Lunacy Lake

by Kathi Daley

  From everything I’d experienced so far, I wasn’t sure I’d refer to this camp as a premier offering, but it was true that it was a lot more expensive than any summer camp I’d ever heard of.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “I started off as a staff member doing the weekend seminars around the country, but after a lot of hard work, I finally landed a job here at the camp. I just started this past spring, but I’m already on the verge of quitting.”

  “And why is that?” Ellie asked.

  “As I said at the beginning, the camp isn’t at all what I expected. It’s beautiful up here and the other goddesses are really nice, but there are all sorts of strange things going on. Goddess Adira had seemed so nice when I’d met her before, but now, other than when she is onstage, she is aloof and secretive. Goddess Isis isn’t any better, and it seems as if a lot of the others are a lot more stressed out than a goddess should be. During one of the earliest sessions, one of the girls fell while climbing and broke both her legs.”

  I remembered that Calliope had also mentioned something about a girl breaking her legs. I’d meant to ask her more about that, but then we’d gotten on to the topic of the missing goddess and I hadn’t brought the conversation back to this subject.

  “I understand climbing can sometimes be dangerous, and although safety equipment was provided, some of the other goddesses have been whispering that the safety equipment was faulty,” Venus continued. “And then Maia disappeared ten days ago and no one can find her, and the next thing I knew, Athena told me that Ainsley was found dead in the sauna. Then I heard about the problem you had on the zip line today. What on earth is going on?”

  I wished I knew. “You said this camp is the premier aspect of the company, but it is larger than that. Is Adira the head of the entire company or just the camp?”

  “Just the camp. The head of the entire company is Goddess Lakshmi.”

  “Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, and fertility,” Ellie said.

  Venus nodded. “That’s right. She is the goddess who most embodies female power. It seems to me that when Goddess Lakshmi started the company, she knew exactly what she wanted and had a good idea of how to get it. She must be a billionaire at this point; that’s the rumor anyway, though I have no idea what she is really worth. She lives on a private island off the California coast and tends to keep a low profile, allowing her goddesses to run her empire. It is considered to be quite an honor to be selected to work at the weeklong camp, so I was thrilled to be selected, but once I got here, I realized that the hype trumped the reality.”

  I glanced at Ellie, who was frowning.

  “What do you think is going on?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. But I do know that before she died, Ainsley had been going around telling some of the rest of us that the Inner Goddess Corporation was about to go under and that Lakshmi and Adira had cooked up a plan to turn things around. Ainsley was sure it was something illegal and probably dangerous. But that made no sense to me at the time. As long as I’ve been involved, the company has appeared to be doing pretty darn well, at least on the surface. They did cut back on the clothing and makeup lines, but we were told that was so that the company could focus more of their resources on the weekend seminars and the weeklong camp, which is really what Goddess Lakshmi is all about. Now I’m not sure. Ainsley is dead and some of the others are talking about strange occurrences that took place at the camp before I ever got here. I will admit that I’m scared about what could happen next.”

  “I’m not liking the way things are developing,” Ellie said. She looked around the cabin. “And we are totally trapped up here with no way to let anyone know we might be in trouble. We are supposed to take a group rock climbing tomorrow, but with what happened today, and a girl breaking both her legs, it seems too risky.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I looked at Venus. “Is there a way to communicate with the outside world other than the radio that the woman at the airport told us about when we were waiting for the helicopter?”

  She bit her lip. “I’m not sure. Adira has an office in her cabin. Some other goddesses are sure that she really does have a satellite system that allows her to access the internet. It would make sense that she would. This camp is a business, after all. The thing is, I doubt that she will admit to being able to connect with the internet even if she can. She has gone to a lot of trouble to create the illusion of total isolation and dependence on the inner power of each goddess at the camp whether that isolation is real or not.”

  “I noticed that Adira doesn’t attend all the daily events. Is there any one event she never misses?”

  “She always greets the new girls on the first day and then sends them off on the last day. Other than that, it is hit or miss.” Venus narrowed her gaze. “If you are thinking of trying to sneak in to her cabin, you’ll have to be very careful. Adira has a man living with her. He moved in a few weeks ago. She tells everyone he is here to provide security, but I’m pretty sure he is just her lover. He keeps to himself and the guests never see him, but you can be sure that he is lurking about.”

  Wonderful. Now I not only needed to find an opportunity to break into Adira’s cabin but I needed to keep my eye out for a man no one ever sees.

  “Do you know this man’s name?”

  “I heard Isis refer to him as Saul. I don’t know if that is his real name. As I said, he keeps to himself.”

  “Does he stay here all the time, or does he come and go?”

  Venus frowned. “I’m not sure. I’ve only ever seen him once or twice, but if he does come and go, I’m not sure how he is accomplishing it. It’s not like he has a car or his own helicopter.”

  “As far as you know, have there been other men at the camp?”

  Venus shook her head. “I’ve never seen any and none of the other goddesses have ever mentioned anyone. There are men who come up for a very brief time to either make deliveries or to do maintenance on the facility, but they come up in the helicopter, do their thing, and leave right away. Saul is the only one I know of who has ever stayed.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the information and thanks for trusting me. I think it is best that you continue to do your job and keep your head down. I’ll look into things as much as I can.”

