Masking for Trouble Page 22

  “Why did you come inside to call me? Why not use your cell?”

  “Dig Allen has it. He’s at the PCP. He’ll verify that.”

  She made a note. “Do you know what was in the shipping containers?”

  “I think they were quaternary maps. Maps of the fault lines that run underground.”

  She showed surprise. “How would a costume shop owner come to know about quaternary maps?”

  “I learned about them the other day when I went to the Clark County Planning Office. I wanted to know more about the Alexandria Hotel, and Cooper Price—do you know him?” She nodded. “He told me about them. And then the next day he brought me a set.”

  “He brought them to you?”

  “Yes. They’re inside.”

  “Did you ask him to make another copy for you?”

  “No.”

  She sat back and tapped the end of her mechanical pencil on the table. “Why would an employee of the planning office take the time to copy a map of fault lines for you?”

  I felt heat climb my throat and cheeks. “I think he wanted an excuse to ask me out.”

  Her pencil tapping stopped. She set the pencil down and lined it up with her notepad.

  “Do you still have these quaternary maps?” she asked.

  “They’re behind the register out front.”

  “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  IF I’d expected the detective to take me into custody, I would have been let down. After I handed over the maps, she went over my statement one more time. The only thing I left out was Francine’s answer to my question. I had not done this to her. But someone had led her to believe that I had.

  It would have been easy for another woman to masquerade as me, especially today of all days. I was dressed head to toe in red. But the only other woman who I’d connected to Paul Haverford was Annette Crowley. She’d done battle with Haverford in the past and had won. If she had been guilty of causing the illness that forced him to drop his development plans for Peppermint House, had she escalated her tactics to include murder—this time to eliminate her opposition for good? But if so, why go after Francine too? To throw the police off her trail and implicate me further, or was there something I was missing?

  But maybe Francine was trying to say something else. I’d been with her when she stole the maps from the Haverford offices. Was she saying that my involvement had brought on her attack? That she’d flown under the radar until I’d gotten involved?

  The other thing that seemed apparent from the detective’s visit was that she was no longer warning me to mind my own business. Conversely, she wasn’t warning me to be careful either. I wasn’t sure how to interpret either omission.

  It was closing in on six. I drove back to the PCP and found Bobbie dressing bears.

  “Do you want to tell me why Detective Nichols delivered the teddy bear costumes to me instead of you? Not the person I’d expect you to call for a favor.”

  “Did she say anything else? Did she ask you any questions about me?’

  “No. She gave me the costumes and asked where she could find Dig. I thought you said the costumes were at the shop. What was the detective doing there?”

  “I found Francine Wheeler knocked out behind Disguise DeLimit. Detective Nichols came over to find out what happened. She asked me a lot of questions, but this time she didn’t make it sound like she suspected me of anything. I don’t know why either, because the attack happened behind my store. If she was going to turn something innocent into evidence that implicated me, she had a pretty good opportunity.”

  Bobbie tucked the legs of the last bear into a white fur yeti costume and pushed his head until he was all the way in. When she was done, she whipstitched the front and back of the head of the costume together with a length of white ribbon that I’d pinned on for that purpose, and then knotted each side off. The bear’s tiny little face peeked through the opening, his mouth hidden behind white plastic vampire teeth that I’d hand sewn to the fur. She turned him to her and then to me. “He really is pretty adorable,” she said.

  “I know. What are you planning on doing with them tonight?”

  “These bears speak for themselves. Make a donation, get a bear. Simple as that.’

  “And your costume?”

  She lifted a hanger from the back of the bookcase and held up a giant brown fur jumpsuit. “What else? I’ll be dressed like one of them too.”

  I left Bobbie to rearrange the bears on her bookcase and paint her sign and found Dig helping Ebony with the stage. The vases of orange flowers were in place next to braids of glow-in-the-dark cords that illuminated the edge of the platform. Above us, strands of white twinkle lights were draped from tree to tree, creating our own starry night. I followed the strands until I found one that draped out of the tree toward the ground.

  “How are they lit? Like you said, there are no outlets out here.”

  “Gas generator. Filled up, it’ll last for about five hours.”

  “It’s genius.”

  “It was Tak’s idea. If it wasn’t for him and his friend, we’d be trying to run the world’s longest extension cord.”

  “His friend?”

  “Cooper. Nice guy. He showed up after Tak got here. They work pretty well together. You should check out what they did in Have-Not Town.”

  “Who’s idea was that?”

  “Sol Girard. That reminds me. He said you dropped something when you were at his place the other night.”

  “I don’t remember leaving anything behind,” I said.

  “Here,” he pulled out a socket wrench. The circle on the end was approximately the same size as the wound on Francine’s head.

  Chapter 32

  I BACKED AWAY from Dig. “That’s not mine,” I said.

  He laughed. “It’s not gonna bite, Margo. It’s just a socket wrench.”

  “Where’s my phone? I have to call Detective Nichols.”

  Dig must have recognized the urgency in my voice, because instead of teasing me, he pulled my phone out of his pocket. I grabbed it from him and called her.

