The Magic Of Halloween Night

Chapter 5

Saturday

Gracie and I showed up at the Harvest Festival early the following morning. The barn didn’t open until four o’clock in the afternoon, but there were a lot of other activities taking place as the first of two October themed events got underway. While the town didn’t always have two completely separate events, this year, the Harvest Festival took place in mid-October while the Halloween Festival took place closer to Halloween. The haunted barn ran for two weeks, which allowed for locals and visitors alike to take the tour more than once if they so desired. I thought about bringing Paisley to help me with the event, but she was spending the weekend with her friend, Anna.

After meeting with Hope and getting our assignments for the day, Gracie headed toward the tent that had been set up in the park where the bakeoff, quilting show, and chili cookoff, were being held, while I was directed to the kiddie carnival where I was assigned to the ticket booth, which was much better than being assigned to one of the games. I knew Cass planned to work security for the event even though he was normally off on the weekends, but during dinner the previous evening, he’d suggested that the two of us get together for a meal after he got off. Maybe after that, we’d stroll along Main Street to view the festively decorated windows the local merchants had created in fall and Halloween themes.

“Please tell me you’re here to work the ticket booth with me,” Ida Cunningham, who owned the local inn, with her sister, Maude, said after I arrived at the little booth that had been temporarily erected in the park.

“I am. I’ll be here until two when I’m supposed to head over to the pumpkin toss.” I glanced at the long line that led from the booth all the way back to the parking area. “Have you been here alone since opening?”

“I have. Wilma Goodwin was supposed to work with me, but I guess she had to go down to Cass’s office to speak with him about Bill’s accident. Hope’s been trying to find someone to take her place, but apparently, there are quite a few volunteers out with that flu that has been going around.”

I knew Wilma Goodwin worked at the post office. “Do you know why Cass wanted to talk to Wilma?” I asked as I opened the second ticket window, and began counting out the requested number of tickets.

“I’m not sure. I just know that Wilma called Hope early this morning and told her she’d be late, but she still hoped to make it after her interview.” Ida thanked the customer she’d been helping, and greeted the next woman in line. She then returned her attention back to our conversation as she took the money and began counting tickets. “Of course, Wilma lives across the street from Bill’s house, so I suppose Cass might have wanted to ask her about something she may have seen, or perhaps he wanted some sort of information relating to Bill’s habits.” Ida paused as the next customer approached the window. “I know it appears that Bill’s death was simply a horrible accident, but Cass is being thorough, which I think we all appreciate.”

“It does sound as if the vehicle simply swerved off the road, but it’s odd that Bill was all the way out on the old highway so late at night. I can’t imagine what he might have been doing out there unless he had been visiting someone and was on his way home.”

“I’m sure Cass will look into Bill’s reason to be out there so late in the evening. He might have been returning from dropping someone off, or I suppose he might have had something on his mind and decided to go for a drive,” Ida suggested. “The old highway is a good road to take if you just want to get out and think something through. There’s never any traffic to contend with.”

I supposed Ida had a point. If Bill had simply been going out for a drive with no destination in mind, the old highway would actually have been a good choice.

“Having said that,” Ida smiled at the woman she’d just handed twenty tickets to, “it does seem to me that Cass might believe there is at least a small possibility there’s more going on than a simple accident.”

“You think so?” I asked as I handed tickets to the woman I’d been helping.

“Mary Louise stopped by to buy tickets for her grandchildren,” Ida continued. “She mentioned that Cass had called and spoken to her about things, so I know he’s doing some digging around.”

“Cass spoke to Mary Louise because he heard that she’d seen Bill Thursday evening while she was out with her husband at that new steakhouse at the lake,” Josie Newsome, who’d been standing in line to buy tickets, informed us.

“Bill was at the steakhouse before his accident?” I asked after the woman Ida was helping stepped away, and Josie stepped forward.

She nodded. “According to Mary Louise, who I ran into when I stopped for brownies, she’d seen Bill dining with two people Thursday evening. A woman she described as having dark red hair and a man she described as having dark brown hair. Both were dressed to the nines, which seemed a bit overdone for Foxtail Lake even if they were dining in the only steakhouse in the area.”

“Did she say anything else?” I asked as I handed the man with two blond-haired children a roll of tickets and then smiled at the group of teenagers next in line.

“Not really. She was working the bake sale, and there was already a long line, so we couldn’t chat long. I guess you can ask Cass about it.”

“I guess I might do that.”

