The Magic Of Halloween Night

Chapter 4

Friday

By the time I arrived at the barn decorating party on Friday, the barn was already packed with men and women who’d given up a day of their lives to ensure that Foxtail Lake’s haunted barn would be the best one ever. Of course, the group set out every year to ensure that the current year’s event was the best one ever, making it harder and harder to outdo what had previously been done. As it had been last year, the barn was located out near Logan Pond, a watery setting that held a lot of memories for Cass and me. I wondered if he’d be here today. I hadn’t seen his car in the dirt lot where everyone was told to park, but he usually tried to help out with these sorts of events. Of course, Aunt Gracie normally helped out as well, but she’d been unable to attend this year due to a prior commitment.

“So, what can I do?” I asked Hope, who was standing in the middle of the room with a clipboard. Normally, the barn would have been decorated well ahead of the event’s opening, but this year there had been a huge storm, which resulted in a damaged roof and various repairs to deal with before we could get started. As it stood, we had one day to convert the old barn into a spooky venue, which would be sure to terrorize the throngs of people who’d already purchased tickets.

“Evie Johnstone is working on the tombstones for the outdoor graveyard. She mentioned earlier that she could use some help,” Hope answered.

“I’ll be happy to help her. Where is she?”

“The shed next to the barn has been cleared out and is being used for preparation and assembly. Check there. If she’s not in the shed, she’ll be outside in the area reserved for the cemetery.”

After a quick search, I found Evie in the field behind the barn. The field would be utilized for the line leading up to the ticket booth. The idea of the tombstones was to have the line wind through a fake cemetery with tombstones painted with custom epitaphs providing a source of entertainment while the masses waited. I suspect that Evie had ended up with tombstone duty due to the fact that she had excellent penmanship. She was working with a man named Dave Partridge to set the wooden markers throughout the field to make the area appear as if it had actually been used to bury the dead.

“Everything looks fantastic,” I said. Like Naomi, Evie had attended the local high school along with Cass and me. Dave, however, had moved to Colorado a few years ago.

“Are you here to help out?” Evie asked as she held in place one of the personalized tombstones while Dave held it to the base. The tombstones had been part of a fundraiser and local folks could have them personalized with a quote or message.

“Actually, I am. What do you need me to do?”

“Even though I spent almost the entire night in my barn working on these tombstones last night, I still have another couple dozen boards to paint. I brought the paint and wood from home and planned to finish them once I got here, but Dave needs someone to hold the finished tombstones steady while he sets them. If you can help him, I can return to the painting.”

“I’d be happy to help Dave.”

“Great. Be careful of the paint. Some of these boards are still damp, although most are fine.”

I looked at the neat black lettering so detailed that a computer might have printed it. “I’ll be sure not to smudge anything. This must have taken you forever.”

“Almost. I considered just putting out what I had and finishing the rest as I could get to them. I figured I’d just put them out over the next few days since the event runs all next week, but my sister called yesterday afternoon to inform me that my grandmother is really sick, so now my plan is to do what I can today and then take an evening flight to Cincinnati. I’m totally exhausted, but if I don’t finish these now, they may not get finished, and then I’d feel bad for those who bought a stone but never got one.”

I wished my own penmanship was better. I’d offer to help with the painting if it was, but there were times when even I could barely read my handwriting. “I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother,” I offered. “I hope she’ll be okay.”

She took a breath. “Yeah, me too.” She ran a hand across her face in a look of total exhaustion. “I’ll be in the shed if you need me.” With that, Evie trotted away.

Dave owned the local lumberyard. I suspected that he’d been the one who donated the wood for the props. That was one of the nice things about Foxtail Lake. Everyone pitched in and did whatever was needed to make our frequent community events a success.

“So, how are things going down at the newspaper?” Dave asked after Evie left. I appreciated the fact that he was willing to initiate the conversational thread.

“Things are going well,” I answered as I held the next tombstone in place while Dave secured it to the base he’d already pounded into the ground. “I’m not sure if you heard, but I’ve been made a full-time reporter in addition to writing my column.”

“I had heard about your promotion. I run a full-page ad once a month in the business section and usually meet with Dex to update the material, although he hasn’t contacted me yet this month.” He frowned and then continued. “He did mention that he’d made you full time the last time we spoke. He’s very pleased with your work.”

I smiled. “I’m glad to hear that since I love my job.”

We both moved down the row to the next tombstone that was waiting to be installed.

“My friend, Myra, who spoke to Gabby, told me that you’ve been assigned to cover the movie that’s going to be filmed in the area,” Dave said as he pounded the base into the dirt.

“I have. I’m really excited about this opportunity. Dex is even planning a special press run to handle the event.”

“Evie and I were chatting about it before you arrived. She told me that the two of you went to high school with one of the costars.”

