Betty shook her head. "That's the other Kaitlyns, Hannah, and Caterina. They like cooking."
Lauren piped up. "Not us."
Ava added, "And they aren't here."
We got in and closed the doors to the van. "It wouldn't hurt to have dinner there tonight, would it? Maybe I could get some intel on what happened to Aunt June."
"Yes!" Betty slammed her fist into her palm. "That's what I'm talking about!"
"We could split up and infiltrate!" Ava agreed.
"No one is infiltrating or splitting up." I held up my hands. "I'm doing the investigating. If you guys behave, I might share what I find out."
Lauren didn't seem to like this arrangement. "But we helped you before! Like at that mystery house!"
"And at the Civil War reenactment," Inez added.
"And the time we swiped your van and rescued you!" Betty said.
Kelly's eyebrows went up. "Swiped your van? They drove?"
"Look." I decided not to answer. "It's been a very long day. We drove three and a half hours, had lunch, I met with the lawyer, you got to see the world's largest tooth…"
"Human tooth," Kaitlyn interrupted.
Kelly got in on the act. "And we've checked into our camp."
"We still have to get groceries and settle in for the night." I left out the part where I'd be staying up all night standing guard. With these girls' records, it was probably a given.
"Fine," Betty said. "But let's get food first. I'm not hungry yet."
"Maybe we can get everything at that convenience store?" Kelly suggested.
"We might as well give it a shot," I agreed.
The Glory of Gas Station and Car Wash looked a little better on the outside than the other decrepit buildings on Main. We parked, piled out, and flowed inside.
And like every other place in town, the inside of the building was surreal. It practically sparkled. No, it literally sparkled. And it had the best selection I'd ever seen at a convenience store, and I'd been to a gas station in Dubai that had a solid gold slushie machine.
"Hello!" Nigel appeared, dressed more casually in khaki slacks, polished loafers, and a shirt and tie. "Can I help you?"
"Oh! Mr. Hickenlooper," I said, introducing the lawyer to Kelly before asking, "Do you moonlight here?"
The man laughed easily. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. I'm Hal, Nigel's brother. I own this business."
"You look just like him," I said. "Twins?"
He shook his head. "Triplets. We have another brother—Basil. You'll see him around."
That's what Nigel had said. "Should we call you Mr. Hickenlooper too?" I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I mean, really, this was the Midwest. And yet, I was held back by manners and couldn't bring myself to call him Hal to his face, unless he invited me to.
"Nigel is such a prude. You may and should call me Hal."
"Thanks, Hal." I grinned.
"So." Hal rubbed his hands together. "What can I do for you ladies?"
"Are you from England?" Betty studied him.
"My parents were from there. They came here before I was born," he responded respectfully to the girls, and I liked him for that.
"Then why do you have an English accent if you were never born there?" Lauren asked.
Hal shrugged. "I'm not really sure. Good question. You girls are pretty smart to notice that."
I introduced myself and Kelly then the girls.
"Those aren't our names," Inez said. "Our names are Asp, Viper, Blackadder, Rattler, and Cobra."
"We haven't agreed to that," I broke in. Mostly because I couldn't remember who was whom.
"Camp names!" Hal grinned. "You ladies must be Girl Scouts!"
"We are," Kelly interjected. "We're staying at Camp des Morts."
I toyed with mentioning Aunt June but decided against it…for now.
"You want supplies, then." Hal produced a cart and pushed it toward us. "If there's anything you need but can't find, please don't hesitate to ask."
A chime went off as a car pulled up to one of the gas pumps. Hal excused himself.
Kelly gave the girls instructions to find bread, peanut butter, hot dogs, and hot dog buns, and they ran off to do that. The convenience store was large for a place like this, but then, if it was the only place to get groceries besides going into the town-that-must-not-be-named, it made sense. Kelly and I went to look for condiments.
"He has five kinds of hummus," she pointed out. "And four kinds of pesto. How does a place like this manage with a town this small?"
"Not a clue, but I'm glad we didn't have to go to"—I looked around and lowered my voice—"Dubuque."
Kelly laughed. "Now you're doing it!"
I put a package of Oreos in the cart. "I figure it's probably a local law or something by this point."
It didn't take long for us to find everything we needed. The girls ran back and forth dumping things into the cart. On their last trip, I noticed they were all wearing name tags, hanging from a lanyard, with their camp name on them.
"Where did you get those?" I reached out and touched Kaitlyn's tag.
"They're laminated!" Kelly said. "They look expensive."
"Hal gave them to us. He made them," Ava explained. "Now you have no excuse to forget who is who."
"Well, we're still not calling you Rattler," I insisted.
We made our way to the checkout, and Hal rang up and bagged everything.
"You guys know about the ghosts, right?" He winked at the girls.
You could hear a pin drop.
"We…we hadn't told them about that yet," Kelly said, mouthing the word Impressionable.
"Oh, right." Hal winked again.
"What about the ghosts?" Inez asked.
"It's just something Toad said would be a good campfire story," I said quickly.
The girls seemed to hold a conference only with their eyes. Things were decided, I presumed based on their nods to each other. I felt a little left out. When had they developed telepathy?
"We've decided we want to hear the story now, please." Kaitlyn managed to demand and use manners at the same time.
Kelly and I looked at each other then at Hal.
"Well, you know about the burial mounds, right?" Hal waited for them to nod.
"This is a bad idea," Kelly whispered to
