Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 01 - Death Is Clowning Around Read Online Free Page A

visiting festivals?”
    “I’m a teacher.”
    “Then this must be Spring Break for you.”
    “Yes.”
    The waitress brought our pie. I had to admit, he had made a good choice. We spent the next hour or so talking about our jobs. I told him stories about the kids I’d taught over the years and he shared his “cop stories.” I didn’t think they’d be interesting, but he had a great sense of humor and made arresting a teen for spraying graffiti on the public restrooms seem funny. He certainly was easy to talk to.
    Finally, I decided it was time to get to the reason I was in Gainsville. “I noticed the missing child posters in some of the windows.”
    His shoulders dropped, he shook his head, and his tone went somber. “It was the saddest day of my life when Jessie McGowan was taken. She was such a nice little girl. Her smile would light up a room.”
    The change in his demeanor was so dramatic, I fought an overwhelming urge to reach out and comfort him. “What happened?”
    He went through the account, pretty similar to what Todd had told me, although he didn’t say anything about the “Uptown Clowns.”
    I put my hand on his arm. “I’m sure you did everything you could to find her.”
    His eyes glazed over as if he were reliving the entire event. He slouched back in his chair. “It was like she vanished into thin air.”
    “That’s not possible.”
    “I know that!” He snapped. Then softened his tone. “I just blame myself because we could never find her.”
    “Where’s her family now?”
    “Dad left and her mom drove herself into a ditch and killed herself. Jessie’s brother got into drugs. It seemed like I spent two summers arresting him. Then he straightened himself out. Now he runs the local grocery store.”
    “Jessie’s store?”
    “Yeah. He named it after his sister when he took over the business.”
    I gazed into the air. “It seems like I remember the McGowan incident. I’m sure I read about it in the paper.”
    “Probably, we sent the information out everywhere. Anything to get a lead on her.” He shook his head. “Nothing helped.”
    I pushed forward. “Wasn’t there something about clowns?”
    “Yeah. Todd said the man that grabbed his sister was dressed like a clown. It didn’t help in the investigation. The clown stuff just didn’t go anywhere. Probably a disguise so he could grab Jessie.”
    “Was the driver dressed as a clown, too?”
    Tom narrowed his eyes at me. “You ask a lot of questions?”
    “I’m a teacher, that’s how we learn stuff.” I smiled, hoping he bought it.
    “Well, no, the driver was not dressed as a clown.”
    “No disguise at all?”
    “Nope.”
    “That’s weird. Why dress up one man as a clown and leave the other one without a disguise?”
    “I asked myself that question many, many times. I never found an answer,” he said grimly.
    “Did the vehicle help at all?”
    “Not really. It was a typical white van. A neighbor spotted it a few days earlier in the vicinity of the school. But she thought it was just an ice cream vendor getting a jump on the competition to sell to the kids. It seems the kids have their favorites and only buy from them.”
    “Kids like consistency. If they know your face, they’re more likely to buy from you.”
    “That familiarity might have made Jessie trust that clown.”
    “Did the witness say the man was dressed as a clown then, too?”
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s all so sad.” I drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The kidnapping destroyed her family.”
    “That’s not unusual. When something that violent happens to a family, they’re never the same.”
    “You’d think it would bring them closer together?”
    “No, it usually rips them apart. In the McGowan’s case, I think Jessie was the glue that held that family together.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She had such a bubbly personality and she loved everything. The year before she went to kindergarten she spent a lot of time at my