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Paige lifted her head from the headrest and looked around at the woods on either side of the road and then at her watch. “Are we there yet?” she asked with a yawn.
“I swear I will turn this car around,” Savannah said in amusement as she turned down another desolate looking road. “Does that barn look dilapidated to you?”
“No more than the other three we just passed,” Arden said taking a picture of the scenery. Try as she might, she couldn’t convince Savannah to fill her in on where they were going, but as the miles flew by, Arden sensed Savannah’s resolve was weakening. “If you would just give me the address, I could look it up on my phone and get the directions.”
“I don’t have one,” Savannah confessed, biting her lower lip. “All Zeke gave me was this,” she said, holding up a single sheet of paper, “and it says to turn right at the dilapidated gray barn.” She scowled as they passed another old barn. “There are a dozen dilapidated gray barns out here, each one worse than the others. How am I supposed to know which one is the right one?” Her frown deepened as she peered down at the paper. “Oh, these directions, I swear,” she said turning the car around and starting back the way they came, “they just simply make no sense whatsoever.” She passed the paper towards Arden. “See if you can make any sense from them. I can’t make heads or tails out of the thing.”
Arden frowned down at the almost illegible directions and the crude hand drawn map underneath. “How old is Zeke?” Arden wondered as she turned the map upside down.
“He was at least twenty years older than me when we shot Sutton & Grimes, so maybe about sixty-five, give or take a couple of years. Why?”
Arden turned the map to the side. “I was just wondering who drew this. It looks like a child’s drawing.”
Savannah laughed. “His writing’s even worse. I remember spending hours trying to decipher the notes he’d leave on my scripts and...”
Arden gasped as another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Her eyes grew wide. “You’re talking about Zeke Tapper, aren’t you?”
Savannah pursed her lips together. “Maybe.”
Paige pushed her short black hair away from her face as the wind blew it forward. “Who’s Zeke Tapper?”
Arden glanced over her shoulder. “He and his brother, Dennis Tapper, created Sutton & Grimes,” she explained before turning back to Savannah. “Oh, my gosh! Are you taking us to one of his parties? Is he throwing one of his mystery theme parties?”
Savannah stared at her open mouthed. “How do you know about those parties?”
“Entertainment Tonight.” Arden pointed to a road on the left. “Make a left up here. So, are we going to one of his parties?”
“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Savannah grumbled as she made the turn. “Oh well, cat’s out of the bag, I suppose. Yes, we’re going to one of his parties. I figured it should be right up your alley, Arden, on account of those mystery games you used to play.”
“Is Kevin Harper going to be there?” Arden asked when she stopped clapping for joy.
Savannah glanced at her in exasperation. “Is that the first thing you can think to ask? Is Kevin coming?”
Arden nodded. “Yes, so is he?”
Savannah smiled. “Yes.” She waited until Arden finally finished celebrating to continue. “I spoke to Kevin a few days ago and he assured me he’d be there.” She lifted her hands up in defeat. “There goes that surprise.”
Arden’s smile fell as reality took hold. “I have nothing to wear. I brought jeans and sweaters. I can’t meet Kevin Harper in jeans and sweaters. I only brought one dress.”
Savannah looked at her aghast. “Only one dress?”
“Who is Kevin Harper?” Paige asked.
It was Arden’s turned to look aghast. “Only the most gorgeous man who ever lived.”
“You said that about Max last week,” Paige pointed out.
“Only the second most gorgeous man who ever lived,” Arden amended, quickly turning her attention back to the map. “Make a right at this next intersection.”
Savannah glanced up at the rearview mirror. “Kevin played Clay Grimes, my partner in crime, in our little detective show.”
Paige’s brow furrowed. “I don’t recognize his name. What else has he been in?”
“Nothing really,” Savannah said. “He retired from acting soon after I did.”
“I never understood why he stopped acting,” Arden said. “He was so good.”
“It wasn’t by choice,” Savannah said with a sigh. “He just couldn’t get any work afterwards. I guess he was typecast. He works at his father’s car dealership in Vegas now.”
