“Is there anything else I can do to speed things up?” I knew from personal experience that an investigation could take weeks.
Detective Almond shrugged. “Hope you’re wrong about Manny and that he did kill Mr. Olson? That would speed things up!”
“Maybe something else.”
“I don’t think so, but thanks anyway. Chase will keep you updated.”
“Thanks.”
Two burly officers stood at the walkway to warn visitors away. Their blue uniforms looked out of place in the Village. They could at least have found them some Ren Faire outfits.
“That went badly,” Chase said when we were alone with on the cobblestone walkway. Two of the three police cars were slowly driving out of the Main Gate.
“It was terrible. He has Manny—and the museum has to be closed.”
“You gave him Manny,” he reminded me.
“I thought it would help get through this faster if he could cross him off the suspect list right away. We know he’s not guilty.”
Chase was right. Where had my brain been? I’d had to explain to Manny about money. He’d told Adventureland that he didn’t want to get paid. The police were going to eat him alive!
“I can’t believe this is happening—especially right after Wanda’s death—and two weeks before our wedding.” I shook my head. “What can I do to help him?”
I watched the Green Man, a walking tree, performing on his stilts. He had to be new. A small child could’ve knocked him over. He wouldn’t make it through the day, at least not upright.
“It’s going to be fine.” Chase put his arm around me. “Like you said, he’s innocent, right? If the worst happens and they keep him, we’ll get him a lawyer. He’ll be okay.
“We have to start looking around. Someone in the Village saw what happened—or has some idea why it happened.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ll figure it out, Jessie. They pay me to do this kind of stuff.” We stopped walking and he kissed the engagement ring on my finger. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe this would be a good time for you to relax and take it easy.”
Relax? That was almost as bad as my advice to Manny!
His radio buzzed and he glanced at it. “I have to go see what’s up at the rock climbing wall. The kids have been falling backward when they get to the top. One of them said a ghost is up there.” He kissed me. “I’ll call you later about lunch.”
“Probably Wanda. She enjoys the ‘sport’, as she calls it.”
“I wish she’d move on. She’s starting to give the Village a weird reputation!”
I watched him walk away, cutting across the Village Green, and the King’s Highway.
I knew Chase meant well, but the Village kept him moving seven days a week. It was all he—and his fifty security guards—could keep up with. They might never figure out what happened to Dave by themselves.
I knew how this worked. If I wanted Detective Almond to leave Manny alone, and re-open the museum, I was going to have to find out why Dave was killed.
“Oh dear,” Wanda sighed as she stood next to me. “I told you this was going to be a bad day.”
Chapter Three
It seemed to me, since I was now temporarily without employment, that my first move should be looking up Dave’s records here at the Village. I didn’t even know what his last name was until Detective Almond said it. I wasn’t sure how long he’d worked here. I thought it had been for a year or so, but I couldn’t be sure.
Everyone knew him, or at least recognized him. Madmen were the clowns of the cobblestones. They’d do anything for a reaction. There were a lot of madmen, jesters, knaves, and so forth, in the Village. It was impossible to personally know them all.
But someone else could tell me where he lived, and what kind of things he was into. He was bound to have shared his past with a resident over a glass of beer one night. Everyone who lived here seemed to have secrets about their past that he or she was hiding. I was sure Dave was no exception.
Employment records, and other official business, were kept at the castle. I passed the Main Gate on my way there. It was teeming with visitors coming in for the day. They were being entertained by minstrels, and good-looking lords and ladies with wonderful costumes. Jugglers and singers welcomed them into this magical place as scantily clad fairies tossed petals at their feet.
The visitors were no slouches where costumes were concerned either. Just in the first few hundred, I saw a centaur, two Greek goddesses, a man in a Batman costume, and a woman with shoes that were at least a foot tall.