A Fair to Die For Read online

  Carrie completed the sale, then glanced at Deputy Rosten, who was now being buffeted on every side by people surging along the aisle. The deputy looked at Shirley before shoving closer to Carrie. “Ms. McCrite, don’t leave this area until a deputy questions you further.” She pushed back out into the human tide and disappeared.

  “Whew,” Edie said in Carrie’s ear. “I wondered if she was going to arrest you.”

  “The thought occurred to me,” Carrie replied, “and now, come drought or high water, I’m phoning Henry. I could sure use his support. Eleanor often closes by noon on Saturdays anyway, so I hope he’s not covered over with customers.”

  She paused for only a few seconds before she continued, “ I’m afraid I’ve gotten myself involved too deeply in this mess,” and wondered if she should have looked Edie in the eye and said, “. . . involved too deeply in your mess.”

  After a long and urgent conversation with Carrie, Henry, murmuring expletives he would no longer have said aloud, took rapid steps to close the shop. He made sure Eleanor’s potted plants and the cut flowers in the cooler had plenty of water, pulled down the door blinds, locked the credit card receipts and cash in the safe, turned on the alarm system, and hurried to his truck.

  Why couldn’t Carrie have stayed out of Edie’s business? Why had she gone to that RV? Her curiosity and interest in helping people had trumped wisdom and caution again. And this time it landed her in a ticklish or even dangerous situation. She might be considered an important witness, might end up in court, might even need a lawyer. Blast, blast, blast!

  Trouble was, he could see the whole story from the deputies’ point of view. Years of police work had made it easy to fit in their shoes. Carrie had gone to Sales’s booth several times. She’d shown unusual curiosity about the man. Witnesses on either side had seen her, one of them had talked with her, and she’d asked him questions about Milton Sales. What’s more, she’d made a special trip to the visitor parking entrance to ask the deputy on duty about a man—who turned out to be Sales—moving out of his booth two days early. And, finally, she’d hurried to Sales’s RV as soon as trouble loomed there.

  Once out on the highway, Henry made an effort to calm down, even to pray as Carrie did. At least that ought to have a calming effect, and he needed to be calm so he could think more clearly.

  Cara, Little Love, stay safe, stay with Shirley. And, please, please, don’t talk to anyone but Shirley and your customers until I get there.

  As for Cousin Edie? This whole mess was her fault. If only she hadn’t come to find Carrie. This time he swore aloud, but stopped in the middle of an especially spicy adjective. No, stop it, Henry King.

  Reacting like this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Hang Cousin Edie, but it was too late to get her out of their lives. They’d just have to work through whatever problem she’d dropped on them. Still, why on earth couldn’t Carrie have ignored anything to do with Milton Sales? Edie was the only one who had a reason to be interested in him.

  While he paused for a traffic light, Henry began to calm down. It wasn’t really fair to blame Carrie for Cousin Edie being here, and, after all, he was the one who invited the blasted woman to stay at their house.

  Carrie would say we are given problems only because we’re expected to solve them. Well, maybe. But now she’s the one in trouble. That may change her tune.

  Should he throw Cousin Edie to the wolves? Tell her story to the deputies to get Carrie off the hook? If it came down to the wire, he’d do it, even if it broke with his own idea of honor. But if Edith Embler was half a man , or, well, half a woman, she’d explain it all to the deputies herself.

  He took in a huge breath, blew it out. I need the wisdom of a judge and the patience of angels, so help me God.

  Were angels supposed to be patient? He’d have to ask Carrie.

  He turned onto the road leading toward War Eagle Mill and the fair grounds, and noticed most of the traffic was on the other side, heading out. It was 4:45. A deputy was supposed to be back to question Carrie at five.

  When he got to the parking area he noticed three deputy sheriff’s cars. One man in uniform was directing traffic, another was just getting out of his car. Looked like the county sheriff’s office had been able to send extra help, and traffic would certainly be a tangle without someone to keep things organized.