  After Venus left the cabin, Ellie and I decided to head down to the outdoor seating area where we’d relaxed the previous day. It was another beautiful evening and no matter what, we felt it was a shame to spend it indoors. Additionally, with everyone at the empowerment seminar, we ought to have the area to ourselves so that we could speak freely.

  “So what do we do?” Ellie asked as we settled in. “It feels like something dangerous really is going on. How do we find out what it is and once we do that, how do we stop it?”

  I blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Unless we can find a way to access either cell service or the internet, we have no way to call for help. I’d say we should head out on foot, but there are too many people here to be able to corral them all up and start down the mountain. We could just sit back and wait for the helicopter to come and get us after the week is up, but we are only on day two out of seven and a lot has already happened. I’m worried about the girls going out on the empowerment challenges, but I’m not sure how to stop them. If there is some sort of sneaky plot going on, I have to assume that Adira and her bodyguard/lover are in charge of it, and it is entirely possible they have weapons. We have nothing. It seems like Isis is probably in on whatever is happening, so while it seems as if we would have the support of at least some of the other goddesses, I have no reason to believe they have any more power than we do.”

  “What if we talk to the other chaperones?” Ellie suggested.

  “To what end? Unless one or more of them is carrying a gun, they won’t have any better chance of keeping us all safe than we do. I actually think that things could get worse if the other chaperones start to make waves. If things keep happening, it�
�s possible they may eventually decide to rebel on their own, but for now I think it is important to try to maintain the status quo.”

  Ellie groaned. “Okay, I guess that all makes sense, but I hate feeling so helpless. We are supposed to go rock climbing tomorrow. Now that I know about the faulty equipment, there is no way I want to go, but even if I found a reason to sit it out, the girls we are chaperoning will be heading out. How do we protect them? And what about the other girls? The ones who went rock climbing today? They are supposed to do the zip line tomorrow. Surely they won’t go ahead with that plan.”

  I frowned. “I guess we can hope for rain.”

  Ellie glanced toward the sky. “There isn’t a cloud in sight.”

  “Okay, then, what if something else happened? Something that would cause them to cancel the day’s activities. Something like an earthquake.”

  Ellie just looked at me. She was right; I couldn’t arrange one.

  “Or a fire. What if we start a fire? Maybe Adira would decide to keep the girls at camp if there was a forest fire on the mountain.”

  “I’m sure she would, but without a way to fight the fire, you’ll probably just burn the whole mountain down.”

  So, a fire was too risky and a made-to-order earthquake unlikely. “What about a bear?” I asked.

  “A bear?” Ellie raised a brow.

  “If there was a bear attack, Adira might decide to keep the girls here in the compound.”

  “Sure. I guess she might. But where are you going to get a bear and how are you planning to have it attack in a way you can control it?”

  “I’m not planning on having a real bear attack. I figured I’d go out for a run tomorrow and come back with a ripped shirt and blood on the rest of my clothes. I’ll just tell everyone that a bear attacked me and that I think it best that everyone stays close to camp.”

  Ellie turned and looked directly at me. “How are you going to manage the blood? Makeup?”

  I shook my head. “I have a knife. It’s buried in my bag under my clothes.”

  “How did you get it through security at the airport?” Ellie asked.

  “I declared it up front and didn’t try to carry it on. I’m not sure why I even brought it, but I saw it there on the shelf in my closet when I was packing and tossed it in. When I checked my bag, I told the person doing the check-in that I had it and they seemed okay with it.”

  “I suppose I can see why they wouldn’t care about knives as long as you didn’t bring them in your carryon. So the plan? What are you going to do with this knife?

  “Well, I can shred my clothes and maybe use the knife to make a few shallow cuts on my arm that will bleed enough for me to smear it around. It should be just enough. I doubt it will take much to scare the goddesses or the goddess wannabe teens.”

  Ellie frowned. “Sounds needlessly painful and dangerous. How about we use that plan only if absolutely necessary? Maybe we can simply speak to Adira, argue that the girls need a day off after the stress of the problem on the zip line. Even if she wants to keep all the activities going according to schedule, Adira might go for it coming from us: I was stuck out on the mountain and you saved the day. It is the simplest approach and I hate to see you cut yourself up unless you absolutely have to.”

  “Okay, we’ll try it your way, but if that doesn’t work—”

  “Yeah.” Ellie sighed. “If suggesting a day off doesn’t work to buy us some time to figure something else out, I guess we can go with your fake bear attack.”

  Chapter 8

  Tuesday, July 16

  Fortunately, Adira had been fairly reasonable when I brought up the idea of a day at camp. I simply pointed out that they were asking the girls to engage in dangerous activities and that it would be negligent of her to push them when they were still shaken up after some of them had witnessed my Supergirl rescue and over Ainsley’s death, which everyone seemed to know about now. I suggested a day of swimming, time in the gym, and empowerment classes, which were met with enthusiasm all around. I was under no illusion that I had bought myself anything more than a day, but that was better than nothing.

