Haunted Hamlet (Zoe Donovan Mystery) (19 page)

Death by vomit. That was
not
how I wanted to go.

I
closed my eyes and mentally forced myself to relax. I heard footsteps on the stairs leading to the attic. I almost passed out from relief when I recognized Zak’s voice. When he opened the door to the room and shone his flashlight inside, I began to weep.

“God, Zoe, are
you okay?”

Zak ran over to me and wrapped me in his arms.

“Tape,” I tried to say through the tape still covering my mouth.

Zak looked
at my face and cringed. “I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.”

He ripped off the tape and I
sucked in the first full breath I’d been able to take since waking up in the secret room.

“What took you so long?” I gasped.

“I didn’t know you were here,” Zak said as he began to untie my hands. “I went to talk to Brooke this morning and when I came back you weren’t home, so I figured you were still at Ellie’s.”

“But my truck. Charlie?”

“The truck wasn’t in the drive. Neither was Charlie.”

“Oh God
, did Joel hurt Charlie?”

“Charlie is
with Scott. Don’t worry; Scott swears he’ll be fine.”

“Get the rest of these ropes off. We have to go.”

By the time Zak and I got back from the vet
the previous evening, we were both completely exhausted. As I’d predicted, when Joel hit me, Charlie had attacked him, and then Joel had kicked my dog, fracturing a rib. He’d locked Charlie in my truck and then took it down to the dirt road that parallels the lake and left it hidden in some trees. While I quite literally wanted to kill Joel for kicking my dog, I
was
grateful that he hadn’t killed him. Neither Bella nor Karloff seemed any worse for wear, and even though the door had been left open, the cats had been safely napping inside throughout the entire ordeal.

When Zak got home
, he’d noticed that Bella and Karloff were sitting on the front porch. The front door was cracked open, so he’d figured he hadn’t closed it all the way when he left and the dogs had simply gotten out. Zak didn’t realize I wasn’t still at Ellie’s until he decided to go over there to talk to me and she informed him that I’d gone home early that morning.

When he got home
from Ellie’s, he looked around. Really looked around. He noticed that someone had cleaned things up and moved parts of Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein. After a bit of thought, he’d put two and two together. He pulled up the calls that had been made on our landline that day, and when he’d realized that I’d called Joel, he’d logged onto his computer and tracked the signal put off by my truck’s communication system. Once he found Charlie and the otherwise empty truck, he’d called Scott and Salinger and then come looking for me in the one place he figured Joel would take me.

“I’ve never been so scared in all my life,” Zak said as we la
y in each other’s arms after sleeping for a good twelve hours.

“I know. Me neither. I’m so sorry about everything. If I hadn’t let my jealousy get the better of me
, none of this would have happened.”

Zak kissed the top of my head where it rested on his bare chest. “No
, it’s my fault. I should have told you about Brooke. At first we didn’t really have a relationship, so it didn’t seem relevant. And then, when our flirtation moved toward something more, I was afraid you would be upset. I thought about telling you, but I was afraid it would destroy what we were just building. But now that I’ve had a chance to really think about it, I know in my heart we would have worked things out. I promise I’ll never keep anything from you again.”

I reached up and kissed Zak on the lips.
“I was really scared when I got home and you were gone,” I admitted.

Zak caressed my hai
r, which had grown long enough to create a curtain around us. I’d thought about getting it cut, but when you have a thick curly mess that has to be clipped back most of the time anyway, it doesn’t seem worth the effort.

“I guess I should have called you or tex
ted or left a note or something,” Zak said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just knew I had to do what I could to fix things, so I went to see Brooke to ask her to leave Ashton Falls. I needed to make sure she understood that there was absolutely no future for us. I’m in love with you. I want to marry you. I have no interest in dating anyone other than you. Ever.”

I smiled.
“Did she leave?”

“I’m not sure
. She made a case for this being a free country, so she could live wherever she wanted and there was nothing I could do about it. If you want my opinion, I think she was just being difficult because she was hurt that I no longer wanted her in my life. If she hasn’t left yet, I’m sure she will once she realizes that I am most definitely not available.”

“But the auction? We really do need the money.”

“We’ll get it another way.”

I leaned down to kiss Zak
. I really wished we could spend the day making up, but I knew we couldn’t. It was already late in the morning, and I had promises I needed to keep.

“As much as I hate to say t
his, we really need to get going.” I sighed. “I promised Salinger I’d be in to make a statement before noon, and I want to go get Charlie.”

Zak had been
right. Charlie would be fine, but Scott had wanted to keep him overnight to monitor his vitals, just in case there was no internal bleeding or a head wound not immediately apparent.

Zak kissed me one more time. “Okay, let’s go get Charlie. It’s just not the same around here without him.”

“I suppose we should check on Drake. He’s probably responsible for the fact that I was still alive when you found me.”

“I’ll call the hospital
to see if he’s allowed visitors,” Zak suggested. “There’s no use going over there if he isn’t.”

“That’s true. I suppose Salinger
has a guard on him. I’m sure they’ll move him to a secure facility as soon as he’s stable. I know he kept a huge secret all these years, but I really hope the DA goes easy on him. He could have just left me to die at Joel’s hands.”

“We’ll make sure Salinger knows what he did for you.
”

It turned out that Drake Bollinger
’s had been the other voice I’d heard at the Henderson house. Filming the video thirteen years ago had been the joint effort of Joel and Drake, both film enthusiasts. Joel had convinced Drake that if they wanted to make an authentic horror movie, they needed the actors to be genuinely scared, so they’d enticed the counselors to come to the house for a party. None of the counselors except Drake knew that the spooky happenings had been choreographed.

