Meanwhile, Back in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 6) (37 page)

“Not cheese. They’re her trophies.” I got down on my knees next to him. “She just wanted them back. Now that she has them, she’ll be happy.” At least I hoped so, anyway.

“Bull-hockey. They’re bait, girl. I’ll bet my left nut on that,” he mumbled through a mouthful of crackers, his beard dusted with crumbs.

“How many times do I need to tell you to keep your testicles out of the betting pool?”

He reached for another cracker. “I’m just waitin’ for the spook party to kick off and your noggin’ to begin spinnin’ around.”

“The teeth are not bait.” I stuffed a couple of crackers back into the box.

Ray’s feet came into view, his Tony Llama boots parking almost on top of one of the crackers.

I sighed. “Now what are you gonna bitch at me about, Ray?”

He lowered his hand in front of my face, his palm cupped like he had something in it to give to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, holding my palm out under his.

He tipped his hand and a tooth fell into mine.

A human tooth.

A canine tooth with bloody root strings still attached.

“Ah!” I held my hand out like it had contracted instant leprosy, but after all of the baby teeth my kids had pulled and handed to me over the years, I refrained from flinging the bloody thing across the room.

Harvey nudged me with his knee and pointed up at Ray’s face.

Wincing, I slowly looked up. The whites of Ray’s eyes were showing, his jaw slack with drool leaking out one corner.

Oh, hell. I’d seen that expression before. Honey had worn it a couple of weeks ago when Prudence was running the controls. And before that when Wanda had been used as Prudence’s personal ventriloquist’s doll in this very living room. No matter how many times I witnessed it, though, it still gave me the heebie jeebies.

“A gift for you,” Prudence’s voice came from Ray’s mouth, reminding me of Kathryn Hepburn the way it quavered on some of her vowels, “to express my gratitude for the return of the teeth.”

I scrambled sideways, bumping into Harvey’s legs. I’d have scrambled all of the way out to the Picklemobile if he hadn’t clamped onto my shoulder, staying me.

“Whoa there, mustang. Keep ‘er steady, don’t start buckin’ yet.”

I got his point. As much as I wanted to throw her gift tooth across the room and scrub my palm off on the carpet until I had some serious rug burns, I closed the tooth within my fist. “Thank you for the tooth. I’ll treasure it.”

Prudence leaned down so that Ray’s nose was almost touching mine, a thick wave of his cologne making me want to gag. A whimper escaped my throat as I pushed back harder against Harvey’s legs.

“What news have you brought me, Violet?” She stared into my eyes with the whites of Ray’s, not blinking once.

My brain stalled out, fear flooding the engine.

Harvey snapped my ear, making me yip in surprise more than pain. “Answer her,” he whispered with a growl.

What could I possibly have to tell a long dead … then I remembered an important detail that might concern her. “Some of the timekeeper’s clocks are missing.”

“Yes? Go on.”

“Maybe five or six of them.”

She pulled back, giving me a little breathing space. “This is an unfortunate turn.”

So was Ray’s habit of using too much of that damned cologne. Between it and his hair mousse, he was a walking fire hazard.

“One of the clocks kept going off while I was there,” I continued, “but only in the mirror. It wouldn’t stop, just kept cuckooing and cuckooing. What does that mean?”

One of Ray’s tweezed eyebrows lifted. “Interesting.”

“That it was cuckooing?”

“That you could hear the toll of the death bell.” She cocked Ray’s head sideways a little too far to look normal. “I wonder.”

“You wonder what?”

She leaned in close again, even closer than before, and sniffed me from my temple down to the pulse at the base of my neck.

“Steady,” Harvey repeated, squeezing my shoulder.

I obeyed like a good horse, holding still, taking a deep breath to keep my trembling at bay. But if I felt Ray’s tongue licking me, I was pulling a Road-Runner and leaving Harvey and Prudence sitting there in a cloud of dust.

“You have grown stronger since last I saw you.” She reached toward the base of my throat.

A squeak slipped out as I tried to suck my chest inside out rather than let her touch me.

Her fingers brushed my sternum. “And this? What is this?” She lifted the necklace charm from Aunt Zoe, turning it one way and then the other. “Perhaps it is a
patronus
? A protector, if you will, from the others?”

The
others
? That was the same word Aunt Zoe had used.

