“What do you think?” I asked him.
He raised his eyebrows at me and grinned. He could tell I was unsure about even asking, and now that the question was out of my mouth I wasn’t even sure which part I was referring to.
“Obviously I’d like the biggest wedding the world has ever seen with as many people invited as possible. I’d like it to be an eight-day event and everyone should come,” he said, with a slight smile.
“You’re just saying that because you know it’ll make her cringe,” said Charlie.
“True. I don’t think anyone is cut out for an eight-day wedding celebration,” said Jasper.
“Your grandfather probably wouldn’t mind if it was the right girl,” said Charlie.
“He wouldn’t want to spend the money,” said Jasper, chuckling.
He stared at his hands, then picked up a stick and fiddled with it. At last he glanced up at me through long lashes, smiling just a tiny bit. I smiled back at him.
Chapter Nine
When we got to the campground after a nice, uneventful drive, we found the main lodge standing at the near end of a row of cottages. Unimaginatively named “The Lodge,” its guest rooms were filled with the wedding party and the older guests. We younger folk were left with the log cottages.
Ours was the second to last cottage in the row. The last one, which was separated form ours by a narrow stand of scrubby trees, looked dark and deserted and was clearly empty. The windows were broken and the weeds had grown up outside it.
The cottage on our other side was occupied by Jasper and Deacon.
We all changed in a hurry and headed back to the Lodge for dinner.
An uneventful few hours later, full of many and varied potluck delights, we made our way back to the cottages by the dim, receding lights outside the Lodge.
“It’s a little creepy down here at the end of the row,” said Charlie, looking wistfully at the gathering of light around the Lodge.
“I thought you’d like the privacy and the ability to observe while remaining unobserved,” said Greer.
“No, it’s just creepy. Why is that one dark?” Charlie asked.
“It hasn’t been used for a while,” said Deacon with a shrug. “I guess the floor was faulty and they haven’t bothered to fix it,” Deacon explained.
Deacon had spent most of his evening with the wedding party. Greer had clearly missed him; she’d kept looking over at his table to see how he was doing. He would smile and wave whenever he caught her doing it, and she would try to appear as if she didn’t care. But she did.
To her delight, he had been able to break away and come out to the cottages when we all headed for bed.
“It’s kind of a shame we couldn’t use the other cottage too,” said Charlie.
“Yeah, I wonder what’s taking Cushman so long to fix it,” Deacon said.
Mr. Cushman, an old friend of the Stumper family, was the owner of the campground, but not the operator. A couple named Smith came in the summer to take care of the place for him. They were supposedly around somewhere, but I hadn’t seen them that evening.
“The place is probably hardly ever full,” said Jasper, yawning, “so there’s no point in fixing the cottage when it would be empty a lot of the time anyway. I don’t think they get a lot of weddings here.”
We all said our good nights and the guys headed into their cottage while Charlie and Greer hurried into ours.
I gave one last look at the creepy cottage and shook my head. The curious part of me wanted to sneak in there while everyone else was asleep, but the sensible part said that that wasn’t a good idea. No sense ruining someone else’s wedding over my curiosity.
We had stayed up late at dinner, and the cottage was cold with the chill of an August night in Maine. We scurried into bed as fast as we could, and I had fallen asleep before I could worry about a thing, including any bugs that might be sharing the cabin with us.
I sat up with a gasp, awakened in the middle of the night be screams coming from somewhere outside the cottage. I couldn’t see a thing since except for Charlie’s Mickey Mouse alarm clock it was pitch black in the cottage. Charlie loved that clock to death, and she had insisted on bringing it even though Greer didn’t approve of sleeping in the presence of digital clocks.
Now that silly clock was our only illumination, since the wedding guests had been asked to leave our phones off for the duration. As usual in this area there wasn’t much cell service anyway, so it wasn’t a big hardship. I could have used my phone to take pictures, but that was exactly what the bride and groom didn’t want, so out of respect for their wishes I had left my phone in a pocket somewhere, turned off as requested.
I fumbled around on my side table, for what I wasn’t even sure. I was wondering why I hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight when suddenly one clicked on from across the room.
I glanced over Greer’s bed, but all I could see was a bright orb of light. “You thought I wouldn’t be prepared,” she gloated.
“What’s going on?” Charlie cried, scrambling out of bed. Greer and I followed quickly.
“Let’s find out,” said Greer, sounding grim.
Summer nights in Maine could be chilly, and this one was no exception. We pulled our jackets on and headed outside, only to find Deacon and Jasper stumbling out of the cottage next door.
Shockingly enough, they weren’t alone. It seemed that the third member of their group had shown up late and was now stumbling out as well.
“What are you doing here?” Charlie demanded of Hansen Gregory.
The good-looking Caedmon reporter flashed her a bright smile. He looked different somehow, and I realized that I usually saw him in a solid-colored dress shirt. Now he was wearing an old flannel that gave him even more rugged charm than he usually projected.
“Same as you, I expect,” he said.
“Looking for stories because August is boring?” Charlie asked.
Hansen opened his mouth, his face filled with surprise.
“I’m not sure now is the time to discuss this,” I said.
