Ghastly Glass by Joyce and Jim Lavene Read Free Book Online Page B

his ex-boss on the shoulder. “Avast, ye landlubbers! We set sail at high moon.”
    We all watched Grigg dart away and blend into the shadows. Garbage trucks collecting the day’s trash and electricians setting up new lights for the Halloween season were moving through the streets, making his departure even harder to track.
    Chase looked back at Detective Almond. “If you’d like to join Jessie and me, we were about to have some dinner at Peter’s Pub. We can talk over whatever you like there.”
    “Peter’s?” I wondered what happened to the Pleasant Pheasant.
    “The Pheasant’s out of food already.” Chase shrugged, taking my bags from me. “It’s the extras. Everyone has to be fed.”
    “But does everyone have to eat together ?” I linked my arm in his and gave him what I hoped was a meaningful look. After all, this was our first dinner together in a month. Surely we deserved some alone time.
    “Jessie!” My brother Tony decided to join what was becoming a parade through the Village to Peter’s Pub. “I didn’t know you were here yet. You could’ve called.”
    I noticed his arm was looped around a slender wraith whose lipstick was way too red to be on her pale face. That never changed. Whether they were fairies or wraiths, Tony was bound to have a female with him at all times.
    “Sissy, this is my sister Jessie. Jessie, Sissy. Sissy’s the sexiest little wraith in the Village.” Tony gave her an extra squeeze at the thought and Sissy giggled. “Where are you guys headed? Maybe we could all have dinner together.”
    So Tony, Sissy, and Detective Almond all fell in line behind me and Chase. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind for tonight,” I told Chase.
    “Me either. I was wondering what was taking you so long.”
    I told him about the weird wolf howling while I was in the parking lot.
    “I heard it, too. I guess it’s some kind of Halloween thing. It’s going to be a strange couple of months. Stranger than usual.”
    We trooped into Peter’s together and managed to find a table big enough for all of us. There was no menu since the food was free. Whatever was left over from the day’s visitors was what was offered after the Village closed each night. Tonight’s fare was some kind of stew with bread from the bakery and apple pie, and there was cold ale to wash it all down. A good supper, even considering the crowd.
    “What happened to the guy playing Death that made you suspicious? ” Chase asked Detective Almond.
    “The ME says it’s the angle the rebar entered your dead man.” He belched and excused himself. “Also the force with which it entered. There are hundreds of smudged fingerprints on the rebar, but there are two or three clear prints we might be able to lift. That might tell us something else. I guess it was suspicious from the beginning, given that weird crap written on the dead man’s chest.”
    No one laughed, so Detective Almond went on to explain his attempt at humor. “Get it? Dead man’s chest? Pirates? Lord, you people have no sense of humor.”
    As if on cue, the door to the pub blew open bringing in a gust of rain and cooler air. It left behind the scent of the ocean, only a few miles away, even after one of the waiters closed the door.
    “I guess we should get going.” Tony tickled Sissy and they started kissing. “I wouldn’t want my little wraith to get wet.”
    “Yeah.” Detective Almond lumbered to his feet, tossing some change down on the old oak table for the waiter. “I guess this party’s over. Just keep your eyes open, Manhattan. It may be nothing, or it may be something more.”
    The big pub door blew open again. How did they get something like that to happen? I was amazed and scared at the same time. I knew no one had a secret button that made the door fly open every time a dramatic statement was made. It was as if the Village knew what was going on.
    “I’m really tired.” I stood up and glanced at Chase. “I have to go to bed