Page 74 of Free Fall (The Quantico Files 3)

“Ah, ma’am, it’s just Mike,” he said. “If you call me Mr. Tenbrook, I might start lookin’ ’round for my daddy, and you don’t want him anywhere near here. Trust me.”

Williams smiled. “Okay, Mike. I understand. If it’s okay with you, we’ll go into my office to talk.”

“That’d be jes fine, ma’am.”

“Roberta,” she said.

“Roberta,” he repeated with a smile. “I once knew a belly dancer named Roberta who worked the midways back when I was just a young ’un.”

Jeff had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He certainly wasn’t in a humorous mood, but a picture of ASAC Williams doing a belly dance had jumped into his head and he’d almost lost it.

Williams didn’t say anything, but her cheeks turned pink. To her credit she just kept smiling and asked Tenbrook to follow her. Then they all walked behind her like some kind of mini parade until they reached an office that must have once belonged to the manager of the furniture store. Inside was a desk and a black leather chair. Williams sat down behind the desk while the rest of them took their places in the folding metal chairs positioned in front of her. When Mike sat down his chair squeaked under his weight.

Williams opened a file and turned to a small recorder. “Do you mind if I record our conversation, Mike?”

“No, ma’am. I mean, Roberta.”

The other agent left, and Jeff scooted his chair back some so he’d be out of the way but could still hear.

“So, Mike,” Williams said after she turned on the recorder, “will you please state your full name and your address?”

He did as she asked and then waited.

“You contacted the police in Prince William County and told them you might have information that could help them. Something about the recent abductions in this area. Is that correct?”

Jeff noted she was careful not to let on how many abductions they’d found in the county, nor that others had been discovered in four more.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Can you tell me about that?”

“Yes’m. On TV I heard about that Mendenhall woman and how other women are missin’ too, but I didn’t think much about it until I saw them talkin’ about that explosion over at that Magic Land Park. That’s when I started to wonder. You see, I worked that park. More than once. Not when it was open the first time, you know. That was a long time past. But I was there around fifteen years ago. When those two kids was kilt. Do you know about that?”

“Yes, we do. We’ve wondered if it was connected to what’s been going on lately.”

“Yes’m. Like I said, that’s why I called the police.”

“What made you think about those murders, Mike?”

“It was somethin’ I saw the same night the kids went missin’.”

“And what was that?”

Mike took a deep breath. “There was this kid who worked there with us. Well, he worked with his daddy until he died when the kid was about fourteen. After that, he jes kept travelin’ the circuit. Nobody was really checkin’ to see if carnies went to school back then, you know. We all jes took care of ’em and made sure they could at least read and write. Bought them some books to read from secondhand stores. We were a family. That’s what it’s like when you’re—”

“And what did you see that concerned you, Mike?” Williams said, obviously trying to bring him back to the main point of their conversation.

“Yeah. Sorry. I get carried away sometimes. Was a carnie for a long while. Don’t leave you very easy.” He took another deep breath. “This happened durin’ a Memorial Day celebration, you see. Sometimes amusement parks hire carnies to come in and add to their rides and things during special events. And that’s what happened that time. They’d had us the last two years too. So we went and helped ’em out. Some of our crew ran their rides so regular staff got breaks.

“We also set up games, a beer garden, food carts . . . stuff like that. Well, this same kid I was talkin’ about had a crush on a townie who came to the park every time we was there. I know ’cause I’d seen him starin’ at her both years before. Well, this night he asked her if he could get somethin’ to eat with her at the beer garden, and she said yes. He was so excited. I gave him a stuffed dog from a game I was runnin’. If you pressed its paw, it played a song. I was walkin’ into the garden myself when he met up with her. When it happened.”

“And what happened, Mike?” Williams asked.

“She was sittin’ down with him, and I heard her ask if he wanted to kiss her. But she was just settin’ him up, you know? A lot of townies thought they was better’n us. Then a friend of hers snuck up behind him and poured soda on his head. The girl started laughin’, and the rest of the girls with her laughed at him too. In fact, everyone sittin’ there at the time thought it was pretty funny. He got up and run right past me. I’ll never forget his face. Here he was without any family ’cept us, and he was humiliated in front of the townies . . . and some of the other carnies too. It was worse because he had a hard time makin’ friends. It weren’t that he was uppity or nothin’. He was jes shy. Self-conscious. I think that’s why what happened upset him so much.”

“And why do you think this event is connected to our investigation?”

“’Cause that night the same girl disappeared along with one of our carnies. Seems she weren’t really better’n all of us. Jes some of us. What’s botherin’ me is that she looked jes like the missin’ woman on the news. Tracy Mendenhall.”

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