The Midnight Tour (33 page)

Then she imagined how lunch might be today. Would Warren come over to her table?

Of course he will, she told herself.

She thought about how he would look in the sunlight. How he might smile. In her mind, he reached across the table and took hold of her hand.

So, how are things going today?
she imagined him asking.

Just fine, thanks. Better all the time.

Same here,
he told her
. Things just got terrific.

Would that have anything to do with me?

It would have everything to do with you.

Dana felt herself smiling, blushing. She squirmed a little in the bed.

Still at the lunch table in her mind, she pictured herself saying to Warren,
Why
,
thank you. Maybe we should get together later and..
.

Somewhere in the house, a sliding door squeaked on its runners and scattered Dana’s fantasy. The faraway sound seemed to come from downstairs, where all the rear doors were sliders. But it might’ve come from somewhere else. Upstairs, the bedrooms all had sliding doors to their balconies.

Must be Tuck, Dana thought.

She heard another squeak. This time, it was followed by a quiet thump.

What’s she doing? Going for an early morning swim?

Tuck hadn’t gone for a swim yesterday morning—not that Dana knew about, anyway.

Doesn’t mean she isn’t doing it now.

It’d be nice down there, she thought. Nothing beats going for a swim first thing in the morning when you have the pool all to yourself and...

Did Tuck forget about our creepy visitor last night?

No, she couldn’t have forgotten about him. She’d probably made up her mind to go for a swim, anyway.

Alone. Not such a great
idea. Even if the jerk is long gone...

Maybe I should go down and keep her company.

Dana sighed again. She felt so cozy. But the pool would be great—clear and sparkling in the sunlight. She knew just how it would feel, too. After the cold shock of diving in, there’d be the sleek feel of the water rushing over her skin as she glided along beneath the surface.

Anyway, she thought, I shouldn’t let Tuck swim alone. Not after last night.

She flung the covers aside and the chilly air swarmed her, soaking through her thin cotton nightshirt. Shivering, she scampered to the adjoining bathroom.

As she used the toilet, she saw her red swimsuit from last night. It was draped over the shower rod where she’d left it. Probably still damp. She could get a fresh, dry suit out of a drawer and...

What the heck, it’ll get wet anyway in a couple of minutes.

After flushing the toilet, she pulled off her nightshirt. She hung it on the back of the door, then went to the tub and pulled down her swimsuit. She climbed into it. The clammy fabric clung to her skin, making her shudder and grimace.

Grabbing a towel, she rushed out of the bathroom. On her way through the bedroom, she draped the towel across her back and drew it around her chest like a cloak.

I’ll be okay once I’m outside in the sunlight.

She hoped Tuck wouldn’t mind having her solitude ruined.

But it’s
never
safe to swim alone, she thought—even if you
don’t
have some weirdo hanging around.

In the hall, striding past the open door of Tuck’s room, she glanced in.

Tuck, braced up on her elbows, looked back at her.

She lurched to a stop.

“Mornin’,” Tuck said, her voice husky as if she were barely awake. “Goin’ for a dip?”

Dana gaped at her.

Tuck’s hair was a mess. She wore a blue pajama shirt that was twisted crooked and half unbuttoned. The covers were down around her waist.

“Whassa matter?” she asked.

“Were you just up?”

“Huh? No.”

“You didn’t just come in from outside, or...?”

“Been right here.”

“You haven’t gotten out of bed at all this morning?”

“No.”

“Promise?”

Her frown deepening, Tuck sat up. “What’s going on?”

“I heard a door. It slid open for a second, and then it slid shut.”

“When?”

“Just now. I don’t know, four or five minutes ago.”

Tuck’s lips twisted and curled. “I’ve been right here,” she said.

“Did
you
hear anything?”

“A toilet flushed.”

“That was me.”

“Other than that...” Tuck shook her head slightly “I think I was asleep until the flush.”

“The sliding door was a couple of minutes before that. I figured you must’ve gone outside for a swim. I was just on my way to go down and join you.”

Tuck curled her upper lip. “I wouldn’t advise it,” she said.

They stared at each other.

“Are you
sure
what you heard was a sliding door?”

“What else makes a sound like that?”

Tuck was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, “I don’t know. Nothing. Not that I can think of.”

“You don’t have a housekeeper, or...?”

Tuck shook her head. “Nobody is supposed to be here but us. Nobody else even has a key. Just Dad and Janice.”

“Maybe we’d better have a look around.”

“I’d say so.” Tuck kicked her legs free of the covers, scooted off the bed and got to her feet. She wore no pants. The loose pajama shirt draped her like a very short dress. She slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops, then stepped over to the nightstand. There, she pulled open a drawer, reached inside, and hauled out her .44 magnum. “Here we go again,” she said. “Do you want to go back and get the gun Eve gave you, or...?”

“That’s all right,” Dana said. “I’ll rely on you to blast the bad guys. If any.”

“I can’t
imagine
what you heard.”

“If it wasn’t a door,” Dana said, “I don’t know what it could’ve been.” She stepped out of the way to let Tuck pass, then walked beside her down the hall.

“The doors were all locked last night,” Tuck said.

“I know.”

“This is nuts.”

They started slowly down the stairs.

“Ever since you got here,” Tuck said, “it’s been one thing after another.”

“Maybe I brought it with me.”

Tuck grinned at her. “Maybe you did.”

“Do you think we should call Eve?”

“Nah. At least not till we’ve had a good look around. We can’t be bugging her with every little thing. Especially when we don’t know what’s happening.”

“I can tell you what happened,” Dana said as they stepped off the bottom stair. “Somebody opened and shut a door. It wasn’t me and you say it wasn’t you.”

