“Sam?”
He turned at the voice. Heather Panolli came toward him, wearing a fake fur coat and snug jeans, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. She looked fresh-faced and very young. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” she said. “Where’s Dean?” When she came closer, a wave of vaguely floral perfume washed over him.
“He’s…somewhere else, trying to bring a final end to the whole…situation we talked about,” Sam said. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you kidding? It’s a mall!”
“I know, but…it’s not exactly safe around here yet. And I don’t know how much intelligence the…the murderers have, but if they have much at all they’ll realize what a prime target this mall is today. You shouldn’t be here.”
“From what I hear, no place is much safer than any other,” she said. “Besides, my boyfriend Todd got a job here.” She pointed to a chain bookstore. “In there.”
“Todd with long dark hair?”
“That’s right. Do you know him?”
Apparently he hadn’t told Heather about their encounter, even though he’d promised that he would. “We’ve met,” Sam said. “It might be better if he doesn’t see you talking to me.”
“Why?”
“He can explain. Let’s just leave it at that.” If that didn’t force the issue, then he didn’t know what would.
She didn’t follow up on it. “So you think I should be on the lookout for any bow-and-arrow wielding Indians?”
Sam nodded. “Among other things.”
“What’s in your bag?” she asked. “Is it guns?”
“Heather, listen—”
“You can tell me, Sam. I won’t blab.”
Like you kept your dad’s big secret so well, he thought. He was glad she hadn’t—although it turned out to be a blind alley, you never knew in this kind of case which information might be invaluable. But that didn’t mean he wanted to trust her with any of his own.
“Heather, I need to keep going. I’m trying to cover a lot of ground here, and there’s not much time.”
“Okay, I won’t keep you, Sam.” She looked a little disappointed. “Maybe I’ll see you later on.”
“Maybe so,” he said, breaking free as fast as he could.
The disappointment wouldn’t kill her.
The witch’s spirit army just might.
He was trying to cut through one of the balconies surrounding the center court, but the crowd had grown so thick it was hard to make any progress without ramming people out of the way with his bag.
A squeal of microphone feedback explained why. Guess it’s showtime. He hadn’t even finished the upstairs circuit, much less made it out to the parking lot.
Instead of fighting his way through the throng, he dropped back, until the front window of a lingerie shop was at his back. He wanted the wide view so he could see if anyone flickered or flashed.
From his angle, he could see only a small section of the lower level. He hoped the sheriff’s officers were alert instead of watching the dais.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Carla Krug’s voice rose up from speakers that had been turned up a bit too loud. “Thank you all for coming to the grand opening celebration of the Canyon Regional Mall.”
A swell of applause came from the crowd, and Carla quieted to lavish in it. After almost a full minute it subsided enough for her to continue. “I see you, like me, have been waiting anxiously for this day to come. The day we don’t have to drive to Prescott or Flagstaff or Phoenix to see the latest fashions, pick up the new best-seller, catch a movie, or have a nice dinner in comfortable surroundings. The day that people from across the region can come together in a climate-controlled shopping environment featuring the latest in retail technology, the best stores, and the greatest salespeople—your neighbors and mine—found anywhere!”
Another burst of applause met this statement, although it was not as sustained as the first.
“My name is Carla Krug, and for those of you who don’t know me, I’m the manager of this shopping center. My office is on the second floor, and if you ever have a comment or a compliment, or God forbid, a complaint, you’ll be able to find me there. I want to hear from you. And if I’m not there, it’ll be because I’m out shopping in some of these fabulous stores!”
Eyeing the crowd, Sam spotted Eileen, their waitress from the Wagon Wheel Café, Heather’s dad, Peter Panolli, Mrs. Frankel the librarian, and several other people he’d run across in town. It almost seemed like everyone who was still alive in Cedar Wells had come today. Maybe they thought there was strength in numbers.
There could be, but there could also be unexpected danger.
“I know you want to get busy shopping,” Carla continued. “So do I. And I’ll warn you, there’s a pair of red Manolos in the window at Freddie’s Fashion Footwear that has my name on it, so keep your mitts off those!” After a hush, the crowd laughed, good-natured and enjoying her banter. Sam hoped they stayed that way. “So I’m going to stop talking and get my credit cards warmed up. We do have a special guest today, so I’ll ask you to offer a great big Canyon Regional Mall welcome to Mayor Donald Milner of Cedar Wells. After his brief remarks, the stores will open and you can shop till you drop!”
Another round of applause, another squeal of feedback, and then Sam heard Mayor Milner’s voice. He wondered how the politician would gloss over the murders and the fact that until they were solved, none of the people at the mall would be able to leave town.
“Thank you, Carla,” Milner began. “And thank all of you for braving the elements and joining us here today. The great thing—one of the great things, but there are a lot of them, as you’ll learn—about Canyon Regional Mall is that you can shop in climate controlled comfort no matter what the weather’s like outside. We all know that’s going to come in handy in the months and years to come.”
He waited for polite laughter and a smattering of applause to die down. “A lot of people worked really hard for a long time to make this thing happen,” he went on. “I’d like to thank them today. There were plenty of times people thought the project would never get off the ground, but I had faith, and so did Carla and some others, and I’m happy to say that today we can sit back and say, ‘I told you so!’”
This brought more laughter and a few hearty whoops. “Cedar Wells is the greatest small town in Arizona. Maybe in America. And as of today, Cedar Wells has one more claim to greatness—the newest, greatest shopping mall in the country. Just up the road is an American landmark, the Grand Canyon, which we all know and love. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I give you America’s newest landmark—Canyon Regional Mall! Thank you for coming, and enjoy!”
The applause swelled again, more sustained this time. So that was how he planned to deal with the issue, Sam recognized. By pretending it didn’t exist. Dad had been no fan of politicians. At Stanford, Sam had developed a more nuanced view, recognizing that some of them had the public interest at heart, while some had only their own interests.
Mayor Milner seemed to reinforce Dad’s beliefs quite nicely.
After a little more than a minute, the applause died. People started to move away from the balcony’s edge as the shops threw open their doors and invited people inside.
Sam blew out a sigh of relief. He had been most afraid of an attack while almost everyone was congregated in one confined area, but it looked like that wouldn’t happen.
Maybe Dean and Harmon Baird had already made it to the witch’s house. Maybe she was salted and burned, the counterspell performed. Neither of them had had mobile phone service at the schoolhouse, so Dean probably wouldn’t be able to call him to let him know.
Suddenly, the tenor of the crowd changed, the babble of cheerful conversation stopping abruptly.
“What’s that?” someone asked, terror registering in his voice.
Then again, Sam thought, maybe Dean’s not there yet after all.