“Or maybe Graham was planning on meeting someone else at his place after his date with Eve.”
“If he had plans to meet someone else, he hadn’t written them down.”
Riley cut out a chunk of his pumpkin in silence. “We need to find Eve. As one of the last people to see Graham alive, she has to have more answers.”
“Don’t forget Caleb.”
“Your friend’s boyfriend?”
“Yeah. Neither he nor Graham had ever mentioned that they used to be friends, and if we find out what the mayor was talking about, maybe we’ll know why.” I cut open the top of my pumpkin and started scooping out the pulp, squishing it between my fingers while I separated the seeds to roast later. “Plus, he works at the apothecary shop on the edge of town,” I added.
One of Riley’s eyebrows shot up. “The one run by those two sisters near the forest?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Then it wouldn’t be hard for him to get access to ingredients.” He rubbed his scruffy chin. “Why don’t you see what you can find out from your friend, and I’ll look into Caleb with some of my sources.”
“And then we can check out tomorrow’s Halloween party to see if we can find Eve.”
He flashed a grin at me. “It’s like you read my mind. That will be our chance to get her to spill the truth.”
Chapter 8
Betweenschoolandworkingat the bakery, the next day flew by faster than a witch on a broom.
Riley would be here any minute to pick me up for the Halloween party, but I had no real information for him. I hadn’t seen Elaine today, and she’d only responded to a few of my texts. Maybe she was still upset with me for suggesting her boyfriend might be a murderer. I still wasn’t sure what motive Caleb or Eve might’ve had, and I couldn’t get the mysterious third suspect who Graham might have cheated with out of my head—the possibleotherwoman. Perhaps she and Eve were one and the same.
Someone knocked on the door, so I hurried to open it. The house was empty except for Dad, who was sleeping.
My heart fluttered in my chest as I stumbled to a stop at the back door. Was I excited to see Riley? Falling for him would set myself up for heartbreak. Even if Mary was right and he didn’t like Lizzy, that wasn’t the same as him liking me.
Another knock came, and I straightened. I was thinking too hard about this. Maybe I wasn’t excited to see Riley so much as I was excited to get the next clue to solve this murder. Then people on campus would stop looking at me likeIwas the killer.
I swung the door open. “Hey, Ril—”
Jack Skellington stood on the back porch, fiddling with his bat-shaped bow tie.
“Surprise!” Riley held out a costume and tugged his hood up. “I know you were nervous about being recognized at the party, so I figured we could go in disguise.”
“I guess that’s better than my cat costume.” I pulled off Lydia’s cat-ear headband I’d borrowed and accepted the proffered outfit. He’d gotten me the costume for Sally, the patchwork rag doll. As in Jack and Sally who fell inlove inThe Nightmare Before Christmas. My stomach tightened as I took in the very obvious blue skin and red hair attached to the hood.
“What’s wrong?” Riley said. “Don’t you like it?”
“It’s great. It’s just…” I looked at him, then closed my mouth. What did it matter if he’d gotten us a couple’s costume? He wouldn’t think it was weird because of the potion, and I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it. “I’m not sure if it will fit.”
“Oh, is that all? I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He waved me upstairs, his arm far too muscular in Jack’s stick-figure sleeves. “If you want to wear it, I’ll wait while you change. Otherwise, what you’re wearing looks great.”
“I’ll change.” I climbed the stairs, resisting the urge to glance back at Riley. It was so refreshing that he wasn’t bossy—that he asked me what I wanted to do.
I slipped into my room and shut the door behind me. Unlike Lydia who’d wasted no time in painting her walls a bright pink as soon as she had a room to herself, I still hadn’t done much with mine besides put up my poster of the periodic elements that I’d memorized when I waseight and a classic list of spells. I’d also squirreled away quite a few Halloween decorations for my room.
It took me less than five minutes to wipe my face clean of the drawn-on whiskers and pull the costume over my black jeans and shirt. It was weird looking out through the eyeholes in the hood, which was more of a mask attached to the costume, but better than being exposed. With the hood down, it connected seamlessly to the rest of the costume at the stitched neckline, making it appear as a single piece.
Riley smiled as I came back downstairs. “You look great.”
“Thanks.” I followed him into the brisk October air. Despite my costume’s thinness, it protected me from the cold surprisingly well.
We turned down Main Street and headed toward Northanger Abbey. The wind rustled the branches overhead and swirled the fallen leaves down the street. A streetlamp flickered, casting weird shadows through the fog rolling in from the ocean. Someone had raked their leaves into an enormous pile next to their white picket fence, and a few kids were taking turns jumping into it.
