The largest crowd the Pioneer Days festival had ever seen flooded the stage area where Beau Arson was performing. Several local musicians had joined Beau on stage. To get things started, he asked them to play a few measures of a song, any song. The group of smiling musicians chose Earl Scruggs’s “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” and after listening to a few measures, Beau repeated them note-for-note with ease. The exercise continued until they were playing the entire song together.
Just when the audience became accustomed to the music, Beau signaled for the sound techs to turn on his amplifier, and he added his electric guitar interpretation to the traditional bluegrass favorite. The effect was mind-blowing. The crowd went wild. Men, women, and children cheered from the festival grounds, lifting their arms, their beverages, their small children in salute.
“Where’s Pearl?” Harley asked, rushing inside the VIP tent behind the stage. Hazel Moses stood behind the table, guarding the filled glasses and trays of food.
“She went to run an errand a few minutes ago,” Hazel said, looking at Harley with concern. “Is something wrong?”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“I believe she said she was going to get more dishes in the storage area—above the pharmacy.”
Before Hazel could stop her, Harley dropped her arm to the table, and in one sweep, knocked the row of filled glasses to the ground, shattering and spilling their contents across the pavement.
“What are you doing, Harley?” Hazel shouted.
“Did Beau have anything to drink yet?”
“No,” she said, a confused look on her face. “I don’t believe so. They’ve not taken their break yet.”
“Don’t let him,” Harley said. “Whatever you do, don’t let him.”
“Harley? Harley, what are you talking about?”
Harley ran from the VIP tent, hoping she could still find Pearl above the pharmacy.
Most people were too engrossed in Beau’s performance to notice a young woman in period clothing raging like a mad woman among them, and she passed through the sea of bodies mostly undetected.
Harley stood before the pharmacy on Main Street and gazed up at the second-floor windows. The lights were on, and she assumed Pearl must still be inside. If memory served, the pharmacy had a back entrance with a staircase leading to the upper floors. She made her way down the narrow alleyway that ran alongside the building and pushed open the back door.
Taking a deep breath, she drew her cell phone from her pocket and called Jed. When he did not answer, she left a hurried message, telling him to meet her at the pharmacy immediately. Before she returned the phone to her pocket, she activated the voice recording application, ensuring the microphone was in an ideal position to record.
She started up the stairs.