Murder in Gatlinburg (9 page)

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We had a good time at
Dixie Stampede, eating with our hands and watching the show, horses and riders completing
fantastic maneuvers. I also looked to see if anyone in our group had been
thrown in front of a horse, but apparently everyone survived. Of course I
wasn't sure that whoever was to die was part of our group or not. Maybe I would
have to keep an eye on all of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

Lou and I had our
picture taken together on the staircase on the fake Titanic, and at Dixie
Stampede. I even reverted to the childhood I never had and bought a cowboy hat
to wear in the picture. Lou chose a coonskin cap, since we were in Tennessee. I told Lou that two pictures together were enough. I didn't want anyone to get
the wrong idea about us. He agreed and said the only reason he agreed to have
his picture made with me was to show people who had never met me that he is a
lot better looking than I am. I told him I would check with Jennifer to see if
she agreed.

I remembered enough
about our itinerary to know that Saturday was our free day. Friday had been a
long and grueling day, well grueling in the sense that we crossed the short
part of two wide states and took in three attractions in one day. I remembered
that Lou and I were traveling with old people. Some of them would have to
recalibrate their pacemakers, or whatever it is they have to do after a long
and tiring day. Actually, quite a few of our group didn't appear to be old
enough to retire, but I planned to tell George and Frank that Lou and I were
the only two on the bus under ninety.

A free day meant I
wouldn't have to look at Earl, because it was his day off, and I planned to
avoid Miss Friendly, Sylvia, and Inez if I could. I prayed that neither of the last
two had slipped Emily some money to tell them where our rooms are. I figured I
was safe as long as I stayed inside. They would have to break through two doors
to get to me.

When we returned to
Westgate that night and took a shuttle to within walking distance of our rooms,
Lou and I talked on our uphill trek and agreed to sleep the next morning as
long as God intended for us to sleep. Then we would catch the shuttle to the
front gate, board the trolley there, and check out the burg we hadn't seen yet,
Gatlinburg.

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After the sun had been
up for a reasonable amount of time on Saturday morning Lou called and asked me
if I was ready. I had showered, shaved, and taken time for my devotionals and
Bible study. I had even walked out on my balcony and looked at a small part of
God's beautiful creation. The balcony was one of the things I would miss when I
headed home. Only three groups of travelers in the next building over could see
me from the living room portion of my balcony, and no one who hadn't climbed a
tree could see me if I stepped out from the bedroom. The balcony offered me
privacy and beauty, two things high on my list.

But after receiving
Lou's call I locked the door to my suite and walked ahead to the exterior door.
I poked my head out and saw a smiling Lou doing the same thing sixty feet away.
Brilliant minds think alike. Well, in our case it was my brilliant mind rubbing
off on him.

We walked down the steps
of the log building that was definitely nicer, and larger, than any of the ones
Lincoln slept in. Lou and I fell in step down the hill to the shuttle stop,
where we would hitch a ride to the front gate. We had barely gotten in stride before
Lou turned to me.

"I got another
message."

"What was it this
time?"

"Jack and
Jill."

"What do you
suppose it means?"

I smiled quickly so Lou
would know I was kidding. I always ask that to get his goat. Besides, after
some of what he pulled the day before I had some catching up to do.

"Well, Lou, there
are a lot of hills around here and all of the ones I've seen are quite steep.
Do you think this means some guy got murdered yesterday and a woman gets it
today, maybe in the same way? Should we check the bottom of all the hills to
see if we can find a body?"

"I think you
should, while I'm off in Gatlinburg having fun. Remember, we are
retired.
And
we are on
vacation.
"

"But for some
reason God is still trusting you with these messages."

I wanted to go on, but
we were nearing the shuttle stop, and there were a couple of other people
waiting. They weren't part of our group, and obviously they weren't Jack and
Jill.

We smiled, said hello,
and found out they were from Michigan. They had come to the area to celebrate
their anniversary. That was all the information we got, because the shuttle
arrived, and they rode with us, but only as far as the dining room. We didn't
have time to see if they knew Jack and Jill or had reported finding any bodies
at the bottom of any of hills. Besides, I wasn't going to look up everyone in
our group to see if we were minus two people.  

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There were four other
people at the front gate when we arrived. It was almost 9:30. None of the people waiting to ride the trolley to Gatlinburg looked like anyone from our
group. That meant that if the trolley came before Sylvia and Inez did, we were
safe. It did, and we were. This time Lou got the window seat. Just as our
driver was making his turn to head off to the next stop, I looked back and saw
Sylvia and Inez running toward the trolley and waving frantically. They were
still a good distance away. I waved back and smiled. But as soon as the trolley
was out of their sight, I realized that our narrow escape didn't mean we were
free of them for the entire day. They would catch the next trolley, which I
assumed would be along in fifteen to thirty minutes, and it would be headed to
the same small town where we were headed. There was always a chance the two of
them would spot us somewhere along the line. All I knew was that I wasn't going
to wait at the trolley stop until they arrived.

