Treachery on Tap Read online

  Guardrail had a scowl on his face. “You know I have a business to run too, don’t you Ginger?”

  I looked at him not sure if it was the lack of sleep or the interview that made him sour. It was not like him and I replied, “I know, but things right now are a little abnormal, to say the least. I’m hoping we can put our team into action to find the real reason Zach died.”

  “You better. If you listen to Beth Givens, Tom is convicted and awaiting sentencing.” Digger responded.

  I tilted my head back in a sort of surrender. “Alright! I thought we would have a little time to work things out. But I can’t have my father getting caught up in this mess. We need to figure this out fast. It would seem our team is back up and running.”

  Dog lit up. “The Grumpy Gumshoes are back in action!”

  I pointed at him. “Mr. Dog Breath, we never agreed to a name. But we did do good work. So, if we can find the answer to how that weird powder got into Zach’s nose and mouth, we'll clear Tom of all suspicion and I get my kitchen back.”

  “I’m not working any traffic duty again!” Guardrail chirped

  Digger complained, “Please let there be no cats I hope? I hate cats.”

  Dog raised his voice, “It’s a hit man ghost to prevent The Ghost Hounds from finding proof that the supernatural really exists.” In response, everyone in the room looked at him like he grew two additional heads. He responded, “What? I was right last time. Trust me.”

  Guardrail broke into laughter. “Dog, some days I really worry about you.”

  Unlike the boys, I tried to focus on the problems at hand. “Our first move should be to learn about Denise and Tyler. I think those two had the most interaction with Zach. Denise gave him the vial and Tyler openly argued with him right in front of us.”

  Ida added, “I agree, but what about the other host, that Cecil. It’s odd he would accuse Tom like he did. I say we look at him too. That Zach was a looker, but he seemed difficult to work with, and if Tyler was at odds with him, Cecil might be too.”

  I nodded. “That makes sense. Can you and Piper get that going, Ida?”

  Ida shrugged. “Sure. You know we can.”

  Edith and Lily finally appeared and walked in on our planning session. Edith said, “Well, what’s going on here? If I didn’t know better, I would say the gang is back at work.”

  Dog blurted out, “We are!”

  Lily looked at Edith with a broad smile. “You think we’ll get to ride on the back of the hogs again?”

  Edith smiled back. “One can only hope. I so love the roar of a motorcycle engine and the open road. The wind in my hair feels so good.”

  Guardrail hung his head at the two over seventy spinster sisters talking about his motorcycle. Then I heard Bones outside the office yell, “Hey boss, come look at this!”

  I made my way out of the office and over to the order counter in the kitchen. I asked Bones, “Where did you find this?”

  Bones pointed. “It was in the bin for bills of lading. I could tell it wasn’t something that belonged in that pile the minute I saw it. The police must have missed it.”

  Dad had wandered over to see what was going on. “That’s my boy. Not so smart with the girls, but you know your work. Spotted something out of place right off.”

  I held out my hand. “Let me have a look.” Bones handed me the script. What caught my eye was all the red ink. And when I scanned the page, I saw this was the page for the whiteboard scene. The very scene where Zach choked to death. I also noticed it belonged to one of the camera people. “This is Scooter Martin’s copy. And we saw him splitting up the argument between Zach and Tyler. Looking at this page, seems Zach was pretty hard on Scooter.”

  Bones scratched his head. “I don’t know about all that, but glad it means something to ya.”

  “Thanks, Bones.”

  I took the script back to the office. The boys were teasing Ida, something about her lack of understanding on the finer points of betting. I eyed the boys. “I have said this before, but just to confirm, there’s to be no gambling inside the Chicken.”

  Dog looked up. “Who? Us?”

  I growled and frowned at the boys. “Yes, you.” Then I held up the script. “Look at this. It’s Scooter's copy and it seems Zach asked for all kinds of revisions. Maybe in retaliation for Scooter breaking up the spat Zach had with Tyler?”

