Page 71 of After Tonight

“And you’re doing the official ceremony where everyone adds their stones the morning of the event?”

“Yes. I figure people will be sure to be in town because of the event, and we’ll have lots of visitors too. Everyone can gather here, put their stones in, and then head to the event.”

“Wonderful,” Lucy said. She bit her bottom lip, then said, “I have an idea to add, if you want to hear it.”

“Of course.” Riley set the bag of stones down. “What are you thinking?”

“So we have the path here, and you’re going to do a little speech explaining everything at the gazebo.”

“Right.”

“Then what if we have a path that leads from here over to the bookstore? We’re going to start the murder mystery there. We could set up tables a few yards apart between here and there. Some of the tables could have educational materials, a few could have refreshments, a couple could maybe have people from the task force or from Family Alliance to answer questions or give people even more information.”

Riley was staring at her. “Lucy, that’s a fabulous idea!”

“You think so?” Lucy gave her a small smile.

Riley stepped over the bag of rocks and gathered her friend in for a hug. “I do. I think that’s great.” She stepped back, holding Lucy’s upper arms. “Are you sure though? That day is also about Kade and the event too.”

“Of course. The whole idea of the event is to show people around the town he based Aquamarine Ridge on. We’ll have people walking all over town and they’ll definitely see this. It will educate them too. Maybe they’ll even go back to their communities and see what they can do. And,” Lucy said with a shrug, “it was actually Hannah’s idea.”

“Oh.” Riley nodded. “That makes sense.” Hannah was Michael Kade’s best friend, and the reason he’d ended up in Sapphire Falls in the first place. It was a well-known fact that she hated that Kade had set a gruesome murder mystery in a town that resembled her sweet, beloved hometown very closely.

Lucy nodded. “She says this will show people how nice Sapphire Falls really is. Apparently, there are some internet rumors that Kade’s book is actually based on a true story.”

Riley laughed. Then she focused on Lucy. “Wait, it isn’t, is it?” Lucy knew everything about Sapphire Falls’ history. If there was a bloody unsolved murder in the town’s past, she’d know it. Riley frowned. She hadn’t read the book, but Derek had. He was a huge fan and had the book on the coffee table at his house. She’d flipped through it one night, reading bits and pieces. “But there are vampires in Kade’s book, right?”

“Well, there are suspicions of vampires in Kade’s book.”

“So, I mean, that couldn’t have happened. The internet rumor is just about the murder then?”

Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t say that.”

“The internet rumor is about there being vampires here too?”

“What I meant was, I didn’t say that vampires couldn’t have lived here,” Lucy said.

Riley felt her eyes widen. “Excuse me?”

Lucy had always been into the macabre. She loved mysteries and ghost stories and murder and mayhem. But Riley had always kind of assumed that all of that was in Lucy’s fictional world. She did study history, especially that of their little town, but Riley didn’t think Lucy actually thought there were ghosts and things in Sapphire Falls for real.

“And there are definitely some suspicious deaths in Sapphire Falls’ history,” Lucy said. “This town isn’t all sunshine and daisies, you know.”

Huh. Riley thought that about 98% of the town would actually argue that with Lucy. “So you helped Kade with his research?”

“I might have pushed a couple of file folders under his door at the boarding house,” Lucy said. Then she gave Riley a proud grin.

Riley laughed. “Oh my gosh, you’re so funny. I suppose you’ve arranged some kind of ghost tour of the town?”

Lucy’s eyes brightened as she nodded and Riley groaned, but was still smiling. “That’s hilarious.”

“And Derek has agreed to take people through the cemetery and give some history there too.”

At the mention of his name, Riley’s heart gave a little stutter. Then she frowned. Derek hadn’t mentioned that he was doing any tours for the book event. He’d only told her that he was helping with things at the bookshop, like building the stage and helping Lucy with some of the bigger cleaning jobs. She’d needed to make more room in the shop and had been moving bookshelves and things around. She’d kept Derek busy hauling books out of the lower level of the shop to the second floor, where Lucy lived over the store.

Riley shook her head. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t mentioned it. He loved these books and had been excited about the event since it had first been announced. She was glad he was going to get to help and have fun with it.

“He’s been so helpful,” Lucy went on. “I really don’t know how I would have done this without him.” She smiled. “He’s really sweet. And funny.”

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