“Before you get mad and refuse to speak to me ever again, I want to thank you for saving my life, Kat with a K.”
With those words, Riley scrambled out of bed, had a head rush, and collapsed weakly onto the patchwork quilt. Bianca went to put a protective arm around her, but Riley twisted away. She rearranged the pillows and sat cross-legged on the bedcovers.
Kat was simmering with fury. “Saving your life? We risked our own lives and the lives of the huskies to go searching for you in a snowstorm. We were nearly killed by a bear. And the entire time you were fine and cozy in Silver Lake, playing Scrabble with your nan and other criminals.”
“We deserve that,” remarked Georgia.
“Hard to argue with the ‘other criminals’ part,” agreed Bianca.
“That’s one story, but it’s not the whole story,” said Riley. “If you know everything, Kat, then you’ll know that when I met you in the forest, I wasn’t with my aunt and uncle. They were protection officers, hired after I witnessed the theft of a diamond necklace. It was their job to keep me safe until the trial.”
“How did they feel about your grandmother being a dear friend of the accused?” demanded Kat. “Or did it slip your mind to mention it? Were you in on the scam too? Were you planning to have an attack of amnesia at the trial?”
“Whoa there!” protested Georgia. “Be upset with us, sure, but leave Riley out of it. She’s innocent.”
Cath Woodward laid a hand on her granddaughter’s shoulder. “Believe us, or don’t. Until yesterday, Riley knew nothing of the Clue Club. The fact that she saw Gerry take the diamond necklace at the Royal Manhattan was a cruel coincidence, and finding out that her grandmother was involved was crueler still—for both of us. When her bodyguards were ambushed and the identity of the star witness was revealed, I died a thousand deaths.”
“If you really didn’t know that your nan was a gangster and a thief, you must have felt betrayed,” said Harper.
“That’s if Riley’s telling the truth,” interjected Kat.
“Stick around long enough and I’ll prove it,” Riley shot back. “Yeah, I felt lied to and let down. Nan used to be my hero.”
Her grandmother looked as if she wanted to crawl under the bed, but Riley had already moved on. She stared at the girls in wonder. “Why would you put your life on the line for someone you’ve met only once, Kat? Harper, you didn’t know me at all. Why would either of you risk so much for me? After today, I’d understand if you withdrew your offer of friendship, but I’ll always be a friend to both of you—if you need an extra one. When someone saves your life, that’s just the way it is.”
Harper was bewildered. “You keep saying that, but I don’t understand. How did we save you?”
“I’ll try to explain. Technically, it was Kat’s cat who saved me.”
Kat felt a rush of joy. “Tiny helped you?”
“No question about it. Without the photo you gifted me, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Tell us what happened,” urged Harper. “Leave nothing out.”
“I hate to be boring,” Georgia broke in, “but do either of you girls have a phone signal? I need to message Riley’s dad. He’ll be out of his mind with worry.”
Harper checked hers. “Nope, we might as well be on the moon.”
Kat was looking from Riley to her grandmother and back again. “Mr. Matthews doesn’t know that Riley’s been rescued?”
“He’s known since yesterday morning that she’s safe, but we haven’t plucked up the courage to give him Cath’s address yet,” confessed Georgia. “He’s changed his phone number, and Riley doesn’t have the new one. We had no choice but to call the police hotline. For nearly a day, they wouldn’t believe us. Then they wanted an address. I was on the phone to them and I hung up in a panic. Before we could decide what to do next, the power got knocked out. That was last night. Michael was on his way to the gas station to use their phone to call the hotline again when you and your huskies showed up.”
Riley put an arm around her grandmother. “It’s a complicated situation. After my mom walked out two years ago—”
“Walked out? I was wondering if she’d died,” Harper admitted.
“Nah, she just moved to New Zealand with her personal trainer and started a new family. To cope, Dad threw himself into work. That’s all he does these days: work, work, work. It’s been tough. Nan and I were always super close—much closer than me and my mom were. She had no interest in reading and couldn’t stand the outdoors, but that didn’t matter because me and Nan were bonded by nature and books. But after Mom left, Dad banned me from seeing my grandmother. He said she was a bad influence.”
“Gee, I can’t imagine why,” Harper said sarcastically.
Riley flushed. “Obviously, he didn’t know she was a robber.”
Cath Woodward put her head in her hands. “How on earth did it come to this?”
“Dad was more concerned that she’d turn me into an eco-warrior like her,” explained Riley. “He doesn’t understand that even though I was born smack-bang in the middle of Manhattan, the wilderness is in my blood. That’s why your wild cat helped me so much, Kat. After the ambush, what kept me going in the storm was this absolute belief that Tiny and the forest animals—and you and Harper, of course—were my friends.”
“But how did you get from there to here?” said Harper. “To this house?
“I’ll tell you the bits I remember. Nan can fill in the rest. At about four A.M. on Tuesday, I was woken by the burglar alarm on our safe house. Jo was sure it was a bear, but she and Tony made the decision to move me to another cabin just in case. They rushed me to the vehicle in my pj’s and a denim jacket.
“I dozed off in the back seat. Next thing I was shocked awake by gunshots. We were parked, and the driver’s door was open. Tony was lying bleeding on the road. I couldn’t see the shooter. Jo pulled me out of the vehicle and got me into the trees by the roadside. She gave me her phone and told me to run and hide. She promised to come get me. About five minutes later, I heard another shot, and then there was just a horrible silence. After that, I just ran and ran.”
