Show Starts at Dusk

How the case begins

In the footsteps of Lois Kincaid

The Skyway Drive-In sits on the state road outside Corwin, Indiana. It holds four hundred and fifty cars, and you can see the screen from the highway. On Saturday, August 15, 1959, it's a double feature, a Western and then a picture about a giant spider. At twenty to ten, Merle Toller threads a reel in the projection booth. It's twice the usual size. He pulls on his white cotton gloves and goes down the back stairs. Then he walks along the fence in the dark, all the way to the office under the screen. Roscoe Haig, who owns the Skyway, is counting the night's money. He looks up and laughs. "Come to beg, Merle?" Merle picks up the steel cashbox and hits him with it, twice. Roscoe falls across the desk and doesn't move. Merle works fast. He stuffs the bills into the bank bag and tears a page off the desk calendar. He takes the crowbar from its nail and wrenches the back door open. He's back in his booth before the big reel runs out. At eleven, Lois Kincaid comes to the office with the late ticket money and finds Roscoe. Merle is sure the sheriff will blame a stranger off the highway. But Lois has sold tickets at the Skyway for fifteen years, and she knows every car that came in tonight.