What Burns Within (43 page)

She smiled and thanked him, keenly aware of his close proximity as he followed her back to the main counter.

“When did you say Mr. Nolan could drop the other pager off?”

I didn’t
, she thought. But she forced a smile.

“I’m sure he can bring it by tomorrow or the next day. He’ll be working nights then.”

Whatever trivial nonsense he said to that barely registered. She wrote down his name as soon as she got back to her car and underlined it twice.

Tain waded through the clusters of children and preteens filling the spaces between the rides, wondering how many actually came with adults. It was a sea of opportunity for some child snatcher.

People think because it isn’t Toronto or Los Angeles, nothing bad
can happen
. He shook his head as he approached the row of vendors.

Tain found his first likely suspect, walked up behind him and tapped his shoulder.

The clown spun around. “You don’t look like my usual customers.”

“What about her? She look like one of your regulars?”

“Her?” The clown took the picture, his exaggerated mouth turning down into an enormous frown. “She looks familiar.”

“Think back to last weekend, the fair in Coquitlam.”

“Oh, her. Yes, I think I saw her. Tried to get her to sit down and get her face done, but she ran off.” He passed the picture back.

“And you didn’t think it might be relevant to tell us that, what with her going missing that day?”

The clown’s face froze. “I didn’t know.”

“What’s your name?”

“Who’s asking?”

Tain held up his ID.

The clown’s expression didn’t change. “I don’t see how I can help you.”

“That’s for me to decide, not you. I’m giving you a choice. You either answer my questions here or come down to the station.”

The clown sighed, and the cheery, child-friendly voice vanished. A raspy one replaced it. “Look, I’ve got a sheet, all right? But for nothing like that.”

“What for?”

“Petty theft. Name’s Bert Klavic.”

“That’s your full name?”

“Robert, if you must know.”

“You telling me you didn’t come forward because of your record?”

“Everybody’s anal these days about hiring criminals, especially for stuff like this. I’ve been clean for two years, you check yourself. But nobody wants a convict, even just a thief, around their kids.”

“It’s quite a career change.”

“Not really. It’s a good way to distract parents while they aren’t paying attention to their wallets. Not that I do that. But you’d be amazed what they’ll shell out to make their kids shut up.”

Tain almost laughed as he shook his head. “Creative, I’ll give you that.”

“Anything else?”

“There was a jewelry vendor who might have talked to her.”

“Him.” The clown spun around and pointed down to the end of the row. “Now, he’s one they should take a look at booting.”

“Why?”

“Just watch him for a bit. Wait until a girl buys a necklace.”

He started to move away, and Tain grabbed his arm. “Anyone else who might have seen her?”

The clown frowned, then shrugged. “She ran off in the direction of the merry-go-round. It was beside the park.”

Tain let go, but he didn’t leave.

“Sometimes, there was a religious nut there, trying to talk to people.”

“Was he there that day?”

“Look, I’m not sure. But he got kicked out a few times for scaring some kids. Some load about saving them from their carnal desires or something.”

“Merry-go-round guy, he working here?”

Bert shook his orange hair. “Sorry. Think he went to the fair in Aldergrove.”

This time, when he turned to walk away Tain didn’t stop him.

Craig glanced up and smiled. “What brings you here?”

She held up the pager. “Seems the one you’ve had for forty-eight hours isn’t good enough.”

“Happens sometimes,” said one of the men leaning against a counter between chewing his mouthful of sandwich. “Wives are always bitching about that guy giving out the wrong pager.”

Craig noticed Ashlyn’s left eyebrow arch as he offered her his old pager.

“No, thanks. You get to take that in tomorrow.”

“You’re out anyway.”

She smiled. “But I have other things to do.”

“That reminds me.” He went to his locker and removed a large folder. “My employment information. Can you take that home?”

She took it from him and looked at one of the other men by the counter. “You were on that one arson a week ago, weren’t you?”

He nodded. “Nasty call that was. Heard you got suspended.”

She shrugged. “When you’ve got missing kids, you’ve got to go the distance. Bosses don’t seem to get that. We’ve got a dishwasher that doesn’t work. Adrian told me there’s a repairman you guys use who’s pretty good.”

