by Diane Hoh
And then I looked at the date on the check. It was my birthday.
Suddenly everything was clear. I wasn’t who I thought I was.
My last name wasn’t the same as the signature on the check, after all. Not really. My last name was O’Hare.
I was the O’Hare baby.
Chapter 22
ON FRIDAY, TESS’S CAR was delivered, complete with four brand-new tires. And a brief announcement on the radio and in the newspaper that the crash of The Devil’s Elbow had been due to a “loose rail,” which would be quickly repaired, ended speculation in Santa Luisa about recent events at The Boardwalk.
When Tess questioned Gina at the hospital about how her own accident was being explained, Gina shrugged and said, “I guess I fell over the railing.” And when Tess looked plainly disgusted by that answer, Gina continued, “Tess, I wish you’d quit worrying about it. It’s over and done with, and I’m going home soon. You’ll drive yourself nuts if you don’t forget about it. Daddy said The Devil’s Elbow will be good as new and we won’t even remember the crash happened after a while. I’ll be good as new, too. Can’t you relax?”
Tess couldn’t. Completely convinced that both accidents had been anything but accidental, but not having a shred of proof, she felt helpless and frightened. This wasn’t the end of it, she was sure of that. There was more to come.
She went to Trudy’s birthday party on Saturday, hoping to learn something. The people attending all had parents on the board. If she kept her eyes and ears open, maybe she’d come up with some answers. But she went with a sense of dread that something bad was going to happen. She was convinced the phone call hadn’t been a joke.
The party was held at night, on the beach below The Boardwalk. Darkness had fallen before Trudy’s guests arrived, but the area was bathed in the amusement park’s neon glow, with additional lighting provided by tall pole lamps scattered along the beach. The rain had temporarily ceased, and only a few innocent-looking clouds floated now and again across the half moon. A Saturday night with nothing to do in Santa Luisa, combined with the results of Chalmers’s investigation, had brought increased business to The Boardwalk. Laughter and music, along with the usual smells of hot dogs, popcorn, and cotton candy, gave the party site the proper atmosphere.
When Tess arrived, Sam and Guy Joe, in cutoffs and short-sleeved sweatshirts, had already built a small, cozy fire. Trudy, unsuitably dressed for a picnic in an elegant yellow jumpsuit, her hair piled on top of her head, sat in a lawn chair like, Tess thought to herself, a queen waiting to greet her subjects. And Candace, cocooned in a dull blue muu-muu, busied herself removing food items from a wicker hamper. Several blankets were spread close together to provide seating and some slight protection against the rain-dampened sand.
Doss arrived shortly after Tess. Beak came next, a huge bouquet of multicolored balloons in hand. Presenting them to Trudy with a dramatic flourish, he asked where the food was.
“Here, Beak,” Trudy said, offering him a red box crammed full of chocolate-frosted brownies. “Take this temptation out of my path. We’re not having hot dogs until I open my presents, but you can start with these. If I eat even one, the chocolate will go straight to my hips.”
Beak selected two very large brownies. Then he donned a party hat of pink crepe paper trimmed with silver and began dancing on the sand, his mouth full of brownie, arms and legs flailing to music from the cassette player Trudy had brought. Grabbing another tiny hat, this one bright yellow, he slid its thin elastic band over his head and clamped the pointed little hat over his nose.
Laughing at his antics, Tess found it hard to imagine that this silly, crazy boy could have had anything to do with sabotaging The Boardwalk.
Then Trudy cried, “Beak, you look like a psychotic chicken!” which wiped the smile from Tess’s face. Psychotic wasn’t a word to be thrown around too lightly these days. And Beak hadn’t laughed when Trudy said it. Hadn’t he heard her? Or had he decided to ignore it because it hit too close to home?
A sudden hand on her shoulder startled her and she jumped and whirled around.
“For Pete’s sake!” Sam said. “Relax! You’re as nervous as my old man when the stock market takes a dive. What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing.” She twisted a strand of hair around her finger nervously. “But you shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”
“Sneak up? You looked lonesome standing over here all by yourself. How come you haven’t joined the party?”
