Word Games • 5

On hearing the noise, several of the others came at a run, but began to laugh on seeing Trixie’s predicament. She sat in the water, drenched all over, with the remains of the stick in one hand.

“Oh, Trixie! I’m so sorry!” Honey cried, while trying hard not to laugh. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Trixie shook her head and droplets of water flew from a wet section of her curls. “It’s freezing in here.”

She heaved herself to her feet and began searching around. In a few moments, she had found the object that made the noise and hauled it to the surface. It was a large bottle, filled with mud.

“Just typical,” Trixie grumbled, pulling it with her to the shore. “I’m soaked and muddy and all I found is someone’s old junk.”

“Not even a message in a bottle,” Honey agreed, with sympathy. “Though, I doubt anyone ever put a message in a bottle this big. I didn’t know they even came in this size. It’s huge.”

“At least get dried off a little,” Di suggested, taking Brian by the arm. “Why don’t we go back where we were and give her some space?”

“I’ll see if we have anything that might help,” Honey offered, waving for Mart to come with her. “Trix, maybe you could wring out your clothes a little, so they dry faster.”

Trixie dumped the bottle on the shore, nodding agreement. She stripped off the once-white shirt and wrung the water from it. Handing it to Jim, she noted, “I don’t think I need to put that back on. It’s only making me colder.”

She pulled at the hem of the singlet, finding enough of it loose to squeeze out, too. She pulled it away from her skin and let it drop once more.

“Do you think this will dry from body heat? Or will I just stay cold and wet?”

“It might dry, if you can blot the water out somehow.” Jim then looked at the wet denim that was clinging to her legs. “Those, on the other hand, aren’t going to dry no matter what you do to them.”

She ran a hand over them and nodded. “They feel the worst. And I don’t know what I can do to make them dryer.”

“You could just take them off,” Honey suggested, coming back over the little hill carrying a couple of things. “I don’t think Jim would mind.”

“Mart and Brian would,” Trixie countered. “But they might just have to put up with it.”

She had been shivering since getting out of the water, but now her teeth began to chatter.

“Start stripping, Trixie.” Honey put her hands on her hips and issued the words as an order. “Get out of those wet clothes right now.”

Jim glanced between his sister and his girlfriend and began to beat a hasty retreat. “I’ll just be back with the others.”

“Not so fast,” Honey told him. “Let me see your shirt.”

She held up the shirt that she carried against Jim, then ordered him to exchange his for it. When he had done so, Honey handed the shirt to Trixie and allowed Jim to leave.

“Di and I did some creative rearranging,” Honey explained, as Trixie wiggled out of the wet jeans while standing behind the bushiest shrub available. “This should be long enough to cover everything that needs to be covered, I think, and maybe we can keep going.”

“Oh, come on, Honey! You can’t expect me to go out in public wearing Jim’s shirt as a dress!”

“I don’t see many other options,” Honey answered.

Trixie, upon looking closer at her friend, discovered that she was wearing different clothes from before. She let out a noisy sigh and pulled the singlet over her head. Honey handed her a towel Brian had had the foresight to bring and Trixie dried herself as well as she could. She slipped into the shirt and inspected the distance it came down her thighs.

“And I thought I felt awkward when I got dressed this morning,” she muttered.

Honey stepped forward and put a belt around her friend’s waist. She stepped back to judge the effect.

“It’s the best we can do and, if you’re not too cold, I think it’s good enough.” She smiled. “You have to go out in public to get back, so I don’t think it makes much difference to just keep going in the same direction we were heading. It’s hardly any difference in distance.”

Trixie grunted in reply. She stooped and picked up the bottle, which had disgorged most of its messy contents.

“You are coming with me,” she told it sternly. “You’ve caused me enough trouble and I don’t think I’m going to just let you get away with it.”

They returned to the rest of the group, almost all of whom were wearing different clothes from before.

“Let’s go,” Honey urged, while refastening her life jacket. “Maybe the paddling will help Trixie warm up.”

“I hope so.” Trixie clambered into her canoe, tugging down the bottom hem of the shirt. “Which way are we going?”

Brian stared at her. “Straight back, I would say.”

“I’m fine.” She gave her legs a rueful glance. “I’d rather be wearing something else, but otherwise I’m fine.”

“Let’s go past that rocky island.” Honey pointed in that direction and then across the lake to their starting point. “I don’t think it’s all that much further than if we went straight across.”

Brian considered the matter for a moment or two, then nodded. “If you’re sure, Trixie.”

