Free Murder in Gatlinburg by Steve Demaree Page A

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.  
     
    +++
     
    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