“Jasper,” I say. “I bet it belonged to that married professor she was seeing.” A thought hits me. “I bet that’s why he was giving her the money the night she died. He was trying to get her out of his life.”
He leans in. “Bizzy, do you know the name of the man with the tan trench coat?”
“Billy. Or at least I think it is.”
Emmie clucks her tongue. “Bizzy, you’re amazing. I’m sorry, Jasper, but this girl is dancing circles around the Seaview Sheriff’s Department.”
Leo chuckles. “That she is.”
Jasper twitches his brows. “Don’t I know it. We’ve talked about it.” A slight look of defeat crosses his face and I feel terrible.
Leo clears his throat. “How about we change the subject to something a little lighter?” Are you ready, Bizzy? He ticks his head my way and I gird myself.
Just like this Leo? I didn’t even get the chance to run it past Jasper.
Leo lifts a brow. I had a feeling you wouldn’t, so I did run it past him. He knows and he says as long as you’re fine with it, he is, too.
Emmie squints my way then does the same to Leo. “What’s going on? Why are the two of you looking at one another like that? You’ve been awful secretive lately. You’re not having an affair already, are you, Bizzy?”
“And we’re sideways,” I mutter to myself. “Not now, not ever,” I say, taking up Jasper’s hand and giving it a hard squeeze.
“Actually” —Leo’s chest widens with his next breath—“there is something I wanted to—”
“Bizzy!” my name wails from somewhere down the beach and the dogs go wild barking and running.
Fish’s ears perk as she darts in that direction just as Georgie and Juni come trotting this way.
“It’s Georgie!” A slight rise of panic hits me. “Quick, give me the doll,” I say and Jasper hands her over in two pieces. “Oh no, I forgot all about her head. I’m about to get busted. Anyone have any glue in their pockets?” I glance to Em and that pale piece of silk glowing around her neck. “Ooh, your scarf, Emmie, quick.” I flick my fingers at her, and soon enough, I’ve secured Annabeth’s head right back onto her body.”
“There she is.” Georgie takes Annabeth from me. “I hope Auntie Bizzy has been treating you well. What’s that? She let you have at the Halloween candy?” A hard groan emits from her. “Great. Thanks a lot, Biz. Now I’ll be up all night scraping this one off the ceiling. You know what candy does to a kid.”
Juni chuckles. “We just had a couple of handfuls of candy corn for dinner ourselves.”
I can tell, but I don’t say a word. Georgie’s been having a fistful of candy corn for breakfast for years now, claiming it’s for medicinal purposes, of course.
Leo nods. “You know, if there was a Halloween candy food pyramid, candy corn would be a vegetable. I think you did pretty good all things considering.”
Juni grunts, “Good thing I saved room for dessert.” She lunges for Emmie’s jack-o’-lantern hand pies, and both she and Georgie load up on them. “We’d better get going. I’ve got a hot date that involves my television set, a roaring fire, and a pair of fuzzy socks.”
“No luck at the club, huh?” I ask.
Juni makes a face. “How do you think I got the hot date? There’s a man with a pointed tail and horns coming over in five minutes. Here’s hoping he likes hand pies.”
Georgie nods. “I hope my date will like them, too. I’ve got a mummy swinging by in half an hour. He said he might be late because he’s all tied up.” She laughs like a madwoman. “Get it? All tied up?” She gives a hard wink. “Here’s hoping he’s not the only one tied up this evening.” She glances down at Annabeth. “Thanks for watching the kid, Bizzy. Here’s your scarf back.” She gives it a quick tug, much to the protest of those of us seated around the fire, and we watch in horror as Annabeth’s head goes flying and lands smack into the center of the flames.
Emmie and I shrill out a quick scream. Georgie and Juni howl as if someone just knocked their own heads right off their bases. And Leo and Jasper hop up, trying to fish that head out of the inferno before us as if it was filled with cold, hard cash.
Leo jabs at it with a stick while Jasper pulls his foot back before kicking Annabeth’s head right out of the fire. We watch in amazement as the doll’s head flies through the night sky like a comet with its tail on fire, only to put itself out in the sand.
It’s a wild end to a wild day.
Georgie and Juni collect what’s theirs—or more to the point, what’s Annabeth’s, and take off for the night.
The four of us wrap up our bonfire and do the same. Both Leo and I agreed there was too much going on for us to share the supernatural news with Emmie tonight. He suggests we try again in the very near future.
Jasper and I make our way back to our cottage with our furry counterparts and we head straight for bed.
Although, we don’t get much sleeping done. Just the way I like it.
And tomorrow, I plan on hunting down Sabrina Ames and asking a few questions about dear old Billy boy. I can’t wait to get to the bottom of Blair Bates’ haunted homicide investigation.
And I have a feeling I’m about to do just that.
Chapter 12
Last night when we got back to the cottage, I told Jasper all about seeing Billy and Sabrina out by the makeshift memorial.
Although I’m not too sure he heard. Jasper had other things on his mind, and well, lucky for me, not one of them involved a homicide case.
It’s the very next morning and I’ve already sent
