Cold Cases and Haunted Places by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sittin' On A Goldmine Productions LLC
Published: 2020-10-06T05:00:00+00:00

7

Partridge was dead.

So was my only chance of breaking Nancy’s alibi.

My heart thudded dully in my chest. I sat on a hay bale and watched deputies unspool yellow police tape. I watched a photographer snap photos. I watched crime scene techs in covered shoes work the scene.

The sun slid toward the west. It was after three. The con closed in less than two hours. Partridge was dead and I was done.

Nancy Mullen stood beside a bouncy castle and spoke to the sheriff. She looked over her shoulder at me. A satisfied expression crossed her face and as quickly vanished.

I pressed my forehead into my hands. I’d found another body. It wasn’t a good look. The sheriff would have to take me in now.

At least I hadn’t slipped forward in time again. I’d taken to checking my phone obsessively. It was three-thirty, exactly.

My phone rang. Without looking at the caller ID, I answered.

“Jayce?” Lenore asked. “How are things going?”

A child pressed his face against the picket fence surrounding the pumpkin patch. His mother, dressed as a classic witch in black, grabbed his pudgy hand and pulled him away.

“Not good,” I said heavily. “Partridge is dead.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know.”

Beside the bouncy castle, the councilwoman pressed a hand to her face and bowed her head.

I really hated her.

“That does it,” my sister said. “I’m coming to the con.”

My chest squeezed. Lenore couldn’t come as long as the Far Darocha was here. “You can’t. All the tickets are sold out,” I lied.

“I’ll climb a fence.”

“No, you won’t. You’re the least athletic of the three of us.”

“I do yoga,” she said, indignant.

“Look, I’m with the sheriff. I’m safe. Did you learn anything else in your research?”

“Nancy’s being positioned for state office. Word is she may go higher. She went from school board to town council when one of the councilors had a heart attack.”

“Convenient.”

“She won the special election. She’s being backed by some big construction firms. And she recently moved from an apartment into a very, very nice house.”

“You think magic was involved in all her good fortune?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Things have been going her way lately, but that doesn’t mean she’s made a pact with the devil.”

With the Far Darocha.

“Jayce, there’s something else. There was a forensic investigation into the school board’s accounts when she was on the board.”

“Was anything found?”

“No. The investigator jumped off a four-story parking garage.”

“What?”

“It happened the day before he was to announce the results. The whole investigation seemed to just… go away.”

“That was even more convenient.”

“She might be more than we can handle.”

My stomach lurched. Than I can handle, she meant. “I’ll leave it to the sheriff from here on in. As soon as McCourt lets me leave, I’ll drive to your bookstore and we can sort things out,” I lied again.

“I’ll wait. But I hope the sheriff can manage the situation. I know you trust her, Jayce. And I guess I do too, but—”

“See what else you can find out. Talk to you soon.” Tasting dust, I hung up before she could argue.

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