Arden leaned her head back against the headrest and looked up at the cloudy sky. “I had such a crush on his character growing up,” she said, smiling at the memory. “He made such a great hero. You could always count on Clayton Grimes to rush in at the last possible moment and save everyone from whatever mess Sunny had gotten them into that week.” She glanced back at Paige. “I’m surprised you don’t remember Kevin Harper. When we were young, he was on all those teen magazines. There was always some scandal or another going on with him.”
“I had a sheltered childhood,” Paige confessed. “If he wasn’t a member of a boy band, I wasn’t interested.”
Savannah shook her head. “You know, those stories about him were ridiculous. It kind of cracks me up when I think about it now. They made Kevin out to be some kind of sexy Casanova heartthrob, but really, he was just this big awkward goofy kid.” She glanced at Arden. “Close your mouth, honey.”
“Goofy?” Arden asked appalled by the description. “Are we talking about the same guy? Clayton Grimes was never goofy.”
“Clayton wasn’t, but Kevin definitely was,” Savannah said with a laugh.
“So, tell me about these parties your friend Zeke throws,” Paige said, changing the subject. “Are they sort of cocktail affairs where everyone gets dressed up?”
“It depends,” Savannah said. “There’s usually...”
“A mystery theme,” Arden interrupted turning around in order to look at Paige. She pushed her dark brown hair back out of her face so she could see Paige. “Zeke Tapper always threw a gigantic murder mystery theme party at the start of every season and then again at the end of the season. He’d take the cast and crew all over the world. One time it was in Spain. Another time it was in Paris. He’d give them clues and then they’d have to run around trying to solve the mystery.” She turned back around with a big grin on her face. “Oh wow! As soon as I heard about those parties I always wanted to go.”
“It sounds like you’ve already been,” Savannah said wryly. “The parties were a lot of fun and gave us a chance to unwind and just be silly. The first one we played was in Switzerland. Zeke flew us all out to this burned out old castle and had us playing spies. We spent a week running around trying to find the double agent that was picking us off one by one.” She grinned. “No one figured out that I was the double agent until I had killed them all. Anyway, you two are going to love the party. I bet Zeke has something special planned for us. He always promised that, at the end of the series, he would throw out all the stops and plan a mystery that not even Sunny Sutton and Clay Grimes could solve.”
Arden’s brow furrowed. “But the series ended twenty-five years ago,” she said. “Didn’t you have the party then?”
Savannah looked at her in amusement. “I’m surprised you don’t know.” She shook her head. “We never got a chance to have that last party. There was an accident on the set during our last season and Kevin was hurt pretty bad.”
Arden frowned. “I remember reading about an accident, but the papers made it seem like his injury was minor.”
Savannah shook her head. “It was horrible. I didn’t think he was going to live.”
“What happened?” Paige asked.
“A chandelier on the set fell and knocked him out cold,” Savannah said. “He broke both legs and a few ribs. One of them even pierced his lung. He was in and out of the hospital for months. Poor boy. Everyone was so worried about him.” She fell silent for a few moments, and then added, “Anyway, the show ended up getting cancelled and since Kevin was hurt, we decided to put off the last game until he was well enough to participate. By the time Kevin got better, everyone had moved on and were doing other things.” She grinned. “I couldn’t believe it when I opened that envelope last week and pulled out an invitation to Zeke’s murder mystery game. I thought he had forgotten all about me. Well, anyway, I really hope you all enjoy the game. They were a lot of fun.”
“Oh, Savannah,” Arden said, “thank you so much for getting us an invitation. You’ll never know how much I appreciate it.”
“Invitation?” She laughed. “Oh, you all don’t have an invitation.”
Paige raised an eyebrow. “They do know we’re coming, don’t they?”
“Well, they know I’m coming,” Savannah said.
Arden frowned down at the directions. “Make a right up here.”
“Oh, Savannah,” Paige said in dismay, “what are you going to say when you show up with us?”
“Oh, hush, it’ll be fine. They know I never go anywhere by myself. Don’t you two worry. Zeke won’t mind if I bring a guest or two to the party. He was always fond of me. Used to say I was his favorite. Did you know he was the one who discovered me?”
