Don

by Carlene Thompson

  Local businessmen had predicted failure for The Blue Lady Resort, but the young entrepreneur laughed with the confidence of youth and money and lifelong privilege. And he was right. Season after season The Blue Lady flourished. Five years after it was built, it had been visited by countless movie stars, six governors, ten state senators, and the notorious dancer Isadora Duncan. After a riotous evening of drinking in the dance pavilion, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda waded into Lake Erie in evening clothes and nearly drowned before hotel staff rescued them. A president's niece married there. Houdini spent a week. Later years saw Lana Turner, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Thomas Wolfe.

  By the late sixties, The Blue Lady no longer drew the rich and famous. It had become a tourist hotel of old-fashioned, shabby grandeur. Then in the summer of 1970 three murders took place in and around the resort. "The Blue Lady Murders" enjoyed short-lived notoriety and although police caught the killer, business abruptly ceased. The hotel closed and shortly afterward a fire completely destroyed it. Miraculously the dance pavilion survived. For over twenty years it had sat empty, a crumbling monument to long-dead nights of glamour and good times.

  Natalie stopped a few yards from the pavilion, gasping for breath. She looked up at the clouds turned slightly yellow by the crescent moon. The slanted roof of the pavilion bore a film of dark mold. From photos she knew hundreds of tiny white lights had once decorated trees in front of the pavilion. But that had been long before she and Lily, as teenagers, occasionally broke into the pavilion to smoke forbidden cigarettes and collaborate on atrocious musical creations they hoped one day to play for adoring fans.

  How blithely they had walked up the steps and in the darkness picked the padlock on the front door. She didn't remember ever worrying about getting caught.

  A sharp bark came from the portico in front of the pavil ion. Natalie strained her eyes and made out a dark shape. " Blaine!" she called again. Another bark. "Come here!" The dog sat firm. "Oh for heaven's sake," Natalie muttered, stalking toward the portico.

  As she neared the dog, Blaine began to make an anxious chuffing sound. Natalie paused. "What is it, girl?" she asked as if the dog could answer. Blaine stood and turned in a circle, then scratched at the pavilion door.

  Natalie slowly approached the dog. Blaine looked at her, then at the door. Her leash trailed out to the side and Natalie picked up the loop. Then she glanced at the door. A new padlock hung open.

  Natalie stood still and listened. Nothing but the sound of distant wind chimes tinkling in the breeze. With the lock open, silence was not a good sign. Maybe someone was hiding inside, trying to be quiet.

  Or maybe someone was hurt. Blaine scratched at the door again and this time it opened slightly. Someone had closed it so lightly the latch hadn't caught. Blaine pulled forward. Then Natalie heard a tiny, high-pitched cry.

  Good lord, she thought. Could someone have crept into The Blue Lady just as she and Lily used to do and gotten hurt? After all, the place was a wreck.

  Natalie started inside, then hesitated. There had been a murder last night. Maybe she should go home.

  But if she simply walked away, deserting someone who might be hurt, she would never forgive herself. And she wasn't defenseless-she had her gun. She had to at least give the pavilion a cursory scan.

  Inside, the dance room looked cavernous. "Is anyone here?" Natalie called. Not a sound. She flicked the beam of her flashlight around. Only a few tables sat on a dusty floor. "Do you need help?"

  She stood still, barely breathing. Silence. Maybe she'd only heard a bird that had flown in when the door was open and been trapped. Time to go, she told herself, but she couldn't leave just yet. She hadn't seen this place for years.

  She and the dog walked across the floor, Blaine 's nails clicking on the wood. Beautiful wood, once highly varnished to facilitate the smooth moves of dancing feet. Grandmother St. John had told her all about The Blue Lady where she and Grandfather had spent so many hours of their youth. Natalie closed her eyes and in her mind the room filled with people, the men in formal black, the women in a rainbow of satin with gardenias pinned to their hair. She pictured her grandmother-an elegant woman with dark hair, flashing green eyes, and a taste for fine champagne-dancing to the sounds of big bands.

  Natalie opened her eyes and the opulent scene vanished. Once again she stood in a big, empty room filled with dust and ghosts and the sound of dark, cold water lapping against rotting pilings.

