Killer Halloween Cookies: Book 2 in The Killer Cookie Cozy Mysteries Page 7

  “I’ll see if I can borrow Margie’s car again. I’ll be there soon.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  * * *

  Lilah pulled into the Granger Farm parking lot with the headlights on Margie’s car switched off. It was a dark night, with clouds covering the stars and a new moon, and she was relatively certain that no one watching from the farmhouse across the clearing would be able to see her. She didn’t spot Val’s car until she got out and began walking towards the farm shop. Her friend was parked in the darkest, most shadowy corner of the lot, under the low-hanging bough of a stand of trees.

  Feeling uneasy, Lilah approached the farm shop and hissed her friend’s name. Val hadn’t mentioned where exactly she was on the farm, and Lilah hadn’t thought to ask. She hoped her friend didn’t expect her to go wandering off into the cornfield or orchard alone, looking for her, because that was definitely not going to happen.

  “Val,” she called again, a little bit louder. “Where are you?”

  A shadowy form came around the corner of the farm shop, and Lilah jumped.

  “Relax, it’s just me,” her friend said in a low voice. “You got here sooner than I thought you would, sorry. I followed Gabby back towards the big barn, but I didn’t want to go further alone. I’m not sure what she’s doing here, but it can’t be good.”

  Lilah agreed with that assessment. The two women being near each other wouldn’t lead to anything good. Lilah desperately wanted to prevent the killer from taking another life. She just wished she knew whose life she was supposed to be saving.

  “Do you have your phone?” she asked Val. Her friend nodded. “Good. At the first sign of something being not quite right, we’ll call the police. I don’t think Eldridge will pay any attention to me unless there’s some sort of solid evidence that one of these people is the killer. He, ah, didn’t take me too seriously when I tried to talk to him earlier today.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” the other woman asked. “I know I’m the one that called you, but now that we’re here it doesn’t seem like such a good idea. I mean, it’s almost pitch black. We can’t use any lights or we’ll be seen. And what are we going to do if one of them has a gun?”

  “Do you want to leave and go home?” Lilah asked hopefully.

  Val bit her lip, then shook her head. “No. If someone gets attacked after we leave, I would never forgive myself.”

  The answer didn’t surprise Lilah; when it came down to it, she felt the same way. Both she and Val had witnessed the murder and had done nothing to stop it. Somehow it felt like if they could stop a second murder, it might make up for their lack of action during the first one.

  “You said she headed towards the big barn? Let’s go that way first. Just keep your eyes peeled. If I get murdered tonight because you called me here, I’m going to haunt you forever.”

  The farm, which had become so familiar to her in the day, was eerie at night. The buildings created deep shadows, areas of darkness even more intense than the normal darkness of a moonless night. The wind whispered through the dry stalks of corn, a sound that would have made the perfect backdrop to a horror movie. The lowing of a cow almost made Lilah jump out of her skin; it had sounded almost exactly like the moan of someone dressed up in a mummy costume.

  “I can see why this place is so popular around Halloween,” she whispered to her friend as they walked. “It’s creepy even without the props.”

  Before long, the big barn loomed in front of them. It was the largest building on the property, and didn’t house animals, but rather farm equipment. The two women edged closer cautiously, being as quiet as possible as they strained for any sound or hint of light from under the huge sliding barn doors. Nothing.

  “If someone’s in there, they’re sitting in the dark,” Val whispered. “What should we do?”

  “Are you sure Gabby was coming this way?”

  “This was the direction she was heading in,” her friend said. “But I didn’t follow her very far.”

  “What’s Mrs. Perry’s schedule like after the farm closes for the evening?”

  “She usually goes around and makes sure everything is locked up. Then, I don’t know what. She could be anywhere.”

  Lilah sighed. This was a lot harder than she had thought it would be. If only they could find Gabby.

  “Maybe,” she said, “she isn’t here to kill anyone and we were just being paranoid. What if she’s here to pay her respects to Mark somehow? What was she carrying?”

  “I didn’t see it clearly. It could have been anything. It was sort of long, covered in white paper, and she was carrying it with one arm. It could have been a weapon, or something as simple as a bottle of wine.”

  “Or flowers?” Lilah asked.

  “I suppose. But why — oh.” Val winced, looking embarrassed.

  “You think she might be bringing flowers for Mark?”

  “She did seem to be really upset about his death when I spoke with her. And if everyone knows that she was his mistress, she may not be welcome on the farm during daylight hours.”

  “Well, where would she be bringing the flowers? If that’s all she’s doing, we can leave, but I don’t want to chance leaving until we’re certain.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they had a special place where they met… or maybe she’s bringing them to the spot where he was killed.”

