A Fair to Die For Read online

  The larger of the two—Arnie—said, “Tell me, Sir, what your name is and what’s going on here?”

  Henry said, “Move away from me. I don’t know who you are or what your game is, but my watch is from Target and I probably have forty bucks on me, tops. My credit card is at home. If you hassle me, all I have to do is shout. As you say, this is a very public park.”

  Arnie’s companion said, “Hey, we’re the good guys, just looking for a very bad woman. Maybe your friend is that woman. Dumb of us not to realize she might be wearing a wig. So, where did she go? If we’re to assume you’re one of us good guys, why are you protecting her? Or, are you a bad guy we should be checking up on?” His hand suddenly shot out, and he grabbed Henry’s right wrist. “Let’s see your wallet, Sir.”

  “Not until you prove to me who you are and why you want Phyllis.”

  Arnie took a leather badge holder from an inside jacket pocket, held it toward Henry briefly, shoved it back in his pocket. He had just clamped his hand around Henry’s left wrist when the room door opened and five teens bounced in, jostling and laughing. As soon as they were inside, all five went silent. “Whoa,” the tallest one said. “What’s goin’ on here?” The other four came closer, obviously scenting adventure.

  The men let go of Henry’s wrists, and Henry eyed the kids, hoping no more serious confrontation was pending. They were big guys, maybe part of a high school football team.

  However, what one of the boys said next was more unsettling than the presence of Arnie and Company.

  “You two messin’ with this old guy?”

  Henry looked around at the boys. Then, waking up enough to take advantage of the unexpected backup, he said, “They are. I think they were planning to rob me.”

  He moved behind two of the boys as if he wanted to use them as a shield, and quickly lifted his cell phone over their heads, thinking he might get a photo of at least one of the men. Then, jamming the phone in his pocket, he hurried out the door, hoping he could make it to his truck before the two men untangled themselves from the kids.

  He made it out of the building, jogged down the sidewalk and across the parking lot. So far, so good. But, old guy?

  While half-wondering if he should have stayed to find out more about who those men were and what they wanted, he jumped in the truck, turned the key, and jammed his foot on the gas. Old guy? He wouldn’t tell Carrie what they’d called him.

  The truck leapt out of its parking space. He didn’t see any sign of the men, and no dark car followed him down the highway.

  They called me an old guy.

  Forget it, King. Those boys are young.

  Come to think of it, when he was in high school, most of his teachers looked ancient to him. He remembered how surprised he’d been when he saw his math teacher, maybe twenty-five years later, and learned he’d just retired.

  When Edie arrived back at the fair tent she slipped smoothly into helping customers with only a smile and brief apology, but no explanation. Shirley and Carrie, prepared by Henry’s call, said nothing, but did exchange eyebrow-raising glances when Edie turned away to pull one of the few remaining baby quilts off the display for a customer. Business had picked up, so the lack of time for any private conversation wasn’t awkward. When Henry arrived about forty-five minutes later he, too, went into work mode, writing tickets and making change without comment.

  Carrie, bursting with questions, worked absently, once even forgetting which of the women in front of her wanted the pale green Cuddly. Something about this situation was weird, she sensed that, and had no answer to her “Why?” Part of the problem was that Henry seemed as distracted as she. There were undercurrents swirling inside him, and it was maddening that she had no opportunity to ask what was going on.

  Though they hadn’t been together for a lifetime, as Investigator Burke had assumed, she realized now that her ability to pick up mental currents from Henry was surprisingly well developed. She wondered if it was the same with him.

  The afternoon rocketed by. All the baby quilts were gone, and only a few Cuddlys hung on display stands as the four o’clock closing time approached.

  Shortly before closing, Henry took time to call Jason’s cell phone, and learned Randy was definitely on the mend, Patricia was her old happy self again, and the twins were, well, feisty. Randy’s mom had arrived and could help with care of the twins, so the grandparents were now spelling each other for hospital visits.