“I’m fine,” she repeated. “Let’s get moving.”

She set to paddling and had soon stopped shivering, though she was still less warm than she would like. They soon approached the island and ran along its shore. The sides of this island were steep and rocky and it held little vegetation. A long, rocky spit extended out into the lake.

“I don’t see anywhere to land on this side,” Jim noted, slowing his stroke. “Should we go around the other side, or just head back?”

“Let’s at least take a look,” she answered.

They rounded the point and found that the other side was gently sloping and larger than it had appeared. They drew up onto the shore and got out. Neither of the other canoes was in sight.

“Let’s climb up to the top of the hill.” Trixie waved to the highest point. “It looks easy enough.”

She led the way and Jim followed. Partway up, they passed between two large rocks and Jim pulled her to a stop.

“I don’t think the others are coming,” he told her, glancing back the way they had come. “They’re all still in the canoes.”

“And?” She tugged away, keen on continuing, but Jim stopped her.

“Have I mentioned how attractive you look wearing my shirt?”

Trixie laughed. “No, but you can, if you want to.”

Rather than verbalising any further, Jim pressed her against one of the boulders and they kissed. Some minutes later, they pulled apart, breathing hard.

“Let’s climb the rest of the way to the top,” Trixie suggested, a moment later. “It’s not all that far.”

Jim let her go and followed a short time later. They sat down on the ridge, dangling their legs over the edge and looking out over the lake.

“At least I’m properly warmed up now,” Trixie noted.

Jim smiled. “Maybe I should have done that sooner. Only I was afraid of getting caught by your brothers. They can get a touch overprotective.”

“In their defence, I don’t want to see them kissing people any more than they want to see me kissing you.” She pulled her feet back. “I’m getting cold again. I think it’s time to get back.”

They retraced their steps and found the others still paddling around. The bigger canoe was a fair distance away in the opposite direction to the one from which they had come, but Honey and Mart were close by.

“When you’re ready, we’ll head back,” Honey called. “Is there much to see here?”

Trixie shrugged and took her seat. “It’s kind of nice. We climbed up there and had a look at the view.”

“Sure you did,” Honey answered, smiling.

Trixie rolled her eyes and put her paddle in the water. The occupants of the other canoe must have seen them as they began approaching. The three came together not far past the rocky outcrop and they all turned homewards. It soon became evident that they had gone further than they thought and the journey extended for some time. At last they reached the shore and returned the canoes to their racks and the other equipment to where it belonged.

“Warm drinks,” Honey suggested, putting a hand on Trixie’s shoulder.

“And I want to see what the man did while we were away,” she added, picking up her pace. “I’d nearly forgotten all about him.”

She grabbed the bottle, which had been rolling back and forth in the bottom of the canoe, and carried it up the slope. When they reached the grassy patch at the top, they could see more blue streamers adorning their balcony. It appeared that something was written on these, too, but they could not read the words from so far away.

Trixie raced up the stairs and into the suite. She crossed the room and threw open the sliding doors. On the threshold she hesitated, surveying the scene. The blue streamers were very similar in number to the last time, but these carried a more cryptic message: IT GOES AROUND, OR IS IT CAUGHT? They also spiralled around everything in sight, rather than being more loosely wound like that morning’s ones.

“He must have already been working for a while when we saw him,” Honey deduced, coming up behind her. “This must have taken longer than the other time.”

“I just don’t get what these messages mean,” Trixie mused, frowning at the nearest streamer as if it offended her. “He must want to get a message across, but what is it?”

Mart joined them. “Well, let’s get it down. I don’t suppose there’s any point in calling the front desk.”

While Trixie got changed, the others once again cleared the balcony of streamers. As they neared the end of the job, Di came across one which said something different from the others.

“Look at this!” She tugged its end free and held it up so that it could be read. “What do you suppose it means?”

No other name. No matter the justification.

Mart took it from her and ran it through his hands. “I’m pretty sure we can crack this, if we think about it hard enough. He’s given us enough clues.”

“I’m glad you’re confident.” His sister had joined them in time to help, and she finished unwinding another streamer. “I don’t have a single idea of what he’s going on about.”

“We’ll look at it after dinner and see what we can come up with,” Mart promised. “I’m sure that between the seven of us we can make some sense of it.”

When they did sit down together to mull over the problem, Mart took the lead. He had found some paper and pens and had also copied out the inscriptions from the island. He lay these in the middle of the group, along with samples of the streamers.

