"Hey." I looked around once we were far enough away that Riley wasn't in immediate danger of murder. By me. But there were only four girls behind me.
"Where are Betty and Lauren?"
Ava shrugged. "Probably rumbling."
"What?" I craned my neck to look around. "How? They've only been gone for a few seconds."
Inez said, "They said something about fighting. The Ladies Aid Society for the South has girls too—from Bladdersly. All brats."
"What?" I took off in the direction of the Rebel encampment, jumping over the tiny creek. "How did that happen, and why didn't you tell me? And how do you know they are brats?"
There was no answer as the girls ran alongside me. If it wasn't for the corset that was slowly crushing the life out of me, I would've asked how the girls knew about our Confederate counterparts. As far as I knew, they hadn't left my sight. Then again, maybe Betty discovered them on her midnight recon. I really needed to talk to that kid.
The Rebel camp was laid out a bit differently. They had their drilling and demonstration area next to the creek. Three regiments were camped in a sort of V formation, and there was only one other tent, meant for the Ladies Aid Society.
I burst into the tent and doubled over from the exertion of running in a corset. I held up one finger as I tried to catch my breath. Once I was upright, I found myself staring at what looked to be my doppelganger.
The woman was my age, with dirty blonde curls that were long enough to do something with.
"She looks like you, Mrs. Wrath!" Inez shouted.
"You can't go running in a corset!" The woman turned bright red. "You're supposed to take dainty steps, like a lady."
She demonstrated by floating toward me. Was she on a hoverboard? No way I could manage that.
As much as I liked getting told off by someone who looked like my twin, I was more interested in what was happening. Betty and Lauren had squared off against ten little girls. Four of whom looked very much alike.
"Betty and Lauren!" I used my leader voice. "Over here. Now!" I turned to…well, me. "I'm so sorry about this."
I stuck out my hand. "Merry Wrath, Girl Scout leader." It seemed like an odd thing to say.
"Girl Scouts weren't invented until the early 1900s," the woman said. But she shook my hand. "Mary Gold, Magnolia Girls leader." She motioned to a woman who looked a lot like Kelly. "And this is my co-leader, Kim Alberts."
This was getting weird fast. Mary Gold? My middle name was Merrygold. And Kelly's last name was Albers.
"Magnolia Girls?" Ava beat me to the punch.
A little girl who looked like a china doll stepped forward wearing a peach dress that looked like a whipped confection. "The Magnolia Girls were founded in 1862 by Julia Howe."
Another girl bobbed her head. "Juliette Low ripped her off!"
She was quickly chastised by Mary. "That language is not proper for the period, Marie."
I hoped Juliette Dowd wouldn't find out about the Magnolia Girls. Then again, maybe I could sic her on them to take the heat off of me.
"It is very nice to meet all of you," I said, awkwardly throwing in a curtsy, just in case I was supposed to do that.
Mary studied me for a moment before breaking into a warm smile. "I'm terribly sorry. Where are my manners? Ladies, we must show true Southern hospitality!"
I shook my head. "No need. We were the ones who rudely barged in."
"Allow me to introduce the rest of the girls."
The other children got into a straight row and smiled. Each one was more beautiful than the last.
"That's Brooke, Claire, Simone, and Tara." She then pointed to the four girls who looked alike. "And these are the Kates. Can you believe it? I have four!"
"I do believe it, as I have four Kaitlyns." I smiled back. It was kind of nice to have something in common.
"How nice," the four little girls said in unison. I had the distinct impression they were mocking me.
"Well, we should go." I herded the girls toward the entrance. "Maybe we could get together later for s'mores? Our camp, on the other side, at dusk?"
"That would be lovely," Mary said. "We will bring the marshmallows."
It was a date.
"What were you doing?" I hissed as I dragged Betty and Lauren back over the creek. "The girls said you were fighting!"
"Those kids are super creepy." Lauren shuddered. "We weren't really going to fight them."