“It’s always the time to discuss journalistic endeavors,” said Charlie.
“How about I tell you after we find out why that Gracie girl is screaming,” said Hansen.
The three of us froze and exchanged glances.
“What did you say?” Greer asked.
“I can see her through the trees,” said Hansen, pointing.
We all followed his gaze, and sure enough, the noise was coming from the direction of the darkened cottage at the end of the row. I could just make out a blond head in front of it. Apparently no one but us had heard the scream.
“How did you know that was Gracie?” Charlie asked.
“I met her earlier tonight,” said Hansen.
“We have to get over there,” said Jasper. Charlie could interrogate Hansen later.
I looked around for Paws as I followed Jasper and the others toward Gracie, and sure enough, the troublemaker came scampering out of the woods just in time.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
Given that there were civilians around, I couldn’t respond, so I compromised by glaring.
Gracie saw us coming and raised her head, which had been bowed over her knees as she sat in front of the cabin. She cried out and looked up at the sound of twigs snapping. When she saw who was coming, her face melted with relief, illuminated now by Greer’s flashlight.
I had never seen anyone look so happy to see us before. Gracie stood up and pelted right toward us. I prepared for incoming.
Greer reached over, grabbed Charlie, and forced her friend and roommate into position in front of her. Now when Gracie reached us she would get to Charlie first.
But Gracie scooted right past Charlie, and my sympathies vanished when she flung herself at Jasper and buried her face in his shoulder. He tried to steady her and act soothing while not getting strangled, but he had a hard time of it. Gracie was blubbering so wildly, I couldn’t understand a thing she w
as wailing. The noise echoed off of the trees.
Luckily, we weren’t ones to wait around or stand on ceremony.
“Let’s go check out whatever is going on,” said Paws, who seemed anxious to get inside the cabin. He clearly didn’t want to waste any more time with Gracie.
“We’re going to go take a look at what upset Gracie,” I said to Jasper, who was standing there with Charlie, trying to get something out of Gracie while patting her back awkwardly. His eyes were pleading.
“Be careful,” warned Jasper.
“Come on,” said Deacon, who was dressed in a black hoodie and camo pants and seemed as impatient as Paws to check out the cottage. In his hands was a large yellow flashlight.
Gracie tried to follow us when we brushed past her and her rescuer, but Deacon stopped her. “I’m the guy. I should go first,” he said.
Gracie melted. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jasper looking relieved to have his neck back.
I relaxed the tiniest of fractions.
“You know how I feel about gender stereotypes,” said Greer, moving toward the door of the cottage as if to outpace Deacon.
“I’m bigger. Stereotype that,” said Deacon. Without another word he marched in front of her and went inside.
We all crowded in behind him, and it didn’t take us long to see what had made Gracie scream. Deacon stopped in the middle of the room, swearing under his breath as he looked around. His bulk blocked my view at first, and both Greer and I tried to had to maneuver around him to see into the darkness, which the flashlights barely pushed back.
“I’ll give you one guess what it is,” said Paws. He had scampered around Deacon’s legs to get inside first, then scampered back the other way to tell us. My heart sank at his words.
“Is that what I think it is?” Deacon asked.
“He does know it’s a dead person, doesn’t he?” said Paws. “I wouldn’t expect Greer to date somebody dumb.”
The cat turned to look at us. I couldn’t really see his expression, but I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was shaking. “This is like the silo murder all over again.”
Chapter Ten
In the silo murder, Deacon and Jasper had found a skeleton in Jasper’s very own silo at the Babbling Brook Barn in Mintwood. Now we had found a skeleton in a deserted cottage a town over from Mintwood.
I swallowed hard. This was the first time I had ever understood the expression “toes curled.” My breath was coming in shallow gasps. This was a wedding! And here was another dead body!
I felt sick to my stomach.
Judging by the looks on the faces around me, I wasn’t alone. Only Paws appeared calm; he certainly wasn’t concerned about a wedding being ruined. He wasn’t breathing anymore, though, so who could really tell? Okay, that was a bit mean, but it’s not as if when his heart was beating he had any more feelings than he did now. Kill mice then, kill mice now. Annoy humans then, annoy humans now.
I dragged my thoughts back from cat analysis and glanced over my shoulder to make sure the others were still outside. Charlie wouldn’t like to miss this, but I had a feeling she’d be joining us soon enough. The others didn’t really need to see this sight at all.
We had been so looking forward to this wedding, and now, not only was an unidentified man dead, but the wedding was likely ruined.
The poor Stumpers.
Greer and I stepped to either side of Deacon to get a better look, and when we did we both raised our eyebrows. The skeleton in question was falling half out of the fireplace. The fact that it was still clothed made me think the victim hadn’t been burned. The clothes were decomposing along with the rest of him, but they hadn’t turned to ashes.
I wrinkled my nose at the faint smell.
“You two should get out,” said Deacon.
“You know how I feel about gender norms and men saving women,” Greer repeated through gritted teeth.
“Okay, let’s all three of us get out together,” he said, looking as if he too was about to be sick.
