CHAPTER SIX

 

You know how sometimes when you hit your thumb with a hammer or eat an insanely hot pepper or hear that a woman who once tried to kill you is writing a book on you, the world freezes and you sort of shrink to a fraction of your size while everything gets weirdly quiet?

"Lana?" I squeaked. "What did she look like?"

He went on to describe a woman I knew as an ex-Russian spy. A woman who, a few months back, had been allegedly traded back to Russia. A woman I'd sworn I'd seen recently.

She was in Iowa! I knew it! And she was tormenting me by making me deal with a sniveling man-brat who claimed she was writing a book about me. The good news was that it was doubtful she was actually writing a book. The woman was in deep hiding. If the Feds found her, she was headed straight to the nearest maximum-security prison. Trying to sell a book about anything would end with her return to jail.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream. I jumped up to see my girls and the rest of the guests pulling one of the couches away from the wall. All concerns about Lana went out the window.

"What is it?" I ran over to see. "Is it a knife?"

Lauren pointed to a large, perfectly rounded hole in the wall, just above the floor. It looked like a cartoon mouse hole, if the mouse was the size of a bobcat.

"Gertrude! We saw Gertrude!" Inez jumped up and down.

"She's so cute!" Ava swooned. "She had a piece of paper in her mouth and was nibbling on it!"

I bent to examine the hole. I didn't know anything about lop-eared bunnies. But how different could they be from cats? I reached in and heard something skitter away. Yup. She was in there alright.

"Do you think she has holes like that in every room?" Betty asked.

"I don't know." This was a new development. "But she's gone now." I got to my feet.

"Can we go look in the other rooms?" Lauren pleaded, surrounded by three little girls who were also begging.

"No. Sorry," I answered. "If she popped in, she might do it again. We'll just have to watch out for her. But right now, Gertrude isn't our biggest priority."

"How is that adorable rabbit not our biggest priority?" Lauren's eyes grew wide, like saucers. But I wasn't falling for that trap, like I usually did, 99.9 percent of the time.

"Yeah," Betty spoke up. "What's more important than a cute, cuddly bunny?"

"Well, murder, for one." I helped shove the couch back into place. "We have to stay together. There's safety in numbers."

Inez shook her head. "Then we need to keep Gertrude safe!"

I looked at the size of the hole. "She's much safer in the walls than out here with us. Trust me."

Soo Jin stepped up with my favorite tactic with the girls—distraction. Quietly she drew the girls over to one corner of the room, where she tied them into a human knot.

It's not what it sounds like. Okay, it is, but it's a team-building game and something we use as a distraction whenever we need to. Like now.

The girls all get into a close circle. One puts her right hand out and grabs the hand of a girl opposite her. Then with her left hand, she grasps the hand of another girl. This goes on until each girl is holding hands with two other girls. At that point, you have a human knot. And the girls have to twist and bend to untangle themselves, without letting go, until they are standing in a straight line.

It could take minutes or hours. Usually it took hours. Which made it my favorite activity. I'd gotten a lot done during the human knot, from cooking over a fire to setting up the archery range to cutting twenty pieces of bubblegum out of a Kaitlyn's hair after an unfortunate bubble-blowing competition.

Things settled down in the room as everyone watched the girls work to free themselves. The Human Knot turned out to be a welcome distraction for the adults too. A clap of thunder and the room blazed from the flash of a lightning bolt outside the window. The storm gave no sign of letting up. Soon we'd have to think about dinner, which made me wonder where Miriam and Ned were.

There was a quick scream, and I turned to see if Gertrude had made her way back here. Instead, I saw that Wren was pale and pointing at the table with the clay figures. A second misshapen animal was down and broken into two pieces.

"Who's messing with us?" she threatened. "This isn't funny!"

My throat constricted as I counted the people in the room. We were short one person. Taylor Burke was gone.

"Where's Taylor?" I demanded.

That was when the others noticed she was gone too.

"She was just here." Thad frowned, even looking a bit worried.

Caroline spoke up. "Said she had to use the bathroom."

Soo Jin chastised her. "You let her go alone?"

The gastroenterologist shrugged. "She said she'd be fine since the murderer was in here."

"Everyone stay put," I ordered. "I'm going to look for her."

Soo Jin shook her head. "Not without me."

The two of us walked out into the hall. The others followed us to the doorway but stayed put. The bathroom door under the staircase was open. I peeked in, but the Insurance CEO of the Year wasn't there.

We walked past the hall and looked into the entryway, but it too was empty.

"Taylor?" I shouted. There was no answer.

Soo Jin led the way across to the study, and I followed. As she went into the room, the medical examiner hesitated for a split second before bolting inside. I chased after to find her kneeling beside the body of Taylor Burke.

"Is she…" I asked.

Soo Jin nodded. "Dead. Stabbed."

"But we didn't find a knife on anyone," I said as I walked around her.

"The killer didn't need one," the doctor said.

Taylor lay on the floor, looking as though she'd just fallen asleep, except for the fact that she had some sort of trophy plunged into the side of her neck.

Victim number two had fallen to the poem.

"What is it?" Stacey called from outside the room. From the tone in her voice, I could tell that she'd rather not know the answer.

"We have to tell them," Soo Jin said.

"How did it happen?" I asked.

She nodded. "Stabbed in the jugular vein. She probably couldn't speak. Died in seconds."

"Enos wasn't a one-off," I murmured.

Soo Jin agreed. "No, Enos wasn't a one-off. We're dealing with multiple murders here."

"How could this happen? We'd frisked everyone and kept an eye on things!"