  A thud of her heart reminded her she was still winded from running. All the exertion after a raging panic attack had left her drained and she suddenly felt woozy. The room spun. She sat down on one of the chairs near a wall and drew a slow, deep breath. Then another. She frowned. What did she smell? Roses? Impossible. She wore no cologne. Imagination, she told herself. She'd been thinking of Grandmother who wore an expensive rose-based perfume. But no rose perfume lingered in the lonely pavilion. Only the memory of a beautiful woman dead over ten years.

  A few more slow, deep breaths and she'd be ready to head for home, she thought, glancing around the room. Windows lined the pavilion, providing a panoramic view of the lake. She knew soft blue lanterns once hung around the structure. The slightest breeze sent them dancing, turning the lake water into a rippling sapphire fairyland. Now only a yellowish glow from the sodium vapor lamps in the parking lot of a nearby convenience store struggled through the filmy, flyblown windows.

  She darted the flashlight beam around again. Overhead soared a high cathedral ceiling. In the center hung a huge, mirrored ball.

  Natalie started. She'd never seen it except in pictures. In all the years she'd come here, it had been covered in burlap.

  Now the ball glittered, reflecting the room in a hundred prisms of polished glass. Freshly polished.

  "Is anyone here?" she called again, this time her voice not so strong.

  "Na-ta-lie?"

  Natalie stiffened. Blaine 's ears lifted and she turned her head to the right.

  No one.

  But it had been a woman's voice-young, clear, delicate. A familiar voice. The voice on the phone this afternoon.

  No, no that couldn't be, Natalie told herself sternly. She was deeply shaken by the murder, by her dream, by the phone call, by the eerie atmosphere of this place. The voice existed only in her mind.

  But Blaine 's head had turned.

  I must have made a sharp movement, Natalie thought. I startled her and she instinctively lifted her ears and turned her head.

  "Na-ta-lie. I know you hear me. Can't you see me?"

  Natalie jumped. Blaine lunged, but Natalie clutched the leash. If the dog found the voice, the dog would die. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

  "Who's there?" Natalie could not get an exact fix on the voice although Blaine pulled toward the end of the room with the dais where the bands had once played "String of Pearls" and "Take the A Train."

  "Aren't you going to answer, Na-ta-lie?"

  Blaine pulled harder. Natalie shot the flashlight beam around the room. Cobwebs. Dust. Mildew.

  The highly polished mirrored ball.

  "Who are you?" Natalie asked, trying to steady her voice. She wouldn't run. She sat against a wall. Someone might be trying to lure her into the open.

  "I'm Tamara."

  Natalie's breath came hard and fast. "Stop it!"

  "Their throat is an open tomb."

  "You said that earlier on the phone. What are you talking about?"

  "Romans, chapter three. It's about bad people. So many bad people in the Bible!"

  Freezing water seemed to run down Natalie's back. That voice. So like Tamara's, so lost, so sad. And so frightening. She felt as if she were spiraling down into another world- a world of shadows and voices and bone-chilling cold.

  The voice rose. "I want you to be with me, Natalie. And you will. Even if I have to kill you."

  As Natalie's fear intensified, so did her instinct for self protection. In one smooth movement she lay the flashlight on her t
high, reached into her windbreaker pocket, and withdrew the gun.

  "I'm armed," she said loudly, although her voice cracked. "Do you hear me? I have a gun and I will use it."

  "You can't kill someone who's already dead."

  A whisper of movement. Blaine growled, then barked ferociously. Natalie held tight to the leash as the flashlight dropped to the floor. She couldn't see, but she could hear something coming closer…

  She aimed and fired.

  6

  Blaine hit the floor as the noise of the shot reverberated around the pavilion. For an instant Natalie feared her grip had wavered and she'd shot the dog. Then she looked at her hand. Level and steady. How many operations had she performed on animals? Steady hands were a necessity. Slowly Blaine stood up.

  No answering cry of pain followed the gunshot. Somewhere a fog horn bellowed. Other than that there was only silence except for the loud breathing of Natalie and the dog.

  "Are you still there?" Natalie asked with a quaver. "Are you hurt?"

  Nothing. Blaine looked around, trembling. Natalie trembled, too, but she tried hard to control herself. "Are you hurt?"