  He parked in the just-vacated space he was directed to, and started across the parking lot through crowds of package-laden people swarming in his direction.

  Chapter Ten

  THE INVESTIGATOR

  Carrie shifted in the car seat and looked away from her inquisitor. How the dickens was she going to get out of this new phase of what she’d begun to think of as “The Edie Mess?” She stared out the car window, not focusing on anything—until she realized the blue truck turning into the parking lot was Henry’s. For a moment she wondered if it would be best to ignore him. After all, this criminal investigation guy wouldn’t know who her husband was, and, even if they were introduced later, she could pretend she hadn’t seen him arrive. Maybe, just maybe, the investigator would finish his questions and leave before Henry found out she wasn’t in the exhibitors’ tent and came back this way to look for her.

  Her audible sigh stopped the man’s next question. “Yes, Ms. McCrite?”

  No. No getting out of it. She had to warn Henry off now, before he found Shirley and Edie waiting for her in the tent. She was sure he’d be tempted to expose Edie, thinking it would avoid trouble for her. She couldn’t risk that, not yet at least.

  They knew so little. Sure, it was possible she and Henry were sheltering a criminal, or maybe someone knowing secrets bad people wanted, but everything was still fuzzy in her thinking. She couldn’t take steps for or against anyone, especially Edie, until she understood more.

  She hoped Ray had called, and that his information would help them understand what was really going on here. Edie a victim? Edie, a woman doing exactly what she said, searching for the truth about her father? Or Edie involved in dark things neither she nor Henry wanted any part of?

  “Ms. McCrite?”

  She ignored the man, opened the car door, and shouted, “Henry” as the investigator said, quite loudly, “Stop. We’re not through here yet.”

  “That’s my husband,” she told him, and added, “Retired Kansas City Police Major, Henry King.”

  The investigator said nothing while she stood beside the car to greet Henry, but at least he got out of the car too.

  “Henry, this is Sheriff’s Department Investigator Burke. He’s asking me about a man named Milton Sales who’s an exhibitor here and, it seems, has disappeared. Investigator Burke just arrived. Deputies Rainwater and Rosten were here earlier, and discovered someone had loosened hose connections to the propane tank at Sales’s RV. Gas fumes could have killed someone, or there could have been a nasty explosion and fire. Fortunately there was no explosion, and no evidence that anyone was overcome by the gas, but they can’t find Mr. Sales. They’re asking me about him, though I sure don’t know much to tell them. ”

  Henry came around to shake hands with Burke, then said slowly, “So, this Sales is an exhibitor here?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I met him, more or less, when I was taking a break and stopped at his exhibitor’s booth. He makes wonderful things from wood, mostly toys. I’m spoiling the surprise, but I bought a toy police car from him to put in your Christmas stocking, thinking it would make a unique paperweight for your desk. I decided later he might have something Patricia and Randy’s twins would enjoy, but when I went back to look over his selection again, the man was gone.”

  “I see.” He turned to Burke. “Why question her, then?”

  “Your wife has shown what we think is more than an average interest in Milton Sales. According to John Harley, one of the exhibitors next to the vacated space, she asked a bunch of questions about him during several visits there. She was the one who reported him missing, and she showed up at his RV when deputies
went there to investigate her report.”

  Carrie started to say something, but Henry interrupted, “My wife is curious about many things, and, it seems to me, her curiosity about this Sales fellow is natural.”

  The detective was saying “Yes, Major, it may be,” when Carrie broke in.

  “Of course I was curious, anyone would be. And that man next to Sales’s booth asked me to report him missing. It wasn’t my idea at all. I was simply doing him a favor because he and the lady on the other side were both working by themselves. And, after I reported the absence, as requested, I was naturally curious when someone told me sheriff’s deputies were at Milton Sales’s RV.”

  “How did you know it was his RV?” the investigator asked.

  “Saw him go in it during my lunch break. It was either his, or he knew who it belonged to. And later, the man in the booth next to him—John Harley, did you say?—told me it was his.”