Arden nodded while Paige shook her head.
“Zeke adores me.” Savannah pointed to a large faded looking sign coming up. “Oh, would you look at that! Aren’t you clever? Here we are ladies, Raven’s Peak. Population 121.”
Arden quickly snapped a picture of the sign and posted it to Facebook along with all the others she had taken on their drive to Raven’s Peak.
“Any idea where to go from here?”
Arden’s brow furrowed as she consulted first the directions, then the hand drawn map. “All it says is make a right at the fat frog. The problem is the road leading to this fat frog isn’t even marked. The direction just say it’s past the sunflowers.”
The woods on either side gave away and a small town came into view. “Oh, it looks like there was a fire,” Savannah said as they passed a burned out building near the courthouse. “I hope no one was hurt.”
“Must have just happened,” Paige said. “There’s an ambulance out front.”
Arden spared a second to look at the charred remains of what was once the Raven Falls News and Record before turning back to the directions. “Could the fat frog be a street name?” Arden asked.
“I don’t know, but I bet I know where to find out,” Savannah said as they came up to a small grimy looking gas station. “Hopefully someone in there will know how to get to Cliff House.”
After taking a quick picture of the gas station, Arden offered to fill up the car, while Savannah and Paige ventured inside for snacks and information. While she was filling up the car, she noticed two old men seated on a dirty looking bench near the door.
She tried not to eavesdrop but found her attention being pulled in their direction as bits and pieces of their conversation floated past her while she waited for her friends to return.
“They found Anderson in his office this morning.”
“I bet it was a jealous husband that did it.”
“Bad news,” Paige said as she and Savannah exited the station. “The girl behind the counter just moved to town. She has never heard of the fat frog or Cliff House.”
“. . . you know what they say about a woman scorned . . .”
“Yep.”
Savannah waved a map of the town in her direction. “It’s got to be around here somewhere,” she said, spreading the map out on top of the hood of the car.
“. . . burned beyond recognition. They think some files of his were stolen.”
“I heard he was working on some big story.”
Savannah glanced back at the old men. “Those men look like locals,” she whispered, “they probably know where it is.” She turned and gave the two men a big smile as she approached. “Hi there.”
The older of the two smiled back at her. “Well, hi yourself. You three young ladies lost?”
Paige hopped up on the side of the car. “How could you tell?”
The younger one snorted. “Strangers who come through here are usually lost.”
“I’ll tell you what to do,” the older one said pointing to the left. “You take that road down to McGrady’s Lane, you make a left, then go for another fifteen miles, make another left and you’ll start seeing signs for the interstate.”
“Oh, we don’t want to go back to the interstate,” Savannah said, “we’re looking for a place called Cliff House.”
The smiles slowly fell from their faces. They turned to each other, their brows furrowing ever so slightly.
“Cliff House?” the older one said. “I can’t say I’ve heard of a Cliff House.”
“It’s here in Raven’s Peak,” Savannah said taking the crude map Zeke sent and showing it to them.
The younger one barely looked at the paper as he handed it back. “Got plenty of cliffs but don’t know of any houses named Cliff House. Must be some other town.”
“Are you sure? Maybe it’s...”
“Lived here my whole life,” the older one said brusquely, “never heard of it.”
“Oh,” Savannah said with a heavy sigh, “well, thank you anyhow.”
“No problem. Have a nice day.”
They returned to the car. “Well, now what?” Arden asked as Savannah sped away from the gas station.
“Maybe this is part of the mystery,” Paige said. “The Mystery of Cliff House. Does it exist? What’s the fat frog? Will they ever return home? Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion of the drive to nowhere.”
“Oh no,” Savannah said, dread dripping from her voice as she looked in the rearview mirror. “Please no, no, no.”
Arden and Paige turned just in time to see the police car behind them turn on his lights and siren.
“How fast were you going?” Arden asked.
“No more than usual,” Savannah said checking her makeup.
They watched silently as a young man in a uniform exited the police car and approached.
