He left with the parcel, cookies, and a book on folklore tales that had been among the tomes Ms. Vine had dug up.
I sent her home with many thanks and finished the remaining part of the shift with tidying and admin tasks. Keeping my hands busy allowed me to let my subconscious work away.
For a change, the coven came to my place.
Harper and Reina supplied sushi and fruit skewers. “We want your honest opinion before we put these on the menu,” Harper said as we settled in my living room.
Ange had brought the dogs, because Nick had been called out toSerenity Springs. They only had a nurse on duty day and night, but Nick or one of his partners took care of any emergency.
When we all had something to nibble, Reina asked, “What have you found out?”
I brought out the whiteboard on wheels that served as murder board, and created three columns for motive, means, opportunity.
“As far as we can tell, Candice and Skye could match all three categories,” I said and wrote down their names.
“How so?” asked Harper.
“Candice is obvious. She had a fight with Tim and could easily have arranged to meet him when the fair closed and only buyers and sellers were around,” I said and repeated what the beehive lady had told us.
“That’s a lot of people,” Harper said.
“Yes, but they wouldn’t all be in that area. The chest was in a remote area, and from my experience most people would simply seethe delivery guys and book a spot without taking them around to see every single item. We also know that the workers used to go on break together, giving our killer a window of opportunity. It wouldn’t have taken long to stab Tim and stash away his body.”
“How long do you think?” Reina asked.
“We could role play it.” Ange rubbed her hands.
“We don’t have a chest,” Harper pointed out. “Unless …”
“We’re not going to use the real one.” I shuddered. “It’s currently giving me the heebie-jeebies. We’ll improvise instead. If we had an idea how far away from the chest the murder happened, we could narrow it down to a few seconds, but we should be able to come close anyway.” I scanned my friends.
Ange was the tallest. “You’re the victim,” I said.
“Tim was a lot heavier,” Harper said.
I shrugged. “We can’t reconstruct everything the way it most likely was. I think the killer knew about the chest. It would have been easy enough to case the joint while the fair was open to the public.” I pulled up Ange from her seat and stationed her next to a low side table where Cosmo resided.
He obligingly moved on to the floor, where he snuggled up with the dogs.
“Harper, you’re the killer. You stab Ange and she sinks to the floor.”
“Do I catch her?”
“Probably. Wait for my sign.”
“What do I do?” Reina asked.
“You take the time, starting now.”
Harper mimed stabbing Ange. Ange folded. Harper grabbed her. “And what happens next?” she asked.
“Can you keep on holding Ange without hurting yourself or her?”
“Sure,” Harper said.
“If you hurry. It’s no fun for my ribs,” Ange added.
I mimed lifting the lid of the chest. “That takes me about 30 seconds. It’s heavy and I want to make sure it doesn’t slip from my grip and slam shut. I don’t want to create any noise. Right. Now the chest is open, and you roll the victim over the side, or in our case, arrange Ange on the table.”
