Midnight Mystery: 4 (Winnie the Horse Gentler) (15 page)

Catman was already starting to walk toward the fairgrounds. By the time I finished grooming Nickers, he and I had to trot to catch up with Catman.

“So what are you doing about Gabrielle?” I tried to control my temper, but I wasn’t doing a good job. Nickers sensed my anger and didn’t like it. She sidestepped nervously. I tried again, lowering my voice. “Did you at least talk to Gabrielle? Did she admit it?”

“Nope.”

“She didn’t admit it?”

“Didn’t talk to her.”

“You call that ‘handling things’?” Did I have to do everything? Now I’d have to invade the Colonel’s reunion to give him the bad news about Gabrielle. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice. Who knew what Gabrielle had planned for Ramon tonight! And whether Jimmy Green Dinglehopper was in on it or not.

We walked through the circus parking lot, which was already half full. A white pickup truck with
Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus
on the side was parked in the front row.

“Catman!” I exclaimed. “The scout’s here! He really came! Give me two minutes to stable Nickers. Then you and I are going straight to the Colonel’s trailer. And don’t worry. I’ll tell him about Gabrielle myself!”

Five minutes later we were at the door of the Colonel’s trailer. I didn’t want to go in. I’m lousy enough talking to people one-on-one. I wasn’t looking forward to explaining everything to Colonel Coolidge while his old army buddies listened on. I took a deep breath and knocked.

“Come in!” Ramon opened the door, and his smile faded. “Oh. Hi, Winnie. Thought you might be one of the Colonel’s buddies.”

“They’re not here yet?” I glanced around the trailer. The canteens and a pitcher of grape Kool-Aid were set out on a table draped with an army blanket. The Colonel, dressed in his army uniform, paced in front of the table.

Ramon glanced nervously at him. “They probably had trouble finding Ashland, Colonel.”

“Nonsense!” barked Colonel Coolidge. “My men can find an enemy bunker in an unmarked field in the middle of a blinding snowstorm! They’ll be here!”

“Bad scene,” Catman whispered. “Those cats should have been here by now.”

Ramon shook his head. “I’ve never seen him like this. I don’t know what he’ll do if . . .”

The Colonel was muttering to himself. “. . . really give it to them for being late! . . . know better than to keep a superior officer waiting!”

I hated seeing him like that. But at least I wouldn’t have to give him the bad news about Gabrielle with his buddies around. “Colonel Coolidge?” I had to clear my throat. “I have to tell you something important. I’ve found out—”

He stopped pacing. “What? Do you know anything about this? Where are they? Did you see them out there?” He motioned toward the door. “Well?”

“No, sir!” My heart raced.

“Then why did you say you did?” he roared.

“But I didn’t mean . . . I was just trying . . .” I couldn’t get the words out.

Catman took my elbow and pulled me toward the door. “We’ll go look for them, Colonel.”

“Great idea!” Ramon agreed. “I’ll stay here, you know, just in case they show up before you get back.” He walked to the door with us. “Thanks.” He lowered his voice. “A couple of the men are older than the Colonel. They really might be wandering around out there. Find them.” He glanced over his shoulder at the Colonel, who was straightening his canteens. “Please.”

Outside I turned on Catman. “I wanted to tell him about Gabrielle before his buddies get here, Catman!”

“
If
his buddies get here.” He reached back and tightened the rubber band on his blond ponytail, something I’d only seen him do when he was worried about something.

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t they come?” But as soon as I said it, I knew the only reason those men wouldn’t come—sickness or death.

“You go that way.” Catman pointed toward the midway. “I’ll go this.” He took out toward the Big Top.

I was glad I didn’t have a watch. I knew we were running out of time. It was already starting to get dark. I wanted to find the Colonel’s army buddies. We had to find them. I raced around the cotton-candy stand and bumped into somebody. “Sorry—”

“Hey! Watch it!”

I’d have recognized that snotty voice anywhere. Summer Spidell brushed off her black leather coat as if I’d spilled manure on her. She was flanked by two other girls from our class who had never spoken to me. “Winifred Willis. I might have known.” Summer flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “If you’re looking for your father, he went that way.” She flicked her hand as if shooing flies.

“It wasn’t
my
dad. He’s in Chicago.” I started to leave, but something stopped me.

Summer smirked at her buddies. “It’s your dad all right. Didn’t you know he was back?” She elbowed the girl in an identical leather coat. “And, Winnie, who’s that woman he’s with?”

“You’re lying!” I shouted at Summer. Why would she say she’d seen my dad with a woman? It was a new low, even for her.

Summer’s smirk faded. “You really didn’t know? I’m sorry, Winnie.” Her pale blue eyes rounded, and she looked sorry for real. Summer Spidell, sorry for me?

I ran away as fast as I could.
She’s wrong! Summer’s a liar! Or she made a mistake.

“Winnie!” Lizzy was running toward me, her shiny hair swaying. “We’ve been looking all over for you!” Breathless, she stopped in front of me. “Dad’s here! He came back early to—!”

“Dad?” It was true?

Lizzy looked over her shoulder and waved.

Dad waved back wildly and trotted toward us. And right behind him was a woman—tall, too tall, and too thin. She waved too.

“He shouldn’t have bothered!” I screamed. I turned and ran the other way, ignoring their shouts, stumbling because I couldn’t see, because everything looked blurry. Dad and a tall woman, on my mother’s birthday!

I didn’t stop running until I reached the Colonel’s trailer. I stood on the step and wiped my tears with the back of my sleeve.
“The same yesterday, today, and forever”? What a joke! Forget about Dad. Just get through tonight. Help Ramon get through tonight.

