Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
I hadn’t been looking forward to the next evening. As someone who was not a fan of tight, confined spaces, I had no desire to go through the maze with Jasper, Abigail, and Mara. I’d even offered to stay with Tommy, but I’d been dragged away when Henry had stepped up.
I’d been expecting hay bales stacked high, like I’d seen on television and film. But that wasn’t the case. There were a few bales of hay, but most of the design was tarps strung up on a series of poles. There were people dressed as ghosts and ghouls scattered about, we’d been told.
Yay. Even better. I sighed.
“They may get in your face, but they won’t touch you,” the guy at the beginning of the maze explained. “Please, don’t harm our players.”
The same sort of instructions had been given for the haunted house we’d been a part of, and I thought it was sad that it had to be said, that we shouldn’t hurt the poor actors. A sign of our times.
“I’m going on the record that I do not want to do this,” I said.
“Come on,” Jasper goaded. “It’ll be fun, and we promise not to abandon you. We’ll do it together.”
“We all need GPS to go two miles down the road. How are we going to get out of here?”
They laughed.
“Doc, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you frightened of something,” Abigail said in her soft way.
“I’ve been frightened plenty of times. It’s good to know when you’ve met your limits.”
They shook their heads.
“It won’t be as bad as you imagine,” Mara promised. “Like Jasper said, we’ll be together.”
I took a deep breath and walked in with the group we’d been assigned to when the gate opened. It didn’t take more than a minute for me to be separated from my friends, as the tunnel narrowed for a while, and I lost sight of them.
Great.
This part of the maze was covered overhead, making it even darker inside. It was wall-to-wall people, and then a zombie popped up in front of me.
I jumped and laughed at myself.
“You look fantastic,” I said.
The zombie smiled. “Thanks Doc,” I didn’t recognize the heavy Scottish brogue, but I had a feeling he was a patient.
This wouldn’t be so bad. I just needed to follow the crowd.
Except we were then separated by the undead. The zombies moved between us, and the next thing I knew, I was in a long dark tunnel alone. It narrowed like the one earlier but then split into two hallways.
Lovely. I had no idea which one to take.
I turned right and ran straight into Dracula. “Sorry,” I said.
He just stared at me. The mask was one of those that goes over the head, but in the dim light I could see his eyes. I couldn’t place him. I moved forward, and he followed me.
I picked up my pace, but so did he.
I ran into a wall. I tried to backtrack, but he blocked my way.
Anger swallowed my fear. “Look, you’re taking this a bit too far,” I said. “I get you’re trying to scare people, but it’s supposed to be fun.”
He didn’t move. I grabbed my pepper spray, extreme measure, maybe. But I had a terrible feeling this guy didn’t work at the maze.
“Where is it?” I didn’t recognize his voice.
My hands shook with fear. Was he going to hurt me? “Where is what? If you’re looking for items the dead men had, everything is at the station. All of it is in chain of evidence. It doesn’t matter how much you want to intimidate me, that fact isn’t going to change.”
“We know you have it,” he said menacingly.
“Well, you’re wrong.”
He stepped forward, and I thought I saw something glint at his side.
I had my hand on the spray, ready to attack.
“Em? Em? Where are you?” Jasper called out. “I swear I saw her go this way before we ran into the ghost.” I’d never been so relieved to hear his voice.
“In here,” I yelled. And then I pushed past Dracula and ran toward their voices. OK, it was more a jab, but I had to get away from that guy.
Mara rushed forward. “We’ve been going all over trying to find you,” she said.
I wrapped my arms around her.
“Hey, are you OK?” Jasper asked.
“Can we just get out of here? You won’t believe what happened.”
I glanced back, but Dracula was gone.
What was he after?
The booths at the festival had opened up, and we had planned to walk around. I just wanted to go home and shut myself away. But we’d promised Tommy we’d visit the animals. There were several Highland cows, goats, and sheep in a makeshift pen. He loved animals as much as he did gardening.
Mr. Jensen, who was one of my patients and a kind man, took the ticket and showed Tommy into the pen. Tommy, in his way, peppered the man with questions, but Mr. Jensen didn’t seem to mind at all. He obviously enjoyed his work.
“You’re shaking,” Abigail said as she stared at my hands.
I pulled the gloves from my jacket pocket and put them on. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” Jasper said. “Tell us what happened.”
“It was weird. A guy in a Dracula mask threatened me.”
They gasped.
“No. He was menacing, but he just kept asking me where it was.”
“Where what was?” Mara asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea what it is he wanted. Like last night, when someone tried to break in, I told them that we didn’t have any of the belongings of the dead men, and they went away.”
“Wait. Someone tried to break in last night?” They all asked at the same time. Abigail’s eyes had gone wide.
“We were so busy today, I forgot about it. Ewan and Akif came but they’d run off by then.”
“We should go back and find the Dracula,” Mara said. “How dare he try to scare you.”
I laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I’ll never be doing the maze again, my friends. I love you all, that was it for me.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Mara smirked. “But he has to come out at some point. Would you recognize him?”
“He had one of those rubber masks on like everyone else around here.” I could see two other Draculas in the crowd. “I might recognize his eyes, but it was dark. I can’t be certain.”
“At the very least, you should call the Constable. Or I could call Henry,” Abigail offered.
“Thank you, all, but they are so busy with the crowds, we shouldn’t bother them. I couldn’t tell them much, except he had dark brown, very beady eyes. And he was at least six feet.”
