A Sinister Sense (25 page)

George appeared in the doorway. “Michael can’t find his Darth Vader mask.”

“Tell him to look under his bed. That’s where he hides most of his stuff.” She gave the backpack a guilty push with the toe of her shoe. Staring at the bedside clock, she added, “I have to go and pick up Clara. She’s going to help me tonight.”

George frowned. “I sometimes wonder if that bookstore is worth all the trouble. I hate to think of you working half the night and then having to get up early to go back there the next morning.”

“It’s okay, hon. I don’t have to do it that often.”

“It doesn’t seem that long ago since you took the last inventory.”

Stephanie walked over to him, grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged his face down to meet hers. “You worry too much. I’ll be just fine.” She kissed him on the mouth and let him go. “Be a sweetheart and go see if you can find Darth Vader’s mask for Michael. Please?”

He grinned. “When you kiss me like that I’d rob a bank for you.”

She pretended to be shocked. “George Henry Dowd! You could never do anything that criminal.”

“You’d be surprised what I could do.” He leered at her and sauntered out the door.

Shaking her head, Stephanie reached for the backpack. George would be surprised himself if he knew what she was about to do. She felt another guilty pang. It was so wrong to lie to her husband. Then again, it was for a good cause.

Having reassured herself, she shoved the strap of the backpack over her shoulder and stole out into the hallway. She could hear George in Michael’s bedroom, arguing with his son. Deciding it would be safer to go out the back way, she sped into the kitchen, swiped George’s keys from their hook on the wall and tore out the door.

It took only a moment to throw the backpack into the back seat of her car. She softly closed the door, then hurried back to the kitchen. Leaning against the wall for a moment, she let out her breath. All she had to do
now was kiss her husband and children, and go trap a killer.

Three blocks down from her house Clara spotted Stephanie’s car waiting at the curb outside the library. Her cousin had a look of horror on her face when she opened the door. “What are you doing? You can’t bring that dog in here! I’ve got allergies.”

“Since when?” Clara opened the back door and urged Tatters to jump onto the backseat. He ecstatically obliged, and settled himself down with a smug look on his face.

“All right, I don’t, but my kids do. They’ll be sneezing all over the place tomorrow.”

“They won’t if you vacuum out the car when you get home.”

“Oh, yes, that’s a very good idea. I can just imagine George when he sees me vacuuming the car late at night after I’m supposed to have been at the store taking inventory.”

Clara raised her eyebrows. “You told him that one again?”

Stephanie’s jaw jutted in the light from the streetlamp. “Yes, I did. He doesn’t keep count of how many times I take inventory.”

“Just as well.” Clara climbed into the front seat. “You’d never get away with it if he did.”

“It’s not like I make a habit of it. I—” Stephanie broke
off and glared at her cousin. “Don’t change the subject. Why on earth did you bring that monster with you?”

“He’s not a monster.” Clara dug in her pocket and pulled out a dog treat. Twisting around, she held it out, and Tatters snapped it up, licked his lips and waited for more. “I brought him along for security. He’s our bodyguard.”

Stephanie snorted. “That dog? He’s more likely to bowl over the mayor and lick his face.”

“Meanwhile, we make our escape.”

“Oh.” Stephanie considered it. “I guess that might work.”

“He might surprise you.” Clara stretched out a hand to pat the dog’s head. “He fought off a would-be kidnapper this morning.”

Stephanie gasped. “Someone tried to kidnap you?”

“Not me. Tatters. I left him outside the store while I went in to buy those ridiculous earrings.” Clara relayed the story of Tatters’ near abduction while her cousin steered the car down the hill toward the harbor.

When she was finished, Stephanie uttered a low laugh. “Good old Tatters. He wasn’t going to let anyone get the better of him. I guess that makes him officially a member of the Quinn family.”

“He does fit in rather well.” Clara glanced over her shoulder. Tatters sat staring out of the window, no doubt wondering when he was going to finish his walk.