"Speak for yourself," Betty said. "I really wanted to punch Marie. She's a stone-cold brat."
"We aren't here to fight anyone," I insisted.
"Right." Betty laughed. "That's why you invited them to an ambush at dusk. Which, of course, I'll organize with the others. I figure we can jump them once they cross the creek…"
"No one is jumping anyone," I declared as we arrived back at our tents.
"Someone's getting jumped?" Kelly asked. She was sewing something by hand.
"There's these Magnolia Girls, and we're fighting them tonight!" Ava cheered.
"No. We're not." I explained to my co-leader about Mary, Kim, and their troop.
"They look like us? That's really weird," Kelly said.
Weirder than some guy knowing my name or a bodyless leg in the amputation tent? I wondered to myself.
"Yes," Kelly said. "So they are coming here at dusk? It's a good thing I brought lots of chocolate and graham crackers."
My troop was obsessed with s'mores, and I was fairly certain that tonight they'd make enough for everyone on both sides of camp. Five times. And while my girls made s'mores with reckless abandon, they rarely ate more than two. Kelly and I always ended up eating at least a couple dozen, as every girl wanted to make s'mores for us.
The only ones we refused were Betty's. Betty didn't like anything unless it was charred beyond all recognition. I'm not kidding. Her marshmallows ended up like embers from Chernobyl, and her hot dogs were dangerous—hard and black on the outside, molten lava on the inside. I don't know how she ate them and survived.
"Why did you invite them if you didn't like them?" Kelly asked.
I shrugged. "Northern hospitality."
"That's not a thing."
"It is now."
Soo Jin arrived wearing a stunning blue gown with a bit of lace at her throat. "Merry, there's been a complaint registered against you with the provost."
My mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding?"
"No. You were seen running into the Rebel camp, where you picked a fight with the leader of the Magnolia Girls?"
"Naw." Betty materialized at my elbow. "That wasn't her. That was me."
Soo Jin sighed. "You can't start a fight with the girls from the other camp."
"Who complained?" I asked.
"You know what? It's strange, but she looked a lot like you," Soo Jin said. "She was there when the provost called me in to talk about it. Apparently, I'm responsible for you." She broke into a grin that told me she was really on my side, which was nice.
"Well," I said, "we're sorting it out over s'mores tonight." Even as I said the words, my stomach was filled with dread. I pulled Soo Jin out of earshot of the girls. "Any news on the leg?"
The gorgeous medical examiner looked thoughtful. "None. I'm starting to wonder if we didn't hallucinate."
"Four of us?" I asked. "Hallucinating the same thing?"
She shrugged. "It's possible. There have been a number of cases where a group of people sees one thing that turns out to be another."
"You don't really believe that," I said.
Soo Jin soothed, "You thought you saw a dead man in the field. We couldn't find any evidence of that."
I sighed. "I know we saw it. Maybe it was a fake leg?"
She shook her head. "It absolutely was not. I'd bet my career on it."
"You," I said as I pointed at her, "just said it might not have existed at all."
Soo Jin shook her head. "I know. It's confusing, isn't it?"
"What does Eddie think?"
"He doesn't know. We've asked all units to drill this afternoon so that we can watch for one-legged men, but other than that, who knows?"
I thought about this. "It would have to be kept on ice, or it would smell. Someone would notice that."
"I've thought about that too. I wish we could search the tents."
"Why can't we?" I asked.
"That would be illegal, Merry," Soo Jin chastised. "Anyway, I smoothed things over with the provost. He's already unhappy that we are running this event differently than how it's usually done. Try not to provoke anyone else for a while."
"You're going to search the tents, aren't you?" Kelly deadpanned as we watched the medical examiner walk away and I filled her in on the leg. She had just the right way of walking…delicate and almost floating.
"You bet I am. Now where did we put that Union uniform?"
"Ahhhhhhhh," I breathed for the first time since morning. "This is wonderful. Why didn't I agree to do this?"
