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Johnny stood at the surf shack, which was covered in cobwebs. He gave Nate and me a great big thumbs up. All of his snorkels and fins were dressed up like spooky Halloween creatures. He, himself, had dressed up like a sea creature, dripping with green netting to look like seaweed and algae.
Nate planted a kiss on my cheek. "Okay, I'll start getting everyone ready on Main Street. I'll text you if we need to slow things down or speed things up."
"Perfect!" I said.
He dashed up the hill as the crowd continued to gather around Johnny's shop. There were families and their kids all lined up after getting off the ferry and seeing sandwich board signs that read, "Haunted Main Street Trick-or-Treat Tour."
But then I got a twitch in between my shoulder blades, like I could feel someone staring at me. I glanced over. I realized Madison was standing at the top of the road, dressed in her pirate-princess-about-to-invade-a-frat-party uniform, glaring at us. She seemed to be pretty darn miffed over the massive crowd we had gathered. I gave her a friendly little finger wave.
I know it was petty to want to take her down, but it sure felt good.
Her eyes narrowed even further, and then with a huff, she snapped her bedazzled eye patch into place, flicked her long ponytail over her shoulder, and marched away.
I smiled.
I really loved it when I could get under her skin.
I walked back to Johnny. He wiggled his tentacle fingers at me he had built out of old respirator hoses. "Ready, Paige?"
"Abso-booooo-tly!" I replied, wiggling my fingers back at him.
He turned to his crowd of witches and goblins. "Ladies and Gentleghouls!" There was a titter through the crowd. "I welcome you to our Halloween haaaaunted tour of Main Street! Tonight, we shall guide you through the streets of this historic town, filling you in on all of the local legends and lore." He spun quickly and pointed at someone in the crowd, causing her to squeal. "Are you ready?" He held up his hands. "Bring everything with you! We will be traveling through this maze of mayhem, to your fiiinal destination... the Halloween Festival!"
It was a rowdy bunch and they cheered and hollered as we climbed the hill. I took up the rear to keep the stragglers moving along. As we reached the street, I spotted Nate over by Wanda's door and smiled. He gave me a little nod, acknowledging we were headed his way, and then stepped surreptitiously over to Yvonne's Café to warn her she was up next.
Johnny led the group to the souvenir shop and they all quieted down to hear what he had to say. "First stop, Witch Wanda has a trove of treasures she has pulled out from the shipwrecks that have washed upon our shores."
I was glad that the truth police weren't out to fact check us. The only thing to wash up on Wanda's shore was imports trucked across on the ferry.
Wanda stepped out from her shop with a rumble of thunder and a cloud of smoke from one of her theatrical smoke machines. Her purple hair was covered in green glitter and tucked beneath a black pointed witch's hat. She held a broomstick and pointed it threateningly at some of the children as haunting music played behind her. She broke character, though, when one little girl dressed like a kitten got scared.
"There! There, Melody! It's just me! Regular ol' Wanda!" she soothed, crouching down to her level. She pulled out a candy bar as Melody's parents laughed and picked up their daughter, explaining to her that it was all pretend. The candy bar seemed to help a lot, though.
Seeing that Melody was okay, Wanda snapped back into character for the rest of the crew. "Come, my pretties..." she cackled, drawing them over to her front door, "And hear the tale of the witch of Seaside!"
We stepped inside and she spun a tale about the sea witch who captured people and the only way they could communicate was in the pithy sayings printed out on the t-shirts and objects in her shop. I noticed a couple of parents spot some things that needed to come home with them, and they piled up their treasures on the wrap counter for later. Wanda followed up her story time by handing out seashells with "Seaside" sandblasted into the top, and said they had been etched by Poseidon's own trident.
Everyone laughed and giggled. They were having a great time.
We worked our way down Main Street. Yvonne was handing out hot cider in little paper cups for anyone who wanted a taste. Johnny paused in front of Trevor's saloon to give a rundown on all of the stuff that went down there. I could tell that Madison was still mad at us, because all the signage went out like a cranky person who flips off the lights on trick-or-treaters. But instead of it dissuading Johnny, he spun it into a tale of how ghosts like to mess with your electricity and they were clearly now haunting Trevor's saloon. I had to hand it to my buddy, he might not be that great at thinking in a straight line, but he was awesome at thinking on the fly.
