Fear of Frying (22 page)

“Shelley!" she croaked. "Shelley, wake up!" Shelley sat bolt upright, confused and disoriented. "What is it? What's wrong?"

“I know what the proof is!”

She leaped up and ran around Shelley's bed to turn on the bathroom light, instantly blinding both of them. "Call the lodge. Get Taylor back here."

“Are you really awake?" Shelley said, squinting. "Do you know what you're talking about?"

“Yes, I'm sure. It might be gone by now, but if it's not, we can hand the proof over to Taylor.”

He arrived a few minutes later. Jane and Shelleyhad flung on their clothes while they waited, and Jane had explained to Shelley what her dream had told her. Taylor looked rumpled and irritated, but cheered up considerably as Jane explained what she'd figured out. "I'll go roust Rycraft out of bed," he said.

“We're coming too," Jane declared.

They argued over it for a few minutes, but Jane and Shelley prevailed.

“And be sure you bring along the deputy with the monster flashlight," Shelley added.

The four of them — five, counting the flashlight — had to knock on Bob Rycraft's door for a few minutes. He finally opened it, blinking and confused. He wore only sweatpants and was scratching his stomach.

Before anyone else could speak, Jane said to the deputy, "Shine that monster on his stomach. Yes, it's a poison ivy rash, isn't it.”

Everybody stared at Bob's washboard stomach. He kept blinking and trying to form a question, and they pushed into the cabin around him.

“Mr. Rycraft," Taylor said, "would you mind getting dressed and try to show us where you fell in the creek?"

“I — okay. I guess. Why?"

“Because we want to see if that costume mask is still there," Taylor explained.

Bob looked relieved. "Oh, that's all? No, it's not there. It's here. I thought my girls might have fun playing dress-up with it.”

They followed him to the closet. "Don't touch it," Taylor said. He lifted it off the floor as if it were a time bomb, walked gingerly to the middle of the room, and delicately turned it over. The deputy shined the monster flashlight into the inside of the falcon hood. They all knelt and stared. The inside was lined with a black felt material, and even without a magnifying glass, they could see a few hairs stuck to the felt. Several long, coppery ones that must have belonged to the demonstrator from whom it was stolen, and a few short, straight, fair hairs.

“Yes!" Jane exclaimed. "And I'll bet that's why John Claypool was scratching at his shin, too. He and Bob ran into what's probably the only patch of poison ivy on the campsite — John when he tried to throw the mask and cloak in the creek, and Bob when he fell in and found it."

“Don't anybody touch this," Taylor said, and to the deputy added, "Call an ambulance. Tell them I need a sterile sheet to wrap this in. It'll take weeks for the DNA testing, but I think I've got enough now to ask John Claypool some pretty pointed questions.”

sheriff Taylor
and
the deputy set out for John and Eileen Claypool's cabin. Bob stayed behind to wait for the sterile sheet, and Jane and Shelley followed the sheriff quietly and at a distance. If he ordered them to stay away, they'd have to. If he didn't notice them, it was a different matter.

Taylor went to the door and knocked. Jane and Shelley lurked in the shrubbery at the end of the short driveway of the cabin. There was one light on inside, but no one came to the door. The van in the driveway began slowly, silently rolling backwards.

“Sheriff!" Jane shouted, and she and Shelley leaped out of the way of the vehicle.

Taylor whirled, spotted the van moving, and leaped forward. "Hold it!”

Suddenly the engine started, the headlights went on, and the van backed up into the road. Taylor ran in front of it. With the headlights on, Jane could see the top of the head of the driver.

Then the van shot forward, almost hitting Taylor, who dived aside at the last second. The van skidded, bumped into the sheriff's car, which was parked at the side of the road, and headed down the road toward the lodge.

Taylor leaped up from the mud and headed for his car. As the driver's door was stuck from the impact of the van, Shelley, Jane, and the deputy managed to get in first. The deputy, in the front passenger seat, leaned back and kicked the driver's door open. Taylor jumped in and gunned the engine. It took only seconds, but the van's taillights were well ahead of them.

“Where are they headed?" Jane asked as Taylor sped out.

