“Most likely,” I said.
“It’s quite the story. They’ll be interested in what the other steps were,” said Greer.
“As if I’ll finish that stupid challenge now. It’s clearly dangerous to my health,” Gracie said. Then she sneezed and her whole face changed. Her shoulders drooped and her eyes started to fill with tears. She sneezed again and nearly ran away crying.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine. You just need a good night’s rest,” I said.
“That’s my worry. Now I’m going to have to talk to the police and explain everything to them. And I won’t get a good night’s sleep. My mother is going to be so mad at me,” she groaned.
“It’s not really in your control,” said Greer.
“There’s no evidence of foul play,” said Hansen, coming back out of the cottage with Charlie. “The body has clearly been there a long time. The police will still need to look into it, but Gracie shouldn’t be involved after an initial chat with the police.”
He was trying to reassure her, but I doubted she was paying the slightest bit of attention. Hansen went on anyhow, adding, “I’m just amazed that no one has been in the cottage for so long that a body had a chance to turn into a skeleton.”
Charlie examined the lock on the cottage door and shook her blond head. “It’s been removed. There isn’t even a lock. How could it be that no kids have ever wandered in and caused trouble?”
“I think there was a lock. I think it fell off,” said Gracie.
Hansen started poking around in the leaves and debris around the stoop. It didn’t take him long to find a rusted lock.
“That’s pretty much what we have on our door over there,” said Greer, pointing to the cottage she was sharing with Charlie and me.
“So you broke in?” Charlie pressed, looking sternly at Gracie.
But Gracie couldn’t take it anymore. Water welled up out of her eyes and she started sobbing.
Hansen went over to her and tried to tell her she was going to be all right. He was careful not to touch her, but she didn’t care. She flung her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder.
At least it wasn’t just Jasper, I thought, comforting myself.
“That’s what you get,” Greer told Charlie.
My reporter friend’s face had gone from pale to red and she was glaring at Gracie’s back. “Who is ever this upset? It’s as if someone died.”
“As far as we know, someone did die. It’s just that we didn’t know him, and we don’t know how it happened,” I said.
“I can’t wait for Jasper to get back,” said Deacon, shaking his head.
Hansen looked up at the only other guy there and gave him a grin. Just then there was a bit of a commotion through the woods, and shortly thereafter Jasper broke out of the little grove and into the clearing around the cottage, his broad shoulders moving confidently as he walked up to us. Not for the first time, or presumably the last, I was reminded of how attractive he was. Even in high school I had done at least one thing right . . . I had wanted to date Jasper Wolf, though back then I wouldn’t have said I ever had a chance.
I couldn’t help it, I gave myself a little pat on the back.
This was what happened every time I saw him.
It might happen even more often when there was a problem. Seeing Jasper and being reminded of what just the sight of him did to me was infinitely comforting, especially on a dark night in the creepy woods.
On this occasion he was followed by several disgruntled-looking people. I thought they had all been at the dinner that night, but I couldn’t be sure. Both sets of parents were there, but the bride and groom themselves were not.
Charlie, not one to beat around the bush, asked where they were.
“I didn’t want to wake them up just yet,” said Jasper as he reached us. “I figure they’ll have enough to deal with pretty soon. If the police can wait to talk to them until morning, that might be best.”
“I gave the police a call,” said Mr. Cushman, a stout man wearing an old red felt hat. “I just couldn’t believe it when this guy came along and said there was a body, or rather a skeleton, in one of these cottages. I’ve been saying for a while that drifters sneak in here in the winter when the weather gets too cold to handle. They need a place to stay. I’ve even hired a couple of them from time to time when there was work that needed to be done around the camp.”
“You think it was a drifter? Are any of the ones you know missing?” I said.
Cushman shrugged. “It certainly could have been one of them. I don’t think the ones I know are missing, but I could try to find out.” He glanced at the cottage and shook his head. “I really wish they would talk to me before sneaking in. I always give them food and a warm place to stay. Don’t want anyone dying in there, obviously.”
“I think we should look inside,” said one of the parents.
“I think we’ve disturbed what might be a crime scene enough already,” said Deacon. He moved to stand in front of the door, making a physical barrier to back up his words.
“Move aside. I own this place. If I want to look in, I will,” said Cushman.
“And interfere with an investigation?” Deacon asked.
“Somebody dying of natural causes in an unused cottage isn’t a police investigation,” an irritated parent pointed out.
“But we don’t know how he died, do we?” Deacon challenged. “Until we know, I think we should disturb as little as possible. We’ve already gone in there trying to confirm why Gracie was so upset. That’s enough until after the police get here.”
“We aren’t even sure he died in there, for that matter,” Charlie piped up.
Several confused pairs of eyes turned to look at her. “What do you mean by that?” said one of the parents. I wasn’t sure which one it was, not that it mattered. Both mothers and even one of the fathers looked unhappy to be outside in the middle of the night.
I could understand why they were flummoxed at what Charlie had suggested. The idea of foul play was one thing. It was quite another to think that the murder had taken place somewhere else and the body had been moved to the cottage. Charlie had the mind of an investigative reporter, but none of these other people did.
