Page 79 of All You Want
“If the mask was there, why did it go missing later on?” I ask to keep my mind on the evidence. “Who would have removed it?”
“The murderer, of course,” Bonnie says.
“Was there anyone who showed up to the scene that we don’t know?” I need to deflect them from Bigfoot.
“We don’t know any of the deputies,” Suzette says. “Your assistant knows everyone. You can ask her.”
“You’re right. Molly does know everyone,” I agree. “Actually, I need to talk to her about the program for the evening.”
After leaving the dining room, I text Molly and ask her to go over the updated haunt effects with me. She doesn’t reply, so I call her.
The call goes to voicemail.
Someone has to know something, and the diner’s the place to go for gossip. Maybe she’s hanging out there and getting a free lunch.
Linx’s sister, Joey, comes out from behind the register and hugs me tight. “I heard what happened. You must have been scared out of your wits.”
In a small town, everyone wants to be in on everything, so a crowd gathers around me, murmuring their condolences for Viola and wondering if Todd has found the killer.
“Not yet. He’s working on it. It was horrible. I feel so bad.” I try to answer all the questions peppering around me. “Yes, yes, they’re following all the leads. Poor Viola. I can’t imagine. Has anyone seen Molly? No, it’s okay. Larissa is fine. My parents are okay. They’re going to be checking out. We’re good. Thanks.”
The well-wishers follow me to a booth where Linx is sitting with Chad and Vivi.
“Tami, how are you feeling?” Linx gets up to hug me, her face full of concern. Over her shoulder, I notice Chad has a black eye and a swollen bruise across his forehead.
Looks like he didn’t get lucky, and Molly wasn’t lying about him shirking his duty and going home with a coven of witches.
“What happened to you?” I ask him.
“I told Todd already,” he says, holding the side of his head. “I got conked last night and missed everything.”
“We think he got hit by a baseball bat,” Linx adds. “He was patrolling the grounds right before the fireworks, and someone knocked him out.”
“Did you see anyone right before you were hit?” I try not to sound like I’m interrogating him, so I put a hand on his shoulder for comfort.
“No. I felt a presence, but it was more an absence of light, than me seeing anyone. You know, like a car driving without headlights and you only know they’re there because they block the lights behind them.”
“I told him he was seeing things, like maybe a ghost,” Vivi, who is Linx’s younger sister, says. She’s always been the impressionable one prone to flights of fancy.
“A ghost wouldn’t have beaned him,” Linx, ever the sensible and practical one, says. “Anyway, we called Chad to see if he wanted to watch the fireworks with us, and there was no answer.”
“We went looking for him after the show,” Vivi adds. “We kept calling until we heard his cell phone ring. That’s how we found him.”
“Did you see him with any witches?” I ask to verify his alibi, if any.
“We were the witches,” Linx says. “Vivi, Becca, and I. We went to sit in Chad’s truck to watch the fireworks. He was supposed to meet us there.”
“There was another witch,” Chad says. “She asked me to walk her to her car.”
“What did she look like?” I’m quick to pick this up. “Did she have a green painted face?”
“She did.” Chad rubs his jaw and stares at me. “Do you think that was Viola?”
I gasp at the implication. “Did you tell Todd you might have been one of the last people to see Viola alive?”
“You’re not accusing Chad, are you?” Linx elbows my side. “He was knocked out.”
“Exactly. The murderer saw him talking to Viola and hit him, then somehow got Viola to meet him near the dumpster.”
