A Hint of Magic (6 page)

“He’s the other winner,” Clarissa corrected him dryly. “
Mikey
had you in a headlock.”

“Wonderful.  So, where can we find these two upstanding citizens?”

“Well let’s see…it’s not quite noon so if I had to guess I’d say the bar.”

Parker looked surprised.  “Do they work there?  Are they bouncers or something?” he asked.

“Please.  A bar in a town the size of Sugarcomb Lake doesn’t have bouncers,” Clarissa laughed.  “City boy,” she couldn’t help but add, playfully sticking out her tongue.

“Guilty as charged,” Parker grinned.

“Zack and Mikey were on the football team back in high school,” Clarissa explained.  “They thought they were going places, and that gave them a sense of entitlement.  But they never amounted to anything.  Last I heard, Zack was a bitter out-of-work barfly and Mikey was a trophy husband with a beer belly and a drinking problem.  Some trophy!” she scoffed.

“I’m sensing some resentment,” Parker observed.

“No.  Well, maybe a little.  I can’t stand guys like Zack and Mikey,” Clarissa admitted.

“What, you mean jocks?”

“Bullies,” she corrected him.  “They were jerks then and I’m sure they’re still jerks now.”

“I can’t argue with that.  After all, one of them did put me in a headlock when I tried to break up the fight,” Parker recalled.  Then he looked over at Clarissa, his eyes twinkling.  “So just to be clear, you don’t hate all jocks?”

“You were a jock in high school,” she realized with mounting horror.

“I ran track, played football and did just about every other sport you can imagine.”

“And did you push people into lockers just because you knew you could get away with it?”

“Never,” Parker replied immediately.

“Good.  Well in that case, I don’t hate you.”

“Great,” he grinned.  “I could use an ally if we’re going to be meeting up with Zack and Mikey.  You saved me from a headlock once by threatening to tell Zack’s mommy he was being a naughty boy.  Nice move, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re my hero,” Parker announced, playfully bowing down to her.

“Ha!” Clarissa snickered in amusement.  Then she stuck the key in the ignition.  “Okay,” she sighed with apprehension, steeling herself for the inevitable.  “I guess we can’t avoid talking to Zack and Mikey forever, so let’s go get this over with.”

Just as Clarissa had suspected, Zack and Mikey were indeed at the bar. 

She found the two big oafs shooting pool. 

It was easy to spot Zack’s blonde buzz cut from across the room.  The guy was so big and tall that it would have been impossible not to notice him.  He was also very loud and domineering, just as Clarissa remembered.  The sound of his booming, obnoxious voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard as far as she was concerned.

Mikey was quieter.  Aside from occasionally belching, he sat slumped over near the pool table looking on as Zack tried to show off.  He looked drunk, not to mention beaten down by circumstance.  Actually, he looked downright unhealthy.  All the beer he was rumored to have been drinking had evidently gone straight to his gut.

Zack was angry about something or other – Clarissa could tell that by the way he was scowling and pacing around as though he wanted to pick a fight.  In contrast, Mikey was bleary-eyed and slightly unsteady on his feet.

She approached them warily.

When Zack saw her, his already sour mood seemed to darken.  He scowled, his face contorting until he sort of resembled a troll living under a bridge.  “Hey, it’s the wet blanket,” he greeted her with a sneer.  “Are you here to threaten me some more?”

Unsure of how to respond, Clarissa looked over at Mikey.

He simply patted the barstool beside him, silently inviting her to take a seat.

She sat beside him uncertainly. 

Zack had always been the biggest idiot of all the jocks.  He was the ringleader, the instigator.  She had always thought of the other guys as his minions.  They did what he said without question, either because they were intimidated by him or unable to think for themselves. 

She had always suspected that guys like Mikey wouldn’t be quite so bad if it wasn’t for Zack’s bad influence.  But she had never been able to confirm that suspicion.  Now it was the moment of truth.  Here she was sitting beside none other than Mikey the Enforcer.  Would he bite her head off or be cordial?

“How’s it going?” he slurred.

“Okay,” she replied, encouraged that they were off to a pleasant enough start.

“Last night was crazy,” he told her.

“It was,” she agreed, pleased that he seemed to be in a talkative state of drunkenness. 

Mikey took a long swig of beer.  “A guy died.” 

“I know.  We went to high school with him,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, I know.  I wasn’t friends with him though.  Were you?”

“I didn’t know him very well,” Clarissa replied.  “Did you see what happened last night?”

“There was a fight.  It was cool!  Until it stopped being cool,” Mikey said somberly.  “I didn’t know the dude was gonna wind up dead.  That’s messed up.  And the guy that did it was wearing a grim reaper costume!  Isn’t that iconic?”

