Corn Maze Confession

Chapter One

“Why did the scarecrow get promoted?” Bex—my best friend—asked. 

Her pepper shaker costume cracked me up every time I saw her in it. She wore a metal colander-looking hat with her black twists flowing from the holes as if they were pepper. 

It would have been even funnier if she hadn’t made me the matching salt shaker. My hair was white for the time being—flowing from the holes of my own metal hat—but who knew how long it would be before my magic took over and turned my salt-hair bright pink. Or orange. Or purple. 

“I need to start the race. The participants are getting antsy.” Halloween was my favorite holiday, but when I’d planned a race through my corn maze, I didn’t think so many people would show up. Now, at least a hundred people, from babies to great-grandparents, huddled excitedly near the entrance. 

“The sooner you guess, the sooner you can start,” Bex sing-songed. “Hurry, Ellie, it’s almost dark.” 

“I don’t know,” I said. “Why did the scarecrow get promoted?”

“Because he was outstanding in his field.” 

I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Get it? He was out standing in his field?” She pointed toward my cornfield. 

“That’s a good one.” 

She took a slight bow, careful to hold her pepper shaker hat on top of her head. 

I laughed again, then stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled. 

The crowd quieted as I stepped onto the seat of my ancient tractor. 

“Thank you all for coming,” I said in my biggest voice. “The rules are simple—the first person to finish wins the grand prize.” 

Bex held up a basket of goodies. 

“Many thanks to our local businesses who donated some amazing items including Katie’s Café, Fran’s Feed, Nancy’s Nails, and Amy’s Antiques.” 

Everyone clapped. 

Katie, Fran, Nancy, and Amy waved from the back of the crowd. Earlier, they had been gossiping about a local man who had left his wife and ran off with a younger woman. They always had a story about someone or something. I’d learned early on that nothing stayed a secret for long in Cliff Haven. 

“If you get stuck in the maze, you’ll find exits marked along the course. Be safe. Don’t trample anyone.” I gave a group of teenagers my sternest look. “And don’t get too scared.” 

The teens laughed. 

“Hey, those scarecrows are terrifying.” I thought of the ones with hand-painted heart eyes courtesy of Bex and chuckled to myself. 

“On your mark.” 

The teens took their positions. 

“Get set.” 

The toddlers looked like they would bolt the minute their parents let go of their hands. 

“Go!” 

Squeals of delight escaped the mouths of teenagers and toddlers alike as they tore through the maze. The tops of the corn swayed as they pushed through. 

I smiled to myself. Everything was going to be perfect.

“Congratulations on the success.” Bex held up her hand for a high five. 

But before I could return the gesture, a scream of terror pierced the air. Chills tickled my scalp, turning my hair bright red—the color of danger. 

Chapter Two

The corn maze was supposed to be oh-look-a-scarecrow scary, not blood-curdling, my-life-is-coming-to-an-end scary. 

I raced into the maze. The participants couldn’t have gotten far. 

I started to the right—the direction that would lead me to the finish line—but another scream alerted me to my mistake. 

Swerving back to the left, I almost ran over Bex and Penelope—my pet pig. “Sorry, guys,” I said, running past them. “I think it’s this way.” 

“But that’s the dead end,” Bex hollered after me. “Hopefully, it’s not a double dead end, if you know what I mean?” 

I did, and this time, her joke wasn’t funny. 

If I found another dead body in my cornfield, the police were going to start thinking I was responsible. Even if I had helped them find the murderers before. 

“Stop!” a girl yelled. “Please don’t!”

I was almost there. The eeriness in the air was definitely not coming from the fake scarecrows and spooky cobwebs. My scalp burned with danger. Bex and I were no longer salt and pepper. Now, we were paprika and pepper. 

Penelope squealed when we turned the last corner to find a group of costume-clad teens huddled around something. 

“Let me through,” I said, gently pushing my way between them. 

What I found in the center of the circle was nothing short of crazy. 

A white-sheet-over-the-head ghost strangled a teenage girl dressed in a beautiful blue princess costume with a long braid over her shoulder. 

“Are you all just going to stand there?” I asked. 

The teenagers seemed frozen in fear. 

Well, they might not have been willing to help, but I wasn’t just going to stand by and—

Before I could, Penelope charged into the fight, biting at the ghost’s ankles. 

But the ghost didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by Penelope’s bite. 

I grabbed the ghost’s arm and tried to wrench it away from the girl’s neck. “Let her go!”

“Where is your sister?” the ghost hissed. I couldn’t tell who the ghost was talking to with the sheet covering the person’s face. 

