Usually, it was just...where they worked. Where they knew what was fun and spooky, what was real and what wasn’t.
They sat there, the four of them, not talking, the officer standing guard. Mo sat on a Duncan Phyfe sofa with Ron; Phil and Grace sat in wingback chairs, both so pale they’d never made better ghouls.
It felt as though time was never-ending—and yet Mo was fairly certain it wasn’t that long before Aidan came in with Van Camp.
“We need you to tell us what happened and in what order,” Aidan said.
“It was closing time, ” Phil began.
“The others took off,” Ron added.
“We were planning to go to the café,” Grace said.
“Whoa, hold it!” Aidan said. “Ron, Grace, you two go over there with Detective Van Camp and tell him what you saw it. Mo, you and Mr. Ainsley stay with me.”
She looked at Phil, who nodded and then turned to Aidan. “The last group for the night had gone through,” he said. “We’re out in the distant reaches of the property here—Mo, Grace and me. We meet on that path to go back in. Mo has so much makeup on, she likes to wash it off. Sondra usually closes up, locks everything for the night. Ron came out to check on us, see who was still here. He said everyone was accounted for—other than the four of us, they’d all left—but that he couldn’t find Sondra. At some point, I was just looking around and I saw that fake coffin. It’s where an actor named Joshua Kirbin is usually posted, but I knew Joshua had taken off the minute we got the last tour announcement.”
“Who makes that announcement?” Aidan asked.
“Either the box office clerk, Sondra or Ron. Tonight it was Cindy Chessy, the box office clerk. She’s the first to leave every night. All she has to do is put the strongbox and computer in Sondra’s office, then she can head out,” he said. “Joshua had plans with friends who worked at a different venue. They were meeting for an early breakfast. I saw him leave and then I went to the mausoleum.”
“Mo?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t have noticed the coffin,” she said. “I was tired and ready to go home. Phil pointed out that there was...someone in it. It’s across a field of graves from us.”
“And none of you saw anything?” he demanded, incredulous.
“Define anything,” Phil said dryly. “The graveyard is full of ghouls, and at the end of the night we pick up some of the props because it could snow. Anyone could have walked around here with a body and no one would’ve noticed.”
“Okay,” Aidan said. “Let me go over this one more time. Last tour is announced—”
“And we finish wherever we are, just to make sure everyone in the tour group is really gone. There’s often one jerk in the last group who wants to stay behind,” Phil told him.
“So, last tour, finish up, people run out—with body parts, bodies and other props,” Aidan said.
Phil nodded.
“So then, your friend Joshua Kirbin left.”
“Yes.”
“Is that when you noticed his coffin?” Aidan asked.
Phil shook his head with a grimace. “No. I’ve seen this place a million times. The others were out—like I said, they’re closer to the building—and I was just waiting for Mo and Grace. I saw Mo come around her mausoleum and Grace walked over to her.”
“Then Ron came out, worried about Sondra,” Mo said.
“We were talking and the floodlight was on,” Phil explained. “I was looking in that direction. And I saw there was something in the coffin—and I knew it couldn’t be Josh.”
Mo watched Aidan. He seemed weary; she had a feeling that something else had happened since she’d seen him.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Phil said, shaking his head again. “They’ll close us down now, won’t they? They’ll close it all down. They have to. I mean, Lord, you could leave corpses and heads everywhere here, and it would take a while for anyone to notice.”
“That is a problem, yes,” Aidan said. He looked at them both. “An officer is going to come and take all this down. Please stay here until he’s done and check with me before you leave. Mo—you and Grace—wait for me, please. I’ll see you home.”
It had been so shocking, so horrible, they hadn’t thought about the loss yet. But as she and Phil looked at each other, they both whispered, “Sondra.”
“I’m really sorry. I just met her today. She seemed to be a fine person,” Aidan said. He stood there for a moment, then turned and went out back.
A few minutes later an officer came in and took their statements. After that, Ron and Grace returned to the parlor.
“I don’t think I want to be here for Halloween next year,” Grace said dully. “I’m going to save up and go on vacation. I’m going to find a country where they don’t celebrate Halloween at all.”
“I can’t stop,” Ron said. “Makeup and fabrication. That’s my whole life.”