"All right, well, while you're up here chasing the bogeyman, the emergency call lines are blowing up. Then we get a radio transmission from the rangers saying there's something going on up here and we need to get here. What the hell is going on?" the officer commanded.
Another officer climbed out of the other side of the car and came around toward him. "Mr. Abbott, I'm Cynthia McVey. We got a report that you found a body."
"Bones," Ken clarified. "We found them while we were investigating further in the woods."
The other officer, who hadn't bothered to give his name, rolled his eyes, but Ken ignored him.
"Where in the woods?" Officer McVey asked.
"The cavern where Violet Montgomery's body was found."
"That place is supposed to be off-limits," the other officer said, his voice suddenly taking on a note of anger. "When I was put on this nonsense assignment, I was told no one was allowed near there."
"That wasn't the agreement," Ken said. "The park signed off on it. We were not allowed to show the audience how to get there. Everyone was well aware that we were going to be there as part of our investigation."
"I wasn't," he grumbled.
"Then I suppose you didn't need to be."
The two men glared at each other and Officer McVey took another step closer.
"You need to show me where you found the bones," she said.
"Cameras off," Ken said to Jeremy. "Same rules. Where's Elsie?"
"She wanted to do a solo session down by the lake," Vint said. "She has her camera and some equipment. She was saying she wasn't feeling great, and the air around the water was making her feel better."
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Ken said. "We should stay together."
"We need to go," Officer McVey said.
They started into the woods, but Ken took out his walkie-talkie to reach out to Elsie.
“Elsie?”
"Hey," she said after a too-uncomfortable beat of silence.
"You shouldn't be down there alone. The police are here, and I'm showing them to the cavern."
"It's fine," she said. "This isn't the first time I've done solo investigating."
"I know. But this is a little different."
"Ken, it's going to be okay. The audience can watch me while you're going to the cavern. Besides, another cop car just showed up. I'm not completely alone. Which is going to make it harder to sift through the audio recordings, but at least you'll know I'm not by myself."
"Alright. But message me if anything happens."
"I will."
The disquieting feeling got stronger as they made their way back through the woods toward the cavern. Something moved in the trees to one side and he paused, trying to see what it was before moving on.
"It's up there," he said when they finally got to the rock outcropping, and he gestured for Jeremy to start recording again. "The bag is inside."
"Bag?" the officer asked.
"The report said the body was found in a sleeping bag," Officer McVey explained.
"Not a whole body. Just bones."
"You touched the bag?" the officer demanded.
"When I went into the cavern, I saw what looked like a hand sticking out of the bag. I wanted to see what it was, so I lifted the corner of the bag," Ken said.
"Show me," Officer McVey said.
Ken climbed up the rocks with the officers behind him. He stepped to the side when they got to the opening of the cavern and gestured for them to go in.
"It's toward the back," he said.
Both officers shined their flashlights into the cavern and announced themselves before stepping in. Ken didn't follow, wanting to allow Jeremy the space to record the officers finding the bones.
"You've got to be kidding me," the officer said a moment later. "Is this your idea of some kind of joke?"
"What?" Ken asked, shocked by the reaction.
He went into the cavern, pushing past Jeremy to get to where the officers were standing. They both had their flashlights pointed at the ground and the man looked ready to snap. Officer McVey turned her mouth to the radio on her shoulder.
"This is McVey up on Hollow River Mountain. Responding to reports of a body. Everything's fine. False alarm."
"What do you mean false alarm?" Ken snapped, but when he looked down, he saw what they illuminated with their flashlight beams.
Rather than the old, torn up bag that had been there no more than an hour before, now lying on the ground was a pristine red bag, unfurled like someone was getting ready to climb in.
Chapter Fourteen
It's a good thing I'm sitting because I just rolled my eyes so hard if I was standing, I would have lost my balance and fallen over.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I comment.
“What happened to the bones?” Xavier asks.
“There never were any,” I say. “This is all a bunch of bunk, just like I told you.”
"I don't understand," Ken Abbott says on the screen. "They were there."
"You found them?" Officer McVey asks.
"No, my co-host Elsie did. She came up here into the cavern first and found them, then I went up to see them. They were right there. It was an old, torn up, dirty sleeping bag, and there were bones in it."
"Are these your bones?" the other officer asks, using the tip of his boot to kick a walking stick and a pile of kindling for a fire.
"No," Ken says, shaking his head. "No, those weren't there. There was an old sleeping bag that was torn up and dirty. It looked as though it had been here for years. And there were bones sticking out of it. A hand. Then when I looked inside, I saw a leg and ribs, at least."
"You said you're doing some sort of special?" snaps the officer, who looks like he's ready to snap Ken in two.
"Yes," Ken nods. "We're a paranormal investigation team. We travel around investigating areas that are known for paranormal activity or that have been the sites of human tragedies."
"So, what you're telling me is that you run around chasing ghosts and you scared yourself,"