Except for when Gertrude made an appearance. Was the bunny working with Kevin the Killer? And before you think I'm ridiculous, it does happen. I once knew a guy in Italy who trained his donkey to bite people while he liberated their wallets and purses. If he hadn't been one of my best informants, I might have said something to him about it.

I joined Stacey in the doorway and filled her in while asking her to keep the others at bay. She took people back to the lounge to explain that the killer had struck again, as Soo Jin examined the body. First, Enos died in the dining room. Now, Taylor was murdered in the study. If only I'd brought crime tape! I'd wanted to, but my Hitler look-alike cat, Philby, got into it, rolling in the thin plastic tape until the static made it stick to her like a mummy. Rex promised to have her untangled before I got back.

Rex! If only I could get ahold of him somehow. He'd rather be here dealing with this, I knew. Unfortunately, he was back home in Who's There, completely unaware that I was now dealing with multiple murders.

What would my detective husband make of this if he were here? First, he'd roll his eyes because I was, yet again, involved in a murder. Which was kind of unfair, since I had nothing to do with what was going on here.

Still, what would he do first? Close off the scene, look for clues, and call the medical examiner. Hey! We were doing that! I didn't even have to wait for Dr. Body because she was on the scene! Would he give me credit for running this investigation like he would?

You know, it hadn't escaped my notice that, with the exception of a pizza delivery guy in his driveway, this never happened to him. And as soon as I was back in his arms and out of here, I'd tell him that. In the meantime, Soo Jin and I had to make do with what we had, which was two dead people and a poem about killing Girl Scouts. Not a lot to go on.

"Did you find anything?" I asked the medical examiner as I faced the hallway.

The others didn't seem too eager to want to see the body, which was good. The girls, however, were trying to break free from Stacey's and Juliette's grasps. I was pretty sure they wanted to be on the scene. This was a little too horrific, even for them.

"Nothing." Soo Jin sighed. "Not so much as a scrap of fabric. There aren't even any defensive injuries. Taylor never knew what hit her."

"Or…" I turned toward her. "She felt safe with whoever it was."

My thoughts turned to Thad. What if the two of them had slipped away for a little secret canoodling? They'd seemed pretty cozy this whole time. Had Thad killed her as a way to get out of the affair? That seemed a little drastic to me.

Unfortunately, we'd all been distracted by Gertrude. Maybe Wren had followed her out of the room unnoticed and killed her? Or maybe Juliette was fed up with all the annoying When I was in Girl Scouts…blah, blah, blah and took her out. If so, I couldn't really blame her for that.

"How much force would it have taken to kill her?" I asked Dr. Body quietly.

She looked thoughtful. "It's not so much force as surprise. Look at this."

I held up my hands to Stacey to indicate she was to stay out there. The terrified woman agreed.

Soo Jin had removed the trophy and covered the woman with an afghan. Using a piece of cloth, she held up the weapon. It was a huge gold fencing trophy with a rather large and pointy rapier. I looked around the room.

"Why use this?" I asked, motioning around me. "There are ink pens and a letter opener on the desk. Wouldn't they have worked better?"

"Yes. Definitely. Using the trophy was a gamble because the base is so heavy," she said. "It would've been hard to aim to get it in the right spot."

"The killer is trying to tell us something."

Using the same cloth, I took the trophy from her. There was a large plaque that read, Winner of the Grand Prix. Why use a trophy instead of a knife? Even though we searched people, it would've been easier to smuggle one in instead of using this trophy.

"I'm guessing it came from here." Soo Jin pointed to a circular mark on a dusty shelf. "It was owned by the Deivers."

"Only they aren't here, so we know it isn't them," I added.

I called out for Stacey and Juliette to fetch a large plastic bag, and they did so with great speed. Once the trophy was in the bag, I turned it around looking for clues but found nothing.

"Basement?" Soo Jin asked.

That was when I noticed she'd rolled the body up in the rug it had been lying on, securing it with decorative ropes from the drapes.

"Yes." I sighed. "But this time we're getting some help."

Neither Thad nor Dennis wanted any part of moving Taylor to the basement. I didn't give them an option. Once I'd explained what had happened, a malaise of depression settled over the group. As Stacey herded everyone into the dining room, I'd pulled the two men aside and forcibly drafted them into service.

The men worked wordlessly. I couldn't get a read on Thad's expression. Was he upset? Guilty? It was impossible to tell from the scowl on his face. They placed the body next to Enos and ran up the stairs to join the rest of us.

"How did this happen?" Wren wailed. If she was Taylor's killer, she was doing a great job hiding the fact.

"Why is this happening?" Violet sobbed as Arthur wrapped her into his arms. He looked devastated.

Dennis sat at the table, his face buried in his hands. Thad glared at the rest of us, like he'd been doing since he arrived. Caroline's face was unreadable, but then, she always looked like that.

Stacey paced, and Juliette scowled. The girls sat at their little table, talking quietly, looking at the guests from time to time. No one seemed eager to leave the room. They were all in shock and happy to take orders from me. I was afraid to leave the group alone, but it seemed that the killer was picking his victims off one at a time. It was unlikely he would burst in and mow everyone down with a machine gun.

No. Kevin the Killer had taken the time to create a poem predicting how each person would die. I couldn't see him changing his modus operandi. He was confident that we had no idea who he was. All we knew was who he wasn't—Taylor or Enos. However, at this rate, we'd be running out of suspects soon, as he took out his victims one at a time. And that was when he'd be at his most dangerous—when he was closest to discovery.

