Murder in Gatlinburg (11 page)

We had a great time
acting like two boys who had run away from home. We ended our day by eating at
the Best Italian restaurant, which Lou and I agreed could lay claim to that
title. At least in Gatlinburg. With food like that, and the Pancake Pantry
fare, I knew I couldn't spend too many weeks in the Smokies or I would soon
come to see my former self. I had worked too hard to see less of myself to go
back to where I had been before.

It wasn't until we were
on the trolley back to Westgate that I realized that I hadn't thought of our
clue all day. Had we seen the Jack and Jill referred to in Lou's clue? Or were
Jack and Jill back at Westgate? Had they tumbled down the hill in our absence?

I sent Lou a text.

Jack and Jill

He sent me one back.

You've done good
today, Cy. Don't blow it!

I turned to him and
smiled, then closed my eyes until I felt the trolley stop.

We got off and walked
under the lighted archway to get a ride back to our suites. Our timing was bad.
We ran into Sylvia and Inez coming out of the indoor water park. I had to admit
that neither of them looked bad for their age, but I felt they were a little
old for the bikinis they were wearing. At least they didn't spill out in the
areas where you don't want to spill out.

They appeared to have
mellowed a little. Neither of them came running up and hugged us and got us all
wet.

"So, have you two
been in Gatlinburg all this time?"

"More or less.
You?"

"We spent a couple
of hours there, then left a little after lunch."

"You didn't happen
to see a limping man or two guys in dark suits, wearing sunglasses, and dark
hats, did you?"

"What attraction
was that?"

"No attraction.
Just three guys we saw."

"So, you saw the
Blues Brothers and Chester?"

"Who?"

"Never mind."

"Oh, wait a minute.
I remember Chester. My dad talked about him being a character on
Gunsmoke.
"

I did my Mr. Dillon
impersonation that my dad had used on me. Our lady friends laughed. I wasn't
sure if that meant they liked my impression or not.

"Who are these
Blues Brothers you mentioned?"

"Where did you
spend the eighties? They were two characters in a movie. They were very
popular. And they dressed like those two guys you mentioned. Maybe the guys you
saw were impersonators."

We said goodbye and
headed off to catch the shuttle. They climbed on the same shuttle. They got off
the same place we did.

"Are you following
us?"

"No. Our rooms are
up this way, too."

We got to our rooms
first. We turned to climb the stairs and luckily the two wet women didn't try
to follow us.

I told Lou goodnight,
and headed to my door. The first thing I did was Google the Blues Brothers.
They weren't the two guys who we saw, but they did dress the same. Maybe our
guys were trying to copy them and not there to murder someone. I would think
that a murderer would dress a little more inconspicuously.

Luckily, Sunday was a
planned day. That meant Lou and I didn't have to figure out what we were going
to do all day. While one day of doing nothing much but ride the trolleys was
fun, it wasn't something I wanted to repeat. All of our group were to eat the
breakfast buffet at Westgate, and then board the bus at 9:30 and head to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It didn't matter that Lou and I had seen
part of the Smokies the day before. From what I gathered from reading the
itinerary, Earl would be taking us to a different part of the Smokies than the
part Lou and I had staked claim to the day before. And I had heard there are
many different aspects of the national park, each with something different to
appreciate. The only things each one had in common were the trees and the
mountains. But I had been told that Clingman's Dome and Cade's Cove have little
in common.

When I got to Lou's
room, he motioned me inside. His concerned look told me he had awakened and
found a body in the room and he needed my help moving it. I was going to
recommend to him that moving bodies is best done after dark. I looked around
and spotted no bodies, but I had yet to check the shower. Lou stopped me before
I could look.

"Cy, I got another
message."

Lou was on a roll, a new
message each day, just like when we were getting paid for solving murders.

"You're the one who
says we are retired, which we are. I'm sure God knows that, so why is He still
sending you a message every day?"

"I don't know.
Maybe you can ask Him. You are still on speaking terms with Him, aren't
you?"

"We talked this
morning."

"Well, did you
bring this up?"

"At the time I
didn't know you were going to get another message."

"But you knew about
yesterday's message, and the day before."

"But you told me
you weren't going to tell me if you got another message. Besides, we haven't
been summoned to solve a murder, and we haven't even stumbled over a body when
we've been out and about."

"Do you want me to
ask Him to put a body in your bathtub?"

"I think I'll pass."

"Just want to do
what I can to help out a friend."

"Let's just stick
to the messages for now. So, what was today's message?"

"Murders don't
always happen on the first page of a book. Sometimes you have to be patient and
wait for things to develop."

"God told you that."

"No, that's my
message to you."

"So, you didn't
really get one from God."

"You're the one who
says they come from God. All I know is that I got a thought just like I always
do."

"And that thought
was?"

"Mary Ann
Evans."

"Is she one of your
former girlfriends?"

"Afraid not. You
knew all of the girls I dated."

"You mean both of
them. Bubba and Moose."

"You know I dated
more than two girls, and none of them were nicknamed Bubba or Moose. A couple
of them were really cute."

"Yeah. I couldn't
see what they ever saw in you, until I found out that they had lost a
bet."

"We're talking
about today's clue, not my dates."

"Mary Ann Evans.
Maybe she works here and she's the one who told you this message."

"Nope."

"Is she one of our
traveling companions?"

"I have no idea.
Remember I have the gift of receiving the clues, but not of interpreting
them."

There wasn't anything
Lou and I could do at that moment, so we took our somber faces off to a buffet
that we hoped would change our expressions.

