I didn't stop stewing until at least ten minutes after the eruption of giggles died down.
I tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, trying to get comfortable on my lumpy and somewhat drooly bag. Everyone else slept soundly, but I couldn't. What were we doing here? Maybe everyone was right. I needed to step up and call this trip. Tomorrow, I would insist that we all head back. Perhaps I could find a way to spend the time successfully bribing the girls not to tell Kelly about any of it.
Scuffffff.
There was a distinct dragging sound outside, not far from our tent. I looked over to see that Hilly wasn't in her bunk. Betty and Lauren were sitting up, staring at me through the screen in their tent.
"What are you doing up?" I whispered.
"What are you doing up?" Betty asked quietly.
"I thought I heard something." I slipped on my hiking boots. Making the hand signal for stay there, I moved to the door. The girls were right outside. I didn't even hear them leave their tent.
"Go back to bed," I hissed. "This could be dangerous!"
"You're joking, right?" Betty whispered. "I'm a professional cougar wrangler."
These two weren't going anywhere. "Okay, but stay right behind me when I get out there, and if something happens, run back here, get the others, and go hide in the woods. Got it?"
The dragging sound was farther away now. Damn it. Hilly could have Chad and was carting him away. And since there were no dumpsters anywhere in the vicinity, she'd reach her vehicle, find one, and we wouldn't see her again. I sincerely doubted she'd come back here after.
I especially hated that it was her. Although if it really was, this was CIA business and that took care of the problem. We could report it to the sheriff when we got back, but he'd get nowhere due to it being a federal incident that didn't officially happen.
Standing before the door, I realized this one creaked. Loudly. I tiptoed to the door facing the fire pit and very gently pushed. Nothing. I pushed it open a little more and was rewarded with silence. I pushed it the last foot and…
Creak!
I hit the ground running, tearing into the woods where I'd heard the sound, which had stopped. Surely Hilly hadn't gotten far enough away in that short time? I risked turning on my flashlight—whoever it was knew I was coming because I was crashing through the underbrush.
Where was I going, exactly? There was no sound to guide me. Betty and Lauren were with… I turned around and stopped dead in my tracks. The girls were gone. I listened but didn't hear them running through the brush.
Now what should I do? Go after the girls or the sound? Actually, neither the girls nor Hilly were making any sound at all anymore. I had no idea which way to go. Making a quick decision, I started running back to the tent.
I could see bodies on the cots inside their tent, and I ran in, flinging the door open. All three bunks were filled. Betty and Lauren were breathing as if they were lost in deep slumber.
"Girls?" I ventured, but they didn't respond.
Slipping back to my tent, I noticed Hilly was in her sleeping bag also.
"Merry?" Hilly's voice was sleepy. "What's up?"
I looked at her boots, which were on the floor next to her cot. How did she get them off so fast? "Where were you a few minutes ago?"
Hilly looked at me curiously. "I think I was in the bathroom."
"You think?" I asked.
She paused a beat. "Yes. I was in the latrines. I'm almost sure of it."
I sat on my cot. "Hilly," I started but couldn't think of a single thing to say. The assassin was difficult to make sense of in the best of circumstances.
I got up. "I'm going for a little walk," I said. "Can't sleep."
"Okay," Hilly said before rolling back over.
Back outside, I let my eyes adjust to the moonlight. What was happening here? And why did it seem like I was losing my mind? I stepped on the trail and, after a moment of thinking about it, headed for Badger's End and the lodge just beyond it.
An owl hooted in the distance. I cleared my mind and shook my head. It was better to think about nothing than to obsess over something that made no sense. Was I losing it? I wouldn't be the first spy to do it. And if I was, why out here? Seems like it would be better to lose my mind a bit closer to home. That way Philby could sit on me all day, Rex would be there to spoon wine into my mouth, and Kelly could say I told you so as often as she wanted while I drooled and stared off into space.
For some reason thinking I was losing my mind was mildly comforting. Not that I wanted that. But maybe it was too much exposure to the weird things a spy is exposed to, like poisoned well water, LSD, or gamma rays at that moonshine still in Belize.
The thing was, I didn't even care about Chad. I cared about the people who might have killed him, Hilly and Maria, and one of these little old ladies.
And if it was one of them? My money was on Laura. I guess maybe I should solve this before I let a murderer live in my old house. I know, it wouldn't be the first time, but it's the principle of the thing.
What if I was wrong to think of these ladies as suspects? The only reason they were was their proximity to the murder. Was that enough to consider them?
I was closing in on Badger's End where the older troop slept. Moving as quietly as I could, I tried not to wake them. Older women can have trouble sleeping. I remember Grandma Wrath mentioning that sometimes she was up before the crack of dawn on the farm, simply because she couldn't get back to sleep.
Loud snoring filled the air and muffled my steps on the trail. Just as I was about to pass the last tent, the door swung open. I was completely exposed, so I stepped backward into the shadows as Ada walked out the door, onto the trail right in front of me, and headed toward the lodge.
She didn't seem to notice I was there. Staying back a bit, I followed her all the way to the lodge, where she disappeared inside the door. I moved forward and flattened myself between the door and a window and waited.
