Masking for Trouble

by Diane Vallere

  “How much do you know about the Havetown expansion?” I asked Cooper.

  “You really want to talk about that?”

  “It’s the only thing anybody’s talking about anymore.”

  He rolled down his window and waved to a group of children dressed as ghosts carrying plastic pumpkins to hold their candy. “I don’t know much,” he said. “Paul Haverford bought up a couple of miles of property in West Proper. His plans for that included housing. He also bought local businesses that he planned to exploit to bring in tourists.”

  “But if he wanted to expand so badly, why didn’t he buy out the businesses where we’re heading? Those restaurants and nightclubs can’t be making any money.”

  “That’s just it. Phase one of his plan was to develop housing. Phase two was to dump money into the businesses he bought. Phase three was to wait for the existing businesses that he didn’t own to close on their own. Once they were closed, he could get them for a fraction of the cost.”

  “You know more about this than you let on.”

  “I learned a little from working in the planning office and a little from being on the city council.”

  “Which side were you on? Pro Havetown or against?”

  Cooper didn’t get a chance to answer. The truck started to shudder, and then the shudder turned into a shake. He fought to control the steering wheel. It jerked to the right. He grabbed it with both hands to straighten the truck out, but to no avail.

  “Something’s wrong.” He pulled over to the shoulder. “Wait here. I’m going to check it out.”

  He hopped out and walked around to my side. He bent down and I felt the truck shake. I rolled down my window. “Is everything okay?”

  “No. Somebody loosened the lug nuts on this wheel. If we’d gone any faster than we were, the tire might have come off.”

  “Can you fix it?”

  “Maybe, but I’ll need better light. I’m going to try to get us to the Alexandria parking lot. It’s only about a hundred feet ahead.”

  A shiver went up my spine. The last place I wanted to be was the Alexandria Hotel. Cooper climbed back into the driver’s seat and started the truck. He kept it at a crawl and we inched forward. The whole vehicle shuddered. Instinctively, I put my hands on the dashboard, as if I could hold it steady.

  Had Sol vandalized Cooper’s truck before giving Dig the wrench? It didn’t make sense. How would he have known to vandalize that particular car? And why? Cooper hadn’t done anything to him. As far as Sol knew, Cooper and I didn’t even know each other.

  But something else did make sense. Something I wanted desperately to ignore. Something that, no matter how ridiculous it seemed, I couldn’t shake.

  “You need a socket wrench to loosen the lug nuts, don’t you?” I asked.

  “Yes. Whoever knocked out Francine Wheeler at your store must have done this too.”

  Slowly, I pulled my hands away from the dashboard and looked at Cooper. “I never told you about the socket wrench,” I said.

  “No, you sure didn’t.” He threw the car in park and engaged the child safety locks inside the car.

  Chapter 33

  MY MIND RACED with questions, accusations, and suspicions. Cooper was the killer?

  Cooper was the killer.

  Cooper was the killer! And I was supposedly on a date with him. At a double feature. Nobody would think to look for me anywhere for at least four hours. And who knows what could happen in that amount of time?

  I unbuckled my seat belt and faced him. “Why did you do it?” I asked. My voice shook.

  “Maybe working in the city planner’s office is enough for some people, but it’s not enough for me. Paul Haverford and I had an agreement. I’d help him acquire the land he needed to turn this town into something meaningful, and he’d back me for city council.” While he talked, he reached down and pulled the green felt shoe covers off of his feet, revealing clean white sneakers.

  “But you’re already on the city council.”

  “That’s right. First time a city planner is in the seat reserved for a member of the DA’s office. Technically, I qualify. Once Haverford backed me, nobody went against him. That’s when I first realized the kind of power he had because of his money.”

  “You killed him.”

  “I thought we were partners.”

  “Bill Perth was his partner.”

  “Bill Perth was a patsy. Haverford needed someone to take the fall if there was any pushback from the community. And there was. The only way Perth would see a dime of the money he gave Haverford to invest was to convince all of those businesses that they were better off in than out. That’s why he was at the town hall meeting. Even with Haverford dead, Perth needed to see a return on his investment.”

  “So where did you fit into the Haverford plan?”

  “Every town needs a mayor, even Proper City. That was the agreement. I substituted some documents so Haverford’s plans would get the green light, and he’d get me into office as the next mayor of Proper City.”

  “The maps of the fault lines,” I said. “That’s why Francine was so interested in seeing the ones at the Haverford offices. She’s been monitoring the seismic activity out this way for over a decade. She knew the reports weren’t right.”

  “She’s been a thorn in my side since the beginning. In a way, she’s lucky. I thought if I took care of her, we’d be home free. But then Haverford told me he had everything he needed from me and tried to cut ties. Everything he promised me was off the table. He’d been meeting with the city council behind my back and they were on board with his plans. The additional revenue stream would have given them leverage within Clark County that Proper City never even dreamed of.”