  Ida asked, “Are you saying we should put Scooter on the suspect list?”

  I paused. “Yeah, I am. Zach snarled at Scooter after he broke up the squabble with Tyler. Scooter may have more to his story. And remember, he said this type of thing happened all the time with Zach. I don’t think those two are friends.”

  Piper chuckled. “I don’t think Zach has many friends to be honest. He was kind of a pill. Why do all the pretty ones have such awful personalities.”

  I looked at Piper for a moment. “That’s true, and it’s what scares me right now. I think everyone on that crew has to be a suspect to be honest. I sensed no one liked Zach.”

  Guardrail added, “I agree. I thought the guy was a twit.”

  Ida brought things back to her own domain. “So what are you saying? We need to do background checks on all of the crew?”

  I sighed. “Maybe. It’s interesting. I think the Sheriff had a similar thought process. I noticed that he interviewed the most likely suspects last night. Before they could talk to anyone or do something to destroy evidence. And that included Stan the director, Cecil, Tyler, Denise, Scooter and two other crew members I don’t know. For now I think we have to assume that is our tier one suspect list.”

  Ida jumped in. “I can check them all. Do we have names for the other two crew members?”

  I turned to Lily and Edith. “Ladies, you think you can use your charms to find the names for those two crew members interviewed by the Sheriff last night?”

  Lily beamed. “Of course, sweetie, we’re part of the gang and quite resourceful.”

  “Good.” I spun back to Ida. “Get going on everyone else on the tier one list while Lily and Edith chase down those last two names. Also, what happened to Zach? What kind of powder could do that to someone? And who could get that kind of thing? I kept asking myself those questions all day while I waited over at the B&B to be interviewed.”

  Piper noted, “Tyler said he was digging something solid out of Zach’s mouth. I found that so gross! But it was also odd, so I wondered what kind of material could do that.”

  Digger spoke up. “Well, it’s kind of obvious then. How do we find out what could have done that to a man? And who would know how to get something like that?”

  I added, “I don’t know, Digger, but we have to figure it out. And there is one more thing. It seems like either Denise put a killer powder in the vial, or she put harmless seltzer in the vial like she said. So the big question is, did Denise do it, or did someone change out the powder in the vial?”

  Piper’s eyes grew wide. “How in the blazes are we going to find that out?”

  I replied, “I didn’t say it was going to be easy.”

  EDITH AND LILY RETURNED about an hour later with the two names of a boom operator and a grip. So Ida added Cory Lynch and Kenny White to our suspect list.

  Meanwhile, our food service was out of commission, meaning I was not as busy as usual. The area in front of the whiteboard was roped off, eliminating a large portion of my kitchen, and I could not cook food. That was bad for business. I was a little surprised that I was still allowed to use my office, which is off the kitchen.

  But fortunately, I could still sell drinks and continue to make some money until all this all blew over. So, Dixie was working the bar with Bones’ help. Technically, Bones was underage to be working in the bar area, but in small towns sometimes you just need to do what you have to do and the law cuts you some slack.

  I pondered the dilemma and our suspect list. Denise, Tyler, Cecil, Stan, and Scooter were most likely. But the Sheriff did interview two additional crew members that night,
Cory and Kenny. I was not sure why. From what I could see they did not have much access to Zach. It was likely the Sheriff had moved on to his second level suspects to complete as many interviews the night of the incident, and Cory and Kenny were just the first two he picked. But it was easy enough for Ida to send out her creepy little web crawlers and get background information on all seven of them.

  I had bigger questions that needed answers. How was I going to find out about the bizarre cause of death? Where would I look for someone who would know enough about chemistry to tell me what kind of powder could cause a solid to form inside the respiratory system and choke a person to death? And who put the deadly powder in the vial? That last question was so simple and straightforward. But finding an answer to it might be the hardest.

  Chapter Five

  Later that afternoon, The Ghost Hounds crew assembled at the big rig parked in front of the Grumpy Chicken. The TV crew was working to get ready for a shoot on the Main Street sidewalk. We were all surprised to see them working and the gang assembled with them on the sidewalk to watch.