  After telling Jason about the huge selling success the fair had been for Shirley, Henry asked when the Stacks contemplated coming home. He got no definite answer, though Jason said Eleanor was beginning to miss her shop and realized keeping it open could be a burden for her friends.

  Since so much was happening at present, Henry secretly agreed about shop-keeping being a burden. However, he said only “We’ll be glad to see you,” when Jason informed him they’d probably return home some time during the week, now that Randy’s mom was there to stay for a while.

  Roger appeared at four and he, Carrie, Edie, and Henry began dismantling the booth while Shirley finished filling out forms and went to join the long line of exhibitors waiting to turn in paperwork and fees at the fair office.

  And that was that. The War Eagle Craft Fair was over.

  After the trucks were packed, Roger decided to wander around, watching exhibitor break-down, leaving Carrie, Edie, and Henry alone to sit on stools remaining in the booth space.

  “Edie, what are you going to do now about finding Milton Sales?” Carrie asked.

  “She’s found him,” Henry said, and began the story of his search for Edie, seeing the car with the two men in the parking lot, and finding Edie with Milton Sales at the end of a secluded path at Hobbs.

  “How did you know to meet him there?” Carrie asked, seeking verification for Shirley’s guess that Edie and Milton had made plans for more than one get-together when they met at his booth on Thursday morning.

  “We exchanged cell phone numbers last Thursday.”

  “Well then, I assume your quest is ended.” Carrie said.

  “More complicated than that,” Edie replied.

  Henry said, “As soon as I properly identified Sales he hurried off, and there was nothing I could do about that. I did hear him say he and Edie plan to meet somewhere tomorrow. But, in the meantime, Edie had just begun to tell me her story when the two men showed up on the paved part of the path behind us. I’d heard enough by then to know it was important to keep them away from her, at least for the time being, so I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I put my arms around her and pretended we were deep in a romantic session. Fortunately they were looking for a blond and she had her wig on.”

  Carrie began laughing, then glanced at Edie, said, “Sorry,” and patted Henry’s knee. “Quick thinking,” she continued. “So what happened then?”

  She thinks it’s funny? Then he got it.

  She laughed at my romantic scene with Cousin Edie because it was so obviously play-acting and, well, ridiculous, and she’s right about that! I suppose she apologized to Edie because the laugh might be considered insulting to a woman.

  “When the men approached and asked if we’d seen a blond woman on the path, Edie kept her face buried in my chest. I acted gruff, said we hadn’t seen the woman, and warned them off. After they left, the two of us headed for the parking lot.

  “Since the men were nowhere in sight, I felt it was safe for Edie to drive her car back here. Obviously they’d ID’d it, or else they knew who Sales was and had some reason for following him. I gambled that they wouldn’t know to look for Edie here at the fair, and stayed in the Hobbs’ parking lot for a while to see if they’d return to their car. When they didn’t show up, I went back in the Visitor Center to double check, and ran into them in the men’s room.”

  “What happened then?”

  “A bunch of teen-aged boys ended up getting me out of a mess.” He described what had happened, leaving out the term “old guy.”


  “Oh my. Thank goodness for those boys.”

  “I think I got a picture of at least one of the men. I held my camera over my head from behind the kids and gambled on what it would get.” He took out his cell phone, checked the photo, then handed it to Carrie. “It’s blurry, but does either of those guys look like Agent Arnie?”

  “Yes, I’m sure that’s who the one on the right is. Since he stayed in the car, I didn’t see enough of the other man to identify him.” She held the phone toward Edie. “Do you recognize either of them? Could they be the men you saw at the motel?”

  Edie squinted at the picture. “I don’t know. Since it was dark I didn’t get enough of a look at either of them to be able to say for sure, though there are similarities.”

  Henry put his phone away and Carrie said, “Okay, then, what’s the rest of the story? There must be a reason why Cousin Edie is worth protecting in this elaborate manner.”