No matter what it took, I couldn't let that happen. These people were annoying and in some cases horrible, but they didn't deserve to die. We had to be more vigilant. We had to keep everyone together until this was over. I wasn't sure how Soo Jin and I were going to do that, but we had to try. But first we had to do something about dinner. Even if they didn't feel like it, people needed to eat. To keep their strength up. And while we were eating, I'd come up with some sort of brilliant plan.

Soo Jin and I went to the kitchen to find Ned and Miriam, but they weren't there. We continued to search the ground floor, but the staff was nowhere to be found. Were they the killers? They certainly moved around freely enough. Or had they retreated to their cottage, where they knew they'd be safe?

My stomach rumbled. When you work in espionage, you get a cast-iron gut. Very little will stop me from eating. I wasn't worried about Soo Jin—this was her job. If working with the dead made her lose her appetite, she'd starve to death. It was the others I was worried about. Miriam would have to make something amazing to get these guys to eat. But first we had to find her.

The cottage was behind the house, so we decided to go outside and, staying on the wraparound porch, see if we could find them. The storm was just as intense as it had been all day, but we held on to the railing and made our way to the back of the house as the rain slapped us around.

The cottage was a three-room building laid out like a very small ranch house behind the main house. From the porch we could see lights on inside, but the land between the two buildings had flooded into a deep, muddy trench.

For about five minutes we shouted at the cottage, but the wind killed any sound as soon as it escaped our lips.

"This is not working!" I shouted to Soo Jin, who was standing right next to me.

"Let's go back in!" she called out.

In spite of being on the covered porch, we were pretty much soaked when we made it back inside. I threw the deadbolt.

We entered the dining room. With the exception of the girls, the expressions we saw were grim and fearful. And it was getting late. What little sun we'd had was vanishing as we moved toward evening.

"Is anyone hungry?" I asked.

There was no reply.

"Hold on for a minute. Soo Jin and I need to go change out of our wet clothes. Okay?"

The girls nodded, but they were the only ones.

"I'm going to my room." Thad stood up. "I'm tired of sitting around doing nothing."

That was just what I'd expect from the murderer. Was he not afraid of splitting up because he knew he was the killer?

"I agree," said Caroline. "I'll be safer in my locked room than here."

It wasn't long before everyone seemed to think this was a good idea, including Soo Jin and myself since we were all wet. I knew the time would come when the adults would insist on doing what they wanted. They weren't little girls. We couldn't make them stay together.

"Okay," I said. "Head to your rooms. Lock your doors. If anyone's hungry in an hour, join us in the dining room." The bit in the poem about drowning popped into my mind. "And don't take a bath or run water in the sink. Just…just stay dry."

Maybe I should've said I'd check on them, room by room, but I got the distinct impression that no one wanted this. In fact, I was starting to think that my leadership was resented.

Soo Jin led the way up the stairs, the girls behind her with me bringing up the rear. Once inside, I bolted the door and we changed into dry clothes. I sat down on my bed and noticed that the girls were sitting on the floor with a board game.

"What are you guys playing?" I tried to sound cheerful. The idea of them having a little fun seemed like a good idea, considering that this was quickly turning into a murder house.

"Clue," Betty said without looking up.

I joined the girls on the floor. I'd loved that game when I was a kid. Of course, now we were playing it for real…

"Hey!" I snatched up the game board. "The house on the board looks just like this house!"

It was true. The layout of the board was the exact same layout as this house! That was why it seemed so familiar.

"That's strange." Soo Jin joined us. "It is. It's exactly the same." She jumped up and grabbed the book on Iowa islands in lakes from her bed. "This house was built in the 1880s by Jim and June Bentley." She showed us a picture of the architectural plans.

"That has to be before the game came out." I stared at it. "What are the odds?"

A clap of thunder was followed by a bolt of lightning that lit up the room. This was followed by an even louder boom that seemed to shake the house.

The girls, for the first time all day, looked nervous.

"I'm going to get you guys out of here safe and sound," I promised.

Lauren took the Clue board and propped it up on the dresser. "Right. Let's see what we can do to catch this killer. This is our murder board."

"We need people." Betty examined the game. "So we can put the bodies in the rooms where they were found."

I rifled through a desk in the room and found some Post-its. Inez, the artist in the group, cut little figures out and put one in the dining room and another in the study.

She was very creative. Enos was fat and had X's for eyes and a fish in his stomach. She knew Taylor had been stabbed in the neck, so she made a giant knife sticking out of her throat. I didn't correct her.

"Can you make figures for the rest of us?" Soo Jin asked as she studied the board.

The whole troop got in on this action, with Inez cutting out the figures and the rest of them decorating everyone. I was a little taken aback that I had a unicorn horn and body and Soo Jin looked like a princess with a formal gown and long hair, but I decided not to interrupt the creative flow.

Betty found tape and taped the poem to the board.

"Someone is going to drown next," she said.

"Hopefully not." I chewed my lip as I studied the board. When Taylor was murdered, everyone but the two victims had been in the lounge. "Did you see anyone else leave the room besides Taylor?"

The girls and Soo Jin shook their heads.

"We were trying to grab Gertrude," Ava announced.

"Did anyone see Taylor leave?" I asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Dr. Caroline Regent seemed to be the only one who'd known Taylor was leaving, but she didn't mention anyone else. Someone might have seen something. But why keep it to themselves? Was it out of fear that the killer would turn on them?

"There's no second floor or basement," Soo Jin said.

"We can draw one," I said, pointing to the girls. "One of you make a mockup of this floor, and someone else do the basement."