“Bob.” He flipped open a cupboard and grabbed a piece of paper, writing down the number. “He ends up fixing most things for the guys around here. Dishwashers, dryers, stoves. Does a bit of plumbing too, strictly on the side. Not much of a talker.” The man passed her the paper. “But he gets the job done.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll walk you out,” Craig said, putting his hand on her back as he ushered her to the door. “What’s the real deal with the pager?”

“Just what I said. Called me up and went over everything again. Wanted to know when you were working,” she murmured.

“And the repair guy?”

“He connects to the department, doesn’t he? Makes sense to get your dishwasher fixed and charge the RCMP at the same time.”

“There’s a complete staff list in the folder. I told Quinlan we’d destroy it once we checked everyone out.”

“You know all those guys are still watching us from upstairs, right?” she asked as he opened her door.

He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. “The things I do for this job.”

She smacked him with the folder, and he walked away.

Tain introduced himself and held up his ID.

The man didn’t respond.

“We going to do this here or at the station?”

The shaven head lifted, the steely eyes unblinking as the tattooed arms flexed.

“Look, I’ve got all day. All I have to do is call the exhibit coordinator and mention I have to take you in for questioning in the disappearance of a young girl—”

“Fine. What the hell do you want?”

Tain held up the picture of Taylor. “Remember her, Lex?”

Lex scowled. “At the fair a couple weeks ago or something.”

“But you didn’t think it might be important to phone that in?”

“You damn cops, always stirring up shit for people doin’ nothing wrong.”

“I like your little setup here. Polish these glittering things up nice and shiny and then get the girls to come over, half of them wearing low-cut T-shirts, bending over your displays.” He frowned, pretending to compare the setup to the other ones on the strip. “Is it just me, or is this table a bit shorter than the rest of them?”

The scowl became a snarl. “Look, she was alone. The clown tried to get her to sit down, but she took off. Bit young for me.”

“Did you see where she went?”

“Over by the merry-go-round. Looked like she was going to go to the park, but that Jesus freak stopped and talked to her.”

“Did you see what happened then?”

“No. Bunch of people came by. Never saw her again.”

“What about the Bible thumper?”

“Gone.”

“And you didn’t think that might be important when you found out the girl was missing?”

“Hey, one day, every couple hours different security staff came around to clear him out of there. Going on about carnal sin or some such crap, freakin’ kids out. One girl was bawling ’cuz he told her she was going to hell.”

“What did he look like?”

“Like your average nutcase.”

“Seriously.”

“I don’t know. Nothing about him stood out. Average. Not too old, short brown hair, not too tall but not a shrimp either. Not fat but not super-skinny.”

“You’re a real help, you know.” Tain slapped one of his cards down on the table. “If you think of anything else.” He walked away.

Lori walked in the door and was halfway into the living room when she saw the suitcases.

“What’s going on?”

He didn’t look up from his newspaper. “I don’t think we’ve got much left to say to each other.”

“Vish, really. I—”

He put the paper down and stood. “I’m serious, Lori. I think you should move out.”

They stood in absolute silence, him staring at the wall behind her, her staring at him, trying to will him to shift his gaze and look her in the eyes.

“You never could accept my job. This is just your excuse to try to get me to be something I’m not. If you want some secretary or schoolteacher who’d punch a clock, why didn’t you shack up with one of them to begin with?”

“That wasn’t what I wanted,” he said, his voice sounding strained, as though he was fighting to choke the words out. “But you’ve never been satisfied with this.”

“What about our plans? Sailing up the coast, maybe Alaska? Can’t we try—”

“You don’t get it. I’m past trying. No matter what I do, it’s wrong. I’m too supportive, too sympathetic, too demanding, too critical. Where’d you sleep last night, Lori? You think I just went to bed and didn’t give you a second thought?”

She swallowed but didn’t answer.

“You either agree to counseling, or you leave.”

“So this is love, huh? A list of conditions, snap my fingers, get over it and move on?”

He shook his head. “You’ve always been so damned good at manipulating me. Not this time.”

“Vish…”

“You’re the one who walked out that door. You walked away from me. I called everywhere I could think of, left dozens of messages on your cell and at work, and you didn’t even call back. You just waltz in here like everything is fine and it’s okay to treat me like shit. Well, it isn’t, Lori. It never was.”