The teenager squeaked out, “I. Don’t. Have. A. Sister.” 

“Liar!” The ghost seemed to squeeze harder. If I didn’t do something quickly, the girl would suffocate. 

I squeezed harder on the ghost’s arm, revealing whatever emotion I could through my fingertips. 

Rage hit me so hard I almost missed another emotion underneath. What else was the ghost feeling? I concentrated harder. Maybe it was jealousy? Or fear? 

Either way, I had to make this stop before it turned deadly. 

“That is enough!” I wrenched the ghost’s hand away and pushed myself between the girl, who was now gasping for air, and the ghost, who looked like it was going to come after me next. “You need to stop. She said she doesn’t have a sister.”

“She’s a liar!” The ghost roared. “I saw them together. They were—”

Before the ghost could finish its sentence, it fell into a heap at my feet. 

With this, the teens seemed to come to their senses, and everyone rushed to the girl in the princess costume. 

Penelope stood next to me, examining the ghost. I bent down and pulled the sheet up to find a woman who looked like she was sleeping. Thankfully, she wore white leggings and a white t-shirt under her sheet. 

When I checked for a pulse, I realized she wasn’t sleeping. She was dead. I immediately started chest compressions.

“Oh my gosh,” Bex said, her breath coming in bursts as if she’d just run a marathon. “I can’t believe you—and who is—oh that’s—” she clapped a hand over her mouth. 

“Who?” I asked. I’d gotten familiar with most of the people in town, but there were still some I hadn’t met. 

“It’s Mrs. Ridley,” Bex said.

“As in the Mrs. Ridley Katie and the gang were gossiping about before the race?” 

Bex nodded. “The one whose husband ran off with the younger woman.” 

I kept pumping up and down on her chest, even though my magical intuition knew there was no hope. 

Chapter Three

While Bex called 9-1-1, I transferred my attention to Kayla—the girl Mrs. Ridley attacked. “Do you know Mrs. Ridley?” 

“Everyone knew Mrs. Ridley,” Kayla said, her voice shaky. “She worked at our school.” 

“She was a teacher?” 

Kayla shook her head, the marks on her neck growing darker by the minute. “She was one of the lunch ladies. I saw her every day. She knew all of us by name.” 

“And she would have known you don’t have a sister.” 

“Exactly.” Kayla choked back a sob. “I don’t know why she would attack me. She was always so nice.” 

“I need everyone away from the crime scene,” Deb—Bex’s sister and a local police officer—yelled into the crowd. The paramedic with her took over compressions, letting me rest my tired arms. 

“Cops. Run!” a teenager shouted. Then—without warning—chaos erupted. 

All the teenagers besides Kayla darted off into the corn, smashing down stalks as they went. 

Bex ran after them shouting, “Hey! Get back here! You’re terrible friends!”

I stood and brushed off my white leggings—now stained with cornfield mud—and adjusted my colander hat.

“Why did they run?” I asked Kayla. “Had they been drinking or something?”

“They’re just being stupid,” she said. 

“Kayla?” Deb said. “Why would Mrs. Ridley want to hurt you?” 

Kayla shrugged and pulled her knees up into her chest. 

“Mrs. Ridley asked where Kayla’s sister was,” I said. 

“Kayla doesn’t have a sister,” Deb said. 

“Weird, right?” I looked around. “Maybe she thought you were someone else? I mean, you are in costume.” 

“We all wore our costumes to school yesterday,” Kayla said. “She recognized me then.” 

“Maybe she was on something,” I said, looking at Deb. 

Deb motioned for me to follow her. 

“Penelope, can you keep Kayla company?” I said. “She might need some piggy snuggles.” 

Penelope happily jumped into Kayla’s lap, wiggling her nose against Kayla’s cheek as Kayla giggled. 

I followed Deb to Mrs. Ridley’s body. 

“It looks like she was poisoned,” Deb said. “We’ll have to do the tests to find out for sure, but maybe whatever poisoned her made her delusional.” 

“I think the first thing we need to do is find her husband,” I said. “Katie and the gang were gossiping before the race about how he’d run off with a younger woman.” 

Deb sighed. “I heard the rumors, too. Let’s start at the family home and go from there. But let’s not rule out those very same teenagers. They ran for a reason. Rumor has it, an adult at the school has been buying alcohol for underage kids. Maybe Mrs. Ridley was that adult.”

“If she was supplying them with alcohol, why would they hurt her?” I asked. 

“I don’t think they did, but maybe an angry parent?” Deb shook her head. “Let’s just keep our minds open.”

