Halloween Hayride Murder Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  The red and orange leaves were swirling down Main Street, pushed by a chilly October wind that made me shiver even though I was sitting safe and warm in The Donut Hut. I was eating an orange donut with sprinkles shaped like little bats. I tried my hardest not to satisfy my eternal sweet tooth, but I am a sucker for anything seasonal and Mandy knows that. Mandy is my best friend, who runs The Donut Hut and, like me, loves anything seasonal.

  That is why we were both eating donuts right now actually. Mandy had offered up her space for a meeting of the Halloween Hayride Committee. Every October, our small town Shady Lake hosts a hayride to fill our coffers for the upcoming holiday season and all of the other holidays that don't make money on their own, like the Fourth of July fireworks.

  Shady Lake is not just any small town. It's a small town that loves to throw a party. Every month, every season, every holiday has some sort of celebration here. People often wonder why in the world people live in Minnesota, but I can tell you why. Minnesota has four distinct seasons and we know how to enjoy each of them.

  Growing up in Shady Lake was absolutely magical. Winter has a large Christmas celebration when we light the Christmas tree downtown and a large Snow-lebration where we celebrate everything snow. Spring brings a big Easter egg roll in Central Park and the planting of the community garden. Summer has all sorts of outdoor activities because most of the parks are open for kids once school is out. They have penny carnivals and bike parades to keep the kids busy.

  But my favorite season is autumn. The leaves slowly change colors, giving a final burst of happiness before winter starts. After sweating all summer, the temperatures finally drop and I can wear my favorite sweaters and scarves. And I love Halloween. I have since I was little.

  The Halloween Hayride is a popular event because we make sure it is fun for all ages. It is a little bit scary to keep the older children interested, but not enough to scare the younger ones too much. Shady Lake had been hosting this event for decades and it actually pulls in people from all over the area, not just townies. It seems to get bigger every year.

  To prepare for the committee meeting, we had pushed all of the tables in the middle of the diner together so we could all sit together. Before everyone arrived, I was helping Mandy put trays of Halloween donuts and carafes of diner coffee on the table. The Hayride committee actually met monthly year-round to touch base on ideas, but now that it was October, we would be meeting twice weekly as we ramped up for the actual event.

  Ding Ding

  The bell over the door rang as it was pushed open. A short, balding man in a sweater vest came through the door followed by a tall woman in a drab brown sweatsuit. Ronald Green was the mayor of Shady Lake and unlike some small town mayors, he actually got involved in things because he loved them instead of just because he wanted the publicity. He sat on or led the committees for every activity Shady Lake throws. Sometimes I wonder when he has time to get anything else done.

  His wife, on the other hand, was the opposite. Melinda had always been a sourpuss who seemed to hate Shady Lake despite living here her entire life. Actually, Melinda seemed to hate everything. Obviously I had been pretty young when they got married, but no one quite understood what they saw in each other. It was the oddest pairing, yet they managed to stay together. Where Ronald was jolly and in the public eye, Melinda was drab and stayed in the shadows.

  "I'm just not sure why the meeting has to take place in a donut shop," Melinda was saying with contempt as they walked in. "You certainly don't need any donuts. Remember, you are supposed to be losing that gut. Not adding more donut rolls to it."

  I looked over at Mandy, who I could tell was thinking the exact same thing I was. We exchanged a look that was supposed to convey an eye roll without actually rolling our eyes. Poor Ronald.

  "Oh Melly," Ronald said with a laugh. "You know that I am trying to lose weight. I just can't keep my hands off of those sweets sometimes. But I promise tonight I won't have one."

  Ronald looked up and seemed to realize for the first time that Mandy and I were in the room. He smiled a broad smile and waved one large, meaty hand at us. Melinda was always nagging him about his weight, but I don't think Ronald could really be Ronald if he lost too much weight. He had always been a big teddy bear of a man.

  "Hello ladies," he said excitedly. Melinda shot us one last look before exiting the donut shop. "I am so excited to really get the Hayride plans together. Thank you for hosting, Mandy. I'm sorry that I won't be able to partake in your delicious donuts tonight."

  "Oh that's quite alright," Mandy said. She was the perfect picture of politeness. Thankfully I kept my mouth shut this time, unlike usual when I would say what I was thinking which was that maybe Melinda needed to have a few donuts to try and add some sweetness to her personality.

  Ronald busied himself with setting up papers and a little whiteboard on a stand while Mandy and I finished up getting napkins, creamers, and sugar. The bell rang once again and I turned, wondering who the other early bird was showing up to the meeting.

  Strolling through the door with a folder under his arm was Clark Hutchins. Clark is a high school social studies teacher who is probably one of the most handsome men I've ever seen in real life. He didn't grow up in Shady Lake, which means he is a hot commodity. But somehow I've managed to have a few dates with him and while I'm not ready for monogamous dating yet, Clark is at the top of my list when I am ready. For now, we are just keeping it casual.

