“Bridge?' Shelley asked. 'Oh, the one we crossed just after turning off the main road. Isn't there another road out?'
“There's an old logging road,' Edna said. 'But it takes a pretty sturdy four-wheel-drive even in dry weather.'
“You mean—' Jane had started to say, we're stuck here, but that didn't seem polite. 'You mean you're stuck with all these people staying here?'
“No, most of them are locals. The sheriff's put in a call for people around the lake with boats to come fetch them and take them home. They'll have to come back for their cars later.”
Shelley cleared her throat. 'Uh. . I don't think any of the people with boats are going to take us back to Chicago.'
“Well, no, I guess not,' Edna said, clearly preoccupied with her own concerns. 'But there's a daily bus to Chicago.”
Shelley pulled Jane aside. 'I don't like this.”
“I don't like buses, period,' Jane said.
“That's not what I meant. Jane, it's just occurred to me that we're miles from anywhere, stranded with one or more people who are murderers.'
“You're right,' Jane said quietly. 'There is a great deal not to like about this.”
Sixteen
'I'm willing to reconsider the bus idea,' Jane said, heading for the front desk in the lobby. There was, in fact, one remaining brochure about the bus schedule, and she learned that it belched out of the nearest town at two o'clock every afternoon. Today's means of escape had long gone.
“Jane, I want to get out of here, too, but think about it,' Shelley said. 'We'd have to haul most of our stuff in and out of a boat, beg a stranger to take us to the bus station, and find our way home from downtown Chicago at the other end of the trip. Then we'd still have to drive back up here in your lousy station wagon to pick up my van when the bridge is fixed, and drive back home separately. Not a good option.'
“Better than staying here, though,' Jane said. 'Not if we stick together. From now on, we're attached at the hip.'
“Swell,' Jane said.
“I want to take a look at this logging trail,' Shelley said. 'Maybe the van could make it through.”
'Right,' Jane said sarcastically. 'Or maybe, since a van is really a big empty box on wheels, it would slide down an embankment into the lake.'
“Still, I want to take a look at it.”
Eileen Claypool came into the lodge, looking around. When she spotted Jane and Shelley, she came over to them. 'You haven't seen John, have you?”
Jane shook her head. 'Nope. Is he missing?'
“Not exactly, I just wanted to tell him about this bridge going out. I don't like being stranded here. Benson has his staff out trying to hunt down all the local people to get them across the lake before it starts getting dark.”
Jane was glancing around the dining room. 'It's odd. None of our group seems to be here except for the three of us. Wonder where they all are.'
“Marge is in her cabin,' Eileen said. 'I just stopped by there.'
“And Sam?' Jane asked, barely managing to repress the urge to call him Sam Two.
“She didn't know. I thought maybe Sam and John had both come down here.'
“Let's have a cup of coffee and see if they turn up,' Shelley suggested.
“How's Sam doing?' Jane asked when they were seated at one of the dining room tables. By craning her neck, she could see a bunch of people heading for the boat dock. Not one of them looked the least bit happy to be going home by water.
“Fine, I guess,' Eileen replied. 'Marge said he feels okay physically, not even a headache, and is recovering nicely from the amnesia.'
“I can't imagine why he didn't go home or to a hospital,' Shelley said. 'I certainly would have.'
“That's because you don't have their parents,' Eileen said, stirring two spoons of sugar into her coffee. 'This is the first time in years we've all managed to get away from them. Believe me, it's like being sprung from prison. John and Sam both have to face going back and trying to get that dreadful house fixed up enough to sell it and get them into a nursing home. This is the only break they get before that project, which is going to be hideous.'
“The parents don't want to go, I take it,' Shelley said.
“God, no! That awful house is literally falling down around them, and they have it on the market for half again as much as it's worth. They think they're going to come live with either Sam and Marge or us. They're wrong! The house is disgusting. The carpeting is thirty-five years old and worn clear down to the backing in spots. The roof leaks buckets every time there's a mist. The plumbing is unthinkable. They're. . frugal, let us say. . about flushing unnecessarily and wasting water.”
Jane and Shelley shuddered.
“Sam's tried to get cleaning people in,' Eileen went on, 'just to make it sanitary before they start their very own cholera outbreak, but the parents are obsessed with people spying on them and won't let the cleaners in the house. The parents think Marge and I should be full-time maids, nurses, and watchdogs. Fat chance.'
“Where is this house? Close to you?'
