Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 01 - Death Is Clowning Around (17 page)

“What are you wearing?”

“Now I know something’s wrong.”

“Do you have on your cute policeman’s uniform?”

“It’s after midnight, Liza.
I’m in bed.”

“Oh.
Taking it off would be so much fun.
I love a man –
in
and out –
of a uniform.
And you have those cool handcuffs, too.
There are so many things we could do with them, love.”
I giggled again.

“Okay, that’s enough!”

“Don’t yell at me.
I don’t like people yelling at me.”

“Are you listening to me, Liza?”

“No, I’m not.”
I put my fingers in my ear.
“La, la, la, la.”

“Liza.”

“Yes, love.”

“Repeat after me.”

“Repeat after me.”
I chuckled.

“Go to your room.”

“I’d love to go to your room, love, but you’re too far away.”

“Liza.”
His tone was stern and loud.

“I should go to my room.”

“Make a full pot of coffee.”

“I hate coffee.”
I grimaced.

“Liza.”

“I will make a pot of coffee.”

“After I drink the entire pot I will call Tom back.”

“I’ll drink the damn coffee and call you back.”

“Repeat it all.”

“I will go to my room. Make a pot of coffee and drink it.
Then I will call you back.”

“Repeat it again.”

I said it again.
He made me say it three more times, each time I sounded more monotone.
Then I walked to my room, made a pot of hot coffee and drank it.
It wasn’t a very big pot; it only made two cups of coffee.
At the end of the first pot, my head slowed down.
I made another pot.
After the third pot, I needed to use the bathroom and my head was finally clear.
I was supposed to do something when my head was clear.
What was it?

The commands went around and around in my head.
I needed to call Tom back.
I changed out of the clown suit, took a cold shower and put on a black sweat suit.
Then I went back to the roof.

“Tom Owens.”
He sounded awake and alert.

“Hi, Tom.”

“Are you okay?”

“I think so,” I said with a shrug.

“Are you sure?”
He insisted.

“Yes.
I’m fine.”

“You scared me,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Although I did like the thought of you taking off my police uniform.”

“Oh my.”
My face felt flush.

“Don’t remember saying it?”

I hesitated and then answered truthfully. “No.”

“Not the handcuff comment either?” he teased.

“No, I don’t remember anything past walking to my room and getting my phone.
I vaguely recall wanting to call you and that’s it.”

“How was the coffee?”

“It wasn’t bad.
After the third pot, it grows on you.”

“You sound like your old self again.”

“It sounds like I was more fun when I called before.”

“No, that wasn’t you.
I like the ‘real’ you, not the drug induced you.
How the hell did they slip you the drugs?”

“They just handed them to me.”

“And you took them?”

“I didn’t have a choice.
They said drink and I drank.
It’s that mind-controlling thing.”

“I noticed that, too.
By the time I had you repeat what I wanted you to do, you sounded strange, kind of like a zombie.”

“You used mind-controlling techniques on me?”
I snapped.

“Now, don’t get mad.
It worked, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess so.
Just don’t ever do it again.”

“You stay away from the mind-controlling drugs and I’ll stay away from the mind-controlling commands.”

“You’ve got a deal, Tom.”

“I liked it when you called me ‘love’, better.”

“You may have to wait a little while to hear that again.”

“I’m good at waiting.”

“Goodnight, Tom.”

“Goodnight, honey.”

I closed my phone.
It was too late to go to the dorms and talk to Lori.
Maybe I’d go over to the main building and see if I could get into their computer system.
Tom said he needed more physical evidence.
At least all of the clowns should be drugged up and partying, I hoped.

Chapter 19

I stopped at my room and retrieved my blue badge.
It might come in handy if there was anyone on duty.
The place seemed eerily quiet.
The auditorium was dark.
The only noise I heard was laughter coming from the small cabins.
I’m sure the video cameras were operational and running at full speed.

The door to the building was unlocked.
They were a trusting lot, weren’t they?
Good for me, bad for them.
The only office I knew the location for was Carl’s, so that’s where I went.
His computer system looked almost as old as the ones we have at the school.
You’d think the pornography business would have better technology.

