Mad Money Murder

by Leslie Langtry

  And what was with the suspicion of the townspeople of Behold? If he and Jared were suspicious of the people in his county, he was probably a lot more suspicious of outsiders. Like me.

  Kelly and the girls were outside waiting for me. A vein in Kelly's neck was throbbing, and the girls were uncharacteristically quiet.

  "What happened?" I asked, not really sure I wanted the answer.

  "We weren't here five minutes before the girls took off to the burial mounds," Kelly said. "I went inside to charge my phone, and when I came out, they were gone. Fortunately, I found them at the bluffs, where Betty tried to climb down the cliff!"

  "You did what?" I turned to the child in the back.

  "Relax," she said. "We had harnesses. You've showed us how to use them dozens of times."

  I pressed my fingertips to my temples and closed my eyes before speaking. "For the zip line. Not for rock climbing. I'm not even certified in that."

  "It's the same thing." The girl sniffed.

  "No, it's not. You guys have never been rock climbing." I thought for a beat. "Where did you get the harnesses?"

  I didn't think it was possible for them to get any quieter. Oh no. Not again. I dug in my purse for my wallet. Yup. My credit card was missing. The girls had also, most recently, used my card to buy a canon. It currently sits in my front yard, back in Who's There.

  "How did you…"

  "We figured," Ava started, "that you would've bought them anyway. We just saved you that step."

  "Guys! You just can't go buying things without asking!" I held out my hand. "Hand it over."

  Betty shrugged. "I can't. It's back in your purse."

  I looked again, and there it was. I gasped. "How did you…"

  Kaitlyn beamed. "Betty's been taking magic lessons!"

  "She can do all kinds of stuff!" Lauren said proudly. "She made my dog disappear and reappear on the garage roof!"

  Betty looked bored. "It's just a little hobby. No big deal."

  While I was a bit blown away, I didn't say so. The last thing a kid like Betty needed was encouragement.

  "It's just some slime of hand," she said.

  "You mean sleight of hand," Kelly corrected yet again.

  I gave her a sharp look when I felt something on my upstretched palm.

  "You sure about that?" Betty winked as the girls behind her grinned.

  "Nice," I said as I stared at the bright yellow slime melting over my keys.

  The girls ran off, and Kelly examined the goo on my palm.

  "You have to admit," she said, making no move to help me clean it off, "it is impressive. I didn't even see her get close enough to do that."

  Betty's dark gifts were multiplying. And I needed to find a better use for them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Five minutes later, we had a little meeting on the back patio.

  Once they were seated, I insisted, "Girls, this has to stop. No more unauthorized purchases."

  "We knew we were coming to a place where they'd have a ropes course," Inez pointed out. "And we worried that maybe they wouldn't have any."

  Ava shrugged. "We knew you wouldn't let us pick the lock to break into their equipment."

  "Isn't this just being prepared?" Kaitlyn asked.

  I looked at the very dangerous and very high course. "It doesn't matter. I'm not certified in high ropes courses. I don't even know what half of those things are for!"

  Lauren looked at me. "You're very smart. You'd figure it out."

  I hated to admit it, but the flattery worked a little.

  "Yeah," Kaitlyn said. "We don't have one of those at our camp. How will we ever get to do something like this again?"

  They kind of had a point. I mean, it was a really cool, if not totally dangerous, thing.

  I shook my head to clear it. "Listen, I want the harnesses in my hands in two minutes."

  The girls hung their heads as they trudged into the lodge.

  "Once again," Kelly sighed. "You're too easy on them."

  "What do you mean? I just demanded that they bring me the harnesses."

  She threw her hands up into the air. "You didn't even punish them when they bought a real live, working canon. You never punish them."

  "Girl Scouts isn't about punishment. It's in the rule book," I said while wondering if that was true.

  "No." Kelly folded her arms over her chest. "It isn't. The Safety Guide is very strict on what the girls can do."

  "You're no fun anymore." I used a line the girls had used on me recently. I'm ashamed to say it felt good.