I was surprised that Evie knew that Harrison Roberts was actually Robert Harrison from chemistry class. “Apparently, that’s true. I’d had no idea that Harrison Roberts was actually Robert Harrison from Foxtail Lake until Naomi filled me in. To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one. I don’t remember much about the guy other than the fact he was quiet and super smart. I’ll have to ask Evie what she remembers.”

“Evie didn’t seem to be a fan of the guy,” Dave informed me. “In fact, she went so far as to say that even if he did grow up to be famous, in her eyes, he would always be the pond scum who’d ruined the life of someone she cared about.”

“Wow. Really? Did she say whose life he ruined or what he did?

“She didn’t specify, and I didn’t ask, but she did mention that whatever went down occurred during her junior year. I guess you can ask her if you really want to know more about it.”

“Yeah. Maybe I will.” I stood up and moved down the row to the next marker. “It’s really strange that Robert grew up to be an actor. I don’t remember him being outgoing or in any way interested in theater. I’d have to check to be certain, but I don’t remember him being in school plays or anything like that. He was really into science. He was sort of secretive, and everyone said he did all these weird experiments in his garage. I have no idea what sort of experiments since I wasn’t really all that interested in what he was doing, but he was definitely the nerdy sort and didn’t have a lot of friends.” I held the tombstone still while Dave attached it to the base. “I really can’t imagine how the guy I knew in high school transformed himself into an up and coming actor. I suspect there’s quite a story there.”

“Maybe he’ll agree to an interview and tell you all about it,” Dave suggested.

I grinned. “I hope so. I really want at least part of what I write to be personal. The actor behind the scene sort of thing. Uncovering the journey that took Robert from class nerd to superstar would be just the sort of thing to draw my readers in.”

“It’d be cool to get similar stories about all the actors and actresses. There might be a few who grew up in Hollywood, but chances are that most started off as regular people like you and me before getting their big break.”

“It would be an interesting twist to take for the series. A who they are now and where did they come from perspective.”

“I read an article about Victoria Medford a while back. I guess she grew up in foster care. She’d been passed around from home to home, never really settling, but when she was thirteen, she was placed with a family in Bellaire who happened to live in the same neighborhood as a scriptwriter who was fairly famous at the time. I guess the scriptwriter introduced her to some folks who helped her to get a bit part in a sitcom. She really had a presence and stole the show. The next thing she knew, she was well on her way to becoming the next big thing.”

“Can you imagine having that sort of luck?”

“That would be something all right.”

Dave and I continued to chat until he needed to take a call. I checked my phone to see that I had a text from Cass informing me that he’d had something come up and wasn’t going to make it to the barn decorating party. He did still hope to make it to the shelter for our volunteer session. I usually worked with the dogs one on one for training before Cass arrived for our play session, so I texted him back and told him to meet me in the training room if he got there early. By the time I left, the barn was looking awesome. Fake cobwebs with fake spiders were made to look even more legit when intertwined with the real cobwebs and real spiders that lived in the normally deserted barn. All sorts of props, lights, and secret passages had been set up to create a horror house sort of setting that kids from twelve and up tended to enjoy.

“Before you go, can you help me carry the coffins in and set them up in the staging area?” one of the volunteers asked.

I agreed, realizing that the coffins he referred to weren’t the props used for vampires during the event but the coffin-shaped serving tables that had been refinished since the previous Halloween, upon which the food would be served.

“These look really good,” I said as we worked together to take the first coffin out of his truck.

“They do, but refinishing them was a lot of work. Looking back, it would have been less labor-intensive to just build new ones.”

“I guess that’s something to remember for next time.”

“These should be good for a few years. After that, I guess whoever is in charge at the time can decide what to do. The family and I are moving back to Vermont next summer, so I guess this will be my last Halloween here.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I really didn’t know the man I was helping well. In fact, at the moment, I couldn’t even remember his name. But I found I was still going to miss him. How weird was that? I supposed now that I’d decided to stay in Foxtail Lake, I wanted everyone else to stay here as well. I realized that I really did love my life exactly as it was now.

After I helped with the coffins, I headed to the shelter. Naomi was helping out at the barn, but I knew exactly what to do and which dog to work with, so the fact that she wasn’t on the premises didn’t really matter. When I’d spoken to her earlier, she’d indicated that she’d most likely be back to the shelter before the play session Cass and I oversaw every Friday got underway.

“Have you seen Naomi?” One of the other volunteers, a woman named Lila, asked after I arrived.

“She’s still over at the barn helping out with the decorating. She indicated she’d be back around five. Did you need something?”

“The dog I’m supposed to work with got adopted. I was thinking about starting the new collie with a beginner’s session, but I wanted to check with Naomi first.”

