by Raven Snow
“All right then.” Crystal took a seat across from the both of them. “First, I just want to say that we all appreciate how thorough you’re being.” Rowen wondered who ‘we’ was but didn’t bother to ask. “This is such a small town with such a small police force. I’m genuinely impressed with how organized you all are. Obviously, I’m a business woman. I spend most of my time in the claustrophobic cities with police that don’t care. They’re so busy all the time. They’re never this… proactive.”
“Proactive?” Ben repeated, raising an eyebrow at her phrasing.
“Right. You know.” Crystal leaned forward and lowered her voice, conspiratorial. “Getting here as fast as you did, without anyone even having to get in contact with you. And the search going on now. It’s so large scale when… well…” Her eyes darted to Rowen and she trailed off.
“When what?” asked Rowen, not sure she liked what Crystal was getting at. “My cousins and I saw a body. We didn’t make that up.”
“I’m not saying you did,” Crystal said quickly. “Though, you were lost and dehydrated. You said yourself that you didn’t get close enough to ID the body. Maybe all you saw was a person-shaped pile of leaves. It happens, I’m sure.”
Crystal didn’t want to believe that they had found Phoenix’s body out there in the woods. It was hard to be annoyed with her for that. Rowen doubted she would want to believe it either. “I hope you’re right,” she said instead of arguing.
“We have to look into it regardless,” said Ben. “Did you have any questions?”
“Right.” Crystal linked and unlinked her fingers as she worked her way up to what to say next. “I’m sorry. All of this has me a bit frazzled. I mean, obviously. How could it not, right?” She forced a smile then let it fall from her face almost as quickly. “I’m just wondering what I should tell my customers, people like Rowen here who paid good money for this upcoming week.”
“I can’t really give you any legal advice on whether or not to issue refunds.”
“Oh, of course, of course. I know that. I was more wondering how to go forward from here. Do we need to clear out or… Well, I don’t want to seem insensitive, but can everything just proceed as planned?”
“Seriously?” Rowen had spoken before she realized she’d even opened her mouth. Of all the things she had thought Crystal might ask, that definitely wouldn’t have been her first guess.
Ben looked similarly surprised. “Hmm.” He shifted in his beanbag chair, trying and failing to sit up a little straighter. “Personally, I would recommend putting an end to the retreat, maybe rescheduling it.”
“Rescheduling really isn’t an option. I’m all booked up for the year. There’s just no way I could manage that.”
“Again, it’s not my place to tell you how to proceed. Honestly, I’m hoping to close off the area completely so that we can gather evidence. I’ll have to clear that with some people, so I can’t tell you to clear out. I can only require that you stay out of the area of woods that we have cordoned off.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“Even if I’m unable to close off the area, I may have to get things shut down here.”
“What?” That had definitely caught Crystal by surprise. “Why?”
“You’re irresponsibly understaffed,” said Ben, pointing out the obvious. “That’s especially true now that you’re a man down. Regardless of what we have or haven’t found out there, the fact remains that one of your employees is missing.”
Crystal swallowed the saliva in her mouth and nodded hastily. “Just between us, he’s always like this. I’ve known him to up and disappear for days at a time. I only keep him on because he’s an old friend. Not that that excuses anything, mind you. I’m just trying to stay positive, you know? I’d rather he was on some sort of bender than… well… You know.” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“You need more employees,” Ben said bluntly. “When I tried to reach you over your satellite phone, no one answered. When I first arrived here, it took me thirty minutes to find someone in charge and even longer to get a straight answer out of one of you. That’s unacceptable. You have a responsibility to your customers that you’re not meeting the minimum of. I’ll have to brush up on the safety codes for this sort of thing, but—”
“We can hire on more people,” Crystal interrupted, speaking in a rush. Where from, she didn’t say, if she even knew. “I’ll have a word with my assistant. We can have some new folks on tonight.”
“Well, that’s your business,” Ben reiterated. “Just keep in mind that I might still have to close things down.”
“Of course, of course.” Crystal still didn’t sound like she was too worried about that. She had other things on her mind. She was probably racking her brain, trying to figure out where she was going to get these new employees from.
“Hey,” Rowen spoke up, trying to get Crystal’s attention. “About this hiring you’re gonna be doing. What are the qualifications exactly?” She did her best to ignore the stunned look Ben gave her as soon as she had finished asking her question.
***
“You’ve gotta be kidding,” said Willow. She was sitting with Peony and Rowen on the cabin steps. They had all taken to spending their downtime away from the other campers. They were full of nothing but gossip and questions. It was understandable. A lot was going on, and it was part of human nature to be curious. It was just exhausting to be in the middle of it when people thought you had all the answers. “You aren’t seriously considering working here?”
“Why not?” Rowen asked with a shrug, trying to play off her idea like it was no big deal. She didn’t get away with it.
“Because they’re about to find a body and close this place down?” Peony ventured. “And also because you already have a job and don’t have any experience as a camp counselor.”
“It can’t be that hard, can it?” Rowen shot back. “Phoenix was high when he was working. Plus, he was sneaking off all the time to smoke more. I think I can, at the very least, fill his shoes.”