Most people would be unhappy to be woken up and marched into the cold to discuss skeletons. These people were particularly concerned. It was as if bats the size of trees could come swooping down out of nowhere and attack them.
Just then we saw flashing blue lights through the trees. Luckily for everyone, Charlie was spared the chance to continue spinning theories. I knew what she meant without being told, though. She was talking about murder, and under the circumstances I was relieved that she hadn’t had a chance to finish her thought. Clearly these people weren’t thinking in those terms yet, but Charlie, Greer, and I had enough experience to know that we couldn’t rule anything out.
What I wanted was to find the ghost that belonged to the skeleton. I hoped the arrival of the police wouldn’t delay me too long.
“Looks like the police are here,” said Craig Smith, the campground’s manager, who had by now arrived on the scene He was younger than I would have expected, and so was his wife, but apparently Mr. Cushman thought well enough of them to give them a lot of responsibility.
From a little ways away in the now-crowded clearing, I heard Mrs. Smith ask her husband, “What do you think your brother will say?”
There was too much noise for me to hear Smith’s response.
The police cars parked as we all spread into a half circle to watch them pull up. If anyone in the Lodge hadn’t already been awakened by the commotion, the arrival of the officers had probably roused them.
Out of the first car stepped a face that I couldn’t quite place, even though it was familiar. It had been a while since I’d seen the man before, but after just a few seconds it hit me.
Detective Smith was here.
Chapter Eleven
The detective strode purposefully toward the co
ttage, but he had yet to notice Charlie and her friends in the little crowd. I was curious to see how he would react when he did.
Charlie had solved a murder at the Iriswood Country Club. At least, that’s how the good detective saw it. He had been amazed at her luck and demanded to know all of the details. She had tried to downplay everything, but the fact of the matter was that the murder had been a high profile case, so she was now on his radar. As he marched toward the cottage, I had a bad feeling about his interest in this case.
Charlie watched with wide eyes as he approached, as did Hansen, who had also been on the frontline of the Iriswood investigation.
We were all waiting for Detective Smith to recognize us, but instead he walked right up to the front of the cottage and went inside with barely a glance at the people waiting out front. Several officers followed him, and a few more stayed outside to keep the civilians at bay.
Gracie had been sitting on the cottage stoop all this time. Someone had put a blanket around her shoulders, and now I walked over and wrapped an arm around her. She looked at me gratefully. With her skin getting paler and bags forming under her eyes, she seemed just as likely to fall asleep as to speak coherently.
After a while Detective Smith came out of the cottage and made a speech. “Well,” he said, “it’s a skeleton. There’s no immediate sign of foul play, but that’s all I can say at the moment. I’d like to find out if there are any missing people connected with this campground. Has anyone disappeared in the past couple of years? I’d also like to talk to the person who discovered the body. I don’t think I need to say that it’s best not to speculate on what happened until we know more.
“We’ll get the lab results back soon enough. Until then, don’t worry. This isn’t a recent event. I know this is a wedding weekend, and I’m sorry for the disruption. Everyone is welcome to go back to their rooms tonight. Get a good night’s sleep. You’ll see me tomorrow. It must also be said that until we know more about what happened, no one is to leave the grounds.”
“I was the one who found the body. I don’t know anything, I swear,” said Gracie Coswell. She looked at the detective imploringly with a tear-stained face.
Detective Smith’s eyes skated over me as they moved to gaze at Gracie, and in that moment I saw a flash of recognition and confusion. He probably couldn’t place me, just as I’d had trouble placing him, but I figured he’d get there eventually. Or, I’d tell him.
“Is there somewhere warm we can talk?” he asked Gracie, his voice surprisingly gentle.
“I’m the owner,” cut in Cushman. “You can talk in my place. It’s warm enough. I expect you’ll have questions for me as well. You mentioned anyone who might be missing. We can look into that.”
“As the caretakers, we’d better come as well,” said Craig. Smith.
“I’m going to have another investigator hearing the details of this case. I don’t want our relationship to be a conflict of interest. I’ll discuss the case with someone else on an advisory basis, but I’ll still be in charge,” said Detective Smith.
Wonders never ceased. The caretaker of this campground was Detective Smith’s brother.
The rest of us got up and moved away slowly. I had a feeling that the parents of the bride and groom were worried that this long-anticipated wedding was about to be ruined, and regardless of what Detective Smith said, they had a right to be. Even if this was a skeleton that just so happened to be there, someone who died of natural causes, it wasn’t a great start to a wedding weekend.
As we walked away I saw yet another police car pull up, and a coroner get out of it. But that wasn’t any business of mine, so I fell carefully into step next to Paws and let the others walk together.
As the only one of our group who hadn’t gone into the cottage, Jasper wanted to be filled in. He had kept busy trying to help Gracie and then notifying the police, but now he wanted to be brought up to date.
I glanced at Paws, who was trotting along calmly enough. When he saw me looking at him he rolled his eyes. “You want me to go back in there and hear what the coroner has to say?” he asked.