The shadows kept shifting as our flashlights moved around, and I found myself wishing there had been a moon, or maybe that Gracie had found the skeleton during the day. Somehow I felt like it might have been less gruesome that way. The darkness made what we could see all the more upsetting, but prevented us from picking up any useful details.
“We aren’t leaving just yet,” I said, stepping closer instead of heading for the door.
“I don’t think you should do that,” said Deacon.
“How about you and I leave and give Lemmi some privacy?” Greer said to her boyfriend.
“Yeah, get the great lug out of here,” said Paws, who was standing at my feet.
Greer’s eyes narrowed on the ghost cat, but Paws knew she couldn’t do anything with Deacon standing there.
If it had been anyone else asking Deacon to leave with her while her friend stayed, I had a feeling he would have said no. Since it was Greer, he reluctantly agreed.
“Only for a minute,” he said in a tone of warning, with a glance at me to confirm that I agreed. I nodded. I could hear voices outside, and lights kept flashing through the trees.
I felt a prickling along my spine, but I turned my eyes back to the skeleton, hoping to take advantage of what I knew would be just a short few moments when I could examine the scene alone.
He—I suspected it was a he because of the clothing—was tumbling out of the fireplace, but he hadn’t burned. Why was it that his clothes weren’t in charred tatters? Had he gotten stuck up there long ago? I supposed there was a decent chance, though why someone might have been crawling around a cottage chimney I couldn’t imagine, and anyhow, it must have happened after the cabin went derelict, because otherwise the first fire anyone lit would have burned him.
Once Deacon and Greer were gone Paws said, “I didn’t see any ghosts in the woods.”
That was it. Why couldn’t the ghosts of the bodies we found ever just be sitting there waiting for us? Okay, Isabel Gray, who had been murdered by her sister the previous summer, had been nearby, But that was only because all she’d wanted was to smell the rum at the bar. None of the others had made it easy for us.
“Do you see anything else of note? Think he got stuck in the chimney?”
“No idea. He was thin, so that’s less likely, although Santa manages to get down every year and the common depictions don’t exactly show him as a beanpole,” said the cat.
“I wonder what life would be like if you stopped saying inappropriate things,” I wondered.
“Boring,” he confirmed.
“Probably,” I muttered. “Anyhow, we’d best get out of here. If we stay much longer Deacon will come looking.”
“Aren’t we going to perform magic?” Paws asked. “See if there were any spells used here or try to discover what happened?”
Several times since I’d found out I was a witch I had tried to perform a spell that would show me the past. Several times I had failed.
“Not with everyone standing so close outside,” I said, shaking my head.
Paws merely shrugged.
We stepped outside into the cool night. Several fearful faces met us.
“I’m going in there,” said Charlie.
“You can’t disturb a crime scene,” Greer protested.
“I’m not going to,” Charlie grumbled. Then she and Hansen both went inside. The reporters in them couldn’t resist.
“Where’s Jasper?” I asked.
“Phoning the police,” said Deacon. “He’s also going to wake the families and Mr. Cushman and the Smiths to let them know what’s happened. He has a lot of people to tell.”
Gracie was still sitting on the stoop, shaking so badly her teeth chattered.
“Is that what you saw?” I asked her. She turned her tear streaked face up to me and said, “Yes, I already told your mean blond friend about it.”
“You went to high school with her. You know her name is Charlie,” said Greer in exasperation.<
br />
“Yeah, and she’s mean. She got all interrogative on me. I just discovered a skeleton! I’ve had a terrible time, and that’s how she treats me.” Gracie’s lower lip was trembling. She looked like she was going into shock. I couldn’t really blame her.
“What were you doing snooping around that cabin anyhow?” I asked her.
“I’m doing this five-step program of bravery. I heard about it in this magazine my mom gets. One of the steps is to explore a place you wouldn’t normally. At first I was thinking I’d do Brooklyn instead of Manhattan, or the Jersey Shore instead of the Hamptons, but I figured that would be too embarrassing if anyone saw me. Not that I know anyone who would go to those places. Then I was taking too long finishing the steps.”
As Gracie talked, Paws pretended to keel over and die of boredom.
“So I hurried it up. I’m here for the wedding. When I saw this cottage, I knew it was a place I’d normally never explore.” She paused, not realizing that she was giving Paws an opening.
“Because there’s no butler to open the door?” asked the cat.
“But then I realized I could take care of my steps all in one go,” Gracie said with a relieved smile.
“So, you were just going to look around and leave in the middle of the night? Why not wait until morning?” Deacon asked, his curiosity getting the better of his wish to pretend she couldn’t talk.
“Well, because I didn’t actually want to see inside. I just wanted to take a quick peak and be done with it. At night you can’t see anything anyway, so I thought it would be fine,” Gracie said.
Next to her on the step was a very expensive-looking flashlight. How do flashlights look expensive, you wonder? This one was sleek, as if it was made of a material that could survive in space. There was also a delicate necklace of jewels running along the handle. I would have said, if anyone had asked, that it was more likely than not that the jewels were real.
“And instead you found a skeleton.” I said.
“The Jersey Shore would have been preferable. I think,” she groaned. “My mom is going to be so mad at me. I’m going to have to talk to the police, right? Even though I don’t know anything?”
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