Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 01 - Death Is Clowning Around (20 page)

Chapter 22

I drove back to the camp and found Lori and Terri playing on the huge trampoline.
They were having a blast jumping up and down and doing flips.
I stood and watched.
They both waved when they saw me.

A few minutes later, they came over.

“How are your allergies?”
Lori asked.

“They’re great, as long as I don’t get anywhere near roses.”

She reached behind my ear and brought out a bouquet of daisies.
I nodded at her.
“Now, these I like.”

“Do you want to get some lunch with us?”

“Sure.
Are we going back to the auditorium?”

“No way, their food stinks.
Let’s go to In and Out Burger downtown.”
Lori tilted her head and smiled at me.
“Can you drive?”

“Sure.
Is it alright with your parents?”

“I’m sure it is.”

“Maybe we better stop by and make sure before we leave the camp.”

Lori grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the offices.
“Okay, but let’s ask dad.
He’s easier to convince.”

Terri took my other arm and the two of them dragged me into Carl’s office.
It seemed like this happened a lot.

Carl was sitting behind his desk working on some papers when we came in.
He looked up and smiled.
“Hello, girls.”

I liked being one of the girls.
It was certainly better than being called Ma’am.
Lori explained about lunch.

“Of course you can go.”
Then he looked at me.
“As long as it’s okay with Liza.”

“It’s fine.
I like their burgers, too.”

He took out a business card, wrote something on the back, and then handed it to me.
“Give this to the manager and he’ll send me the bill.”

I tried to push the card back.
“I can afford to take the girls to lunch.”

“No, it’s my treat.”
He held out the card, again.
“Besides shouldn’t you be saving your money?”

“For what?”

“Didn’t you say that you wanted to adopt a child?”

How had he known?
I’d never said anything to him?
I’d just made it up a few hours ago.
He must have gotten a call from the judge.
I played along.
“How did you know?”

“The judge called me for a reference.”

“I did tell him that I was thinking about taking a job at the camp.
I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course.
We’d love to have you as a permanent member of our staff.”

“I’d have to finish up the year at my school.”

“That would be fine.
Then you can become a member of our clown family.”

I wanted to say over my dead body, but I was afraid that might be an omen.
I just smiled, as the girls and I headed for lunch.

As soon as we got in the car, they started yapping at me.

“I’m so glad that you’re going to come and work at the camp,” Lori said.

“And it’s really cool that you’re thinking about adopting a child,” Terri added.

“Well, we’ll see about both of those things.”

Before we ordered our burgers, I handed the manager Carl’s card.
He smiled, whispered to the clerk and she took our order.

The air was crisp but we sat outside.
Lori said she didn’t like to be confined in such a small building.
Terri leaned over and whispered to me as we walked out the door.
“She spent too much time cooped up in a car and now she prefers to sit outside.”
She rolled her eyes.
“No matter what the weather is like.”

“You’re a good friend to her.”

“We’ve been friends forever.
I love her like a sister.”

Lori turned her head toward us.
“Stop talki
ng about me like I’m not here –
and
I love you like a sister, too, Terri.”

Both girls smiled at each other.
Their affection was obvious.
It was nice that they had each other.

During lunch, the girls talked mostly about school, their weird science teacher, and the boys they thought were cute.
I’d forgotten what it was like to be with teenagers.
I prefer the five year olds in my class.
With them there was less giggling.

“So do you have a boyfriend?”
Lori asked.

“I have someone that I’ve just started seeing, but I’m not sure if anything is going to become of it.”

“A new boyfriend, how exciting!”
Terri said.

“What’s his name?”

“His name is Tom and he lives in Gainsville.”
Maybe the name would ring a bell with Lori.

They looked puzzled.
“Where’s that?”
Lori asked.

“Up north.”

“In the snow?”
Terri asked.

“By the snow.”

“I love the snow,” Terri said.

“I hate it!”
Lori said.
“Too cold!”

“I’m not much of a snow person, either,” I said.
“I prefer to be warm.”

“I don’t like the cold, but I love the snow.”
Terri swung her arms back and forth.
“Making snow angels, skiing, drinking hot chocolate and having snowball fights.”

“Drinking hot chocolate I can relate to,” I said.

“Me too,” Lori agreed.

As we drove back to the camp, the girls continued their barrage of questions.
I answered each one, and then asked one of my own.
I talked a little about the people I’d met in Gainsville to see if Lori remembered anyone but was met with a blank stare.
She did confirm a lot of the information that I’d read in her file at the judge’s office.

“So do you want a girl or a boy?”
Terri asked.

“I don’t care.
Just a healthy child, that’s what’s important.”

“I wasn’t healthy when I was adopted, but Mom and Dad took me anyway.”

“Your mom and dad are very special people.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“Do you have any happy memories from your childhood before you were adopted, Lori?”

“A few.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know why, but I remember ice cream and lots of it.
My mom wasn’t the best of moms, but she loved ice cream, and even if we didn’t have money for food, we always got some.”

“Is your mom still alive?”

“No, she died.
That’s why I was put into an orphanage and adopted.”

“I’m sorry about your mom.”

“That’s okay.
I’m much better off now and I think she’d be happy knowing that.
I remember she cried a lot and always promised me she’d stop drinking.”

“Do you remember much about your real dad?”

“Not really.
My mom always told me he was working out of town.
But now that I’m older, I understand she probably didn’t even know who he was.
It was just her way of letting me hold onto the thought that he might come back.”

“Parents do that.
You didn’t have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, it was just Mom and me.”

“And lots of ice cream.”

“Yeah.”

We pulled into a parking slot at my motel.
The girls scrambled out, thanked me for taking them to lunch, and then went back to their rooms in the main building.
I needed time to gather my thoughts about Jessie and Lori.
There were quite a few similarities between the two, but the biggest difference was Todd.
How could she have forgotten she had a brother?