I nodded. I wasn’t officially a police officer, but since I’d moved to Cliff Haven, I’d become something of a consultant for them. Sometimes I had feelings that helped with the cases—magical feelings. 

A group of police officers stayed with the crime scene while one escorted Kayla out until her parents could pick her up. 

When Deb, Bex, and I emerged from the corn maze, Katie and Nancy walked out of the house. 

“Are you okay?” Katie asked, rushing to hug me. She wore a flapper costume from the 1920s, while Nancy wore a red poodle skirt. 

“I’m fine,” I said. “It’s hard to believe someone else died in the cornfield. I’m starting to think it’s bad luck.” 

“That’s nonsense,” Nancy said. “Your cornfield is a wonderful place. That maze was perfect.” 

“I’d bet anything it was Mr. Ridley who did it,” Katie said. 

I could almost feel Deb cringing behind me. 

“Why would he have killed his wife when he’d already run off with his mistress?” I asked. 

Katie started counting on her fingers. “Life insurance. No nasty divorce. She doesn’t get any of his money. Do I need to keep going?” 

“Do they have a lot of money?” I asked. 

“They have enough,” Katie said. “I bet he did it.”

“Okay, thanks for the information,” Deb said, walking past me and motioning for me to follow. “We better get this show on the road.” 

“We’ll clean up,” Nancy said. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

“Maybe you should take off your costume before you go,” Katie said. “Wouldn’t want people to get confused about whether you’re salt or—uh—blue salt?” 

I pulled a strand of my hair toward my face. Sure enough, it was blue. 

“It’s all right,” I said. “The costume is pretty comfortable, actually. Plus, you never know when the power of distraction might come in handy.” 

She laughed. 

When my grandmother had left me her farm in a remote Iowa town, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d been an orphan my entire life, going from foster family to foster family, each one pushing me back into the system the minute my hair changed. 

Not that I blamed them. I’d be scared, too, if my foster kid’s hair turned blazing orange and frizzed up into a fuzzball when she got angry. But it wasn’t like I could control it, and the more I tried, the more out of control it got. 

Until I decided enough was enough. When I was sixteen, I found Mona—my VW Microbus—and pretty much lived in her until I moved to Iowa. 

“Did you know the Ridleys?” I asked Deb when we got into her police car. 

“Mrs. Ridley has worked at the school since she was barely out of school herself.” Deb turned out of my driveway onto the gravel road, heading toward town. “From what I understand, Mr. Ridley moved here to be with Mrs. Ridley when they were in their twenties. They met when she took a trip to Chicago with her friends.” 

“And they had money?” 

“He had money,” Deb said. “But I don’t know whether that would be sufficient motive to kill her. He always seemed pretty nice.” 

“Sometimes, it’s the nice ones you have to look out for.” 

Deb nodded in agreement. 

Within minutes, we turned into a driveway I’d never seen before. At the end was a big updated farmhouse. 

“Wow, this is beautiful,” I said. 

“Not bad for a lunch lady,” Deb said. “Though everyone knew she only did that job because she loved the kids.” 

“Then why would she try to strangle one of them?” 

“Why indeed?”

Deb put the car in park and marched up to the door. She knocked, but no one answered. 

“It’s a good thing the judge is a friend of Mrs. Ridley’s,” Deb said. “She signed off on the warrant quicker than I’ve ever seen.” 

With this statement, Deb pushed the lever and opened the Ridley’s front door. “I just can’t understand why people don’t lock their doors around here.” Deb shook her head and walked inside. “Don’t touch anything without gloves on.” 

I was already pulling on mine. I’d been through enough of these investigations to know what I could and couldn’t do. Not that I didn’t fudge the rules now and again. 

“What are we looking for?” I asked as we walked into the immaculate home. 

“Anything that might be poisonous,” Deb said. “Preferably a half-full or empty bottle with a skull and crossbones label.” 

I laughed. 

We searched the living room, kitchen, and lower-level bathroom. However, it wasn’t until we got to the master bedroom that we found something of interest. 

“These flowers look fresh,” I said. “And there’s a card.” 

Deb read, “To my soon-to-be ex-wife. Find somewhere else to live. Julia is moving in tomorrow. And give her back the ring.” 

“That’s brutal,” I said. “So much for being a nice guy.” 

Deb slipped the card back into the envelope. “We’ll need to see if there are any prints on this or the vase. Maybe he didn’t give these to her.” 

I bent down to smell the flowers. “Oh wow,” I said. “These smell amazing.” 

“Ellie, stop,” Deb said. “Back away from the flowers.” 

“Why?” I asked. 

“Because I think those are poisonous.” 