There was some general shuffling of what sounded like dishes. Was she getting ready for breakfast? I didn't know what time it was, but I knew it was probably around midnight.
"What are you doing?" Betty whispered, and I jumped.
I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around the corner. "What happened earlier?"
She cocked her head to the side, like Hilly does. "What do you mean?"
"When you guys woke up and heard the noise in the woods?"
Betty didn't say anything. She appeared to be studying my face. Great. Of all people, Betty was going to be the first one to notice I'd flipped my lid.
"Yeah, I remember that. And Hilly wasn't in your tent until Lauren and I got back to the bunk."
I sighed heavily. It was a relief to hear one of your Scouts say you weren't nuts. "Okay. That's good." I paused for a moment. "Why did you follow me here?"
"Because you might be on to something, and I didn't want to miss out on the action." She held up the string of potato grenades. "I brought these. Just in case."
Somehow, I didn't think the potato grenades would have the same effect on the killer as they did on Larry. But Betty had that look on her face that said arguing with her would be a losing battle.
"I followed Ada here," I said. "She may be doing nothing at all."
"Or she may be doing something diabolical!" Betty slapped her fist into her palm. "I can help!"
"Alright," I said. "Besides the potato grenades, what can you do?"
The girl looked up. "I could climb up onto the roof and come down on a rope like a ninja."
I shook my head. "You don't need to do that. We have doors and windows."
"Yes, but it would look cool, wouldn't it?" Betty asked.
I had to admit that it would.
The girl patted the grenades. "I could cover you so you can barge in there."
I loved the fact that she was looking out for me. "Cover me from what? And with vegetables?"
"Or I could just follow you in," Betty said.
"
Stick close behind me," I warned. "We don't know what we're walking into."
The two of us went back to the main entrance and slipped inside the lodge. Without electricity, it was pretty hard to see. It had gotten quiet in there, and I worried that Ada had left while Betty and I were talking.
We waited for our eyes to adjust. I had a flashlight but wanted to wait to use it. I'd prefer to catch her in the act of…of what? Putting the body back into the freezer? Murdering someone else? Planning to do so? Okay, so that would solve…literally everything. My mood changed to hopeful, in a kind of we couldn't possibly get that lucky way.
After a few moments, when we didn't hear anything else, I turned on my flashlight and ran it along the walls of the main room.
The sound of a door opening in the back made me turn off my light. Betty was at the window, looking out.
"Mrs. Wrath," she whispered.
"Hold on," I hushed her.
I made my way down the hallway and froze. It looked like two shadows came out of the two rooms at the end and together went into a third. So there was someone else here. Why were they being so quiet?
Betty tugged on my T-shirt, and I waved her off as I crept down the hall. When I got closer, I heard murmuring voices but couldn't make out what they were saying. It just sounded like low mumbling, and I realized with a start that it sounded familiar. These were the voices I'd heard outside the pool building.
When I finally made it to just outside the door, I flattened myself against the wall and listened carefully.
The voices were male! Two men! What were they doing here?
I leaned down to Betty's ear and whispered for her to run back to camp and get Riley and Hilly.
"It's because there's two dudes in there, isn't it?" she whispered back.
I stared at her.
"I tried to tell you. Ada left when we were in the main room. I saw her walk back to their camp. So I knew it wasn't her."
"Go!" I hissed urgently.
The girl took off. I waited as I heard her footfalls outside.
Now I relaxed just a smidge before realizing I had no idea what I was going to do. Reason would dictate that I'd head outside, hide, and wait for them to come out—then follow them to wherever they came from.
On the other hand, I was sick of being here. Sick of being suspicious of people I cared about. And most of all, I was sick of potatoes. There were too many questions and not enough answers. Maybe it was time to get those answers.
If I'd had questions before, this only added to it. Who were these men? Had they been here all along? Were they in league with the older troop? Were they from the Trust? What if they were bad guys who'd just stumbled on the place?
What if they were the ones who'd dumped Chad on that hill? Or maybe they were looking for Maria?
I could wait, I supposed, to find the answers to these. But I didn't want to. This was getting ridiculous. I just needed to find a way to take them both down or knock them out and tie them up.
Riley should be on his way. But what if Betty couldn't wake him and decided instead to bring the girls? Hilly definitely would be here. Someone would be here.
In the meantime I was on my own. I withdrew into one of the rooms that one of the men had come out of and waited. I didn't have to wait long. Footsteps were headed my way.
Looking around I realized I was in a small bathroom. Okay. That was something. The first man walked through the door and down the hallway, right in front of me. He didn't even look around. The jerk was too confident. They thought they were the only ones here. I waited a beat for him to pass by and the second man to emerge.
When he did, I yanked him into the room, slammed the door shut and locked it. Before he could respond, I grabbed the back of his head and brought him facedown into the porcelain sink. Hard.
The man grabbed his head and moaned as the other guy started kicking the door. It was only a small doorknob button lock. And if he had the right training, one good kick to just below the knob would make the door fly open.