Betty shrugged. "We don't know what the basement looks like."

Lauren agreed. "We should go down there. That would give us a chance to examine the bodies."

I shook my head. "No one is going to examine the bodies. The basement is just one large, open square. There's nothing down there. Draw that."

The girls grumbled but did it. They also drew little stick figure bodies with X's over their eyes. Lauren ran to her bag, returning with clay.

"We can create 3-D reenactments of each scene! Like who was sitting where at the table when Enos was killed!"

Ava nodded. "And where everyone was sitting in the lounge when Taylor was stabbed!"

"That"—Soo Jin beamed—"is an excellent idea! Very clever of you girls!"

When the beyond-beautiful Korean-American doctor smiled at you, you felt like you were wrapped in a warm blanket. I'm not kidding, because on occasion I've fallen for her charms. I wasn't completely sure she was aware of this, but at the hospital, she left a wake of smitten men and women when she was in a good mood—which was always.

The girls worked quickly, creating little clay people that technically looked like giraffes. They added little features, like Enos brushing his teeth at the table and Taylor with a sword sticking out of her neck. I regretted telling them how she died.

The first diorama featured the dining room. Two small pieces of cardboard made up the adult and kiddie tables. Each character kind of stood around the cardboard. They didn't have legs, just a lump of clay. Maybe that was the chair.

I leaned in to study the piece as they moved on to recreate Taylor's murder. In the dining room, Enos and Thad had been at opposite ends of the table, and the seating was mostly boy-girl. Caroline and Violet sat on either side of Enos. Dennis sat between Caroline and Taylor, while Arthur sat between his wife and Wren. That was when the boy-girl thing fell apart, because Stacey and Juliette sat between Wren and Thad, and Soo Jin and I were on his other side.

The girls sat at their table, as much larger figures than the rest of us. What was that? Each girl seemed to be armed with a weapon from the game. Well, they weren't armed as much as the little plastic candlestick, dagger, pistol, and so on were sort of squished into the clay figures' heads. Why were they armed?

"Hey," I mumbled as I pointed to two misshapen lumps on my figure's head. "What's this?"

Ava shrugged. "Rhino horns. I thought you needed them."

"Why do I need rhino horns?" I picked up the figure. It looked more like a couple of roundish blobs.

Inez looked at the others before rolling her eyes at me. "Because! Rhino horns make you awesome!" The other girls nodded, indicating that no further explanation was needed.

Soo Jin's clay figure was perfectly rendered. She was almost professionally sculpted with the perfect body, long legs, and big eyes. I guessed she was awesome enough and didn't need horns like I did. The rest of the guests looked more like me, except for Miriam, who was ridiculously small, and Ned, who was rendered a giant with huge, scary teeth.

I forced my thoughts toward the dining room scene. Did it matter where people sat? Attention was drawn to Thad when Enos died. No one had seen anything until one of my girls announced Enos's death. Could Caroline have put something in Enos's lunch? She was a doctor and the most likely to have access to cyanide. But that wouldn't work because Enos would've noticed that since he was probably facing front, looking at Thad with the rest of us. The poison must've been added in the kitchen or when the plate was en route to the table. And only Miriam and Ned handled the dishes.

The other scene was in two rooms. Taylor lay dead on the floor in the study, while the rest of us were staring at a wall in the lounge, surrounding what might have been Gertrude, except that the rabbit was the size of a horse.

"Is this where everyone was?" I asked.

As I recalled, I was over by the wall, studying the hole behind Gertrude. The girls had been with me, crowded around the big bunny. It was so weird that a mini lop would be large. But Mrs. Deivers had assured me the name was misleading. I wondered if…oh geez. Focus, Merry!

At the time, everyone else had been leaning toward us. It was such a tight group, I couldn't figure out how the killer could've slipped away and murdered Taylor without notice.

"Okay," Betty announced. "This is how the murders happened."

"Except for Kevin the Killer," Lauren said as she plopped a ghoulish-looking blob with a skull for a head behind Enos while he was seated.

Ava had Kevin sneaking up on Enos, before shoving him face down on the table. The Killer was then moved to the lounge mockup, where it tiptoed to the study and made a sort of stabby movement toward Taylor. Then he moved back to the lounge.

"As you can see," Inez said, "the killer could be anyone." She sat down, and the others congratulated themselves for not solving anything.

We were no closer to the truth.

Soo Jin looked at her watch. "An hour is up. We said we'd be downstairs in the dining room for dinner."

She was right. Even if no one else joined us, we were going to eat. Besides, Miriam and Ned might be there, setting the table for dinner. They hadn't been around when Taylor was killed, and I wanted to tell them so I could study their reactions. The two of them were an interesting case. Both worked and lived here. It was unlikely that they knew the guests. But did it rule them out as killers? And if they worked together, would it be Kevin and Kate the Killers? They were the only ones not in the lounge with the rest of us.

I got to my feet. "Okay, let's go."

We returned to the dining room the way we came up—Soo Jin in the lead, the girls in the middle, and me bringing up the rear. The girls took their seats at the kids' table in the corner.

The table had been set for dinner, and we could hear Miriam and Ned clanking dishes and murmuring in the kitchen.

The remaining guests trickled in quietly. The idea of dinner seemed to relax them a little because it was routine. As they took their seats, I told Stacey and Juliette to watch things, noting anyone coming or going, so Soo Jin and I could head to the kitchen.

Miriam was pulling a tray of Cornish hens from the oven while Ned opened several bottles of wine. The aroma of roasted meat overwhelmed my senses, and I almost forgot why I was there.