Chapter Four

I rushed to the bathroom and blew my nose as hard as I could. 

“How hard did you inhale?” Deb asked. She’d already called for an ambulance. 

“Not very hard,” I said, then blew my nose again. 

“Are you feeling okay?” 

“Right now, yes,” I said. “But if these are the flowers that poisoned Mrs. Ridley, she had enough time to smell them, drive to my house, start the corn maze race, and attack someone before dying.” 

Deb growled in frustration. “Why did you smell them?” 

“Why wouldn’t I smell them?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of poisonous flowers before.” 

“But you’re sure you’re feeling okay?” Deb had her phone out and was searching for something. “Because this says that the flowers aren’t always deadly. Sometimes they just cause hallucinations or momentary unconsciousness.” 

“Well, I didn’t want to mention anything earlier, but the vampire in the corner is pretty creepy.” 

Deb whipped around to look at where I was pointing. 

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m kidding. There’s no vampire. I’m sure I’m perfectly fine. I blew my nose.”

But she wouldn’t call off the ambulance. They checked me over and determined I was probably in the clear. All of my vitals were normal. But if I started feeling funny, I needed to get to a hospital right away. 

As the minutes ticked by, I was more and more convinced I hadn’t inhaled enough, if any, of the poison to affect me.

Once the ambulance left, I glanced at Deb. “Now, we just need to find the husband.” 

As if on cue, a man’s voice shouted from the main level. “Can I help you?” 

Deb hurried down the stairs. A rush of dizziness overcame me as I stood to follow her. When it subsided, I determined it was probably from just standing up too quickly. 

I got downstairs just in time to find Deb arresting a handsomely costumed Mr. Ridley. 

“I didn’t do it,” Mr. Ridley said. “I would never hurt anyone.” 

“Not even your soon-to-be ex-wife?” Deb asked. 

“Of course not,” he said. 

“But you had no issue kicking her out of your house,” I said. 

“That’s what happens with divorce,” he said. “Someone has to leave. It’s not like we could have both lived here.” 

“Don’t you mean all three of you?” Deb asked. 

Mr. Ridley’s face turned bright red. “You can’t help who you fall in love with.” 

“Some of us can,” Deb said.

“This was different,” Mr. Ridley said. “Julia is my princess. I’m her prince. It was meant to be.” 

“What about your wife?” I asked.

“My wife was crazy,” he said. “All she cared about was money. Why else would she have kept working when I made plenty to support us? Because she loved the kids? Yeah, right. If she loved kids so much, why did she refuse to let us have our own? When Julia becomes my queen, we’ll have our own little princes and princesses. It’s too bad my wife is dead, but our relationship was over a long time ago.” 

Deb yanked him out the door and put him in the back of another patrol car.

“Do you think maybe he sniffed those flowers too?” I asked when Deb came back into the house. “All that talk about princesses and princes and kings and queens. Seems strange.” 

“Did you see the way he was dressed?” Deb asked. 

“Like he was going to a ball?” I laughed. 

“Exactly,” Deb said. “He was dressed like a fairy-tale prince.”

“Maybe he was going to a Halloween party.”  

“If so, where is his princess?” 

“Maybe we should ask him,” I said. 

Deb and I walked back to the car, but Mr. Ridley was passed out in the back seat. 

Deb rushed to the other side to take his pulse. “He’s alive and breathing, but we need to get him to a hospital in case he—”

He sat back up so quickly he almost smashed into Deb’s face. “In case I what?” 

“Did you have any contact with the flowers you sent your wife?” Deb asked. 

“No,” he said. “I had them delivered as always.” 

“So you haven’t smelled any flowers in the last few hours?” I asked. 

He giggled. “You rhymed.” 

Deb looked like she might strangle him. “Where did the flowers come from?” 

“Fran’s,” he said. 

“I thought Fran’s was only fabric and feed,” I asked. 

He shrugged. “I guess she started doing flowers too.” 

Deb closed the door. 

“If he ordered poisonous flowers to be delivered to his wife, is that still murder?” I asked. 

“Only if he knew they were poisonous,” Deb said. “We’ll sort all that out later. Right now, we need to check on Fran.” 

“She was at the race before it started.” I thought back. “But I think she and Amy left to go to a party as soon as I said ‘go.’” 

“We need to get to that party,” Deb said. “If she smelled the flowers, she could be the next victim.” 

I wasn’t about to tell Deb that my head was spinning. It was probably because I hadn’t had enough water. I needed to make sure Fran was okay. 