I pushed the button and the system came on immediately.
It all looked foreign to me.
I didn’t know which programs to go into.
Carl’s phone wouldn’t be bugged, would it?
I decided to chance it.
I dialed Justin’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Justin.”

“Teach, do you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, I know.
I need some computer help.”

“How’s clown camp?”

“It’s a very interesting place.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it when you get home.”

“How’s my dog?”

“Shelby’s fine.
What’s up?”

“I’m sitting in front of a computer and I don’t know what to do.”

He chuckled.
“Is it on?”

“Yes.
I can do that much without your help.”

“Okay.
What do you want to do?”

“Can I copy the files?”

“Does it have a CD burner?”

“A what?”

“Never mind.
Do you have a disk?”

“No.”

“Okay, let’s try this.
Does it have a little ‘e’ for the Internet?”

“Yes, I can see that.”

“Good.
Go into the Internet and then into your personal email system.
You know, the way you do it at work.”

“I know how to do that, Justin.”

“That’s because I taught you how, Teach.
Did you ever chang
e your password like I told you?
”

“No.”

“Teach, having a password that’s the word, ‘password’, is not very smart.
Anyone can hijack your system and send emails through your account.”

“Let’s not talk about that now.
Okay, I’m into my email system.”

“Just send an email to yourself.
Attach the files like I showed you when you were doing that math project for the district.”

“Oh, I can do that.
Thanks Justin.”

“You’re welcome.”

I hung up the phone and started sending every file I could find on his desktop.
Tom could sort them out later.
Their system was slower than the one at school or the files were huge.
I had no clue but I just kept waiting.

Twenty minutes later, I was still watching the files download.
I got up and looked at the pictures of Lori.
There weren’t any of her before the age of five or six — The same age that Jessie was when she was kidnapped.
That was too much of a coincidence.
First thing in the morning, I’d go over and talk to Lori.
She must have some recollection of her life before being adopted.
I wondered what she remembers.

I heard the footsteps and rushed over to the computer.
It was still trying to attach all of the files.
I should have done them one at a time, but what did I know about computers?

Whoever it was, was getting closer.
There was no place to hide.
If I got under the desk and the person sat down, they’d see me.
The rest of the furniture was solid, no place underneath or behind.

The footsteps stopped.
The door handle turned and the door opened a few inches.
Then another set of steps.

“I can’t find her.”
It sounded like Carl.

“I thought I could trust her.”
That was definitely Beverly.

“And you don’t trust easy, my dear.
Usually you’re right.”

“But maybe not this time.”

“I checked her room and all of the cabins.
She’s not anywhere in the camp.”

“Then she’s probably up to no good.”

“Yeah, like that episode with the water guns.”

“The kids did enjoy it.”

“Sure but it’s going to cost me over fifty thousand dollars get all the cameras fixed.
And they can’t do it until the camp is closed.
That means we lose another day of pictures.
That’s going to cost us even more.”

“I know, Carl.”

“When I find her, do you want me to take care of her?”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll do it and you cover it up.
Just like always.
We make a good team.”

“We always have, dear.”

Then silence.
It sounded like they were kissing.
The door closed and they were gone.
There was no doubt who they were talking about.
Where could I say I went that they’d believe?

I returned to the computer.
It was finally finished attaching the files.
After sending the email, I shut down the computer and left.
As I was walking back to my room, I kept hearing footsteps, looking over my shoulder and expecting Carl in a clown suit, with a knife.
When I got to the kid’s dorm I went in.
I might as well check on them one more time before they throw me out of clown camp or worse.
The whole place was quiet, except for the faint sound of a television set.
I walked toward the sound.

I heard laughter, and then muffled sound, like someone had put their hand over their mouth.
Trying to keep it quiet?
It must be Lori and her friends.

I was wrong.
It was just one girl.
She had long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.
She didn’t look like the pictures I’d seen of Lori.
“Hello?”

She looked up and smiled.
“Hi.”

“Are you one of the babysitters?”

“Yeah, my name is Terri.”

I stuck out my hand.
“Mine’s Liza.”

“The teacher?”

“Yes.”

“The kids talk about you.
They really think you’re cool.”

I sat down next to her.
“That’s nice.
What are you doing?”

“Watching ‘King of the Hill’.”

“It must be funny.
I heard you laughing as I came into the building.”

