It was late afternoon when my group returned. The fire was glowing and the room was cheerful and inviting. The sun had long since disappeared, replaced by a white sky mottled with gray, though the clouds were all for show. Despite the bits of gray there wasn’t any rain ready to fall at this time of year.
I thought they’d all be in a good mood from the outing, but I heard some grumbling as they came down the path to our meeting room.
Vonda’s lips were pursed, and she gave Suzy! a dirty look as they came into the room.
“I just asked the driver to pull over for a few minutes while I posted some things on Facebook. It doesn’t mean I’m an addict.” Her phone was in her hand and she shoved it in her pocket.
“I saw a police car parked on the street. Are they still investigating what happened to that woman? Didn’t you say it was an accident?” Hanna asked. “It sure detracts from the peace of this place seeing the police hanging around.”
“It’s a small-time police department. They probably overreact when something happens,” Fern said. “In a town like this most of their calls are probably about teenagers being rowdy.”
“You sure seem to know a lot about everything,” Vonda said to Fern. It didn’t seem like a compliment, and I suspected that Vonda thought that as an assistant principal she should be the one in the know.
“What can I say—I’m curious and I read a lot,” Fern answered, giving Vonda a dismissive shrug. It was time for me to step in and smooth things over. There was no reason not to tell them the truth. “I heard that Jordan and his people weren’t being cooperative and the police are still looking for information,” I said.
“And the cops are probably suspicious of why the Jordan people aren’t talking. Maybe there’s more to it than it seems,” Daisy said.
“I would ascertain that Fern is probably correct. Not much happens in Cadbury and someone dying from eating wild food connected to a retreat put on by a well-known guru type is more interesting than dealing with rowdy teenagers,” Vonda added.
John came in at the end of it. He had an envelope tucked under his arm and was holding a plastic cup of wine. Hanna looked at the dark red liquid and gave him a disparaging frown. “Considering your problem, do you think you should have that?”
His eyes flared as he glared at her. “It would be a lot worse for all of you if I didn’t,” he said, pulling out a chair and sitting.
“Is something wrong?” Fern asked with concern. “Maybe it would help if you talked about it.”
“It wouldn’t,” he said firmly. “Consider the subject closed.” He picked up the cup and drank off half of it.
There was a moment of awkward silence. “The Jordan people were on my plane,” Daisy said, trying to change the subject. “He was in first class and a couple of women who were in the back with the rest of us kept going in the front. The flight attendant had to tell them to stay in their seats.”
My ears perked up. “What did they look like?”
“It was that woman with the great-looking white hair and a younger dark-haired woman who had an air of entitlement,” she said.
The woman with the white hair was Lyla, and I was betting that the other one was Megan, though I kept that to myself and ended the line of conversation by asking them what they thought of the cookies.
I had baked another batch during my stop home and added dabs of cherry preserves to some and chocolate wafers to others. Yolanda was the first one to speak up and give them her approval. I suggested they spend the time working on the switched projects. They seemed okay with going ahead with them without having Crystal there for help. The only issue was that Fern had decided to alter the pattern of the scarf that Vonda had brought. “I thought we were supposed to stick to whatever the original instructions were,” Vonda said in a sharp tone.
“Nobody said anything about rules,” Fern said, showing the rest of the group how she’d added a section with an open space between the knitted stitches. This was all on me and something Crystal and I hadn’t considered when we came up with the idea. The only thing to do now was take a vote. Vonda was overruled and seemed disgruntled.
• • •
After the hassle over serving breakfast to my group in the Lodge, I’d arranged for dinner to be set up in the living room–like lobby of the Sand and Sea building. Friday night was a busy dinner time at the Blue Door, so Lucinda had agreed to deliver my group’s meal early. I had met her at the Lodge and was helping her wheel the carts with the food to the building. Plates and a table were being supplied by Vista Del Mar. I was beginning to feel like a traffic cop. As we pushed them up the path, a group of Jordan people were coming toward us.
