All right , thought Kurtz. The headache was worse and he rubbed his temples. What the hell does all this mean other than poor, dying Peg O'Toole had had a hero (if not too bright) cop for a father and a Vietnam-hero for an uncle ?
As if reading Kurtz's mind, Arlene stubbed out her cigarette and said, "Read that last file before you go any further with the O'Toole brothers."
"The file marked 'Cloud Nine'?"
"Yeah."
Kurtz dropped the other stuff offscreen and opened 'Cloud Nine. It was a puff article from The Neola Sentinel , dated August 10, 1974, about the wonderful amusement park being opened in the mountains above Neola. It was expected that this new, state-of-the-art amusement park would attract patrons from all over Western New York, Northern Pennsylvania, and North-Central Ohio. The park included a one-third-scale train that would hold up to sixty youngsters and which would follow tracks almost a mile and a half across and around the mountaintop. The park also boasted a huge Ferris wheel, a roller coaster "second only to the Comet at Canada's Crystal Beach," bumper cars, and a host of other amusements.
The park had been built "as a gift to the youth of Neola" by Major Michael Francis O'Toole, president of South-East Asia Trading Company of Neola, New York.
"Ahah," said Kurtz.
Arlene stopped her typing. "I haven't heard you say 'ahah' since the old days, Joe."
"It's a specialized term known only to professional private investigators," said Kurtz.
Arlene smiled.
"Only this time, you're the investigator. I didn't do a damned thing to dig up this information. It's all you and that computer."
Arlene shrugged. "Have you read the file labeled 'Neola H.S. yet?"
"Not yet," said Kurtz. He opened it.
Dateline The Neola Sentinel, The Buffalo News, and The New York Times, October 27, 1977. A high-school senior, Sean Michael O'Toole, 18, entered Neola High School armed with a.30-.06 rifle yesterday and shot two of his classmates, a gym teacher, and the assistant principal, before being wrestled to the ground by four members of the Neola football team. All four of the shooting victims were pronounced dead at the scene. It stated that Sean Michael O'Toole is the son of prominent Neola businessman and owner of the Cloud Nine amusement park, Major Michael O'Toole and the late Eleanor Rains O'Toole. No motive for the shooting has been given.
"Wow, pre-Columbine," said Kurtz.
"Do you remember when that happened?" asked Arlene.
"I was just a kid," said Kurtz. Although it would have been the kind of news item he'd have taken an interest in even then.
"You were already in Father Baker's then," Arlene reminded him. The court sent kids to Father Baker's Orphanage.
Kurtz shrugged. The last thing in that file was the January 27, 1978, court hearing
for the Major's kid. Sean O'Toole had been judged by a battery of psychiatrists to be competent to stand trial. He was remanded to a psychiatric institution for the criminally insane in Rochester, New York, for further testing and "continuing evaluation and therapy in secure surroundings." Kurtz knew about the Rochester nuthouseit was a dungeon for some of New York State's craziest killers.
"Did you read the last bit of the Cloud Nine file?" asked Arlene.
"Not yet."
"It's just a Neola Sentinel clipping from May of nineteen seventy-eight," said Arlene, "announcing that the Cloud Nine Amusement Park, already beset by financial difficulties and low attendance, was closing its gates forever."
"So much for the youth of Neola," said Kurtz.
"Evidently."
"But if her uncle was running this business and park in Neola, why wouldn't Peg O'Toole know about it?" Kurtz mused aloud. "Why would she show me those photos of the abandoned parkassuming it's Cloud Nineand not know it's her uncle's old place?"
Arlene shrugged. "Maybe she knew the photos weren't from her uncle's abandoned park. Or maybe she didn't even know that Cloud Nine existed. Her father, Big John, didn't move to Buffalo and start his cop job here until nineteen eighty-two. Maybe the Major and his cop brother were estranged. I didn't see the Major and his wheelchair in the photos from Big John's funeral four years ago. You'd think the uncle would be right there next to Ms. O'Toole since Peg's mother was dead."
"Still" said Kurtz.
"Remember you telling me that one of the overturned bumper cars in the photo you saw yesterday had the number nine on it?"
"Cloud Nine," said Kurtz. "It's all there. It just doesn't make sense. I'll be right back."
Kurtz got up quickly, hurried to the tiny bathroom back by the purring computer server room, knelt next to the toilet, and vomited several times. When he was done, he rinsed his mouth out and washed his face. His hands were shaking violently. Evidently, the concussion didn't want him to eat yet.
When he came back into the main room, Arlene said, "You okay, Joe?"
"Yeah."
"Do you need any other searches related to mis?"
"Yeah," said Kurtz. "I want to find out what happened to this kid, the shooter. Did he stay caged up in Rochester? Is he out now? And I need some details of the Major's specific history in Vietnamnot just his medals, but names, locations, who he worked with, what he was doing when."