  Ellie and I talked about it and decided that the best use of our time on our free day was to try to figure out a way to get a message to the outside world. Given our situation, I had exactly two ideas how to accomplish this. One was to find a way to get into Adira’s cabin office and hope that she actually did have internet access, as we suspected; the other was to try to find the radio the woman at the airport had assured me the camp had hidden away somewhere for staff use.

  The latter idea seemed easier, so that was the one we started with. I went for my morning run because I needed to establish a predictable pattern should I need to fall back on the bear attack later. And despite everything else that was happening, I was enjoying the beauty of the pure and untainted landscape. The camp was set high on the mountain, so there were still small patches of snow in shady crevices, which added an element of interest to it. I took a different route this morning than I had the previous day. I guess I still hoped to stumble upon something that would help us to deal with the current situation.

  After I returned from my run and showered, Ellie and I went to breakfast. We had concluded that Venus was our best bet when it came to her willingness to speak to us about access to the radio, but she was also the newest goddess still present and so the least likely to know where the dang thing was. Calliope had been open in talking to me yesterday after the zip line fiasco, so I’d decided to seek her out when the others were otherwise occupied.

  The morning meal consisted of scrambled eggs, biscuits, and bacon. Not bad, but not special either. The meals yesterday had been better. Given what I’d heard about the status of the company’s finances, I had to wonder if the food would be getting progressively less spectacular as the week went on.

  “Is this seat taken?” Hera asked, motioning to the empty place at the table where Ellie and I were sitting.

  “No. Sit down,” I urged the dark-haired woman, who looked to be in her early twenties. Like all the goddesses, she was fit and strong, which must have taken a lot of work on her part, and also like the others, she was breathtakingly beautiful and seemed to maintain a perfectly groomed exterior whenever she was in public. I wondered how she did it.

  “How are you both feeling today after what happened at the zip line?” she asked.

  Ellie and I both said we were all right.

  “It is nice that we are going to have a day at camp to rest up a bit, though,” I said.

  “Yeah. I was glad to hear that as well.” Hera looked around, leaned in a bit, and lowered her voice. “I heard that you were the ones to find Ainsley’s body.”

  I nodded. “Yes. That is correct.”

  “Can you tell me what happened? How she died?”

  I paused before answering. “It is hard to say what the cause of death was. She didn’t have any visible wounds or bruising, if that is what you are asking. I didn’t notice any blood. I suppose once they got her body down the mountain an autopsy was performed. That would give them more information.”

  “Some of the others are saying she overdosed, but Ainsley wouldn’t do that. I never even saw her take a drink. I will probably get in trouble for saying this, but I think there might be more going on than it seems.”

  “We should probably chat elsewhere,” I suggested. “Do you have free time today?”

  “I’m conducting a trust building exercise at ten, but I have a break between eleven thirty and noon, when we are all due back here for lunch.”

  “Okay. Then meet me in the stables at eleven thirty,” I suggested. “They seem to be empty and they are far enough away from the others so we won’t be overheard.”

  She nodded. “It is true the stables are empty. The horses weren’t brought up the mountain this year. Or last, for that matter. The camp used to have a riding program, but I guess it was too costly to transport the horses up the mountain each spring and then back down in the fall. Al
l their feed needed to be airlifted in too.”

  “I can see how that would get expensive.” I glanced around the room. “I understand the quality of the food isn’t what it used to be either.”

  “Not by a long shot.”

  I noticed that others in the room were beginning to watch us. “I think we should laugh, as if we are sharing a joke, just in case anyone is watching us,” I suggested.

  “Okay.” Hera chuckled.

  I chuckled in return.

  Ellie said something about cupcakes that didn’t make a lick of sense, but she said it loud enough to be overheard, so if anyone was listening to us, they’d hopefully think we were talking about food. I held up a piece of bacon and said something about protein and Hera made a comment about being a vegetarian. As soon as she was finished eating, Hera took her plate and left, but not before sending me a wink to let me know our meeting was definitely on.

  Ellie and I hadn’t been assigned to any tasks today so we returned to our cabin. With everyone staying at the compound today, it really was the best place to talk. I no longer thought that the cabin might be bugged, but I took out my bug-zapping cell just in case.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” she asked after I’d turned on my phone.

  “I think we should wait to talk to Hera before we make any decisions. She may know how to get to the radio. If she does, we’ll try it. If she doesn’t and we decide we need to sneak into Adira’s cabin, we’ll need to come up with a distraction.”

  “Even with a distraction it will be risky,” Ellie pointed out.

  “I know, but at this point it is the only idea I have. I really am hoping that Hera can help us, or that we can come up with a better plan between now and then.”

  “So what sort of a diversion do you have in mind?”

  I paused to think about it. “I’m not sure. A nice, loud explosion would be best, but I don’t happen to have my TNT stash with me. I guess we’ll just cross that road when we get to it. For now, let’s try to figure out who we should call if we do find the radio. The lady at the airport said that the staff used it to talk to corporate headquarters, but I’m not so sure that getting in touch with them will net us the results we want. We’ll need to find someone monitoring a different frequency.”