Too bad the coroner and sheriff hadn't left me alone with their files.
I was shocked but not terribly surprised to see only one notice. What about all of her celebrity and society friends? They must not have known. But surely someone in Behold would write something. The print was tiny, and I got up and snagged the keyboard.
It must be something from Basil. Apart from Pete and the two mystery suitors, he was the only one who seemed to like her.
I looked behind me to see that the door remained shut. After a few clicks, the screen enlarged. I gasped and hit the print button. The piece of paper couldn't come out of the printer fast enough. Snatching it, I read it again.
The fraud got what she deserved.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kelly looked at the printout. "That's pretty horrible."
"It is." It made me sad to think that this was how she'd be remembered.
I'd pointed it out to Tommy when he rejoined me. His face had turned beet red, and he'd sputtered apology after apology, promising to remove it. Clearly, unless he was a brilliant actor, he hadn't written it.
"It doesn't necessarily mean she was murdered," Kelly said. "It could be referring to the fact that, in having those deadly bugs, getting killed by one of them was something she deserved. Although I'm not sure how that makes her a fraud."
"It feels like a murderer gloating to me. We have the three suitors, who may have killed her out of anger. Then there's Nancy, who was a romantic rival. And the mayor, Nigel, who didn't want her to win the election or to sell her house to develop the property as a resort."
"You have five suspects, all with motive."
I agreed. "I think Aunt June was right. I think she had an inkling as to who her killer was."
Kelly said, "We have to see if there are other notes hidden in the house."
"Okay!" I was revved up and ready to go. Interviewing the coroner and funeral director had been just what I needed.
"Tomorrow," Kelly added.
"Tomorrow? But we need to move on this!"
My co-leader was unmovable. "We've spent all day in town. The girls have been working on a murder board, and we're making mini pizzas." And with that, she went into the lodge.
I followed. In the living room area, the girls had giant pieces of paper taped to the walls. There were diagrams of each floor of the house, a map of downtown, and a list of suspects with mug shots of each.
I leaned in. "Why is Dr. Morgan named Dr. Poopy Face?"
"It adds to the drama," Betty said. "We gave them camp names."
Sure enough, Nancy was Purple Underpants, Virgil was Beaver Butt, Coroner Oroner was Dum Dum, and Nigel Hickenlooper was Hickenpooper. I had to admit it, the likenesses were first rate.
There was a picture of Aunt June lying on her back while a spider the size of a Volkswagen nibbled on her neck. In the next scene, the spider was smooshed by a large boot.
After a time-out to make our pizzas and put them in the oven, we returned to the murder boards and fleshed out what we already knew. We broke the suspects into two groups: Three Boyfriends and Other—which included Nancy and Nigel.
It was a pretty fair depiction, aside from the names. The oven timer went off, and we convened in the kitchen to eat our pizzas. Betty's stayed in the oven an extra twenty minutes until it came out resembling a black Frisbee.
"It's dark out!" Kaitlyn said. "We should do that night hike."
"But we have the murder board!" Ava pointed toward the living room. "And tomorrow Mrs. Wrath is going in the mud pit!"
"Okay," Lauren said. "Mud pit in the morning, then."
"The girls are taking this really well," I said quietly to Kelly as the girls cleaned up and went to bed.
She sat down on the sofa and stretched. "I think it's the murder board. You know, they're really happy to be part of the investigation. I think they like it more than exploring camp."
"We need to make it up to them with a night hike to the Indian burial mounds. Tomorrow night. I promise."
Something woke me up in the night. Slipping out of my sleeping bag, I did a head count. Three girls and two leaders. Betty and Lauren were gone.
I knew it! I knew our luck would run out. Very quietly, I woke Kelly and told her what had happened.
"Why are you whispering?" Ava hung upside down from her bunk, hair hanging down.
This woke up the other two. There was nothing for it. I had to ask.
"Do you guys know where Betty and Lauren went?"
"Betty? Lauren?" I shouted as I wandered toward the dark woods.
Kelly had stayed back at the lodge, corralling Ava, Inez, and Kaitlyn, who all wanted to help search for the two.
I stopped just before the trail in the woods, training my flashlight on the high ropes course. They weren't there. So I stepped into the forest.
The woods, any woods, can be intimidating at night, especially in a rural area. Trees bend and creak with the breeze, branches snap off and crash to the ground, owls shriek. It's unnerving to many.
Normally, it wouldn't be a problem for me. I knew the woods around our camp back home. But these were unfamiliar. And there were allegedly ghosts and possibly aliens. But most dangerous were the cliffs. Hadn't Toad said someone fell to their death five years ago? It made me wonder about the genius who decided to build a camp here in the first place. And to name it Camp des Morts.
"Girls!" I shouted as I stepped on something that squeaked and ran off. "This isn't funny!"
The sound of giggling straight ahead caught my attention. It seemed to come from the area of the burial mounds. Hushed, female voices ahead were impossible to understand,