“I think what we need to do is to find synonyms for the different words used,” he began. “Everyone take a piece of paper and a pen and just jot down the words that come into your head when you see these – especially the words, or ideas, that he’s repeating.”

“Like blue,” Di suggested, frowning in concentration. “And height and wrongness.”

“Yes, that’s the idea.” He smiled across at her. “I think you might be good at this, Di.”

“So, we’re not trying to decipher what the lines mean?” Honey clarified. “Or are we?”

He thought for a moment. “You could try that as well. If there’s something that gives you an idea, write it down. We might be able to match it up with something else later.”

“I think I understand.” Trixie frowned at her paper. “Let’s start.”

“I already have,” Brian muttered.

Trixie rolled her eyes at him and started jotting down words. Across from her, Mart was furiously scribbling. Di was grouping her words within circles, while Honey wrote a list. Dan only wrote every now and again, while Jim was arranging his words in columns. After a few minutes, most of them slowed, then stopped altogether. Mart was the last to finish.

“So, what next?” Trixie demanded of him, even as he was adding another word or two.

He put down his pen. “We see what we’ve got. Let’s see if there are things that we have in common, or things that are different.”

They began reading each other’s papers, comparing notes and asking for clarification when handwriting or spelling rendered a word unintelligible. A number of words were read aloud by various people, which led to the first discovery.

“Honey, was that court, C-O-U-R-T, or caught, C-A-U-G-H-T?”

“The first one,” she answered. “It’s a place where you might judge things – from the rhyme on the trees, remember?”

“And he also used the second one on the second set of streamers,” Di pointed out. “He used B-L-E-W blew, and B-L-U-E blue, as well.”

Mart sat straighter. “If there are two pairs of homophones, there might be others. Has anyone got anything else like that?”

“Only one, only it’s not a pair that sounds the same, but a pair that looks the same.” Di hesitated, trying to find a way to explain. “W-I-N-D. The wind blows, and you can wind something around something else. They look like the same word, even though they don’t sound like it.”

“So, did anyone try to find meanings for the individual lines?” Mart asked, looking around.

“I tried a little,” Honey volunteered. “From the first rhyme, I had kites, balloons, birds, the wind and planes for the first line and for the third line, the court one I’ve already said. From the second one, I had the sky for the first line, but didn’t get anything for the rest. From the second set of streamers – you remember, ‘It goes around, or is it caught?’ – all I could think of was the measles.”

“That one is where I got the concept of winding something,” Di put in. “But I don’t understand how something wound could be caught. Unless you’re talking about fishing. Only that doesn’t quite make sense, either.”

“He seems to really like plays on words,” Trixie noted, pushing all of the papers away from herself. “This is not my kind of mystery at all!”

“Blue. Wind. Caught.” Mart was muttering the words. “Something there, but I don’t know what, yet.”

Di took back her sheet of paper. “The wind blows. Maybe those two make one idea. But I had an idea that there was something significant about being high up, too.”

“High. Raised. Rise. Fly. Soar. Lift. Elevated. Stratified. Lofty.” Mart was muttering again. “High wind. Wind up. No – that’s not the right sort of thing.”

“Wait a minute.” Honey waved her hands for silence. “Something you just said… I just can’t quite remember what it was.”

Mart handed her the paper and let her figure it out in silence.

Honey frowned and murmured for a few moments, then enlightenment struck. “Trixie! Do you remember the name that the sandwich lady gave, when she was talking about the former owners of this place?”

Trixie stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Let me think. It was something ordinary, you know, like Wallace, or Mitchell, or Harris, or… Windsor! I knew it was an English-sounding name.”

“Windsor,” Honey repeated, grasping both of Mart’s hands. “Don’t you see? In times past, it blew high overhead. Windsor. Wind soar.”

Mart answered her with a wide grin and a resounding kiss, while his sister groaned at the terrible pun.

Brian made an exclamation as enlightenment struck him as well. “It’s in the message on the second lot of streamers, too, though pronounced differently. It goes around, or… Winds or.”

“What does the second half mean, then?” Trixie wondered. “Is it caught?”

Di made a small sound. “Court, caught. Those courtyards we walked through on our way up here.”

“Windsor Court. Do you think that might have been the name of this place, once upon a time?” Honey wondered. “It sounds like a nice name. And that one streamer did say something about a name.”

“If only it wasn’t so late, we could go back to the sandwich place and ask the lady there,” Trixie lamented. “Do you think they open for breakfast?”