Sylvia and Inez were already
seated when Lou and I arrived for breakfast Sunday morning, and I ignored Sylvia
wildly waving arms. She looked like she was betting on something and the
nearsighted auctioneer had failed to notice her. Instead, she was letting us
know that there were two more seats at their table.

The buffet at Westgate
resembled the way Lou and I used to eat, and the way we were going to eat that
morning, and maybe a couple of other times before we returned to Kentucky. It would have been hard for anyone to join us, since both Lou and I had three
plates full of food. One was filled with sausage, bacon, and eggs. Another was
stacked with pancakes. And the third had sausage gravy running all over the homemade
biscuits and trying to escape from the plate. Yep. Two weeks at Westgate would
involve taking off too many pounds when I get home. Maybe I should do a lot of
hiking when we get to the Smokies. Hiking wasn't too bad as long as bears
didn't hike the same trail, and the trail wasn't straight up, stopping just
before it gets to heaven.  And I didn't want to think about anything that went
downhill.

As we ate, I looked
around at the other people. I still hadn't learned all the faces of the people
in our group, but I had learned that one who was already familiar wasn't there.
The area where we ate looked down upon the area we entered for the first time
two days earlier. I looked over the railing to see if she was somewhere below,
waiting in the area from which we would be leaving shortly. I didn't see her
there, either. With it being Sunday, I considered lifting up a praise that Miss
Friendly wasn't with us, but erred on the side of caution, and instead prayed and
thanked God, for He had given Lou and me a great start to our vacation. Could
it be that Miss Friendly was the Jill of Lou's morning message from the day
before? If so, who was Jack? But then maybe a trip into the Smokies wasn't Miss
Friendly's thing. Or she could have gotten drunk on our free day and was
sleeping it off.

I quit eating at the
trough in time to go back to my abode and brush my teeth before we left. The
walk from the shuttle stop to the building where our penthouse suites were
located was just enough to take off an ounce or two. Lou walked shotgun on my
trip up the hill. We agreed to walk all the way downhill to catch the bus,
which would be in front of the building where we ate, not at the front gate
where we catch the trolley.

+++

My second surprise of
the morning was when 9:30 came Earl and his bus weren't there to take us to the
Smokies. I remembered how early he was the first time, back in Lexington. He arrived at least forty-five minutes early on that occasion. I wasn't sure
what time he got there. He was already there when Lou and I walked outside. I
wondered if he had partied too late the night before. I wasn't even sure if
Earl stayed at Westgate, slept on the bus, or stayed somewhere else. Maybe
there was a campground for bus drivers. I didn't know. Earl and I hadn't exactly
bonded the first day.

I looked around our
huddled mass, yearning to breathe free. Miss Friendly didn't seem to have
caught up with the rest of us. The later Earl became, the more murmuring I
could hear from our group. It seemed like each person in our group checked his
or her watch or phone every fifteen seconds to note how late Earl had become. Then,
at 9:55, someone shouted that a bus was coming. I wondered if we should
reprimand Earl for being late, but figured if I did he might choose to leave
without us.

My third surprise of the
morning was when the bus pulled up, and the door opened. Earl had undergone an
extreme makeover, so extreme that the man behind the wheel looked nothing like
Earl. Maybe this guy was there to pick up another group. If so, the other group
was as late as Earl was.

Before anyone boarded, I
wanted to make sure that we were getting on the right bus. I didn't want to go
where no man had gone before, or back home so soon.

"Is this the bus
that's taking us to the national park?"

"It sure is."

"And you're to pick
up the group that left Lexington on Friday morning."

"That's right. Any more
questions, or do you think it's okay to get on the bus?"

I stepped back and
nodded at the woman with the two children, and let them board first. I let a
few more board then sent Lou forward to save a seat for me.

I motioned for the
driver to step off the bus. Instead of motioning for me to step on, he
complied. I showed him my credentials and asked him where Earl was. I told him
that one of the passengers was missing, too. He told me that not every
passenger on the Gatlinburg trip takes in all the planned itinerary. Even if it
is included in the cost of the trip. I asked him for a list of passengers,
which he was willing to give me under the circumstances, but he said he
couldn't give me their home addresses. I told him I didn't need those, that I
just wanted to keep up with everyone while we are on our trip. I didn't want
too many of our party to end up missing. He agreed to give me a list of the
passengers, but not until we get to Cade's Cove. He didn't want anyone else to
see him giving me the list, and he told me the only reason he was giving it to
me was because I was in law enforcement. Naturally I agreed to wait for the
list. I didn't think anyone planned to commit a murder on the bus with so many
witnesses, even though most of the witnesses would have obstructed view seats.  

A couple of minutes
later, after my brief conversation with our new driver, whose name was Harlan, I
learned that Earl hadn't been heard from since Friday night, and Harlan, was
dispatched to take his place. During our brief conversation, I asked my new
friend Harlan, who had already spoken more words than Earl spoke on Friday, if
it was like Earl to do something like this. He said he wasn't aware that Earl
had done this before. I figured he was telling me the truth. Otherwise Earl
would have been employed elsewhere. Or nowhere. I wondered if Earl was sleeping
one off, had been killed by the murderer whose identity we didn't know, been
mauled by a bear, or had run away with Miss Friendly. I doubted if the last one
was true. I was afraid that the two of them were too much alike for it to work
out. I remembered that both of them seemed to be a little frightened of the
other. But that wasn't my problem. Had I found Lou's Jack and Jill? Actually, I
hadn't found anyone, but had I identified the first two victims? The first two
victims. That sounded like there would be more. I hoped not. I hoped there
wouldn't even be two. None sounded better, and it would be more conducive to
enjoying my vacation.