"Where have you been?" I asked, once I remembered.

The two looked at each other. Ned scowled. "At the cottage. Why?"

Soo Jin filled them in on Taylor's murder, and I studied their responses. Miriam's eyes flew open wide, and she started trembling. Ned frowned and started to pace.

"We didn't do it!" he said at last. "You don't think we did it, do you?"

Honestly? I had no idea. My instincts were taking a nap. I couldn't get a read. The fact that they weren't with the rest of us in the lounge when it happened meant they certainly could've killed Taylor.

"I don't know who did it," I said. "But stick together. Don't go anywhere alone. Okay?"

They nodded and went back to work. Ned patted Miriam on the back awkwardly. She really seemed stricken. But was that because she was shocked or because she was afraid she was going to get caught? For a moment I hesitated, wondering what else I could do to get a confession out of them. Unfortunately, I came up blank.

As Soo Jin and I returned to the dining room, I informed the guests of the menu and sat down. We were all seated when the food came in. Steaming plates of seasoned meat with finger potatoes and asparagus distracted us from the deadly events of the afternoon. The question was, would everyone eat?

I'd never had dinner with a killer before, but I assumed that they'd eat ravenously, while the others hesitated. It seemed important to study everyone to see if this was true.

The girls were given hot dogs and french fries, much to their approval. But this time I let them be. The Cornish hens were golden brown and juicy, and for once I was glad to be at the adult table.

Ned poured the wine, and I noticed a few of the guests staring at their glasses. The next murder would be drowning, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen in a wineglass. Besides, the last murder took place in another room. I didn't think the killer would be as brazen as they were with Enos.

My thoughts turned to the idea of drowning. Technically speaking, you can drown in a few inches of water. The bathtubs, sinks, and even toilets were possibilities. But then, so was the huge lake that surrounded the island.

Would the killer risk taking someone out to the lake? The storm hadn't let up, and they seemed to want each body discovered. We might not find someone who drowned in a lake until this was over.

I took a sip of wine, and when I didn't spasm and die, the others relaxed and reached for their glasses. That was a relief. People can be unpredictable—even more so if they're terrified and panicking. While this was a horrific situation, having cool heads would go a long way in getting us out alive.

So, what was the plan? Staying together seemed smart, but Taylor's murder showed the flaws in that idea. Had she thought that she was safe slipping away since the killer would be with everyone else? I wasn't ruling out a secret liaison with Thad.

Another idea struck. Maybe the killer wasn't one of us? Could he be someone we didn't know about? Someone hiding out here, striking when opportunity presented itself? Kevin the Killer could've poisoned Enos's food in the kitchen when Miriam and Ned were serving. But how would they know which plate he'd get?

Which led back to the idea that this was a random killer who didn't care who he murdered, as long as it followed the poem. In fact, I was the only victim specifically mentioned, unless someone else had been in the CIA, which I sincerely doubted. I was pretty sure I was listed as the last victim on purpose, but the rest of the murders in the poem could be anyone else.

I liked it better when I thought it was more organized than that.

"What are you doing about this?" Thad was glaring at me.

"Everything I can," I answered with as much authority as I could muster. "Dr. Body here has police training. Together we will try to stop these murders from happening and find out who's behind it all."

Did the guests buy that?

"Why"—Thad pointed with his fork at Stacey and Juliette—"aren't they in charge?"

The two Girl Scout employees looked at each other and then turned to me. Which answered Thad's question.

"Mrs. Wrath's husband is a detective!" Betty stood and shouted. "And she's solved murders before!"

The other girls stood, folded their arms over their chests, and nodded. My posse.

"Look." I set my knife and fork down. "I don't want to be in charge. I'd rather let someone else take over. Go ahead and volunteer if you like. But you have to use Dr. Body's skills."

It grew very quiet. Dennis looked at Caroline and Thad. Wren plucked at her husband's sleeve, and Arthur put his arm around Violet before looking at me and nodding.

"I think Mrs. Wrath should be in charge," the elderly man said. "But I am worried about the children. We need to do everything we can to keep them safe."

I loved him in that moment.

Violet nodded. "The poem is about Girl Scouts. I'm afraid they may be targets."

The Kasinskis were selfless. Arthur was a large man, even if he was elderly, and I knew I could count on him in a pinch. He'd spent most of his life dragging pigs around, so in spite of his age, he was probably fairly strong should I need help subduing anyone. The question was, could I count on the others?

"Okay," Caroline said glumly before going back to her dinner.

Dennis gave a wordless nod and drained his wineglass in one gulp.

"Fine!" Thad snapped. Wren added her agreement with a little nod.

I made a silent prayer that no one would die at dinner. The Cornish hens were amazing, and I wanted to at least eat a whole meal. It's selfish, I know, but if I was supposed to be in charge here, the least the killer could do was let me eat.

"I have a question," I said as the others continued eating. "Did anyone see someone other than Taylor leave the room?"

They all thought about this and shook their heads. I wasn't sure what I expected. Surely anyone who saw the killer leave would've said something by now. Still, it felt important to put the question out there.

"Do you think"—Wren's voice shook—"that it's the staff?" She peeked nervously at the doorway.

Soo Jin spoke up. "Everyone here is a suspect until we prove otherwise."

That started an uproar. Everyone but the Kasinskis sputtered defensively, each insisting that they weren't the killer. Thad made mention of suing me for slander, while Caroline muttered that I'd better never need a bowel surgeon. I made a mental note to add more fiber to my diet, just in case.