“I imagine we’ll be finding out,” Brian noted, wryly.

His sister slumped back in her seat. “So, we’ve solved the riddle at least. Or, I think we’ve solved it. But what can we do about it? I don’t suppose we could convince the new owners to change the name, even if that is what this all means.”

“Maybe we could convince the man to stop persecuting them.” Honey leaned against Mart and he slid an arm around her waist. “That, at least, would solve the problem.”

“I wonder how we could do that.” Trixie’s brow creased in thought. “He must feel very strongly about it to go to all this trouble, and from what we heard, it’s been going on for over a year.”

Di picked up the copy of the rhyme that was written on the trees. “I wonder if this is a clue to how to do it? But no other clue to it remains in sight. Do you think the main thing he’s upset about is that every trace of the old name has gone? Maybe a commemorative sign would help.”

“After we find out for sure that we’ve got the answer right, we’ll have to track him down and ask him about it,” Trixie decided. She sighed. “The trouble is, I don’t want to have to wait until morning to know. I wish there was some other way.”

Brian glanced at his watch. “Well, I think it’s too late to do any more sleuthing tonight, so how about if we take your mind off it with a game or something?”

The suggestion was well-received and soon they were happily occupied with a card game. Play was becoming intense when, without warning, the lights went out.

Missing in the Dark • 6

For a minute or two, everyone talked at once and bumped into each other and the furniture as they tried to find out what was going on. Those who had phones on them and could use them as lights mostly managed to shine them in other people’s eyes and dazzle them. After a short time, Jim returned from a trip to his room with a flashlight to show his way and another in his other hand.

“The house phone isn’t working,” Honey announced, as she replaced the receiver. “Do we have the number of the front desk? I thought I’d saved it, but I can’t seem to find it.”

No one seemed to know where to find it and a short search was unsuccessful.

“How about if one of us goes down and sees them?” Jim suggested. “I don’t mind going.”

Brian nodded. “I’ll come with you. The rest of you, hold tight. It’s probably just a fuse or something.”

The door closed behind them and the remaining five settled down to wait. Five minutes passed, then ten. Conversation became more strained. After fifteen minutes, Trixie began getting agitated.

“Where are they? It can’t take that long to walk to the front desk and back.”

“Maybe they’re helping out,” Honey suggested.

A rattling sound came from the direction of the sliding doors, as if the wind had suddenly risen and shaken them. Both Honey and Di shivered. Dan walked over to look out.

“Funny.” His shoulders stiffened. “The trees don’t seem to be moving. It looks really still out there.”

“Can you even tell?” Di asked. “It’s so dark.”

“The moon’s shining on the lake and I can see the silhouette.”

A thump sounded, seemingly from the next room.

“Maybe that’s them now,” Mart reasoned. “I’ll just go and check.”

“No, you will not.” Honey’s voice was more shrill than usual. “There’s something fishy about this and you’re not going in there when we don’t know who’s there.”

“She’s right,” Trixie added. “Maybe that sound we heard before was the wind, or maybe there’s someone up here who shouldn’t be. We already know it’s possible to climb up onto our balcony.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Mart addressed the question to his sister. “I don’t suppose either Jim or Brian has a phone on them.”

Honey picked up her phone and placed a call. After a brief delay, she tried again. She put it down, shaking her head.

“The other phone’s still not working.” Trixie replaced the receiver, brow creased in thought. “I know! Let’s look out through one of the windows that face the other direction. Maybe we can see what’s going on.”

Without waiting for agreement, she raced up the stairs with the others following. She first tried the bedroom they were using.

“I can see lights in the town, and in that big house across the lake,” Honey noted. “I don’t see any in the rest of this complex, though. I can’t make anything out; it’s too dark.”

“Let’s try the other window.” Trixie pushed past the others and went into the spare bedroom. “Hey! Look at this!”

Mart, Honey, Dan and Di crowded around. From the slightly different angle, they had a view of a wall in the next building, with lights playing across the bricks. They waved around wildly, sometimes bright and sometimes blinking out altogether.

“Something’s going on down there. Let’s go and take a look.”

Trixie was almost out of the room before Dan spoke.

“Wait a minute.”

Something in his tone of voice caused her to stop. “What is it?”

“Listen. Can you hear that?”

He pushed the window open and the faint sound became louder.

“It sounds like people fighting.” Honey leaned out as far as was safe. “I think it’s coming from where those lights are.”

“We stick together, okay?” There was urgency in Dan’s voice. “No matter what you want to run off after.”