The man's uniform was loose, not confining at all. I'd removed the wig and made an attempt to pin up my hair so that it looked shorter. It wasn't a miraculous transformation, but it would do the job. There was no way I was going to search the tents in a hoop skirt.
Besides, no one would think anything of seeing a soldier enter any of the tents. A woman would stand out. My only problem would be the Rebel side, as my Union uniform would not only stand out there but would practically be a declaration of fake war.
"Why don't you just wait until the skirmish?" Kelly asked as she looked me up and down. "Everyone will be there. It's the perfect opportunity."
"We don't have time," I said. "Soo Jin said the man who belonged to that leg was likely dying. If he's hidden away in one of these tents, he needs to be found."
Kelly looked me over. "I guess that's as good as it's going to get. At least the boots fit."
"Yeah." I stared down at the black shoes. "It's odd that the uniform is too big but the shoes fit just right. I'm only a size eight."
A trumpet blared on our left, announcing the beginning of drills and demonstrations. Eddie had told both sides that this was the number one tourist request, and the reenactors loved it up.
The drilling area was just a sort of meadow between our tent and the creek. Just south of it was a large food and drinks tent that would double for the Blue and Gray Ball on Saturday night. Tourists filed around, looking for openings in the crowd.
There were three companies on the Union side and three on the Rebel side. While the Rebels had their own drilling field, Eddie insisted both use the Union field. He and Soo Jin wanted a good look at all of the soldiers, and this was the only way to do it.
I dodged from my tent to Soo Jin's and Eddie's, carefully avoiding Juliette's tent. For a moment I wavered on that decision. Finding a dying man with one leg in my nemesis's tent would be like a dream come true. Putting that woman away would be fun.
It would also be the least likely place to find such a man. And the clock was ticking.
The 166th Artillery was the farthest unit, and I wanted to work my way around to the 47th, which was next to the field. If I ran out of time, I'd check the Rebel tents during the battle.
The 166th had six tents. I made my way to the back tents first, walking in, looking around, and sniffing. There wasn't enough time for something more than cursory at this point. The first two tents were good, but the third tent had six footlockers inside. Were they locked? There weren't any padlocks. To my surprise, five were completely unlocked.
Very carefully, I opened them and riffled through, making sure not to make any changes. I was surprised at how neat and orderly they each were. Didn't seem like these men would stuff a gross leg inside something like that.
The sixth one was locked. I could figure out the mechanism if I'd had my lock picks and endless amounts of time. I sniffed it and inspected it for blood or anything that might hint at something terrible was inside.
Once I finished with the 166th, I checked inside their cannon just to be sure. Nope.
I made quick work of the 23rd Infantry's tents, as they didn't have a lot inside. Maybe these were more like display tents. Anything that was large enough for a leg was inspected, but these tents were all so clean. Like literally clean, which seemed out of sorts with reality.
The crowd was cheering, and I hoped it wasn't due to a finale. I glanced at my watch. It had only been one hour. And yes, I wore a watch. Spies need to be timely, sometimes right to the second. There were many terrible stories that began with "the spy was five minutes late." And they always ended in death by drowning, shooting, stabbing, or in one case, killed by rabbits. That happened in Germany during the Cold War to an American named Ashley Kent. There's a bust of him at Langley. Every year at Easter, some smartass covers him with stuffed bunnies.
I raced through the five tents of the 47th Infantry. There wasn't anything out of the order in them. Had I wasted my time? I wasn't far from the drilling field, and the crowd was starting to dissipate.
"What're ya doing?" Ike snapped as he and his donkey materialized off to my left.
The crowd was applauding loudly.
"Oh," I said with my sweetest smile. "Nothing, Ike. Just taking advantage of some downtime to look around."
Ike spit a long stream of tobacco onto the side of his cart. "Looks to me like you're snoopin'. You're even wearing a disguise."
I feigned innocence. "What? Me? Don't be ridiculous!"
"And they didn't say newfangled things like 'downtime' in this era." He spit again, hitting the donkey in the leg. The animal brayed in protest.
