Fireworks blazed over English Bay. High in the night sky, they formed a silver globe. The globe hovered, glittery and bright. Then it dissolved into fading streamers that disappeared into the water.
Most fairgoers had left to watch the fireworks from a better viewpoint. PNE staff were dimming the fairground lights. Compared to the sky, the fairgrounds were dark, almost inky.
Like Baseball Cap had whispered to me on the phone: It’ll be dark by then. Dark as my soul.
I edged out from behind a kiosk plastered with ads. I peeled off an ad and wiped sweat off my forehead.
It was closing time. I watched the roller-coaster attendants walk toward the gates.
I’d wait a few more minutes and then go behind the roller coaster as Baseball Cap had instructed.
I thought about Amy. By now she’d have closed down Herbie’s and gone home. I should have known I couldn’t trust her. I couldn’t trust anyone. I was on my own.
Amy was a nice girl, but she didn’t get it. She didn’t understand that I couldn’t risk bringing the police in. She’d only pretended to agree with me on that.
If Baseball Cap suspected the police knew, he might not show tonight. I might never get Ellie back.
At the thought, my throat went dry. Don’t panic, I told myself. Panic is no good. I shut my eyes, felt the cool night air on my skin and took some deep breaths.
I couldn’t be mad at Amy. She’d meant well. Skip was lucky to have her waiting for him. If I made it through this, I’d tell him so.
Hiding behind the kiosk, I counted my blessings, few as they were. I hadn’t told Amy where I was meeting Baseball Cap. I hadn’t told her what and where the Margaret Rose was.
I thought about Baseball Cap’s phone call. His threats were carved on my brain. But I still felt I was missing something. It loitered at the edge of my mind.
A movement caught my attention. A figure at the now-shadowy entrance was heading toward the roller coaster.
Baseball Cap?
Dragon-red fireworks blitzed the sky, making the fairgrounds even murkier. I had to squint to follow the figure. When it reached the roller coaster, it faded, shadow into shadow.
I didn’t think the figure had been wearing a cap. Also, it looked bulky, not lean.
Staying close to the shadows of the rides, I edged toward the roller coaster. I walked slowly around the coaster. I’d never been there when it was shut down. It loomed in the dark, bony and rickety, like a dinosaur skeleton.
All was shadows, stillness and silence.
A door opened, spilling out a cone of light. A figure stepped in front of the light so that it was just a silhouette.
This wasn’t the bulky figure I’d seen running toward the coaster. I was sure of that. This person was lean. This must be Baseball Cap, without the baseball cap.
But who was the bulky guy? And where was he now?
Behind Baseball Cap, I saw a panel of switches and a large lever—the control booth.
Baseball Cap was still a silhouette, but there was something weird about his head. It was all smooth.
He had a nylon over his head, I realized, to disguise himself.
He hissed, “So? Where’s the Margaret Rose?”
“Where’s Ellie?” I demanded.
Baseball Cap pointed to the first car on the track. I could just make out a slumped form inside. “What have you done to her?”
He whispered, “Shhh, Mojo. Don’t want to attract attention, do we? She’s sleeping, with a little help from me. Not to worry, it’s just sleeping pills.”
I started toward her.
“Not so fast, Mojo.” Baseball Cap reached a hand back to clamp the lever.
The nylon twisted his face into a leer. Or maybe he was leering. There was a note of pleasure in his whispery voice. He was enjoying himself, the sicko.
“One wrong move,” he said, “and little Ellie gets the big dip—without a safety bar. You can imagine what would happen then, huh, Joe? The car drops and Ellie goes flying.”
He clenched the lever. I was hypnotized by the sight. I couldn’t pull my eyes away.
I said dully, “I don’t have the Margaret Rose with me. But I know where it is. I can tell you, if you’ll just let Ellie—”
“Not good enough, Joe.” Baseball Cap stepped back into the control booth. In the light, his nylon-distorted face was grotesque.
Realizing I was staring at him, Baseball Cap muttered a curse, and switched off the control booth light. “The Margaret Rose, Joe.”
He glanced over at Ellie.
He flexed his fingers on the lever.
What to do? I couldn’t bluff. He knew I didn’t have the Margaret Rose— Wait. Rewind. He’d said, So? Where’s the Margaret Rose?
How did he know I didn’t have it?
If he knew about the Margaret Rose, he would know how easy it would be to carry.
Something didn’t compute here. If this guy had been involved in the gallery break-in, he ought to be familiar with the Margaret Rose.
I needed to buy time. I needed to think.
I held my hands up. “Okay, okay, you win. I stashed the Margaret Rose nearby. I’ll get it for you.”
Maybe he wasn’t working with Babs Beesley, after all. That would explain why Babs had come after me. She hadn’t known about Baseball Cap kidnapping Ellie.
But Baseball Cap had been at the roller coaster when Babs had shot Jake. They’d fled together. That couldn’t be coincidence.
If it wasn’t coincidence, what was it?
“Hand it over now, Joe,” snarled the figure in the control booth. “Or Ellie wings it to the stars.”
I glanced at my sleeping sister. She looked so little. My eyes stung. I couldn’t think anymore. I was petrified with fear for Ellie.
But something knocked at my brain. It hovered just out of reach.
Words. That’s what the something was. The kidnapper’s words on the phone.
It’ll be dark then. Dark as my soul.
By the light of the…shivery moon, shall we say?
And just now:
Hand it over now, Joe. Or Ellie wings it to the stars.
That wasn’t thug talk. It was clever talk.
I stared at the figure in the control booth. Rage and realization filled me with the hot urge to kill. No wonder Ellie had been grabbed so easily from my house. She’d opened the door.
I lunged forward and tackled Skip, throwing him to the ground.