Murderous Matrimony (Renaissance Faire Mystery) Read online

  “Detective Almond, Manny knows how to use a crossbow. So do I. So does Chase, and a hundred other men and women who live in the Village. That doesn’t mean he killed him.”

  “Don’t get so worked up, Jessie.” Detective Almond glanced at Manny. “If he’s willing to come to the station and give us a statement—with some DNA and prints for comparison—that will go a long way toward making me believe he wasn’t involved.”

  Manny looked at me for guidance.

  “Of course,” I answered for him with my hand on his arm. “He has nothing to hide.”

  “Good deal. We’ll be glad to give him a ride there and back. It shouldn’t take too long.” Detective Almond nodded at Chase. “If you think of anything else, give me a call.”

  Manny accompanied a police officer down the stairs and to a waiting squad car.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, Jessie.” Chase watched Manny slide into the backseat. “He should’ve had a lawyer.”

  “He didn’t do this. You know Manny. He wouldn’t risk getting blood all over himself. Besides, it was just a few arguments. Whoever did this had a bigger beef with Dave, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe.” Chase was still troubled. “But Manny has no idea what’s going on with our legal system. You can tell that he doesn’t know when to shut up. That could be a bad mixture.”

  I had confidence in Manny. He might say too much, but he had nothing to hide. It was better to get this over with so the police weren’t coming back to talk to him every day until they found another suspect.

  “You wouldn’t have done it,” Chase murmured.

  He was right, of course. But that was different.

  Detective Almond approached us again. “I’m gonna have to close off the museum until the crime scene people are done here. Sorry, Jessie. I’m sure you have plenty to do with your wedding coming up and all. I think my wife sent you our RSVP. I’m not dressing up, but we’ll be here.”

  “Is there anything else I can do to speed things up?” I knew from personal experience that an investigation could take weeks.

  Detective Almond shrugged. “Hope you’re wrong about Manny and that he did kill Mr. Olson? That would speed things up!”

  “Maybe something else.”

  “I don’t think so, but thanks anyway. Chase will keep you updated.”

  “Thanks.”

  Two burly officers stood at the walkway to warn visitors away. Their blue uniforms looked out of place in the Village. They could at least have found them some Ren Faire outfits.

  “That went badly,” Chase said when we were alone with on the cobblestone walkway. Two of the three police cars were slowly driving out of the Main Gate.

  “It was terrible. He has Manny—and the museum has to be closed.”

  “You gave him Manny,” he reminded me.

  “I thought it would help get through this faster if he could cross him off the suspect list right away. We know he’s not guilty.”

  Chase was right. Where had my brain been? I’d had to explain to Manny about money. He’d told Adventureland that he didn’t want to get paid. The police were going to eat him alive!

  “I can’t believe this is happening—especially right after Wanda’s death—and two weeks before our wedding.” I shook my head. “What can I do to help him?”

  I watched the Green Man, a walking tree, performing on his stilts. He had to be new. A small child could’ve knocked him over. He wouldn’t make it through the day, at least not upright.

  “It’s going to be fine.” Chase put his arm around me. “Like you said, he’s innocent, right? If the worst happens and they keep him, we’ll get him a lawyer. He’ll be okay.

  “We have to start looking around. Someone in the Village saw what happened—or has some idea why it happened.”

  “That’s why I’m here. I’ll figure it out, Jessie. They pay me to do this kind of stuff.” We stopped walking and he kissed the engagement ring on my finger. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe this would be a good time for you to relax and take it easy.”

  Relax? That was almost as bad as my advice to Manny!

  His radio buzzed and he glanced at it. “I have to go see what’s up at the rock climbing wall. The kids have been falling backward when they get to the top. One of them said a ghost is up there.” He kissed me. “I’ll call you later about lunch.”

  “Probably Wanda. She enjoys the ‘sport’, as she calls it.”

  “I wish she’d move on. She’s starting to give the Village a weird reputation!”

