by Peggy Dulle
Ted’s eyes widened. “Rogan’s Steak House!”
“As soon as Kate gets out, let’s call Bill and have him meet us there.”
His face lit up. “Great idea.”
A few minutes later, Bill drove up in his tow truck. He got out and ran over to Ted and me. His eyes were wide and he was breathing hard. “Where’s Kate?”
“In the mine,” Ted said, pointing to the entrance.
“Is she okay?”
I put my hand on his arm. “She’s fine.”
“I heard they found a woman’s body in the mine. I know Kate likes to wander around in there. The first thing I thought was it was…”
I shook my head. “She’s just helping the cops find the body and then she’ll be out.”
Bill took a huge breath and leaned against the car next to me. “Thank God.”
“I’m buying dinner at the Steak House. Do you want to join us?”
“Of course,” he said, then looked at Ted. “Are the kids coming too?”
“Yes. I owe them for rescuing me from the mine.”
Bill bellowed, “What?”
Several minutes later I had explained what happened after the eating contest.
By the end of my story, Bill was shaking his head at me. “You sure get yourself into trouble easy, lady.”
“I don’t do it on purpose.” I put my arms across my chest.
“It’s like a line from a movie I saw once,” Ted said. “She doesn’t go looking for trouble, but it always knows where to find her.”
I hit Ted on the arm. “No, it doesn’t!” I pulled my hand back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you. I think I’m spending too much time around Kate.”
“That’s not a bad thing, Liza. Kate seems to be able to avoid trouble.”
“And that’s a good skill to have.” Ted replied, nodded his head and grinned.
A few minutes later, Kate came out of the mine and walked over to us. She was frowning. “I forgot about getting dinner ready.”
I put my arm around her. “Don’t worry about it. I’m taking us all out to the Steak House.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up.
“Yes.”
“Great.” She rolled her eyes at her dad. “We never get to eat there. Dad says it’s too expensive.”
“After rescuing me, I owe you a good dinner.” I looked at Bill. “Do you want to take your truck or should we all go together in Kate’s car?”
“I’ll leave it. You can swing back here when we’re done.”
“Great.” I threw him the keys. “You drive.”
Before we could leave, Lieutenant Damson stomped over to me. “What the hell were you doing in the mine?”
“Falling,” I said sarcastically.
“You need to stay away from here.” He looked at Bill. “You need to keep a better eye on her. We wouldn’t want something serious to happen to her, would we?”
“No,” Bill replied, a little more forcefully than I wanted. He wasn’t my keeper. That wasn’t even a job that Tom could handle.
The lieutenant marched off and we all piled into the Mustang. Kate and Ted sat in the back and I rode shotgun. Shelby sat on my lap.
I placed my hand on Bill’s arm. “Can you take me back to the inn first? I’d like to change my clothes and put Shelby in the room.”
“Sure, no problem.” Bill nodded and smiled.
Bill drove to the inn and Shelby and I got out. I glanced back and smiled, “I’ll just be a minute.”
Bill smiled and nodded again.
As soon as I opened the door Shelby ran over, gobbled down her entire bowl of food, drank some water, and then jumped on the bed and lay down.
“A little tired, girl?” I asked.
She lifted her head, didn’t even bark, and then laid it back on the bed.
I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My reflection said –- disaster victim. I had dirt and soot on my face and arms. My clothes were dusty, filthy, and torn. As I took them off, I noticed that they smelled like the smoke from the wood. No amount of washing would fix that! As I placed the clothes and flip-flops into the black plastic bag lining the garbage can in my room, I felt the piece of pot in my pocket. I retrieved the piece and put it into my cosmetic bag. Then I tied the bag closed.
How quickly could I take a shower? I hated making them wait, but if I smelled only half as bad as my clothes, who could eat? I jumped in the shower, washed my body and hair and then quickly dried and changed into clean clothes and tennis shoes. No time to dry my hair or put on any makeup, but at least I smelled okay. As I left the room, I grabbed the black plastic bag and threw it into the inn’s dumpster.
When I got into the Mustang, Kate un-pinched her nose. “I’m glad you decided to just get rid of the clothes?”
“Why didn’t you tell me I smelled and looked that bad?”
“I knew you’d figure it out soon enough.” She smiled.
Bill and Ted smiled too. Then Bill started up the car and we were on our way to dinner. My budget really didn’t include taking four people out to an expensive meal, but I’d still be sitting in a mineshaft if it weren’t for them.
Rogan’s was decorated in a western theme. It had wagon wheels for doors, and ropes, saddles and spurs hung all over the walls. A wooden fence separated each booth. The waitresses were dressed in blue jeans, collared Western shirts, cowboy boots and hats that matched their shirts. It was a cool restaurant.
Bill led us up to the podium where they were taking names. I was hungry, so I hoped there wasn’t a long wait.
“How many for dinner?” the hostess asked.
“Four,” Bill replied. “How long is the wait, Dana?”
“No wait,” she said, grabbing four menus.
“You’re kidding me,” Bill said.
“There’s always an hour or so wait at this place,” Ted said to me.