“You can call her,” I suggested. “I’m sure she has her phone with her, and there’s good reception out at the barn. I used my phone while I was there this afternoon.”

“I’ll do that,” she said. “How’d the decorating go? I was going to help, but my boss wouldn’t let me have time off.”

“It went well. I think we’ll be ready to open tomorrow afternoon. Do you know what happened to the fifty-foot lead? It’s usually hanging on this wall.” I pointed toward an empty peg.

“I think the new guy took it.”

“New guy?”

“Tall, dark, and gorgeous. I have no idea what his name is. He introduced himself, but I was so busy staring at his abs that I totally missed it.”

“His abs?” I chucked. “He wasn’t wearing a shirt?”

She smiled. “Of course, he’s wearing a shirt. A very tight and formfitting t-shirt. I know you and Cass have a thing going on, but you seriously need to treat yourself to a peek before Cass gets here. The guy could be on the cover of a romance novel.”

“Cass and I are just friends,” I answered.

She snickered. “Yeah, right. Friends with benefits.” She giggled.

Actually, Cass and I weren’t friends with benefits, but we weren’t just friends either as I continued to insist that we were. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to classify what we had. I knew I cared about him. Deeply. I knew that if I was honest with myself, I loved him. But due to a family curse, which others thought silly, but I believed with my whole being, I’d vowed to never fall in love and marry, so whenever I was with Cass, I held back. We’d almost taken the step I so wanted to take but was terrified to really consider this past May. A tender kiss had resulted in a night of making out under the stars, but when it came time to move our make-out session indoors, I’d pulled back. I hadn’t wanted to, and for a brief instant, I actually considered ignoring the fact that my parents and grandparents had died because of the curse, but in the end, my fear won out, and I put a stop to things, effectively thrusting us back into the friend zone.

Of course, I knew that I was being unfair to Cass. I loved him but was unwilling to have a real relationship with him, yet I was much too jealous to stand back while he had a relationship with anyone else. I wasn’t sure where this left us. Forever in limbo, I supposed.

I really wished there was someone I could talk to about my conflicted feelings. Someone who’d really understand and not just think I was a silly woman with silly ideas. Aunt Gracie had made the same decision I had to stay single in order to avoid the curse. I wondered if, after a lifetime of loving Tom yet keeping him at a distance, she regretted that decision.

My training session went smoothly, but I was disappointed to see that Cass still hadn’t arrived by the time I’d finished the individual training and was ready to begin the play session. I supposed I could do it myself, but I might need to take out fewer dogs than we were able to handle together. I was trying to decide which dogs to take and which to leave behind when Cass and his dog, Milo, pulled up.

“I was worried you weren’t going to make it.” I bent over to pet Milo, who was also Cass’s partner.

He kissed me on the cheek. “I’m sorry that I’m late. It’s been one of those days, but Milo and I are off now. Have you already started?”

“I was just getting ready to select the dogs to take out for a run. Now that you’re here, we can take more. Maybe ten?”

“Ten works well. Is Naomi back?”

“I haven’t seen her, but she may have just gone straight up to the house. I guess you can call her if you need to speak to her.”

He nodded. “I actually do need to talk to her. Why don’t you let ten dogs into the fenced yard area, while I call her. I’ll join you there.”

“Okay. I’ll just throw some balls around until you get there.”

I had to admit I was curious about the topic of conversation Cass felt he needed to engage in right away with Naomi, but I also realized that it was none of my business, so I didn’t ask. Cass had joined me by the time I’d freed the ten dogs we planned to play with and had escorted them into the fenced-in play area.

“Is everything okay?” I asked in as nonchalant a tone as I could muster.

“Not really,” Cass said. For the first time, I realized how tired he looked.

“Did something happen today?” I asked, beginning to feel more than a little concerned.

“Bill Fuller was found dead.”

“Oh, no. What happened?” I asked.

Bill had lived in Foxtail Lake for most, if not all, his life. I wasn’t certain if he was born here, but he attended the same school as Cass and me from an early age. He’d graduated from Foxtail High a year before we had. After graduation, he’d gone off to college, but after living in LA for a few years, he’d come back to the area and had lived here ever since.

“It appears that he drove his car off the road. He hit a ditch, rolled, and hit a tree. He was killed on impact.”

“Oh, no.” I gasped. “I’m so sorry. When did it happen?”

“Last night, but the accident wasn’t reported until this morning when the car was discovered. According to the coroner, Bill had been dead for eight to twelve hours by then.”

I placed a hand on my chest. “Do you have any idea what happened to cause him to crash?”

“Not really. I suppose he could have swerved to avoid hitting a deer. There are a lot of them out along the old highway. Or he might have received a text and looked down at his phone, which caused him to swerve. He might have fallen asleep, or he may simply have lost focus.”

