Free A Catered Halloween by Isis Crawford

kidding,” Bernie cried.
    “Nope,” said Brandon, shaking his head.
    Libby clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. This was a woman who used to come into their store and order four hundred dollars’ worth of food at a go without batting an eye.
    “Jobs are tight these days, and with her problem, this was the only job she could get, and that’s only because Ian felt bad for her,” Brandon explained. “My friend Ian White runs AAAPlus Clean.”
    “Didn’t she work in a lab doing something with remote sensing?” Libby asked.
    Bernie finished her Irish coffee. “She did before she got married and became Mr. Rich Man’s wife and started drinking and got two DWIs. Now, I’m sure she couldn’t get a security clearance to work at Wal-Mart.” Bernie stretched. “I’d say she had a motive to kill Amethyst.”
    “I’d go for the husband,” Libby said.
    “Yeah,” Bernie said. “But Kevin is in Japan.”
    “Good point,” Libby said. “And Inez has never been too stable.”
    “Just because she threw a tantrum in our shop when she found out we were out of broccoli cole slaw and we had to call the police to get her out?” Bernie asked.
    “Something like that,” Libby said.
    “You want me to find out if she’s working tonight?” Brandon asked.
    “So late?” Libby asked.
    “That’s when Ian’s crews work,” said Brandon. And he punched his friend’s phone number in and walked to the end of the bar. A few minutes later, he was back. “Funny thing,” he said. “But she’s cleaning at the Foundation as we speak.”
    “Huh,” Bernie said. “Curiouser and curiouser. I think we should go have a chat with her.”
    “Now?” Libby said.
    “When better?” Bernie asked.
    “Tomorrow is better. I want to go home and go to bed,” replied Libby.
    “Then Brandon and I will go,” said Bernie.
    “We will?” Brandon asked. “I thought we had other plans.”
    “First things first,” Bernie said firmly.
    “And then we can go to my place,” said Brandon.
    Bernie grinned. “That depends on your performance.”
    Brandon leered. “My performance is always stellar.”
    Bernie laughed and ate a peanut.

Chapter 8
    B ernie watched the Peabody School rise in the moonlight as Brandon rounded the bend in the road. She hugged herself as she turned toward Brandon.
    “This would make a great set for a horror movie,” she said.
    “Yeah,” Brandon said. “The only thing it lacks is bats and a belfry.”
    “It has a colony of bats.”
    “I was being metaphorical.” Brandon pointed to the top of the building. “It also has a widow’s walk.”
    For a moment Bernie thought she saw a faint shape, a large, light spot in the dark, but when she looked again, it was gone. Probably an optical illusion , she told herself.
    Brandon headed toward the main entrance. “Senior year, Ben Altman bet me I couldn’t get all the way up there on Halloween night.”
    “And did you?”
    Brandon shook his head. “I chickened out before I got to the second floor. I thought I heard voices.”
    “Maybe you did. Maybe someone else was in there.”
    “There were no cars in the lot.”
    “Maybe it was a couple of squatters,” said Bernie.
    “Maybe. But I wasn’t about to stay and find out.”
    Bernie rubbed her arms. For some reason, she was cold. “You think Libby saw something earlier this evening?”
    “Definitely. Don’t you?”
    “Yeah. I do. She was really freaked out.”
    “Do you think she really saw Bessie Osgood?” asked Brandon.
    “Don’t tell anyone, but yeah. I think she did.”
    “Freaky.”
    “Halloween is a freaky time of year.”
    Brandon turned into the parking lot. “There’s the cleaning van,” he said, changing the subject.
    Brandon parked right beside it, and he and Bernie got out.
    “And no cops,” Bernie observed. According to Clyde, they’d packed up and left the crime scene a couple of hours ago. “Did your friend Ian say anything about Inez?” Bernie asked Brandon as they