Murder in Gatlinburg (19 page)

If I had been
blindfolded before I entered No Way Jose's and had the blindfold removed after
I was inside, there wouldn't have been any doubt that I was inside of a Mexican
restaurant. The brightly colored decor gave it away.

When we arrived I stood
and looked in Sylvia's direction. She shook her head "no" and threw
up her hands in desperation. Then she hurried in our direction, maybe because
she felt safer near me. I dropped my head and wondered where Inez was, and
wondered if she was victim number two or three.

Lou and I shared a large
table with Bill and Sharon Richardson, the couple from Frankfort that we met at
Mel's Diner, and with Sylvia DuBois, and Tom Jenkins, whom I first met at the
Titanic attraction. Tom and Bill had some interests in common, and I listened
to their conversation, as well as everything I could hear taking place at an
adjacent table. The word "body" never came up, but then I didn't
think any two strangers were in on the murder together. Nor did I think that
two people in cahoots would be dumb enough to share their secret with me. Well,
I thought a lot of twosomes would be dumb enough. I just didn't think any of
those in our group qualified for the stupidity award.

No Way Jose's offered
two kinds of food, Mexican and Mexican desserts, all at a more reasonable price
than most restaurants in the area. I stayed away from The Outrageous, found in
the Burrito and Chimichanga category. They advertised it as "our biggest
and best stuffed with beans, Mexican rice, shredded beef, shredded chicken,
ground beef, shredded cheddar jack cheese, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo,
topped with a medley of ranchero sauce, avocado sauce, and sour cream sauce."
Our traveling buddy, Jack Ripatoe, seated at an out-of-the-way table alone with
Angel, ordered one of those. I think he devoured it in one bite. In the old
days I would have ordered two of them. This time I settled for something more
modest, until it came time for dessert. I ordered a chocolate burrito and Lou
opted for a churro grande sundae, which was vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce,
chocolate mousse, whipped cream, and drizzled with chocolate and caramel, with
fresh baked churro sticks stuck down in it. Mine consisted of a flour tortilla
deep fried and stuffed with chocolate mousse and topped with whipped cream,
raspberry sauce and powdered sugar and drizzled with hot fudge and caramel. In
other words, it sounds like Lou and I had the same thing, only different. His
came in  something that looked like a brandy snifter and had ice cream and
churro sticks. Mine came in a deep fried burrito. Both came with enough
calories that it was good we were walking most of the rest of the day. I
managed to eat my meal and dessert while keeping an eye on our dwindling traveling
party. While there were knives at each table, everyone behaved. I wish I had
asked Harlan how Earl had died. Maybe it was from a blow to the head. While a
restaurant knife could strike a blow sufficient to murder someone, I doubted if
No Way Jose's was missing any knives. 

I decided to see how
everyone at our table reacted to the mention of Earl's name.

"Do any of you
wonder what happened to Earl, our first bus driver?"

"I haven't thought
about it," Tom Jenkins offered. "The new guy seems to be doing well.
That's good enough for me."

"I didn't even
realize that we had a different driver," chimed in Sharon Richardson.

Lou was the only one who
seemed unnerved by the mention of Earl's name, so maybe I should add him to my
suspect list. Actually, Sylvia seemed a little bit on edge too, when I
mentioned his name, but that could have been because Inez was missing and Sylvia
was afraid that something had happened to her friend.

This caused me to ask if
any of them had seen Sylvia's friend Inez that morning. Again, Sylvia looked
nervous when I asked. Was she responsible for Inez not joining us? Sylvia had
toned it down quite a bit since the second day, but I was wondering if she was
still interested in hooking up with me. Maybe she realized that I had someone
else at home.

When I looked down at
the plate that once held my enormous chocolate burrito I was sure that between
the Pancake Pantry and No Way Jose's, I would have to exercise a little more
after I returned to Hilldale. And I still had a few days to go, and there were a
few restaurants we hadn't tried yet that were a part of our itinerary.

