Free Murder at the Art & Craft Fair by Steve Demaree

moment.
    “Why don’t we go home and think about it and come back
tomorrow for a while after church?”
     
    +++
     
    I don’t know if Jennifer and Thelma Lou were more
tired than they let on or if they felt sorry for Lou and me, but they suggested
that Lou and I go home and take naps and come back to pick them up at 6:00.
Going home was a little more difficult than it sounded. I was thankful that
Lou’s trunk was empty except for a hidden spare tire and an emergency kit when
we arrived at the art and craft fair, because it was full when we rode home.
Besides that, both Jennifer and I had to hold some of our purchases on the way
home, and there were more purchases at Thelma Lou’s feet. It took only a few
minutes to get to Thelma Lou’s house, where Lou and I got out and helped the
girls carry their purchases into the house. Because there were four of us, it
took only one trip each to accomplish this. The pyramid puzzle that Thelma Lou
bought for Lou never made it to her house. She figured there was no need for
that. I didn’t bother to fish out the scarf I bought for Jennifer. I would give
it to her when we returned in a couple of hours. Since my purchases and Lou’s
were almost the same, all that mattered when we got to my house was that I got
one of everything except for the puzzles. While I did take one of the puzzles,
I made sure that I picked up the one that I had bought. I considered trying to
put a few pieces together to see if it frustrated me. If I liked it, I could
purchase another puzzle the next day. Then, thoughts of a nap pushed working a
puzzle out of my mind. I figured if I was that fascinated by those puzzles I
could borrow Lou’s two when he wasn’t working them, and I could loan him the
one I bought. Lou helped me carry everything I’d bought into the house, but because
things had changed next-door we were not accosted by my neighbor or her ball of
fur. Even if she had rushed me, at least on one trip I had my Empire State
Building to use as a battering ram. Its maker had told me that it would hold
together under fire. Well, maybe not fire, but under attack. I merely hoped
that I would not have to find that out.

 
    Chapter
Eleven
     
     
    The number of drive-in theaters across the country is
dwindling each year, and although there is still a drive-in theater within a
reasonable driving distance of most people in Kentucky, most of them close
after Labor Day weekend or sometime close to that. While the drive-in closest
to us no longer stays open year around the way it used to during the heyday of
drive-ins, it does stay open until mid-November, which is important if you want
to go to the drive-in on an early October night. Also, every other weekend’s
fare is made up of old movies, and this was the classic movie weekend. The
drive-in decided to devote both October classic movie weekends to something
that might get people in the mood for Halloween. On this the first of those two
weekends, they were showing a couple of William Castle directed features, House
on Haunted Hill and Homicidal, and even though both features were
approximately fifty years old, both movies were designed to make you hold your
date a little closer. I had no problem with that.
    On the way home from the art and craft fair I’d
noticed that Jennifer did indeed wear jewelry, and I thought of that again when
Lou and I arrived and I noticed that she was no longer wearing any. I chalked
that up to the fact that a necklace or earrings could easily catch on my shirt
during a Kodak moment at the drive-in, and smiled. But thinking of it did
remind me to ask Jennifer to take a list to the drive-in of possible gifts I
could buy her the next day when we returned to the downtown event.
     
    +++
     
    It gets darker earlier in October than it does in
June, even though it is still Daylight Savings Time, and Lou and I were serious
about getting a spot near the back of the drive-in. We also wanted to be close
to the concession stand, because