Chapter Five

The party was in the Cliff Haven town square. Lights had been strung from tree to tree, the benches had been decorated with fake fall leaves, and jack-o’-lanterns lined the sidewalks.

Fran was easy to find in her giant bumblebee costume. Amy was a giant jar of honey. It might have been one of the cutest couple costumes I’d ever seen. 

“Sorry to bug you,” Deb said, laughing at her pun. 

“This better beeeee important,” Fran said, laughing too. 

Amy shook her head and smiled. 

“Mr. Ridley said he ordered flowers from you,” Deb said. “Did you happen to smell them?” 

“Of course, I did,” Fran said. “I have to make sure I’m selling the best of the best. Especially now that Fiona’s Flowers is planning on setting up shop in town. Plus, Mr. Ridley specifically said he wanted the most fragrant ones. Apparently, his wife loves the smell of flowers.” 

I wanted to ask why she felt the need to go into the flower business at all, but it didn’t really have any bearing on the case. 

“Are you feeling okay?” Deb asked. 

“I’m a little buzzzzzzzzzed.” Fran laughed, holding up her plastic cup that was probably filled with spiked punch. 

Deb didn’t laugh at this joke. “We think you might need to go to the hospital due to poisoning.” 

Amy’s eyes widened as she looked from Deb to Fran. 

“You have to beeeee joking,” Fran said, though her tone didn’t sound so punny this time. 

“We think the flowers he ordered for his wife might have been poisonous,” Deb said. 

Amy grabbed Fran’s hand and started pulling her toward the parking lot. “Come on. We have to get you to the hospital.” 

Fran dug in her heels. “Wait just a darn minute.” 

Everyone stopped. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I would never sell someone poisonous flowers,” Fran said. 

“We don’t think you did it intentionally,” Deb said. “But being that you just started in the flower business, maybe you didn’t know or—”

“Last I checked, roses aren’t poisonous,” Fran said. “It doesn’t take a master florist to tell you that.” 

“He ordered roses?” Deb asked. 

“Yep,” Fran said. “Delivered them myself.” 

“When did you deliver them?” Deb asked. 

“Around nine this morning,” Fran said. “No one was home, but the instructions said to leave them on the porch. So I did.” 

I tried to picture the house, but my mind was all fuzzy. “I don’t remember seeing any roses.” 

“Me neither,” Deb said. 

“Will that beeeeee all?” Fran asked. 

Deb and I laughed. 

As we walked back to Deb’s patrol car, I could have sworn I saw someone dressed up as a princess duck behind a dumpster. 

“Hold on,” I said. “I need to check something out.” 

I tried to run, but my feet felt like they were stuck in sludge. 

“Ellie, are you okay?” Deb asked, grabbing one of my arms before I fell. 

“I saw—I saw—” But before I could get the sentence out, my world went black. 

Chapter Six

When I woke up, I was still in the square, only now I was surrounded by a bunch of people staring down at me. 

“What happened?” I asked. 

“Thank goodness, you’re awake,” Deb said. “It looks like you inhaled some of that poison after all.” 

“Do I need to go to the hospital?” I asked. 

“How are you feeling now?” a paramedic who was reading my blood pressure asked. 

I thought about it for a minute. “I think I’m feeling better.” 

He nodded. “From what we can tell, this poison is relatively fast-acting once it gets to your organs. But you probably didn’t ingest enough to give you much more than a hangover.” 

“That’s a relief,” I said. “Now, I need to go talk to—”

Deb grabbed my arm, keeping me from standing up. “No. You’re going home to rest. I’ll take care of the investigation.” 

“But—”

“No buts,” Deb said. “If you’re feeling up to it and I need your help, I’ll get you in the morning.” 

I didn’t want to go home and rest, but I knew Deb wouldn’t let me do anything unless I did. 

She drove me home, where only a couple of cars were still parked in the driveway. Probably from the teenagers who had run when Deb showed up. 

“Can you get inside okay?” Deb asked. 

“I really feel fine,” I said, trying one last time. “Maybe I can help just a little bit.” 

“Tomorrow,” Deb said, her tone firm. “If you get some rest.” 

“Fine.” I got out of the car. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” 

When I got inside, I had every intention of scooping up Penelope and heading to bed. 

But I had visitors. 

“I’m sorry to impose. Katie said we could wait here,” a woman in her mid-forties said as I walked in the door. “My daughter insisted we stay until she could thank you for saving her life.” 

I followed the woman into the living room, where Kayla and Penelope were cuddled under a blanket on the couch, sleeping soundly. 

“You have a very special pig,” the woman whispered. “She has a magical touch with Kayla.” 