  “Detective Nichols,” she answered.

  “This is Margo Tamblyn. I think I have the weapon that was used to knock out Francine.”

  “What is it?”

  “A socket wrench. The circle thingie on the end looks to be about the same size as the wound on her head.”

  “You have it with you?”

  “Sol Girard gave it to Dig Allen to give to me. I think it was a message. I think he’s trying to tell me not to get involved.”

  “Where are you?”

  “The Proper City Park.”

  “I’ll send a car out to his house to have a talk with him.”

  I hung up the phone, feeling like someone had painted a target on my back. Worse, I knew that as long as I was at the Halloween party, I was putting a lot of other people at risk. It wasn’t worth it.

  I turned to Ebony. “Whatever this thing is with Paul Haverford, it’s gotten too big and I’ve gotten too involved. I’m going home. I don’t want anybody here to be put in the middle of something I started.”

  “Girl, you’re scaring me. It’s bad enough I have to deal with the spirit world this time of year. What happened?”

  I looked back and forth between her and Dig’s faces. Behind them, Tak stood on top of a six-foot ladder, positioning strands of twinkle lights. Tak was dressed in Japanese attire: Wide-legged black pants, a close fitting black top, and blue kimono that had been bound at the waist with thick black fabric. I’d seen costumes intended to represent Japanese warriors, but they had been mass produced out of cheap red and gold fabrics. His had a quiet authenticity to it. Until now, I’d only seen him in the kind of clothes that other guys wore, but he didn’t appear uncomfortable in costume—in fact, it was the opposite. He moved with gr
ace and confidence. It was Cooper, next to him, dressed as Robin Hood in green tights, brown tattered outfit, and a quiver on his back, who fussed with his hem and seemed ill at ease with his appearance.

  Tak paused for a moment and looked at me. Nothing from the evening, not the incredible setup of his booth or the stage lined with pumpkins or the bookshelf of teddy bears in costume could take away the sense of doom that pervaded the night. My eyes filled with tears, and they spilled, leaving tracks down my cheeks that dripped onto my red devil outfit.

  Tak scrambled down the ladder and said something to Cooper, who turned around. He set down the strand of twinkle lights he’d been holding and the two of them jogged over to where I stood.

  “What’s wrong?” Tak asked.

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Dig said.

  I took a deep breath and swiped the tears from my face. “Francine Wheeler was knocked out behind Disguise DeLimit. She’s at the hospital now.” I looked at Cooper. “She broke into Haverford Venture Capital last night and stole the quaternary maps. She said Paul Haverford’s murder had to do with the expansion plans in West Proper, and she needed them to prove the risk of development.”

  “How do you know she stole the maps?” Cooper asked.

  I looked at Tak. He knew I’d been at HVC last night. He must not have told Cooper about it. “I was there. I didn’t— I wasn’t helping her. I went to see if I could find something out about Bill Perth’s involvement with Haverford. Honestly, I was going to snoop around the outside, try to look through the widows. And I did. The door to Haverford’s office was open and a light was moving around. I went around the back of the building and Francine came out. We scared each other.”

  “What about the maps?” he asked.

  “She had these long shipping tubes with her. She said she was going to send them to herself.”

  “What are these maps?” Dig asked.

  Tak answered. “They show the network of fault lines that run under Proper and the neighboring communities. Seismologists like Francine rely on them pretty heavily to determine where there might be risk and to predict when the next earthquakes might take place. Paul Haverford would have had a set because of his development plans of West Proper.”

  “Why would this Francine person want to steal them?” Ebony asked.

  “She made no secret of the fact that she opposed Havetown. She disrupted the town hall meeting the other night and tried to make her point. Even you two said that she’s been a nuisance to the planning office for years.”

  Cooper rubbed a stain of grease from his fingers. “She’s passionate about what she does. But those maps are public record.” He looked at me. “That’s why I was able to make you a copy. If Francine wanted them, she knew she could come down to the office and request them. She has in the past. I don’t know why she’d break into the Haverford offices and steal them when she could just as easily obtain them through legal means.”

  “We’re forgetting one thing,” I said. “Francine isn’t the bad guy here. She was knocked out. She’s in the hospital. Somebody else didn’t like the fact that she got those maps. Somebody else who is connected to Havetown.”

  “You went white as a ghost when I mentioned Sol Girard’s name,” Dig said. “You think he has something to do with this?”

  “He owns property in West Proper. And he struck a deal with Haverford to benefit from the development. That happened right before Paul Haverford was murdered.”

  Ebony turned around and cursed. For the first time in my life, she didn’t apologize immediately after. She put her hands on the platform in front of her and hung her head down. Thick dreadlocks draped to the sides of her head, hiding her face. Even though she didn’t say it, I knew what she was thinning.

  “It’s too dangerous for me to be here tonight,” I said. “I can’t risk putting the rest of the people here in the line of fire because someone’s keeping an eye on me.” I looked at their faces and felt a little like Dorothy saying good-bye to the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. “It’ll be okay. You should all celebrate Halloween without me.” I forced a shrug. “It’s not so special. I wear costumes every day.”