  I watched him walk away, cutting across the Village Green, and the King’s Highway.

  I knew Chase meant well, but the Village kept him moving seven days a week. It was all he—and his fifty security guards—could keep up with. They might never figure out what happened to Dave by themselves.

  I knew how this worked. If I wanted Detective Almond to leave Manny alone, and re-open the museum, I was going to have to find out why Dave was killed.

  “Oh dear,” Wanda sighed as she stood next to me. “I told you this was going to be a bad day.”

  Chapter Three

  It seemed to me, since I was now temporarily without employment, that my first move should be looking up Dave’s records here at the Village. I didn’t even know what his last name was until Detective Almond said it. I wasn’t sure how long he’d worked here. I thought it had been for a year or so, but I couldn’t be sure.

  Everyone knew him, or at least recognized him. Madmen were the clowns of the cobblestones. They’d do anything for a reaction. There were a lot of madmen, jesters, knaves, and so forth, in the Village. It was impossible to personally know them all.

  But someone else could tell me where he lived, and what kind of things he was into. He was bound to have shared his past with a resident over a glass of beer one night. Everyone who lived here seemed to have secrets about their past that he or she was hiding. I was sure Dave was no exception.

  Employment records, and other official business, were kept at the castle. I passed the Main Gate on my way there. It was teeming with visitors coming in for the day. They were being entertained by minstrels, and good-looking lords and ladies with wonderful costumes. Jugglers and singers welcomed them into this magical place as scantily clad fairies tossed petals at their feet.

  The visitors were no slouches where costumes were concerned either. Just in the first few hundred, I saw a centaur, two Greek goddesses, a man in a Batman costume, and a woman with shoes that were at least a foot tall.

  I passed Mermaid Lagoon. It was closed for the year. No one had been able to convince the mermaids that they should splash around in the water during the cold months. It was too bad. The mermaids were one of the most popular attractions. Several young men were already standing at the edge of the lagoon, and mourning that they had missed them.

  The smells of a hundred different kinds of food—from pizza and turkey legs to roasted corn and stew—assailed my senses. Across the Village, cooks were getting ready for lunch, and the hearty appetites of the visitors who kept all of us here. The cool November breeze wafted the aromas of baking bread and funnel cakes to tease the senses.

  There were so many choices: Baron’s had beer and brats, Three Pigs had several variations of barbecue. Polo’s had pasta and pizza. There were pretzel carts and pickle carts. It was almost impossible not to find something you wanted to eat.

  I ran into an old friend as I walked toward the castle. Rita Martinez was the head of the enormous kitchen staff there. She was a hardworking, older woman with gray-streaked black hair, and dark eyes that didn’t miss a thing.

  I’d worked for her when I’d first come to the Village. We hadn’t exactly been friends then, but after we’d known each other a while, that had changed.

  “I can’t believe Madman Dave is dead.” She shook her head. “You just never know.”

  I told her that the police were questioning Manny. “I know he wasn’t responsible, but his arguments with D
ave look bad.”

  “So what are you gonna do about it?” She used her work-roughened hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she talked to me.

  I was at least a foot taller than her. I leaned a little closer. “I’m going to find out what I can about Dave. Maybe someone had a grudge against him. He wouldn’t be dead otherwise, not like that anyway.”

  “Too much of that going on.” She crossed herself. “Look at what happened to Wanda just two weeks ago! We’ll probably never find another qualified nurse to work here.”

  I couldn’t help but feel some responsibility for Wanda’s death. Chase was right about that, but I didn’t think it was what had drawn her ghost to me. “I know.”

  “Don’t get all down in the mouth about it.” She flicked my chin. “Yes, you dyed her blue, but you weren’t the cause of her death. Poor thing—going through eternity that way.”

  I stopped walking and stared at her. “Can you see her?”

  She gave an exasperated sigh and kept walking. “How could I see her now? They buried her last week!”

  “Rita, her ghost has been with me since she died. I know it seems like it can’t be true, but it is. I don’t know if Chase really believes me either.”

