Page 3 of Their Haunted Hearts
Jenna raised both eyebrows. “Oh, there will be charges. I’m throwing the book at you.” She looked around just as Rio came to a screeching stop right behind them. “Great timing. Read the Prince of Darkness his rights and throw him in a cell to sober up.” She considered calling a doctor and then decided on the medical examiner. As a member of the law enforcement team, Dr. Shane Wolfe, a badge-holding deputy, was highly trained in forensic science. She nodded to herself. “I’ll need Wolfe to take a look at him. We’ll leave him for the night and question him in the morning.” She turned toward Deputy Jake Rowley, Rio’s partner. “Call Wolfe and ask him to drop by. It’s only flesh wounds, as far as I can see, and one of you will need to stay overnight to watch him.”
“I’ll do it.” Rio sighed. “I’ve got a ton of paperwork to do.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay, head home at noon and get some sleep if possible. Rowley, take over at six in the morning.”
She watched as they loaded the prisoner into the SUV and then turned to Kane. “Good job. I guess we’d better spread the word for anyone with damages to get a report from us for their insurance.” She scanned the street. “There’s a ton of damage. If you sort out the traffic, I’ll make sure no one is injured and then I’ll take photographs of the damage to the parked vehicles.”
“Another action-packed Halloween on the way. It seems to erupt the week before and around the time the decorations go up.” Kane rubbed his chin. “People just want to have fun, trick-or-treat, and look at the displays with their kids. Someone always spoils it. Why can’t we have a normal one like every other town?” He waved his hand to get the traffic moving.
As Jenna searched the sidewalk for anyone in trouble but found no one in need of a medic, people poured out of the stores looking bewildered and angry at the bullet holes in their vehicles. She pulled out her phone to snap license plates and damage, and shook her head. “I’ve come to the conclusion that’s impossible in Black Rock Falls. Beautiful one day, total chaos the next.” She sighed. “Let’s keep walking, we’d better make sure everyone’s okay.”
Boots crunching over broken glass, Jenna and Kane made their way along the sidewalk, stopping to take images of damage and to take down names. Townsfolk moved around, some cleaning the debris away or talking in small groups. They’d gone all out with the Halloween decorations this year and there’d be more to come. She noticed the usual orange-and-black bunting, along with strings of pumpkin-shaped lights, but the new displays popping up this year intrigued her. One of the old stores was in the process of being changed into a haunted house. Spiderwebs had replaced the curtains and one or two vampires hung out of windows, laughing when people went by. In the alleyway beside the haunted house sat an old wagon piled high with hay bales. Two cowboy skeletons with flashing red eyes sat up front brandishing rifles like in the Old West. The display of carved pumpkins on the hay bales had been blasted into pieces and squashy green and yellow lumps littered the sidewalk.
As she headed toward the couple cleaning up the mess, two women ran toward her, eyes wide and faces sheet-white. She grabbed Kane’s arm to get his attention. “Something’s happened.”
“You’ve gotta see this.” One of the women, wearing a thick fleece jacket, pointed wildly behind her.
“That maniac shot up part of a display outside Aunt Betty’s.” The second woman wiped a trembling hand down her face. “It’s the coffin that opens up—and there’s a vampire inside.
Two
Jenna laid a hand on the woman’s arm. “Take a deep breath and tell me what’s happened. Are you sure it’s a body?”
“Yeah, it’s real.” The first woman looked over her shoulder, her eyes wild. “It’s not a mannequin; I can see her teeth where a bullet damaged her face.”
“I’ll need your names and contact details.” Kane pulled out his notebook. “We’ll need to talk to you when we’re done here. I want you to go into the grocery store and wait for us there.”
“Okay. I’m Christine McEntire.” The first woman moved closer to Kane. “This is my friend, Terry Bauman.” They both gave their details.
Jenna looked at them. “I know this has been a shock but we’ll need your statements. You should grab a cup of coffee and something from the deli. It might be a while before we get back to you.”
“Does this mean we have another serial killer in town?” Christine McEntire searched Jenna’s face. “That vampire had a stake in her chest.”
“Give us time to look at it, okay?” Kane pushed his notebook back inside his pocket. “People go to crazy extents to make things look real. Don’t worry until we know for sure.” He turned to Jenna. “Ready, Sheriff?”
Nodding, Jenna stepped around a pile of shot-up pumpkins and picked her way along the sidewalk to Aunt Betty’s Café. A crowd had gathered around the shot-up coffin. A figure of a young woman with long black hair and dressed in a white nightgown hung from the door, head down and arms hanging loose. A garden stake protruded from the chest and two red puncture marks stood out on the pure white neck. The odor of death drifted toward her on the breeze. She reached for her phone and called Wolfe. “Are you at my office?”
“Guilty as charged.” Wolfe chuckled. “Your prisoner is fine. He’s sleeping right now.”
Jenna stared at the coffin. “Just a minute, I need to look at something.”
Pushing a hand through her hair, Jenna took a few steps closer. She had no doubt by the discoloration of the skin and the ruby stud earrings that this was a person. She moved away to preserve the evidence and looked at Kane’s stony expression. “Create a perimeter around the body.” She lifted her phone to speak to Wolfe as Kane ordered the onlookers away. “We have a homicide. Outside Aunt Betty’s. A female in a coffin.”
“On my way.” Wolfe disconnected.
A sheriff’s department vehicle stopped outside Aunt Betty’s and Jenna turned as Deputy Johnny Raven slid out to greet her. His K-9, Ben, hung out of the window, his mouth open in a doggy smile, tail wagging. “Raven, you have great timing.”
“Rio called me.” Raven scanned the scene. “He mentioned the gunman but that smells like a corpse to me.”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I figure it is too. Wolfe is on the way but you take a look.” As a medical doctor, Raven flew a medivac helicopter in the service. After being wounded, he retired to a cabin in the forest to train K-9s and personal protection dogs. When he’d stepped in to help them with a case, Jenna had talked him into becoming a part-time deputy.
“No one in the crowd saw anyone dumping her here.” Kane stepped closer to Jenna. “I’ve contacted Bobby Kalo. He’ll search the CCTV cameras in town and see if he can find anything suspicious.”
Jenna nodded. “It’s great to have an FBI computer whiz kid on hand when we need him, isn’t it? Then again, Agent Beth Katz out of Rattlesnake Creek is good too.”
“Kalo is always in the office.” Kane shrugged. “I really don’t like to drag Beth from a case to do us a favor when she’s not involved.”
A white van drew up at the curb and Wolfe jumped out along with his daughter and new medical examiner, Emily, along with Colt Webber, Wolfe’s assistant and badge-holding deputy. He looked at Jenna.