  It was the best idea that they had, so Lilah and Val turned away from the barn and began walking towards the cornfield, where the haunted hayride’s path began. They would be more visible walking along it than if they went through the orchard, but neither of them wanted to try to find their way through the trees in the dark. A moment later, a piercing scream echoed across the farm. The two women froze and exchanged a glance.

  “Hurry!” Lilah said. They began running, but soon had to slow down to pick their way through the dark. One of them getting hurt wouldn’t help anybody. It seemed to take forever for them to reach the head of the path, but at last it came into view.

  Lilah led the way, but she had only taken a few steps along the dirt path before a noise made her jump. She and Val whirled around, and Val let out a short scream at the sight of the man standing just a few feet away. It was too dark to make out his face, and her first crazy thought was that it was Mark’s ghost.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, and she felt a rush of relief when she realized that she knew that voice.

  “Johnny, thank goodness, you almost gave me a heart attack,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I saw a girl walk by. I was following her. People aren’t supposed to come onto the farm at night. It’s dangerous.”

  “Yeah, we were following her, too. We heard someone scream,” Lilah said. “Do you know where she went?”

  “I scared her and she ran away. I lost her,” he said. “You should leave, too.”

  With that, he turned and began walking back towards the entrance. Val and Lilah exchanged a glance, then followed him. It looked like their nighttime investigation was over. It hadn’t come to any satisfactory conclusion, but at least neither of them had been attacked by a crazed killer.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  * * *

  “So who do you think killed Mr. Perry?” Lilah asked Johnny, struggling to keep up with his fast pace. “I mean, you’ve been here a while, right? You must have some idea.”

  “Lilah,” Val said. She was a few feet behind, and falling further back. Realizing with a start that her friend was limping, Lilah stopped walking and hurried back towards her.

  “Oh my goodness, what happened?”

  “I twisted my ankle when Johnny surprised us,” she said. “I’ll be okay, I just can’t go as fast. You go on ahead, Johnny. We’ll catch up.”

  “Here, lean on me,” Lilah said to her friend. “Put your arm around my shoulders. You should have said something sooner.”

  Val leaned heavily on her and concentrated on hobbling forward in silence for a few moments until J
ohnny had drawn ahead. Then her grip on her friend’s arm tightened and she leaned her head closer to Lilah’s so she could whisper in her ear.

  “Don’t stop walking, and don’t react at all to what I’m about to say, but Lilah, I think Johnny is the killer.”

  Her eyes went wide. She waited to respond for a few more moments until Johnny had drawn even further ahead.

  “Why do you think that?” she whispered back.

  “He’s the right height, and he could easily have been the mummy. But besides that, I think I saw blood on his hand back there. He wiped it on his pants as he turned around.”

  “Blood?” Lilah asked “Why would he have blood… Oh no. Gabby.”

  Her friend nodded. “Think about it. We heard a scream just minutes before he came out of nowhere and found us.”

  “But why would he kill her? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Maybe she was getting too close to the truth,” Val whispered. Just then Johnny looked back and noticed that they had fallen quite a ways behind. He waited for them to catch up.

  “Everything all right?” he asked. Val nodded.

  “It twinges a bit, but I don’t think it’s serious. A day or two of rest should put me back to normal.”

  “Good,” Johnny said. “Sorry if I scared you. I know Mrs. Perry likes you. You do a lot to help out around the farm every year. I’m glad you’re not hurt bad.”

  Lilah exchanged a glance with her friend. This man didn’t seem like a killer. The blood that Val thought she’d seen could just as easily have been mud or oil from one of the tractors. And considering that Johnny had scared her and Val half to death when he found them, she could believe that the scream that they had heard had been nothing more than a startled scream from Gabby when he found her. She couldn’t imagine Johnny hurting someone, or plotting out a murder.

  They reached the big barn, and Johnny stopped. He pulled open the huge sliding door and stepped inside the building without explanation. Lilah felt Val tense beside her, and even though she had her doubts that he was the killer, she took a couple of cautious steps away from the dark maw of the barn.

  Johnny reappeared a moment later holding a manure shovel. Both women flinched back as he held it out towards them.

  “Here you go,” he said to Val. “You can use it like a crutch. I feel bad that you got hurt.”

  Val accepted the shovel somewhat warily and used it to prop herself up. She looked surprised. “Thanks.”

  “Can you two make it to the parking lot on your own? I have to go find the other girl. She’s still here somewhere.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Lilah told him, forcing a smile. “Thanks for your help.”

  He left without another word, vanishing quickly back into the darkness in the direction that they had just come. Lilah exchanged a look with her friend.

  “What now?” she asked, keeping her voice low in case Johnny was still hanging around somewhere nearby.

  “I don’t know,” Val whispered back. “Should we leave Gabby here alone with him?”

  “He doesn’t exactly seem dangerous,” Lilah said. “I mean, he gave you a shovel. He seemed to feel bad about scaring us. He hasn’t done anything threatening at all.”