Speaking of flies, we paused in front of Marnie's yarn shop. Sure enough, she had draped the whole thing like one gigantic spider web. We paused. Nate was working the door and allowed each member of the tour to climb inside, having to weave their way through the web without being "caught" in order to get a treat from Marnie at the far end, and then Johnny and I guided them over to Bitter Beans to wait. I gave Nate's hand a grateful squeeze as the last person headed in, but he decided to steal a kiss in the shadows as his payment, instead. I guess we all get our treats.
I smiled as I walked the last person into Bitter Beans. Granny had transformed it into a steampunky mad scientist laboratory. Richard, with his neat brill-creamed hair and waxed mustache, met us at the door in a lab coat. He gave me a wink as he held out a tray of free coffee and treat samples. I don't know where she hauled it out from, but Granny had found a Van de Graaff generator and everyone had an opportunity to touch the silver ball and cause their hair to stand on end from the static electricity. And for those who had opted out or finished their turn, they seemed to be enjoying a little time away from the October chill. I was even happy to see a bunch of people were even lined up to buy something fancier from the bakery case. My eyes just about fell out of my head when I saw what Granny had done. She had recreated the orange and chocolate cake she had made for Ralph. And in a feat of genius engineering, she had gotten a magnetic stand that floated the plate and caused the cake to levitate.
Nate entered to see how fast we were moving and stepped up beside me. "I think we're a hit."
"Echo is probably turning in his cot over this blasphemy," I giggled.
When things began to wind down, he headed over to warn Tim at the bait shop that we were on our way, leaving us to gather the group. We trooped down the last of the boardwalk. Tim had set up a painted cardboard wall that looked like a pond and everyone had a chance to fish for a prize. We only had one more stop before dropping off everyone at the Halloween festival, and that was the Grand Hotel. Johnny led us through the alley, showing off the grody backside of all the shops on Main Street. He spun a tale about the apocalypse and warned everyone to watch out for zombies. And then I realized he had created some zombie scarecrows out of old clothes and tucked them here and there so it looked like they were climbing out of the dumpsters.
We passed by the hardware store. Ralph's place wasn't open, but he had decided to use some sound effects of a chainsaw, which Johnny wove into a tale of "The Haunted Builder" who would come to your house and undo all the work so that construction was never on time and always over budget.
Over at the Grand Hotel, Johnny launched into a spiel about the ghosts of guests past who haunted the hotel's halls before touring us through the garden. It was lit with lanterns and led to one of the members of the desk staff in the wedding pagoda who was handing out treats.
As Johnny announced the end of the tour, he was met with a wild cheer. It had been a rousing success. Everyone was smiling and happy as he led the group up to the fairgrounds for the Halloween festival. We waved them a fond farewell.
"That was amazing," Nate commented as the last of the group disappeared into the night. "People are going to be talking about this for years."
I gazed up at him, my heart so overflowing with love and pride, I thought it was going to pop with happiness. "Yeah, they are. And you made it all happen."
Nate's eyes were so soft and tender. It felt like we were the only two people in the world. He lifted his forefinger to my jaw and tilted my chin up. Slowly, he lowered his mouth towards mine. I could smell the cedar and sage of his cologne mixing with the salty sea air of the island.
When suddenly, a police cruiser sped towards us, the lights flashing. Nate grabbed my hand and we leaped back as it screeched to a halt. Keeping me behind him, he stepped forward as Fred exited the car.
"Are we too late?" he asked, his tall, lanky frame throwing off long shadows on the road.
"What?" Nate asked, confused.
Fred walked to the back door of the cruiser and opened it up. Echo stepped out. He seemed a little dazed, but there was also an urgent energy to him.
"It wasn't right," Fred said, almost trembling with anger as he explained it to Nate and me. "This was Echo's night and... and it wasn't right that he was stuck in a cell when this was his BIG NIGHT." He turned to Echo and shook his hand like he was in the presence of a hero. "And I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you for contacting my auntie from beyond the grave, for delivering that message. We never should have arrested you and I, for one, am sorry."