  I asked Tyler, “What are you guys doing? Your co-host just died and you are supposed to be under house arrest?”

  Tyler replied, “No, correction. We were asked not to leave town and we’re complying. But your Sheriff was not so trusting and asked Cecil, Denise, Scooter and me to wear ankle bracelets to make sure we complied.” Tyler lifted his pants leg to reveal the bulky, black plastic wrapped around his ankle.

  Denise jumped in. “Not so fashionable is it. I guess I won't be wearing shorts for a while. And it clashes with my Calvin jeans!” She lifted her pant’s leg just like Tyler had and revealed her ankle bracelet.

  I was surprised. “I didn’t know Potter’s Mill had those things.”

  Cecil grumbled. “You don’t. State police provided them. And good thing, your Sheriff Wise had no idea how to install these things on us. Talk about country bumpkins.”

  Tyler jumped on Cecil. “Quiet, you idiot. Small town life is different. But it doesn’t mean the people are bumpkins.”

  Denise twirled her hair. “What does bumpkin mean anyway?”

  Tyler eyed her, trying to determine if she was serious. “You know, a local, but simple in the head.”

  Denise raised her eyebrows. “Oh! Cecil, that’s’ not nice. And Deputy Wise was so nice to us. He was worried about messing it up, too. Said the Sheriff would make him shovel horse stalls if he did.”

  I interrupted. “That’s true, the Sheriff loves those police horses and anyone who is in the dog house with him gets mucking duty. But more important, how can you shoot so soon after Zach’s death?”

  Cecil replied, “It’s what we do. Zach would want it and we need to get to work, get back to normal.”

  Tyler commented, “Cecil, Zach is dead and I’m not sure things will ever be normal again. But you’re right about one thing. We should get back to shooting to honor the hard work Zach put into this.”

  Stan the director stood in the center of the TV crew and used a megaphone. “We’re going to get some memorial words from Tyler and Cecil in front of the pub. While we are outside, we can also interview the store owner next door. She’s agreed to an interview on the sidewalk out front and owns a new age shop. And she says she is psychic. So she may have some interesting stories to share with us. After that, I’m hoping we will have time then to go back into the pub and film shots of Cecil and Tyler showing off the new infrared camera. And I want all of you watching and making sure the ankle monitors on Cecil and Tyler are not visible in any shot. Alright, I want you on your A game and let’s make some magic.” As before, they all clapped and went to work.

  The memorial shot in front of the pub happened fast. Cecil and Tyler said some short but kind words about Zach, but not surprisingly it did not feel warm or friendly.

  Then the crew reset outside of Star’s store and she came out to be interviewed. She had on a pretty yellow dress and her hair was neatly coiffed. I was not used to seeing her with make-up and she looked different.

  The director yelled action and Tyler started. “You’re located next door to a pub that is reported to be haunted by a dead chicken. You own a new age store and are a medium. Have you seen anything that indicates a ghost chicken occupies the pub?”

  Star touched her hair and I think she blushed. “Well, yes. It’s strange, but at times I get this out of body feeling. I freeze and cannot see clearly. It is like being lost in a dense fog. It doesn’t happen all that often. But every time it does, there are stories from the pub about hearing the chicken squawk or something strange.”

  Cecil said, “Can you explain what the fog looked like.”

  Star looked at him puzzled. “It’s fog. It’s white and blank.”

  Tyler sighed. “Well, when it has happened, Star, have you heard anything?”

  She thought a moment. “Just last week I went into the fog and I thought I heard what sounded like a chicken, but saying evil.”

  My heart froze when I heard her say that. The pub was full when it happened and everyone heard it. Guardrail leaned over to me and whispered. “Now that’s spooky. She wasn’t there, how could she know that?”

  I answered. “Hush. Let’s not complicate things right now. We need to stay focused on figuring out how Zach died.”

