“Nah.” Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “Somewhere else.”
“I told her it was the TV.” I shrugged and pointed to the hula hoops. “What are those for?”
“I thought of two games since we are a little tight on funds. The first is where they will do an obstacle course in them and around them while they are on the ground, then a hula hoop contest.” He looked back at us. “You look like you are a mean hula-hooper,” he charmed Dottie.
Her face reddened the color of her hair.
“I was good as a kid, but I’ve not done it in year.” She shrugged him off.
“Go on. Pick one up. You know you want to.” He teased. She smiled.
“Okay.” She walked a few feet and stepped into on, bringing it up around her waist. “Say. I remember you.”
“You came into the diner.” He gave it as second go at that idea.
“Nope. You came here a few weeks ago asking about a hook up.” The hula-hoop didn’t stay around Dottie’s waist for every long. Maybe she got one hip rotation out of it. “You even filled out a form.”
“No, ma’am, it wasn’t me.” He shook his head. “I got the Pac Man game up and running, Mae.”
“It was you.” She snapped her fingers. “I know it was.”
“Ma’am. I’m sorry but I’ve never been to Normal and certainly not at this campground.” Jr. walked towards the recreation center. “I wanted to show you how I moved some of the video games around so they weren’t on the same electrical outlets and it would trip the breaker.” He motioned for me to follow him.
We left Dottie standing outside as she tried to do the hula-hoop a few more times. The recreation room looked really good. The old metal signs had been hung, the ping pong table sat in the middle like it was ready to go and the bean bag chairs were scattered all over the place. It looked like a child’s paradise.
“That popcorn smells so good,” I said and looked over at the popcorn machine. The top of the container was still popping up and down as the fully cooked kernels were falling out over the side.
“Wait until you taste it.” The pride on Jr.’s face went from the sparkle in his eyes to the big grin on his face. “Add a little butter and you can’t get this good of popcorn at the movies.”
He pushed a bag of tools out of the way.
“I’ll get those up before anyone gets here. I just wanted to make sure everything was working before I put them back in the shed.” He picked up a flathead screwdriver and shoved it in his back pocket.
“The video games look great.” I loved seeing the images playing on the screen. “Truly, you’ve done a great job.”
I moseyed over to the area where we had some jump ropes and chalk in bins the kids could take outside and play.
“This is a perfect area by the door.” I was so happy that I let Jr. come in here and make it his own. I could see how proud he was and excited.
“I do know you.” Dottie just wasn’t giving it up. “You did come here a few weeks ago. I was giving you a tour when the Fedex man came to drop off Mae’s boxes from that fancy lawyer of hers.”
“Dottie,” My brows formed a V. “He’s never been here. It’s all the news media.”
“Yes, he has. I took him into my camper to fill out the paperwork, so I could open your storage unit for the FedEx man.” She planted her palm on her head. “I forgot about you being in my camper because I might’ve peeked a little bit in the boxes after they were place in the storage unit.” She smacked her hands together. “When I remembered I left you there, I came back and you were gone.”
I looked over at Jr. and was about to tell him to ignore her, but his body language had shifted. He’d tensed. His jaw was clamped shut. His eyes were fixed on Dottie.
“Jr.?” I asked in a hushed whisper. “Are you okay?”
There was second that I thought he was going to say something, but his nostrils flared in and out a few times.
“You’ve got somethin’ up your sleeve and me and Mae want to know what it is.” Dottie was relentless. She wasn’t going to let it go.
“Listen here, you old bat.” Jr. jerked the tool from his back pocket. “You don’t know what it’s like to spend all your life with a goal to go to a specific college. When someone takes that from you, like your father and his best friend, you tend to get a little on edge.”
“What are you saying?” I asked Jr. and focused my eyes on the screwdriver he appeared to be gripping.
“Did you steal my gun?” Dottie spat back at him.
“I stole your gun because her husband stole my life.” He jerked the screwdriver up and jutted it my way.
“What’s going on here?” I questioned.
“Mae West, get a grip. This here feller came here and stole my gun. Don’t you see, he’s Paul’s killer.” She shook her finger at him. “You killed your own daddy didn’t you. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
“For trailer trash, you’re pretty smart.” He glared at Dottie.
“Now, that’s not necessary. We are doing good getting the park up and running.” I wasn’t sure why I was trying to have a conversation with him. Maybe it was my nerves because at the moment, I felt like I was going to throw up. “So, lets just get on with what we need to do before everyone gets here for the fundraiser.”
“No wonder you had no idea what your loser husband was doing. You’re clueless,” there was a sarcastic tone in his voice. “If you think that I’m going to let either of you leave this building alive, you’re crazy.”
“You don’t have to do this. You have a great future in front of you.” There had to be some sort of good in the kid.
“Future? Paul West stole my future and my family. When I went to see him in prison, he wasn’t one bit remorseful.” His chest heaved up and down. “He wasn’t done making deals. He told me that if I used my computer skills and make it look like he was released early, then he’d make sure he’d get my college fund back.”
“Did you really steal Dottie’s gun?” I asked.
Thank goodness I didn’t replace the gravel, because I could hear cars pulling in and I was buying time in hopes someone would walk in.
“Yep. I wasn’t planning on stealing it until I snooped around and saw it. It wasn’t until the FedEx guy said your name and I knew that you were coming here. I wanted to kill Paul and put him in the storage unit, but as you know it didn’t work out that way.” There was a pleasure on his face that only evil could have.
“How did you free Paul?” I asked with an evil tone.
“Easy. I hacked into the system on the day of inmate releases and had his paperwork all ready to go. When they finished processing him and the rest of the men getting out that day, I went back into the system and erased everything I did.” His arrogant, shallow features made me want to smack them off his face. “The FBI can’t even figure it out. Idiots,” he boasted. “We had it worked out where he’d meet my dad here. When I told my dad to meet us, he wasn’t as happy as I thought he would be.”
“Why your own father?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “He loved you.”
“He loved me so much that he gambled my life way. He could’ve used different money.” His voice cracked. Ahem, he cleared his throat and it seemed to get him refocused. “I gave him the chance to apologize to me for what he’d done. I wanted Paul to see what he did to us. When my dad laughed and said that it was his money. He didn’t owe me anything, I shot him.” An evil explosion of deep laughter came out of him. “You should’ve seen Paul’s face. He was so scared and I told him that’s how me and my mom felt. He begged until I put a bullet in his head.”
“You don’t have to do hurt me and Dottie, right Dottie?” I looked at her with big eyes so she’d go along with me, but that didn’t work out as planned.
“Heck no. What is he going to do, jab us with a screw driver? The police already have my gun,” she snarled.
Jr. reached down and picked up one of the jump ropes.