  Henry and Carrie both looked at Edie, who had said nothing, and was now staring at the ground.

  “She says she works as a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration under the Department of Justice. It’s something like being undercover. That’s as far as she got in her story before the two guys in suits showed up.”

  Edie looked up, fire in her eyes. “I didn’t give you permission to tell this.”

  “Carrie and I are a team, I don’t keep secrets from her, and she is as able to respect confidences as I am. Understand this. You tell either of us something, you have told it to both.”

  “A source for what purpose?” Carrie asked Edie, ignoring the break.

  “Hoping to help close down a pipeline for drugs feeding into the three corner Ozarks area of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. One suspected cover for distribution here is craft fairs. I wondered if Milton, in addition to possibly having information about Dad, might be either a connection to dealers, or a distributor himself.”

  “Makes sense,” Carrie said. “And your job makes sense. It’s a connection to your father, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Edie said. “That’s a big part of it. It’s a connection to him.”

  ”Is there more? Did you find out anything from Sales?”

  “He says Dad was killed in McAllen, Texas, by men who were supplying drugs to American truckers. Milton told me he, like Dad, was undercover at the time, but hadn’t been exposed. He actually saw Dad’s body, but doesn’t know what happened to it after he left. Since the body was never found, perhaps they buried him. I hope they did.”

  She stopped, lapsing into silence. Carrie and Henry were silent too while she dealt with her own thoughts.

  Finally Carrie said, “I’m sorry, Edie.”

  Henry nodded, then said “Is there any progress on uncovering drug sources here? Do you think one of them could be Milton Sales?”

  “I’m not sure where he fits in, but he actually doesn’t seem likely. For one thing, he says he didn’t know about the RV gas lines being disconnected, and he seemed really worried about that.”

  “Odd,” Henry said. “Whoever did it had little concern for the safety of people at the fair, which indicates the person is dangerous. Or, of course, it could be more than one person. And, I’m sure you realize Sales himself would be a likely person.”

  “Well, I guess that’s possible though, as I said, he was terribly concerned. Acting? I don’t know. For whatever reason, after I told him I knew his RV had been trashed, he said it worried him, but he wouldn’t say more. However, concern about protecting vital information is why he removed his personal possessions from the place on Friday morning, including his laptop, clothing, and toiletries. He hid them in the boxes he uses to transport his toys, and stowed everything in his truck. He says he couldn’t find a motel room in the area, so spent most of Friday night in the truck, which he parked in the exhibitor’s lot at some distance from the RV. But he decided to make sure he’d gotten all that was important and, about eleven that night, went back into the RV.”

  “So, his stuff was out when the gas lines were disconnected,” Henry said. “Don’t you think that suggests Sales himself knew there might be an explosion and fire?”

  “I guess it does,” Edie said, looking troubled, “even though he said he didn’t know about it. I . . . well, I don’t know.”

  “What about the security guards?” Carrie wondered. “Where were they when he went back in his RV?”

  “I asked that. He said the guard had just passed by and all was quiet when he decided to check the place.”

  “Seems to me he took a huge chance, “ Henry said. “So, what, of such importance, was he worried about? Was it still there in all that mess, or did the searcher find and remove it? Another thing, whoever trashed the place and, ultimately, unfastened the gas lines, took a chance with the security guards too. It would sure be simpler if that person was Milton Sales himself. Only one entry.”

  Edie said, “He says, after seeing what had happened at the RV, he decided to leave the fair completely. He packed up his unsold toys early Saturday morning, as you know. He found a motel room that had just been vacated, stowed his stuff, and, I suppose, has been there since.”

  “I wonder about the RV, and his counter and display shelves,” Carrie said. “The sheriff’s people aren’t going to let him waltz in and remove those.”

  “He seemed surprisingly unconcerned about them when we were talking at the park.”