“What others?” I whispered.

“Our enemy. They are numerous in the Hills.”

“How do you know about the others?”

She dropped the charm. “I have slain many.”

“You were a … a killer?”

Her nod was slight. “As are you.” She looked back up at me, still close enough that I could read the tiny blood vessels in the whites of Ray’s eyes like a road map. “I, however, was proficient, more dexterous and adept. Your line has always been lacking finesse. Brutal even.”

My line? “You mean my family line?”

“But of course. You are notorious, Violet. A
Scharfrichter
from the Black Forest region. A very small world it is among our kind.”

“Our kind? You mean executioners?”

Ray’s forehead wrinkled at the sides near his temples. He must have had a Botox treatment recently.

“Executioner,” she said, as if trying the word out on her tongue. “Such an unpleasant word for our particular occupation.”

And here I’d always thought Assistant Broker was belittling. “Are there more of you?”

“I was the last of my line. That is why I remained. I was waiting for you.”

Swell. A ghost with a tooth fetish hanging around just for me. Considering what I’d learned last night about my imminent death, I was having a banner week. I couldn’t wait to see what surprise lurked around the next stroke of midnight.

“Why me?”

“You need me.” She stretched out with Ray’s index finger and touched my forehead, running his fingertip across my skin as if writing on a steamed mirror.

I heard a crunching sound over my head. A sprinkle of crumbs drifted down over my shoulder. What in the hell? Was Harvey eating during my freak-out show?!!

“The others are strong,” Prudence continued amidst Harvey’s cracker-fest. “You will not succeed on your own.” Ray’s finger moved to my cheek, still writing on my skin. “Especially considering what they have already unleashed.”

What’s been unleashed? Was she talking about that thing in the bottom of the Open Cut again? “What makes you so sure about that?”

“They will end your line,” she whispered. A tear slipped down Ray’s cheek. “As they did mine.”

Her words confirmed what Aunt Zoe had said. The others wouldn’t stop with me. Addy and Layne would be killed, too, just as Prudence’s son and husband had been murdered right before her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Prudence.”

Ray’s face south of his forehead crinkled with fury. “Save your pity.” Spittle flew from his lips.

I recoiled, the back of my head connecting hard with Harvey’s knee. He grunted in pain, puffing out a breath of crumbs all over my shoulder.

“You have wasted precious time,
Scharfrichter
.” She shoved Ray’s face into mine again, bumping my nose with his. “And you smell of death.”

I reacted without thinking, slapping Ray’s cheek hard.

He jerked back, his eyes closing over those hideous white orbs. When they opened, his blue irises were showing.

I reached out and slapped him again.

“Jesus Christ, Blondie!” He fell back onto the carpet, holding his cheek. “What in the hell was that for?”

“I was making sure.”

Harvey snickered. “Maybe you should make sure one more time.”

“Don’t come near me.” Ray watched me warily as he rubbed his jaw. Suddenly his face paled. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing, I just slapped you a little.”

“A little?” He opened his mouth and pointed at his lower row of teeth. “Then where in the hell is my tooth?”

I gasped and then looked down at my fisted palm. Slowly, I peeled back my fingers, flinching at the sight of the bloody tooth.

“You mean this one?” I held it out to him.

Chapter Nineteen

Meanwhile, back at the Halloween party …

Harvey had saved my bacon again. This time, it had been by acting as my alibi when it came to being accused of cold-blooded tooth murder by Ray.

I had no doubt that Harvey’s good word would cost me a few meals at Bighorn Billy’s.

Ray and his tooth had left shortly after my second slap, an emergency trip to the dentist in the cards for his Halloween fun. My parting comment to the crybaby about having proved the rumor to be true—eating too much Halloween candy really did make teeth fall out—had gone over like a cast iron chicken.

Dickie and Rosy followed in Ray’s wake, heading out to grab some lunch for all of us, leaving Harvey and me to sit and wait for their return on the front porch. Neither of us was interested in waiting inside, happy to sniff and shiver in the crisp October air instead.

“Girl, you got some explainin’ to do.”

“I’m not sure where to start.” I stared down at my palm where Ray’s tooth had lain. If I’d never moved to Deadwood, would all of this crazy executioner business still be dormant inside of me, waiting to spark and catch fire?

“I’ll give you a goose—the ol’ gal inside called you a killer.”

