover was asked to retire.”

“
He was, but after sitting through the speech the mayor prepared, he politely thanked them for their concern and then promised to be at work bright and early the next morning. They even tried hiring someone else, but Mr. Hanover just showed up all that much earlier the next day, picked up the mail before the new guy arrived, and then went out on his route as usual.”

“I suppose they could change the locks on the outer door of the post office.”

“Yeah, I suppose they could, but I don’t think anyone
really
wants to see Mr. Hanover retire. He’s been doing that same route since before my dad was born. I did hear that he agreed to start training an assistant, so you might have someone younger to scare the begeebees out of next year.”

Zak smiled.

I decided to get into the long line while Zak finished gathering his supplies. At the rate the line was moving, it would be breakfast before it was our turn to check out. As I looked around at the overstimulated children running up and down the aisles, I thought fondly of my own Halloweens as a child. My dad always dressed up in a gory costume when he took me trick-or-treating. Some years Ellie and Levi would come with us, but there were a few years when it was just the two of us running from house to house so that I could hit as many as possible in the hours between 6 and 9 p.m.

I was nearing the front of the line
, so I was looking around the store for Zak when I noticed a man wearing a dark overcoat and a fedora. His attire seemed odd for this decade, so I couldn’t help but watch as he walked slowly up and down each aisle without stopping to look at anything in particular. If I had to guess, he was looking for some
one
rather than some
thing
.

“Do you see that guy in the ove
rcoat?” I asked as Zak walked up beside me. I tried not to cringe as Zak pushed the two heaping carts of Halloween decorations into line. Ellie was right: At the rate Zak was going, our house was going to look like a magical theme park ride.

“T
he guy walking around aimlessly?” Zak clarified.

“Yeah. He’s acting strange. Do
you recognize him?”

“
No. He doesn’t look familiar. Maybe he’s a visitor?”

“Maybe. It’s just that my Zodar is tingling.”

Now that I’d solved a total of eight murders in the past year, my friends had started teasing me about having some sort of Zoe Radar—or Zodar for short—when it came to both murder victims and murder suspects. I had to wonder which I was sensing.

“Maybe your Zodar is on the fritz. No one is dead,” Zak pointed out.

“Yet,” I replied.

Sometimes I really hate being right.

The
day started off okay. Zak and I slept in, had a nice brunch on the deck overlooking the lake, then spent the rest of the morning putting out the decorations Zak had bought the previous evening. By the time we headed into town to Levi’s game, the house looked like a Hollywood movie set. Once we arrived at the football field, Zak, an unpaid and unofficial assistant coach of sorts, joined Levi on the sidelines and I met up with Ellie in the stands.

“The team looks good,” Ellie commented as we scored our third touchdown
, bringing the score to 21–7. Ellie had taken a bit more care with her outfit today, topping soft suede pants in a light fawn color with a fuzzy orange sweater that accentuated her figure perfectly. I hoped the attention to her appearance meant that she was finally working her way out of the funk she’d been in for the past week.

“I’m glad you decided to come,
” I said. “It seems like we’ve both been so busy lately that we haven’t had much of a chance to hang out, just the two of us. I love living with Zak, but I really miss us.”

“
Yeah, me too.” Ellie smiled and squeezed my hand, but I could see that her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I guess I have been pretty busy with work, dating, and the Haunted Hamlet. When I volunteered to be chairperson for the event, I had no idea I’d be so busy with everything else.”

“How can I help?”

“I guess if you have time, it would be a huge help if you met Joel at the Henderson house this afternoon while I meet with the food vendors.”

“
The Henderson house?” I paled.

For a number of years Joel had overseen the spookification of the haunted barn, one of the many features of Haunted Hamlet, our annual fall fund
-raiser. This year the barn we normally used was unavailable, so the committee had decided to look for an equally eerie venue. After a bit of discussion, the committee voted to hold the event in a barn that shared the same piece of property as a house many believe to be an
actual
haunted house.

“
I guess he’s been working on setting up the props in the haunted barn and wanted to go over a few ideas with someone from the committee. Initially, I told him that I’d meet him after the game, but the man from the catering company who’s overseeing the food for this year’s event needs to meet with me today as well. I was going to call Joel and reschedule, but if you don’t mind covering for me, we can get both men taken care of today, so hopefully I won’t have to deal with the Hamlet tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll meet with Joel,” I agreed as our team intercepted the ball and everyone in the stands jumped to their feet.
“Did you see that catch?” I cheered.

“
I think this puts David in the lead for most interceptions in the state,” Ellie commented as the crowd went wild.

“He’s really something,” I agreed. “I heard that our little town might even get a visit from some college scouts this year
, given David’s numbers coupled with our strong showing in the state championship last year.”

“David has a real shot at the pros. I hope it works out for him.”

The next play resulted in a touchdown, bringing the score to 28–7, with the Bulldogs pulling into a comfortable lead.

“What time do I need to meet Joel?” I asked after we kicked off the ball and the Juniper Valley Titans took the offense.

“I told him someone would meet him before five. He indicated that he would be working in the barn until dark, so it made sense to meet with him after the game. I’ll text the food vendor and let him know that I can meet him as he requested. I’m hoping we can both be done in time to meet up at Mulligan’s at six as we discussed.”

“Sounds like a plan.
I know I’ve scarfed down both a hot dog and an order of nachos since we’ve been sitting here, but I really am starving.”

“I guess you’ve burned off the food you’ve eaten with all the jumping around you’ve been doing. By the way
, I love your jersey. It looks just like the guys’. Where did you get it?” Ellie asked.

“Levi gave it to me.
It was too small for anyone on the team, so he asked me if I wanted it, and of course I did.”

“I should see if he has another one that I can wear when we play
Bryton Lake in two weeks,” Ellie commented.

“
Bryton Lake played last night and won, so if we win today, which it looks like we will, both teams will be undefeated. It should be a good game, but I think we have the advantage this year.”

“Yeah
. I just hope we don’t have the same pregame shenanigans that got Levi arrested last year.”

“You and me both
.”

By the time the final buzzer sounded
, the Ashton Falls Bulldogs had beat the Juniper Valley Titans by a score of 38–14. Zak decided to stay to help Levi with the postgame meeting, so I took Zak’s truck and headed to the Henderson house on my own.

I was less tha
n thrilled about the committee’s choice of venue for this year’s haunted barn. Not only had I found an
actual
dead body in the house the previous October, but the Henderson house has given me major willies since I was a little girl. Still, I didn’t want to appear to be a scaredy-cat in front of Zak or anyone else, so when Levi asked Zak to stay for the team meeting, I bravely assured everyone that I was fine meeting with Joel on my own, and that it was no problem at all for me to meet up with them at Mulligan’s later that evening.