Because I don’t trust anyone, she wanted to answer, but didn’t. Because I’m waiting for doom to strike, her mouth got ready to say, but didn’t. Because …
“I thought you’d be more relaxed now,” Sam said, watching her face carefully, “now that we know The Devil’s Elbow crash was accidental.”
She laughed harshly. “Yeah, that’s a big relief, isn’t it?”
“You still don’t believe it?”
Beak ran over to Candace and tugged at her hand, insisting that she join him in his crazy dance. To Tess’s surprise, Candace did.
“Sure, I believe it,” Tess lied, because she couldn’t tolerate one more person telling her to forget about it. “Any reason why I shouldn’t?”
He knew she was lying, and looked hurt. “No, I guess not. Take a walk down to the water with me.”
“No.” She wasn’t going near the water. A drowning would make a great “accident,” wouldn’t it? Besides, she should stay here. Since she was the only one who expected something bad to happen, she needed to keep her eyes open. Maybe if she really paid attention, she could somehow prevent another disaster.
“Well, then walk up the beach a little way with me. C’mon.”
She hesitated, watching Doss. He seemed uncomfortable, sitting off to one side of the blankets by himself. She knew he had come only to please Gina. Just as Trudy had probably invited him only to please Gina. Although, who knew about Trudy? Maybe she had a reason for wanting all of them there. Doss’s father was no longer on the board of directors, but he had been. Maybe that was why Doss had been included at Trudy’s party.
On the other hand, if it was Doss who had caused the crash and taken the saucer and made the telephone calls and sent the ugly note, this would be the perfect opportunity for him to do more damage. With Gina safely in the hospital, he wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting her while he was targeting any of the others.
She wished with all her heart that this evening was already over, and they were all safely back in their own homes.
“Trudy hasn’t opened her presents yet,” she told Sam.
“Yeah, I noticed. She’s too wrapped up in your brother to unwrap presents. Hey, a little play on words there? Wrapped up, unwrap, get it?”
“I got it. I just didn’t think it was very funny.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be funny. It was an accident.”
That word again. Accident. She had learned to hate it.
Laughter from The Boardwalk echoed out over the beach. People were having fun up there. She wished she could join them. “I wish Trudy would open her presents and feed us. I’m starved!” She was stalling. The thought of food sickened her.
“Have a brownie.”
“Too sweet. I want real food.” Something as sweet and gooey as a brownie would be worse than trying to swallow ordinary food. “She promised us hot dogs.”
“Well, while we’re waiting, take a walk with me.”
Beak and Candace were still cavorting on the sand, Guy Joe was being held captive by Trudy, and Doss was delving into the brownie box. He seemed to have relaxed a little and he didn’t look the least bit dangerous.
Maybe she could leave them alone for a few minutes. It would give her a chance to explain her theory about the board of directors to Sam. If he laughed at her, she’d simply never speak to him again. But if he didn’t, maybe together they could figure out what to do. They wouldn’t walk very far.
“Okay. But just for a few minutes.” Casti
ng one last quick glance across the party group to make sure everything was okay, Tess turned and joined Sam. “And we can’t go far.”
They plodded silently across the damp sand. The night wind tugged gently at her hair, sent her short, full red skirt billowing around her legs. Because she had her head down, Tess didn’t notice until too late that they had been walking toward the disabled Devil’s Elbow. The lights trimming its lengthy frame were still on, but the tracks were bare, the cardboard signs still waving on the thick rope fence.
“I don’t want to be here,” Tess said clearly, stopping in her tracks. “Let’s go back.”
“Don’t be silly, Tess.” Sam looked down at her, annoyance bringing his brows together. “The thing isn’t even working now. The new cars haven’t been delivered yet. What’s there to be scared of?”