He hadn't known they were in the car, and his head nearly swiveled off his neck. "Christ! What are you two doing back there?"

“I'm not sure," Jane said quite sincerely. She hadn't really thought it out, she'd just jumped in the car out of instinctive curiosity, not sensible reflection. "Where are we going?"

“Keep down," Taylor said. "I haven't got time to let you out. He's headed for the bridge. It's in place and I imagine he checked it out before trying to get away.”

The road curved; the car clewed half sideways on some of the curves, but the van was moving even faster. Then, inexplicably, the sheriff let up on the gas pedal. Ahead of them and sharply to the right, Jane could see the bridge — a shiny new structure with floodlights at both ends, it was perfectly flat. As she stared at it, the van took the last curve, slid sickeningly, and kept on sliding sideways as it started across the temporary bridge. There was a shriek ofmetal on metal as the back wheels dropped over the sides of the overpass and the van's momentum kept it moving. Sparks flew up from the raw meeting of bridge and van undercarriage until the van stopped, tottered like a seesaw for a moment, then gently, gracefully, toppled backwards into the creek below.

By the time the sheriff got his vehicle stopped on the brink of the creek, John Claypool had crawled out and was in the water, clinging to the door of the van and cursing horribly.

Shelley looked at Jane and said, in a dead calm voice, "I don't
think
we want to ride back with him. Let's walk.”

She and Jane got out of the sheriff's car and headed briskly back toward their cabin.

“Shelley," Jane said after they'd gone a little ways, "I think this is about the only walk I've ever actually enjoyed.”

Those members of the committee who both survived the trip and remained at large attended a brief meeting of the city council two weeks later. There was no discussion and a quick, unanimous vote not to contract with Benson Titus for a summer camp. Liz was disappointed. She'd prepared a largish booklet of her arguments against the proposal and hadn't even mentioned murder, but nobody wanted or needed to read it.

Marge, with a new hairstyle, and Eileen arrived last and left first, and were polite but didn't seem the least inclined to chat. Bob Rycraft brought two of his little girls, and they headed for the ice cream;tore within seconds of the vote. Al only popped his head in the door for a moment, said, "I vote no," and disappeared.

Shelley and Jane were left with Liz.

“I took a casserole over to Marge," Liz said. "For the funeral. But I didn't know what to do about Eileen."

“She filed for divorce within hours of getting back home, you know," Shelley said.

“I saw that in the paper," Liz said. "Poor Eileen. Married to a murderer. Do you think she ever suspected?"

“Probably not until she came out of the shower and discovered he'd left her and was trying to run from the sheriff," Jane said. "She called me yesterday. Just to tell me she had no hard feelings about my role in the whole thing. Her son's come home, she says. Apparently he never got along with his father, which is why he chose to live so far away."

“And the senior Claypools? What's to become of them?" Liz asked.

“They had a nasty weekend, too, even before learning that one of their sons had killed the other," Jane said. "Eileen told me they managed to lock all the household help outside and decided since it was cold, it would be cheaper to warm up by burning some old furniture rather than turn on the furnace. Smoke was belching out some broken windows and the fire department had to break in. The experience must have pushed them both over the edge. Eileen's son, their only blood kin, has been appointed Conservator. Popped them in a very nice nursing home and is trying to get the house in shape."

“Poor Eileen," Liz said. "And poor Marge. Whatever will they do? I guess Marge will have to sell the car dealership.”

Jane said, "Don't be too sure of that. Eileen tells me they're considering running it themselves. They've signed up for some business management and auto mechanics classes and are trying to find a manager to run it while they get up to speed.”

Liz narrowed her eyes. "Ah-hah! I heard Al on the phone the other night, giving someone advice about business managers. He wouldn't tell me who he was talking to. I'll bet— Where is he, anyway? Probably lost again."

“Liz," Jane said with a laugh, "there are only about five rooms in this building! How could he get lost?"

“I don't know. I've never understood it." She picked up her stack of booklets and went in search of him.

Shelley grinned. "I think getting lost is one of Al's best skills. Are you free tomorrow?"

“Sure. What do you want to do?"

“I thought we might drive up and take a look at the Claypool mansion. You never know — it might be a great place for a summer camp.”