Curiosity Kicks In

A flash of lightning lit the skies as the girls entered their cabin.

Kate shivered. “Looks like we ended our treasure hunt just in time.”

Patti shook her head. “I don’t like storms. I hope it doesn’t …” Just then a loud peal of thunder shook the building. Her lips quivered as she said, “Th—thunder!”

“The storms up here can get pretty intense,” Megan said. “So stay indoors.”

“Do we have time to shower before lunch?” Kate asked. “I’m sticky and sweaty.”

“Me, too,” Lauren said. “I’ve got to get into clean clothes.”

“You have plenty of time,” Megan said. “Go ahead and shower, then let’s sit and talk awhile before lunch. We have plenty of time, and I want to get to know you girls better.”

As Kate grabbed clean clothes, she noticed a text message on her phone.

“Who’s it from?” McKenzie asked, drawing near.

“Looks like it’s from Sydney.” She pressed a couple of

buttons and read the message. “Oooh, look, McKenzie.”

“Located the missing stingray fossil at a museum in Vancouver.” Kate read the words then looked at McKenzie, stunned. “Joel’s missing fossil is in Vancouver, Canada? What’s it doing there?”

McKenzie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the people at Stone’s Throw are loaning it to them. Probably isn’t any big deal.”

Kate shook her head. “Then why doesn’t Mr. Jenkins know about it? He owns this place.” She lowered her voice. “Unless—he’s behind all of this.”

She glanced at Megan and thought about how sad the counselor would be to find out her father was a bad guy!

“I don’t know, Kate,” McKenzie whispered. “I still suspect Grumpy Gus. That makes more sense to me, especially since we saw him with the brown sugar.”

“Maybe. But I’m going to ask Sydney to check on one more thing. I need to know how long that stingray fossil has been there, and I need to make sure it’s the real deal. Maybe that fossil in Vancouver is a fake, just like the one in Philadelphia.”

“So if the one in Vancouver is fake, then where’s the real one?”

“Hmm.” Kate bit her lip. “I think there’s an underground ring of thieves. Maybe Grumpy Gus is just one of many. And maybe …” She snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. “Maybe he hasn’t had time to sell that one yet. He could be hiding it here somewhere. Maybe that’s what he was doing in the woods yesterday, finding the perfect place to hide it.”

McKenzie shrugged. “I guess that’s possible.”

Kate began to pace the room. “If only we’d won the treasure hunt! Then we could have gone into the shipping room instead of the boys. I would have looked for brown sugar … or something else to incriminate Grumpy Gus.”

McKenzie sighed. “This really stinks. We’re getting close to solving the case and can’t even get into the room where the forgeries are taking place.”

“Maybe we can.” Kate chewed on her fingernail, deep in thought.

“What do you mean?”

Kate lowered her voice. “Tonight, after everyone goes to bed, we can go to the shipping room and look around. I’ll take my fingerprinting kit and see if there are any prints I can lift.”

McKenzie’s eyes grew wide. “What if we get caught?”

“We won’t. I have an idea. I’ll take my little video camera in there, too. I’ll find a place to leave it so that we can record Gus. Then we’ll have the proof.” She looked at McKenzie as a peal of thunder cracked overhead. “You know,” she whispered, “there’s really only one way we’re ever going to solve this.”

“Ooh?”

“Yes.” She leaned in close and whispered, “If we do make

it into that room, we’ll do some serious digging. We need to know if the fossils they’re sending out are the real thing or if they’re made out of sugar.”

“But how do we get in there?” McKenzie whispered.

“I noticed there’s a back door leading to that room, too. And when we came across the parking lot after the treasure hunt, that door was propped open with a large stone. Maybe it still is.”

McKenzie shook her head. “I don’t know, Kate. I want to pray about this while I take my shower.”

Kate thought about the case as she showered and she prayed, too. The last thing she wanted to do was to falsely accuse someone. But with the clock ticking away, the girls had very little time to solve this case. Desperate times called for desperate measures. That’s what Kate’s mom always said anyway.

But how desperate? Should they really sneak out of the cabin and try to enter the prep room? Something about that felt wrong and even a little scary. However, the idea of not solving the case felt even more wrong.

By the time she ended her shower, Kate had talked herself into it. Tonight, while everyone else was asleep, she would take her fingerprint kit, her video camera, and several other gadgets, and she would go into the prep room … to see what she could see. Hopefully it would help solve the case.

After showering the girls dressed for lunch. Megangestured for them to sit on her bed.

“I just wanted to say something, campers,” she said with a smile. “I see a lot of campers come through here and you girls are great! I hate to play favorites, but I’m so happy to be your counselor this week.”

Kate reached to hug her. “We’re happy to be here. And thank you so much for being a great counselor, Megan.”

“It’s easy when your campers are as good as mine are.” Megan winked and they all smiled.

Soon the campers were sitting in Conner’s class on the various types of fossils. Then, as the evening wore into the night, Kate couldn’t stop wondering what Grumpy Gus was up to in that back room. With her curiosity getting the better of her, she knew there was only one way to find out. She had to get inside that room, no matter what!