  A beautiful stranger moving to town and actually taking an interest in me is the total opposite of anything that would have happened in high school. In high school, Mandy and I mostly hung out together and had a lot of crushes and a few awkward first dates. I had dated Max Marcus but then I had gone away to college where I ended up meeting my first husband Peter. Mandy had stayed behind and started dating Trevor, a boy we had gone to school with.

  "Hey Tessa," Clark said as his eyes twinkled at me. I kind of wanted to melt a little bit inside. The only other time I had felt like this was when I first met Peter. It was the same feeling of someone I hadn't known my entire life actually taking an interest in me. The problem with dating in Shady Lake is that often you already know everything about each other. It isn't as fun to go out if there is nothing to talk about.

  "Hi Clark. I see you've come prepared," I said, motioning to the folder in his hand.

  "Yes I did," he said with a cute little chuckle. "You'll just have to wait until the meeting to see my evil plan."

  As Clark walked by me, he reached out grabbed my hand to give it a quick squeeze. I smiled a big idiotic grin at him and was rewarded with one of his dazzling smiles. I felt my face starting to get w
arm as he found a spot to sit at the table.

  The bell over the door continued to chime as the other members of the Hayride committee came in and found their spots. The room slowly filled up with chatter and laughter. Every time the door opened, a small draft of cool breeze came in with it. With every shiver from the cold air, I was inwardly delighted. I love fall and I'm pretty sure nothing can spoil this season for me.

  Chapter 2

  "Alright everyone, I know we're all busy stuffing our face with these delicious donuts, but we should really get down to business," said Ronald. While he was right about most of us, I know for a fact he was not stuffing his face with donuts. His love for Melinda must be pretty strong to avoid Mandy's donuts.

  "We've done a pretty good job this year of preparing ahead of time, but today is the first of October which means we really need to nail down the details of this year's Halloween Hayride," Ronald said after the chatter died down.

  When I moved back to town a few months ago, Mandy had roped me into helping out. She knew I loved Halloween and that I needed something to take my mind off of the car accident that had killed my husband over a year ago and forced me to move back to town. I had to admit, this was a pretty good distraction. It was always a challenge to take something that was a town staple and felt like it shouldn't be meddled with, but find a way to keep it fresh.

  This year, we came up with the perfect idea to keep it fresh: a haunted house put on by the high school student council. It would be quite a bit scarier than the hayride, which was for all ages. The haunted house was going to be homespun, but also gory and scary.

  I shouldn't say we came up with the idea. I hadn't had anything to do with it. Clark came up with it and we all agreed that it was a fantastic idea. That might have been because Clark was such a fantastic guy. Not only was he a devoted social studies teacher, he was also a high school football coach and the faculty supervisor for the student council. He loved what he did and it showed.

  I glanced at Clark, who was sitting across the table from me. Ronald was giving a run-down on everything we had already done and what we still had to do for a few of the members who never bothered to show up to the meetings until October started. Clark had a very serious look on his face as he listened, but when he caught me looking at me, he gave me a smirk and a little wink that threw me off balance.

  "Okay, Tessa, could you do your bit now?" Ronald said suddenly. I could feel that my cheeks were red and for a moment, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I realized he wanted me to give my report. I was the publicity chair for the event.

  "Oh yeah, sure," I said as I pushed my chair back and stood up. "Hello everyone. Well here we are in October with the Hayride just around the corner. This is when my job really starts."

  Further down the table, I could see Chelsea Goodman rolling her eyes. She hadn't liked me since middle school when we had some squabble that I had since forgotten, but she had held on to it and seethed about it to this day. Her naturally red hair matched the fire that seemed to spout from her ears when I was around. Chelsea was here as a reporter for the town's newspaper, but also because she had the hots for Clark. I couldn't blame her though. I mean, who didn't have the hots for Clark?

  "No worries, I have a sheet here with my marketing plan and I've made enough copies for everyone," I said as I slid the sheets around the table. I had worked in marketing when I lived in the Cities before Peter had died and, while I was perfectly happy working the front desk of my family's B&B, it was nice to use my marketing skills for good.

  I walked the group step by step through the plan for sending flyers home with the elementary kids and a newspaper campaign, which Chelsea rolled her eyes at. I was actually quite proud of some of the innovative ideas I had included and just as I was getting to the best part, the door of The Donut Hut slammed open and a greasy looking little man who I had never seen before walked in followed by a hulking figure. The difference in their size was comical and made them look more like a cartoon duo than real life people.

  I looked around the table and realized I was the only person who didn't seem to recognize them. Chelsea's eyes were the size of dinner plates and Clark's face had turned to stone. Even the always affable Ronald wasn't smiling anymore.

  "Oh hello," the little man said. "I was pretty sure I had said I would need to be invited to the meetings, didn't I, Ralph?"

  The large figure, who was apparently named Ralph, made an affirmative sort of grunt as he pulled a chair up to the table for the small man.

