Midnight Rambler_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [64]
“Can you get me into the park?” I asked.
“Sure. What do you have in mind?”
“I want to search the area where Shannon was abducted.”
“I'll get one of the guards to drive you,” Sally said.
I pointed at Tram standing nearby, holding his wife's hand.
“I want him to come with me,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A Disney security guard drove us inside the Magic Kingdom in a golf cart. I sat behind Tram and watched him jerk his head at every infant we passed. He was crazy with worry and called out his daughter's name several times.
The guard parked near the “It's a Small World” exhibit, and we hopped out. This had been my daughter's favorite ride when she was little. If prompted, Jessie would sing the entire song from memory, although it had been years since I'd asked. I hummed the chorus and saw Tram stiffen.
“You trying to be funny?” he asked.
“No, just trying to stay calm. Mind my asking you a question?”
Tram didn't answer me.
“What are you on?” I asked.
Tram swallowed his Adam's apple.
“I ain't on nothing.”
“Stick to telling the truth. You're better at it.”
“I am telling the truth,” he said defensively.
I was close enough to him to smell his breath. It was mint flavored with a hint of something acidic: The smell was one I'd encountered countless times before. He'd been drinking, and I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.
“Stop lying to me, you stupid little son of a bitch,” I said. “You've been hitting the sauce, haven't you?”
His defiant attitude melted away. “I had a couple of beers for breakfast, that's all.”
“Then what was the bullshit line about you quitting?”
“I slipped.”
“How many is a couple?”
“A six-pack.”
“Does your wife know that?”
Tram shook his head.
“So you were drunk when your daughter got snatched.”
Tram's face twisted with agony. With many missing children cases, there was often another crime behind the abduction. Sometimes the crime was excusable, like a parent bowing to a child's demand to go inside a store alone. Other times, the crime was so damning that it could never be excused. In this case, Tram Dockery was not a fit parent, and didn't deserve the second chance the world had given him.
“God damn you, son,” I said.
I made Tram take me to the last place he'd seen Shannon. The guard tagged along and stood dutifully to one side. He was an older black man with wispy hair and watery eyes. His expression said he'd seen many like Tram before.
“Shannon was right here the last time I saw her,” Tram said.
We were standing by an enormous bush carved to look like Mickey Mouse. Tram pointed at a concession stand thirty feet away.
“Peggy Sue was over there carrying two cardboard trays, and I went to help her,” he said. “When I came back, my baby was gone.”
I did a three-sixty revolution and looked for places where a person could have taken Shannon without being spotted. I was suspicious about the fact that Shannon wasn't heard during her abduction, until the doors to the “It's a Small World” exhibit opened. Then, five hundred noisy kids and their parents poured out, and I realized that Shannon could have been screaming her head off and not been heard.
“What's your name?” I asked the guard.
“Vernon,” the guard replied. “People call me Vern.”
“Vern, where's the closest restroom?”
“There are several,” he said.
“Do they all have family restrooms?”
“No, only the restroom around the corner has that.”
“Show me,” I said.
Vern led us to a small redbrick building right off the main drag. It had three doors—His, Hers, and Family—and was a perfect place to bring a child to. I banged on the door for Family. Getting no answer, I went inside.
Like everything at Disney, the bathroom's interior was spotlessly clean. In the corner sat a metal trash can, and I dragged it outside onto the grass. Pulling off the top, I rummaged through the smelly diapers and other garbage stuffed inside.
“What you doing?” Tram asked.
“Looking for your daughter's clothes.