Fireworks and Waffles (The Diner of the Dead Series Book 18) Read online

  A blink of red and blue light appeared at the end of the road headed toward the field. Frank was on his way. “The sheriff is coming,” she informed her.

  “But I didn’t do anything,” Carol blurted out anxiously.

  Sonja felt a little sad, hoping to all goodness that she was telling the truth. “Just tell him the truth and you’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I promise,” she said, not sure she could make that sort of promise.

  The police cruiser parked behind Sonja’s van and the door swung open. Frank stepped out into the falling rain and headed toward the parked truck.

  Coming up to the driver side, he knocked on the window. Obediently, Carol rolled the window down. “Sheriff, I swear, every firework I put on that display was just casing,” she reiterated.

  Frank glanced at Sonja with a hint of annoyance in his eye. She could only shrug.

  “Sonja, what are you doing here?”

  “I came up to find out if Carol was here setting up the fireworks display. You said you were looking for her, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Sonja just wanted to let me know you were coming,” Carol chimed in, clearly seeing the bit of tension between the couple. “You see, I had no idea that an accident had even occurred, but now that Sonja’s filled me in, I can better answer any questions you might have.”

  Frank clicked his tongue, leaning on the window as the rain continued to pour over him. He couldn’t help but smile at his girlfriend. “Always trying to help.”

  “That’s me.”

  “Carol? Do you mind coming down to the station with me for a little while? It’s just a little wet out here and we have coffee at the station.”

  “No, that’s fine.” Carol opened her door and Frank stepped aside to let her out. “I won’t be able to do any more work on the fireworks show until after the storm ends, anyway.”

  “I’ll call one of the deputies to come up here and keep an eye on your equipment.”

  “Thank you.”

  He turned to lead her toward the police cruiser, but then paused and looked back at Sonja sitting in the car. “By the way, Sonj’, since you’re being so helpful, why don’t you try and contact Mr. Trivilli’s secretary. I haven’t been able to locate Mrs. Trivilli and maybe she knows where she is. If you run into her, have her call me ASAP.”

  Sonja smiled widely back. “I’m on it.”

  CHAPTER 9

  * * *

  Taking the radio to the library would have to wait, Sonja decided. If Frank was openly allowing her to help, even in the smallest way of just contacting a secretary for basic information, she would make it her first priority. It wasn’t really police work, after all. It was just tracking someone down and asking them to call the sheriff.

  While she was still concerned about what she had heard over the supernatural airways, she figured the best way of stopping those events from happening was in assisting Frank in finding the murderer—the real murderer.

  The more Sonja considered it, the more she truly believed that Carol was innocent. Somehow, someone else had tampered with the float. She supposed it would be an easy enough thing to do. After all, the floats were all parked in the lot the night before.

  Whoever it was probably snuck up and did their dirty work in the cover of darkness.

  The only problem was, who had the knowledge and capability to build a pyrotechnic display like that?

  Pulling up in front of the Town Hall, she parked along the sidewalk and got out. She figured this was the best place to start looking. Even if the secretary wasn’t in the building, which Sonja assumed was the case, she could at least ask around about her and what her name was and where to find her.

  Dashing up the wet steps to get out of the rain, she entered the building through the front door. Going from the pouring rain into the large building gave her a strange sensation. Instantly as the door closed behind her, the sound of the pounding rain vanished and she was encompassed by silence.

  The marble floors echoed under her quiet footsteps as she crossed the large room. It was so quiet and devoid of life that it almost felt like entering a mausoleum. Where was everyone?

  Then she gasped quietly as she remembered.

  Because it was a holiday, the Town Hall was supposed to be closed. It was a little surprising that the front door had been open at all.

  However, if the door was open it meant someone was there.

  Walking across the large marble floor, she peeked behind the front desk just to make sure no one was sitting there. Sure enough, the area was empty.

  Shrugging, she decided there was nothing else to do but head upstairs and see if anyone was in Mr. Trivilli’s office. If she was lucky, the secretary would be here for one reason or another.

  Moving toward the steps, she began her ascent up to the second-floor balcony. Upon reaching the halfway point, she thought she heard something. She paused, listening. Was that music?

  It was still too quiet to tell, but she could swear someone, somewhere in the building was playing old timey big band jazz. She began to logically piece things together and assumed the building was only open because a janitor was in there cleaning, and most likely it was the janitor who was listening to the music while he went about his work.

  She decided she’d at least check Mr. Trivilli’s office before leaving. It wouldn’t hurt anything.

  Continuing up the stairs, she was surprised to hear the music growing louder as if it were moving closer to her. Additionally, the music had a hollow tinny noise, as if it were playing from inside of a metal box.

  For some reason, it made Sonja’s heart sink into her stomach, making her nauseous.

  This couldn’t be a normal occurrence. The quality of the music and the sensations within her body led her to believe that this may not, in fact, just be the radio of a solitary janitor. Instead, she knew this may be the music of the dead, from some sort of ghost.

  It would only make sense that there would be one or two, if not more, ghosts in the Haunted Falls Town Hall. After all, the court rooms here had been witness too many murderers and other criminals becoming convicted and sentenced. Why wouldn’t some of them come back and haunt this type of place?