But just then, Stan came waddling down the road from the direction of the fairgrounds. "Fred! What in tarnation are you doing freeing a convicted vandal in a place where there are families?"
Fred pointed his finger at Stan. I don't know what went down between him and Echo, but a line had been drawn in the sand. "He hasn't even been charged yet, Stan. You know it and I know it. But you don't know what you're talking about when you try to tie this person to a criminal act. This upstanding young man did nothing." Fred's voice trembled and cracked. "And my dead auntie traveled through time and space to speak through him and she told me so. SHE TOLD ME SO, Stan. Don't go messing with the dead. I won't let you do it."
Stan threw up his hands like he couldn't believe Fred. "There goes my promotion!"
But Echo seemed totally fine with whatever was unfolding in front of us. He ran over to Nate and me. "Okay. Am I too late? Where's the tour? I can pick it up wherever Johnny is. Or hold a late tour. Tell me what I need to do."
Nate's brow furrowed and he pointed over to the fairground. "You're too late. The tour is over."
"NOOO!" shouted Echo toward the sky. "How the heck am I supposed to pay rent without this stupid tour gig??"
But suddenly, Trevor came running at us. He was still wearing his bloody makeup and torn up shirt. Scared the bejezus out of me coming out of the shadows like that.
"TREVOR! Don't DO that!" Stan said, placing his hand on his heart like he thought he might have a heart attack. "You just about sent me to the great beyond."
Fred stepped forward, swallowing. "I, for one, would not shirk from such a fate," he admitted seriously. He blinked back the tears. "If nothing more than to spend another delightful day on my auntie's farm. She's up there, slopping the pigs and cuddling the baby chickens... and I could be there, too..."
Trevor bent over to catch his breath, and I saw Madison and Lottie walking up the hill to join us.
"What's going on?" I asked, concerned.
Madison flicked one of her long, pointy nails in Lottie's direction. "I told Lottie to come out to cover our Halloween tour, and Tango flippin' stood us up."
Nate and I were totally confused. Echo, however, was not one to let an opportunity pass by.
"I can do it!" he said. "I can take over the tour for you!"
Madison gave him a long appraising glance up and down, and then her nose wrinkled like she smelled something gross. "No. Not you."
Echo's face fell.
Lottie stepped forward like she couldn't believe Madison was being so mean. "No! No, it's not you Echo—"
"I mean, it's a little bit because of you," Madison stated for the record as she smoothed her black satin pirate mini-skirt over her pink tulle petticoat.
"NOT helping!" Lottie fired back.
"—Tango is missing," Trevor spat out. He turned to Stan and Fred, his voice carrying the hint of an accusation. "We couldn't reach you."
"Right," said Stan, confused. He pointed to the ground where he was standing. "We were here. Not by the phones." He leaned forward, hooking his thumbs in his belt. "You can't expect people to just be at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day, Trevor."
Lottie could see that Trevor was about to say something he might regret, so she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and stepped forward. "We can't find Tango anywhere and were wondering if you might have arrested Tango... for something."
Stan suddenly perked up, honing in on her with curiosity. "Now, why would you think he had done something that might be deserving of an arrest?"
Trevor blew up with frustration. "Who knows?!" His hands began waving. "Maybe because you always arrest everyone for something they didn't do and there's no telling what you're going to lock a person up for." He motioned to our tour guide. "Oh, look! Echo is free! Must not have done anything!"
Stan and Fred began to glower, Trevor's anger hitting a little too close to home.
"Now, don't go making me lock YOU up for assaulting an officer of the LAW!" Stan threatened.
"I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Trevor shouted back.
"Can we all just take a moment!" Nate commanded. Everyone shut up. Though his voice had cut through the bickering, the tension remained. "There is a person missing and we need to find him." He motioned to Trevor. "Just to confirm, Tango is missing?"
Trevor took a long, deep breath. "Yes."
"When is the last time you saw him?"
Madison raised her hand and then flipped up her rhinestone eye patch. "He was here on the island. He came over this morning and we went through the haunted forest to make sure everything was great. But then he didn't show up for his tour. And I, for one, am very disappointed by his unprofessionalism."
Echo gripped his jacket collar. "I'm professional! I could do your tour for you! I can take over for him!"
But no one was paying any attention to him.