Standing in front of my motel door were two of Carl’s goons.
They didn’t e
ven need their clown costumes –
I
knew exactly who they were.

“Hello, gentlemen.”

“Carl wants to see you.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

Here I go again!

Chapter 23

I could tell they were trying to be polite, but it was hard for them.
It was probably easier to just pick me up by the arms and drag me to Carl’s office.

As they walked along side of me, I felt weird.
It was like having an escort, but I knew if I deterred from our destination, they’d pick me up by the arms and carry me again.

When we got to Carl’s office, Beverly was there.
She was sitting behind his desk, working on the computer.
I smiled and went in.
“Carl wanted to see me.”

“Actually I was the one who asked Bruno and Oscar to find you and ask you to
come
here.”

I sat down in the chair in front of the desk.
“What can I do for you?”

“We had a visitor today.”

“Who?”

“An ex-friend of yours.”

“Really? Who?”

“Tom Owens.”

“You’re kidding me. Tom is here?”

“Yes, he was looking for you.”

I laughed.
“Probably wants me to change my mind about seeing him.”

“Probably.”

“Where is he now?”

“I sent him away.
I told him I’d tell you that he’d stopped by and if you were interested in seeing him again, you’d call.”

“I’m not.”

“That’s what you said, but I wanted to leave the door open incase you changed your mind.”

“Not a chance, but
do you think I should give him a call and make sure he gets the message that I’m not interested?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“It might be with him.
He’s such a control freak, you know.”

“I think he got the message.”

“Still, he can be stubborn.
Would it be all right if I used this phone to call him?
My cell phone just doesn’t work well in this canyon and I don’t want to have the conversation in the lobby of the motel.”

She hesitated.
“I guess so.”
She handed me the phone.

I dialed Tom’s cell phone.
It rang and rang and then eventually went to voice mail.
It
never
had done that before.
I waited for the beep.
“Hi Tom, this is Liza.
Beverly told me that you stopped by today.
I thought I made myself clear.
I’m really not interested in pursuing a relationship with you.
I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t call or stop by to see me again.
Thank you.”
I hung up the phone and looked at Beverly.
“Did that sound convincing enough?
Do you think he’ll get the hint?”

“Yeah…”
Her voice trailed off.

I got up.
“Well, I’ll see you later.
I’m going back to my motel room and write out a postcard to my sister.”

After leaving, I went to the roof of my motel and dialed Tom’s number again.
Still no answer.
I dialed the station in Gainsville.

“Sheriff’s Department.”

“May I speak with Tom Owens please?”

“He’s not here right now.”

“Can you tell me when he’ll be back?”

“I’m afraid not, Ma’am.”

“My name is Liza Wilcox…
” I never got a chance to finish.

“Tom’s new lady friend?”

“Yes.”

“I guess it’s okay for me to tell you.
He got an email from someone and said he had to go out of town for a few days and check something out.”

“Did he say who he got the email from or where he was going?”

“The email was from someone named Justin.
But he didn’t say where he was going.”

“Thanks.”
I hung up and dialed Justin’s number.

“Hey, Teach.”

“Did you send that email to Tom?”
Silence.
“Justin, did you send the email with all the information to Tom?”

“Yeah.
I know I was supposed to wait until something happened to you, but I didn’t like the sound of that.
I wasn’t going to wait until I heard you’d been killed.
Give me a break, Teach.
I couldn’t live with that.
I sent it right after I talked to you this morning.”

“Well, he came up to clown camp looking for me and now he’s not answering his cell phone.”

“Do you think the clowns did something to him?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry, Teach.
I was just afraid for you.”

“It’s okay, Justin.
I shouldn’t have put you in the middle of this.”

“How can I help?”

“Is there anyway to figure out where he is from his cell phone?”

“No, not unless he answers it.
But didn’t you say that your cell phone didn’t work in the canyon?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he’s either not in the canyon or he’s got a better cell phone than you.
If his wasn’t working, calls would go directly to voicemail rather than ringing.”

“Is there any way to boost my cell phone so that I’d be able to use it in the canyon?”

“Sure, but it’s more complicated than you could handle.
It would mean going to a Radio Shack and attaching several electronic components to your cell phone.
It would be easier to buy a better phone.”

“There’s a place downtown.
Would they have the type of phone that I’d need?”

“Since the town’s in the canyon, they probably would know exactly what you could use.”

“Perfect.
I’m going downtown.”

“Keep me informed, Teach.”

“Okay.”
I flew down the stairs, got into my car and drove downtown.
The store was just closing.

“Hey.”
I pounded on the glass.

The clerk came to the door.
“We’re closed.”

“I’m going to be working up at the clown camp and I need a cell phone that I can make calls with in this stupid canyon.”

“You’re going to be working at the camp?”

Isn’t that what I just said?
“Yes.”

He opened the door.
Fifteen minutes and several hundred dollars later I had a phone that worked in the canyon.
I drove back to the camp and dialed Tom’s number.
It continued to ring.
I didn’t leave a message, instead I just kept dialing.

If Tom was in danger, how could I help?
I unlocked the glove compartment and got out the gun he’d given me.
I wasn’t sure I could actually hit anything with it, but maybe it would scare someone.
There weren’t any pockets in my clothes, so I put the gun in the waistband of my pants on my back.
I might have felt like a real detective, except my hands were shaking and my stomach was churning.
Then I slipped on a jacket from the backseat to hide the gun.

I wandered around the camp, dialing and listening for the ringing sound.
If Tom was in the camp someplace, hopefully I’d be able to hear his phone ringing.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I jumped.