Page 63 of Death at a Scottish Halloween

He laughed.

“That’s not nice,” I said.

“Isn’t like that,” he said. “Good to know you aren’t perfect.”

I snorted—big time. An extremely unladylike sound. “Me? Perfect? Not even on my very best days, Constable.”

His phone rang, and I jumped.

“Sorry. I’m still nervous, I guess.”

He put a hand on my shoulder, the warmth of him soaking through my sweater. “I’m going to have a look around, and I’ll be right back. But I’ll come through the front door.”

“OK.”

He left, and I locked the back door again.

Someone had been after that ring, but who?

I only had one man in mind.

Chapter Sixteen

Ihadn’t been looking forward to the next evening. As someone who was not a fan of tight, confined spaces, I had no desire to go through the maze with Jasper, Abigail, and Mara. I’d even offered to stay with Tommy, but I’d been dragged away when Henry had stepped up.

I’d been expecting hay bales stacked high, like I’d seen on television and film. But that wasn’t the case. There were a few bales of hay, but most of the design was tarps strung up on a series of poles. There were people dressed as ghosts and ghouls scattered about, we’d been told.

Yay. Even better. I sighed.

“They may get in your face, but they won’t touch you,” the guy at the beginning of the maze explained. “Please, don’t harm our players.”

The same sort of instructions had been given for the haunted house we’d been a part of, and I thought it was sad that it had to be said, that we shouldn’t hurt the poor actors. A sign of our times.

“I’m going on the record that I do not want to do this,” I said.

“Come on,” Jasper goaded. “It’ll be fun, and we promise not to abandon you. We’ll do it together.”

“We all need GPS to go two miles down the road. How are we going to get out of here?”

They laughed.

“Doc, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you frightened of something,” Abigail said in her soft way.

“I’ve been frightened plenty of times. It’s good to know when you’ve met your limits.”

They shook their heads.

“It won’t be as bad as you imagine,” Mara promised. “Like Jasper said, we’ll be together.”

I took a deep breath and walked in with the group we’d been assigned to when the gate opened. It didn’t take more than a minute for me to be separated from my friends, as the tunnel narrowed for a while, and I lost sight of them.

Great.

This part of the maze was covered overhead, making it even darker inside. It was wall-to-wall people, and then a zombie popped up in front of me.

I jumped and laughed at myself.

“You look fantastic,” I said.