My brow furrowed. "He stopped by the hardware store just yesterday to pick up some clothesline," I added.
"I have no idea where he could have gone," Trevor said. He almost wiped his mouth with both hands, but then remembered he'd smear his fake blood. "I checked with the clinic," Trevor continued. "No one has seen him." He motioned in the direction of Seaside's woodlands. "Maybe he tripped and fell out there, but it is too dark to see."
Nate reached out and gripped his arms bracingly. "We'll find him." He pointed down the hill. "Let's hop into my truck. Maybe he's at the Halloween Festival. We can organize a search party."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" said Stan, stopping everyone. "I will have you know I took an online course in search-and-rescue and this is not how you handle a search-and-rescue." He paused, making sure everyone was listening. "We need to wait 24 hours just to make sure he's really missing—"
"We might not have 24-hours, Stan, if he's bleeding out in the woods," Trevor pointed out, his desperation building.
"What if he just overslept from his afternoon nap or something?" Stan fired back. He looked around. "Where was he even staying?"
"The Grand Hotel," Trevor replied. "But he's not picking up his phone and no one has seen him."
"Well, maybe he just lost his phone," Stan pointed out.
"The PHONE is ATTACHED to the WALL of the HOTEL!" Trevor snapped, his voice rising with every word. But that seemed to be the straw that broke the anger's back, because he almost seemed to collapse in on himself. "I knew I shouldn't have done these tours. Everyone's always talking about what my uncle did. But if Tango gets hurt under my watch... I know what they'll say about me... and I'm running for city council... it's like what happened at home all over again..."
I rolled my eyes. Just when I thought Trevor was about to turn a corner in his development as a human being, it all came back to him and his dreams of elected power.
But Lottie was still under his spell, it seemed. She once again placed her hand on Trevor's shoulder to calm him down. "How about we all go over to the Grand Hotel and see if he's there?" she suggested.
He nodded, gratefully. But it was that little bit of acknowledgement that sent Madison into a spin. She marched forward, her pirate skirt flipping as she shoved Lottie's hand out of the way, replacing it with her own. "Yeah. There, there, Trevor. I, your girlfriend, will take you over there." She glared at Lottie, just daring her to challenge her ownership of this territory.
Lottie was having none of this contest though. She turned back to Nate and me, and the look on her face said it all. Madison was cray-cray.
"Well! Let's all head over!" said Stan, waving his hand. "And if he's not there and you all insist in going out into the woods at night, THEN we can see if maybe they have some bellhops who need something to do or something."
Fred hung back and shook his head. "I'd really rather not go into the woods at night."
But as we walked down the hill, I heard a sound. I spun. It was coming from the hardware shop. It was that chainsaw we heard before, but it was still going. It seemed weird that Ralph would keep the sound effect on all night. That's a good way to get your neighbors mad at you. It made me wonder if he forgot or if maybe something had happened to him that he couldn't get to the sound system. As we got closer, though, I saw a flickering shadow through the frosted glass.
And it wasn't Ralph's silhouette.
"Hang on," I said, pointing at the hardware store. My throat became dry. "I think I know where to find Tango."
Stan and Fred suddenly flew into action like they were in a high powered takedown of a drug cartel. They unhooked their pepper sprays and batons from their belts and flanked the door.
I noticed they didn't open the door, however.
I still had the key from when they had arrested Ralph. I walked up and tried the door handle. It seemed locked, so I opened it up and stepped inside.
There was Tango, standing on a ladder, power saw in hand. He had been about to cut through the beam above him, which is a pretty idiot move. There was terror in his eyes, like he had been caught with his pants down.
Madison pushed in front of us. "What is your damage?!" she exclaimed. "You missed your ENTIRE tour."
After all of this, I couldn't believe that was what she decided to come down hard on him about.
He was shocked. "What are you doing here?"
Nate folded his arms. "We heard the sound of the power saw."
Guiltily, Tango turned it off, like that was going to somehow make it better.
"Put down the power saw! Who do you work for!" Fred barked as he stepped forward. He then stopped himself. "I mean, other than Trevor. We know about that. But, like, who ELSE?"