“A few minutes ago, several of the cops left, and their wives left a few minutes later. I’ve got four open tables.”
We followed the hostess to a back booth. I slid in first, Bill followed, then Kate and Ted came in the other side. The hostess handed us the menus and took our drink orders, two Diet Cokes, one regular Coke and a beer. A few minutes later our drinks arrived as we studied the menu.
I set the menu down. “Okay, you’re the locals. What’s good in this place?”
“Everything,” Kate replied, barely looking up from the menu. “But my favorite is the prime rib.” She peeked over her menu and frowned. “Is that too expensive?”
“Nope. Order what you want.”
Her eyes lit up. “Great!” She set the menu down. “Then I’m having the prime rib.”
Bill gave his daughter a stern look and then asked me, “Are you sure? The prime rib is twenty bucks.”
“Hey, if it weren’t for them I’d be sitting in a mine eating a granola bar I found in Kate’s backpack.”
“Yuck, that’s from over a year ago.” Kate scowled.
I pointed to Kate and Ted. “See? They saved me from eating old food, too.”
Bill shook his head and returned to studying his menu. I knew he was looking for something less expensive than prime rib, since I was paying. I put my hand on his arm. “And don’t forget, you rescued me from my car the other day.”
“You don’t owe me an expensive dinner for that.”
“I know, but let me buy you one anyway.”
Bill went back to studying his menu. Finally, he ordered a rack of ribs. Both Ted and Kate had prime rib. I had trouble deciding but in the end I ordered prime rib, too. What the heck? If I was going to blow my budget, I might as well enjoy it too.
During dinner, we talked about everything but the dead body we had seen earlier. We discussed the eating contests and which ones Ted would do well in. Kate and Ted talked about some of the carnival rides. Kate pointed out which ones she refused to get on because they creaked when they went around. I wanted to ask Kate if she had been in the mineshaft when they o
pened the dead woman’s purse, but I wasn’t sure it would make great dinner conversation.
Finally dessert arrived – apple pots, what else? At this point I couldn’t contain my curiosity.
“So Kate, did they find out who the woman was?”
“No. Her purse didn’t have a wallet in it.” Kate leaned forward. “But they did find some kind of book under her body.”
“A book? What kind?”
Kate took several more bites of her dessert, then said, “It looked more like something you’d write in, maybe a diary.”
The butterflies did a flip-flop in my stomach. “Could it have been a journal?”
“Maybe.”
“What color was it?”
“Red, I think. It looked like it might have had a lacy cover at one time, but it was destroyed by the water.”
“Danielle Slammers had a red journal with white lace on it. And it wasn’t found with her personal items.”
“Do you think it’s Danielle’s missing journal?” Ted asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, the woman couldn’t have been Danielle Slammers. We found her body,” Bill replied.
“But her sister is missing.”
“She is?” Bill, Ted, and Kate said in unison.
“Yes. She took a leave of absence after Danielle was killed and hasn’t been seen since.” I leaned back in the booth.
“Do you think she came up here trying to figure out what happened to her sister?” Ted asked.
“It’s possible. Danielle may have sent her the journal and that’s why it wasn’t found with her stuff.”
“This is all speculation. The woman in the mine could just be a tourist who liked to sketch old mines and got lost,” Bill offered.
“That’s true.” Ted nodded. “Sometimes the tourists who come here for the festival wander away from the town and can’t find their way back.”
“I can remember several who got lost. We always spend hours looking for them. A few even got into the mines.” Bill glanced at me and smiled. “Thankfully, we always find them.”
I ignored the obvious inference to my earlier situation and continued, “Well, if it was Danielle’s sister, I’d sure like to take a look at that journal.”
“It was pretty messed up. She fell into one of the little streams that runs through the mines, and the journal had been lying in the mud.”
“Still it might give me some information about what Danielle was doing up here.”
“I’ll ask my brother about it, if you’d like.”
“That would be great, Bill.” I smiled and then frowned. “And what’s with Lieutenant Damson?”
He shrugged. “I told you he was a bit egotistical.”
“He’s an idiot,” Ted added.
“More like an egomaniac,” Kate said, adding her two cents.
“Every time I see that man, I feel like I’m being threatened,” I said.
“He’s just trying to make sure you don’t get hurt,” Bill said.
“Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes at him.
We finished eating our desserts and I got to take home all four of the apple pots. At this rate, I would have a complete set of eight before I went home.
Bill drove us back to his tow truck. The place was completely deserted. No cop cars, no coroner’s van, or any crime scene people.
“Where is everyone?” I asked Bill.
“I guess they’re all done.”
I glanced at my watch. It was only nine o’clock. How could they have finished their investigation in only two hours? Did they even bother to really look into this latest murder? Is this how they investigated Danielle, Sally, and James’s deaths?
It seemed as if the whole time I had been in Clainsworth, all I had done was accumulate more questions than answers about people who died in their city. What kind of place was this? The bodies were piling up and nobody seemed to be doing anything about it.
Chapter 17
We all got out of the Mustang.
Kate got two flashlights out of her trunk. “Ted and I are going to check out the opening of the mine.” She nodded toward Ted. “He wants to see what a crime scene looks like.”