  “Do you see her right now?” She surveyed the people around us.

  “No. She comes and goes when she wants to. It’s been crazy for me and Chase. She was doing this weird trick—turning her eyeballs inside out—two nights ago when Chase and I—”

  “Hmm.” She smiled knowingly. “That explains the expression on the Bailiff’s face for the last two weeks.”

  “Two weeks before the wedding—and I’m pretty sure he thinks I don’t love him. I don’t know what to do.”

  We continued walking past Mirror Lake. I watched the pirate ship Queen’s Revenge sailing toward her berth near the Main Gate. Her full white sails picked up every stray breeze against the clear blue sky.

  The cannons were being fired onboard the ship—as they were every day at ten, twelve, four, and six p.m. Large plumes of gray smoke accompanied the thunderous sound. There were children standing beside the lake with their parents, fist-pumping and yelling Huzzah! at each blast.

  “You’ve got the shakes, Jessie, that’s all,” Rita said. “Everybody gets them right before they get married. You’re seeing blue ghosts—I saw giant meatballs! Once the wedding is over, you’ll be fine!”

  I looked at my unique engagement ring. It had originally belonged to Chase’s grandmother. He’d had it changed from a plain gold band with two ruby hearts to a dragon holding two ruby hearts. It was perfect.

  I loved the ring, and I loved Chase. Maybe Rita was right. Just getting married was a big deal, without the Village adding in their ideas about publicizing it. I never wanted that, but what was good for the Village was also good for me and Chase.

  “Thanks. You’re right. I was a mess without Dave getting killed right outside the museum. Only two more weeks. That’s all I have to keep it together.”

  “You can do it, Jessie. The two of you have always been perfect for each other. I’m so glad you’re staying in the Village.”

  Rita and I walked quickly through the dew-damp green grass, admiring a juggler who was balancing eight flaming sticks in the air. Not far from him was a trio of musicians, getting their instruments tuned for the day.

  “You know, I don’t get the hanging tree.” She walked up and stared at the big tree. Why would anyone want to pretend to be hanged?”

  “I don’t know. It’s popular. Hundreds of people sign up to be hanged every day. Chase tried to get it closed down once after a fight broke out. Adventureland wouldn’t hear of it. It makes money for the park.”

  “Do you think those people have a death wish or something?” She shook her head. “I think it’s crazy!”

  “People wear a collar that protects their necks. No one gets hurt. Well, not often anyway, and not too badly. People come here to escape reality. They want to do things they might never do again.”

  “Would you do it?” Rita asked. “Have you done it?”

  “No.” I stared up into the almost naked branches of the gnarled old oak. There were only a few yellow leaves left that hadn’t fallen. “But I live here. I don’t need the excitement.”

  That brought us to the Lady of the Lake Tavern. It had been empty for two weeks with the loss of its owner, Ginny Stewart. I’d heard some chatter on the cobblestones that her niece or sister was coming from Baltimore to re-open it.

  The sign outside—half girl/half fish, holding a sword and tankard in her hands— looked forlorn. I glanced through the small panes of glass that made up the windows on the ground floor. It was dark and eerie inside. All of the benches and tables were empty. It looked like a ghost house. Maybe it would be a good place for Wanda to live.

  I knew the pirates hated that the tavern was closed. Kidnapping visitors from the tavern each day was a highlight for them, and the people they kidnapped. It was a very hands-on experience that led to an exciting sail across Mirror Lake in a pirate ship for some lucky visitors. I’d done it more than once when I’d first come here. Pirates were the best!

  “You know,” Rita continued as we started up the hill to the castle entrance. “I’ve heard that assistant of yours is a real prince from another country.”

  I’d heard this story before. According to Manny, he was the heir to a kingdom in a country I’d never heard of. People in the Village tended to exaggerate. It wasn’t anything new.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he is. Doesn’t everyone have some secrets?”

  “There are secrets,” she said. “And there are secrets! What do you think?”

