Chapter 1
In the waning early evening October light, twenty-eight-year-old Shelly Taylor and her friend and neighbor, Juliet Landers, stuffed an old shirt full of leaves and tied off the bottom and the ends of the sleeves with twine. Carrying the torso to the front porch, they secured it to the pair of jeans that were propped in a chair and already filled with dry leaves. Shelly pushed a pole through the shirt’s neck hole and Juliet placed a pumpkin onto the pole with care.
“There. The head’s on.” Juliet stepped back to admire the pumpkin-headed scarecrow they’d created. “It looks great. That face you drew on the pumpkin is perfect.”
“I didn’t want it to look too scary,” Shelly said. “There will be a lot of little kids trick-or-treating and I don’t want them to be afraid to come up on the porch and ring the bell.”
Shelly’s Calico cat, Justice, cautiously approached the strange thing sitting in the porch rocking chair and stretched out her neck to sniff one of the legs. Standing on her back legs and with the muscles of her body tense, the cat sniffed part of the scarecrow’s arm.
“It’s okay, Justice,” Shelly told the feline with a chuckle. “It’s only a Halloween decoration.”
Satisfied that the odd creation would probably do her no harm, Justice padded away and jumped up on the porch railing where she could sit and watch the goings on in the quiet neighborhood. Shelly and Juliet’s bungalow cottages sat side by side on the lane that ran off of Main Street in the mountain resort town of Paxton Park.
Stores, restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, a movie theatre, bed and breakfast inns, and a corner market lined the brick walkways that led to the town center and a wide, green common with an old-fashioned bandstand. No matter the season, Paxton Park drew tourists and visitors throughout the year and autumn was always a busy time with people coming to the mountains to view the colorful foliage.
Pumpkins and yellow mums decorated the porch steps leading into Shelly’s rented bungalow, and cornstalks were tied with orange ribbons to the sides of the porch rails.
“We should make a scarecrow to enter in the town contest.” Juliet took a seat in one of the porch rocking chairs.
“We missed the deadline,” Shelly pointed out. “Anyway, have you seen the entries? They’re terrific.”
“Let’s walk by the common to take a look at them before we go to the movie,” Juliet suggested. “We can get some inspiration for next year.”
“We need to plan the menu for the night before Halloween,” Shelly said. “The fall festival weekend is going to come fast.”
Shelly and Juliet had planned a dinner for their friends to gather and eat together before they headed to the town festival for the music, bonfire, and fireworks. A long table would be set outside in the backyard under Juliet’s arbor for drinks and appetizers. Torches would ring the yard, lanterns would be set along the walkway, and little orange lights were going to be strung over the branches of the big tree. Everyone would go to Shelly’s house for the buffet dinner, and then the group would stroll into town for the festivities.
A town Realtor drove past the house and she waved at Shelly and Juliet as she passed by.
Juliet said, “Nora’s house is getting a lot of interest. I bet it will sell quickly.”
Seventy-something Nora Blake previously lived at the end of the road in a house she’d owned for forty years. Her son, Paul, had been arrested not long ago for the murder of a town teenager and shortly afterwards, Nora packed up, put her place on the market, and left the area as fast as she could get away.
“That would be good for Nora,” Shelly said. “She wants to be as far from Paxton Park as she can get, and really, who could blame her? She told me she knew her son was a greedy, self-centered man, but she couldn’t believe what he’d done and that it would take her a very long time to process Paul’s terrible crimes. Nora said she needed the anonymity that living in a new place could give her.”
“Understandable.” Julie nodded. “I’d probably move away under the circumstances.” The young woman straightened up and faced her friend with an expression of alarm. “I completely forgot to tell you. This morning, someone from the resort was up in the woods on the trails that lead to the Crooked Forest. One of the trees has been damaged. Part of a limb has been sawed right off.”
Justice hissed from her perch on the railing.
“What?” Shelly nearly gasped. “Can the tree be saved?”
The Crooked Forest was a grove of pines that grew up from the ground, turned at a ninety-degree angle and grew parallel to the ground, then turned again to vertical growth. Although the trees had been studied by botanists and other scientists, there was no definitive explanation for the unusual growth patterns.
“I’m not sure. Some experts were being called in to look at the damage and recommend how to care for the tree,” Juliet said.
“Do they know who is responsible?”
“No,” Juliet said. “No one was caught.”
A cold shiver ran through Shelly’s stomach like a warning of something bad to come. “The resort should post a guard up there for a while. The person who did it might come back.” Anger flashed in her blue eyes. “Why would anyone do such a thing?”
Juliet shook her head in disgust. “Who knows?”
“I hope they catch the person.” A chilly breeze came by and Shelly zipped up her sweater. “No one in town wants those trees to be damaged.”
After eating an early dinner of chili and cornbread, Shelly and Juliet headed off to town to walk around, take a look at the Halloween decorations on the common, and then go see a film at the movie theatre. It was a cool night in the mountain town and the young women wore light jackets to ward off the chill.
