by Kathi Daley
“That won’t be easy to do,” Ellie said. “It’s not like people sit around listening to ham radios these days.”
I frowned. “Yeah. I suppose finding someone to help us will be tricky even if we are able to find and use the darn thing. And it’s possible we could make things worse if we do end up calling the corporate office. Maybe we should rethink this. Getting into Adira’s office and hoping for internet service really is our best bet.” I got up and began to pace. Pacing usually helped me to think, but today I was having a hard time focusing on anything. “I keep asking myself, what would Zak do? If he were here, he’d know how to use a radio, or how to rig up a makeshift cell phone, or how to communicate using soup cans or some other readily available object. The man is like MacGyver. He knows all sorts of tricks to create something from whatever he finds lying around. We could use his brain right about now.”
“We don’t have Zak’s brain, but we do have Alex’s. I know you originally wanted to protect her, but she was great on the zip line yesterday. It might be time to bring her in on everything.”
The mother in me wanted to continue to leave her out of our plans, but Ellie was right. Alex was a genius and I was not. We really could use her help. “Okay. We’ll meet with Hera first and see what she has to say. If it seems like we need Alex, I’ll find a way to pull her aside. I hate to worry her if there is nothing she can do. I know she is brilliant, but we really are stuck up here, which makes everything more difficult. There is a big part of me that wants to take decisive action, but given the situation, I’m not sure that would be our best bet.”
“It is complicated and I don’t want to worry Alex if we can avoid it.” Ellie got up and crossed to the window. “If this camp is Adira’s baby, it seems that she would be more concerned than she seems to be about Ainsley’s death or the accident on the zip line. Surely she has to know that a single lawsuit could be the end of this place. I’m sure the camp has insurance, but still…You would think she would have gone out of her way to make sure that Alex and I were okay after what happened yesterday, and she may have spoken to her, but she never approached me at all.”
I frowned. “Yeah, that does seem odd. Even if she was the sort not to really care, you would think she would know how to play the game. Zak goes out of his way to reach out personally to all the parents who have students at Zimmerman Academy. He doesn’t like some of them, but he still returns their calls and emails to answer any questions they might have, and sometimes gets in touch just to see how things are going. Most of the goddesses are nice, but the woman at the airport seemed downright rude and both Isis and Adira have been very standoffish. I can’t understand how this camp has made it this far if the staff members who should have the best people skills don’t have any.”
“I wonder if it has always been that way. The woman at the airport seemed to have a well-cemented personality disorder,” Ellie teased, “but I wonder if Adira and Isis are really as cold as they appear or if they are simply reacting to an unbearable level of stress.”
I nodded. “I suppose it could be that. Lord knows I’ve experienced my own witchy days when the world seemed to have been closing in on me.”
Ellie laughed. “Yes, you have.”
******
Part of me didn’t think that Hera would show up for our meeting, so when I found her waiting for me in the barn, I was both surprised and grateful. I figured that she was probably around twenty-three or twenty-four. It took a lot of courage for someone who was just coming in to her own to defy authority in order to take action for the greater good.
“If Adira or Isis find out I am talking to you, they will kill me,” Hera started out. “We need to speak quickly before someone comes along.”
“Okay,” I said as I sat down on an old bale of hay. “Other than what you told us this morning, what would you like us to know?”
Hera leaned a hip against a stall door. “The only thing I really wanted to add to what I’ve already shared is to reiterate that Ainsley wouldn’t do drugs. She wouldn’t accidentally overdose, she wouldn’t kill herself, and she seemed to me to be perfectly healthy. Someone has to have done something to her. That is the only explanation. Ainsley was a wonderful person who really cared about the girls we counsel here at the camp. She believed in the message of inner power and lived her life accordingly.”
“So why do you think she was in the sauna when she should have been at the welcome reception?”
Hera frowned. “I’ve asked myself that same question. It seemed to me that she might have been lured there.”
“Lured there? Why? And by who?”
Hera paused and then answered. “I’m not sure why or by whom specifically, but I do know that Ainsley had been going around telling the rest of us that the Inner Goddess Corporation had gotten wrapped up in something illegal. She didn’t say specifically what sort of illegal activity it might be, but she told some of us that she’d overheard a conversation Adira was having with the man who is staying with her. It sounded as if they had found an illegal way of padding their bottom line.”
“It sounds like Ainsley was the sort to speak her mind.”
Hera nodded. “She was. Unlike most of the others, she was apt to question Adira rather than just blindly doing what was asked of her. Honestly, I have no idea how she even ended up here. Most of the free thinkers are weeded out before they get this far.”
“Weeded out?” I asked.