“She’s the best,” I agreed. “Do you mind if I ask you a quick question?”

“Sure.” She shifted from one foot to another. 

“Do you know if Mrs. Ridley was the adult from the school supplying the kids with alcohol?” 

“No,” she said without even thinking about it. “Everyone knows who it is, and it’s not Mrs. Ridley.” 

“Why hasn’t anyone come forward with who it is?” If it wasn’t Mrs. Ridley, then this had nothing to do with the case, but I couldn’t contain my curiosity. 

“No proof,” she said. “And the kids would never snitch. But it wasn’t Mrs. Ridley. She was a saint. Well, until she tried to strangle Kayla. Do you know why she did that?”

“Not yet,” I said. “But we think she might have been hallucinating.” 

This reminded me of the woman who had been spying on us from behind the dumpster. Had she been a hallucination, too? 

“We’ll get out of your hair.”

The woman went to wake Kayla, but I stopped her. “If you want to stay, you can. I have plenty of bedrooms. She’s been through a lot tonight.” 

We both looked back at the girl who no longer wore the long blonde braided wig but still had on her princess dress. 

“Are you sure?” Her voice was tired. 

“Absolutely,” I said. “Just head upstairs and find a door that will open for you. I’ll make breakfast and coffee in the morning.” 

She glanced back at her daughter. “She was so afraid. I’m just glad you were there to help. Do you think she’ll be okay down here for the night?” 

“I’ll lock all the doors,” I said. “And Penelope will protect her.” 

“Thank you.” She smiled and headed up the stairs. 

When I went to kiss Penelope on the head, I noticed something odd about Kayla’s bruising. The finger marks were defined, but there was also a puncture on the right side of her neck—my right. Almost like Mrs. Ridley had been wearing a ring. 

My scalp tingled the way it did when I knew I was onto something. Penelope oinked quietly to alert me of my hair changing, though her eyes didn’t open. 

The police had already cleared the scene but had left crime scene tape around the entrance to the corn maze. 

I walked into the kitchen and called Deb. 

“You’re supposed to be resting,” she said. 

“Hello to you too.” 

“Yes, hello. What do you need?” 

“Kayla wanted to stay behind and thank me for saving her.” 

“That’s sweet,” Deb said, though her tone was impatient. 

“She’s asleep,” I said. “But I noticed on her neck there’s a sort of puncture wound where Mrs. Ridley was strangling her.” 

“And why does this matter to me?” 

“Remember Mr. Ridley’s note? About the ring? Was Mrs. Ridley wearing a ring on her right hand?” 

I heard some papers shuffle in the background. “Not that I’m aware of.” 

“Can you double-check? I have a feeling the ring is important.” 

“Like a feeling? Or a feeling?”

“A magical feeling,” I said. 

Deb sighed. “I’ll see what I can find.” 

“Thanks,” I said. We hung up, but the tingling in my scalp wouldn’t let up. 

I needed to go outside. 

Chapter Seven

I was still learning to control the magic that came from these feelings. Being outside was right, but where outside, I didn’t know. 

I wandered around, keeping an eye out for anything that might seem strange. 

For a minute, I thought maybe I was imagining things. That maybe my hair—my magic—had been affected by the poison too. 

Then I saw it. 

Something moved in the corn. 

I tiptoed in the shadows, trying to keep from being seen. 

If Mr. Ridley hadn’t ordered the poisonous flowers, someone else had. And I was fairly certain I knew who that someone was—Julia. The mistress. 

The only problem was why? She’d already gotten the guy. 

Whatever—or whoever—was in the corn was being super sneaky. Even the tops of the corn barely moved as they made their way toward me. 

I sucked in a breath. 

What was I going to do if Julia popped out of the field? 

Tackle her? 

I didn’t even know what she looked like. 

I could be tackling a random person for all I knew.

My plan was too flawed. 

Even if it was Julia, and I did tackle her, then what? 

I took a step back toward the house and pulled out my phone. 

Trying to keep the screen’s brightness from giving away my position, I shot a quick text to Deb. 

Come to my house. Now. 

I clicked the phone off and shoved it back into the pocket sewn into my salt costume. Bex had made it clear—pockets were a must. I’d have to thank her the next time I saw her. 

My phone vibrated in my pocket at the same time a head with long hair poked out of the corn. 

The head turned one way and then another before the person darted into my driveway. 

I should have stayed put, but my feet were moving before my mind could make sense of it. 

My legs propelled me toward the figure in front of me. 

The person crossed their arms over their face just before I slammed them into the gravel driveway. 

“What the heck?” a voice said from behind me. “Why’d you tackle him?”  