“Do you mean ironic?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind,” Clarissa said as she wondered if the costume had been deliberate or simply a morbid, unfortunate coincidence.  “You don’t happen to know who was wearing the grim reaper costume, do you?” she asked, hoping for a miracle.

“Nope,” Mikey replied with a charming belch.

“Did you see the person in the grim reaper costume at the party?”

“No.  I was kind of drunk though.”

“Uh huh,” Clarissa said, unsurprised by
that. 
Though she was quickly losing hope that Mikey would be any help whatsoever, she decided to take a stab in the dark.  “Did you happen to see anyone dressed as a cowboy last night?”

“Yeah,” Mikey nodded.  “Amy’s boyfriend was wearing a cowboy costume.”

Clarissa’s eyes widened.  “He was?  Who is Amy’s boyfriend?” she demanded. 

Mikey let out a long, loud burp that practically made the walls of the bar vibrate.  “I dunno.  Sam something, I think?”  Then he shook his head in disbelief.  “That Greg dude is dead, man!” he exclaimed as though only just remembering.  “It’s so crazy.  Who would have thought?”

“He was too smug for his own good,” Zack piped up.  Apparently he had been listening in.

“What do you mean by that?” Clarissa asked, turning her attention to him.

Zack’s eyes narrowed.  “Why, are you gonna tell my mother I said something unkind?” he asked in a mocking tone.  He took a menacing step closer to her, pool cue in hand.  “What are you doing here anyway?  Who said you can be here?  This is
our
bar!  We don’t want wet blankets here, you hear?”

“Hey,” Parker interrupted, stepping between the two of them.  “How about a game?” he asked Zack, nodding toward the pool table.  “I’ll bet you $100 you can’t beat me.  Are we on?”

“You got the cash on you?” Zack demanded suspiciously.

“Sure do,” Parker said.  He pulled out his wallet and extracted a crisp hundred dollar bill.

“We’re on,” Zack told him.  And just like that, he forgot all about Clarissa.

She breathed a sigh of relief and then turned her attention back to Mikey.

“Do you know what started the fight?” she asked, keeping her voice down.

“No idea,” he replied.

“Did you talk to Greg inside at all before the fight?” she pressed hopefully.

“Nah,” Mikey shook his head.  “He was only interested in talking to Amy.”

That was news to Clarissa.  “Really?” she asked as a knot formed in the pit of her stomach.  Amy had provided a much different version of events than that.  Who was telling the truth?  And if Mikey’s account was accurate, then what was Amy hiding?

“Uh huh, Greg kept following her around.  He was like a lovesick puppy,” Mikey recalled.  “Some guys just don’t have any dignity,” he declared before reaching back to blatantly scratch his big hairy butt, which was protruding from his jeans.  He was, Clarissa noted with disgust, sporting quite the plumber’s crack.

“Ha-ha, I beat you!” Zack called out loudly.

“Yeah you sure did,” Parker said in a tone that suggested he was patronizing a small child.  “Oh, you sure got me.  Good job buddy, you won fair and square.  I guess I’m not as good as I thought, huh?” 

He handed over the hundred dollar bill, which Zack greedily snatched up.

Parker looked over at Clarissa, apparently completely unfazed that he had just parted with a hundred bucks.  “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes.”

They walked out of the bar and over to her car in silence. 

“Did you find out anything useful from Zack?” Clarissa asked once they were both inside.

“He didn’t like Greg and doesn’t seem to care that he died,” Parker replied.

“Zack doesn’t like anyone who doesn’t bow down to him,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah but I think in Greg’s case, it’s more than that.  I got the impression Zack was jealous of Greg.  He brought his football to the party intending to show off…I guess you could say he wanted to relive his former high school glory.  But then Greg showed up looking all buff and took the attention away from him.”

“But we know Zack didn’t kill Greg,” Clarissa reminded him.  “We saw Zack and Mikey.”

“We did,” Parker agreed.  “I also saw the way Zack called off his trained dog.  When he said jump Mikey asked how high.  Is Mikey his only crony or are there others?”

“In high school, Mikey, Zack and Russ were inseparable.”

Parker’s eyes lit up.  “Was this Russ guy at the party last night?”

“Not that I saw.”

“Hmm, we should check into that.”

“Okay,” Clarissa agreed.  “But first I want to look into some guy named Sam.”

“Who’s he?”

“Just some guy whose name came up,” she said, deliberately keeping her answer vague. 

She didn’t want to hold out on Parker but she also didn’t want to incriminate Amy without good reason.  They were, after all, old friends.  While Clarissa wouldn’t allow that to influence her ethics, she wanted to double and triple check the facts before accusing Amy of any wrongdoing.