  Kelly shrugged. "I'm not here to be fun. Well, okay, I am here to make things fun. But I'm also the only adult in the room most times."

  I clenched my fists and stomped on the ground. "I'm an adult!"

  Her eyebrows went up. "Then act like it. Show the girls that this was wrong by telling them there will be no zipline while we are here."

  My mouth dropped open. "No zipline? But I promised!"

  Zip-lining was very important to my troop. Denying it would be like telling them there was no Santa or that there really weren't any unicorns.

  "It's on the high ropes course," Kelly said. "It's not like you can do it anyway."

  I took a deep breath. "At least I didn't pinky swear."

  The girls returned, each one handing me a harness, with Betty producing three.

  "We got you each one too," the girl said.

  I turned to Kelly and smiled hopefully. "Well, that was nice! They got one for us!"

  "With your credit card," she reminded me quietly. "The one you didn't know was missing."

  She had a point. I turned to the girls. "What about the rope?"

  "Rope?" Inez and Ava said simultaneously as the other three looked slightly confused.

  "The rope. You guys know you can't lower someone over a cliff's edge without a rope to tie the harness to." I shook the hand I held out, waiting for it to be delivered.

  The five little girls looked at each other.

  "Huh." Inez scratched her chin. "We didn't think of that."

  Panic made my voice go up a pitch. "The harnesses need to be attached to a rope! Like they are to the cable when we zip!"

  Betty gave the girls a look I couldn't quite decipher before saying, "We'll remember that next time."

  "There won't be a next time!" I shouted then looked at Kelly and arched my eyebrows in an attempt to show them I could be a hard-ass.

  "Yeah, right." Betty dismissed me. "Come on, guys. Let's go check out the lazy river."

  "Stop!" I held my arms in the air. Kelly looked at me with some interest. "You'll need your swimsuits and water shoes."

  The five girls agreed and ran inside.

  "You'll never learn," Kelly sighed before joining them.

  "I take it we aren't going back to the house for the rest of the afternoon?" Kelly asked as we walked to the creek.

  "Too dangerous." I pictured Betty teleporting the spiders, frog, scorpion, and caterpillar in and out of their enclosures.

  "And this isn't too dangerous?" Kelly stopped and looked at the creek that comprised the "lazy river."

  It was shallow, maybe three feet deep and eight feet across. It also had a small rapids that gave it a constant flow. And neither of us had lifeguard training.

  "Piece of cake," I lied.

  What the hell. The girls were expert swimmers, and we could make them go in groups together.

  We found the boathouse on the map. That was the starting point. The creek ran in a loop around and, often, through camp, beginning and ending at the same place. I suited the girls up with flotation vests and gave them each an inner tube.

  "All right," I said once everyone was suited up. "You will float down the lazy river with a buddy, two by two. You never let the other person out of your sight, and when there's a rapids area, hold hands. Got it?"

  Kelly offered to go to the halfway point to watch and make sure the girls went by. I stayed at the little beach by the boathouse, and we would coo
rdinate the girls' locations using our cell phones. Kaitlyn and Inez offered to go first. They climbed into their tubes and pushed them off.

  The creek had a natural current that slowly carried the girls away. Once they were out of sight, I started to get Betty and Lauren into position. Ava cleared her throat and put her hands on her hips. That's when I remembered we had five girls.

  "The three of you are going to have to go together," I said.

  "I can wait and go with you," Betty offered.

  I shook my head. "I'm not going. I have to stay here to check on you guys."

  Betty looked at the creek. It was a hot day and the water was icy. Did she want to miss out on that?

  "I'll go with them," Betty said, and soon I pushed all three girls off.

  Once they rounded the bend and were out of my line of vision, I sent Kelly a text explaining who was with whom. She sent back the thumbs-up emoji.

  I stood there with my legs in the cool water. It was a pretty amazing perk of the camp. I looked up and spotted the high ropes course. It would be fun to take the girls on it, but I had zero experience. Sure, we had the harnesses, and yes, we could probably figure it out. But with everything else we had to do, did we have time?