"I think you're right," Arthur said at last.

Thad sneered. "I noticed that you didn't insist it wasn't you or your wife."

"Thad!" Wren squeaked. "The Kasinskis would never do something like this!"

"No, no," Arthur eased. "It's fair to ask. I just didn't think I needed to add to the complaining." He set his fork down and made eye contact with Thad. "Someone here is doing this. We have to keep calm and figure it out before there's another victim."

I really, really loved him.

"The fact is," he continued, "we need to look after one another and keep an eye out for anything unusual."

Thad stood up and threw down his napkin in disgust. "Well, I'd say these murders are pretty damned unusual!"

Was Thad upset that his lover had been killed or worried that he might be a target? Sadly for Taylor, my money was on the latter. His fear sounded genuine. But did that mean he wasn't the killer? I wasn't ready to take him off the suspect list just yet.

Arthur regarded the younger man. "You're absolutely right. But getting hysterical is not going to help."

"That's very true," Violet agreed with her husband. "We are all adults here. Let's act like it."

Wren tugged on Thad's sleeve until he sat back down. He looked angry and defeated all at once.

"I don't want to die," Dennis grumbled. "Unlike the old people here, I haven't lived my life."

"Like you live at all!" Thad snapped. "You're just a slacker. You don't contribute to society like the rest of us!"

Okay, to be fair, I'd also been thinking what Thad said—I just didn't think it was fair to say it out loud. And I wasn't happy about his dig at Arthur and Violet. What was wrong with this guy?

"What contribution?" Dennis roared. "You defend the scum of the earth! And I have something to contribute!"

"Oh yeah?" Thad's voice dripped with sarcasm. "And what's that?"

Dennis frowned. Apparently he had no idea what he had to offer. "My parents' money! When they die, I'll have that!"

Okay… Not exactly the best answer…

Thad got to his feet and threw his napkin on the table. "That doesn't help your case. You'll just turn their house into a juvenile man cave and won't need to change your sweats as often!"

Nobody really knew how to respond to that, including Dennis, who remained silent.

"Sit DOWN!" Juliette thundered. "This is not the time for personal attacks!"

That seemed hypocritical, coming from a woman who had done nothing but launch one personal attack on me after another. It was kind of nice to see her aim her venom at someone else for a change.

"Juliette is right." Stacey placed a hand on her colleague's arm. "And so is Mrs. Kasinski. We need to act like adults. Yelling at each other will only help the killer."

Juliette nodded and sat back down, and after a second of stomping his feet and growling, Thad did too.

"Death," Caroline said without emotion, "is just another part of life."

The others looked at her with shock in their eyes. The doctor looked up and realized she'd said something scandalous and shrugged.

"It's true. People die all the time."

I looked at Soo Jin and my girls. Not them. They weren't going to die anytime soon while I had breath in my body.

A skittering sound drew all attention to the doorway, where a huge white lop-eared bunny stopped and looked us all over. Her nose twitched, and her right ear was raised, crookedly, toward us.

Gertrude took a tentative hop into the room. She probably wondered who all these strangers were. She rose to a standing position, sniffing the air. Then she rubbed her front paws all over her face, as if just moving across the floor had made her filthy. It was ridiculously adorable and a nice distraction.

"She's so cute!" Ava said breathlessly.

"Don't frighten her," I cautioned.

Betty held a french fry out to the rabbit, who slowly hopped over and sniffed it. To my complete surprise, this time, not a single girl lunged for her. Lauren dropped her right hand to her side and wiggled her fingers.

Gertrude hopped over and rubbed the underside of her chin on the girl's fingers before headbutting them. Lauren rubbed the spot between her eyes, and the bunny kicked her hind feet out behind her and sprawled onto the floor. This rabbit had hypnotized the whole room. I wondered if they'd let me borrow her for meetings.

"How did you know to do that?" Soo Jin asked the girl.

"My cousin has a rabbit," Lauren explained. "I think Gertrude likes people."

Great. Now I had a bunny to protect too.

After a few seconds, the rabbit jumped up and ran back and forth, jumping and spinning in the air.

"She's binkying," Lauren said. "When they're happy, they binky."

At least someone was having a good time.

"Who cares about a stupid rodent?" Thad shouted.

Gertrude froze at the outburst then raced out of the room. In seconds we could hear her scuttling inside the walls. It was a dangerous mistake on Thad's part, as four little girls turned toward him with fury in their eyes.

"That was not nice!" Lauren narrowed her eyes at the man.

"What did Gertrude ever do to you?" Ava added.

Betty rolled her eyes. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of murder…"

"Maybe"—Dennis pointed a stubby figure at the attorney—"you're angry because you're the killer."

Thad roared, "You want to say that again, slacker?"

Here we go again.

Dennis nodded. "Yeah. I think you killed Taylor. It's obvious you two were having a fling."

The color drained out of Wren's face, but she didn't defend her husband. And he didn't seem upset at the mention of a possible affair.

"I didn't kill Taylor!" Thad roared. "But if I was the killer, you'd be next!"

Dennis puffed out his chest, which was difficult considering he couldn't expand it past his belly.

"STOP IT! RIGHT NOW!" Stacey commanded.

Everyone was so startled by the outburst, the room went silent. Where had this version of the perpetually sweet and optimistic woman come from? I liked it!

"Look!" She glared at the two men. "Like it or not, we're here and we have to deal with this problem. If you're going to exacerbate it and make things worse, you can take your chances outside!"

