“I know. I should have mentioned it in person. We’ve both been busy. No big deal. Check your email for the details.”
“Will do.”
“Good. Now take the book. Let me know what you and Sally learn. And please, please, ask her to stop by and haunt me. I so deserve to see a ghost, don’t you think?”
I smiled as my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket. It looked like my newest acquaintance was calling.
“Uh–oh,” I said to Jake. It was late, but considering how much we’d imposed on her, I thought I should answer.
“Hello, Suzi.”
“Ms. Winston, Ms. Winston, you must come quickly.”
“Suzi?”
“Yes. Come quickly, Ms. Winston.”
“What’s going on?”
“They’re gone. They’ve—three of them—have gone missing.”
“The foodies?” I suddenly couldn’t think of anything else to call them.
“Yes, come quickly!” Suzi hung up the phone.
“Gotta go. Something’s going on.”
“Go. Call me later,” Jake said as I tucked the book into my bag and hurried out of the archives.
Chapter 4
Suzi had apparently been smart enough to call someone other than me. When I arrived at the Anderson farm, the street was crowded with other vehicles. Our local police chief, Jim, was probably the one who’d driven the police car. If Cliff, his newest officer and my high school boyfriend, was on duty, he’d be there, too. I didn’t remember if Cliff was supposed to be working or not. The police car was parked in front of the driveway and still had its top lights flashing.
Teddy’s truck was in the street, facing the wrong direction, and it was nose to nose with Gram’s Volvo. The tour bus was down the street about half a block, but its inside lights were on and its door was swung open. A figure in what looked like a robe stood on the porch of the house behind the bus. Though it was late, the street was dotted with lit windows. The commotion at the Anderson farm was getting plenty of neighborhood attention.
I parked the Nova on the far side of the street and hurried around construction rubble to the dormitory.
“Betts.” Gram touched my arm as I walked through the door. “Jim wants us to stay back.”
Gram was dressed in an Iowa State T–shirt. She didn’t look tired, but her eyes were pinched; she was stressed.
Teddy was on the other side of the big space, but he was standing away from the main activity, too. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, and he bit at his bottom lip as he observed the others.
The center of activity was at the two tables in the middle of the room. I took a mental inventory of those present. Jim and Cliff were standing at the end of one of the tables; neither of them looked in my direction. They were focused on the remaining members of the tour group, all of whom had wide, frightened eyes. Robert Hart was there, but his companion Eloise wasn’t. Cece Montgomery was there, but her husband Ash wasn’t. Both Vivienne and Charlene were present. So was Georgina Carlisle, but her handsome younger husband Greg wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity. Leroy was there, too, standing next to Jim and looking just as panicked as his tour group.
“Are people really missing?” I asked Gram.
She nodded. “The best I can understand is that Robert Hart woke up about an hour ago. He switched on the main light so he could see to go to the bathroom. When he did that, he woke up Cece, who got up and noticed the three beds were empty. She said she didn’t think too much of it until Robert came back, turned off the light, and went back to bed. She remained awake and then began to wonder about the others. She checked the bathrooms, and I think she said she checked outside as well as the bus but couldn’t find them. She woke everyone up, including Suzi, who was apparently sleeping on a cot in the front room of the bed-and-breakfast main building. Suzi called Teddy first. I’m not sure who else was called, but I think everyone is here now.”
“There has to be some reasonable explanation.”
“Suzi’s car is missing, too. No one is thinking they went for a joyride,” Gram said.
Somehow, the fact that Suzi’s car was gone made the missing people seem even more missing. Though it was feasible that they had left together, perhaps to grab something to eat or get some air, it didn’t seem likely. However, I said, “Has anyone checked Bunny’s?” Bunny’s was the town’s twenty-four-hour diner. It was the only restaurant in town with such hours, and considering we were in the middle of our busiest season, it would have a few tables filled all night long. And, it was a place that Leroy had mentioned earlier as one of the group’s yearly destinations.
“I think Jim called Bunny, but I’m not sure.”
I must have been the last person called. I’d missed most of the early and original panic, and though eyes were wide and frightened, there wasn’t a frenzied sense to the room. It was as if everyone had gone through that phase already; everyone but me.
“I’m going outside a second,” I said to Gram.
I needed some air, and the dormitory was suddenly uncomfortable and claustrophobic despite its large size. I couldn’t think, and I knew that if I could just take a moment to myself, I would get this figured out. They couldn’t really be missing, could they?
As I took some deep pulls of fresh oxygen and as I tried to gather my composure, my thoughts, I switched on my phone’s flashlight app and shone it around the yard area between the dormitory and the main building. Maybe I’d see something that would help me understand what had happened.
A cobblestone path led from the dormitory to the back of the big old house. A screened–in porch spread wide, but it was empty except for an old ceiling fan that hung as though it might fall any minute.
This backyard area was as neglected as the front. It was large enough that Suzi could turn it into an outdoor living space, which I was sure she’d do eventually, after the construction on the house was completed.
