Honeymoon for Three

other end of the branch, which still had twigs attached to it, as a rake to smooth out the ground in the vicinity of the hole.
    Satisfied with his work, he tossed the branch away. The gun was the only evidence that connected him with what had happened at the market. May it rest in peace. Alfred thought about erecting a small cross to mark the spot and smiled at the idea. He wasn’t just your garden variety dumb criminal. He knew how to cover his tracks. He returned to the Falcon and drove toward Wyoming.
     
    CHAPTER 17
    Penny had promised to call her mother several times during the trip, so she took advantage of a pay phone at the Wildlife Museum in Mammoth, just inside the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It was Sunday afternoon in Connecticut. Her mother answered on the third ring.
    When Penny said hello, her mother said, “Did the police find you?” She sounded excited.
    “The police? Mom, what are you talking about?”
    “They called me this morning. They said that boy from your class shot a clerk in a food store.”
    “What boy in my class?” Penny’s mother didn’t always make sense when she was excited.
    “You know, the boy with the big head and ears and the potbelly.”
    “Alfred? Are you talking about Alfred Ward?”
    “Yes, Alfred. He’s the one. I remember that he always seemed to be a little bit out of step with you other kids.”
    “Mom, tell me again what Alfred did.”
    “He shot somebody. A clerk in a food store, I believe. Anyway, the man is dead.”
    Alfred shot somebody? He was weird, but Penny didn’t consider him to be dangerous in a physical sense. “Where was this?”
    “Somewhere in Montana. The police called from Montana.”
    The conversation was unreal. Penny looked for Gary. He wasn’t in sight. She said, “Did Alfred get arrested?”
    “No. They don’t know where he is, but they think he might be looking for you.”
    It was getting more and more confusing. “Why did the police call you?”
    “Because Alfred had your yearbook picture in his car. You know, the one in your cheerleader uniform.”
    “I thought you said they didn’t know where Alfred is.”
    “They don’t, but they found his car.”
    Okay, she would accept that. “So he had my picture in his car? And they traced the picture to Fenwick High School?”
    “That’s right. Please be careful, Penny dear. Alfred is a dangerous character.”
    Maybe her mother was right. Their meeting with Alfred in Seattle couldn’t be just a coincidence if he had her picture. She didn’t want her mother to worry. “We’re safe, Mom. We’re in Yellowstone. He’ll never find us here.”
    “The police want you to call them collect. I wrote down the number. I put it here somewhere. Just a minute.”
    While her mother was searching for the phone number, Penny spotted Gary buying postcards. When she caught his eye she waved frantically for him to come to the phone. He took his time coming, which made her mad, almost the first time she could remember being mad at him. Then she realized it was because of the tension she was feeling.
    Her mother came back on the phone. “I’ve got the number. Do you have a pencil and paper? The police want you to call them right away.”
    Penny wrote down the number. She didn’t want to hang up abruptly on her mother, so she chatted about where they were and what they had done. She told a couple of funny stories about their experiences, but she didn’t mention that they had been with Alfred. She didn’t want her mother to worry about her. When her mother seemed calmer, Penny said good-bye and hung up.
    By this time, Gary had been cooling his heels for several minutes. Penny blurted out, “Alfred killed somebody.”
    “Huh?”
    “He shot a clerk in a food store.” She was acting as disjointed as her mother, so she took a deep breath to slow herself down and told Gary what she knew.
    “He’s been following us,” were the first words out of Gary’s mouth. “He’s crazy. It’s a good thing we got away from him when we did, and that we didn’t give him specific information about where we were going in Yellowstone.”
    “I have to call this number,” Penny said. “Maybe the police can tell us more.”
    She dialed the operator and told her she wanted to make a collect call. After the officer who answered accepted the call, she was asked to wait and impatiently suffered on hold for thirty seconds. Then a man came on the line and said, “Detective Landon.”
    Penny