Juliette's jaw dropped. I guess this was the first time she'd seen her colleague act like this. When it came to the Girl Scouts, Juliette was usually shrieking at me, and yet during this whole event, she didn't say one word. Maybe when I married Rex, she gave up on hating me? Or, she was taking her time, plotting my demise.

"Now." Stacey sat back down. "Let's finish dinner, and then we can go to the ballroom and discuss our next steps." She flashed a weak grin at my troop. "After all, we have to set an example for the children, and we can't do that by acting like children ourselves."

Arthur clinked his spoon on his water glass. "Yes! She's right. Let's eat in peace for a change."

Dennis and Thad grudgingly picked at their food. I finished every bite on my plate. In these situations, you needed to eat when you could because you never knew when you'd get the chance again.

This was an instinct from my old days as a spy. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, whether it was a banana split or bug kabobs (not bad with teriyaki sauce), I ate. On one of my first assignments, I was following a target as she moved from place to place all over Moscow. She never stopped to eat in twenty hours, and I had no food with me. I almost ate the vinyl seats in the crappy Soviet-era car I'd stolen.

Thank God she finally stopped at an Italian restaurant to have dinner. I probably would've killed her if she hadn't. Alright, to be honest, I did kill her. But much, much later and for something completely legit.

Miriam and Ned appeared to collect the plates, and I noticed Soo Jin watching the others to see if they'd been poisoned. Since no one fell head first into their water glass, she relaxed a little. Especially when the staff returned with cheesecake.

I have a special weakness for cheesecake. Throughout my whole life, I've dropped anything I was doing if a slice appeared near me. I've eaten cheesecakes in Paris, Tashkent, and Bogota. And I've never had a bad one.

"What is that?" Inez made a face.

"Cheesecake," I said. "You'll like it."

Betty's eyes grew round. "They made a cake out of stinky cheese?"

I shook my head. "No. It's cream cheese. Trust me. Try it."

Miriam set a piece in front of Lauren, with strawberries and whipped cream on top. The girl shrugged and took a bite. The other girls watched her carefully, studying her expression. When she smiled, they each took a bite.

"Not bad!" Ava said.

The girls settled. I turned to my piece and savored each and every bite. Things were looking up. No one had died during dinner, and we had cheesecake.

Soo Jin leaned over and whispered, "What are we going to do after dinner?"

BOOM!

A tremendous thunderclap rocked the house, and the power flickered. I prayed silently that it wouldn't go off again. How did this storm manage to continue since noon? At least we had power…for the moment.

Besides the dining room and lounge, the ballroom was a large room where we could get our bearings and figure out what to do next. The conservatory, billiard room, and library were small and would be crowded.

"Shall we head to the ballroom?" I asked the group.

Dishes were shoved aside, and people rose to their feet. Violet was struggling a little, and Lauren and Ava ran to help her. Each girl took an arm and escorted the old woman from the room, much to her and Arthur's delight.

The ballroom had chairs, and we put them together in a circle. The wind picked up, howling outside and rattling branches that scraped the window. Soo Jin and I invited (or rather, insisted) Miriam and Ned. They came grudgingly.

"It looks like," I said once everyone was seated, "we're going to be spending the night here."

I looked at my watch—it was nine o'clock. Arthur and Violet were drooping. Their bedtime was probably soon. Wearing them out wasn't a good idea.

"You don't think the storm will quit and we can leave the island?" Wren asked.

"I honestly don't know." I rubbed my face. "But we can't stay up all night."

"Maybe the killer is done?" Violet suggested. "I think Arthur and I will be alright in our room. With the door locked."

I couldn't tell adults what to do if they wanted to leave. "Anyone who wants to go to bed should. You all know where my room is. If you need help in the night, come find me."

I looked at Ned hopefully. "Maybe you could volunteer to sit in the hallway? I could help."

The man snarled. "I'm going to my room in the cottage. So is Miriam." And with that, the two staff members left the room and presumably the house.

"I'll sit up with you," Stacey said. "Juliette and Dr. Body could relieve us halfway through the night?"

Wren nudged her husband, but he ignored it.

Soo Jin nodded, and I was grateful that she was going to be with Juliette. The idea had merit—it meant one of us would be with our girls the whole night. They were my main priority. I had to keep them safe.

"Anyone who wants to go to bed should. I'll meet Stacey in the hallway in twenty minutes. At three a.m., Dr. Body and Juliette will take over. At eight, we can all meet in the dining room."

Everyone agreed and headed upstairs. I stayed behind, running through the whole house, locking the windows. Soo Jin and the girls waited on the stairs for me, but I wasn't worried about being killed. I was the last person in the poem. We had a ways to go. It was far more important to make sure we were locked up tight.

"I think Thad is the killer," Betty announced as we got settled in our room.

"My money is on Dr. Regent," Lauren said.

"I think it's the old people," Ava said, and Inez agreed.

Soo Jin and I stared at the board. "Alright," I said. "Give me your reasons."

Betty shrugged. "Thad had a motive, right? For Taylor. Because they were boyfriend and girlfriend. And maybe his wife is covering for him."

"Yes." Lauren spoke up. "But Caroline was the only one who saw Taylor go out. She could've followed her out."

Betty argued, "Thad isn't going to tell us he met Taylor in the study."

"Those are very good arguments," Soo Jin said. "But what about Enos? Why would Thad or Caroline kill him?"

"Dennis killed him because he wasn't able to invest in his app," I mused.

"Maybe we have two different murders for two different reasons?" Inez asked.

I turned to Ava. "Why do you think the Kasinskis are the killers?"

Ava shrugged. "They are the least likely so the most obvious. Duh."

