Jason is busy being Alex at his stall, and he throws me a wink when I walk past. I smile and duck my head. It’s weird seeing him with dark hair and dark eyes when I know that, two days ago, he was my prime suspect.
Damn the way life works.
Now, though… Now, I have five whole suspects to play with. Knowing my luck, they’ll all be innocent.
That’s just how it goes.
Dina’s stall is shut, and I make a mental note to run by her store in the morning and check on her. It’s been a few days since I’ve heard from her, and I’d really like to chat with her some more about the runes. I figure, if anyone knows more than they’ve let on, she does.
I approach the darts stall just as a young boy is comforted by his mom. I see that there’s more than just the cash prizes Eddie eluded to. There are soft toys, goldfish, and a range of those other plastic toys kids obsess over but discard within a week.
“You wanna go?” A tall, lanky guy with long, blond hair falling around his face approaches me. “Three bucks for four darts.”
I tuck some hair behind my ear and lean forward. “What do I have to get to win?”
“One bull’s-eye for a toy.” He points over his head at the soft toys and waves at the plastic ones simultaneously. “Doesn’t matter which dart. Three bull’s-eyes for a goldfish.” He crooks his thumb toward the fish sitting on a shelf beneath the dartboards. “And four for the cash prizes.” He gestures to the rolled-up bills.
“How much are the cash prizes?”
“Nothing under one hundred dollars.” He smiles, almost leeringly. “What do you say? Wanna go?”
I pout. “I don’t have a good aim. Do you do practice tries?” I give him my widest, most innocent look, making sure I add a good dose of concern to it.
Alistair Carpenter’s deep-blue eyes scan my face in a scrutinizing manner. They soften, and his lips curve up into a smirk that’s almost flirtatious.
Here we go.
“I don’t usually do this… But sure. But if you hit three, you pay, all right, gorgeous?”
I smile widely and bite my thumb. I nod. “All right. You’ve got a deal.”
He pulls four darts from a tub and hands them to me. “Do you live here in Holly Woods?”
“My whole life,” I answer, picking a dart up. “How do I hold this? It’s been a long time since I’ve played.”
Alistair holds one finger up and then jumps over the counter separating us. He stands at my side and takes my hand, unnecessarily helping me to hold the dart. “Pull it back to your shoulder, aim, and throw.”
I do as he said and pierce a goldfish bag. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” I gasp, making sure to cover my mouth with both hands as I step back.
What? He got too close.
I’m all for flirting to get information, but no touchy-touchy, okay?
You know Joey from Friends? How he doesn’t share food? Yeah. Well. Drake is Joey and I’m food.
“Let me pay for it, please.” I rummage inside my purse for my wallet.
“Nah, it’s all right. Only a couple dollars, ain’t it?” He flags down a kid who works with the fair—at least, I sure as shit hope he does—and asks him to take the now-suffocating goldfish and rebag it.
Looks like Noelle the Klutz is something I should get on a T-shirt.
Right up there with Bek’s I ship Droelle.
Fucking Droelle.
“Are you sure?” I ask Alistair, pressing my hand to my chest. “Maybe I shouldn’t throw another one.”
“You’re all right. Just maybe hold the dart a couple inches higher.” He lifts my hand. “Like here.”
“Okay.” I smile again and take hold of the second shot. My next one lands on the board.
God, it’s so hard not to aim and hit where I want to. I’m just blindly throwing this in the kind of way Sil or Aria would.
“You here alone?” Alistair asks.
“Yes… I love it here.”
“It doesn’t seem safe for you to be out alone, on account of the murders and you bein’ a real pretty girl and all.”
I take offense at being referred to as a girl, but I’ll go with it.
I shrug and pick another dart up. “It’s hard, isn’t it? My brother is getting me and giving me a ride home soon. Besides, it’s safe here. There’s so many people around.”
“You’d be surprised.”
I aim the dart but don’t throw it. Instead, I lower it and hold it with both my hands. “What do you mean?”
Alistair presses his lips together and releases them with a smack. “Don’t tell anyone I told you, yeah?”
“Promise.”
“That girl that just died—Annabelle, was it? The one from Austin.”
I shrug like I don’t know.
“Yeah, her. Rumor has it she was kidnapped from the fair. Right in the middle of it. Guys walked right on up to her and left with her.”
“Do you know who it was? Who took her?”
Alistair shrugs and steps back. “Sorry. If I knew, I’d tell you. I’m just sharing what I heard.” He walks around the other side of the stall to tend to another customer.
I leave my darts on the counter and walk away. I see Jackson’s ice cream stall as I pass it, but I don’t want to stop. I need to process what Alistair just told me.
If there’s anything I’ve learned in my life, it’s that every rumor has a sprinkling of truth to it. No story, true or false, can come to life without a breath of honesty bringing it to life.
I have no reason to believe he just lied to me. In fact, I honestly believe he’s right. I truly believe that Annabelle was taken from this fair, under the eyes of at least one hundred people. More to the point, that means she knew her killer. She was friendly enough with them to walk away with them, despite the fact that she had a boyfriend.
She had no reason to suspect her killer.
That is perhaps more important than any other piece of information we’ve gotten. More than the DNA, more than the prints, more than the shoe casts…
“Noelle?” Drake says softly. “What’s wrong?”
I turn away from the fair and take a few steps into the parking lot. “She knew them—Annabelle. She knew who killed her. Alistair just told me that the rumor is that she was taken from the fair. Not before it. Not after it. During it. That means she knew the people who raped her and killed her.” I cover my mouth with my hand. “She knew. She trusted them enough to go with them.”
He takes me in his arms, and I’m thankful for the constant warmth of his body and the way his heart pounds against my cheek.
“Anything on the other victims?”
I shake my head against him.
“Annabelle is the best we have, isn’t she?”
I nod.
“All right. I hate this, but do you want to come back tomorrow? Try again? Maybe when it’s quieter?”
“Yeah. Sure. For now…” I take a deep breath. “I don’t know, Drake. How are we supposed to figure this out? How are we supposed to find this killer?”
“Look at me.” He meets my eyes. “We put out another call for anyone who may have seen Annabelle the night she died. We know roughly when she went missing. No one has come forward yet—maybe another plea will help. We will solve this. You know that, don’t you?”
I nod, but I don’t.
I don’t know it at all.
And I’m starting to think we won’t solve this.
The office is quiet without Bek. When I called her to check on her this morning, she was at her mom’s. She said that she’s feeling better and wanted to come to work, but I told her to take another day and come back tomorrow.
I’m hardly taking my own advice, but whatever.
I need to work to get rid of all the emotion of yesterday. It was a literal rollercoaster ride from start to finish, and now, I have the intense desire to be proactive and do what I can to find our murderer.
My first stop? Dina’s store.
Dina’s dark¸ closed, seemingly empty store.
I put my hands on my hips and stare at the door with a huff. It’s been a few days since anyone last saw her or heard from her. No one seems to have any idea where she is, yet she hasn’t been reported missing.