I yelled and cheered my appreciation like everyone around me, and the applause was almost as loud as the fireworks. It was so overwhelming that at first I didn't catch what Jack, whose body had tensed behind me, said in my ear.
I turned. "What?"
"Stay here," he shouted, his face as grim as I'd ever seen it. Then he started moving fast, shoving his way through the crowd.
Naturally, I hurried after him. When I caught up, I grabbed his arm.
"What's happening?"
"Of course you couldn't stay back," he growled, but he grabbed my hand and kept going.
"Why would I stay back?" We broke through the edge of the crowd and started running.
"Because that wasn't a fireworks sound, Tess. That was a gunshot."
21
Tess
There was a small crowd of tipsy revelers not too far from the tent. They gave us startled looks as we ran past them but didn't follow us. On the left side of the tent, I glimpsed another person running, though. A woman with long, dark hair.
She was runningawayfrom the tent.
Which looked awfully suspicious.
"Jack!"
"I see her, but we need to check on Cletus first." He shoved through the closed tent flaps and skidded to a stop, causing me to run into him.
"Hey," I panted. I really needed to up my cardio game. "A little warning next time?"
"Tess. Call Susan and Andy," Jack said, his voice grim.
"Is Cletus okay?" I tried to peer over his shoulder, but he was blocking me from going inside or even seeing what—or who—was in there.
"Cletus will never be okay again."
And with those six words, my knees went out from under me, and my vision went gray.
Because my oh-so-recent vision had already come true.
Jack put his arms around me and pulled me close. "I'm so sorry, Tess. I wasn't thinking about how that would make you feel. I'm so sorry. Do you need to sit down?"
I leaned against him for a long moment and then shook my head. "No. I need to help."
He touched his forehead to mine. "You're one of the bravest people I've ever met, Tess Callahan-Shepherd."
"Right back at you," I murmured, and then I took a deep breath and started making calls. First, Susan and Andy. After a moment's internal debate, Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby. I didn't want them to see this either, but she was the mayor, and this was her job. I wouldn't presume to shield her from that. Aunt Ruby might appear delicate, but she had a cast-iron backbone.
"You should go after that woman," I said, but Jack shook his head.
"She's long gone by now, and I need to stay here and preserve the crime scene. Somebody must have seen her. Susan and Andy will track her down."
"Or Lizzie!" Deputy Lizzie Underhill, our newest member of the sheriff's office, was a werewolf with a killer nose. Unlike tigers, who had no particularly intense sense of smell, as Jack told people when they expected him to play bloodhound, wolves had amazing olfactory abilities.
"Great idea."
I texted Lizzie, since both Andy and Susan had found it difficult to hear me over the noise of the crowd. Within minutes, all three of Dead End's finest converged on the tent. Unfortunately, a lot of Dead End residents followed them, because there was no way to hide the fact that something majormust have happened when all of our sheriff's office personnel ran in the same direction.