The air was hot and humid. Southern Missouri could be sweltering in the summer, particularly during the dog days of July and August. It was unusual, but the current conditions were only mildly miserable. I hadn’t noticed any walls sweating yet. That was probably because, despite the humidity in the air, the weather had been dry. I couldn’t remember the last time we had rain. The ground around the dormitory was mostly dirt and cobblestone. There were no footprints of any sort anywhere, though I knew that if I actually found any they might not mean anything. It just felt good to do something to try to get my brain around the situation. There had to be a reasonable explanation. There had to be.
“Betts,” Cliff said as he came out of the dormitory. “What’re you doing?”
“I don’t know, Cliff. Looking around, trying to think. What do you think happened to those people?”
“I’m not sure yet, but you shouldn’t be roaming around out here alone.”
Cliff and I had recently gone out on what I called both our first and our millionth date. When he moved back to Broken Rope, he’d come back a divorced man, but I hadn’t realized that until he finally told me; he’d kept his wedding band on a few weeks after the divorce was final. I still didn’t know much about his ex–wife or the reasons behind their breakup; I was pretty sure I didn’t want a lot of details, but I knew he’d been the one to ask for the divorce. The band was gone now, and so was that look in his eyes that reminded me of someone who’s misplaced something important.
Our high school love affair was probably one for the ages, or at least that’s the way I remembered it. We’d been the couple; the couple who was supposed to live that silly happily-ever-after story. I would be a hugely successful attorney, and Cliff would be a sought-after architect. We would live somewhere sexy, like New York or Chicago or San Francisco. We’d have beautiful, perfect children and a house that was both comfortable and technologically advanced.
Cliff had become an architect, but my decree that we needed to cool off our romance while we both studied at different schools to become the amazing people
we were destined to become hadn’t worked in my favor. Cliff fell in love with someone else and married her. They did live in San Francisco, but only until Cliff decided that his life wasn’t what he wanted, so he divorced and moved back to the small southern Missouri town that was truly his home.
My adventure wasn’t as exciting. I’d simply dropped out of law school because the realities of being an attorney hadn’t been what I thought they would be.
My move back to Broken Rope hadn’t been a personal choice but rather a financial necessity. I didn’t have enough money to move anywhere else. Fortunately, Gram started the cooking school and saved me from my horrible decisions. Now, I had a job and a life I enjoyed for the most part, and I didn’t have to do attorney things. Though my decisions still made me feel like a failure sometimes, I was slowly getting over myself.
Cliff and I had gone out on our first real date since high school only a week earlier. It had been fun. Actually, it had been amazing, great, fantastic, and kind of like a dream. But my story to the world was that it had been good and fine. No need to act all gooey at my age.
“You’re worried about me?” I said with a smile that didn’t fit with the serious nature of the evening, but I was glad for the reprieve from the concern I’d been feeling.
“I’d be worried about anyone right now, Betts,” he said. He looked around the backyard. I shone the flashlight at his face, causing an extra deep shadow to fall in the well of the dimple on his right cheek. He put a hand up to shield the light. “Maybe I’m a little more concerned about you, though. Call it an investment. I spent a bunch of money on dinner the other night. I’d hate for that to have been a waste.”
“You grilled hot dogs. I brought dessert,” I said.
Cliff shrugged. “Gotta watch my budget.”
“I’m fine. Worried, but fine.”
“I understand, and we’re worried, too. Want to tell me what happened at the school earlier?”
“Are you being the police now?”
“Yes.”
“Sure.” I told Cliff about the day, beginning with Jake’s call for help and his crazy idea of an all-night sleepover and cooking party. I said we’d been willing to go along with the idea but had been glad when the dormitory option became available. I recounted Robert Hart’s wandering out of the school, and how I went onto the empty bus and what I saw on the seat. I told him about Leroy saying he needed a smoke break and that he said he’d been in the cemetery but that I hadn’t noticed him there. I told Cliff every detail I could remember. I held up my phone’s flashlight so he could take notes in his small notebook.
“Do you know anything about Suzi Warton?” he asked.
“Just met her. She’s from Minnesota, I think. Teddy has been working on construction here, though. You should talk to him. Why?”
Cliff shrugged again. “Just curious.”
“What do you know about her?” I asked.
“Nothing more than you do at this point, but she’s not from around here. I’d like to know more. We’ll check her out.”
It was difficult to picture Suzi Warton being responsible for something bad, if indeed something bad had happened. I had to remember that just because three people were missing, that didn’t mean they’d met with some tragic end. They might be fine. I hoped.
The door pushed open again, and I swung the flashlight to Teddy’s face.
“Uh, who’s that?” he asked, my light blinding him.
“Me and Cliff,” I said.
“Oh. If you two were making out or something, speak up and I’ll go back inside. I’d rather not, though. They’re pretty upset in there. Makes me uncomfortable.”
“We’re not making out.” I looked at Cliff. The flashlight wasn’t aimed at him any longer, but I thought that maybe the look on his face mirrored my thought of Not a bad idea, though.
Cliff cleared his throat. “Teddy, what do you know about Suzi Warton?”