I noticed that Jack and
Angel left before the rest of us, and Max Huffington followed them. Max looked
slightly more cordial than Jack and Angel, which meant he would still make my
list of suspects if we were looking for an axe murderer. As they walked out, I looked
across the table at Sylvia, who continued to look a little on the nervous side.

After the rest of us
appeared to let our food settle for a sufficient amount of time, and our server
seemed to wonder when we were going to give up our table to a few of the hordes
of people who were waiting to be seated, we felt it was time to go fishing.

I tried to stay astride
with Sylvia. I had some questions for her.

"Have you heard
anything from Inez?"

"You were sitting
across from me the whole time in the restaurant, so you already know I didn't."

"Did you know any
of the other people in our group before we came, or have you gotten to know any
of them since we got here?"

"No."

"Well, have you
seen anyone you know when we've been out and about, maybe someone that Inez
might have gotten with today?"

"No."

Since Sylvia was turning
into an interviewer's dream, I cut off the conversation and fell back in step
with Lou.

"She said she was
free tonight, Cy?"

"She did, but she
only has eyes for you."

"I can certainly
understand that, but I'm still a one girl man."

I looked at the
aquarium. In some ways, the wood and glass reminded me of Westgate. As we
walked to the aquarium a thought came back to me. I wondered if Sylvia was responsible
for Inez's disappearance. And I remembered that Inez disappeared about the same
time that Earl was found. I wondered if Inez was the murderer and had disappeared
as soon as she heard that the bus driver's body had been found. I thought of
catching up with Sylvia again and asking her how long she has known Inez. I
couldn't see how she could answer that question with a "no" answer.

As we drew close to the
aquarium I looked up and saw Jack standing off to one side, talking on his
phone. I wondered if his conversation had anything to do with Earl or Inez. As
in his or her mission was accomplished. Then I saw Angel standing over toward
the railing, talking on her phone. I doubted if she was talking to Jack. I
continued to look around until I saw another familiar face. Max. He too was
talking on the phone, while looking back and forth between Jack and Angel.
Somehow I couldn't believe that any of them were talking to a friend in
Gatlinburg and telling them about how fabulous No Way Jose's is. I wondered if
the Hilldale Police Department had booked us on a tour bus trip with a band of
assassins. Maybe the rollercoasters at Dollywood weren't the most dangerous things
we would tackle on our trip

As soon as we entered
the aquarium, there was a new smell in the air, and not one I'd try to capture
in an after shave lotion, provided I started slapping the stuff on my face again.
Either someone had forgotten and left the fish out when they got in from the
grocery or had forgotten to change the bathwater. It didn't smell like an
autopsy, but there was a distinctive odor in the air. It was something in the
water. Was it the chlorine or whatever swam in it? I eliminated a dead body
from my thoughts. With so many people inside the aquarium, someone would have
noticed a body before it smelled.

An advertisement said
there were more fish inside the aquarium than people living in Gatlinburg. I
didn't have any trouble believing that. I suspected there were more people in
the aquarium than lived in Touristburg. I'd seen only two houses since we
arrived, and both of them were high up on the side of a mountain. I wondered if
they were even considered to be part of Gatlinburg. I made a mental note that
the next time we went to the Pancake Pantry I would ask our server how far above
sea level constituted Gatlinburg.

As we toured the
aquarium I saw many different species of fish. Many of them didn't look like
they would make much of a meal unless we had a whole passel of them.  And the
ones in the Coral Reef section were too pretty to eat. Now the sharks were
different. Some of them swam in a tank. Others were part of our group. Well,
more than likely at least one of them was one of us. So far my years of
experience hadn't eliminated all but one suspect. I eliminated all of the
swimming variety. Harlan didn't say anything about Earl being eaten. Or
partially eaten. He did mention that Earl had been hit once, so maybe it was a
little hasty of me to rule out the hammerhead sharks.