  “I see.”

  Carrie took a key ring out of her purse and handed it to Henry. “Dear, would you mind taking these to Shirley? She’s waiting for me to be finished here, and now that you’ve come, she might as well go on home in my car. We can pick the car up at her house later. Tell her I’d be glad if she’d stop at our place and drop off what she’s carrying for us. House key is on that ring.”

  Henry looked at her only a minute before he asked, “Leave it at the house? Can’t we get it later?”

  “No, I need it this evening.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. And I’m not going to answer any more questions until you come back. I’m sure Investigator Burke won’t mind if you sit in.”

  She got back in the car, folded her arms, and prepared to wait.

  While he was walking to tent number three, Henry opened Carrie’s key ring, and took off the house key. What on earth was she thinking, giving Edie a key to their house? Evidently the deputies had no idea yet that Edie was anything but extra help at the fair, and Carrie had some reason for shielding her. Well, until he heard why, he wouldn’t spill the beans, but he wasn’t going far enough to allow that woman time alone in their house.

  When he got to Shirley’s space, she and Edie were sitting on stools in the almost empty tent, chatting. As he came within hearing distance, Edie was saying, “Hobbs State Park sounds like it’s well worth a visit, and . . . Oh, hello Henry, glad you’re here. Did you see Carrie? Is she okay? That policeman came and took her away, and we’ve been worried sick.”

  “She’s fine, and here are the keys to her car so you two can go on. She’ll ride with me.”

  “Carrie’s good at taking care of herself,” Shirley said, “And, thank her for thinking of us. We will go on, if that’s okay with Edie. All of us are mighty tired and hungry.”

  Henry said, “Edie, we’ll pick you up at Shirley’s as soon as we can, but who knows how much longer we’ll be here while the investigator questions Carrie about Milton Sales.” He enunciated the name carefully and stared at Edie, making his face as stern as he could. She ignored him, slid off the stool, and went to pick up her sweater and purse at the back of the booth. She dropped her purse, and when she reached inside the box it had fallen into, said, “Oh, look, there are some of Milton Sales’s pull toys inside this box. You’d better take them with you, Henry. Carrie evidently bought them as gifts, maybe for those twin grandchildren of Eleanor’s she’s been telling me about. She kept her purse and sweater back here, and took those with her, but evidently forgot the toys.”

  She handed him the box, then followed Shirley toward the exhibitors’ parking lot, turning to smile and wave as she left the tent.

  Henry didn’t return the smile or the wave. He had an excuse not to wave, as she could see. He was holding Carrie’s box. Edie could probably see his scowl, too.

  Be calm, he thought as he walked back to the parking lot, put the box behind the passenger seat in his truck, and headed for Investigator Burke’s car.

  “Okay if I climb in back here?” he asked. At Burke’s nod, he settled himself, said “Shirley is going on home, and thanks you for the loan of your car,” then waited to see what the investigator would say next.

  “Ms. McCrite, would you please go over the information we’ve discussed so far?”

  She did, from discovering the wooden toy maker’s booth to her curiosity about what the deputies were doing at his RV. She left out any mention of her cousin.

  “And you say you don’t know the man at all. Had never met him until you appeared at his fair space?”

  “Right. I don’t know the man at all.”

  “You asked Deputy Rosten if it was possible Milton Sales had been in his RV, and was somehow removed or left of his own volition before, during, or after the gas was turned on.”

  “Well, I didn’t say it exactly like that, but I did wonder about whether or not he was there some time during that period. If he was knocked out by the gas, his removal must have been during the dark hours, because in the daytime carrying someone out of the trailer would have been noticed by a lot of people. Even at night, secrecy would have been iffy. But I also wonder now if he came to his trailer, day or night, and, seeing it torn up, maybe in conjunction with realizing the gas lines were tampered with, he was spooked and chose to bolt.”

  The deputy’s momentary silence told Henry he was considering what Carrie had said.