  This thought didn’t make her very comfortable since she herself had been key in putting away many criminals in her time in Haunted Falls.

  Reaching the top of the steps, the music grew even louder. Looking at where the sound was coming from, she noticed an old-time radio—not so different from the one she’d received in the mail—sitting on the barrier of the back side of the balcony. The interior was glowing with a strange green hue.

  The ethereal music was coming from the speakers.

  Sonja’s hands began to shake, moistening with sweat. If this strange otherworldly radio was right here, did that also mean the person who had delivered the radio was also there? Could it be the witch of Haunted Falls, that Belinda had talked about? The one who was feeding off the violence and murder happening around the community?

  According to the old tome Belinda had shown Sonja, a witch could draw dark energy from violent crimes and use it for evil magic. Sonja was beginning to believe more and more that this person, this witch, actually existed. On top of that, the witch seemed to be playing some sort of sick game.

  Suddenly, the music faded out, turning into static. Sonja waited eagerly, wondering what was going to come next. A second later the white noise cleared, leaving only silence. She raised a confused eyebrow, wondering what had happened. The light inside the radio was still on, so why had the sound stopped?

  A sudden earth-shattering scream echoed from inside the radio, sending shivered up and down Sonja’s spine. She recognized the scream this time. It was her own scream, her own voice.

  She needed to get out of there, and fast.

  Turning to run back down the stairs and out of the building, she came face to face with the dark robed figure who had crept up the stairs silently behind her
while she’d been distracted by the radio.

  Over their face, they wore a mask—a green witch’s face with a hooked nose and a wart on the end. The plastic mouth was frozen in a wicked smile.

  Before Sonja could react, her unknown assailant gave her a hard shove, sending her tumbling backward into the railing.

  The radio toppled off the edge as Sonja felt herself losing balance and going over the barrier. She let out a scream that mirrored the one on the radio as she fell into the open air and plummeted down to the floor below.

  CHAPTER 10

  * * *

  Screaming, Sonja hit the marble floor hard, the cracking noise of her wrist making her want to vomit as she instinctively threw her hands out to break her fall. Rolling into a tumble like she had learned in a self-defense class, she managed to take most of the rest of the impact without doing too much damage but bumped her head at the end of it.

  The pain came next, sweeping up from her arm and through her entire body as well as radiating into her skull. She cried out again, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes as she gritted her teeth against the horrible sensations washing over her body.

  The sound of pounding feet echoed from nearby, and Sonja opened her eyes only for a moment to see a blurry image of janitor come running out from one of the nearby courtrooms. “Oh, my goodness,” he cried, running over to her side and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

  “It hurts,” Sonja whispered. “Call an ambulance.”

  “What’s going on?” came a female voice from the balcony.

  “Ms. Courtier, I think she fell. She needs an ambulance,” the janitor replied.

  “On it,” the unknown woman replied, the sound of her feet running off into the distance.

  Squeezing her eyes shut, Sonja gave into the pain in her wrist, and the rest of her body, and blacked out.

  * * *

  Everything was a little fuzzy. Sonja blinked a few times to clear her vision and realized she was staring into the fluorescent lights of the ceiling. She felt surprisingly stiff and uncomfortable. Glancing down, she noticed her wrist was in a brace. On top of all that, she had an unbearable headache.

  “W-What’s going on?” she muttered.

  “Oh, Sam, she’s awake,” came the familiar voice of her mother.

  Looking over, Sonja noticed her parents sitting together in the window seat of the hospital room. Then she realized what that meant. She was in a hospital room, which means she’d been hurt in some way.

  Suddenly, everything started coming back to her. The radio, the cloaked figure in the witch mask, being pushed over the edge.

  “Sonja?” came another familiar voice. This time, she saw Frank standing beside the bed, looking at her with eager eyes. Beside him was Alison, Alex, and little Cynthia.

  “What is this? A birthday party?” Sonja joked, forcing a smile.

  “Sweetie, you have a fractured wrist and a bump on the head,” her mother chimed in, walking over to the bedside.

  “You could have been hurt a lot worse. The doctor said you were pretty lucky.” Alison said.

  Frank grabbed onto her hand and very gently squeezed it, the worry in his eyes ever apparent. Sonja felt a warm tingle inside of her chest, a reminder of just how much she loved this man.

  “Lucky? I wasn’t lucky,” Sonja argued, her face turning slightly grim.

  “Sweetie, you fell from the balcony in the Town Hall.” Her mother sat on the side of the bed, patting her daughter on the shoulder.

  Sonja shook her head. “No, I didn’t fall, Mom.”

  Everyone’s faces looked slightly confused, except for Frank and Sonja’s father. Both of them suddenly had shocked looks come over them. “What happened?” Frank insisted.

  “Someone pushed me.”

  There was an audible gasp from the Ally and Sonja’s mother.

  “Who pushed you?” Frank insisted, a tinge of anger appearing at the corner of his mouth.