  “Manny is a little odd. He doesn’t have a cell phone. He claims that he’s never watched TV. All I know is that he’s a good person, and a wonderful assistant director. I’m sure he didn’t kill Dave, and I’d be lost without him at the museum while he’s gone.”

  “I guess we’ll have to see then. Sometimes those old secrets come up again, don’t they?”

  We’d finally reached the tall, bulk of the castle.

  It had once been the runway tower for the Air Force facility that had been here for many years. Some turrets had been added, and concrete had been used to create a fairy-tale structure that towered above the lake. It was the one building you could see from everywhere in the Village.

  Here, King Harold and Queen Olivia resided with their new daughter, Princess Pea. Harry and Livy, as they used to be known, were Adventureland’s top salespeople at one time. They’d been rewarded with their positions here—a royal lifetime of lords, ladies-in-waiting, minions, and servants. They presided over feasts, and had all their needs attended to.

  It was a sweet gig.

  Master at Arms, Gus Fletcher, a former professional wrestler, was waiting at the castle gate. He was a large man whose prime was well past, and yet his strength and girth made him legendary.

  Pinching ladies’ butts as they passed his guard post had made him infamous as well. I wasn’t sure how many times he’d been slapped. I knew he’d been reprimanded at least twice for the practice. He couldn’t seem to keep his hands to himself.

  “What ho!” He greeted us at the gate. His wide shoulders and narrow waist were accentuated by his green and gold armor that gleamed in the sun. “Lady Jessie. Mistress Rita. Welcome! What seek you here?”

  “I’m going to work,” Rita said in her no-nonsense tone. “Good luck, Jessie. Just hold on. Everything is going to be fine. You’ll see.”

  Gus reached for her backside as she walked into the castle. Without turning around, she said, “Touch me and lose your eating privileges for a week! Keep your hands to yourself!”

  He laughed.

  I always made sure to keep myself turned toward him so those roaming hands couldn’t find my butt. Mostly, he left me alone because he was friends with Chase, and didn’t want to end up on his bad side.

  There was a large crowd of visitors coming out the castle. Only the best Ren speak wo
uld do for now.

  “I seek an audience with Sir Bart, Master at Arms.” That was our way of letting Gus know we needed to use a phone, fax machine, or computer.

  Bart would have Dave’s personal information, or know how to get it. We needed to act fast if we wanted to find out who’d killed him. For all I knew, the killer could have already left the Village.

  “Of course, my lady.” Gus bent gracefully from the waist, with the help of his staff. “Sir Bart is able to speak with you. Please go in.”

  “A formidable warrior,” I heard one visitor whisper as she passed him. “They are fortunate to have someone like this guarding their village.”

  “I’d be more fortunate if he’d keep his hands to himself.” I smiled as I said it and backed away from Gus until I was too far for him to reach.

  Chase had spoken to him many times, as Bailiff, about watching his hands. The problem was that Gus was related to the queen. No one wanted to get her riled up.

  I went into the office, which was the main hub of the Village. Everything, and everyone, was documented and filed here. Orders were made for what the Village needed from food to building materials.

  At the center of it sat a giant of a man. Bart Van Impe was almost seven feet tall and weighed more than I cared to think about. He was strong too. He could pick Chase up in his arms like a baby.

  He was as good-hearted as he was huge—and he was smart. Bart was single-handedly putting years’ worth of the Village’s paper records into the computers with a software program that he’d created.

  “Hello, Jessie!” He got up and hugged me, lifting me easily off the floor. “What brings you by today? I hope it’s nothing to do with Dave the Madman.”

  “Why? Don’t you have that information?”

  “I do. But you should leave this to the police.”

  “The police wouldn’t know what to do with the information if they had it.”

  “Don’t you have enough to do with your wedding coming up?” Bart didn’t move to answer my request.

  “Why is it everyone seems to think the only thing I can do is get ready for the wedding? Honestly, there isn’t that much to do since Adventureland is taking care of it.”