  Piper was next to me and must have heard us because she added, “Guardrail is right! How could she know that? Look, I got goosebumps.”

  I hushed them both. I was afraid of what else Star might tell them. But the sidewalk interview with her finished and before I knew it the crew was in my dining room again. It was a little after dinner time and the dining room was empty. A sad sight for my tired eyes. But it made it easy for the many people involved with the television show to move in early and do some work.

  Cameras were mounted and wires were run across the floor everywhere. Eventually Tyler and Cecil took their position and I saw a handheld device. The bright yellow color was hard to miss in Tyler’s hands and they were intently hovering over it, chatting.

  Tyler said, “This one records real time video. And it measures temperatures of everything in the frame very accurately. It was expensive, but worth it.”

  Cecil asked, “How are you going to use it?”

  “To scan areas. We can record ninety minutes of video with this baby. So I can scan each area where we shoot. It only takes a few minutes to scan a large area.”

  Cecil giggled, taking the camera to look at it more closely. “Cool. I can’t wait to see what it captures.”

  “Well, it would be better if it were late at night when the spirits were more active. But this will be a good test drive.”

  At that point, the director yelled and Cecil and Tyler went into TV host mode. They spoke different when in front of the camera and Tyler did most of the talking. He was explaining the new piece of equipment and why an infrared camera helps with hunting ghosts. “When spirits appear, the temperature falls. It gets cold. This camera sees temperature, and displays that data in a color map of the image. Red and yellow are hot, blue and green are cold.”

  Tyler then scanned a wall in the dining room followed by the director yelling cut.

  Then a familiar voice shot through the space. It was Guardrail sitting on his usual bar stool drinking a beer. He addressed Stan the director. “You’re looking in the wrong spot. You need to scan under this bar stool right here. I saw six or seven ghost mice right here not too long ago.”

  The director looked at Cecil and Tyler but didn't say a thing. In response Tyler said, “Sure we can do it. It’s easy to scan with the infrared camera. It’ll be harder for you to move the cameras, which isn’t too hard either. But moving that big guy off his stool, that might be another thing. I’m not doing it.”

  The director bellowed, “Let’s reset near the bar. You heard the big guy at the bar, that’s our next shot.”

  It took about twenty minutes, but eventually they talked Guardrail into surrendering his stool and they reset to shoot t
here. The director yelled action again, and to my amazement, we had “professionals” looking under Guardrail’s bar stool for ghost mice. When they finished, it was Dog Breath that spoke first. “Hey, what are you going to say when they show there's nothing under your stool.”

  “Maybe they did find something. We’ll just have to wait and see. But I can tell you for sure, they’re not going to find a hit man ghost.” Guardrail looked down at Dog Breath as he spoke.

  Dog took a sip of his beer and never looked up. Just after that he said into his mug, “I was right last time.”

  Tyler had a laptop setup on one of my dining room tables and he took an SD card out of the infrared camera, then put it into the computer. He fired up the media player and watched the video he captured. The laptop was also hooked up to a monitor so the crew could watch. I had a good view, too. We watched in the same order as they were shot, viewing the scan of the dining room wall first. Tyler started the video and put it on fast forward, just enough to quickly scan the video but still slow enough to see everything just fine. While the pictures were colorful and pretty, there was nothing unusual to see.

  Then he opened the file from the scan under Guardrail’s stool. Again he put it on fast forward and we all watched. About half way through, Tyler paused the video and popped up like a jack-in-the-box, knocking his chair over. I saw it too. It looked like four small, blue pong balls moving along the base of the bar. Tyler rewound, or I guess with digital video there is no tape to rewind, so he reversed the video and replayed it. This time in slow motion. He said, “There’s definitely something there. The blue color indicates something real cold. There were four mice sized anomalies under that stool. But we have to be careful not to jump to conclusions.”

  Guardrail shrieked like a little girl. “I’m not sitting there anymore. No way. Dog, switch with me!”