“Fired. Everyone has to go to goddess school before they can even apply for employment with the Inner Goddess Corporation. Most don’t make it through the training. You think the military demands obedience, but trust me, they are nothing compared to the obedience asked of goddess recruits. If you make it through goddess school, you are hired to either work for the clothing or makeup line or to help out with weekend retreats. Only those who have proven themselves to be the hardest workers and the most loyal are recruited for this camp. It used to be considered quite the honor to be asked to live on the mountain over the summer, but things have changed. I don’t think it is the same as it once was. In fact, there seems to be a pretty big turnover lately. Two girls quit right after starting at the beginning of the season—if they really did quit, which I’m beginning to question.”
“So you think there was more to Rhea and Thalia leaving?” I asked.
Hera bowed her head. “I don’t know for sure. Neither goddess said a word about quitting to any of the others before they left. I suppose they might have been fired for some reason, but that still doesn’t explain the secrecy. It seems to me that if they had quit, they would have sought out those of us they were closest to and said goodbye. Wouldn’t they have mentioned to us that they were leaving rather than sneaking away in the middle of the night?”
“Have you heard from them since?” I asked.
“No, although all the goddesses are discouraged from having relationships with one another outside the ones we form while living and working together. I don’t even know any of the other goddesses’ real names and I certainly don’t have anyone’s contact information. I don’t think anyone has that other than Adira and possibly Isis.”
Calliope had said the same thing. This whole thing was beginning to sound more like a cult than a job and I wasn’t liking it one bit.
Hera added, “You happened to find Ainsley’s body, but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if you hadn’t. Would an announcement have been made that she was dead or would it have been that she’d quit and left the mountain.”
“If you had to guess, what do you think is going on?”
From the emotions played across Hera’s face, it seemed she was giving serious consideration to my question. Eventually, she began to speak. “I don’t know what is going on. But this season feels different from the others I have worked. First, the two new girls quit and then one of the campers had an accident and broke both her legs. The next thing we knew, Maia was missing, and then we found out that Ainsley was dead. And yesterday, there w
as the whole problem with the zip line. But even with all that, which in my mind is plenty, there has been a different feeling the past few sessions.”
“What do you mean by session?”
“We call each group a session. I guess it helps us to communicate. We can talk about an incident in session two or discuss one of the girls in session five. That sort of thing.”
“Okay, I get it. Go on. How has it been different?”
“There is an energy that doesn’t seem right. I can’t really explain it, but I am feeling a lot of stress from both Adira and Isis and I think the other goddesses are as well. They have spent a lot more time behind closed doors than they ever have in the past, and Adira has a man staying at her place. There is an unwritten rule that this camp is for the women it serves and men are not allowed. As far as I know, there has never been a man allowed to stay here before. The guy who flies the helicopter occasionally will grab a meal if he happens to arrive with supplies during meal time, but that is it. To have a man actually staying at the camp is highly unusual.”
I narrowed my gaze. “I think someone told me he has been here a month?”
“Less than that, I think. He showed up during session five. This is session seven. He keeps a low profile. He rarely leaves Adira’s cabin and I’ve never seen him interact with anyone other than her and Isis. When he first showed up, Adira told us that he was here for security, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. He just stays in Adira’s cabin. If he was some sort of a security cop, wouldn’t he do rounds or something?”
“I would think so. Do you know if he has a weapon?”
Hera shrugged. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen one, but a security guard would have a gun, I would think.”
What was this mystery man doing at the camp? When Venus had mentioned him, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, but now that someone else had talked about him, I had to wonder.
I asked Hera about the radio, but according to her, it had been moved just before the current group of girls had arrived. It used to be kept in the administrative office, but she was pretty sure that Adira had relocated it to her cabin office. Which meant, I realized, that if I wanted to get a message out I was going to have to figure out a way to get into Adira’s cabin without being seen. I still had never seen the man who lived with Adira, but I had no reason to doubt his existence, which was going to make getting in to use either the radio or the internet even harder.
Chapter 9
When Hera returned to help out with lunch, I returned to the cabin Ellie and I shared. She was sitting on the deck enjoying the sunshine, which was exactly what I wished I was doing instead of chasing a problem I couldn’t define that might not even exist. For all I knew, there wasn’t anything sinister going on at all. Maybe Ainsley really had died of natural causes, maybe Rhea and Talia actually had quit, maybe Maia had wandered off and gotten lost, and maybe the faulty equipment at the zip line was due to nothing more than a lack of maintenance brought on by financial restraints. Maybe instead of trying to find a problem that may not exist, I should simply keep my eyes and ears open in the event that one should show its ugly head.
“So?” Ellie asked.
I sat down on the lounge chair next to her. “Hera is concerned about missing staff members, faulty equipment, and the present overall vibe of the place. She has a bad feeling about things and is suspicious of the man living with Adira. My gut tells me something is going on, but I’m not sure what to do about it. The only possible move seems to be sneaking into Adira’s cabin and trying to get a message out, but she seems to spend so little time with group activities and we have to account for the man who is supposedly living with her, though we’ve never seen him, that trying to sneak in seems to be a pretty big risk.”