“Do you suspect intoxication?”

“I’m not sure,” Cass answered. “It seems possible, but I’m waiting for lab results.”

I felt really bad. Bill was a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but from what I knew, he was one of the good guys. As far as I knew, he was single. I’d heard that he’d been married during the five years he’d lived out of the area following high school graduation, but apparently, he’d divorced the woman he’d married before he’d returned to Foxtail Lake.

At some point in the past, Naomi, who knew Bill much better than I did, had mentioned that Bill had gone through a complicated phase in his life during the five years he’d lived in LA. Apparently, once he returned to Colorado, he’d gotten his life together, and the two of them had been close ever since. She’d mentioned that they sometimes went out to dinner, and I knew that he volunteered at the shelter.

“Do you need to go back to work?” I asked Cass.

“No. I’ve done what I can to notify those who need to be notified, so I’m off for the night. The coroner is going to take a closer look at the body just to make sure there isn’t anything more to learn about the collision, but at this point, I have nothing to suggest that the accident was anything other than a horrible mishap, so a formal investigation isn’t really warranted.”

I wrapped my arms around Cass. “I’m so sorry. I know that you and Bill were friends.”

Cass hugged me back. “We were. Not super close, but we’d been friends since we were kids. He did change somewhat while he was away after graduation.”

“Naomi had mentioned that as well. She said something about his making a mess of his life, but then pulling it together once he returned to Foxtail Lake.”

He nodded. “Sounds about right. I think that whatever went on with his ex-wife had something to do with the fact that he seemed angry and withdrawn when he first returned, but once he settled in, he seemed to find the way back to his old self.”

Naomi showed up shortly before we planned to end the play session. It was obvious she’d been crying as her eyes were red and her cheeks flushed. She headed straight toward Cass.

“So tell me what you know,” she said after stepping into his arms for a hug.

“I told you everything on the phone,” he responded as she stepped away from him. “I really don’t know anything else at this point.”

“Bill was a good guy. A careful driver and he didn’t drink. I do understand that even good guys can lose focus and have accidents, but it just seems so unlike him. Are you sure he wasn’t run off the road?”

Cass put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how the accident occurred, but there is no evidence to suggest that another vehicle was involved. The coroner is taking a closer look at the body, and I’m having the car gone over in the event there was tampering or simply faulty equipment involved in the accident, but at this point, I have no reason to believe that anything occurred other than driver error.”

She dipped her head. “I’m having such a hard time with this. Bill was just here yesterday. He’s been doing the advanced training class with a couple large labs, and he’s actually spent quite a bit of time at the shelter as of late.”

“Do you know what time he left?” Cass asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I wasn’t here when he left, but he usually wraps up around five. He normally works with Nick Southerland, but Nick has been out of town on business for the past few weeks, so he’s been working with Hyldie Jefferson. I guess you can ask her if she was still here when Bill left. I should have suggested that you speak to her when you called and informed me about Bill’s death, but I didn’t think of it at the time.”

“I’ll call her,” Cass said. “I’d like to know if Bill mentioned where he was heading when he left here. The one thing that strikes me as odd about the whole thing is that Bill was on the old highway, a good twenty miles from home.”

“The old highway?” Naomi asked.

Cass nodded.

“But no one other than hunters and hikers trying to access forest service land uses that road since the new highway was built,” Naomi pointed out. “Although…” she added after she’d had a chance to think things over, “there are a few farms out on that road. The Hanson place for one. Jamison Hanson has lived on the property alone since his son moved to Denver. I have no reason to believe that Jamison and Bill were friends, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him.” She paused to think about it. “The Farthington Farm has been deserted ever since Sam Farthington passed away, but there are a couple smaller properties just past the Farthington Farm. The Landow property between the Timberlake Farm and the Cofield Horse Ranch was sold, and new folks have moved in. They’ve completely renovated the property, and of course, there’s the Pendelton place near where the old highway merges with the new one. I suppose it might be a good idea to chat with some of the folks who live out there if you find a reason to suspect foul play.” Naomi hugged Cass once again. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything, and you let me know if you find any answers.”

“I will,” Cass promised. “We might not know much of anything until Monday with it being the weekend and all, but if I hear anything, I’ll call you.”

After Naomi headed back to the house, Cass and I discussed where we should have dinner. We decided to keep it simple and just grab a pizza. I felt like things had been strange between Cass and me ever since we’d toyed with the idea of moving our relationship to the next level this past spring but then hadn’t. I wanted to talk to him about it, but I could see that now wasn’t the time for such a serious discussion, so once the pizza was ordered, I began filling him in on my new assignment and the challenge I’d have cramming all my responsibilities into my life.