  The windows of the SUV had fogged up. Bright spots from where the light from the streetlamps hit the windshield told me where we were in relation to the old hotel. Cooper had said a hundred feet in front of us. If I could get out of the truck, I could make a run for it. But could I outrun Cooper? Probably not. But if I got inside the hotel, and if they hadn’t dismantled the props that had been set up last week, I had a chance at hiding, which was better odds than I had right now.

  My mostly empty backpack sat at my feet. The only thing inside was my cell. I’d handed the keys to my scooter to Cooper so he could put it inside the back of the truck. Unless I could disengage the childproof locks, I was at his mercy. But watching him, listening to him, I became aware of his self-absorption. I needed to play into that, to keep him talking.

  “Tell me how you faked the maps.”

  He laughed. “That’s just the thing. I never had to fake anything. I just had to go back far enough in the archives until I found maps where the fault lines were inactive. The plans passed a vote easily. Nobody would have thought anything about it. Nobody but Francine. And then you showed up asking questions about the Alexandria. I knew you were going to be trouble. I just didn’t know your angle.”

  “I didn’t have an angle. I wanted to find out the truth.”

  “Don’t get all X-Files on me. The truth is that this city is going down the tank. If it continues like it is, in five years, it’s going to be a handful of families and a corner market. The Proper City infrastructure can’t survive on the minimal income it produces. You want your way of life to continue, you’re going to have to make changes. Havetown would have been the beginning.”

  “But if the development happened on top of active fault lines, a lot of lives would be at risk. What would you do if the construction crew died in a quake? Or if your first tenants did? How would that look for your administration?”

  “Shut up!” he said. “You’re as much of a problem as Francine. Good thing nobody will be looking for you for a while.” He reached across the seat and clamped plastic handcuffs around my wrists. I struggled, too little too late.

  Cooper got out of his side o
f the car and went to the back of his SUV. A minute later, he came around to mine and yanked the door open. He’d pulled a sweatshirt and jeans on over the Robin Hood costume. If anybody saw him now, they wouldn’t put two and two together. They’d see a guy dressed like every other guy in Proper City. They probably wouldn’t even notice him.

  He pulled me out of the truck by my upper arm. The bite of his hand would leave a bruise tomorrow. If I had a tomorrow. I stumbled down from the truck. He pushed me from behind. “Walk.”

  My mind raced. I was in red patent leather boots with a slippery plastic sole. Cooper was in sneakers. No match. I twisted my wrists. The handcuffs were the same ones we sold at the store. With enough tension, I could break the chain from the plastic. But first, I wanted to know Cooper’s plan.

  We reached the grounds for the hotel. The large, plastic cauldrons that had been filled with dry ice and water still sat around the entrance. Were they still filled with water? Maybe—

  I stopped next to one and turned to him. “So you and me, this”—I gestured with my handcuffed hands back and forth between us—“it’s all been an act?”

  He laughed. “You’re an exciting woman, Margo. The costumes, they add to the package. It’s easy to see what Tak sees in you.”

  “Tak and I aren’t—”

  “Save it. I saw your text to him the first night we met. Fake flat tire so you could rendezvous by the side of the road. I just got to you first.” He laughed. “Secrets give people power, Margo. As soon as I figured out that you and Tak wanted to keep your relationship secret, I knew I had power over both of you. And I used it. You both made it easy. Nice relationship. You both gave me permission.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You don’t get what you want out of life by waiting to get permission. You get it by taking advantage of opportunities.”

  “Is that how you justify murdering someone? Taking advantage of an opportunity?”

  “It didn’t have to be this way. If Haverford kept his end of the bargain, nothing would have happened to him.”

  “But it did. How did you—” I thought about the transition he’d made tonight, from Robin Hood to Casual Everyman. He must have done the same thing that first night. “The Spider-Man costume,” I said.

  “I didn’t think you’d figure that out. I wore it under my suit. Haverford arranged for the police to be at the party, dressed like G-men. He followed me upstairs because he thought I was one of them. When he wouldn’t play ball, I took him out, ditched the suit, and climbed out the window.”

  “I saw you. Nobody believed me, but I saw you.”

  “Come on, Margo, you should know better than anybody that the right costume can make a person disappear.”

  He was overconfident. It was the moment I needed. I braced myself for pain and brought my handcuffed hands down across the top of my raised knee. The chains popped out of the plastic and broke apart into bracelets. Cooper’s eyes went wide. I reached for the plastic cauldron and tried to lift it. It was too heavy. I tipped it over and cold water gushed over the dry dirt around his feet.

  He jumped backward and I took off for the front doors to the hotel. If they were locked, I’d dive through a window. I didn’t care about the property destruction. The only chance I had was to get inside and away from him long enough to call for help.

  The door was locked. I used my elbow to shatter the glass. Cooper was right behind me. I tipped two more plastic cauldrons of water in my path. He slipped on the wet dirt-turned-mud and fell. I reached inside the broken glass, flipped the lock, and hurled myself inside. I ran to the elevator. When it opened, I pushed as many buttons as I could hit, and then hid behind a sofa. Cooper skidded across the wet marble floor and dove into the elevator as the doors shut.