“I guess we could just keep an eye on her cabin. Maybe Adira keeps to more of a schedule than it seems. And this guy who supposedly lives with her must leave the cabin sometimes.”
“I suppose watching the place is our best bet for the moment. I wonder what sort of activities the goddesses will have planned for tomorrow. They may still have the rock climbing and zip line on the schedule, but if they’ve switched to something lower risk, I might be willing to wait to see how things unfold.”
“I imagine that the goddesses will know. At least the higher-ranking ones, like Electra. I don’t think it would seem odd if we just ask what they have in mind. They may even distribute an updated agenda during one of the afternoon meetings.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Are you still thinking of talking to Alex about what is going on?” Ellie asked.
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know we discussed doing so, but I still feel really conflicted. I wish I had a better sense of what is going on. I hate to lay a bunch of half-truths on her that will only worry her. I mean, all we know for sure is that one of the counselors died due to what could be natural causes. The rest is all speculation and hearsay.”
“We know that the zip line malfunctioned,” Ellie pointed out.
“True. But we don’t have any reason to believe that was anything more than a glitch. We have the rest of today to try to figure this out. The girls are going to be engaged in relatively safe activities until tomorrow at least, so we should probably take our time and think this through.”
Ellie sat up. “Okay. So what do you think we should do with our time today?”
“Let’s start by finding out if anyone knows what the plan is for tomorrow. We can ask about it at lunch. If we can find out what is on the agenda for tomorrow we can gauge the urgency of doing anything else.”
Nodding, Ellie leaned back in her chair. “I’ve been thinking about the surveillance thing. It would help if we had binoculars. It occurred to me that the camp might have some, for birding or some other activity. Maybe we could look around while the girls are at lunch. I realize that we might miss eating ourselves, but searching the rooms in the activity center would be easiest to do when they are empty.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “If we miss lunch, maybe Tully can hook us up with some fruit or something. If nothing else, I have some granola bars stashed away.”
“I think we should go now,” Ellie said. “The lunch session has just started and there is no way of knowing how long it will take for us to find binoculars or something else that will help us, so we should get started.”
As it turned out, Ellie’s suggestion really was a good one. We headed to the classrooms provided for art and small group activities. We started by opening cupboards and drawers. Not only did we find the binoculars we were looking for; we found short-range walkie-talkies, compasses, and small notepads, which I figured might be used for some sort of orienteering activity. We took two of each and hoped they wouldn’t be missed.
We took quick peeks in the larger team-building rooms and then took everything we’d gathered back to our cabin and stashed our supplies where we hoped no one would find them. Lunch was just beginning to break up by the time we’d hidden everything, so Ellie and I hightailed it to the dining room in the hope that there would something left to scavenge.
“You’re late,” Bethany said. “I was just about to clear all this up.”
“I know. We’re sorry,” I said. “If we could just grab a sandwich and a piece of fruit each, we’ll get out of your way. Is dinner still at seven?”
“As far as I know. The off-site activities have been canceled for the whole day, but as far as I know the afternoon group meetings are being held at the usual time.”
“Okay, thanks. And thanks for the food.”
We took our lunch out onto the deck that overlooked the valley. It looked like most of the girls were in the pool. I had noticed a small group heading out for a hike. I didn’t have reason to believe they would go far and they were with Venus, one of the goddess I trusted the most after our conversation, so I wasn’t overly worried. I hadn’t noticed either Alex or Pepper with that group, and I didn’t see either girl in the pool. Perhaps they were in their cabin
. If they didn’t appear soon, I might go look for them and the other girls from the academy.
“It looks like lunch was tuna sandwiches and pasta salad,” Ellie said. “Not that there is anything wrong with tuna. I enjoy a good tuna sandwich from time to time. But I would think that for ten grand for a week, lunch ought to consist of an ahi salad or salmon over rice.” Ellie paused. “I guess the point I am trying to make is that in my mind tuna on wheat for lunch seems to confirm the rumors we’ve heard about a lack of financial security.”
“Yeah. Although if they do a camp every week and have between thirty and forty paid guests, it is hard to see how they could be in trouble financially.”
“Mismanagement does occur. For all we know, they might have been the victim of embezzlement. I’m not sure that the financial state of the company is even all that relevant to whatever else is going on, but if I had a computer and internet access it is one of the things I would look in to.”
“Agreed. Let’s finish eating and then go look for Alex.”
After coming up empty on the Alex front, one of the other girls informed me that Alex and Pepper had gone bird-watching with Athena but should be back by four o’clock for the afternoon power building activity. Bird-watching sounded like a safe enough activity, so I decided to go ahead and follow Ellie’s suggestion to spy on Adira. We found a shady spot behind a grouping of shrubs and settled in with our binoculars. Sitting in one spot watching the front of Adira’s cabin was going to get really boring really fast, but I figured we’d stake out the place for as long as we could and then move on to something else.