The smell of food wafted toward them and they clustered around us. I recognized Diana among them. “Don’t get your hopes up, that’s not for us,” she said to the others.
They all seemed to deflate at once and I heard one of them urge the others to chant “food is just fuel” and move on.
Diana hung back. “I did it,” she said, seeming bright-eyed and animated. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about and my smile must have seemed blank. “The challenge I was so worried about. I let go and someone caught me.”
I congratulated her. Her smile waned a little. “But that was the easy one.”
“But you did it,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll do great with the next one.” I realized I was doing Jordan’s job of pumping her up, but since she seemed to have latched on to me, I wanted to help her if I could. It seemed to work. She hugged my arm and thanked me multiple times before she rushed off to catch up with the others.
“What was that about?” Lucinda asked after the Jordan follower moved on to join the others.
“She’s with the other retreat and we’ve talked a bit. She needed a little encouragement. The Jordan retreat is more like boot camp,” I said. “The activities are called challenges and accomplishing them is supposed to help them fix their lives. There’s no fun or even the pleasure of a good meal. It’s a ‘no pain, no gain’ kind of philosophy.” We moved closer to the building and I explained that Diana had been with the woman who died at the foraging meal. “According to her, they ate exactly the same stuff and she said they deliberately avoided mushrooms, but she was probably confused. Lieutenant Borgnine took the dead woman’s tote bag as evidence and I heard that there was a mushroom in it and it was identified as a death cap.”
I considered whether to tell her that Lieutenant Borgnine had asked for my help, indirectly anyway, but I decided to follow what Dane had said and not tell anyone, including Lucinda. I did mention that I was trying to find a way to get the blame off of Cloris.
“Good for you,” my friend said. “It’s ridiculous for Kevin St. John to try to make it seem like she was responsible.” We wheeled the carts around to the back entrance, which had no stairs, and went on into the main room. A table had been brought in along with chairs. Serving platters, plates and silverware sat on top of the table. “Tag would be pleased,” Lucinda said. “He’s still fussing about the platter we didn’t get back.” She glanced around the common room. “It’s very cozy with the fire going and all. It’s something you should consider for your date with Dane,” she said.
Lucinda pulled out a tablecloth and we began to set up the table. She knew all about our big Saturday night plans. “I can’t believe that you and Dane have abstained so far. Who holds out anymore,” she said. Then she smiled. “Except you do.”
“Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of ice queen,” I said. “It’s going to change how he views me. And by the way, he’s arranging things and has promised candles and rose petals.”
“He can’t be that old-fashioned that he’s going to want to stick an A on your shirt.”
“I think you have to be married to be an adulteress,” I said. “And no, he isn’t so old-fashioned as to view me as compromised.” I laughed at the thought. “More like it opens the door to a kind of commitment.” I repeated the idea that it would have been different if it had happened when we’d just met. “Then it would have been just casual, just sex. Now it has more slapped all over it.”
“Like love?” she said.
The word made me uneasy and I just shrugged it off and said that I really needed to concentrate on how to help Cloris.
• • •
Lucinda had returned to the Blue Door to help keep Tag out of the customers’ way by the time my group filed in for dinner. It was lucky that the Jordan people were all off doing something, because they might have lost control if they’d seen the meal of fried chicken tenders, coleslaw, corn, mashed potatoes and some of the bread pudding I’d made the night before.
Friday evenings, Vista Del Mar usually put on camplike activities for the guests like roasting marshmallows and a movie in Hummingbird Hall, but that was all canceled since the Jordan group had taken over the whole place. I’d come up with a night hike followed by a wine or hot chocolate toast in the Lodge after.
I was pleased when they all agreed and seemed glad to move around after the heavy meal.
To add to the feeling of being out in the wild, the grounds were purposely kept on the dark side with just small-wattage lights along the roadway that wound through the place. The buildings seemed to float in the darkness with only the glow from the lights inside to show they were there as I led the way through the grounds. We left the center area behind and followed the roadway as it wound through the assorted buildings. Because everything my group had done had been so close to the main area, they were surprised to see how big the grounds really were. We backtracked the same way we’d come, though in the dark I don’t think they even noticed.