Walking under the streetlights, their shoes crunched on some of the fallen leaves as they joined people strolling by the stores. A yellow-orange, nearly full moon glimmered next to the stars sprinkled in the dark sky.
“I wonder if snow will show up sooner than usual this year.” Juliet had her hands in her jacket pockets. “The skiers would love that.”
Listening to her friend talk about skiing, Shelly became more aware of her limp. The cold temperatures seemed to make the aching worse. “Even though I enjoy it, I’ve never been a great skier. I haven’t been on skis since the accident. I wonder how my leg injury will impact me.”
Almost a year ago, Shelly had been in a devastating car accident in Boston that took the life of her twin sister, Lauren. After Shelly’s injuries healed, she was left with aches and pains in her leg along with a most-likely permanent limp.
“Once you get back on your skis, it might not bother you at all.” Juliet gave Shelly an encouraging smile. “It might just take a little practice to get back to form.”
Reminded of the accident, a sense of gloom descended over Shelly and she deliberately forced her thoughts to happier things to push away her feelings of loss.
Passing the movie theatre on the way to the town common, Shelly began to feel anxious and as she gazed up at the movie posters in the windows, her body gave an involuntary shudder.
It was horror weekend at the theatre and they were going to see a scary movie later that evening. Frightening movies had never really bothered Shelly so she didn’t understand why she felt flickers of unease as they walked past the theatre. She turned her head from side to side scanning the town for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing looked amiss.
The common was abuzz with tourists and locals gathered to admire the scarecrows set up around the green space. People were having their pictures taken with their favorites, parents held the hands of small children who seemed wary of some of the scarier scarecrows, and couples held hands as they marveled at the work that went into most of the creations.
Shelly and Juliet walked over the grass and pointed to the ones they liked the most. “How did they get it to stay up in the air like that?” Juliet asked.
“Smoke and mirrors,” Shelly chuckled.
“I’m serious. How did they manage it?” Juliet strolled around the dollhouse that gave the impression it was floating in the air.
“Must be wires and transparent plastic piping,” Shelly suggested as she peered underneath the floating dollhouse. “Maybe.”
“A bunch of these scarecrow displays are so elaborate.” Juliet eyed each one as they passed. “If we’re going to enter next year, we’d better start planning now.”
“Let’s head back,” Shelly said checking the time. “I bet the movie theatre will be crowded tonight.”
Walking several blocks back to the theatre, the young women paused on the sidewalk before crossing the side street to continue over to the old-fashioned box office set at the entrance to the place. Someone called their names and they paused at the curb, looking over their shoulders to see a friend from the resort coming towards them.
A choking flood of fear raced through Shelly and she wheeled around, stepped into the street, grabbed the arm of a middle-aged woman, and yanked her back onto the sidewalk.
The shaken woman was about to berate Shelly when a car careened around the corner, its right front wheel bumping up over the curb as it flew down the side street and crashed into the front of a brick building … the noise of metal screeching as the vehicle crumpled and twisted on impact.
The collision’s sickening shriek caused the remembered sounds of her own car crash to surface, and Shelly stood with her hands over her ears and her eyes pinched closed … and a high-pitched scream letting loose from her throat.
Chapter 2
Shelly couldn’t recall falling down onto the sidewalk and for a few seconds, she wasn’t able to make out what Juliet was saying to her.
“Are you okay? Can you stand?” Juliet had her hand on her friend’s arm and when Shelly nodded in response to the question, Juliet helped her stand up.
“What happened?” Shelly blinked in the direction of the crashed car.
“You saved my life.” The auburn-haired middle-aged woman whom Shelly had grabbed and pulled to safety stood before her. “How did you know that car was coming? I never even saw it.”
“I….” Shelly stared at the wrecked vehicle watching two pedestrians hurry to help whoever was inside. “I must have heard the engine.”
The woman gripped Shelly’s hand and thanked her over and over. “If not for you, I surely would have been hit. I could have been killed.” The woman’s husband rushed over and listened as his wife reported what had happened while he’d been browsing in a men’s clothing store.
Shelly and Juliet walked down the side street and approached the crashed car. The driver’s side door was open and a man leaned inside to check on the occupant.
The man stepped back with an ashen face. They heard the alarm in his voice when he spoke. “She doesn’t have a pulse. I can’t find a pulse.”
Edging closer, the two friends looked to see if they might be able to help.
“It’s just the one person. It’s only the driver inside,” someone yelled from the passenger side. “No one else is in the car.”
“Should we try to do chest compressions until the ambulance gets here?” a woman asked.
“I don’t think we should lift her out,” a man told the others. “We could make an injury worse by moving her.”
The man who had checked the driver of the car stood straight. “There’s…. She’s….”
“What?” Juliet asked him. “What is it?”