I pulled the man up and threw his back against the door that his colleague was trying to kick in. He threw a punch that glanced off my cheek. I tried to ignore the pain as I brought the heel of my hand up under his chin as hard as I could.
This normally would've knocked him unconscious. But a split second later, the door flew open, throwing the man into me, and we both went down onto the floor. The man stepped in and grabbed me by the hair, pulling me to my feet as he drew his arm back for more than a glancing blow to my head.
I dropped to my knees. It hurt where he'd held me by the hair, but I didn't have time to think about that as I heard the guy behind me get to his feet. Well, this didn't work out too well. I was a vulnerable Merry sandwich between two goons in a tiny room.
Thrusting my arm between the man in front's legs, I brought it up hard, connecting with his groin. The man screamed in pain and let go of my hair. That's when I felt the man behind me slam his knee into the space between my shoulders. If I'd been standing, he would've gotten me in the kidneys, so I guess I was lucky that I was on my knees. With a bit of difficulty, I dove to my left and was in the process of getting to my feet when one of them grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet.
I wouldn't stand much of a chance being in the middle, so I lunged forward, wrapped my arms around the first guy's waist, and took him down into the hallway. The other man leaped onto my back, which wasn't helping his friend, who groaned under the weight of two people on top of him.
I was in a very vulnerable position, and I didn't like it. The man below me bent his legs, bringing them up on both sides of me, and threw the guy on my back off, then shoved me up and threw me onto my back, straddling me at mid-abdomen. Unfortunately, his legs pinned my arms against me, making it hard for me to fight back.
I brought up my knees, hitting him in the back. He wavered for a moment but maintained his grip. The other man grabbed my legs and pinned them to the floor. Great. I was completely pinned to the floor.
"Who the hell are you?" I growled, using the only weapon I had left, my voice.
"Shut her up!" the man on my legs growled.
"With pleasure!" Even in the dark, I could tell he was smiling as he brought up his fists to rain down on my head.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Then, suddenly, he was gone. I heard a scream as he flew backwards through the air. The man on my legs looked up as I sat up and punched him in the head. But soon, he too was flying backwards, off of me.
Riley was standing there. He spun around to face the men, but they scrambled to their feet and ran out the door. My former handler and now savior (something which I knew I was never going to live down now), pulled me to my feet.
With a nod, we flew out the door after them, stopping short just outside the lodge. The men weren't there. We had no idea where they'd gone to. There was no crashing through the woods, which meant they must've taken the trail.
"The girls!" I shouted to Riley as I tore off down the trail.
"Who were they?" Riley caught up easily. Too easily. I made a mental note to take up jogging when I got back home. I made this mental note about three times a month and never did anything about it, but maybe this time I would.
"No clue," I said as we ran side by side. I had the distinct impression he was pacing me. "I'm sure they were the guys I heard talking at the pool. Hey, where's Hilly?"
"I left her to stay with the girls." Riley pulled ahead. He wasn't even panting. The bastard.
"Good" was all I had the breath left to say.
We raced through Badger's End, just giving a passing glance to make sure the men didn't stop there. The snoring from the cabins made me think the women were still all asleep.
We came to Possum Pass to find the girls standing next to the trail, each holding a good-sized branch. Betty for some reason had a sharpened screwdriver. Hilly was in front in a terrifying defensive pose.
I stopped and doubled over from the exertion. "They didn't come thi
s way," I wheezed.
Riley stopped. "Should I go back?"
"No." I winced as the adrenaline wore off and I started to feel the pain in my face and back. "But why would you say I? I would go with you if I thought it was worth it."
He looked down the trail. "I thought maybe because you were breathing so hard, you were spent."
"Nope," I said with my hands on my knees. "Not at all. I just think they're long gone by now."
I was totally spent, but I didn't want him to know that. You might not know it to look at me, but I'm not that athletic. Oh, I can hold my own in a fight and sprint like the dickens when an armed thug in a hockey mask is chasing me, but going farther than that I peter out.
"What's going on?" Hilly asked.
"I think it's time we had a little chat." I straightened up. "Girls—off to bed."
There was some general grumbling and some hardcore negotiation that meant I'd have to take them horseback riding this fall and buy them ice cream once a week, but they finally retreated. Riley and I sat down with Hilly on the campfire ring of logs.
"I was attacked by two men in the lodge," I began. "Betty and I were following Ada into the lodge. Only, she slipped out. We heard two men talking in a back room. I sent Betty for help, and Riley helped me subdue them."
"Unfortunately"—Riley scratched a mosquito bite on his neck —"they got away."
Hilly cocked her head to one side. "That's unfortunate."
"Which?" I asked. "The part where I was attacked, or the part where they escaped?"
She shrugged. "Both, I suppose."
Riley and I looked at each other. There was no time like the present to get some answers from Hilly.
"Do you have anything to do with this?" I pressed.
"Why would you ask that?" she hedged.
"You showed up out of the blue, seemed to know right where we were, Chad is dead, Maria is in hiding, and you are acting like this is all perfectly normal."
She looked confused. "It isn't?"
"Hilly." I sighed. "Why are you here?"
"Do you really want to know?" she countered.
Mosquito Bite Murder Page 18
