Chapter 23

Standing by the railing near the lake, Loretta stands pointing a sharp red fingernail at a woman dressed as a naughty version of Snow White.

I scoot that way and duck behind a tombstone as I tip my ear their way. The tension crackles in the air around them, and each word is a dagger aimed at the other's heart as the accusations and the expletives go flying.

"Now why would I do that?" Loretta bites the air between them. "You're my best friend."

Her best friend? I pull the pooches in close, and lucky for all three of us someone dropped a couple of breadsticks and the dogs make quick work of it.

I take a closer look at the woman Loretta is handing a new one. That naughty Snow White must be the newest widow in town, poor Morella.

"Don't play dumb with me." Morella pokes a finger in Loretta's pillowy chest. "I know about your little trysts with my husband. You think you can just waltz into my territory and steal him away?"

I suck in a quick breath and inhale enough dry ice to freeze-dry my lungs. I do my best to cough it right back out and a plume of smoke expels from me.

"Your husband?" Loretta belts out a dark laugh. "Please, sweetheart, I had better things to do than waste my time with a two-timing loser like him. Maybe if you would have kept him on a tighter leash, he wouldn"t have been sniffing around other women."

How dare she! The man is dead. Isn't the woman suffering enough?

"How dare you!" Morella echoes my sentiment and both Watson and Spooky give a soft woof in agreement. "I saw the way you were looking at him. And I saw the way he was looking at you, too. You thought you could just get in his face with your fancy clothes and your glossy smile and steal him away from me?"

"Oh, honey, I don't have to steal anyone. They come to me willingly."

I suck in another quick breath and so does Morella.

Loretta shakes her head. "But if you're looking for someone to blame for the marital problems you had, you might want to take a long, hard look in the mirror."

"You're nothing but a homewrecking harlot, Lazzari. Mark my words, I'll make sure you're twice as miserable as I am."

"Oh, I'm shaking in my stilettos, Mo. But if you want to play dirty, I can play dirty, too. Just remember, I never lose."

The slutty Snow White stomps off and I shake my head at Cooper's little sister. What in the world is she thinking, talking to her bestie like that? And at a time like this.

"I knew it," Loretta cries softly as she pounds her fists against the railing. "I knew if she found out it would ruin everything between us." She drops her chin to her chest and openly sobs as darkness covers all of Honey Hollow.

And just like that, I know exactly why she wanted Sal the Sausage dead.

Although a lot of good it did her. Her sins have been exposed.

But I'm not interested in Loretta's sins. I'm interested in the truth.

I tug Watson and Spooky in her direction and land in front of her just as the moon begins to glisten over the lake.

"Hey, Loretta." I offer a forlorn smile and she does a double take my way before glaring at me. "Are you okay?"

"It's none of your business." She reaches down and scoops up Spooky in haste before dropping a kiss to his furry little head and the poor guy squeals and wiggles as if she's about to toss him into the deep end of Honey Lake. And knowing her dark history with men, she just might.

"I heard what you said. Or more to the point, what she accused you of. Were you having an affair with Sal? While dating Johnny?" My eyes nearly bug out at the prospect. I've done some low things in my life, but that's low even for a devil like her.

She sniffs toward the lake. "It's not my fault. He kept plying me with limoncellos at his house one night after dinner. Johnny was with us at first. The three of us got together to discuss the opening of this place. We wanted to really stick it to the owners of Mangias. The Marinos and the Sorrentinos hate each other as much as the Lazzaris and the Canellis hate each other. Sal and Johnny were determined to put them out of business. Sal and Johnny argued about where they were getting their funding from. And Sal didn't like where Johnny was getting his half of the money. Johnny said that Sal was going to get the funds from his mystery lender over his dead body.

"Anyway, Morella was supposed to be there that night, too, but she had to work late at her shop. Johnny got called away to Leeds because he had a big dumb idea to procure a loan for this place from some dicey mobster."

Both Watson and Spooky turn their furry faces my way as if to ask the obvious.

And yes, I bet that dicey mobster was my uncle. And I also bet Johnny's failure to pay back the loan has a lot to do with why I have a bullet in my purse with Johnny's name on it.

Oh, for Pete's sake, this place hasn't been open for two weeks. Can't my uncle give the guy some slack? Like until Christmas? But then, I'll be dead by midnight because of Johnny's big dumb idea to borrow money he could never repay from a dicey mobster. Obviously, I won't be around for Christmas either if I don't take care of business.

"So you just slept with the guy once your boyfriend took off for dicey pastures?" I ask.

Loretta cuts an icy glance at the water. "Sal had to come up with half the money and he did, but he wouldn't tell us where it was coming from. I just had to find out where Sal and Morella came up with a quarter of a million dollars. They weren't wealthy, so while I downed the limoncellos, I was pumping him full of whiskey."

"Now there's a strategy. Get two people three sheets to the wind via hard liquor and see who gets to their endgame first. I'm guessing it was him."

She nods as tears stream down her face. "I'll admit, I was weak and drunk. And to be honest, Sal looks a lot like Johnny with the lights out. I slept with my best friend's brother, and to make things worse, when Johnny came back he found me half-dressed. He asked for answers and I lied. But he knew. I could see it on his face."

"Is that why you did it?" I ask softly and both Watson and Spooky whimper. "Is that why you pulled the trigger and pumped Sal full of bullets?"

She inches back. "Are you insane? After my last two husbands were gunned down and I was accused of doing the dark deeds, I got rid of all my weapons. The last thing I need is for people to think I'm some sort of unhinged hit woman."

Hey, I resemble that remark.

And resemble it I do.

"I didn't kill him." She shivers as she holds Spooky tight. "But I found him out in the alley." She closes her eyes a moment too long. "I ran off to get help, but Coop had already discovered the body by then. There isn't a better detective in all of Vermont than my big brother."

Technically, it was me who found the body, but I leave the little macabre detail out of it for now.

She nods my way as she lands Spooky in my arms. "And I'm sure my big brother will track down Sal's killer, too."

"Morella wouldn't by chance own a gun, would she?" I cringe as I ask because that question just might get me thrown into the lake.

"Nope. Mo wouldn't hurt a fly. But if she was going to kill anyone, it would be me." She sniffs once again before taking off.

"Wait a minute," I mutter to myself as I scoop up Watson, too. "She never did say who Sal borrowed his half of the money from."

That night at Mangias blinks through my mind and my eyes spring wide.

Loretta also mentioned that Johnny said Sal was going to get the funds from his mystery lender over his dead body. Or was it over Sal's dead body?

I glance up at the haunted house before me as the screams begin to intensify.

I have a feeling I know who the killer is, and just my luck, he's next on my hit list.

It's time to shake down the meatball one last time. Something tells me this is going to be the scariest Halloween night that Honey Hollow has ever seen.