  “Hm. Interesting speculation. But why didn’t he report what happened? Why didn’t he take care of the gas leak?”

  “Fear. He was frightened. Or time. He realized someone meaning harm was perhaps near by, even watching him. And, he may have opened a window to vent the gas, but was afraid to take time to re-attach the hoses. You could ask Deputies Rainwater and Rosten about the window. Also, he could have been afraid the whole thing would blow up while he was there and ‘got the heck out of Dodge,’ so to speak. Worst case, he could have been overcome by the gas and simply removed by person or persons unknown.

  “The fact he’s gone makes me think one of three things. He’s afraid, and has disappeared for that reason. He’s been taken captive by people who did or did not find what they were searching for in the trailer. Or he’s dead. All that points to criminal activity, not necessarily, however, by Milton Sales.”

  There was another pause while Henry marveled, once more, at how quickly Carrie could cut to the core of matters like this. He figured Burke was probably astonished at the astute conclusions of the little, grey-haired woman sitting beside him.

  Finally the investigator said, “You’re thinking like a detective, Ms. McCrite. Seems your husband’s profession has worn off on you over the years.”

  Henry wondered if he should comment on that, but stopped to ponder what the investigator’s remark about his influence wearing off on Carrie signified. He thinks we’re old married folks .

  In the meantime, Carrie answered for them both.

  “Actually, Henry and I have been married less than a year, friends for two years. But yes, I do know a lot about human nature, and have learned from him how to think carefully about unexpected, and perhaps criminal, activities.”

  “So, what do you think happened to Sales? Where is he?”

  “I haven’t a clue. But, with your resources, I bet you can find out. After all, Deputy Rainwater did see him and can probably describe his truck, though I don’t know if he got the truck’s license number. Maybe fair officials take all that down if you park in the exhibitors’ lot.

  Burke slanted his head toward Henry.

  “Any thoughts, Major?”

  “It is possible Sales was involved in something peculiar, if not criminal. Perhaps his fair neighbors can tell you more. After all, as my wife has said, the three of them have, at their own request, been neighbors at every fair for a number of years. Those two must have observed something of interest beyond the fact Sales’s attention to his booth was somewhat erratic.”

  “Not a bad idea, and I had intended to speak with them again tomorrow anyway,” Burke said. “Okay, I g
uess that’s all for now, Ms. McCrite. I’m sure you’ll be here Sunday if I need to talk with you further. He turned toward Henry. “Will you be here too, Major King?”

  “Definitely,” Henry said.

  And with that, they were done.

  As soon as they were in the truck, Henry asked, “You intended for Edie to be alone in our home?”

  “Well, I didn’t like it, but what could I do? It isn’t up to Shirley to baby sit her.”

  “Maybe not, but she is with Shirley. I am firmly against leaving her alone to use our house, our phone, and maybe even our computers as she wishes, so I took your house key off the ring. We’ll pick her up now, when we get your car from Shirley.”

  “Okay.”

  She was quiet for so long that Henry wondered if she was angry about his decision. Then she said, “You’re right, of course. But I knew I didn’t want the law enforcement people to connect us with Edie, at least not yet. I couldn’t think how else to get her out of there without Burke seeing her with you and me.

  “Now, have you heard anything from Ray or the Stacks?”

  “Eleanor called to say Randy’s awake and able to talk, though somewhat hampered by his bandages. I told her how well things were going at both the shop and the craft fair, and that I’d been able to keep the shop open the whole time.”

  “How about Ray?”

  “He did call, but had learned nothing. No name like Agent Arnold Frost in the FBI records Ray’s contact was able to access. That’s not really definitive, however. I have no idea how complete the records he was talking about are.”

  “Henry, do you feel like we’re wading through mush? How on earth am I to think about Cousin Edith Embler? How far can we trust her? Well, obviously you don’t trust her, and everything’s still up in the air for me. I can’t remember a time when I’ve been more upset about, well, what I might call one of our cases. And we aren’t even in danger this time.”