For somewhere around an
hour we traveled the labyrinthine path and tunnels and checked out the aquatic
animals. I lingered longer watching the penguins than any other of God's
creatures. They were so cute and fun to watch. While only two of our group fit
the cute and fun to watch description, I tried to watch the ones who were
suspicious, too. I didn't consider the boy and girl who were with their mother
suspicious, but they were cute and fun to watch. And they were fascinated by
all the water creatures. And I don't think either of them complained about the
smell, but then boys don't complain about smells unless they are girly smells.

+++

Lou and I walked out a
little before the others. I leaned over and looked up to where our bus driver
had parked, but he didn't flash his lights for me. I assumed that meant that no
one else had been killed or separated from our group, and that no one had
confessed to murdering Earl. Or it could have been that we were missing another
bus driver. I couldn't tell if anyone was in the bus. It was several hundred
feet from where I stood.

As I stood up straight
again, for some reason my thoughts turned to Miss Friendly. I wondered if the
person I talked to at Westgate had checked on her. And if so if they found her
safe, happy and murder free. I wondered if I would know anything before Friday,
when we were to leave to go home. For all I knew Miss Friendly could be in Texas, or in the ground. Or in the ground in Texas, where there would be a lot of ground to
cover, both figuratively and literally.

+++

I didn't want to get too
far ahead of the others, so Lou and I stood outside the aquarium, on the top
level, looking down on the people milling by. There weren't as many millers as
there were on Saturday, but there were enough to discourage a murder in public.

I wondered what kind of
town Gatlinburg would be to live in. I wasn't used to going places, but
Gatlinburg was certainly different from anywhere I had been. Imagine going into
town in a small town and seeing different people each time you went. That's not
the way it is in most small towns. You run into the same people at Wal-Mart
more often than once a year. Besides, Gatlinburg doesn't have a Wal-Mart.
Neither does Pigeon Forge. But there is one nearby, and I was thankful it
wasn't part of our itinerary.

Gatlinburg is different
than most small towns. I thought maybe Lou and I might come back sometime and
check out the place more thoroughly. And I remembered that Lou and I were now
homeowners, so to speak, so we would definitely be returning to Gatlinburg. I
wanted to bring the girls down sometime. I couldn't remember if either of them
had said something about ever being in the Smokies. Since they were cousins,
and unmarried, I figured either neither one had been or both of them had come
together.

I didn't want anyone to
think that Lou and I were watching them, so I put away my top-of-the-line
binoculars and we headed down the steps, back down to River Road. We took our
time, stopped every now and then, and looked down on the water below. It was a
scenic place. And there wasn't a lot on River Road, except for a few attractions,
and a few more motels and hotels, some of which had rooms with balconies that
looked down upon the water. Westgate had rooms with balconies. The difference in
Westgate and downtown Gatlinburg was that it was easy to tell that no one had
tossed any bodies over the balconies downtown. At least not the day we were
there.

I looked ahead as we
walked. I saw where the chair lift crossed over the street, probably twenty or
so feet above where we were. From time to time, Lou and I bent over the railing
and looked down again upon the water, and searched for any wildlife there. We
saw a few creatures, but no bodies. No one sneaked up behind us and tried to
toss us over, either. Of course from where we stood it wasn't that much of a
drop.

For some reason I
thought of Harlan, back in the bus. At least I hoped he was back in the bus. I
wondered if I should have invited him to come with us. He didn't seem as
uptight as Earl was. But then maybe Earl had a premonition that he was about to
be murdered. Maybe Earl knew the man with the limp, or one of the passengers.
But like pastors sometimes change on short notice in United Methodist churches,
we had a change of bus drivers without knowing about it ahead of time. Harlan
was now our bus driver. Of course that didn't mean that Harlan was still in any
condition to drive our bus. He could have been excommunicated. And our bus could
have been stolen. If so, it would be too much to think that we could find
Harlan and the bus behind the Dixie Stampede building.