“It gives me the creeps, that’s all. Makes me jittery just looking at it.” And it did. She kept hearing the screams …
“You’re turning into a nervous wreck,” he accused gently. “Everybody says so. If you don’t relax—”
“Of course I’m a nervous wreck!” she shouted, losing control. “And you would be, too, if you had half a brain! Haven’t you even noticed that the kids hurt the worst so far all have parents on The Boardwalk’s board of directors?”
He hadn’t. She could tell by the startled look on his face. “What?”
“And that’s something they all have in common with you,” she continued. “Your father is a director, too. So is mine.” Her voice rose again, “So why aren’t you a nervous wreck?”
Sam began walking in a small circle around her, his head down. “Never even crossed my mind,” he said. “What made you come up with such a crazy theory?”
“Facts, Sam, facts,” she said crossly. “Can’t you see it? Can’t you even admit that it’s a possibility? That someone is out to ruin The Boardwalk and hurt a lot of people at the same time? It’s the only answer that makes sense.”
He stopped pacing to look at her. “Got any idea who it might be? This crazy phantom of yours? And why he’s freaked out?”
She shook her head. “I have a couple of possibilities, but no proof. And it’s no phantom, Sam. Phantoms don’t send threatening notes and make nasty phone calls.” She should have kept the note. It was more convincing than anything she could say. Too late now.
“Look,” he said, “I’m not saying you’re right or you’re wrong. But if you’re even close to the truth, why haven’t you moved back to your father’s house? You’d be safe there. I don’t see how you can think what you think and still stay alone in that condo out there in the woods. Makes no sense.”
She had been thinking about doing exactly that, moving back with her father and Guy Joe, just until this nightmare was over. But if Sam wasn’t convinced that her theory was a valid one, what business did he have accusing her of being foolish? Either there was a reason to be afraid or there wasn’t. Sam couldn’t have it both ways.
“Then you agree that my theory makes sense?”
“I didn’t say that. But if you think it does, why are you still in the condo? If Chalmers and the board are covering up something, this is no time for someone like you to be all alone out there in the woods.”
“Someone like me? What’s that supposed to mean?” Occasionally biting her nails and twisting her hair didn’t mean she needed a keeper! He was being so patronizing, she thought angrily.
“Someone,” he said firmly, “who gets spooked just looking at a roller coaster that isn’t even working. Why are you being so stubborn about this?”
“And why can’t you take me seriously?” she shouted. “Why can’t you admit that everything I’ve said makes sense?”
In exasperation, he reached out and took hold of her shoulders, as if he was about to shake her. Instead, he pulled her close to him, bent his head, and kissed her. “There,” he said as she pushed him away, “is that taking you seriously enough?”
The kiss had unsettled her. Flustered, she said angrily, “What is that, some kind of therapy for people you consider nervous wrecks? Well, it didn’t work. I still think I’m right, and until you do, too, I don’t want to talk to you. Go away!”
“Oh, I give up!” he shouted in disgust, and turned in the sand to stride away from her, throwing his hands up in the air as he walked.
She watched until he became a blurred shadow in the darkness. She was sorry she’d ever agreed to take a walk with him.
Why hadn’t he been willing to discuss her question about the victims being kids of the board of directors? It was worth discussing. It could be the key to this whole, ugly business.
She was not going to follow him. Not yet. No trailing after him like a lost puppy. She wasn’t wild about staying out here under The Devil’s Elbow by herself, but it was better than following Sam as if he were her keeper. She’d sit on the sand for a while to cool off, and then rejoin the party. Laughter and music rang out from the place where Trudy was celebrating her birthday. It sounded like fun. She’d go back in a few minutes.
The sand was damp, and soothed her fingers as she dug into it, molding little hills on either side of her as she watched the surf teasing the shore.
Her left hand touched something hard and sharp, buried in the sand. She pulled out the object and turned toward The Boardwalk to give herself more light. The object appeared to be a small stone—some type of gem. Holding it up to the light, Tess saw that it was blue. And she’d seen stones like this before. It wasn’t particularly valuable, she was sure of that. It was something very common.
Of course! It was the kind of stone worn in Santa Luisa High School class rings. She’d bought hers early in September. But it had proved to be so bulky that she seldom wore it, keeping it instead in her jewelry box.