“Him?” I asked. 

In a tight-fitting nurse’s outfit, the girl behind me had her hair pulled back into a bun and her hands on her hips. 

I scrambled to my feet to find a boy in a doctor’s scrubs wearing a long wig. “I thought you were—”

He stood and laughed. “A chick?” 

“The long hair and—ugh—I’m so sorry.” 

He pulled the wig off his head and handed it to the girl. “Forgot I was wearing that.” 

“You should play football,” the girl said. “You hit harder than most of the guys at our school.” 

“Hey,” the guy said. “We hit hard.” 

She helped him up and kissed him on the cheek. “Sure you do.” 

“Sorry about the cornfield,” the guy said. “We just didn’t want the cops to find us.” 

“Why?” I asked.

“We might have had a bit to drink before we came,” he said. 

“And who gave you the alcohol?” I asked. 

“Don’t tell her,” the girl said. “She, like, works for the police.” 

His face paled. 

“Fine, don’t tell me,” I said. “Are you still intoxicated?” 

“No way,” he said. “Not after we saw the lunch lady attack Kayla. That was some scary crap.” 

“Not any scarier than the lady stalking through the corn,” the girl said. 

“She was super creepy,” he said. “Did you put her there to freak us out?” 

I shook my head. “The maze was supposed to be fun. Not scary.” 

“It was fun, but that made it way more fun,” he said. 

“Do you think you’re okay to drive home?” I asked. 

“I only had one drink,” the girl said. “And that was at least four hours ago. I’ll drive.” 

We walked past the row of cars—some gone since I got home—but before we got to the girl’s car, I saw something in the back seat of another vehicle that alarmed me. 

“Do you know whose car this is?” I asked. 

Both the boy and the girl shook their heads no. “It’s not someone from our school. We all drive junkers.”

This car was definitely not a junker. It was shiny and red. Just like the roses scattered all over the back seat. 

Chapter Eight

The teenagers pulled out of the driveway just before Deb pulled in. 

“Please tell me you didn’t let teenagers drive home drunk,” Deb said when she got out of the car. 

“They were sober,” I said. 

“Why aren’t you in bed?” 

“I was heading that way. Then I saw the teenagers in the cornfield, and I thought it might be Julia.” 

“And she body-slammed the crap out of one of them,” Bex said, emerging from the cornfield. 

“How long have you been in there?” I asked. “Were you the one freaking the kids out?”

“Long enough to learn who gave those kids alcohol.” Bex adjusted her colander hat. “And no. When I’m sneaky, no one knows I’m there.” 

She wiggled her eyebrows up and down. I laughed. 

“Who did you find out gave them the alcohol?” Deb asked. 

“Mr. Manx,” Bex said. “The senior history teacher.” 

“Mr. Manx?” Deb said. “As in the Mr. Manx who flunked you and almost prevented you from graduating?” 

Bex shrugged. “That’s just a coincidence.” 

Deb shook her head at her sister and turned to me. “What was it you were saying about Julia?” 

“I think she’s the one who sent Mrs. Ridley those flowers,” I said. “Look in the back of this car. There’s a bunch of roses. She probably switched them out for the poisonous ones.” 

“How do you know this is Julia’s car?” 

“I don’t,” I admitted. “But it’s brand new. Maybe Mr. Ridley bought it for her. And it has a sticker on the back that says Princess. Did you find a ring?” 

“Mrs. Ridley wasn’t wearing a ring.” Deb sighed. “If this is Julia’s car, that would mean—”

“She might be here looking for the ring,” I said. “I bet she’s the one who was stalking around in the field that freaked out those kids.”

Light from inside the corn maze drew my attention. 

“Let’s check it out,” Deb said.  

Deb and I made our way into the maze—Deb slightly ahead of me, holding her gun as if she might shoot someone at any moment. 

“I don’t know that you need a gun,” I whispered. “It might not even be her.” 

“Someone is inside an active crime scene in the middle of the night,” Deb whispered back. “It’s just a precaution.” 

We turned in the direction of the light—the same direction I’d gone to find the group of teenagers, Kayla, and Mrs. Ridley. Had Julia been in the group of teenagers, watching the entire thing unfold? 

“Julia?” Deb said as we got closer. “We know you’re here. Why don’t you come out and talk to us.” 

The light beam went dark. 

Deb clicked on her flashlight and shined it in front of her. 

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” I said. “We don’t want to shoot you.” 

Deb glanced back at me with a frustrated look. 

“What? I think she should know what she’s up against.” 

“She probably killed someone,” Deb said. 