“What did you tell Aunt Jessie about tonight?”
Stephanie pulled up in the harbor parking lot and cut off the engine.

“I told her I was taking the dog for a walk.” Clara paused. “I just hope she doesn’t wake up and wonder what’s taking me so long.”

Stephanie patted her arm. “Don’t worry. She’ll be fast asleep by now and won’t even know you’re gone.”

“I don’t know. I keep worrying that she’ll wake up and realize I’m not home. She could call Dan. That would mess up everything.”

“She won’t wake up. You’re always telling me how she sleeps like a drunken sailor. Even if she does, she won’t get out of bed. Even if she does get out of bed, she won’t go to your room, so how’s she going to know you’re not there?”

“I don’t know. I just have a real uneasy feeling about all this.”

“Of course you do. We’re trying to trap a murderer into confessing to his crime. That’s not exactly something we do every day. I’m nervous, too.” Stephanie opened her door. “We have to make this call soon if we want Carson to be at the community hall by midnight.”

“What are you going to say to him?”

Stephanie paused in the act of climbing out of the car. “Me? I’m the ideas person, remember? You’re the one who does all the talking.”

“You know I’m not good at this.” Clara ran her fingers through her bangs. “How am I going to convince him to meet us?”

Stephanie sighed. “You just tell him that someone from his past has something important to tell him and wants to meet him at midnight. Tell him that if he wants to avoid a whole lot of trouble, he’d better be there and to come alone.” Stephanie finished climbing out, then leaned down to peer at her. “Make it sound real mysterious and threatening.”

“Mysterious and threatening. Wonderful.” Clara cracked open the window and got out. Tatters stood up, wagging his tail. “Not you, boy. You’ve got to stay. We won’t be long.” She closed the door and waited for her cousin to join her.

“There’s a pay phone over there.” Stephanie pointed across the parking lot to the gas station, where two phone booths stood side by side at the corner of the convenience store. “Did you bring change for the phone?”

Clara pulled a handful of coins from her pocket.

“Good thing.” Stephanie set off for the phone booth. “I’d forgotten we’d need change until just now. I haven’t used a pay phone since we were in our teens.”

She darted across the street, and Clara followed, trying frantically to think of what she would say to the mayor.

Stephanie opened the door of the phone booth. “It smells like crap in here.”

Clara stepped inside, wrinkling her nose at the putrid smell of stale tobacco and something she didn’t want to think about. She picked up the receiver and held it an inch from her ear. “There’s no dial tone.”

Stephanie looked stunned. “You’re kidding. What do we do now?”

“We try the one next door.” Clara slammed the phone back on its rest. Following her cousin to the other phone booth, she wondered if perhaps it was a sign that they should forget the whole thing and go home.

Inside the booth, she lifted the receiver, listened for a moment, then nodded. “This one’s okay.” She felt in her pocket for the slip of paper on which she’d scribbled the mayor’s phone number. Handing it to Stephanie, she added, “Read this out for me.”

Stephanie held it up to catch the light from the store next door. “Where did you get this?”

“From the City Hall website. It’s a direct number he put up there so that citizens could call him to discuss issues. Part of his Senate campaign, I guess.”

“Good going!”

There wasn’t a lot of room for both of them in the narrow phone booth, and Clara had to keep her elbows pressed to her sides as she dropped coins into the slot. The phone clicked, and the dial tone returned. As her cousin read out the numbers, Clara punched them out on the keypad, then waited, heart pounding, for Carson Dexter to answer.

When the deep voice said “Hello?” in her ear, she jumped violently, nearly dropping the phone. Eyes wide, she stared at Stephanie, momentarily brain-dead.

Her cousin flapped an impatient hand at her, and Clara made a supreme effort to gather her thoughts.

“Hello?” the mayor said again, and this time he sounded annoyed.

Clara swallowed, then lowered her voice to a husky growl. “Am I speaking to Mayor Dexter?”