“What about the rest of his costume?” Abigail encouraged me. It was a tactic we used when trying to get as much information from victims and survivors.
I blew out a breath. “Right. Rubber mask. He wore a cape with one of those red collars. But he had on boots and dark pants.”
“Right. That’s enough,” Jasper said. “Abigail, you wait here for Tommy.” He pulled on my arm.
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the maze. The man who was at the gate is a customer of mine, Arthur. I bet he knows everyone who is helping out. He organizes it all. If that guy was one of the people, he’ll know who it was.”
“He’s right. Let’s go,” Mara said as she pulled me along with Jasper.
We crossed the fête grounds and were back at the maze. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold.
“Hey, there, Jasper, back again?” Tom asked jovially.
“Serious business, I’m afraid,” Jasper said.
The smile dropped from Tom’s face. “What happened?”
Mara nudged me forward. “I, uh, had an uncomfortable moment with a Dracula. I wondered if you might know who he was.”
Tom’s head popped back. “A Dracula? We have zombies and ghosts this go-around. We don’t have anything else. Was it one of the guests? And I should say I’m sorry for that. This is for families. I won’t stand for that sort of behavior.”
“Thanks. It’s OK. It was probably a guest.” I started to walk away, but Mara put a hand on my shoulder.
“Tom, do you remember seeing someone in a rubber Dracula mask about your height?”
He made a face. “Could have. I’m sorry. I just wrangle the crowds and tell them the rules.
I can say none of our people have masks this year, inhibits sight.
They’re all wearing makeup. So, it wasn’t one of ours.
But I’ll check with the boys at the other end.
If they see someone come out matching that description, we’ll let you know. I’m sorry, Doc.”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “I think it might be related to something else I’m working on, but thank you.”
“I say we go back to the exit, just in case,” Jasper said. “We can check if one of the ghosts at the end of the maze saw him.”
I really just wanted to go home. I had a small moment of what Abigail called “overwhelment,” in relation to Tommy’s experiences with the environment around him. I was definitely having one of those. My head hurt, and I was sweating under my jacket.
They dragged me to the other end of the maze; where three of the ghosts waved goodbye to those who had gone through what most people thought was a fun experience. They were all laughing when they came out.
Not me.
Jasper asked the men and women the same question. They were shocked.
“I haven’t seen anyone like that, and I have a good memory,” one of the women said. “It’s me, Meg, Doc. I can’t believe that happened to you. Do you think he’s harassing other guests? Maybe we should send a team in to check?”
Meg worked at the new bookstore in town. We’d become book mates, as we liked a lot of the same kind of mysteries and thrillers. She always made sure I had first dibs.
“Great makeup, Meg. It’s fine. Really. He’s probably gone. I’m fairly certain he followed me in and then made sure I was separated from my friends.”
“That’s terrible,” she said. “You must have been scared to death.”
“Just keep an eye out, though. You never know,” Jasper said. “And if you see him, call the police.”
“We will,” Meg said. “Joe, take Luther in and check if you can find that guy. I don’t remember seeing him come out.”
“Could have crawled under,” one of the men said.
“Just double check,” Meg said. “You wait here with me,” she said to us.
We did. She went on with her job, waving to the people leaving. A few minutes later, the men returned.
“We didn’t see a Dracula,” one of the men said. “Got a text, though, from the boss to be on the lookout.”
“Thank you, all. I’m sure he’s gone by now.”
I shivered again as we left.
“You’re still shaking,” Mara said. “Let’s get you home. And before you argue, I’m spending the night.”
“I won’t argue, though Ewan has been coming most nights.”
She and Jasper chuckled.
“And you keep saying there’s nothing between you,” she said, then she walked ahead a bit.
“He’s only looking after the bodies. Even now, one of his team is down there at my place. We’re almost done with the tests. I’ll be very glad to send them both to the funeral home.”
“I don’t blame you,” Jasper said. “Let me text Abigail to see where she and Tommy are.”
Never in my life, had I been more grateful for my friends. They were fierce when anyone messed with us.
“I’ve got Ewan on the line, tell him what happened,” Mara said.
I sighed and then gave her a look. I took her phone. Then repeated my experience for what seemed like the twentieth time.
There was a long pause.
“Before you yell about me going off on my own, I was with my friends. But it was crowded, and we were separated. I’m sure he followed me. He may have even ensured that we were not together.”
“From now on, you don’t leave unless one of the team is with you.”
“You can’t do that, Ewan. Your team is stretched thin with the fête and all the events. You loaded up my place with security so we could avoid this sort of thing. I’ll be fine. Mara is staying with me.”
There was another long pause.
“I’ll be there at midnight. Tell Mara to take the guest room. No argument. I’ll let myself in.”
He was right there was no use arguing with him. Like me, when he made up his mind about something, he was done.
We took the shuttle down and found Akif standing at the door.
“Please, come inside,” I said.
He shook his head. “It’s best if I stay at my station.”
“No, really. I’d feel better if you did. Ewan does when he’s here. You can check the perimeter or whatever you need. But there is no reason for you to stand out in the cold.”
“She won’t give in,” Mara said.
“Very hardheaded, much like a certain constable we know,” Jasper said.
Akif tried to hide his grin. “OK,” he said. “But Henry will be here soon, and then the Constable. He told me what happened, you must have been frightened.”
I sighed. The whole town would know by morning. “I was in the moment. Now, I’m just angry.”
“Anger is good when applied in the right way,” Akif said.
He was right. It only fueled me to figure out this crazy case once and for all.