The older man’s eyes were wide. “It looks like the driver has a gunshot wound.”
“Where is the wound?” An older woman who said she was a nurse hurried over and leaned into the vehicle for a few moments. When she stood up, her eyes were wide with concern. “I doubt the crash killed her. She has a bullet wound to the chest.”
Shelly and Juliet exchanged looks of alarm.
Two police cars and an ambulance screamed up Main Street and took the corner down the side road. The onlookers moved back to let the officials take over. The nurse reported to the emergency personnel what appeared to be a gunshot wound.
The EMTs paused for a split second in surprise, and then they rushed forward to assist the car’s occupant.
“She was shot?” Juliet turned to Shelly. “Who could have shot her? When? I didn’t see anyone get out of the car after it crashed. I didn’t see anyone near the car right after it stopped. Did you?”
“I was on my butt on the sidewalk,” Shelly reminded her friend. “All I could see were legs and feet.”
Juliet eyed Shelly. “How did you know to pull that woman out of the street?”
“I don’t know. I barely remember doing it. Maybe I saw the car out of the corner of my eye. Maybe I heard the engine and sensed the car was too close.” Shelly gave a helpless shrug.
Two people passed by and one said, “I heard the cop say that the driver is dead.”
“From the bullet,” Juliet said softly. “That must be why the car careened out of control.”
Shelly narrowed her eyes and scanned the people standing around in the darkness on the sidewalks that lined the two streets. “How did someone shoot her? From where?”
“The police will figure it out,” Juliet said as a third patrol car screeched to a stop. “There’s Jay.” Juliet’s sister, Jayne Landers-Smyth, was a twenty-year veteran of the Paxton Park police department. Jay was fifteen years older than her younger sister, was two inches taller, and had a stocky build which made her look strong and formidable. Her chin-length hair was the same medium brown color as Juliet’s.
When she got out of her police vehicle, Jay headed straight for the accident scene and did not notice her sister and Shelly standing on the sidewalk.
“I couldn’t see much when we went over to offer help,” Shelly said. “Did you see the woman’s face? Did you recognize her?”
Juliet shook her head. “I didn’t see her face.” Looking back to the accident, she said, “I don’t recognize the car, either.”
“Do you want to go home?” Shelly asked. “I don’t much feel like going to see the movie now.”
“I’d rather head home, too. Let’s go. This has given me a scare.” Juliet rubbed her hands up and down the arms of her jacket trying to ward off the chill. “Is someone driving around with a gun in their car? Did someone pick this woman randomly or did the killer know who she was and seek her out?”
“Good questions. We’ll have to wait for the answers.”
“How did he do it?” Juliet asked as they walked along Main Street. “Was he in the car with her? Did he shoot her as she drove past him?”
“He’d have to be a pretty good shot if he hit her as she drove along.” Shelly zipped up her jacket. “He couldn’t have been standing on the sidewalk with a gun waiting for her to pass by. Someone would have seen him.” She glanced at the buildings around them and looked up. Most buildings were two stories, but a few had three or four levels. “Was he up in a window on one of the higher floors?”
As they passed a coffee shop, Juliet gestured. “Want a coffee or some tea? I’m not ready to go home just yet.”
The two went in and took seats by the windows. There were only a handful of customers inside, most had taken off to go to the accident scene to rubberneck.
Shelly wrapped her hands around the hot mug of tea and watched people walking past the window. “At first I thought the person driving the car might have had a heart attack and that was what caused the crash.”
“I thought the woman just lost control of the car. It didn’t cross my mind that she might have experienced a health problem,” Juliet said. “I sure didn’t think she’d been murdered.”
Shelly blew out a long breath. “Murdered,” she said thinking about the situation. “Could she have shot herself? Committed suicide?”
Juliet’s blue eyes widened. “Suicide? Oh, I don’t know. Wouldn’t she have pulled over? Why would she do that in a moving vehicle?”
“Maybe she got bad news. She might carry a gun in her purse. Something may have upset her and she grabbed the gun out of her bag and then….” Shelly let her voice trail off. “It’s possible, isn’t it?”
Juliet huffed. “If that’s what she did, she’s lucky she didn’t kill anyone in town.” Sipping her tea, her eyes narrowed and she straightened up. “You know what? I think I do recognize that car. There’s a woman who works at the resort, in the financial office. She’s an accountant. She just got a new car.” A look of apprehension raced over Juliet’s face. “Oh, gosh. Is she the dead woman in that car?”
“What’s her name?” Shelly asked.
“Emma. Emma Pinkley.”
“I know who Emma is. I met her at a resort employee event. You think that was her car?” Shelly asked, her voice tinged with worry.
“What color was it?” Juliet wasn’t sure she was correctly remembering the color of the car that crashed.
“Um, a dark color?” Shelly asked. “I can’t be more specific than that. It’s evening. It wasn’t under a streetlamp.”
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