“Yes, you are. It’s a little late to be calling me. What do you want?”

Clara lowered her voice even more. “I have a message for you. Someone from your past wishes to meet you. Be at the community hall at midnight tonight.”

There was a long pause, then the mayor asked abruptly, “Who
is
this?”

“Never mind who I am.” Clara signaled at Stephanie with her raised eyebrows and received another flap of the hand in response. “I…suggest you be there if you want to avoid some real trouble.”

“I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me who you are and what you want.”

He’d sounded as if he were on the verge of hanging up. Panicking, Clara once more signaled at Stephanie.

This time even her cousin looked uncertain.

Clara tried again. “The person who wants to meet you has information about the death of Frank Tomeski. If you’re not at the community hall by midnight, this person will take the information to the police. I don’t think you want that to happen.” She dropped the phone back on its rest and let out a shuddering breath.

“What did he say?” Stephanie’s anxious eyes raked her cousin’s face.

“I don’t know.” Realizing she was still speaking in the grating tone she’d used on the phone, she raised her voice.
“Er…I didn’t hear what he said. I hung up before he could reply.”

“Crap.” Stephanie opened the door and stumbled out of the booth. “Now we don’t know if he’ll be there or not.”

“Well, I can’t call him back and ask him.” Clara stepped out into the fresh night air and pulled in deep breaths. “We’ll just have to go down there and hope he comes.”

“All right. Let’s get going. I have to get changed and everything.”

Clara looked at her watch. “It’s only ten thirty. We have plenty of time.”

“Not if Carson Dexter decides to get there early.” Stephanie set off across the street to the parking lot. “We need to be ready and waiting for him when he gets there.”

Clara caught up with her as she reached the car. “Have you thought about what you’re going to say as Amy?”

Stephanie opened the car door. “I was hoping you’d do all the talking.”

“Me? You’re the one playing the ghost.”

“Yes, but you know more about Amy than I do. Besides, it will be even more creepy if the voice comes from somewhere else.” She climbed in behind the wheel.

“So what the heck am I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know. Something creepy.”

Clara opened her mouth to argue, but Stephanie went on talking. “It’s been five years since Carson last heard Amy’s voice. He probably won’t realize it’s not hers.”

Clara seriously doubted that, but things had gone too far now to back out. She slipped Tatters a dog treat and slid onto the passenger seat. “Come to think of it, how are we going to prove anything, even if Carson does say something to incriminate himself?”

Stephanie started the engine. “I thought about that. There’s a security camera in the main hall. We’ll have to make sure it’s working.”

“I could record what he says on my cell.” Clara held it up so her cousin could see it. “It’s got a pretty good camera on it.”

“Great!” Stephanie glanced over her shoulder. “I just hope that dog is quiet. We don’t want Carson to know that anyone else is there besides Amy.”

“Tatters will be quiet. I’ll have a word with him.”

Stephanie threw her a resigned look. “Of course. I keep forgetting you talk to dogs. I just hope he does what he’s told.”

“Trust me. Tatters will be a great ally, you’ll see.”

“I hope you’re right.” Stephanie drove out of the parking lot and turned the car toward Main Street. “Because, if something goes wrong and we get caught, we could be in big trouble.”

Clara felt an even deeper pang of apprehension. “Wait a minute. That’s my line.”

Stephanie shrugged. “We can’t be certain of anything. We can only hope and pray it all goes as planned.”

Clara leaned back on her seat. “
Now
she tells me.”

“It’ll be okay.” Stephanie sounded less than sure,
rattling Clara’s nerves even more. “We just have to keep our heads, that’s all.”

She was silent as she drove to the community hall, and Clara could only guess what she was thinking. She tried not to do much thinking herself. The scenarios she came up with were far too disturbing.

Stephanie parked the car two blocks from the community hall, down a side street sheltered by leafy oak trees. “You’ll have to get the dog out of the car,” she told Clara as she cut the engine. “I need to get into the backseat to change.”