  In the background, the Minnie Winnie pulled up to the curb. My dad climbed out and opened the back doors. Kirby climbed out of the passenger-side doors and met up with him. Together, with the help of two additional swim team members who must have been in the back, they unloaded the laboratory backdrop that went with Mr. Smythe’s rat costume. The four of them carried it across the park and set it down next to Bobbie’s bear display.

  “I’ll be right back.” I left the group and approached my dad.

  “Margo, didn’t Kirby outdo himself?” Dad asked.

  “It’s incredible. Dad, I need to talk to you.”

  His expression changed from joy to concern. He instructed the boys to continue without him and we walked a few feet away from the display. I told him about the attack on Francine, the missing maps, and the socket wrench from Sol Girard. In less than two minutes, I briefed him on everything that had been happening, including my decision to leave.

  He put his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want you to be alone tonight.”

  “She won’t be, sir,” Cooper said. He looked at me. “I know I asked you to be my date tonight, but I just wanted to spend time with you. The Cineplex is showing a double feature of Halloween and Gremlins.” He glanced down at his green Robin Hood costume. “If I’m willing to be seen wearing tights in public, would you be willing to join me?”

  “If you’re willing to make that sacrifice, then I guess I should be willing to make my own. Let me get my things.”

  I didn’t spend time on saying good-bye to everybody. Cooper checked the movie times on his phone, and I grabbed my now-mostly-empty backpack from Bobbie’s booth.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing? I don’t want to make a big thing out of this, but every time Tak looks at you, it’s pretty obvious how he feels.”

  “Bobbie, I don’t have a clue, but Cooper asked me here and I said yes. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll crash and burn before we even buy popcorn.”

  “Before you leave, you might want to take a peek in the Hoshiyama booth. It’s pretty incredible.”

  I walked back to Cooper. “Do you mind if I take a peek at the other displays before we leave? This is the only chance I’m going to get.”

  “Sure,” he said. “Do you want me to pack your scooter up in my SUV?”

  I hadn’t given much thought to my scooter, but it was a good idea. Leaving it behind would indicate that I was at the party and would negate the whole point of me leaving. I pulled my keys out of the exterior pocket of the backpack and handed them to him. “Turn the key to the right a quarter circle to unlock the steering. You should be able to maneuver it easily after that.”

  “Okay. I’m parked over there.” He pointed to the corner of the park. “You only have about ten minutes if we want to catch the previews.”

  “I can do ten minutes.”

  We went separate directions. In the corner of the park was a small striped tent. The fabric walls on one side had been removed, and in their place were two screens painted with cherry blossoms on rice paper. I stepped between the screens and gasped at the magnificent display in front of me.

  The walls of the tent had been lined in black velvet, and pairs of swords and knives had been mounted. I stepped closer and reached my hand out toward the bright jade handle of a knife.

  “No touching,” Tak said from behind me.

  Again I was struck by how comfortable he was in his outfit. Where Coop had been fussing with his almost nonstop, Tak inhabited these clothes the same way he wore a shirt and khakis. Even his black hair, normally falling to the side of his face, had been tied back, making his features more pronounced than ever. Dressed as he was, he might as well have been a
warrior from another time, here to fight for his cause.

  “What do you call this?” I asked, touching his sleeve.

  “Which part? That’s Gi. The pants are Hakama.” He pointed to his waist. “Do.”

  “We should have something like that at the store,” I said. “Authentic. Not like the samurai costumes at Candy Girls.” I stepped back and pretended to assess him. “Not bad. It’s part of the Tak Hoshiyama costume collection. It’s you. It works.”

  “But we don’t.” He stepped closer. “I made a mistake. I should have told Cooper that we were seeing each other. Now—now you’re going out with him and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “He already told me about how you like to play the field. It’s better this way. We both know where we stand and nobody’s going to get hurt.” I smiled. “Have fun tonight. Make your dad proud.” Before he could say anything else, I turned around and left.

  Cooper had my scooter loaded into the back of his car by the time I reached it. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” I said. I climbed into the passenger side and watched out the window as the final touches were put on the Halloween party decorations. Across the PCP, I saw Tak watching me. As mature as I’d acted, I didn’t like how things had ended. I pulled out my phone and ran my finger over Private Number on my recently called list, and then pressed dial. Cooper climbed into the car and I hung up before Tak had a chance to answer. Maybe it was better this way.

  Cooper pulled away from the curb, leaving the park and the Halloween celebrations behind us.

  The Cineplex was on the northwest side of Proper, about a mile past the Alexandria Hotel. It sat among restaurants and nightclubs that had hung on for decades but constantly seemed this close to going out of business. Part of the Havetown plans had included a new thirty-two-screen movie house, which would have no doubt driven the Cineplex—and probably the other businesses in that area—out of business. But they were as much a part of our town’s history as the hotel. I made a note to come out this way more frequently to show my support.