Tango slowly climbed down the ladder, his cast clopping on each rung, and stepped off. His square jaw clenched. He had been caught and I could see him decide the jig was up. "The developer wanted this place it at a cut rate, and then smelled the opportunity to scoop up the cannery, too, if he played a little dirty." He held up the power saw. "He was paying more than these dumb ghost tours I've been doing, trying to scrape together enough tips to get by." He threw the power saw down on the counter.
We glared at Madison, accusingly. She backed up. "I assure you that I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I merely told a buyer that there was a property or two and if he came in at the right price, he might be able to get it. I meant that as get into a bidding war NOT try to kill people."
"He wanted to make sure none of the buildings passed their inspection," Tango stated motioning to the hardware store. I could see that he had cut through several of the wooden steps. I hated to think what would have happened if Ralph had tried to climb them. "And then he was planning on coming in with a lowball all-cash offer."
Lottie was taking notes frantically. "This is great," she whispered to me, shaking her head like it was the story of the century.
Things still didn't add up. "But you hurt your own leg!" I stated. "Is that worth it?"
"It wasn't supposed to be that dramatic," Tango replied. "But I have catlike reflexes and they reached for that shelf. And someone put something heavy on that shelf."
"It could have killed Ralph," I pointed out. "He's an old guy!"
"Again, I did it right before the séance so no one was supposed to have been up there except for me. It wasn't supposed to get out of hand like this," Tango tried to tell me.
Nate motioned toward the power tool Tango had just been trying to use to cut through a load-bearing beam. "And that?"
Tango hung his head. To his credit, he looked legitimately upset about it. "The developer started putting pressure on me. Telling me if I didn't do everything he told me to do, he would go to the police and point the finger at me. I had to do it in order to stay out of jail."
"Too bad you didn't bring this to our attention," Stan stated, walking forward with his handcuffs. "We could have helped you, kid. But instead, an innocent man has been rotting in our jail cell while a criminal was free to construct more crime."
Fred bent his head toward Stan. "That was good. Us finding him in a hardware store and 'constructing crime' and stuff."
Stan flushed with pride. "Thanks. I just like... thought of it... I should use it in the report for my promotion."
"You should!"
Echo cut through their conversation and gave Tango an angry little wave. "Hey."
Tango flushed pink and mumbled. "I'm glad you got out... and stuff..."
"Did you unscrew the catwalk that fell in the cannery?" Echo accused.
Tango nodded, guiltily.
"And poison me?"
Tango sighed. "I popped it into your food from Trevor's."
I faced Echo. Now it was my turn to get a little miffed. "Wait, you ate Trevor's food but came to Bitter Beans to throw up?"
"It was take out," Echo informed me. "Tango had brought it over as a peace offering." He glared at his competitor. "I should have known then that something was wrong. You're never that nice to me."
Tango stepped forward. "Echo. You were my best friend, man. And then you betrayed me. This never would have happened if you hadn't made me feel so... useless. Like you could just throw me out like an old copy of PC Magazine. We spoke to ghosts together. And then that girl came along and told us we were nothing. And you believed her." He whispered, his mouth screwing up with sadness. "We were never nothing. And it never should have been like this."
"TELL IT TO THE JUDGE!" Echo shouted. "Because I have already judged you GUILTY."
Perhaps not the most eloquent statement, but I respected Echo for seeing that, indeed, this guy wasn't worthy of his friendship.
"You're going down the river for a looong time, sonny," said Stan, slapping the cuffs on Tango.
"Because the prison is down the river," Fred explained. "But we have bus transport."
We watched them leave, filled with relief to finally have figured out what had gone on.
"Wow," I said, absolutely flabbergasted at the evening.
"That was a lot," Nate added.
Madison shoved her hand into Trevor's hand. "I'm so glad you were worried he might be dead. Because if it wasn't for you, he would have continued his life of crime. And that's something we can absolutely sell to the voters to get you on the city council."
And Trevor's face brightened with the thought.
I, however, was feeling done. "Well, folks, how about we all get out so that I can lock up. Probably still some time to head over to the Halloween festival for some thrills and chills."
All together, everyone said, "Naaaaah..."
But as we were walking out, Echo stopped me. "Soooo... Paige. Do you think your grandmother would allow me to hold séances in the upstairs room?"