  Still no answer. Oh, God, what if there hadn't really been any danger? What if someone, maybe just a kid, had been playing a joke and she'd killed them? She should never have come in here.

  She could not move. She was too frightened, too horrified at actually firing her gun at anything except a paper target. She sat motionless, the gun frozen in her hand as the seconds ticked by, trying to decide what to do. Then-

  "Police!"

  Her throat tightened, strangling a shriek. An urge to run madly from the pavilion took hold of her, but immediately she quelled it. She wasn't a criminal. She hadn't done anything wrong.

  Except maybe kill someone.

  "Drop your weapon! We're coming in!"

  Natalie placed her gun on the table, pushed it an arm's length away, and sat rigidly in her chair as the front door opened. A man walked in, gun drawn. He shone his large flashlight around the room, then directly into her face. She squinted but didn't dare raise a hand to shield her eyes. "I put down my gun and I'm holding onto the dog," she called. "Please don't shoot."

  A pause. Then: "Dr. St. John?"

  She recognized his voice. "Sheriff Meredith."

  "Who was shooting?"

  "I was. Only once."

  "You! What's going on?"

  "Please take the light out of my eyes, but don't lower your gun. Someone is in here. Someone threatened to kill me."

  The light shifted slightly. Blaine remained tensed and growled steadily. Natalie put a hand on her head to calm her. "Who is trying to kill you?" the sheriff asked.

  "I don't know. There was a woman's voice. It seemed to be coming from the band area. I couldn't see anyone, though." She hesitated. "She said she was Tamara."

  "Tamara? Tamara Hunt?"

  That's it, Natalie said to herself. He thinks I'm drunk or crazy. "She said she was Tamara. Then I heard someone coming toward me and I fired."

  "I see." The sheriff played the flashlight around the room, but whoever it had been was gone. Natalie knew that even before he searched the band area and backstage. "Back door is open," he said when he finally returned to her. "You didn't come in that way, did you?"

  "No. I came in the front door. The padlock was open."

  "So you just strolled in."

  "I thought someone might be hurt."

  "Come out to the car with me."

  Natalie followed meekly. He'd yelled, "We're coming in," but he was alone. Clearly he didn't want whoever was inside to know he had no backup. In the patrol car she told him everything that had happened. When she finished, he was silent for a moment, staring straight ahead at The Blue Lady. Finally he said, "Do you know how dangerous it was for you to come here in the middle of the night?"

  "I do now."

  "But not before?"

  "I had my dog. And my gun."

  "I assume you have a permit for the gun."

  "Absolutely," she said virtuously.

  "But not a permit to carry."

  "Well… uh… no. But I have completed a course in marksmanship and gun safety and I finished with flying colors."

  "I'm thrilled for you," he said dryly. "You still broke the law."

  "Are you going to arrest me?"

  "I'm thinking about it."

  Natalie's confidence fell further. Was carrying a weapon without a permit a felony or a misdemeanor? What was the sentence? Was she going to end up in jail because of her stupid night stroll?

  "Look, Sheriff, I told you I wanted to walk but only in front of my house. Then the dog started barking and ran away. I followed her. She came to the dance pavilion."

  "Why the pavilion?"

  "I don't know. Maybe she was chasing whoever was inside. Maybe that person had been close to me-I couldn't see in the fog-then ran to the pavilion when the dog started barking."

  "The doors were unlocked. Someone didn't decide to hide in there on the spur of the moment," the sheriff said slowly. "The whole thing could have been a set-up to lead you there."

  "I guess you're right," Natalie said weakly, horrified by her close call.

  "So the dog ran off, you went in hot pursuit, and then you charged into a deserted building. And then Tamara spoke to you."

  "I did not charge into the building. I went in cautiously thinking maybe someone was inside and injured," she repeated. "And I told you the person said she was Tamara. I didn't say it was Tamara. I'm not a lunatic." He gave her a doubtful look that said he wasn't too sure. "Actually, the voice was slightly different than Tam's. It was more breathy. A little more dramatic." She hesitated. "I got a call this afternoon, supposedly from Tamara. I'm sure it was the same person."

  "A call?"

  "Yes. She talked about their mouth being an open tomb."

  "What the hell does that mean?"

  "I don't know. It's something from the Bible. Romans, Chapter Three. She just told me that inside."