“Sorry.
I was trying to keep quiet.”

“So, are you a friend of Lori’s?”

“Oh, yeah.
We’ve known each other since the second grade.
She’s cool.”

“Do you always come and help at the camp?”

“Usually.
We come on the third night of camp and watch the kids.
The next two days we get to do any of the activities we want.
It’s fun.”

“That’s nice.
Can I sit with you and watch for a while?
I’m not that tired.”

“Sure.
But you’re going to be hooked and want to borrow my DVD’s all of the time.”
She laughed.

“We’ll see.”

She was right, it was funny.
We watched several episodes.
At some point, I fell asleep.

Someone shaking my shoulder awakened me.
“Liza!”

“What?”
I said, shaking my head and trying to clear the cobwebs from my brain.

“Where have you been?”
Carl barked.
He was already dressed in his clown suit for the morning meditation.

“Where have I been, when?”
Now I was acting more confused than I was.
I knew exactly what he was asking, but I tilted my head and shrugged my shoulders.

“Last night.”

“She was with me,” Terri said.

“All night?” he asked.

“Of course.
We watched my ‘King of the Hill’ videos.
It takes a good four hours to do it right and Liza was with me the entire time.”

“Okay.”
Then to me, he said, “We still need you to watch the kids.
We haven’t got anyone to take over yet.”

“That’s fine.”

“Don’t be late for morning meditation.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

Carl left and I turned to Terri.
“I was here all night?”

She got up and walked toward the door.
Then she leaned her head back and smiled at me.
“I hate clowns.”

I went after her to thank her but she was gone.
All of the kids were still sound asleep, so I went back to my room.
Tina wasn’t there.
She obviously didn’t spend the night in the room.
I took a shower and dressed in my clown suit.
I was starting to hate it!

There was still time before morning meditation, so I went up on the roof to make a call.

“Tom Evans.”

“Good morning.”

“Feeling better, Liza?”

“Oh yeah.
What did you find out about Lori’s adoption?”

“She was picked up from a local motel after her mother was arrested for prostitution.”

“Didn’t they think it was more than coincidence that one child was kidnapped and another abandoned?”

“No.
Santa Dominga is a small town.
I’m not sure they even heard about Jessica McGowan’s kidnapping.”

“But you sent out the information, they would have gotten that right?”

“Sure, but maybe they were paid off and just didn’t care.”

“There’s always that.
Anything unusual about the adoption.”

“Not that I can see.
Her mom died of an overdose.
It’s weird because she was in jail at the time.
Lori spent several days in the hospital and then Carl and Beverly swooped in, adopted her and took her home.”

“She’s going to be around today.
I’ll see if I can talk to her.
She was six when she was kidnapped, so she’s got to have some memory of her life before being adopted by Beverly and Carl.
After all, they were her aunt and uncle.
She couldn’t have forgotten that.”

“I don’t know.
I’ve seen kids in intense situations totally forget their own name, let alone family members.”

“We’ll see.
I copied some information out of the camp’s computers for you.”

“Wait a minute.
That sounds dangerous.”

“Maybe a little.
I was almost caught.

“Liza.
It’s time for you to get out of clown camp and go home.
You’re starting to be reckless.
And that could get you killed.
It’s probably all those drugs you’re breathing.”

“I am not.
I’m being very careful.
You’ll have to go into my email system and retrieve some files I sent myself.
I hope it gives you the physical evidence you were looking for.”

“What’s your email address?”

“ewilcox@ao
l
.com”

“And your password.”

“Password.”

“That’s not a very good password, Liza.
Everyone uses it.
Your email system is going to be hijacked and some idiot’s going to use it to send viruses to all of your friends.”

“I’ve heard this story before.
Just retrieve the information and tell me if it helps you get your warrant.
I’m already late.
I’ve got to go to morning meditation.
Have a good day.”

“Liza!”

I hung up on him.
How dare he say that I was being reckless?
Who did he think he was?
I was feeling very irritable, this morning.
It was time to get to breakfast.
I was hungry, especially after throwing up my dinner last night.
I stopped by the room and found Tina passed out on her bed.
I covered her with a blanket, again.
Then I went to find some food.

Morning meditation was in full swing.
But something was different.
It didn’t have the same feel.