“Yes, okay. But will you hurry up?” Trixie called over her shoulder. “They must be in trouble.”

The five raced downstairs and out the door. Honey made certain on the way out that the door was locked and that she had the key with her. She had to run to catch up to the others, who were already at the head of the stairs.

“Shouldn’t there be emergency lighting in here?” Di asked, as they stepped into pitch blackness broken only by the one flashlight they shared and the light from Di’s phone. “I thought I saw some the other times we’ve been in here.”

“I think someone’s deliberately disabled in,” Dan answered. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Her voice was firm. “I just don’t want us all falling down the stairs.”

They reached the bottom without incident and were soon outside in the moonlight. As soon as the outside door was opened, it became clear that whatever had been happening had now stopped. The night air was still, cool and quiet. In the shadows between the buildings, the darkness was unrelieved.

“Let’s go down this way,” Trixie suggested, pointing to the arch that led to the upper courtyard. “I think that’s where we were seeing those lights.”

“Careful.” Dan took the flashlight from her and played it across the edges of the area where they walked. “You don’t know what might be lurking in the shadows.”

He found nothing out of the ordinary and they proceeded in the direction Trixie had chosen. Dan insisted on going first through the archway, but there was no one in the courtyard either. They were about to continue through the next archway when Trixie spotted something.

“Bring the light over here! There’s something on the ground.”

Dan approached, swearing softly as he knelt next to her.

“Is it blood?” Di asked, leaning over.

“Looks like it,” Dan answered. “I wonder whose?”

From somewhere further down the hill, voices were raised. They echoed off the walls of the courtyard, distorted too much to understand.

“Come on!” Trixie grabbed Dan’s arm and tried to get him to move.

He shook his head and pressed the flashlight into her hands. “You stay here – all of you. I’ll just get a little closer and see what’s up. If I need you, I’ll whistle.”

He slipped into the shadows and out of sight. Trixie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, impatient at having to wait. For some time, they heard nothing, then a crash and a quick Bob-White!

Trixie was off in a heartbeat, leaving the others in her wake. She shone the light through the archway and, seeing no one, stepped into its shadow. No noise was coming from the lower courtyard. She edged her way down and only jolted a little when Dan stepped into the opening at the bottom, blocking her way.

“False alarm,” he told her, grinning. “And I found these two characters.”

“You could have just waited for us where you were.” Brian shook his head at his sister. “I thought by now you’d have grown out of that impatience.”

“We thought you were in trouble. We heard a fight, then when we came down to investigate, we heard raised voices, too.” Trixie’s gaze moved from one to the other. “Didn’t you hear any of it?”

Jim shrugged and Brian shook his head.

“What were you doing all that time?” Honey demanded. “And can we get out of this dark tunnel?”

The three in the lower courtyard stepped back and allowed the rest of them through. In the moonlight, none of them looked the worse for wear.

“We’ve been helping the owners look for the problem,” Jim explained. “It’s only this complex that’s out, but the fuses seem just fine.”

“Sabotage?” Trixie asked.

Jim shrugged. “Too soon to tell. They’ve called an electrician and we’ll just have to wait until he arrives.”

“Well, let’s get back to our rooms,” Mart suggested. “I was just about to win that game, I think you’ll find.”

“I think we’ll find that you weren’t,” Trixie argued, hotly.

“Peace, children.” Brian place a hand on each of their shoulders and forcibly separated them. “I think you’ll find that we’d have to start over because I doubt we could agree on which cards were whose and whose turn was next.”

They began walking back up the slope to their rooms, spreading out into two groups centred around the two lights. As the first group was nearing their building and the second was about to enter the upper archway, Di grasped Trixie’s arm.

“Where’s Honey? I thought she was behind me, but she’s not.”

Trixie stopped and looked around. She and Di were now alone in the upper courtyard.

“Run ahead and get the others to stop,” she urged. “I’ll start going back to look for her.”

Her heart beating faster, she began to retrace her steps. She passed the sinister patch on the ground, hesitated in order to shine her light through the lower archway, then carefully stepped inside. She could see a small section of the lower courtyard, brighter than where she now stood. She took a couple more steps, then a few more. Nearly at the end of the passage, she stopped and waited, unsure of whether someone might be lying in wait. Behind her, she could hear hurrying footsteps.

“Is she there?” Mart called, only to be shushed by someone else.