“You know,” Ida said after Josie completed her purchase and stepped away, “Darcy Rosenthal works out at that steakhouse. She might have seen Bill with the flashy couple as well. She’s working the pumpkin toss with you at two,” she informed me. “I suppose you might have a chance to chat with her while you work the event. Not that she necessarily noticed anything, but it is beginning to sound as if the couple with Bill at the restaurant might be the last people to have seen him alive. If the accident wasn’t an accident as Cass seems to think, maybe the red-haired woman and dark-haired man might know something about what was going on in Bill’s life on the night he died.”

By the time I made it to the pumpkin toss after completing a four-hour shift at the ticket booth, Darcy was already there. Running this fast-paced event left a lot less time for chatting than working the ticket booth, so I wasn’t sure I’d even have a chance to talk to the woman who told me that she needed to leave no later than four so she had time to go home and get ready for her shift at the restaurant. I supposed that if I didn’t have a chance to talk to her, I could simply mention to Cass that she might be someone worth chatting with if he hadn’t already. This was, after all, his investigation and not mine, but it seemed that anytime something interesting was going on in town, I was always smack dab in the middle of things.

As it turned out, Darcy and I were both relieved from pumpkin toss duty at the same time, so I decided to walk Darcy to her car before heading over to check in with Hope.

“That was crazy,” I laughed as we headed toward the parking area.

“The pumpkin toss is a fast-moving event,” she agreed. “I’m glad they only schedule two-hour shifts. It’s exhausting.”

“Do you have to work at the restaurant tonight?” I asked.

She nodded. “From six until close. Saturdays are always busy, but with the folks from the movie here, we’ve been even busier than usual.”

“Movie?” I asked. “I thought the film crew and cast were arriving Monday.”

“That’s what I heard as well, but some of the movie folks are here now. I saw Robert Harrison, who I guess is now going by Harrison Roberts, at the restaurant Thursday with Bill Fuller and a redheaded woman whose name I can’t remember offhand.”

I raised a brow. “So Bill was having dinner with Robert? I’d heard Bill was at the steakhouse Thursday, but I didn’t realize it was Robert he was dining with.”

She nodded. “Bill introduced me to the couple he was with when I went to the table to take their order. He said that he and Harrison were friends from way back. It was then that I realized that the total babe Bill introduced as Harrison, was actually Robert, from high school. Talk about an ultimate makeover. He still has those piercing blue eyes, but if it wasn’t for the fact that Harrison was with Bill, I would never have recognized him.”

“And the woman they were with — the one with the red hair. Did she seem to be with the cast as well?” I asked.

“I think so. I guess neither man actually said one way or the other, but I did get the impression that Harrison and this woman were together, and that they had met Bill at the restaurant to discuss something.”

“Did you overhear any of their conversation?” I asked as we neared the parking area.

“No. Not really. I can say that while the group seemed to be having a friendly discussion in the beginning, the exchange became a lot more intense as time went on. By the time the group left, I could sense a lot of tension.”

“And what time was that?”

“I guess they showed up at the restaurant around eight o’clock. They sat and talked until around ten. I don’t know the exact time since I wasn’t paying all that much attention, but they were there for a while.”

“Were they drinking?”

“Harrison and the redhead were. Bill was a recovering alcoholic, so he never drank. He came into the steakhouse often enough that I knew to bring him a non-alcoholic drink served in a glass normally used to serve alcohol when he was dining with others. I guess he didn’t like to make a big deal out of the fact he didn’t drink. In fact, everyone who works a regular shift knew that when Bill said to bring him his normal, he meant a gin and tonic minus the gin.”

I’d chatted with Cass earlier this morning, and he’d confirmed that he’d received the tox screen, and Bill hadn’t had drugs or alcohol in his system when the accident occurred, so that much was consistent.

Once Darcy pulled away, I headed back to the crowd to find Hope. Cass and I planned to meet up in less than an hour, so I hoped she was done with me for the day. With the exception of the haunted barn, the other Harvest Festival activities were to be wrapped up by five o’clock, so I was fairly sure she wouldn’t reassign me. By the time I managed to find Hope in the crowd, Cass had arrived, and the two were chatting.

“How did the pumpkin toss go?” Hope asked.

“Everything went perfectly,” I answered. “It was exhausting, but Darcy and I really had a good time.”

“Did Valerie show up to do the closing shift?”

