Becklaw's Murder Mystery Tour (Jo Anderson Series) by Dane McCaslin Page B

station wagon alongside the vehicles that belonged to the fair employees. Derek had remembered to grab the orange placard that said ‘Silverton County Fairgrounds Employee’ on it. He laid it on the dashboard and away we went to face our audience and our fears.
    The dining area was already hopping. People were walking through the food line, filling plates with pulled pork or pieces of barbecued chicken, coleslaw and ears of com, baked beans, and rolls. The desserts sat off to the side, next to the table that held four large urns of coffee and half a dozen pitchers of iced water. I took the long way round the room before heading back to the dressing area; I wanted an ‘up close and personal’ view of the goodies.
    Leslie had already changed into her dancing girl costume, topped off with a frothy feather boa slung over her left shoulder and around her neck, by the time I got to the dressing room. I thought the look was perfect; Leslie exuded ‘cheap’ like a professional.
    And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
    Miss Bea was helping Lily wriggle into her gear, pulling down on the ‘modesty panel’ to show a bit more of Lily than Lily was willing to show. As quickly as Miss Bea let the front of the dress go, Lily would tug it back up again. If I didn’t have to get ready myself, I would have stood there to see who would win. My money was on Miss Bea.
    Josie wasn’t there yet, and I saw that Leslie kept glancing at the clock that hung on the wall above the door. There was still enough time, I thought idly. If we all were ready too soon, we’d just set around and make each other nervous. And crazy.
    ‘Crazy’ reminded me of Crazy Great-Aunt Opal, which in turn reminded me of Miss Lucinda. Oh, dear. What was it that had my thoughts making that direct connection? I’d just have to tuck this into the back of my mind and let it stew around a while. Eventually it would come to me, I was sure.
    I opened the box that held my ‘school marm’ dress and those killer buttonhook boots and took myself off to a corner to get dressed. I wasn’t modest by anyone’s standard, that much was true, but I didn’t want to give Miss Bea another costume to fiddle with. It was safer if I got out of her way. Hence the corner.
    I had bent down to fasten those insufferable buttons when I noticed Leslie and Miss Bea in a worried consultation. It was probably about that Josie again and, come to think of it, she probably should have been here ten minutes ago. That was a pet peeve of mine; being ‘fashionably late’ was not my idea of polite behavior. Well, she’d better be on her toes when she arrived or Miss Bea would take her pay out of her pretty little hide.
    A knock at the door caused all three of us to jump.
    Leslie called out, ‘Who is it?’
    I strained my ears to see if I could hear Josie’s tinkly little laugh, which, by the way, was pet peeve number two. So far she had two of the five things that bugged me, and that did not bode well for her in my book.
    ‘Miss Bea? Miss Lucinda sent us to fetch you.’ Andy – or Bert, or maybe it was Julian – was on the other side of the door. Miss Bea wrenched it open in one mighty tug. Leslie and I looked at each other in surprise; as my brothers would say, ‘Who’da thunk it?’ Miss Bea was certainly full of surprises.
    ‘And just what does That Woman want?’ Miss Bea’s voice fairly dripped with scorn. I saw Bert flinch (it was Bert out there) and take one step back as if to create a buffer between him and the small dragon he now saw standing in front of him.
    ‘Ah, ma’ am, she just said that you needed to get out to the parking lot as soon as possible.’ Bert looked unhappy at having to deliver an order to Miss Bea. I couldn’t say that I blamed him one iota.
    ‘Oh. She. Did.’ Miss Bea’s words were so clipped that they formed their own sentences, complete with punctuation. Heaven help Miss Lucinda if this wasn’t a true emergency, I thought wryly.
    ‘Yes,