Page 21 of Dead & Breakfast
Nora didn’t let him finish, rushing to speak over him. “Yes, well, the point is there are lots of possibilities other than Salvatore.” She glanced down at her phone, which lit up with a text. “Oh, it’s the coroner.” Nora read from the phone. “ ‘Are you with Arthur? My texts aren’t going through for some reason.’ ” She looked up. “Did you give her the landline number?”
Arthur would have blushed if he could.
“She’s got the preliminary autopsy results and is meeting the sheriff.” Nora stood up and downed the rest of her tea. “Let’s go.”
Arthur glanced at his mug to find it empty. “I forgot Sal’s coffee.”
“I’ll order.” Nora squeezed his arm. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll find the person who did this.”
“I hope so.”
“Someone had something to gain from the mayor’s death. You’ll figure out who. I believe in you.”
Nora headed for the counter while Arthur collected their dishes. As he walked to the busing station, a few teenagers crossed his path. His foot collided with something, and he pitched forward. At night he could’ve recovered easily, imbued with limited vampiric powers as he was, but during the day vampires were hardly more graceful than humans. Luckily, before he and the dishes ended up on the floor in a mess of broken ceramic and shattered pride, someone caught his arm.
Mean-spirited laughter filled the air, coming from a few boys Arthur didn’t know. One of them had a backpack, zipper undone and revealing several cans of spray paint inside. There was a button on it supporting Mayor Roth.Keep Trident Falls Normal.
“You okay, Mr.Miller?” asked the boy who’d caught his arm. The dentist’s son, Brody Young. He was of an awkward age, stretched and lanky in that way only teenagers could achieve. By Arthur’s estimation, he looked about sixteen, but then again, everyone looked young to him these days.
“Yes, thank you.” Arthur collected himself, straightening his jacket, though it had not fallen askew.
The other teens rolled their eyes at Brody and headed for the front door. Brody stared after them, hesitating.
“Go on, I’m really fine.” Arthur shooed him forward with his hands. The last thing he needed was an incident with thatparticular group. He’d seen their handiwork on the back of the building and Arthur didn’t relish the idea of cleaning spray paint off the side of the Iris Inn later.
Brody just gave him a nod before hurrying to catch up to his friends. They slugged him on the arm and one bared his teeth in a poor impression of a vampire. Brody just swatted them away, and laughter erupted from their little pack of menaces before they disappeared from view.
Arthur knew their type. He’d been haunted by the unkind attention of boys like that all his life, well before he’d become a vampire. Teenagers could be cruel, but they weren’t the only ones. Bullies could be any age—even ageless.
With a sigh, Arthur returned the dishes safely to the busing station and dipped out the front door to wait for Nora. He flipped open his notebook and scanned his notes. There were a lot of possibilities. A lot of places to start the investigation. But even Arthur knew no one was as compelling a suspect as Salvatore. He had all three—motive, means, and opportunity. But he wasn’t the only one who had something to gain. Someone in particular had ranked up very quickly upon Roth’s demise. Her proposals wouldn’t face any obstacles now. She’d also been one of the last people to see the mayor alive and had been near the scene of the crime last night. And he’d just finished telling her a great deal about how vampires and their powers worked—just the stuff she’d need to properly frame Sal and make it stick.
While Nora was busy ordering a Grandma’s House Special to go, Arthur added a name to his suspect list:
Nora Anderson, acting mayor and city manager
Chapter 6
When Arthur atlast handed Salvatore the precious gift of caffeine, he hoped to feel some small sense of accomplishment—or at the very least, gratitude. But Sal was still in a jail cell, and, if anything, more melodramatic than he’d been before the coffee. Nothing had changed in the last half hour, and it was clear McMartin wasn’t giving up the case against Sal anytime soon.
The sheriff was in his office with the door shut—presumably with the coroner—and Nora bent to speak with the deputy in charge of watching the jail cells as Arthur stepped closer to Salvatore.
“Don’t fret, my dear,” Salvatore said between sips. “I’ll be all right.”
“I know.”
“Be prepared, though, this place has changed me. I can’t promise I’ll be the same man I was before I did time.”
“It’s been two hours.”
“Since when is two hours not time?”
Perhaps it was a good sign Salvatore was still making jokes, butArthur didn’t find anything funny about the situation. If Salvatore stayed behind bars for much longer, he might very well become a changed man. For all that Arthur bemoaned Salvatore’s levity at inappropriate times, he truly dreaded what it might mean if Salvatore lost that part of himself.
“It won’t be much longer.” Arthur kept his voice low. “I’m going to solve this murder and clear your name.”