Peony made a soft hissing sound. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk like that about the recently deceased.”
“I’m kind of hoping that if I’m insulting enough, he’ll come on over and haunt me. I have questions.” Rowen looked straight ahead at the tree line. She could see a couple of cop cars down the dirt road. Unfortunately, they had been dispersing. The sky overhead was starting to get dark. Rowen hoped they would come back with floodlights and backup, but she wasn’t going to hold her breath. “I’m not sure they’re going to find him.”
“They’re not going to give up after one day,” said Willow.
“No, but they might have to open the search up to volunteers. Plus, if they don’t find the body then…” Rowen made a sweeping gesture at the camp all around them. “The show goes on, I guess.”
“And you want to stick around why exactly?” asked Willow.
“Why else?” Rowen waited for her cousins to discern the obvious, but they both just stared at her. “Working here would keep me close to the case. I’d be closer than I would be as just another camper and way closer than I’d be were I to head back home… as tempting as that might be.” Rowen hadn’t even called Eric yet. She probably needed to get on top of that. If he had to hear what had happened through Ben, she would never hear the end of it.
“That makes sense,” said Peony. She stretched her legs out across the steps in front of her and her arms over her head. She hummed, thoughtful. “Do you think they need more than one camp counselor?”
Willow turned her head so fast to look at her sister, Rowen could swear she heard her neck pop. “Not you too?”
“What?” Peony asked innocently. “She has a point. And two heads are better than one, right?”
“I’m not sure the position is camp counselor.” To be perfectly honest, Rowen wasn’t sure what kind of capacity she would be filling. “But yeah. I wouldn’t say no to the company.”
“I’ll apply too then
,” Peony said with a nod.
Willow shook her head. “You’ve gotta be kidding me? Just like that? You’re not even going to call Tina?”
“I mean, yeah, I guess. I don’t get why she’d have a problem with it, though. I’d be gone the same amount of time I would have been gone either way.”
“You can’t see the problem she’d have with it? There could be a killer out here!”
“Shh,” hissed Rowen. She didn’t need anyone coming out of the cabin to ask them who this killer was.
Willow lowered her voice but remained unconvinced by Rowen’s plan. “This is like a horror movie. The camp counselors always die in horror movies.”
“I don’t think we’re dealing with a serial killer,” said Rowen.
“Yeah? How can you know that? Do you know why someone killed Phoenix? Did they have a motive?”
Willow did have a point there. Rowen still hadn’t figured out why someone would kill Phoenix. “I don’t know who killed him yet. I can’t say for sure—”
“Right. You can’t say for sure. For all you know, we could be dealing with a serial killer. Maybe he kills for fun. Maybe he’s looking to kill again as soon as the cops clear out.”
“Chances are he’s not a serial killer. Statistics are in our favor here. I appreciate the concern, but we’ll be all right.”
“You don’t know that. And since when does anything work in our favor? We’ve run into multiple murderers before.”
“All the more reason to catch the guy who killed Phoenix then. Seriously, Willow. I won’t let Peony out of my sight. We’ll be careful.”
“Are you planning on going home?” Peony asked, looking sideways at Willow.
“I was going to!” She sighed. “I guess I’m not now.”
After all her complaining, Rowen hadn’t expected to hear that. “You’re staying then?”
“If you guys are… I guess I will too. And if I’m staying, I might as well apply for camp counselor or whatever too, huh?”
“That’s the spirit,” Peony said brightly.
“Yeah, sure,” replied Willow, nonplussed. “Congratulate me for giving into peer pressure. Why not?”
Chapter Eight
The police didn’t find the body. At least not that day. Ben had to throw in the towel eventually and let his men go home. Most of them had gone already, and the few that remained were getting antsy. Ben left one officer behind to keep an eye on things. He would be back in the morning he swore, though he couldn’t say what the plan would be then. He was using up a lot of police resources with very little to go on.
Before Ben went, Rowen had him drive her down the mountain a ways so that she could call her husband. He was surprisingly unfazed by the news of a murder. He sighed a lot and asked a bunch of questions. “You’re staying up there, aren’t you?” was the final one.
“I’m planning on it. I have Willow and Peony and both of my aunts with me, though. Remember? We’ll all look out for each other. We’ll be fine. I just want to be close to this. And Ben! Ben will probably be coming and going a lot. So the police will be around.”
“Well, have someone keep me updated. And call me if you need me. I’ll be down there as quickly as I can.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Rowen smiled to herself. Part of her, a big part, wished her husband was with her right then and there. She liked having him around. He was more than helpful when it came to solving mysteries. That was part of why she didn’t want him at the camp with her. He would be more help looking into everything at home. “I don’t suppose I could get you to--”
“I just sat down at my computer. I’m already looking into it.”
“That’s why I love you.”
“I know.”
“Look into Phoenix first.” It probably didn’t need to be said, but she mentioned it anyway. “I don’t know much about him.”
“Do you know his last name?”
Rowen considered the question before realizing that, no, she didn’t. She lowered the phone from her ear a bit and cast a sidelong look at Ben. “Hey, do you know Phoenix’s last name?”