"I'm not snooping, but I am sorry for breaking character," I apologized. My guess was that Ike hadn't broken character since the 1980s. "Don't you want to, um"—I pointed at the donkey's soiled leg—"clean that off or something?"
"Nah." He shook his grizzled head. "That varmint likes it."
The donkey gave me a look that indicated she really didn't like it.
"Well, I wasn't snooping or whatever it was you think I was doing," I insisted.
Ike narrowed his eyes and studied me. "You need to keep to yer ladies and mind yer own business, missy. I'll be watchin' you." And with that, he walked away.
People filed past me, looking at me curiously just as I ducked inside my tent. Five little girls stared at me, mouths agape.
Betty slammed her fist into her palm. "I knew it!"
Kelly popped in. "Ready to change back?"
It took some effort to suck everything in after it had been loose and free for a while. I could swear Betty was making the corset too tight out of anger, but I wasn't entirely sure.
"You're up to something," Betty mumbled once Kelly had left. "What is it?"
"Nothing," I said less than convincingly.
Betty lowered her voice. "I want in."
"No," I said.
"Why not? I took you to that Russian bar in Des Moines. I've always had your back, and I have mad skills. One time I napalmed my neighbor's garage."
"Wait, you what?"
She shrugged. "It was an accident. I meant to hit their garbage can because they don't recycle like they should. You'd be shocked at their carbon footprint."
"You hit their garage?"
The little girl nodded. "Who knew napalm was so sticky?"
"Everyone," I said. "Everyone knows it's sticky."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just let me and Lauren in on what you're doing."
"I'm not letting you drag Lauren into this," I said. Although Lauren was mostly a good influence on Betty.
"You have to!" She stomped her foot.
"Why?"
"Because she's my buddy, and we have to go everywhere with a buddy!"
She had a point.
Betty then went through a litany of times she's helped me using questionable methods. "The time we searched rooms in that house in the middle of the island when a killer was on the loose, the time we had to overcome big odds at the mud run, the time we busted you out of that haunted house outside of town…"
"Yes, yes, you don't have to remind me."
Betty fixed me with a meaningful stare. "It seems that I do."
I thought about this. The kid really had some amazing skills. And she'd be a good spy—no one would suspect a kid.
"I've already made friends with a lot of the soldiers. I can listen to the gossip," Betty reasoned.
I stared at her. "You have? Besides last night—which you can't do again—when?"
She rolled her eyes. "I haven't been with you 24/7."
"Okay, it's against my better judgement, but here goes." I filled Betty in on the leg. In doing so I was involving a minor in this case, but, without the leg, there was no case. I left out the alleged dying man and the crazy guy with the warning. I also neglected to tell her that Riley was on a case.
Betty whistled. "That's super hardcore. Some dude sawed off his own leg."
"What makes you think he sawed it off himself?"
She looked stunned. "Have you met some of these guys? There's Daryl in the 166th who brought his own lice. And Harvey in the 23rd who lost fifty pounds last month eating only grass and rocks. Jed, from the 1st Tennessee, is actually wearing his sixth great-grandfather's uniform, blood stains and all, which I can tell you is pretty gross because the man died in it. And two guys in the 15th Alabama had a weevil-eating contest earlier today."
Wow. She really did know these guys.
"Okay. Well, I've searched the Union tents but not the Confederate ones. Can you do that?"
"I'm already gone," she said as she sailed through the tent flap.
I met up with Soo Jin and Eddie in the medic tent. "Any luck?" I asked.
"I'm not sure it would be lucky to find a guy dying from a missing leg," the medical examiner said. "This isn't getting us anywhere."
"Then Hopalong isn't here?" I said.
"Hopalong?" Eddie asked.
"Because he has to hop along on one leg," I explained. "Duh. So what now?"
Soo Jin shrugged. "I've never been in this situation before. It looks like a crime was committed and there should be a body around here, but there's no evidence. Which was why I was suggesting that we didn't really see it."