It kind of made sense, in a weird way.

"The fact is, you could all be right." I sighed.

"Or the killer is killing off multiple people randomly," Soo Jin said.

"Or he's killing off several people, but only one is the real target," Betty added. "The rest are red herrings."

Inez cocked her head to one side. "What's a red herring?"

Lauren nodded. "It's a red fish."

Ava threw her arms in the air. "Well, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Because the color red means stop," Betty said.

The others seemed to agree that this made sense.

"A red herring is an idea that fools you into following it, then it just leads to a dead end. It's meant to confuse you—take you off the trail of the real killer," I explained.

Everyone was mulling this over. I was wondering about our next step. I needed to talk to Wren—get her alone and ask if Thad left the room when Taylor did. But how to approach it? I guess delicacy was thrown out the window when Dennis announced the idea of an affair.

Wren had to know about Thad and Taylor. The question was, would she even want to speak up? I can tell you that I would. But Wren was easily frightened. Nervous. I wasn't convinced that she'd rat her idiot husband out.

"We won't know more until we find out some things about our guests," I said at last.

"Snooping! Yes!" Betty pumped her fist into the air.

I ignored her. "The thing we have to find out is if these people know each other more than they're letting on."

"You think they're pretending?" Lauren asked.

"It would make sense." I shrugged. "I know that no one in this room is the killer. And I know it's not Stacey or Juliette. I'm not sure about Miriam and Ned because they actually work here and were never part of the play."

Soo Jin added, "The poem is 'Eight Little Girl Scouts.' And there are…or were, eight guests."

"Now there are six," Inez added.

"And the next one drowns." Ava studied the poem. "So we basically have to keep everyone away from water."

"Which means," Betty said, "no one goes outside. Easy."

Soo Jin shook her head. "You can drown in two inches of water."

"WHAT?" The girls shouted in chorus. Apparently that never occurred to them.

The medical examiner started explaining and held the girls' rapt attention as I walked over to the murder board. I pulled a pencil out of the desk and drew a line from the lounge to the study. That was Taylor's path. It wasn't far—the enclosed front hall was the only obstacle.

Did the killer hide there after killing Taylor, or did he join everyone else in the lounge, sight unseen? The trophy had been taken from a shelf in the study, which made me think the killer had to be there when Taylor had arrived. He'd have to have been in the study previously to choose the trophy over the letter opener.

Why the trophy? It seemed meaningful somehow. The letter opener would've been an easier weapon to wield. It made more sense. Which told me that the trophy was a message. About what?

Well, the woman had been boasting of her success since arrival. Perhaps it was a metaphor for her boasting? That might be something. Who would want to kill her over that? Thad was cut from the same cloth. I couldn't see him using a trophy for that reason.

Argh! This was frustrating.

But if Taylor was killed for a particular reason, what was the point of Enos's death? He was literally killed by a fish. The man was overweight. Was that why the killer used food? As a joke?

The idea of the murders being random…just because…was terrifying. It would be way easier if there was a true motive.

There had to be more to this. These people must know each other better than they'd let on. That meant I had to interrogate each and every guest to find out. And while I was pretty sure I could find a rubber hose and some rope, common sense told me I'd have to do this very carefully.

And then, there were Ned and Miriam. Those two had the opportunity to poison Enos's fish and weren't with the rest of us when Taylor was murdered. It would've been easy enough to kill Taylor. And they'd know all about the trophy since they worked here. But why kill them? That was what tripped me up. They worked in this house before the event and didn't seem to know anyone here. The only reason they could have to go on a killing spree would be if they did it just for fun. I shuddered at the thought.

My mind rolled back to my interviews in the moments before Taylor was killed. Caroline Regent was acting strangely. And then there was that chilling comment at dinner—about death being a natural thing. But then, she was an odd one. That didn't make her a killer.

Sitting at the desk, I pulled out a notepad and listed the guests. I needed to find out if there was a unique reason—beyond it being a fundraiser—why each one of them came to this event. Right off the bat, Enos and Dennis seemed out of place here. Not many single young men would come to a Girl Scout mystery night.

It made sense that the Kasinskis were here. They loved children and had given a great deal of money to the Girl Scouts over the years. And Taylor was a former Scout. I could see her being here to relive her glory days.

And Thad and Wren? Did Thad want to come because of Taylor? Or had Wren signed up so they could do something together? The couple didn't seem to get along. Thad barely noticed his wife even existed. Or was there a darker motive—could Wren have signed them up and then put on this scatterbrained act in order to catch Taylor and Thad together?

That left Caroline. Why was she here? She didn't like people. She admitted that. So why come alone to an event where the socially inept woman would have to mingle? Did she have a score to settle with Taylor? She had been CEO of an insurance company, and Caroline was a doctor. They could've crossed swords, so to speak.

"HELP! PLEASE! HELP!" Wren's voice was clear and coming from two rooms over.

I turned to the girls. "Stay here and lock the door behind you. Don't let anyone in but me. Got it?"

I took off in the direction of the scream. Soo Jin was right behind me. I heard the bolt thrown behind us and the sound of a chair wedging under the door. Smart girls.

Not again, I thought as I ran past Dennis's room toward Thad and Wren's room. The others were crowding the doorway. Why hadn't they gone inside to help? We pushed through and entered the room.

This was new.

Thad was face down in a bowl of some sort of gelatin substance. The hair on the back of his head was dark. Wet.

"Did you touch him or anything around him?" Soo Jin asked his wife as she kneeled to take his pulse. She shook her head at me. Thad was dead.