The trolley left Westgate
property and drove across two lanes of traffic to the other side of the trees
to the Welcome Center. It was where people parked who didn't want to pay to
park in Gatlinburg and knew that finding a parking place on the street was only
slightly more likely than winning the lottery. As we arrived at the Gatlinburg Welcome Center we found forty thousand other people who had the same idea we
did. They too chose to ride a trolley into Gatlinburg. Everyone was in the
Smokies on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. No wonder there were thousands of
attractions. The only problem was that everyone was headed away from them.
Maybe there were another forty thousand people in Pigeon Forge. The trolley
filled up quickly, and those left behind were told there would be another
trolley in a few minutes. Our driver, who was probably named something other
than Earl, took off to Gatlinburg. While a few people were standing, there was
no one next to me. I happened to look at the woman across the aisle at the same
time she looked at me. She smiled. I smiled back. She was pretty, and a few
years younger than Lou and I.

"Been here
before?" she asked.

"First time.
You?"

"Seasoned pro. Come
every year. How long have you been here?"

"We're part of a
bus tour group that just arrived yesterday. This will be my first time to
Gatlinburg. We saw a little of Pigeon Forge yesterday."

"Well, you'll soon
see that the two towns are nothing alike. But both are worth your time. So is
the national park. Do you have any questions?"

"I don't know what
to ask first."

"First of all let
me tell you that a lot of the people you will see today will be leaving the
area sometime tomorrow. Some of them are just here for Memorial Day weekend. Others
are ones who have been here for a week and will be heading home. The place
won't be so crowded for the next two weeks, then it will be wall-to-wall people
throughout the summer. Then there's a break and a different group will start
coming when the leaves start changing colors in October. More older people. Few
kids. But you don't need to know all of that. Not unless you plan to stay until
October."

I laughed.

"No, we're only
here for a week."

When she told me it
wouldn't get crowded again for a couple of weeks, when all the kids would be
out of school, it got me to thinking again. About whether the department would
pick up the tab for another week or two. Well, one more week wouldn't be too
bad. The little kiddies would still be in school. Two might be cutting it a
little close. I pictured kids swarming around Lou and me, grabbing us around
the legs, touching us with sticky hands that had just eaten who knows what. And
then I thought about the two children in our group. Were they skipping school?
Well, at least they hadn't been a problem. Not yet, anyway.

"By the way, I'm
Brenda."

"Cy."

"Like Duck
Dynasty?"

"No, like retired
homicide detective."

I hadn't planned to
reveal my profession, and I saw Lou giving me a look when I did. But I figured
there was little chance that the woman across the aisle from me was the murderer
that Lou had warned me about.

"Wow! I bet that
was interesting and dangerous."

"Sometimes. But not
anymore. You were saying."

She could tell I was
uncomfortable talking about myself, so she returned to sharing some of her
knowledge about Gatlinburg. I took mental notes.

"Have you eaten
breakfast yet?"

"No. We're eating
late this morning. You know. Vacation."

"Well, let me
recommend a place. It's a little over a block away, and the food is great. It's
called the Pancake Pantry. It's on the others side of the street, and up that
way. Just look for the long line. But let me warn you. It can be habit forming.
It might make you want to move here. Also, back in Sevierville, Applewood is a
good place to eat."

"We stopped there
for a late breakfast yesterday, on the way in. And we'll eat there next Friday
before we head back home."

I looked up and saw that
it was a short trip to Gatlinburg from where we were staying. Too far to walk,
but a short ride on the trolley.

"Well, here's our
stop."

As we got off Brenda
pointed out the different colors of trolleys and told me that each one heads to
a different place, so make sure I get on the right one.

I wondered if when Lou
and I sought a trolley to return to Fort Westgate if we would be riding the
wrong trolley all night, because we couldn't remember which color our trolley
was.

"Are you in a
hurry?"

"Not a huge hurry,
but we want to get away from here before the next trolley from Westgate
arrives."

"I think that's in
thirty minutes."

Brenda told me a couple
of attractions we should check out and a couple other good places to eat. She
was about to leave, when I had to satisfy my curiosity.

"What is it about
this place that brings you back here each year?"

Maybe I had asked her a
question I shouldn't have asked, because she started to cry.

"Sorry. It's tough.
But twenty-two years ago I met my  husband here on Memorial Day weekend. While
we didn't come from the same place, we were both in our last year of college.
We kept in touch, and he came to see me about once a month. A year later we had
had enough of being apart, so we married. We have come back each year on the
week that overlaps Memorial Day weekend. Three years ago Mike got cancer. Eight
months ago he died. But he made me promise that I would continue to come back
to this area every year  during the week that was our week here. And told me to
enjoy it for both of us. He wouldn't like these tears of mine, but I can't help
it."

"My Eunice and I
were married only five years when she died of cancer. We'd only gone on a
couple of vacations, and this is my first vacation since she died, and that was
over twenty years ago. At first I couldn't picture myself taking a trip and
having fun without her. And then not taking a vacation seemed normal to me. So,
I haven't been anywhere until this weekend."

She reached out and
hugged me, and I hugged her back. She told me to enjoy my vacation, and I told
her to do the same. And then both of us did our best to wipe away our tears,
and then she walked away. If it hadn't been for Jennifer back home and the fact
that Brenda was still in love with Mike, I would have considered coming back to
Gatlinburg next year on Memorial Day weekend, and seeing if I could find her.
Or, if conditions were different, I might have told her that if we continued to
think of each other, and wanted to see each other again, we could both take the
downtown chairlift to the top of the mountain and meet at the top at 10:00 on
Saturday morning of next year's Memorial Day weekend. But I had Jennifer, and Brenda
still had memories of Mike. I will merely have to think of Brenda as a Good
Samaritan I met briefly in Gatlinburg, or as a kindred spirit who knows what it
is like to lose a spouse much too soon.