“Wasn’t me.”

“So somebody else must’ve done it.”

Tuck made a face at her.

“He or she,” Dana said, “was either leaving the house or coming in.”

“If he’s in here now,” Tuck said, “he’d better get ready to catch a bullet.”

Side by side, they searched the entire ground level of the house. Then they returned upstairs and searched every room.

They found no one. They found nothing to suggest that a stranger had been present earlier. All the windows and doors were intact, shut and locked.

As they went downstairs again, Tuck grinned at Dana and said, “At least nobody tampered with the dummies.”

Dana frowned at her, confused. “The dummies? Oh!” Laughing, she said, “Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what might’ve gone on while the dummies were sleeping?”

Tuck grimaced at her. “That’s a comforting thought.” At the bottom of the stairs, she said, “Anyway, I’ll brew up some coffee. It’s still pretty early. You have time for that swim, if you want.”

“You going in?”

“Not me,” Tuck said. “But help yourself.”

As they walked toward the kitchen, Dana said, “we’d better stick together. He might still be in the house.”

“Not likely,” Tuck said. “Nobody can hide from me. I would’ve found him.”

“You didn’t exactly find the guy in Beast House yesterday.”

Grinning, Tuck nudged Dana with her elbow. “We got two out of three. That ain’t bad.” In the kitchen, she set her revolver on the table. She walked over to a cupboard, reached up and swung open its door. “Besides,” she said, “who knows? Maybe there
wasn’t
anybody to find. Some jerk might’ve stolen that tape player.” As she reached high for the coffee filters, her pajama shirt glided up, baring the lower half of her buttocks. “In which case, there is no missing customer.” She took down a filter and turned around. “If there is someone missing, he isn’t in Beast House. We would’ve found him.”

“If you say so,” Dana said.

“I say so. And there’s nobody
here,
either. Not anymore.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I know I’m right.” Tuck went to the refrigerator, opened it, and took out a can of ground coffee. Swinging the door shut, she stepped over to the coffee maker.

“I bet he was on his way out when I heard the door,” Dana said. “He probably locked it, then slid it shut behind him.”

Tuck nodded and started scooping heaps of coffee into the filter. Glancing over her shoulder at Dana, she said, “Or maybe nobody was here, at all.”

“I guess that’s possible. I heard
something,
though. If it wasn’t anybody coming or going...God knows. I didn’t imagine it.”

“It might’ve been something else.”

“Such as?”

“I have no idea,” Tuck said. She shook her head. “I sure hate to think it really
was
someone leaving the house. I mean, if it was... Who
was
it? How long was he inside with us? What the hell did he do while he was in here? How did he get in? And how do we keep him out from now on?”

“I have no idea,” Dana said. “On all counts.”

As they drove up Front Street approaching Beast House, Dana pointed at an old blue Ford Granada parked at the curb.

“What about
that?”
she asked.

Tuck turned her head. The wind threw ribbons of blond hair across her face. “What about it?”

“It was parked there when we drove home yesterday.”

“Was it?”

“Yep. Sure was. I used to have a boyfriend with a car like that.”

“Ah.” Tuck grinned at her. “This boyfriend? Did he appear to have stalker tendencies?”

“No. Anyway, his car was green. But it’s about the same, otherwise. That’s why I noticed it so much yesterday.”

Slowing her Jeep, Tuck flicked the turn signal. “So you think exactly what?”

“Maybe it belongs to the missing tourist.”

“Might belong to anyone,” Tuck said. She eased her car to the right and rolled to a stop in front of the parking lot’s gate. “Back in a minute.” She took the keys, hopped out and trotted up to the gate.

Dana looked around.

The parking lot was empty.

Off to the left of the gate, however, several people were milling about on the sidewalk, apparently waiting for the ticket booth to open.

They hadn’t parked in the Beast House lot.

If they’d come by car, they’d parked elsewhere. Along Front Street, more than likely.

Maybe one of these people owned the Granada.

But it
had
been parked there yesterday—in exactly the same spot.

So
what? Maybe it belongs to a repeat customer
.

Eve Chaney, she remembered, had warned them to watch out for repeaters.

She scanned the group.

And caught a guy staring at her.

He began to turn his head away, then seemed to change his mind. Facing Dana, he smiled slightly and nodded.
Then
he turned away.

Do I know him?

He looked vaguely familiar—gawky and freckled, probably about her own age, with a shock of light brown hair that swept up from his scalp making him look like a human Woody Woodpecker.

His short-sleeved, Madras shirt was neatly tucked in. He wore tan trousers and brown leather hiking boots.

This isn’t how he was dressed yesterday, Dana thought.

The boots and trousers might be the same, but he’d been wearing a different shirt. Cream colored.

And he’d been with a snotty-looking brunette.

Dana scanned the group. The girl didn’t seem to be there.

Tuck dropped into the driver’s seat, pulled the door shut, and started the engine. “I wouldn’t get too excited about that Ford. You know? It might belong to anyone.” She drove into the parking lot.

“It might belong to the guy who vanished yesterday with the tape player.”

“But not necessarily.”

“You’re in a state of denial,” Dana said.

Grinning, Tuck asked, “Egypt?”

She steered diagonally across the lot and parked at the far corner. As she plucked out the ignition key, Dana took hold of of her wrist and said, “There’s something else. It might be nothing, but you know how Eve told us to keep our eyes open for repeaters?”

“Yeah. We get a lot of them, though.”

“Two days in a row?” she asked, and released Tuck’s wrist.

“It happens, but not very often. Unless you count people coming back for the Midnight Tour. They’ll sometimes take the regular tour Saturday, then come back that night.”