When we neared the Lodge, I took them across the grassy circle to the boardwalk. It was surrounded by the silky sand the area was known for. Though there were bushes and plants growing in it, enough of the sand was exposed to reflect light back from the clouds in the sky. It wasn’t bright enough to see colors, but bright enough to easily see where we were going. The boardwalk wasn’t actually a boardwalk. While it appeared to be made of wood slats, it was made of recycled plastic bottles. I’d planned to take them on the route that meandered through the dunes, but as we got close to the spot to turn off, there was loud rock music along with screams or yells coming from somewhere.
“It’s coming from over there,” John said, pointing toward the beach. The words were barely out of his mouth when there was a crescendo of shouts. Without me saying anything everyone started to move forward on the route to the beach. The music and shouting grew louder the closer we got. We picked up speed and rushed across the street. It was lucky there was rarely much traffic because I wasn’t sure how carefully anybody checked before going across.
A crowd was huddled around something glowing. As I got closer, a figure started moving over what I realized were glowing embers. The hoots and shouts got louder as the person continued over them, moving quickly in time to the rock music. When the figure stepped off the end, a cheer went up and they were greeted by hugs and high fives. And then it was repeated with someone else.
“It’s fire walking,” Daisy said, pushing in front of me for a better view.
“Is that what it’s called?” Vonda said. “It’s not for me.”
“Actually, I think Jordan’s version is called Hot Coal Stroll,” I said, remembering what I’d seen on the schedule. I didn’t care what it was called, I was with Vonda—not for me. Now I understood why Diana seemed so nervous. Falling into someone’s arms was tame compared to putting your bare feet on glowing embers.
We had stopped a distance away since I figured we wouldn’t be welcome.
I noticed a tall lumbering figure approaching and got ready to argue that we had every right to be there. I probably had my fists balled up, expecting to do battle when I heard my name, well, a version of it. “Hey, Case,” the voice said. There was only one person who called me that. He thought it was a nickname, but it seemed to me just taking away one syllable, actually one letter, didn’t create a nickname, but I had let it go too long to say anything.
“Sammy?” I said, sounding surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m working for Jordan. Right now I’m Dr. Samuel Glickner, ready in case anyone gets burned,” he said.
“But you’re a urologist,” I said. “It doesn’t seem likely they’ll get burned in your area of expertise.”
“I learned general medicine before I specialized,” he said. “Besides, it’s just first aid, but my real job is as a magic consultant. The grand finale is a setup called Escape Your Fears. It’s got some cool illusions. You should see it,” he said.
“Too bad you weren’t with the group last night,” I said.
“Did something happen?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“How about somebody died.” I told him about the foraging and Megan getting sick and then dying. “It seems she ate some poison mushrooms.”
“That is close to my area of expertise,” he began. “The toxins attack the liver and can affect the kidney.” He asked a lot of questions about the foraging, and I mentioned the bags were supposed to have been checked by an expert. He repeated what I already knew that there was no immediate reaction from eating a death cap. “I don’t know if I could have done anything,” he said.
The noise continued in the background, but suddenly there was a yell that sounded more like pain than triumph. Sammy picked up on it immediately. “Got to go, Case.” He turned and yelled, “Doctor on the way,” as he rushed toward a woman hobbling toward Jordan.
He was a sweet goofy guy who seemed to think I could do no wrong. It was too bad there just wasn’t a spark between us anymore, at least on my end. Sammy seemed more than content with the chemistry he felt, but for me it was just flat. When he’d showed up in Cadbury claiming he was just there to work on his magic away from his family, I’d made it clear that our relationship was over and there was no chance of it being revived. He knew I was friends with Dane, but he didn’t know the details, or he chose to ignore them. Either way, I didn’t want to push it in his face that I was going to spend the night with Dane. I would leave my car in the driveway and then slip down the street to Dane’s. Another problem presented itself. What if my mother called my landline Sunday morning and I wasn’t there to answer? If she got worried, the first thing she’d do was call Sammy. I’d have to make sure I called her first. This simple sleepover had become way too complicated.