  Val opened her mouth to respond, but the words never came out. Instead her eyes went wide and she raised the shovel defensively. “Watch out!” she shouted.

  Lilah jumped aside and spun to face her friend had seen. At first she didn’t see anything, then she saw what she had taken to be a shadow break off from the other shadows and move towards them. Val tightened her grip on the shovel, prepared to use it to defend them, and Lilah, weaponless, hid shamelessly behind her friend.

  “Wait, don’t hurt me,” a voice called out. It was a woman’s, and one that she instantly recognized as Gabby’s.

  “Val, put down the shovel,” she hissed. She reached into her pocket, tired of not being able to see anything, and pulled out her phone. Turning on the flashlight app, she shone it towards the newcomer’s face. She gasped. Gabby had blood around her nose and mouth, and her hair was disheveled.

  “What happened?” Lilah asked in a low voice. “Did Johnny do that?”

  The other woman nodded. “He came out of nowhere and grabbed me. He called me a whole bunch of horrible names and hit me with something.”

  “How did you get away?” Val asked. She had lowered the shovel, but was still gripping it tightly, and looked suspicious.

  “I kicked him where it counts,” Gabby said. “Then I ran as fast as I could. I stopped when I heard someone else scream.”

  “That was me,” Lilah’s friend said. “He snuck up on us, too. But why would he attack you?” She raised the shovel slightly. “Did you kill Mark?”

  “I would never!” the woman gasped. “I loved him. I was bringing flowers for him. I thought that maybe if I put them at the spot where he died, his spirit might somehow sense it, and he’d know I was thinking of him. I have no idea why Johnny attacked me, and I definitely don’t want to stick around to find out. Hurry, let’s go.”

  “Wait a second,” Lilah said. “Just, hold on. It doesn’t make sense that Johnny would just attack you like that. He found us wandering around too, but he led us back to here and gave Val a shovel to use as a crutch since she twisted her ankle. That doesn’t seem like the sort of thing a lunatic would do. How do we know we can believe you?”

  “What, did I punch myself in the face?” Gabby asked, her voice rising as she lost her temper. “He’s always hated me, ever since he found out about me and Mark. He thought that we were betraying Mrs. Perry, and he hated us for it. Now we have to go. He’s going to come back. Please, just run. He’s dangerous.”

  “I think we should go,” Val said. “Whether or not Johnny’s dangerous to us, he obviously hurt Gabby. She needs to go to a doctor, and I don’t think it would be a good idea for her to hang around here until Johnny finds her again.”

  “Okay. You’re right,” Lilah said. “But we all go in the same car, and as soon as we drop her off at the hospital, we’re going to the police, okay?”

  “I don’t need a hospital. Let’s just go straight to the police,” Gabby said. “Now let’s go.”

  They hurried back towards the parking lot as quickly as Val’s ankle would let them, which wasn’t very fast. A couple of times, they thought that they heard a noise off in the darkness somewhere, but they never saw anything. Lilah was still using her phone’s flashlight; even though she knew it made them more visible, she couldn’t bear the thought of wandering through the darkness again.

  The tight knot of fear that had been in her chest for the last few minutes loosened when they finally reached the little farm shop. Their cars were in the parking lot just beyond, and soon enough they would all be driving to safety.

  They headed towards her car, which was the closest. Lilah dug in her pocket for Margie’s key, and was just about to hit the button to unlock it when Val said, “Wait.”

  “What?”

  “Look,” her friend said softly. “Look at the tires.”

  She looked, and what she saw made her feel sick. All four tires had been slashed.

  “Oh my goodness,” Gabby breathed. “He’s here. He’s watching us.”

  The three women looked wildly around the parking lot, standing back to back. There was no sign of Johnny in the wide open space.

  “I’m going to go check the other cars,” Lilah whispered. “Gabby, stay here with Val.”

  Trying hard to be courageous, she tightened her grip on her phone and ran across the lot to Val’s car. It took her only a second to spot its four slashed tires. She turned her phone’s light to Gabby’s vehicle, with the same results. All three of their cars had flat tires. She thought they still might be able to drive them, but probably not very well or quickly.

  When Lilah turned to head back to Val and Gabby and deliver the bad news, she saw something that made her heart stop. The clouds had parted just enough to expose a shadowy figure moving along the
wall of the farm shop. The two women had their eyes on her; they didn’t see the danger.

  Lilah opened her mouth to shout, but the same panic that she felt on the night of the murder rose up in her again. She couldn’t get any words out. She couldn’t breathe. Her friends were going to die because she was useless — no, she wouldn’t let that happen.

  Forcing her body to listen to her despite the adrenaline that was running through it, she took a deep breath and yelled, “Watch out! Behind you!”