  We still had to do the mud pit, explore the camp, check out the burial mounds, hunt for ghosts, and make s'mores. Back in Behold, we had to continue going through the house, and I had to question more people.

  We would have to extend our stay.

  I called Rex.

  "Hey, babe!" my husband answered on the first ring. "How's it going?"

  I loved his voice. It was masculine and warm all at the same time. It was weird for me, who'd been so independent my whole life, to miss having him here. Plus, his insight as a detective would be invaluable.

  I gave him a quick rundown on everything, from the gossip about the three boyfriends and the treasure, the dangerous bugs, and Sheriff Carnack's cousin. Rex listened patiently.

  "I don't think you should take the girls back to the house," he suggested. "It sounds really dangerous."

  I agreed. "I know. But you try to keep these kids away."

  He chuckled. "You make a valid point. What are you going to do?"

  I decided to ignore his teasing. "I should stick around a couple more days just to make sure I'm certain that she was accidentally murdered by her pet spider."

  Rex said nothing for a moment. "Have you thought about digging more into Aunt June's past?"

  I told him about the photos with celebrities. "No one seems to know what she did for a living, if anything."

  Rex said, "In my experience, there's always something in the victim's past that leads to murder. From what you're saying, I think it's pretty important to find out what Aunt June did with her life."

  "Any chance you could check into that for me?" I practically begged. "I don't have a computer here, and I doubt this camp has decent Wi-Fi."

  "I could do that," he said. I could tell he was smiling. "Things are slowing down here. Let me see what I can find. Do you have her address?"

  "Technically, it's our address now." I gave it to him. "Thank you. I wish you were here."

  "Me too."

  After a few more words that are none of your business, I hung up.

  I heard giggling, and soon Kaitlyn and Inez showed up, splashing each other and laughing hysterically.

  It went a long way toward relaxing me. And it gave me perspective. The girls were my priority. While it was true that Aunt June may have been murdered and had left me her things, my first concern was them.

  Starting the troop with Kelly, back when these girls were five years old, had given meaning to my life when I'd been forced into very early retirement from a career I thought I'd have for a few more decades.

  Over the past few years, I'd kind of grown up with them. They were family now. Aunt June was not. I needed to keep that in mind should things lean toward the idea that she died accidentally. If things got carried away, with no conclusion in sight, I'd have to cut the cord and go home.

  "How was it?" I asked as I dragged their inner tubes to shore.

  "Awesome!" Inez shouted. "Kaitlyn and I talked about the ghosts!"

  I eyed them skeptically. "You saw ghosts?"

  "No. Not really. In fact," Inez said, "I don't think there are any here."

  "They wouldn't show up in daylight." Kaitlyn rolled her eyes.

  "Can we go again?" Inez asked.

  "Of course!" I couldn't help getting caught up in their enthusiasm as I sent them off for another round and texted Kelly that they had arrived and gone again.

  Ghosts. That was all I needed. The girls said they hadn't seen any…yet. Maybe, like the aliens, this was just one local myth people liked scaring outsiders with. Then again, the only people who'd told us about the ghosts were Hal and Toad. And it seemed to me that Hal was just riling up the girls for fun.

  Toad was pretty cool. She seemed like the quintessential Girl Scout adult who loved camp. This camp was a gorgeous setting. I pictured hundreds of little girls huddled around campfires, roasting marshmallows, and telling ghost stories. I'd want to be Camp Director forever too.

  We didn't really allow ghost stories when we went camping. Well, Kelly didn't allow them. The last thing we'd need were girls who couldn't sleep because there might be spirits around. Then again, my girls would probably lay traps to catch them, and then Lauren would name them, and Betty would make them appear and disappear over and over.

  My troop wasn't afraid of much—including things they should be afraid of. Besides, they were having fun on a summer day, messing around with their imaginations. It was just harmless fun.