“I didn’t mean to kill her,” a woman’s shaky voice said ahead of us. “I just wanted my ring back.” 

“Tell us what happened,” I said. “If it was an accident, things might be different.” 

“Like I wouldn’t have to go to jail?” the woman asked. 

“We can talk about all that later,” Deb said before I could mess things up even more. “Right now, I need you to come out and tell me what happened.”

The woman stepped into the beam of light. 

I couldn’t help the gasp that rose in my throat. 

“What?” Deb asked. 

“It’s the sister,” I said. “She’s dressed like the princess sister to the princess Kayla was dressed as.” 

“Huh?” Deb asked. 

“Her costume is one half of a princess-sister duo in a new animated movie,” I said. “That’s why Mrs. Ridley—who was hallucinating—wanted to know where Kayla’s sister was. She was looking for this woman. You’re Julia, right?” 

Julia nodded. “I may have left a photograph of her husband and me in our prince and princess costumes with the flowers. I didn’t know they’d kill her. I thought maybe she’d pass out, and I could take the ring back.” 

“But she came to the corn maze,” I said. 

“And lost my freaking ring.” Julia let out a tiny sob. 

“How did you know she wasn’t wearing it anymore?” Deb asked.

Julia didn’t answer right away. 

“She was here when the fight broke out—when Mrs. Ridley attacked Kayla,” I answered for her. “You saw her with the ring on her finger when she was choking Kayla, but when the kids all ran from the cops, you noticed it wasn’t on her finger any longer.” 

“It was my grandmother’s,” Julia said. “It had a massive diamond on it. I accidentally left it at her house when she almost caught us together. She’s worn it ever since.”

“You’re under arrest,” Deb said, going into the Miranda Rights. 

“But I thought if I told you the truth, you wouldn’t send me to jail,” Julia said as Deb snapped cuffs on Julia’s wrists. 

“Killing someone—whether or not you intended to—is a crime,” Deb said. 

“We were going to live happily ever after,” Julia said. “I just wanted her to pass out. It’s not fair. She always gets her way, even after she’s dead.” 

“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have chosen to die,” Deb said. “Let’s go.” 

Deb loaded Julia into the back of her car, told me to go to bed, then drove away. 

I would go to bed. Just as soon as I found that ring. 

Chapter Nine

It took until almost morning, but I finally found it. Julia was right. It did have a massive diamond. Big enough to leave a puncture wound on Kayla’s neck. 

I shoved it in my costume pocket with my phone and headed inside. 

Penelope and Kayla meandered into the kitchen the minute I flipped the last pancake. They weren’t as good as the ones at Katie’s Café, but they’d fill hungry tummies. 

“Why are you still wearing that?” Kayla asked. 

I pulled the colander hat off my head and laughed. “It was a long night.”

“I’m so sorry about everything that happened with the race. I know it meant a lot to you.” 

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” 

“Thanks to you.” Kayla walked over and wrapped me in a massive hug. 

# # #

I showered and changed before driving down to the police station. 

Deb met me at the door. 

“Have you been working all night?” I asked. 

“Heading home now,” she said. “You look terrible. Did you get any sleep?” 

“Not much,” I said. “But I plan on taking a gigantic nap just as soon as I do something.”

“Here?” Deb asked. 

“I need to give Julia her ring.” I pulled the ring from my pocket and showed her. 

“You stayed up all night to find it, didn’t you?” Deb shook her head but didn’t wait for my answer. “She won’t be able to keep it in jail.” 

“That’s okay,” I said. “I think she’ll feel better knowing it’s not lost in a stranger’s cornfield.” 

“She killed someone,” Deb said. 

“She didn’t mean to kill her,” I said. “Not that it’s okay to poison people to make them pass out either, but everyone deserves a bit of compassion.” 

Deb sighed. “Quickly. You can show it to her, and then she can decide what to do with it.” 

We hurried down to the visiting rooms, where one of the officers brought Julia in. 

She picked up the phone on the other side of the glass, and I did the same. 

“What are you doing here?” Julia asked.

“I came to return something to you,” I said, holding up the ring. 

“You found it?” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I can’t believe you found it.” 

“You can’t have it while you’re in jail,” I said. “But you can work with Deb to decide what to do with it.”

She nodded. “Thank you so much. If I could hug you, I would.” 

“It’s my pleasure. I know a bit about family heirlooms.” I thought of the journal my grandmother had left for me. 

Deb sat in my place to talk to Julia while I let myself out of the police station. 

As I drove back home, I caught a glimpse of a scarecrow in a field and laughed. 

It was outstanding, all right.