Someone in town wasn’t wearing theirs at all. A class ring would look pretty stupid with the stone missing.
She stood up, stone in hand. She looked around, frowning. And looked down at the spot where she’d been sitting. It was directly beneath that last gentle curve in The Devil’s Elbow’s tracks.
That probably meant nothing, Tess tried to assure herself. Everyone in town wore Santa Luisa High class rings. And stones probably fell out of them all the time.
Or did it mean the stone belonged to the person who had tampered with the roller coaster?
Anyway, the stone couldn’t be identified. Only the rings were identifiable. And she didn’t have the ring belonging to this stone.
But she slipped the stone into the pocket of her red long-sleeved shirt. She couldn’t have said why. It seemed the right thing to do.
Then she hurried back to the party.
She was halfway there when the quiet hit her. There was supposed to be a party going on ahead of her, but there was no noise. Quiet as a tomb. That didn’t make sense. Where had the laughter, the music gone?
Her steps quickened. They hadn’t left without her, had they? Left her alone out here? No, they wouldn’t do that. Guy Joe wouldn’t.
Then, half running across the hard-packed sand, she heard sounds coming from the direction of the blankets.
But they weren’t party sounds.
The sounds she heard were moans and groans, sounds of pain. Almost like a muted version of the sounds she’d heard on the boardwalk the night The Devil’s Elbow had crashed.
Heart pounding, she ran the last few steps.
And arrived on the scene to find everyone but Sam and Trudy writhing in agony on the sand, clutching their stomachs and moaning in pain.
Chapter 23
TESS RAN TO SAM and clutched at his elbow. “What? What’s happening? What’s wrong with them?” she cried, her eyes on her agonized Mends.
“Don’t know. They just doubled over all of a sudden, a second ago. Trudy,” he barked, “get an ambulance! Hurry!”
Trudy ran. When she had gone, Tess turned to Sam in tears. “I didn’t want to be right about something bad happening. I didn’t!”
“I know that,” he said,
putting an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s see if we can do something for them.”
But the only thing they could do was cover everyone with a jacket or sweater, and wait.
When Trudy returned, breathless, she began wringing her hands as she saw that nothing had changed. “I can’t believe this is happening!” she shrieked. “What is the matter with them?” Then her eyes narrowed in suspicion, focusing on Beak, who was rolling from side to side on the sand, moaning. “Beak, if this is one of your practical jokes, I swear I’ll strangle you! You’re ruining my party.”
“Get real, Trudy!” Sam snapped as sirens began, once again, to approach The Boardwalk. “Look at their faces. Does it look like anyone’s joking?”
Tess, thinking wearily that she would be hearing sirens in her sleep for the rest of her life, knelt by Guy Joe’s side. His pain was so great he had bitten through his bottom lip. A thin stream of blood pooled on his chin. She took one of his hands in hers, but he gripped it so hard, she cried out in pain and he let go. Tess hadn’t felt so helpless since the night she’d been trapped in the muddy, unfinished swimming pool.
Sam bent over her. “Did you eat any brownies?” he asked, his voice low.
“What?” What was taking that ambulance so long?
“I said, did you eat any of those brownies Trudy passed around?”
“No. I wanted real food, remember? Why?”
Sam crouched beside her. A distraught Trudy was tossing party things into bags and baskets, muttering in distress to herself, and the injured were too preoccupied with their pain to listen to Sam. Still, he kept his voice low. “Because I didn’t eat any, either. And I’m fine. And Trudy’s on a diet. But Beak and Guy Joe each polished off a couple of pieces, and Doss had at least one. So did Candace. Get the picture?”
Before she could concentrate on the meaning of Sam’s words, the ambulance arrived.
When the attendants had asked about booze and drugs and been assured that none of either were used at the party, Sam handed one of the paramedics the red box, now empty of all but a small chunk of chocolatey cookie. “Brownies,” he said brusquely. “They ate them. We didn’t.”