  “Odd,” Henry said. “The big question then is how he fits in all this. His actions are peculiar, to say the least, especially since he seems to be on the run now. Maybe his laptop holds whatever the searchers were looking for. It is possible the searcher or searchers unhooked the gas lines in anger as you suggest. So, is Sales a good guy or a bad guy?”

  Edie said. “He’s involved in something of course, but is he a drug dealer, or looking for drug dealers himself? I haven’t heard anything about him from my office, so I don’t think he’s working for us.”

  Henry looked at his wife. “Edie says he told her he didn’t make those toys with the powder in them, and his booth was empty when he left on Saturday. Do you remember seeing anything like those pull toys when you bought my police car?”

  “N-no. I guess I didn’t.”

  “He said he signs all his pieces. Were those signed?” Edie asked.

  “I didn’t notice. I do know the police car is signed, though.”

  They sat silently for several minutes, ignoring the on-going hubbub around them. Finally Carrie asked, “I wonder about the birdhouse man, John Harley. He made sure I knew those toys were part of Milton Sales’s stock. Now it seems he made a point of calling my attention to them. Could we consider that suspicious?”

  Edie was looking thoughtful but had said nothing when Shirley re-joined them, waving a handful of papers. “I’m done,” she said. “Where’s Roger got to? Let’s grab him and go find us something to eat.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  SHIRLEY SHARES SUSPICIONS

  “I need to change rental cars,” Edie told Carrie and Henry as they were taking the stools they’d been sitting on to Carrie’s car. “I’ll get supper on my own and be back at your house by eight.”

  As Henry lifted the hatchback he said, “Edie, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Those guys certainly know it’s a rental car, and probably where you got it.”

  “It won’t be truly safe taking the car to your house, either,” she said, “even if I park it in the garage. We already know those men have discovered a link between Carrie and me. So, I might as well exchange the car they’ve identified for a different model.”

  Carrie looked at her husband, wondering if Edie was going to win this one and go off on her own. Hmmm, from the look on Henry’s face, I’m betting on him.

  “All right,” Henry said, “but if you want to return the car, we’ll follow you to the rental place and wait while you turn it in. Don’t get a replacement yet. You can ride with us for a day or two, unless you plan to move on right away.”<
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  “No, and I need a car. Don’t forget, I have an appointment with Milton sometime tomorrow.”

  “You’re going to have company for that,” Henry said. “As for now, Carrie and I will go to the agency with you after we eat.”

  “How do I know you won’t notify the sheriff’s department about the meeting? It’s no secret they’re looking for Milton.”

  Carrie watched the exchange, trying to pick up nuances. Milton? She’s calling him Milton now. Is that a familiarity she hasn’t admitted to us, or simply the common way many address each other these days, especially on the Internet?

  “Yes,” Henry was saying, “I might notify the sheriff, but I won’t do it before I see what Sales has to say. Think about it. If I turn him in up front, then—in their minds at least—all three of us get tangled further in whatever his business is. No guarantees after we talk, however. His disappearance, the destructive search of the RV, and the disconnected gas lines are enough to keep their interest in him lively, not to mention the four powder-filled toys Carrie picked up. I’m sure they’ll want to keep their hold on that RV for a while, but it’s a pretty expensive piece of equipment for him to walk away from. He’ll want to show up and claim it eventually, and that’s assuming he’s cleared of any wrong-doing.”

  “Well, yes, but he’s hardly going to show up and claim it now. As you say, they wouldn’t let him take it away, though I’m not sure what they think it’s evidence of. No one was hurt.”

  “Leaking gas?” Carrie said. “Possibility of an explosion or fire?”

  “Okay, okay. So there are problems all around. But, you think he’ll meet with me if he knows you’ll be along? He’s suspicious of everyone right now.”

  “Why would you tell him?” Henry asked.

  Edie didn’t answer, merely shrugged her shoulders.

  Carrie thought, Seems like Henry won this round.

  The rental car was returned without incident, and nothing more said about Monday’s meeting with Sales.