Elsie was wearing long red shorts and a wide-brimmed white canvas hat. She opened her big black pocketbook and Daisy and Steve both jumped back a foot. “Just looking for the coupons,” she said, fishing around. “I got coupons at the food store. Four dollars off admission.” She found two of them and handed them over to Schmidt.
Schmidt looked uncomfortable. “Thanks.”
“That’s okay,” Elsie told him, “but you’re gonna have to do something about your gun. I’m not going on no rides with a man who’s got a lump in his clothes.”
Daisy swallowed back the laughter. It was true. There was an unseemly bulge at Schmidt’s waist, under his yellow jersey. If it was any lower, he’d face arrest on an obscenity charge. As it was, it looked like a hernia gone berserk.
Schmidt colored. “I have a jacket in the car.”
“Better have a hat, too,” Elsie said. “After a couple hours in this sun you’re gonna be able to fry eggs on that bald spot of yours.”
“Ease off,” he told her. “I graduated top of my class in police brutality.”
“Only trying to be helpful,” Elsie said.
A truck pulled into the driveway. The sign on the outside said DIRTY DAN’S HOUSEKEEPING SERVICES. Four people climbed out and started unloading equipment.
“Maybe we should stay home and supervise,” Daisy said.
Steve shook his head. “No need. Dirty Dan cleans the studio, and I’ve used him for two years now to clean my house. Bob’s locked out back, so he won’t be any trouble, and the windows are boarded up until the carpenter can get here tomorrow. Everything’s taken care of. When we get home the house will have been aired and scrubbed. Tomorrow the adjuster will check out the damage, and we’ll figure out insurance.”
Elsie shifted her pocketbook to her shoulder. “What do you say we haul it out of here? You don’t get there early, the lines’ll kill you. I got my heart set on that roller coaster where you stand up. I saw it on TV.”
Chapter 8
Daisy wasn’t sure about the roller coaster. It was one of those high-tech things that curved and looped and catapulted screaming people along a gleaming rail high overhead. An amusement park had sounded like a good idea an hour ago, while they were still en route, but now that she was standing in line she wasn’t sure. It had been a long time since she’d ridden a roller coaster. And she’d never ridden anything like this. She held tight to Steve’s hand and gnawed at her lower lip.
“You okay?” Steve asked. “You look a little pale.”
“It’s just that I’m having so much fun.”
“Maybe we should start off with something smaller.”
Schmidt was standing behind them. His face was tanned, but under the tan he was as pale as Daisy. “Yeah, it might not be a bad idea to start off with something smaller. It isn’t that I’m afraid to do this, but-” A string of cars rocketed past them. “Holy cripes,” Schmidt said, “you have to be nuts to do this!”
Steve was having second thoughts, too. Now he remembered why he avoided this for fifteen years. It was because he had no patience with waiting his turn. “It doesn’t seem right that we should force Officer Schmidt to do this in the line of duty,” he said.
Daisy agreed. It didn’t seem right. “And look how he’s sweating in that jacket,” she said. “We should go buy him something cool to drink. We wouldn’t want him to get dehydrated.”
“Bunch of wimps,” Elsie said. “You go ahead, and Kevin and me’ll meet up with you later.”
They got sodas and Schmidt and his partner dropped behind. “Just pretend we aren’t here,” Schmidt said. “And if you don’t go on any more roller coasters, I’ll do you a favor. I’ll see what I can do about having the old lady committed. I’ve got friends in high places.”
“She doesn’t belong to us,” Daisy told him. “We just hired her to be my bodyguard until the Roach is convicted.”
“You mean she was telling the truth? You actually hired her?”
Steve reached for Daisy’s hand. “I’m going to do my best to ignore him.”
She felt heat flood through her when he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. They were following a macadam path that was bordered by flowers and led to more rides. It was a sunny weekend, and the park was crowded with kids and their parents and hordes of teenagers, but in the middle of this sea of bustling humanity they were alone, Daisy thought. People smiled but didn’t stare, didn’t recognize. Everyone was self-absorbed, unwavering in their pursuit of fun. That was perfect, she decided. She enjoyed the intimacy of walking hand in hand with Steve.
They had a strange relationship, she decided. Desire had come before love, although love had quickly followed. The depth of the love she wasn’t able to determine. She was smart enough to know that there were lots of kinds, and falling in love was different from truly loving someone. For now she knew she’d fallen in love, and she intended to keep it at that level. In her mind it didn’t seem to be such a serious emotion. It wasn’t her first experience with infatuation, she told herself. She’d been enamored of other men. She supposed she’d had her heart broken a few times, but she’d never died of it. Actually, if she was to be completely honest, she couldn’t really say her heart had ever been broken-cracked perhaps.
She finished her soda and munched on leftover ice. Music spilled from hidden speakers, mingling with the clatter and roar of the roller coasters. “I think I’m going on sensory overload,” she said to Steve.
“Do you hate it?”
“No, I love it! I have to admit I’m not keen on roller coasters, but I love being here. I like the food and the noise and the people. And I love the colors and the speed of the rides. I want to stay late so I can see the lights go on. Can we do that?”
“We can stay here as long as you want-un-less the soles start to melt on my shoes. If that happens, I might be inclined to pack it in.”
Daisy lifted the hair off the back of her neck in silent agreement. The day was hot, with the kind of heat found only in an amusement park. Heat that baked off the pavement and prickled on bare arms. Heat that provoked cravings for ice cream and lemonade and the cool shade of the pavilions where more elaborate food was sold. “I should have put my hair up,” she said. “I’d give my kingdom for a scrunchie.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary to hock your kingdom for one,” Steve said. “Twenty dollars should be more than enough.” He waved a twenty in front of a group of teenage girls. “Anyone want to trade this for a scrunchie?”
Three of them furiously worked at their ponytails and he took the first that was placed in his hand. He turned it over to Daisy. “Wouldn’t want you to think the heir to the Crow oil fortune was a piker when it came to your comfort.”
Daisy swept the hair back from her face and bound it up. “Does an oil-fortune heir spend lots of time at amusement parks?”
“Last time I went to an amusement park was when I was seventeen. I took Jessica Mae Stiller on the roller coaster, and she got so scared she wet her pants.”
“How about you? Were you scared?”
“Yeah, but at that point in my life I thought being scared was cool… and being cool was everything. Fortunately, I had better control over body functions than Jessica Mae.”
Daisy wondered what other body functions Jessica Mae had trouble controlling. “So what happened to this hussy?”
“I think she changed schools, had plastic surgery, and moved out of town.”
“Can’t blame her,” Daisy said.
He bought her a hot dog and a lemonade, and they sat on a bench, watching people pour along the path in front of them. Daisy ripped off chunks of hot dog and chewed. “You think all these people know where they’re going?”
“Sure, they’re headed for the water rides.”
“I mean in life.”
Steve raised his eyebrows.