I waved for my group to follow and led them on back to the grounds. With all the Jordan people on the beach, we had the Lodge to ourselves. With the warm light given off by amber glass shades on the table lamps and the fire going in the huge stone fireplace, the interior felt cozy and bright after the night walk. Cloris was behind the counter pacing. She looked up as we walked in. When I’d mentioned the drink choice, they’d all voted for wine. Hanna had given John a concerned look, but he insisted it was fine. I got wine from the café for all of them and then helped them get set up with the board games before I went over to talk to Cloris. It was only when I saw that I had an extra glass of wine that I realized Daisy wasn’t there.
“Did you see what they’re doing on the beach? Is everything okay?” Cloris said quickly.
I said that it seemed to be going okay and I watched someone cross the coals with no problem, and I assured her that Sammy was at the ready for any problems. I didn’t mention that he was already working on somebody. She relaxed enough to take a breath before leaning toward me. “What about the bag? Have you found out anything? I keep going in circles reliving the situation with the bags. Trying to figure if there was a way a bag was missed.” She put her head down. “If that’s what happened, I have to take the blame.”
“I promise, I’ll see what I can do,” I said, and she let out a gush of air.
“Thank you so much. I know I can count on you. I feel terrible being unglued like this. It’s so unprofessional. They even covered it in one of my classes at the community college. When you worked in hospitality, you had to stay cool and seem in control no matter what. Thank heavens my professor can’t see me.” I’d seen enough wellness-type retreats at Vista Del Mar to know what to do. I urged her to take a deep breath and hold it for a moment and count to five as she let it out. It took repeating it a few times, but she seemed improved. I went back to my group.
“This takes me back,” John said, looking at the Monopoly board he’d pulled out from the shelf at the back of the cavernous room.
Daisy had just joined them and grabbed the glass of wine I’d left her. Her face was bright from the chill damp air and she seemed more animated than before. She had noticed me talking to Sammy and asked who he was. I didn’t go into the details of our relationship, but instead mentioned that he was a doctor who was there for the other group.
“It’s good they had medical help,” Fern said.
“It’s not as dangerous as it seems,” Hanna said. “The best way to understand it is the difference between reaching in the oven and touching a metal pan or touching the top of the cake in the pan.” Her gaze swept the group.
“I get it,” I said. “I’ve felt the top of a cake more than once to see if it springs back to the touch, meaning it’s done, without getting burned. Not the same when I’ve made a mistake and my finger hit the pan.” Fern winced in sympathy and said she’d done it, too.
Hanna started to explain the different way that heat traveled, but wood was a poor conductor of heat and the layer of ash was even more protection. It also had to do with moving quickly.
“You seem to know a lot about it,” Daisy said.
“I’m a science teacher,” Hanna said with a shrug. “It’s the kind of stuff that fascinates me.”
“Not for us,” Vonda said, glancing at her sister.
“Speak for yourself,” Yolanda said. “I might like to do something daring.”
Vonda shook her head. “You’re just showing off. You’d put one toe on those coals and be screaming your head off.”
“I would not.”
“You would too,” Vonda said. Yolanda had gotten up and seemed ready to go to the beach to prove her point.
“Sorry to have to stop you,” I said. “But Jordan is adamant that we stay out of their activities.”
“Saved by the rules,” Vonda said with a knowing nod.
Yolanda seemed dejected as she sunk back into her seat. “Say what you want, but I would have done it.” She looked at the rest of us. “My sister thinks she can speak for both of us.”
“Here, you can be the iron,” Vonda said, pushing the game piece on her sister.
“No,” Yolanda bellowed, pushing the tiny iron back at her sister. “I want to be the little Scottie dog.”
Hearing the sisters fuss made me glad I was an only child.