  "I thought she said it on the phone."

  "She said it again inside."

  "Do you have any idea who made that call?"

  "No. We don't have caller I.D. After she hung up I tried star-six-nine but was told that number was not receiving calls."

  "Whoever called you has call block."

  "Probably. Anyway, tonight she talked about wanting me to be with her even if she had to kill me to do it. It was dark. I couldn't really see, but I could hear someone coming toward me. I was frightened, so I fired the gun."

  "You could have killed someone!"

  "I didn't aim directly at the voice. I wasn't trying to kill anyone. Someone was threatening to kill me. I was only trying to scare them away, and I guess I did."

  "I was driving by when the guy who owns the convenience store flagged me down and said he'd heard gunfire. As I pulled up, I saw something coming from around the back. It was gone by the time I got out of the car." He gave her a hard look. "You were incredibly careless entering a place like the pavilion the night after a murder. And you were equally reckless with your gun."

  "I know," Natalie said humbly. "I won't do it again."

  "You sound like you're apologizing for a traffic violation."

  "Well, how am I supposed to sound?" Natalie flared. "Do you want me to fly into hysterics? Beg? Throw my gun into Lake Erie?"

  "Hysterics and begging would be okay, but there's no sense in wasting a perfectly good gun," he said equably.

  He's softening, Natalie thought in relief. "Are you going to arrest me?" she asked again.

  He thought for a few moments. "No. A night in jail might do you some good, take some of that recklessness out of you, but I'm going to do something foolish. I'm just going to drive you home."

  Relief rushed through her. "Are you going to take the gun?"

  His eyes narrowed slightly and she almost squirmed under his gaze. "I'll probably regret this, but I'll let you keep it if you promise to act more responsibly in th
e future. I want you to unload it, put it away, and don't carry it around with you."

  "I will and I won't." He looked at her. "I will unload it and put it away and I won't carry it around. Thank you."

  "Don't thank me," he said, turning on the ignition. "If you were lured into the building, I have a bad feeling you might need that gun in the future."

  MONDAY MORNING

  "You know I'm gonna get killed, don't you? It's almost one thirty. In the morning.'

  "So?"

  "So my dad's the sheriff, for Pete's sake. If he finds out I'm sneaking around at night with a boy…"

  Jimmy Jenkins turned indignantly. "So what? I'm not your boyfriend. You're only eleven, Paige."

  "Yeah, I'm eleven and it's late. I didn't know it was so far to this place."

  "What do you mean you didn't know? You've been to my house and I told you Tamara Hunt got murdered almost right across the street."

  "And down a dirt road. You didn't talk about the dirt road."

  Actually Paige Meredith was frightened but she didn't want Jimmy to know it. She wanted him to be her boyfriend, even if he was a year older than she, and that was a lot to hope for. Still, there was always a chance. Unless he thought she was just a scared little kid.

  He'd bicycled at top speed to her house this afternoon to inform her of the murder, which was sad and awful and absolutely thrilling to Paige, who was bored silly this summer stuck home with Mrs. Collins. Mrs. Collins was nice and meant well, but she was old-at least fifty-and she talked constantly about her baby grandchildren and recipes. Paige thought the woman was duller than dull, although she always tried to act interested in her stories. Her mother had taught her to be polite.

  Her mother wouldn't like what she was doing right now, Paige thought as she and Jimmy crept down the dirt road, walking their bikes because of all the ruts and holes. Daddy had come home very late and Mrs. Collins had been all snippy. After she left, Daddy went straight to bed.

  Jimmy had suggested earlier today that they sneak out tonight to see where Mrs. Hunt got murdered. It wouldn't be the first time they'd sneaked out, but never for anything so important as visiting a murder site. When Jimmy came back long after Daddy had gone to sleep and conditions were perfect, she couldn't refuse him without looking like a wimp. She had put her big doll in her bed, pulled up the quilt until only the doll's auburn hair-the same color as her own- showed on the pillow, and crawled out the window onto a limb of an oak tree and skimmed down slick as a cat. Jimmy looked proud of her and her heart had beaten a little faster. His approval was worth the minor risk that she might get caught. It was even worth knowing her mother was frowning in disapproval somewhere in Heaven.