“It’s possible he’ll know immediately whether it was murder. Until we find the ghost, that’s all we can really go on,” I said.
“Very well. I do enjoy eavesdropping,” said the cat. “I might as well go into the cottage and hear what’s what. It’ll move our investigation along more quickly.”
Without another word he turned around and trotted away.
Charlie watched him go. Hansen was still walking next to her and saw her glance back at the cottage. “I expect they’ll know very soon whether foul play was involved. It certainly doesn’t look like it. It looks like someone just got stuck in that cottage and died there naturally,” he said.
“You’re right,” agreed Charlie, “it does look like they’ll know quickly. At least it’s a skeleton.”
“Why at least?” Deacon asked.
“If it was a fresh murder, someone here would be suspected. That’s fair enough. If it was a fresh murder, it’s likely that someone here did it. Given that it’s a skeleton, it’s much less likely that anyone at the wedding is the murderer. Good for the bride and groom and celebrating and all,” she said.
I was surprised that Charlie was commenting on such things. Usually once an investigation was afoot, that was all she cared about.
“Some of the people connected with the camp have been here for a long time, though,” said Greer. She had also seen the ghost cat trot away to go eavesdrop.
“I guess that’s true. The brother of a detective doesn’t seem like a very good suspect, though,” said Charlie.
“And Detective Smith is likely to do everything by the book,” said Hansen. “And to think that I was going to have a relaxing weekend away from work.”
“That’s too much to hope for when we’re around,” said Greer with a grin.
“I’m learning that,” said Hansen. “That’s fine. I’ll do some research in the morning before Detective Smith calls on us. Charlie, did he recognize you?”
Charlie shook her head. “I don’t think he did, but then again he never really looked at me. I was kind of busy when he made that little announcement.”
“You were hiding behind my shoulder,” said Jasper.
Charlie shrugged. “Might have been. Gotta take advantage of those broad shoulders somehow. Next time I have furniture to move you’ll be the first person I call. Oh well. Let’s get to sleep.”
Chapter Twelve
For better or worse, Paws chose not to wake me up in the middle of the night with whatever news he had gleaned from the investigators. Even so, I didn’t sleep well. The bed was hard, the cabin smelled funny, and light came streaming in early through the flimsy curtains. Besides, we had found a skeleton the night before. Nothing had a way of jarring you awake like flash memories of a skeleton in a fireplace.
I sighed and tossed the covers off. Charlie was sitting up in bed writing frantically in her notebook. She had been so eager to get to work that she still had bed hair, with some strands flying wildly over her shoulders and others stuck straight up.
Greer had pulled the blanket clear over her head. There was no telling whether she was really sleeping or not, but Charlie and I both knew it would be best for all involved if she was.
I changed into a jean skirt and T-shirt, figuring I’d put on my dress for the wedding and the reception later. Slipping my feet into sandals, I did my best to walk quietly across the floor. As I left I waved to Charlie, who barely looked up from her writing.
Outside, the day was cool. The door to the guys’ cabin was open, so I headed over and knocked on the doorjamb. Hansen turned out to be the only one “at home.” He was typing away on his computer as I peeked in.
“Hey, Lemmi, fancy seeing you here this morning. Jasper and Deacon went to get us some breakfast,” he said.
“I should probably follow them,” I said. My stomach was rumbling for coffee.
“They were going
to bring back enough for everyone,” Hansen said. He stopped typing, turned to me, and invited me in while we waited for caffeine to light the day’s spark.
“That’s nice of them. What are you working on?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“An article about this cabin skeleton business. The police are going to talk to the bride and groom about how to proceed. I think they know whether it was a murder, but so far they aren’t saying,” said Hansen.
I really needed to track down Paws to see what he knew, but where that darn ghost cat had gotten to I had no idea. For a change.
“Your article will go up tomorrow?” I asked.
“Or later today in the online edition. My editor is big on getting the news out as quickly as possible. Remember back in the day when you really only heard the news twice in a twenty-four hour period? Once in the paper in the morning, and then on TV at night? Sometimes a lot of that was the same news. Times sure have changed,” said Hansen.
“I wanted to ask you something,” I said. While I’d tossed and turned in the night I had decided to ask Hansen what he thought about the Country Club murder investigation. Had he thought Charlie’s behavior was strange? Did he have any theories as to why?
“Shoot,” he said, resting his chin on his hand with his dark hair flopping perfectly over his forehead.
Just then a very faint outline of a cat appeared in the doorway. He was glaring at me, but since he usually did that, it wasn’t any clue to what he had to report.
“Murder. Definitely. And you’ll never guess how he died,” said Paws.
My mouth fell open. Hansen noted the shock on my face.
There was nothing I could do with the information Paws had brought until I was away from Hansen Gregory, so I gave Paws the slightest of nods and hoped that Hansen wouldn’t notice.
Before I could really take this news in, much less continue with what I’d wanted to ask Hansen, there was a second interruption.
Charlie came out of our cabin yawning, saw me sitting in the guys’ cabin, and came right over. “Morning. Hey, Hansen. Where are Deacon and Jasper?”
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