“
I’ll go down to take care of the animals while you grab a shower,” Zak added.

“We could shower together,” I flirted.

“If we do, I guarantee you won’t make your meeting with Salinger.”

“Oh
, very well. I’ll be down in less than twenty minutes. It would be wonderful if you started the coffee while you’re downstairs.”

“Already on it.”

T
hat evening, I sat with Zak and Charlie while Levi and Ellie sat on the adjoining sofa. Bella and Shep lay at Ellie’s feet, Karloff was snuggled on the sofa next to Levi, Marlow was curled in Zak’s lap, and Spade hung out with Ellie. It was so nice to have the whole family together. I know that if I’d died in that secret room, my ghostly self would really miss the
us
we’d become.

“So Joel was the mastermind behind this whole thing,” Levi stated. “Who would have thought?”

“I was pretty surprised myself when all the pieces fell into place. I’ve known him a long time and he really never seemed like the type to be so evil. In fact, prior to all of this happening, I would be the first to say he was a really nice guy.”

“I guess
sometimes circumstances can compel a nice guy to act in a not so nice manner,” Ellie suggested. “If things had gone differently and no one had died that night thirteen years ago, Joel might never have ventured over to the dark side.”

“I don’
t know,” Levi countered. “I think the dark side has to be lurking around in the first place in order to rear its ugly head. Drake took a bullet rather than let Joel hurt Zoe. If circumstance was the only variable, he could just as easily have let her die in order to keep his secret.”

“True,” Ellie acknowledged.

“I really believe that initially neither man meant for anyone to get hurt, but after Rachael fell down the stairs and broke her neck and George was killed by Griff’s car, Joel freaked out and things spun out of control,” I added.

“So Joel killed the missing counselor?” Levi clarified.

“
Drake told Salinger that Joel confessed to killing Bart in order to keep him quiet. I guess after everyone ran outside, Bart realized Carol had been left behind. When he went back inside the house to get her, Joel was standing over her body. It seems Carol, who was still alive, was just starting to come out of it when everyone started panicking. Once Bart realized that there had been someone else on the premises the whole time, he figured out what had happened. He told Joel that his little prank had caused the death of two people, and he was going to the police with the truth. Joel killed him. Carol had heard everything, so Joel smothered her in order to keep her quiet.”

“God, it really
was all so tragic.” Levi sighed. “Not only did perfectly normal people commit truly heinous acts, but there were quite a few people who lived quietly with the memory for all these years. It seems almost incomprehensible.”

“What’s really strange is
that a thirteen-year-old murder mystery was solved by digging into a modern-day accident,” Ellie commented. “So Drake is going to be okay?”

“It looks like he will
,” I confirmed.

Zak got up
to toss another log on the fire. I felt myself begin to drift off as fatigue set in. Charlie was curled up next to me, and as I felt his little heart beating with the palm on my hand, I knew I would never take the people and animals I loved for granted again.

“So no one other than Joel knew that he killed Bart an
d hid his body in the secret room,” Levi was saying.

“As far as I can tell,” I answered.
“After Davenport came back to town and started snooping around, Drake called Joel and insisted that they come clean about what had happened that night. Of course, he still believed Bart simply had taken off and Carol had died from a blow to the head. He’d never said anything in all those years, but he was afraid Davenport was going to figure things out. Joel said they couldn’t go to the authorities, but Drake argued that everything that went down thirteen years ago was just a terrible accident, and they should accept responsibility for keeping the secret all these years. It was then that Joel filled Drake in on exactly what had occurred with both Bart and Carol. Drake still wanted to go to the sheriff’s office, but Joel threatened him, so he came to Ashton Falls to try to talk Davenport into leaving the area. By the time he got here, it was too late. Joel had used the props he already had on site for the haunted barn to scare Davenport into falling down the stairs and then hoped that everyone would believe what they did: that the whole thing was simply an unfortunate accident.”

“
Then Drake confronted Joel after he kidnapped you and Joel shot him,” Ellie pieced together. “The question is, how did Drake know that Joel had kidnapped you?”

“Good question. I guess I’ll have to ask him
.”

“I’m glad he did. Save your life
, that is,” Ellie said.

“Can I get anyone more wine?” Zak asked.

“No, but I’ll take some coffee and some of that cake I brought,” Ellie answered.

“I’ll take a beer
, if you have one,” Levi added.

“I’m fine
.” I smiled

When
Zak got up to get the beverages, Charlie thumped his tail, and I coaxed him into staying with me rather than following him and Bella into the kitchen. Scott had assured me that Charlie would be fine, but he wanted me to keep him quiet for a few days.

“So what now?” Levi asked as Karloff snored in his lap.

“Salinger has put out an APB on Joel, and I’m sure Drake is looking at some sort of consequence for his role in the whole thing once he gets out of the hospital. Salinger knows Drake tried to help me and ended up shot for his efforts, so I have the feeling they’ll work out some sort of deal. Right now, I just want to relax and enjoy what remains of the Halloween season.”

“What are you going to do about the party?” Ellie wondered.

“I’m not sure. I really want to spend the evening with my friends and family, but Scott recommended that I keep Charlie quiet for a few days, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work with a house full of people.”

“I suppose you could postpone the party for a few days,” Ellie s
aid. “Zak worked so hard on the decorations, it would be a shame to waste all that effort completely.”