The logical place to start was Sam.

“Alright, well where do we find this Sam guy?” Parker asked as he re-tied his scarf.

“I’m not sure,” Clarissa admitted.  “Why don’t we go talk to Jenny Porter?  She’s a friend of Amy’s and was at the party last night.  She probably knows where we can reach Sam.  And who knows, maybe she saw something helpful last night!”

“I hope so.”

“Hey, did you really give away a hundred bucks just to keep Zack from hassling me?”

“Just drive,” Parker ordered, declining to answer.

***

“I’m sorry but I don’t think I can be of any help,” Jenny said a short time later. 

“You’ve already been helpful!” Clarissa chirped.  “Thanks to you we know how to find Sam!”

Clarissa and Parker were at the local elementary school, where Jenny Porter taught first grade.  They had arrived there during recess, conveniently enough.  Even better, it wasn’t Jenny’s day to supervise recess.  That meant they had a few minutes to talk in the empty classroom while the kids ran around outside screaming their heads off.

The pretty schoolteacher stood up at the front near the chalkboard.  She was conservatively dressed in a pink argyle sweater, a knee-length grey skirt and black suede boots. 

Clarissa and Parker were sitting on top of children’s desks that were too small for them to fit into.  It felt weird to be back in the very classroom where Clarissa herself had attended first grade about a million years ago.

Jenny offered a small smile.  “I don’t have any, you know, information about the murder.”

“You were there when the fight broke out though, weren’t you?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes, but it was dark out.  Everything happened so fast.  I didn’t see much,” Jenny insisted.

“Okay, well what about Greg, then?” Parker chimed in.  “Did you talk to him at the party?”

“No, not really,” Jenny said.  She hesitated then, as though debating whether to say more.

“What is it?” Clarissa pressed.

“I noticed that Greg kept hovering nearby when I was inside talking to Amy.  He seemed like he was trying to get her attention but she kept ignoring him.  I don’t think she wanted to talk to him, but he couldn’t seem to take the hint.  It was kind of strange…but then Greg was always a bit off,” she added apologetically. 

“Did you have any contact with him after high school?” Clarissa inquired.

“Um no, not really…but my mom is friendly with his mother,” Jenny volunteered.  “They stop and visit when they run into each other at the grocery store and stuff like that.  So because of that, sometimes I’d, you know, hear things.”

Parker leaned forward.  “What kind of things?”

“I guess Greg moved back to town about a month or so ago,” Jenny replied.  “I vaguely remember my mom mentioning that he had moved back in with his mother.”

“Do you know why he moved back home?” Parker asked.  “At his age, that seems odd.”

“Maybe he had family obligations.  Is his mom maybe sick or something?” Clarissa theorized.

“No, I don’t think so,” Jenny replied.  “At least my mom has never mentioned anything like that.  I don’t know why Greg came back to town.  But I know he was living at the house with his mother and younger brother.”

“Awesome!  You’ve been really helpful,” Clarissa said appreciatively.  “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Jenny smiled.  “Good luck with your investigation.  And hey, maybe when you have some free time we could get together?” she suggested.  “It would be nice to hang out under different circumstances.”

“For sure,” Clarissa agreed.  Who knew investigating a murder would revive her social life?

“You come too,” Jenny said to Parker.  “I’ll bring my boyfriend.  We can double date.”

Clarissa inhaled sharply but said nothing.  She didn’t know what to say.  Apparently Parker didn’t either, because he didn’t tell Jenny that he wasn’t Clarissa’s boyfriend.  Instead he acted polite and charming, thanking her for her time and telling her he hoped he would see her again soon under more pleasant circumstances.

“That took me back,” Clarissa remarked as she and Parker left the school. 

“It’s your old stomping ground, huh?”

“Yeah,” Clarissa nodded.  “It’s weird to think my friend is now a teacher there!”

“We were lucky to catch Jenny during recess.  Speaking of recess, I think it’s over,” Parker remarked as a school bell rang.  Sure enough, small children were began to ascend on the elementary school like little zombies in search of brains.

“Let’s get out of here,” Clarissa said.

“What, you don’t like kids?” Parker asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“So you
do
like kids?”

“I didn’t say that either!” Clarissa responded.  “Quit putting words in my mouth!”

“Well which is it?” he asked.  “I’m confused.”

“I like some kids,” Clarissa explained.  “I like the ones that aren’t brats.  But a lot of them are brats,” she informed him.  “I think some parents are afraid to, you know,
parent
their children.  It’s no wonder some of them act like little hellions.”