Ramon opened the trailer door. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” I pushed past him. Catman was already back. I didn’t see any old soldiers here, except the Colonel. He looked older, withered, as if his bones were dissolving.

“Ramon,” I said, trying to control my shaky voice, “I know who’s been sabotaging your act and trying to—”

The phone rang.

The Colonel snatched it before it stopped ringing. “Colonel Coolidge, 44th Division!” As he listened, his face changed, sagged like wax melting. He didn’t speak for a long time. I saw him swallow. Then he turned his back to us. His shoulders slumped. At last he said, “Alden and Ayers too? . . . I understand. Thank you for calling, Mrs. House.”

He hung up, and the click of the phone seemed as loud and final as thunder in the silent trailer. Slowly, as if he’d forgotten we were there, he walked to the table and fingered the three canteens on the end.

Ramon moved beside him. “Colonel?”

Colonel Coolidge took a deep breath and stood at attention. “Sergeant Alden, Private Ayers, and Second Lieutenant House will not be coming. They have gone to meet their maker. The world has not known better men.”

I didn’t know what to do. Tears burned my throat. Even Catman looked like he might cry, and I’d never seen him cry.

“I’m so sorry, Colonel.” Ramon put his arm around the old man. They stood over the canteens, not speaking, just aching together. Finally Ramon spoke. “Colonel, let’s cancel tonight’s circus. I’ll stay here with you and—”

Colonel Coolidge turned to face Ramon. “Cancel?”

“I think we should. We can give back gate money. It’s no big deal.”

“But the Beatty Show scout? He’s out there.”

Ramon shrugged. “We’ll give him his money back too.” He grinned, but I could tell how hard it was for him.

The Colonel took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. “Ramon, you’d do that? Give up a chance at the Beatty Show?”

“Sure. I’d rather hang out with you tonight anyway.”

Colonel Coolidge stared at Ramon. Then, as if something inside the broken man pulled together, he stood up straight and lifted his chin. “Not on your life! The show will go on! And you, Ramon, will put on the best performance of your career! You will show that scout what Ramon and Midnight Mystery can do! They will beg you to join their circus!” His voice softened. “And you will say yes.”

Ramon shook his head. “But, Colonel—”

“That’s an order, son.” But he said it like a father, not a colonel.

The door opened, and in burst Gabrielle LeBlond. “What is with you people? You should all be in the Big Top! Am I the only one around here who cares about the circus?”

Gabrielle!
Having her barge in jarred me back to why I’d come to the Colonel’s trailer in the first place. Her words echoed:
Am I the only one who cares about the circus?

“You’re the only one who
doesn’t
care about the circus!” I shouted. I stormed over to her. “Gabrielle, we know everything. You might as well tell the truth. Admit to Ramon and the Colonel that you’re responsible for Midnight’s problems.”

“Are you crazy?” She put her hands on her hips. “You saw for yourself last night! Somebody tried to ruin
my
act, too!”

“You did that yourself!
You
cut your old surcingle.” I glanced to Catman to back me up, but he kept quiet. So I explained about the new surcingle and how Gabrielle had to have faked her own accident.

As I talked, Gabrielle’s stone face softened. She looked away, then glared back at me. “So what! It’s my surcingle anyway! I didn’t hurt anybody but myself!”

“Gabrielle, why did you do it?” Ramon sounded hurt.

“Why? Because
she—”
she pointed to me—“suspected
me!
Because I was sick of you getting all the attention! Maybe I wanted people to worry about me for a change.”

“That doesn’t excuse what you did to Midnight and Ramon!” I insisted.

“I didn’t do anything to Ramon!” Gabrielle shouted. “Or his horse!”

“Pul-lease!” I shouted back. “Like we buy that!”

“We buy that.” Catman slipped in between Gabrielle and me.

“What?” I couldn’t believe him! And just when I had Gabrielle cornered! When she was about to confess! “Catman!” I whispered. “Leave this to me!”

Catman ignored me and turned to the Colonel. “Colonel, why were your boots dirty yesterday? I know you polished them before you went to bed. You can’t sleep if your boots aren’t polished.”

“Nonsense.” But something flashed across the Colonel’s face. Fear?

“That blew my mind,” Catman said. “Until I saw what was on your boots. Manure. And horsehair on your jacket. You got it retraining Midnight in the middle of the night. That’s why you yawned so much.”

“Catman!” He
had
to be wrong. It didn’t make any sense. But I remembered the dirty boots . . . and the yawning.

“Cut it out, Catman!” Ramon insisted. “The Colonel couldn’t have done it!”

“Couldn’t have given new cues from the ring with his ringmaster’s whip?” Catman asked, not taking his gaze off the Colonel. “Put a burr under your blanket? Flashed the laser light? Put the wrong feed in the bin? Cut a hole in the lion cage?” Catman shook his head, and I could tell he would rather have been doing anything except this. “He could. He did. I just don’t know why.”

I stared at the Colonel, waiting for him to deny it. But he didn’t.

“Colonel Coolidge
did it?” Gabrielle repeated.

“Colonel?” Ramon’s eyes pleaded with him. “Tell him he’s wrong! Tell them you didn’t do it!”

The Colonel hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Ramon. I—”

Ramon stepped back as if he’d been slapped. “How could you! I thought . . . I thought you cared for me! And all the time you only cared about your precious circus?”

“Ramon, please—” Colonel Coolidge reached for him, but Ramon stepped back.