  Sonja could only shrug. “I didn’t see their face. Whoever it was, was wearing a big black hooded cloak and a Halloween mask.”

  Her father’s face was twisting in deep concern. He had warned Sonja about the danger of facing off against real-life witches. He, having the same paranormal abilities as his daughter, knew first hand of the true dangers of the supernatural realm.

  Frank wasn’t too happy either. The fact that someone was trying to kill his girlfriend, yet again, clearly set his blood boiling. His face was reddening as he stood there.

  “Tell me everything that happened, from the very beginning,” her boyfriend ordered.

  “Well, it all started when I stopped by to see if Trivilli’s secretary was there.”

  As if on cue with her own words, the door to the hospital room opened slowly and a familiar woman stepped inside. “How is she?” she asked.

  Sitting up on her bed, totally surprised to see her, Sonja looked to her boyfriend for clarification.

  “Diana was the one who called the ambulance and made sure you got here safely,” Frank informed her. “It’s lucky for you that she and the janitor were both there.”

  “Diana? Diana Courtier?”

  “The very one.”

  “You brought me to the hospital?”

  “Indeed, I did,” she confirmed, stepping further into the room, her hands behind her back.

  “I heard the janitor calling to a Ms. Courtier before I blacked out,” Sonja admitted.

  “I was upstairs at my desk trying to take care of a few things,” her voice trailed off slightly as if she were starting to get a little choked up. “The last thing we need are any more accidents today.”

  “I appreciate all your help. I hope I didn’t put you out.”

  “Oh, of course not. In fact, I brought you some flowers.” She pulled her hands out from behind her back, revealing a large bouquet in a glass vase.

  “Wow, those are beautiful.”

  “You didn’t need to do that,” Sonja’s mother said.

  “It was no trouble at all, really. I just thought that, after such a frightening experience, you might like to wake up to something beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” Sonja smiled. A small gut feeling rising in her stomach made her want to talk to Diana alone. If nothing else, maybe she noticed something odd at the Town Hall that day. Was someone else wandering around the building? Did she notice the small radio?

  “I was wondering if I could talk to you alone,” Sonja just came out and said it. At this point, with her life and potentially others in the balance, she couldn’t afford to tiptoe around. Better to just get to the point.

  As usual, her mother was the first one to protest. “Alone? What could you two possibly have to talk about? Do you even know each other?”

  “Come on, dear,” Sonja’s father urged, taking her mother by the shoulders and leading her out.

  “But, we should be here with her.”

  “Just give them a few minutes.”

  Everyone else began to follow suit, all except Frank who stood nearby gripping his girlfriend’s hand. “I’m staying,” he insisted.

  Sonja decided not to argue with him on this one. After all, he was the sheriff and would most likely ask some of the same questions in investigating this assault. “You can stay.”

  “He can stay, but I can’t?” Sonja’s mother complained as she was pushed out the door.

  A few moments later, the three of them were alone in the hospital room. Sonja wanted to get this conversation over and done with quickly. Her headache was getting worse and she wanted to lie down and get some more rest.

  Diana walked across the room and set the flowers next to the bed. “Here you are.”

  “Thanks.”

  She took a step back and nervously clasped her hands. “What did you want to ask me?”

  Sonja glanced at Frank and then back at Diana. “I was wondering, did you hear or see anything strange at the Town Hall before I arrived this afternoon?”

  The woman poked lipstick coated lips t
o the side while she thought. “I’m not sure. Everything today has been a little strange and hectic, I mean, with the horrible accident at the parade and everything.”

  It was clear that, as much as possible, Frank was just letting people in town believe that the fireworks fiasco had just been a sad accident and not a determined attack on Hoss Trivilli.

  “I know. Today has been strange and a little frightening, but anything you can think of might be helpful.”

  The woman sniffed slightly as if trying to hold back a runny nose. “I don’t know. After everything at the parade, I headed back to the Town Hall. I knew there was going to be some craziness around the death of Mr. Trivilli, so I just drowned myself in my work so I wouldn’t have to think about the next few days.”

  “Makes sense,” Frank noted.

  “What happened then?” Sonja asked

  “Nothing much. As far as I knew, only the janitor and I were in the building. Everything was quiet as can be. The only time I heard anything besides the shuffle of my own papers was right before I heard you scream.”

  “You didn’t hear anything else?” Sonja pressed, desperate to see if she had heard the mystical radio playing.

  She hesitated, as if unsure how to explain herself. “I . . . I thought I heard music playing. It was sort of old-timey, like big band jazz from a black and white movie.”

  Frank looked at his girlfriend, clearly seeking clarification. She hadn’t had an opportunity to explain everything yet.

  “Then, the music died out and I heard you scream, twice. I came running out and saw you laying there on the floor. I called nine-one-one and then accompanied you here.” She motioned to the hospital room around them. “Of course, I helped the nurses to find the proper contact information for your family.”

  “And I heard the call over my radio at the station,” Frank added.

  “I see.” This wasn’t much help. All Diana’s story showed her was that she hadn’t imagined the music on the radio. It didn’t clue her into who the masked villain could be. “You’re sure you didn’t see or hear anything else?”