  Betty, Ava, and Lauren rounded the bend. Unlike the giggling Inez and Kaitlyn, the three of them were engaged in a serious conversation that I couldn't hear. I texted Kelly that they'd returned, and she let me know that Inez and Kaitlyn had just gone by her again.

  "What's up?" I asked as I motioned for them to join me.

  "Nothing." Betty squinted against the sun. "Why?"

  I looked at my hands to make sure they weren't coated with slime. "You all seem so serious."

  Lauren said, "We've been working on the case."

  I sighed. "Well, guys, it's possible there is no case."

  Three heads turned to look up at me. "Of course there's a case," Betty said.

  I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. Seems like she was bitten by one of her pets. And with a flair for the dramatic that I'm learning about, Aunt June may have just wanted to stir things up."

  "She was murdered," Lauren said. "We can figure it out."

  Part of me wanted to believe them. Part of me wanted to sell the house to Nigel's client and get the hell out of here. I've had to deal with murder before with the troop. But I've never had to deal with murder and deadly critters.

  "I'm going to give us one more day," I said.

  Talking to Rex made me realize I was missing him. Kelly hadn't said anything, but I'm sure she missed her husband and daughter. There wasn't any point sticking around chasing…well…ghosts.

  "We need to head back to her house and find clues!" Betty said.

  I agreed. "We will. But the rest of the day will be spent here. Do you want to go around again?"

  The girls climbed into their inner tubes and took off, casting angry glances my way. I had to wonder, was I finally being an adult by pausing an investigation?

  Kind of made me feel more like a jerk, really.

  The girls did eight round trips in all before Kelly called it, and we made our way back to the lodge. The girls raced off to get out of their wet suits, and within an hour, the suits were hanging up outside while Kelly got out the hot dogs for dinner.

  Kaitlyn was selected to help me with the fire, and we went outside to get it started.

  "What do you think, Mrs. Wrath?" Kaitlyn asked. "Do you think Aunt June was murdered?"

  I watched as the girl pulled her hair back into a ponytail and started setting up a perfect A-frame f
ire.

  "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. The one thing we do know is that she died from a spider bite. Sheriff Carnack even has the body of the culprit."

  I looked at the girl as she fed the now blazing fire and recalled that this was one of the four Kaitlyns who all just blended into one most of the time. Here was an opportunity to get to know the kid.

  "You Kaitlyns do know how much alike you are, right?" It seemed an odd thing to say, but it just popped out.

  The girl laughed as she got up and sat on a stump next to me. "No, we're not. We're totally different. Our names are even spelled differently. Caitlyn is really into ballet and is afraid of pumpkins. Katelynn wants to be a cake baker and was born with an extra toe on her left foot but doesn't have it anymore. Kaytlyn likes to dress up as Wonder Woman and sings really good, and I'm going to be an astronaut."

  I was speechless. This was the most I'd gotten out of any of the four Kaitlyns in the last year.

  "Why do you want to be an astronaut?"

  She shrugged. "I just like the stars. They're really pretty out here, aren't they? That's because there aren't a lot of lights like we have back in the city."

  "I hardly think Who's There qualifies as a city, but you are right." I picked up a stick and moved the burning logs around.

  The little girl took a deep breath and spoke in a rush of words, "My favorite color is red. My favorite music is K-pop, and I like tomatoes."

  I laughed. "Why did you tell me that?"

  "You were about to ask." She shook her head slightly. "We know you have a hard time telling us apart. And sometimes we mess with you on purpose. I just wanted you to know we are different."

  In spite of the fact that it was a bit of a slam, I felt a warm rush inside. "So a ballerina, a baker, a superhero, and an astronaut, eh?"

  Kaitlyn's eyebrows went up. "Who wants to be a superhero?"

  "You just said that Kaytlyn likes to dress up as Wonder Woman."

  She laughed. "She doesn't want to be a superhero. She just likes Wonder Woman. She wants to be a Girl Scout leader. Like you."

  "That's nice!" I said as my heart turned into a mushy mess.

  "Yeah." The girl knelt back down next to the fire. "She says it's a great job for crazy people. Like you."