  The illuminated arrow above the elevator slowly rose from one to two, two to three. I didn’t know how long I had before the car would return to my floor. I ran to the former hotel desk where skeletons in bellhop uniforms sat behind the desk, and grabbed the receiver from the phone.

  No dial tone.

  I didn’t know where else to go. The arrow on the elevator paused on the fourth floor, and then the arrow moved backward to three. There was no more time to think.

  I raced past the skeleton bellhops toward the lobby. I had to get away.

  But where would I go? There was no safe place. If I escaped Cooper tonight, he’d come after me tomorrow. He knew that I knew that he was a murderer. I’d spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. I had to find a way to stop him.

  Moonlight and streetlamps from outside provided light. What little illumination fell through the windows created weird shadows and haunting illusions. The bell over the elevator announced that it had arrived on the first floor. I ran into the ballroom and ducked behind the blue blob that hovered over the piano. Cooper came out of the elevator and went straight for the front doors. He must have thought I would run if given the chance.

  Up close, I saw that the blob had been made of spray foam insulation and painted with an iridescent, luminous paint. Crepe paper arms finished with flat hands cut out from cardboard were attached to the blob, the hands on the piano keys. Invisible wires suspended the whole thing from the ceiling, and several yards of cheesecloth had been draped over it. A small portable fan sat on the piano bench, aimed up. That must be what gave it its movement.

  Like most illusions, it was silly up close. No wonder Agent Smith—whichever police officer that was—had instructed me to stay out of the ballroom. The party planners hadn’t wanted us to know the secrets behind the animated installations.

  Animated. That meant power. Of course there was power—the elevators were running. I reached forward and hit the on switch to the fan. The blade started up and the cheesecloth hovered magically. The crepe paper arms moved as if actually playing.

  The front door opened. I ducked back, behind the thick, heavy velvet curtains. Only the faintest movement was visible through the fabric.

  Cooper looked into the ballroom. He held my backpack in one hand. When he caught the motion of the blob, he froze. I stood as still as I could, hoping that he would not see me. His phone rang. He held it up to his ear. “Hey, man. We’re on our way. Margo wanted to stop off at the Alexandria first. Sure, no problem.” His voice was so casual, so calm, that whoever was on the other end of that call would never know that he was hunting me down inside the abandoned property.

  Something from the wall pressed into my side. I ran one hand up the wooden wall to see what it was. Another switch. I flipped it. The piano music started up, at first slow and distorted. The chandelier above the blob lit too, flicker candles giving the appearance of flames dancing. Cooper looked up, then around the room, and then behind him. It was my only chance.

  I came out from behind the curtain and pushed on the blob as hard as I could. It swung away from me. One of the invisible wires snapped and it swung farther, knocking into Cooper. He stumbled back. The crepe paper that attached the hands to the piano tore. The cheesecloth fluttered in the air like an apparition.

  The sudden movement had caught Cooper off guard. The blob swung back toward me and I pushed it again, this time even harder. The second wire snapped and it hit him like a giant bowling ball, knocking him down. I yanked the cheesecloth from the ceiling and threw it over Cooper like a fisherman casting a net. He cursed and struggled against it, too late. I grabbed my backpack and pulled out my phone. I fumbled with the screen, trying to unlock it and dial. Cooper reached up from the ground and swatted the phone out of my hands. I ran for it and dialed again. This time the call connected. “Alexandria Hotel,” I said. “Hurry. It’s an emergency.” Cooper sat up. I dropped the phone and picked up the blue blob and pinned him under it with all my might.

  Help arrived faster than I expected. Police cars, ambulances, and at least two samurai warriors burst into the hotel. One of the warriors pulled me away from the blob and held me in a t
ight embrace. The other held Cooper Price captive with a well-trained sword.

  Chapter 34

  I WAS QUICKLY removed from the chaos and checked for injuries. A paramedic used industrial cutters to remove the broken plastic handcuffs from each of my wrists even though I told him it I had the key back at the costume shop.

  I sat in the back of Tak’s SUV with my legs dangling down. He stood next to me, one hand on the small of my back, the other on my knee. There was no secret to his body language. Anybody who looked over at us could tell we were more than friends.

  “How did you happen to be here?” I asked Tak. “You were at the party. You should have been in the middle of a demonstration with your father.”

  “I was. Dig had my phone. When we were done, he handed it back and said some private number was trying to reach me. Your dad overheard him and made a comment that you’d been getting calls from a private number too. I tried to call you back but it was busy. You were supposed to be at a movie with Cooper. Your phone would have been off.”

  “You called him next.”

  He nodded. “I didn’t want to but I did. You left the park because you were afraid someone was going to come after you. Coop said you wanted to stop off at the Alexandria on the way to the theater. Your call went to Nancy right after I talked to Coop. He acted so calm that I almost didn’t figure it out. I’m supposed to be analytical. I should have put two and two together a lot faster than I did.”

  “He didn’t just fool you. He fooled us all.” I thought about Cooper’s attentions over the past week. He’d known from the start that Tak and I were hiding a relationship, and he’d used that against us. Secrets give people power, he’d said. And that’s what he had wanted. Power. I leaned toward Tak, put my hands on his face, and kissed him.