I chose to ignore her explanation. "It has to be the dead guy I spotted during the rehearsal. That must be his leg."
"You don't know that." Soo Jin bit her lip. "No body was found."
"It has to be him!" I was on a roll. "I saw a body that disappeared. Hours later, we find the leg! Bingo!"
She turned to her boyfriend. "What do you think?"
"This is uncharted territory for me too. If we had the leg, we'd have had to cancel the event. But we didn't."
"Could it be that someone really wanted the show to go on?" I mused.
"You think someone is hiding a murder so that they can participate?" Eddie scratched his chin. "I suppose that's possible. But all we have are theories."
"I think we give it up before this drives us crazy and wastes our time," Soo Jin said. "No one is missing, no one is missing a body part, and we don't have the leg."
"Good idea," Eddie agreed.
I walked back outside. Maybe they were giving up, but I could still do a little sleuthing.
"Merry!" Kelly called from the direction of our tents. "Kapers!"
I snuck off in the direction of the unit tents. Kelly wouldn't really miss me. Besides, it was time for a little of that "snoopin'" Ike was warning me about.
"Janie, my love!" Riley sang out when he spotted me. He put his hand over his heart and, with a pained expression, said, "I must go into battle soon. These may be our last moments together. Give me a kiss before I go to what most likely will be my death."
I ignored his flirting. "What's your case here?"
"I can't tell you that."
I didn't have time for this. "Tell you what… I'll tell you my case if you'll tell me yours."
He looked confused. "You are working on a case?" His eyebrows went up with comprehension. "Ah. So that's why Betty is sneaking around the units so much. Did you know she's quite a gambler? Got in with a group playing poker last night and took all of their money."
That brought me up short. "She was gambling?"
"There were two of them. She was with that tall redhead girl, Lauren. But she just sat by the fire knitting."
Well, at least she took her buddy. I needed to talk to those two, even if it wouldn't make any difference whatsoever.
"Do we have a deal?" I asked.
Riley took his hat off and used the sleeve of his immaculate uniform to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. "Fine. I'm here looking for a guy who's selling fraudulent Confederate money on eBay."
That caught me off guard. "You're here for internet fraud? In a place and time where the internet didn't even exist?"
"My client was ripped off and wants his money back."
"Why didn't he just go to the police?"
His voice dropped a decibel as he looked around. "Well, you see, that's where things get interesting. He's a bit of a fraudster as well."
I shook my head. "You know what? I don't care. I guess it isn't related to my case after all."
"Oh, no you don't," Riley said. "You have to tell me about yours."
"I already told you about it. One-legged guy. Remember?"
"The one you lost," he said.
"I didn't lose it." My face heated up. "It vanished. Have you heard anything since I mentioned it to you earlier?"
He shook his head. "I don't have a clue."
"Can you ask around?" I pleaded.
"You serious? How do I bring up a missing severed leg in normal conversation?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." And with that I flounced away, hoop skirts and all. Right into a pack of Confederate soldiers.
"Excuse us, ma'am!" the one I collided with apologized.
"I'm sorry," I sputtered, looking behind me only to find that Riley was gone and hopefully hadn't seen my clumsy display. "I was the one who ran into you."
The four of them bowed courteously. One of them scratched his oily hair, and I wondered if this was Betty's lice guy. Or had he been Union? I should've paid more attention.
"You wouldn't by any chance be Mrs. Wrath, would you? Miss Betty's friend?"
"It's Mrs.…" I gave up. No point in explaining. "Yes. Yes, I am. How do you know Betty?"
"She sure is a fine little gal," another man drawled.
I looked at them curiously. They all looked the same, with longish brown hair and beards. They were gaunt and had that haunted, hungry look about them. I was about to ask them more about Betty and if I could make them some sandwiches, when the first man spoke again.
"She sure is a fun little gal. I just hope she doesn't get hurt." He tipped his hat, and the four of them strode off together in the direction of the battlefield.
Well, that wasn't good.