Ben took a deep breath. He didn’t say anything at first. Rowen could tell that he was debating over whether or not this was information he should be giving Rowen. “Garrett.”
“Garrett,” Rowen relayed to her husband.
“Dave Garrett,” said Ben.
“Dave?” Rowen repeated, lowering the phone again. “Phoenix’s first name was Dave?”
“Phoenix’s only name is Dave,” corrected Ben. “Dave Garrett. No middle name. Phoenix may have been what he went by, but I couldn’t find it on anything official.”
“Dave Garrett is his real name, apparently,” Rowen reported back into the phone. “Though, you may have more luck searching for him by Phoenix. It sounded like he’d worked with Crystal Spruce a lot in the past. See if you can find any mention of him in stuff about her, I guess.”
“You don’t have to tell me how to do my job.”
“All right, all right. Just trying to help.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Rowen would have said something, but she could hear ambient noise in the background; the television, the distant sound of their dog barking at something or another in a different room. The call hadn’t disconnected. Finally, Eric sighed. “Be careful up there, okay? Seriously.”
***
“You want to work for me?” Crystal scanned the faces in front of her. Her brow knitted. “All three of you?”
“All three of us,” Rowen confirmed with a nod. “We figured you’d need several people ASAP. I mean, you told Ben you were bringing on people, right?”
“Right,” Crystal said slowly. Beside her, Veronica was desperately scribbling on a piece of paper. When finished, she touched her employer’s arm, bringing her attention to what she had written. Crystal’s eyes skimmed over the page. She nodded and waved a hand dismissively. “I appreciate the offer, girls. I just… You came here as campers. I’d hate to deny you that experience.”
Rowen highly doubted that. More likely, she hated the idea of issuing a refund on top of paying them for their time and hard work. Something along those lines was almost certainly what Veronica had written down. Fortunately, Rowen had planned for this. “We’re not going to ask for our money back.” It wasn’t like any of them had paid for their spots here to begin with. “We know this is a really hard time for you.” Rowen nudged Willow when her cousin gave a little huff. Willow had been even more reluctant to go along with the plan when she found out she would barely be getting paid for it. (If they were ever paid at all.)”Plus, my aunts have been looking forward to this retreat for so long. I’d hate for them to have to clear out early. I want to make sure they have a good time. I owe them so much.”
Nadine and Lydia were no longer enjoying their stay. How could they? A man had died and, in Lydia’s mind, Crystal Spruce had endangered her nieces. Rowen had passed her plan along to her aunts. Neither had been thrilled, but they both understood her motives.
“I won’t be able to pay much,” warned Crystal, her tone guarded. “I already called up a couple of old friends. They’ve agreed to help out, and we’ve already hammered out the details of their salary. The only issue is that they won’t be here until tomorrow. I could certainly use some help until then if you’re willing.”
Rowen nodded before her cousins could say anything. “Definitely. Just tell us where to start.”
***
Crystal Spruce was quick to delegate. She disappeared from the tent, leaving Veronica to teach Rowen and her cousin’s the ropes. Veronica looked very non-plussed about the whole thing. She looked from her clipboard to her new employees and then back again. She sighed. “You’re mostly just here for show.”
“For show?” Peony repeated.
“We have to bring on more employees, but we hadn’t planned for more than three employees total. Understand?”
“Not really,” said Willow.
“We need someone to
handle what…” Veronica trailed off. Her expression darkened, and Rowen couldn’t help but notice the moisture that came to her eyes. She took a deep breath and shook her head, shrugging off the negative emotions passing over her. “We need someone to do the things Phoenix was in charge of.”
“He shirked his job a lot, though. Right?” asked Willow. Rowen shot her a look, but if she saw she paid no mind to it. “So, maybe it’s for the better that you have more than one new employee to fill his shoes.”
Another sigh from Veronica. “You’re not wrong.” At least she hadn’t taken offense. “He wasn’t the best… isn’t the best at managing his time.” The wetness returned to Veronica’s eyes. This time she turned away from Rowen and the others to quickly wipe at them.
“Are you all right?” asked Peony.
“I’m fine,” Veronica said quickly. She turned back to face them. She was all business again, though the redness of her eyes was hard to ignore. “What?” she asked. Rowen didn’t think she was staring, but her concern must have showed on her face. “I’m fine,” Veronica said again, emphasizing the words more this time. “I’m… worried is all. We’re all hoping Phoenix turns up. Crystal isn’t wrong. He was never a model employee. Apparently, it’s not unusual for him to up and vanish from a job. That said, I’m not sure why she hired him on in such an important capacity if she knew about his work ethic.” Veronica took a deep and shuddering breath. She was not at all okay. “I’m worried, of course. I didn’t know him for that long, but… I mean, obviously his well-being matters to me. I’m not an unfeeling robot.”
That was more than Rowen had been prepared for. She nodded. “I know. No one said you were.”
Veronica’s pale skin tinged pink. She swallowed and looked back down at her clipboard. “Right, well, he was in charge of meals. I guess I could split that up between all of you. Honestly, it probably should have been set up between two or three people to begin with. I’ll show you where the food is. Can any of you cook?”