“She did,” I confirmed. “She had her boyfriend with her, so I think they’ll be fine.” I looked toward Cass. “You’re early, but I think I’m done here.” I glanced at Hope for confirmation.

Hope smiled. “Yes, you are finished for the day, and again, thank you so much. Are you still on for a shift at the haunted barn tomorrow?”

“I am,” I confirmed. “You had me scheduled in the ticket booth from four to ten. Is that still what you need?”

She nodded. “That would be perfect.”

Hope put her hand on Cass’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I need to go and check on some of the others, but if you hear anything, call me.”

“I will.”

“Bill Fuller?” I asked as Hope walked away. I assumed that was what they’d been discussing before I arrived.

He nodded. “Hope had heard about Bill and wanted to fill me in on a rumor she’d heard.”

“Rumor?”

Cass took my hand in his and started walking toward the parking area where we’d both left our cars. “As you might expect, everyone in town has been talking about Bill’s death and whether or not the accident really was caused by a misjudgment on his part or something more.”

“Yeah. I’ve picked up quite a few tidbits throughout the day as well. What did Hope have to say?”

“Hope heard from several people that Bill was seen having dinner with Robert Harrison, or I guess I should say Harrison Roberts, and a woman with long red hair.”

“I spoke to Darcy Rosenthal,” I said. “She worked the pumpkin toss with me. She’s a waitress at the steakhouse. She told me that Bill was dining with Harrison and a redhead. She said that while their conversation started off cordial enough, as it went on, the tension between everyone involved seemed to increase dramatically. Darcy wasn’t certain, but she thought that the redheaded woman might have come with Harrison. She also thought she might be in town with the production company.”

“She is,” Cass confirmed. “I did some research and was able to verify that the redheaded woman seen with Bill and Harrison is an actress named Jennifer Ashford. She’s playing a supporting role in the movie, as is Harrison.”

“I remember seeing her name on the list Dex gave me. If I remember correctly, Victoria Medford has been cast as the female lead, and Jennifer Ashford is starring as her sister. I know Logan Underwood was cast as the male lead, but I’m really not sure what sort of role Harrison was cast to play. Dex gave me a packet of information, but it was incomplete. He said he’d send over an updated cast list once he had one.”

“Harrison has a minor role,” Cass informed me. “Based on what I’ve been able to find out, the movie is a murder mystery, which involves a group of people who, for one reason or another, find themselves trapped at an isolated resort. There’s a murder, and the character played by Underwood, sets out to find the killer while keeping everyone else safe until help can arrive. I’m pretty sure Victoria Medford plays one of the guests who ends up helping Underwood with the investigation. I assume there’s a romance between the two at some point. Jennifer Ashford plays Medford’s younger sister, which I suppose would qualify her for the supporting actress role.”

“Is there a supporting actor?” I asked.

“Vince Ravenwood. He plays the groundskeeper, who, according to the gossip mill, turns out to be the killer.”

I knew that Vince Ravenwood was a seasoned actor who’d starred in many movies in his youth. I’d loved everything he’d done and found I was even more excited about meeting him than I was about meeting Logan Underwood.

“Anyway,” Cass continued, “I guess one of the men Hope spoke to, Jason Winters, told her that he’d left the steakhouse just behind Bill and the two people he’d dined with. He told her that Bill and the woman were standing near Bill’s car, arguing when he arrived in the parking area. He didn’t hear everything that was being said, but the woman was waving a document of some sort in Bill’s face and demanding that he sign it.”

“A document? I wonder what sort of document.”

“I don’t know,” Cass answered. “I spoke to Jason, and he didn’t know. Jason told me he came out of the steakhouse, noticed the argument but didn’t linger, got into his own vehicle, and left.”

“And Harrison?” I asked. “What was he doing during this altercation?”

“Jason said he didn’t see him, but he also admitted that he was mostly trying to mind his own business, so he wasn’t looking for him.” Cass stopped walking when we arrived at my car. “Do you want to drop your car at your house? I thought we could go out for a nice dinner rather than gorging ourselves at the food court. It might work best with one car.”

“Yeah. I like that plan. Do you want to take Milo home?” I glanced at the dog who was poking his head out the backseat window of Cass’s truck, which was parked two spots over from where I’d parked.

“I do. How about I follow you to your place, we can drop off your car, and you can change if you want to. Then we’ll head out to my place, so I can drop Milo off, and change out of my uniform. Then we can figure out where we want to eat.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I opened the driver’s door of my SUV. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”