  "Well here I am," he continued as he sat down and crossed his legs. "So if you are finished with your portion, sweetie, I would like to have a chance to talk."

  "Who are you?" I blurted out. I had a bad habit of blurting out things I should have kept inside. Mandy gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. She was always telling me that if I just kept my mouth shut for an extra ten seconds, that it would save me from embarrassment most of the time. Obviously, I still haven't taken her advice. The little man stared at me hard with his beady eyes, seemingly incensed that I didn't know who he was.

  I stood there like an idiot while I tried to figure out what had just happened and what I was supposed to do about it. Clark rose to his feet, trying to stay cool and collected. I could tell the fury was barely being masked by the way he was twitching his fingers almost into fists, but not quite. He did the same thing whenever the football team made a stupid mistake.

  "Excuse me Earl, but Tessa was still talking," Clark said with a thick layer of sarcasm on top.

  Ronald jumped to his feet, nervously rubbing his sweater-clad stomach. People always said he looked like a panda bear and typically I didn't see that at all. But in this moment if I had squinted my eyes hard enough, the large belly and ever present dark under eye circles did resemble that of a panda bear.

  As Ronald tried to chatter away and make peace between the two men, I quickly shot a glance at Mandy to try and figure out what was happening. I appeared to be the only one not in the loop.

  "I'll tell you later," Mandy hissed. Well that wasn't much help, but I guess I would just have to wait. I slowly sat back down in my seat just as Clark looked ready to burst.

  "Ronald, you can try to smooth this over as much as you want," Clark said. He was still speaking in a civil tone, but his voice kept getting louder and louder. "But no matter what, Earl is being greedy. We have always held the Hayride on your family's land and we still will."

  "I know there isn't much I can do about it," Earl said. "But I can't promise that everything will go fine during the Hayride. Hopefully nothing happens to make it a bad experience. Goodness knows how much Shady Lake needs that money."

  "Are you saying you would do something to ruin the Halloween Hayride?" Clark said, his thick eyebrows knit together in confusion. "If you do, you will be in trouble. Mark my words."

  I was a little bit shocked. In the few months I had known him, Clark was normally a very mild-mannered guy. Once we had been driving to dinner and someone had cut him off and he had shouted a bit, but that was about it. Apparently he didn't have road rage, but other people could push his buttons.

  The hulking figure of Ralph shuffled slowly between Earl and Clark, looking quietly like he would pulverize Clark in an instant if need be. But Earl put a thin, bony hand on Ralph's forearm and pushed past him to shove himself into Clark's face.

  "I hope you aren't threatening me, Clark," he said. "Ralph here doesn't take kindly to threats."

  Ralph grunted and I had to suppress a giggle because this was almost too insane to be true. This was playing out like a scene in a badly acted movie, but instead of being curled up at home with a bowl of popcorn, I was sitting in a hard, vinyl chair with a cup of rapidly cooling coffee in front of me.

  "No matter," Earl said. He waved his hand flippantly. "You know what I am asking for. If I don't get it, you can kiss the Halloween Hayride goodbye."

  Ralph eclipsed Earl from view and they both went out the front door of the Donut H
ut. The tinkling of the bell was the only sound to cut the silence that was hanging around the committee. Clark stood seemingly frozen in time next to the table with his fingers still curling in and out of fists.

  A scratching of pen on paper was the next thing to fill the silence. I looked over to see Chelsea furiously writing. The wheels in her head were probably already turning, trying to figure out how to write about this for tomorrow's paper. Everyone knew the deadline to get things printed was nine, so she was cutting it pretty close to get an article about this in.

  "Miss Goodman, I would really appreciate it if you didn't print anything about this," Ronald said quietly. "The Tribune is not some lowly gossip rag. If anything, just post something about how the Hayride is coming together."

  Chelsea sneered at Ronald and opened her mouth to spit back some sort of retort when Clark spoke up.

  "Ronald is right," he said. "We can't let Earl get to us. The Halloween Hayride is going to happen and it is going to be our most profitable to date. If you write about the unsavory parts, people won't come out. Please don't write about it."

  Clark gave her a sly smile. Chelsea set her pen down and slowly picked up the piece of paper. A small smile appeared on her face as she crumpled up the paper and threw it into the closest trash can.

  "Whatever you say Clark," she said in a syrupy sweet voice.

  Ronald sighed with relief as he rubbed his forehead with one hand. He stood at the head of the table once again and looked desperately at the agenda, trying to figure out where they were and what they should do next.

  "Why don't we be done for the night," Mandy quietly suggested as she stood up from her chair. "We can reconvene another night and touch base on anything we didn't get to tonight. I think we hit all of the points we really needed to."

  "That is a great idea, Mandy," Ronald said with a relieved smile on his face. "I will email you all tomorrow to set up our next meeting. Have a good night everyone."

  I immediately grabbed a tray of donuts and headed to the kitchen. I had plans to eat one more seasonal pastry before I went home but Clark put his hand on my shoulder and gently took the tray out of my hands.