“That’s because I am a killer.”

“You got some bright notion about livin’ up to that name Ms. Wolff called ya?”

“Not a notion. More like a family obligation.”

“To kill folks?”

“Not people. At least not according to Aunt Zoe.”

“Yer Aunt Zoe is whistlin’ this tune, too?”

“Yeah. She gave me a family history lesson last night. Turns out I have a higher purpose in life than selling haunted real estate. Go figure.” I was trying to be light and funny, but it came out too acidic.

“Keep jawin’, I’m all ears.”

I clasped my hands together, rested my elbows on my knees, and gave him the quick and dirty version of the talking to Aunt Zoe had given me last night, ending with the bleak future outlook.

“Girl, everywhere you turn there’re barbed wire fences.”

“Yep. And here I am wearing a lace dress.” I shoulder bumped him. “I’m thinking you may want to find someone else’s body to guard. This could go the way of the Alamo in no time.” After my little chit chat with Prudence back there, any hopes I’d had for a light at the end of the tunnel had been blown to smithereens.

Harvey snorted. “You kiddin? I ain’t had this much excitement since one of my old flames got wind I was sleepin’ with her sister and chased me through the hills with her daddy’s two six-shooters. That gal was mad enough to kick a mule barefooted, I tell ya.”

“Sounds like she was trying, but you wouldn’t hold still.”

He grinned, his two gold teeth showing. “She’s the one who took her saddle elsewhere and put me out to pasture. What was I s’posed to do when her sister stopped by to show me her new set of shiny spurs?”

In spite of the crazy mess I was in, that made me chuckle. But only for a moment. “I’m serious, Harvey. You could get hurt or worse.”

He squeezed my knee. “We’re all gonna die someday, girlie. I’d rather go out fightin’ than pissin’ down my leg.” He frowned across at the tall chain-link fence that divided the edge of the Carhart property from the Open Cut. “Besides, it’s like I told ya a while back, somethin’s gone sour in these here hills. I’ve felt it buildin’ for years. Since I don’t plan on leavin’ while I’m still breathin’, I might as well do my part on gettin’ rid of the vermin.”

His willingness to face my unknown horrors alongside me clogged my throat with a grapefruit-sized lump. Teary-eyed, I whispered “thanks” and leaned my head on his shoulder.

“What’s Doc have to say about you standin’ in the middle of a stampede?”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“What’re ya waitin’ for? Christmas?”

“Halloween.” I sat upright, hitting him with a frown. “I’m afraid he’ll wise up about me.”

“Wisdom has nothin’ to do with why that lone wolf thinks yer the moon.”

I thought about Prudence and what had happened to her husband. Whatever Doc felt for me, maybe it was my responsibility to set him free before more death bells tolled.

Harvey pushed to his feet with a grunt. “My momma always told me that barkin’ at a knot won’t untangle the dad-burned thing.” He held out his hand to me. “Might as well toss out the truth and let ‘er fester in the open air.”

“Might as well.” I took his hand, joining him. We both stared up at the attic window for a few moments. “You feel like sticking around for some more haunted house fun?”

“I’d rather play peek-a-boo in a bone orchard at midnight, but what the hell. Let’s give the ol’ gal another whirl.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Cross yer fingers she leaves my teeth be. I’m playin’ Count Dracula tonight down at the senior center’s Halloween shindig and a couple of the ladies are countin’ on gettin’ bit.”

* * *

Prudence had left us alone for the rest of the day. All remaining canine teeth were still intact when the four of us departed in the late afternoon.

The kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes by the time I got home: Layne as Einstein, Addy as a chicken. I’d had to nix her so-called brilliant idea to dress Elvis as an egg and lead her around by a leash.

Doc showed up as we were heading out the door and walked the neighborhood with us. I didn’t share anything more with him than small talk in front of the kids, wanting to enjoy one more moment of being free of the “killer” label in his eyes.

Natalie was waiting for me when we got back to Aunt Zoe’s, dressed as a skeleton in a black spandex outfit that showed no skin but plenty of curves. Her face was a work of art, all decked out like a skull, her dark hair slicked back.

The kids oohed and ahhed over her costume, circling her, poking at her fake bones, and then sharing the goodies they’d snatched from Aunt Zoe’s treat bowl when she trick-or-treated each of them in turn.