Dan reached her and stepped out into the courtyard. He shone his light around, but no one was there. He strode across to the other side, looking in every corner. Once sure that Honey was not there, he swore creatively.

“Maybe she just went into the office,” Trixie suggested, as Dan stalked around the edges of the space, looking for other ways out. “I’ll go and see.”

Dan shook his head. “Brian’s just finished telling me that they’ve locked up the office and that the alarm automatically sets on front entrance when there’s a power outage – the man checked it and it’s working. There’s no way out that way.”

Trixie stared at him. “But then, where is she?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

Mart, in the meantime, had gone to the office and found that Dan was correct. Soon, the three of them had tried every possible way out, other than the way they had come in, without success.

“Where are the others?” Mart demanded, in angry tones. “Why aren’t they helping?”

“They’re searching some other places.” Dan’s words were clipped. “We’d better go, too. She’s definitely not here and we’re just wasting time.”

Without another word, he headed towards their rooms. Mart and Trixie followed along in silence. Along the way, they made a short search of the upper courtyard, which was also empty. Reaching their building, they did not go inside, but Dan led the way around to the other side. They made their way up to the grassy area where they had eaten their lunch.

“Any luck?” Jim asked, as they approached.

“None.” Dan paused to look around. “Where are the other two?”

Jim glanced up up their balcony. “In the girls’ room. Theirs is okay, but someone’s been in ours and it’s a shambles. Di’s calling the police right now.”

“I guess they’ll be okay there,” Dan decided. “Anything else?”

“You mean like that shape there?” Trixie asked, pointing at the lake. “I think there’s someone in a canoe.”

The three men turned and looked where she indicated.

“Could be,” Mart conceded. “But what of it?”

“Don’t you think it’s a strange time to go for a paddle? I think we should go down there and take a look.”

They heard the sound of a sliding door opening and someone stepped out onto the balcony.

“Have you found her?” Di’s voice called.

“No. Not yet,” Trixie answered. “Did you mention that she was missing when you called the police?”

“Yes. I don’t know how long it will take them to do anything about any of this, though. They didn’t think any of it was too serious.”

Trixie shook her head at the police dispatcher’s lack of insight. “Well, we’re going to keep looking. We’ll check back with you when we can.”

“Thanks,” Di called, and she went back into the room, locking the door behind her.

“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Trixie announced, “but I’m going down to the lake to see what’s going on there.”

Mart took a step closer to her. “Not by yourself, you’re not.”

“Well, come on, then.” She started walking down the path and let them follow along behind.

As the lake came back into view between the trees, they could just make out the dark shadow of some small vessel near the island on which they had found the rhymes.

“Can you see it any more?” Trixie asked, squinting out in that direction. “Have they landed, or are they going around it?”

“I think they landed,” Mart replied. “Hey! Is that a light on the island?”

“Looks like it.” Jim took a few steps to one side to get a better view. “Either it just went out, or they’ve gone too far between the trees.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Dan muttered. “I’m not sure we should split up any further, but someone should go and take a look.”

Trixie stared at the island for a moment longer, then made up her mind. “Let’s go. It’s better than hanging around here doing nothing.”

Mart shook his head. “Do you have a key, Trixie? Because I think Brian and Di have both of them.”

She stamped her foot in frustration. “No, I think you’re right; though how Di got our key I don’t know. Last I knew, Honey had it.”

“She gave it to me,” Mart explained. “She didn’t have a pocket, so I put it in mine. Then I gave it to Di when she and Brian went back to check our rooms.”

“But we need one of them now so we can get into the boathouse. Who’s going to go back and get one?”

“Me.” Dan stepped back from the group. “Keep an eye on the island while I’m gone.”

During the tense wait, they all kept their eyes on the lake. Every so often, a glimmer of light showed, but from that distance they could gain little insight. At last Dan returned.

“I got Di to call the police again and update them on Honey.” He stepped between them and opened the door. “They’re sending someone out soon, but they have to come from the next town and there’s no telling how long it might take.”

“So, we’re still going?” Trixie wondered.

“Damn straight.” Dan put a hand on a three-person canoe and let Brian take the other end. “I’m not going to let this guy have it all his own way.”

Continue to next chapter.

Back to cover page.

Cover by Trix-e-tron
http://www.trixie-belden.com/interactive/trixetron.htm
(Trix-e-tron created by Jenni J)

Please note: Trixie Belden is a registered trademark of Random House Publishing. This site is in no way associated with Random House and no profit is being made from these pages.

To Janice’s Odds and Ends Page.