Bill and I leaned against the car. Neither of us spoke. My stomach churned and my palms sweat. A nice dinner and now we stood outside together next to a car. This was too much like date.
“Thanks for the dinner, Liza.” Bill finally broke the silence.
“You’re welcome, Bill, and thanks for pulling me out of my car.”
He turned and looked at me. “Any chance of you dumping your boyfriend?”
I took a gulp. “No, I’m afraid not.”
He leaned back against the car again. “Okay, I was just making sure.”
Just then Kate and Ted came running back.
“There aren’t any yellow tapes or anything where they found the body,” Kate announced. “Don’t you think there should be?”
“I would think so,” I said.
“Want to go in and take a look?” Kate raised her eyebrows.
“Sure.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Bill insisted, his tone low and intent.
Kate put her hand on his shoulder. “You can stay outside, Dad.” Then she turned to me. “He’s not a big fan of the mines.”
“Yeah, you can be the lookout,” Ted said.
“No, I think I’ll go with the three of you and keep you out of trouble.”
Kate got two more flashlights out of her trunk and handed one to Bill and one to me. Then the four of us walked back into the mine. I would have placed money that I’d never be back in them ever again, yet here I was.
Kate was a great guide. She pointed out where timbers had fallen or holes were, making sure our footing was solid the entire way. When we got to the place where the body had been, we shined our flashlights around the room. Nothing had changed, except the removal of the body. The wooden table was still in the corner, covered with dust and dirt. The small trickle of water now flowed unobstructed by the body that had blocked it for so long.
I went over to the exact spot where the body had been and knelt down. Because of the mud, the ground still held the impression of the body. When I touched the spot where her head had been, a shiver ran up my back. Why had she come to Clainsworth? Was she just a lost tourist or Danielle’s sister searching for the answers to her sister’s death? And if so, why had she come into the mine?
When I stood up, Kate, Bill, and Ted stood by the opening to the room. Kate glanced over, “Do you want to see the waterfall?”
I glanced around the room. There was nothing I could see that would help me figure out what happened to the woman in the mine. “Sure, I’d love to see it.”
“It’s one of the more spectacular sights in this old decrepit mine,” Bill said.
Bill and I followed Kate and Ted through several shafts and finally came to a massive room. On the back wall was a waterfall that started fifty feet above our heads, probably at ground level. It ran down the back wall and into a pool, about six feet across.
“Where does the water come from?” I asked Kate.
“From a small river that runs behind the mine. It flows through a field and then down through a hole in the ground.”
“Like the one I fell through.”
“Exactly. Then it fills up the pool.”
“Kate and I have even swum in the pool,” Ted said and then glanced guiltily at Bill.
“You’re not supposed to go into that pool. It’s too deep and the current will pull you down,” he said angrily. “You know that, Kate.”
“Of course I do,” she insisted. “We tied a rope around our waists and then to one of the tables. It was completely safe.”
“Where does this water go?” I pointed to the pool trying to distract them. If I hadn’t asked to go back into the mine, then Bill might never have known that his daughter went swimming in the forbidden pool.
“According to Mr. J, it goes down a hundred feet or so and
then it finds it way back up into small streams in some of the shafts,” Kate continued, avoiding the stern looks from her dad.
“Let’s get out of here,” Bill said, heading toward the shaft we had entered through.
Kate called after him. “You’re going to get lost, if you don’t wait for me.”
He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Then let’s go.”
Kate caught up to where her dad was and Ted and I followed. By the time we came out of the mine, Bill was laughing at something Kate had said. It was obvious she knew exactly how to handle her dad.
Ted and I reached them at the car. “What’s so funny?” Ted asked.
“I was telling Dad how you almost got loose from the rope when we went swimming.” She punched him on the arm. “You never could tie a good knot.”
“Thanks again for dinner,” Bill said.
“Yeah, thanks!” Kate and Ted said in unison.
“You’re all very welcome.”
Bill took Ted and Kate home in his tow truck and I drove back to the inn. When I opened the door, Shelby was bouncing up and down and barking. “Got to go, girl?” I asked.
She barked again.
I decided to take Shelby for a nice long walk. She needed it and I wanted to unwind and think about what I’d learned in the last few days.
All of the shops on Main Street were still open and the streets were busy with people. I saw several of the eating contestants wandering around, including the small Asian man who’d eaten the most hotdogs in the preliminary contests. I wonder if he actually won during the finals. Right now, he was devouring a huge waffle cone overflowing with chocolate ice cream. It looked good, even though I was still full from dinner. Maybe on my way back down the street I’d get a small scoop.
Tomorrow I was supposed to read a story to the kids at the library, but I didn’t have any of my picture books with me. Since everything else was open, I hoped the library would be too. If it was, I’d pick out a book and practice using an expressive voice. But when I walked by the library it was dark. In fact, it was probably the only building not open. I’d have to go early tomorrow and get a book.
Shelby and I got to the end of the street and turned around. We stopped at the ice cream shop and I got my chocolate ice cream. It was delicious. We sat at one of the tables outside of the shop and I people watched while I licked my ice cream.