“I’d appreciate the light off my face before I answer.” I moved it. “Thank you. Suzi’s great as far as I can tell. She pays me weekly. None of her checks have bounced. She fills the fridge with sodas, and there are always apples and potato chips and stuff around.”
Those would be the important things to Teddy.
“Do you know much about her family or her past?” Cliff asked.
Teddy thought a moment. “Don’t think I do. No, nothing.”
“Have you and she…dated?” I asked. Teddy dated most women he met. It might be important for Cliff to know just exactly where Suzi and Teddy were in their relationship cycle.
“No,” he answered quickly. “Strictly professional.”
Teddy had been seeing someone, but that someone was my nemesis, Ophelia Buford, or Opie, and I’d threatened to hurt him if he told me any details about their relationship—a relationship I hoped wouldn’t last long. He’d done as I asked and hadn’t mentioned her once. The fact that Teddy was in a relationship didn’t always mean much, and I hoped this one either had or would quickly run its course.
“Have you been working with anyone else?” Cliff asked.
“Others come in. I’m not a plumber or an electrician. I just do the construction. Mostly guys I know, but no one else has been here as much as I have,” Teddy said.
“Can you give me the names of the other workers?” Cliff asked.
“Sure.”
As Teddy was rattling off the names of the other workers, a noise sounded from the corner of the building. We all turned, and I aimed the light. Leroy stopped his hurried steps and put one hand up to shade his eyes. He dropped a cigarette with the other hand and stomped it out with the toe of his shoe.
“Hey, who’s there?” he asked.
“I’m with the police,” Cliff said as he stepped forward and I repositioned the light so it wasn’t blinding Leroy. “You’re the bus driver, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, Leroy Norton.”
“We asked everyone to stay put, Mr. Norton. Please go back inside. When did you leave?”
“Sure, sure. I needed a smoke. I went out the back door in the building, the one by the bathrooms, a few minutes ago. It locked behind me, though, so I had to come around. This is all…wrong, you know?” Leroy stepped forward again and then stopped at the door. “You find my people?” he asked Cliff.
“Not yet. We’re working on it.”
“Where’re you looking?” Leroy asked accusingly.
“Everywhere.”
“Good.” Leroy nodded at the three of us before disappearing back inside the dormitory, through the front door.
“Betts, Teddy, I need for the two of you to either go home or come back in there with me,” Cliff said, all thoughts turned back to the investigation.
“What have I missed?” Sally appeared next to me, proving that what I had learned about the ghosts was true for at least her and Jerome. In the dark and with the light of my phone not directly on her, Sally glowed but also looked more real, more three-dimensional. I could see the smoothness of her once-alive skin. Her eyes were bright and much more oval than I’d originally thought. And though she was curious and enthusiastic, I could see something else now, a deep pain hidden behind her eyes. Her lavender smell was subtle and almost comforting. I wasn’t much for perfume, but I thought that if I could find something like her light scent, I might actually wear some.
The ax, however, was also much more real and therefore quite menacing. Could she wield it effectively in this form? I hoped not. I thought that she probably couldn’t. No matter what they looked like in the dark, the ghosts still weren’t alive. Jerome had made sure I knew as much. However, he had been able to do harm to someone despite his ghostly form. I swallowed and decided not to share with Sally what I’d discovered about Jerome’s abilities.
I shook my head her direction.
She sighed. “Right. I get it. You’ll talk to me when no one else can hear. I’ve done this for years with Miz. She’s often told me I need to be patient. I’m not very good at patient. Everyone
is in such an uproar. I’m dying to know…” She laughed. “Bad choice of words. I’d kill to know what’s going on. There, that’s better.” She laughed again.
I sighed, too, as I tried not to eye the ax.
“Let’s go in,” I said. In full light, Sally would transform back to her harmless dead, less-dimensional self.
Jim Morrison, the police chief, had things only somewhat under control inside the dormitory. Georgina Carlisle and Cece Montgomery were the most upset. Gram was trying to calm Cece, and Jim was trying to calm Georgina. Leroy was sitting with Robert Hart, who seemed to be in shock. As Leroy talked to him, he looked at the ground.
Suzi observed the group from the far end of one of the tables. She stood in the same pose that Teddy had a few minutes ago, with her hands on her hips as she bit at her bottom lip. Her eyes gave away the panic and concern she was feeling, but I could tell she was trying hard to keep it together.
“Betts, why are they so upset?” Sally said in my ear. There was a tinge of real concern in her voice.
I stepped back away from Cliff and Teddy and used my best ventriloquism skills to quietly say, “Three of the group have gone missing.”
“Missing? Kidnapped, or did they just go out for some fun?” Sally said.
“No one knows.”
“I’m sure they’re…well, maybe I could look around. Maybe I can find them.”
“That would be great and very helpful,” I said sincerely.
“See you later,” Sally said before she disappeared.
Just as I stepped forward to see what I could do to help, Jim’s cell phone rang loudly, its ring tone matching the bells from old-time rotaries. At the exact same time, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket.
If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance Page 5
