“I think you meanourweirdos, babe,” Riley said, sliding her arm around Nick’s waist. “At least with trick or treat night, the cops won’t be able to keep track of who’s coming and going.”
“Neither will we, Thorn,” Nick said.
“Oh.” The gravity of it hit her. They were expected to open the door to strangers in costumes all evening. It would be too easy for a bad guy to blend in with the rest of the population of Harrisburg. “That’s really not good.”
“Exactly.”
She called in the pizza order, filled a couple pitchers of water, and then joined everyone else in the dining room.
Nick shut the door.
They all took seats around the table. Someone, most likely Tommy, had cleaned up the broken pieces of the chandelier and plaster that had fallen a few days earlier.
She looked around the table at their friends. They were an army of concerned citizens fighting fatigue and searching for answers.
Nick and Kellen started speaking at the same time, then stopped to glare at each other.
“After you,” Nick said.
“Right. Fine. My sources in the department claim that Sesame, Tommy, and the unidentified suspect are still at large,” Kellen said. “But the limo is no longer parked at the train station.”
“So either it got towed or someone came back to retrieve it,” Nick said.
“Seeing as how Wu added Wilhelm and the limo to the BOLO, I’m guessing it’s the latter,” Kellen explained.
“We need to get to one of them first,” Nick said. “Tommy still has family in this area. Josie, you and Weber are going to go shake them down for information. Odds are that’s where he would have gone when he ran.”
“I’m not shaking down an innocent civilian,” Kellen snapped.
“Think of it as playing good bad guy and bad bad guy,” Josie suggested. “I’ll let you be the good bad guy.”
Nick turned to his cousin. “Brian, I need you to nail down the whereabouts of the Lionworths. Make sure they didn’t come to town with No Neck.”
He nodded and opened his laptop. “On it.”
“Riley, you and Jasmine watch the train station. I don’t think Sesame is officially in the wind. Not with her husband and her wardrobe still in town.”
Jasmine clapped her hands. “Yay! I get a job!”
Riley was less impressed with the assignment. The odds of Sesame coming back into town the way she left were slim. Especially if Tommy had been able to warn her about the finger.
“This time don’t burn anything down,” Nick said sternly.
“We didn’t start the fire,” Jasmine said haughtily.
“Fine. Don’t incite anyone to arson,” Nick conceded.
“What fire?” Kellen demanded.
“Unrelated. There’s no way that situation is related to the one we’re dealing with, so quit worrying about it,” Nick told him.
“And what are you gonna do, Santiago?” Kellen asked.
“Since it’s unlikely anyone connected with the case is going to wander back into this house and explain what’s going on, I’m going to start rattling cages. Someone in this city knows what the hell is going on. I’m going to find them and make them talk.”
Jasmine raised her hand. “Am I hallucinating again, or is Dolly Parton delivering pizza to the backyard?” she asked.
Sure enough, in the waning afternoon light, a Dolly Parton lookalike traipsed into view carrying two pizza boxes.
