Page 68 of Death and Do-Overs

She looked at me with her most enthusiastic, overly toothy grin. She’d clearly noticed the same thing I had, and she was thrilled about it.

“You knew about goblins,” I whispered, because she’d identified Snorfy as one in the hotel lobby earlier.

She nodded enthusiastically.

“And you knew about muckwarts,” I whispered.

She nodded again. “I read about them, but I hadn’t seen any pictures. I had no idea goblins and muckwarts were the same thing. Isn’t this exciting?”

Shocking? Sure. Exciting? That wasn’t a word I would use.

We hung back from a greater distance than we had before, catching glimpses of the goblins’ movements through the trees.

Imogen silently snapped more photos, though I was skeptical about the quality of images she could capture in the dim light without using the flash.

Levi didn’t comment on our conversation. He kept his full attention on our targets until the goblins stopped walking.

When they stopped, we stopped too.

They stood just beyond the treeline, making noises and gesticulating with their arms. It almost seemed like two of them were in an argument, while the other rolled the body across the ground like it was a log.

I couldn’t see anything beyond where they were standing. At first I assumed there was a hill, but then I heard the sound of crashing waves. I remembered the cliff we’d encountered when we’d chased the cloaked murderer from the hotel basement, and how the murderer had disappeared over the ledge.

The three goblins gathered with their backs turned to us, and kicked the body.

The dead guy rolled twice before disappearing, presumably over the edge of the cliff.

What awaited beneath? Was there another rocky surface? A steep sloped edge? Or had they dumped the deceased man straight into the water?

A moment later, the goblins walked straight ahead and out of sight.

“There has to be a slope,” I whispered.

Levi flinched as if he’d been flicked in the ear. His attention snapped to the right.

I followed his line of sight.

There, standing along the cliffside, thirty feet from where the goblins had been, stood a woman with blindingly white hair. I’d been so desperate to find the reaper before, and now she’d come right to us.

“What’s Birdie doing here?” Imogen whispered.

Great question.

“What do we do?” Imogen asked. “Do we split up?”

Levi looked at me.

Now that I knew Bernadette wasn’t the one who’d taken Nie’s head, my gut reaction wasn’t to pounce on her with a knife. At least not right away. But she still held a grudge against my coven. And at this point, given both the fact there might not be anything to find over the cliff, and that Bernadette was more slippery than a snake lathered in motor oil, I only had one choice.

“I have to follow Bernadette,” I said, even though that didn’t really answer Imogen’s question. Levi had no reason at this point to be interested in the reaper. “I’ll come back to the cliff after I figure out where she’s going.”

I hoped Levi would find nothing relevant to his search here at all. Better if there was no sign of Otis. Then we could keep holding onto hope that he was still alive.

“I’m with you,” Imogen said.

I nodded and looked at Levi.

Before he could answer, Bernadette walked to the same place the goblins had stood. A half-beat later, she disappeared over the ledge.

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