Free Costume Catastrophe (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 21) by Kathi Daley Page A

while he has a tendency to ignore me completely.”
    I got up and was gathering my things when the house phone rang. Zak answered the line on his desk. My heart began to pound when his smile turned into a frown.
    “Okay, thanks,” Zak said before hanging up. “That was Salinger.”
    “And…?”
    “There’s been another victim.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    “Tommy Payton.”
    “Tommy’s dead?”
    “No. Like Joey, Tommy was shot, but his wound wasn’t fatal. In fact, he called 911 himself. Salinger said he’s in surgery right now to remove the bullet, but he’s expected to make a full recovery. I guess the note was right. There was a second victim.”
    “Oh, God, Levi!”
    “Levi?” Zak asked.
    “The obvious connection between Tommy and Joey is football. Levi was the third leg of the unstoppable trio. It makes sense he’s going to be victim number three if there is one.”
    Zak hesitated. “I don’t think we should panic or jump to conclusions, but it couldn’t hurt to call Levi and fill him in on the situation. I’ll go check on the kids while you make the call.”
     
     
     

Chapter 6
    Thursday, October 27
     
     
    I spent another sleepless night worrying about friends who didn’t have the common sense to worry about themselves. When I’d called Levi all in a panic the night before he’d laughed it off, insisting he was sure he was in no way a target. He pointed out that he hadn’t been part of the unstoppable trio for a very long time, so there was no reason for anyone to want him dead at this point. I tried to talk him into leaving town, but he reminded me that he had the football game of the year in two days’ time and therefore wasn’t going anywhere. He was, however, worried about Tommy, so we both decided to head to the hospital to see exactly what was going on. Somewhere around two a.m. the doctor informed us that, although he’d lost a lot of blood, no vital organs had been hit, and he was stable and should make a full recovery. By the time Levi drove me home it was almost time to get up.
    Ugh! I didn’t do well with only a couple of hours of sleep.
    “Coffee?” Zak asked as he handed me a hot cup. I accepted it and drank it down before it even had time to cool. “Why don’t you call Tiffany and tell her you won’t be in today? Or at least that you’ll be late,” he suggested.
    “I’ll be fine once I have another cup of coffee and a shower. It’s going to be a busy weekend and Jeremy is getting back later this evening, so I want to be sure all the cleaning and chores are caught up so he doesn’t return to a mess.”
    Zak laughed. “You do know that he works for you , right?”
    “Honestly, given the fact that he’s pretty much running things and I just pop in and help out when I can, it sometimes feels like it’s the other way around.” I took a long sip of my second cup of liquid adrenaline. “Once I check in and make sure things are taken care of at the Zoo, I thought I’d go by to see if Tommy is up to having visitors. Maybe he saw something. I know Levi isn’t worried that he might be another target, but I am.”
    “I planned to work from home today anyway. How about if I come to the Zoo with you and help you get your chores done, and then we can go visit Tommy together.”
    I smiled. “Really? I’d like that. And maybe afterward we can go see Levi and you can help me talk some sense into his thick head.”
    Zak frowned. I knew him well enough to realize I wasn’t the only one worried about Levi. High school football wasn’t the only link between Joey and Tommy, but considering Tommy was in Ashton Falls for the big game, things seemed to point in that direction. I’d filled Salinger in on the fact that Albert had been in town for both shootings and that he’d as much as told me the previous day that he planned to look up Tommy. I’d also made sure he understood just how angry Albert was that circumstances had derailed his plans for a football career and