“Oh, good! Tall, dark and good-looking,” Savannah whispered with a happy grin. “My favorite. This will be a piece of cake.”
The officer stopped by the driver’s side door. He looked at each woman in turn before pulling out a pad of paper and pen.
“Hello, Officer,” Savannah said brightly. “Is there a problem?”
“Ma’am, did you know you were going sixty-five in a forty-five mile per hour zone?”
Savannah’s mouth parted in surprise, her blue eye widening. “Oh, my, I had no idea. I could have sworn that sign said sixty-five back there.” She looked at Arden and Paige for confirmation. “Didn’t it say sixty-five?” Before they could answer, she turned back to the officer. “I just want you to know that I would never have knowingly broken the speed limit. I’m always very conscientious of such things. Not that I don’t mind meeting a handsome police officer every so often,” she said batting her eyelashes.
“Yes ma’am,” he said barely looking at her as he wrote something down on his pad of paper. “Where you all headed?”
Savannah sighed dramatically as she tried to look helpless. “Oh, we’re hopelessly lost, Officer.”
“Well, don’t worry. I-95 isn’t too far from here,” he said in a bored tone.
Savannah flashed the officer an irritated look prompting Arden to smother a smile.
“We’re trying to find someplace called Cliff House,” Arden said. “Have you ever heard of it?”
He snorted. “Everyone in town knows about that place.”
“We just spoke to a couple of guys who had never heard of it,” Paige said.
The officer gave Paige a passing glance before returning to his notepad. “They built a factory a few miles from here a year ago and it brought a lot of new people to our sleepy little town. Whoever you talked to might not have heard about it. Cliff House has been boarded up for the last forty years or so.”
Arden frowned. “But they said they lived here all their lives.”
“Then they were lying,” the officer said, “either about growing up here or about not knowing the house, because everyone here knows that house.” He held out his hand, palm up, towards Savannah. “License and registration, please.”
“Well, why would they lie to us?” Savannah asked as she handed him her license. “That’s not very friendly of them.”
“Cliff House has a bit of a reputation...” There was a small intake of breath as he stared down at Savannah’s license. “Are you . . . ?”
Savannah leaned back against the leather seat with a self-satisfied smile. “Why, yes, I am.”
The officer’s whole demeanor changed at once, going from brusque cop to excited fan in a matter of seconds. Soon he was kneeling next to the door, giving her all of his attention. “I just can’t believe it’s really you. My dad is like a huge fan of yours. You know, I was born a few years after your show ended.”
Savannah’s smiled died a little at that admission. “How nice to hear,” she said wryly.
“Yeah, my dad was such a fan that he wanted to name me Sunny when I was born, but my mom vetoed the idea.” He tipped his hat back on his head as he smiled at her. “So, I’m just plain ole John Grayson. Oh man, my dad’s going to be thrilled when I tell him who I pulled over today. You know, I heard some movie stars were coming up here for the weekend, but I never imagined one of them would be you. Are you all filming a movie up there at Cliff House?” His eyes grew excited. “Is it a horror movie?”
“No,” Savannah said with a worried frown, “why would you think that?”
He waved his hand around dismissively before ripping off a ticket and handing it to Savannah. “I was just curious.”
Paige frowned at him. “You were saying something about the house having a reputation.”
“Ah, it’s just nonsense. Any house that is boarded up for so many years will usually get a reputation, especially one as old as Cliff House.”
While Savannah stared at the ticket as though she had never seen one before, Arden asked, “Could you tell us how to find it?”
“Sure, just keep going down this road. About a mile from here you’ll come to a burned out diner, used to be called the Fat Frog. Right next to the diner is a dusty road. Doesn’t even look like much of a road but it is. Turn there. It’s kind of bumpy though, so watch out. Hardly anyone’s been out that way in the last forty years. Just keep going and in about five miles, you’ll come to a pair of gates. Just beyond the gates is Cliff House.”
“Why is it called Cliff House?” Arden asked.
“Because it’s practically hanging off the cliff.” He grinned at Savannah. “Wow! I can’t believe I pulled over Sunny Sutton. Wait till I tell my dad.”