“You must have been terrified,” said Harper, recalling the police brute who’d crushed her arm just a few hours ago, demanding to know where Riley was hidden. Now didn’t seem the right moment to mention it.
“Mainly, I was terrified of getting hypothermia,” Riley was saying. “Like I told Kat, up until two years ago, I came to these woods all the time. Winter or summer, Nan would take me camping. She taught me survival techniques. I knew I had to dig a snow cave to keep warm. I didn’t manage that, but I did build a shelter.”
“We found it,” Kat told her.
“You did?” Riley was amazed.
“Matty, one of our huskies, tracked you there using the blue neckerchief you gave me.”
“If only I’d had her fur to heat me up in the storm. My pajamas and sneakers were soaked and crusty with snow. I couldn’t feel my feet or my hands. All I wanted to do was sleep. But I knew from what Nan had taught me that that’s the biggest danger sign. It means that hypothermia’s setting in.”
“What about the bodyguard’s phone?” asked Kat. “Did you try using it?”
“A thousand times. There was no signal, and the battery was dying. Eventually, I got so cold I didn’t care about living anymore. I started to drift off. Suddenly, I heard your voice, Kat, as clear as if you’d been standing beside me. ‘He looks scary, but he’s the best friend anyone could ever have. He’s my protector, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind being yours.’
“I remembered you passing me the photo. Your hands were so warm and your eyes were so kind. You’d told me you’d be my friend. I took the photo from the pocket of my denim jacket. Tiny did look scary but in a good way, like he’d protect me from any bear, assassin, or storm. His leopard fur was so silky and golden, it made me feel better just to look at it. I wanted to stay alive just so if I ever saw you again I could tell you that Tiny’s spirit saved me in the snow. I didn’t know then…”
Her voice trailed away.
Her grandmother read her thoughts. “You couldn’t have guessed that when your paths crossed again it would be under these unfortunate circumstances. I’m so sorry, Riley. If I could go back in time and change things, I would.”
Bianca and Georgia shuffled awkwardly too.
“You still haven’t answered Harper’s question, Riley,” said Kat. “How did you get from there to here?”
Riley rallied. “While I was shining the phone flashlight on the photo of Tiny, I noticed the signal flickering. I saw something else too: Jo had installed What3Words on her phone.”
“What’s that?” asked Kat.
“An app that divides the earth into three-meter squares and gives each square a three-word locator,” said Harper.
Riley smiled. “Nan had made me put it on my own phone in case we ever got separated on a camping trip. My brain was so cold and fuzzy, I couldn’t recall Dad’s new number, but Nan’s was engraved on my brain. My fingers were too numb to send a message. I just prodded the locator and hoped she’d figure out it was me. That’s the last thing I remember until I woke up here—in this den of thieves.”
Cath sagged as if she’d been dealt a physical blow. “By a grim stroke of fortune, it was only because I was up at dawn checking the headlines to see if the cops were getting anywhere in their hunt for us—the so-called Wish List gang—that I saw the breaking news. It was the single most hideous moment of my life, discovering that the star witness was none other than my own granddaughter. Worse, Riley was missing, feared abducted or lost in the northern Adirondacks with Storm Mindy charging in.
“There are no words to describe how I felt. It was my fault she was in that situation. If we’d never come up with that wretched Wish List, she wouldn’t be in harm’s way.”
“What did you do next?” asked Kat.
“As I despaired, my phone pinged with a notification from What3Words. Three words came up: Sweetcorn. Hare. Volcano. The number wasn’t Riley’s, but there was no doubt in my mind that it must be her. I rang Michael, who’s taking care of your huskies, and he and I drove like maniacs in our truck to the red square that marked Riley’s grid reference on my phone. The whole way there, it pulsed like a beating heart.
“When we found her, she was virtually lifeless. With the storm moving in, it wasn’t safe or practical to get her to a hospital. Our friend Kiara’s a nurse and could give her the best care. She and her husband, Rob, had been staying with Michael, so it was simple enough to transfer their bags here. Our other friends were already on their way to join us. When Storm Mindy arrived, the seven of us—and Riley—were trapped here.”
“I finally came around yesterday morning,” said Riley. “You can imagine how I felt when Nan broke the news that she and the others were the subject of an international manhunt and close friends with the thief I’d watched snatch the diamond necklace.”
“What made it even worse,” said Bianca, “is that it’s because of us—the Clue Club—that Riley’s bodyguards were ambushed. After Gerry was arrested, we were so desperate to get him out of jail that we were clutching at straws. Gerry used the one phone call he was allowed to tell my dad, Emilio, that he didn’t have the necklace. We believed him. Dad called the cops anonymously and asked them to investigate whether the star witness was actually the thief. We had no idea that Riley was the star witness or that some maniac would take those words as truth and attack the bodyguards. I guess he wanted to steal the diamond necklace for himself.”
Bianca looked stricken. “Now we’re in quite a tangle. A pickle, as you Brits would say.”
“Yes, we are,” mumbled Cath Woodward. “As soon as we get a phone signal, I’m going to call the cops and tell them that Riley is here with me. I suspect that Riley’s dad will be here within hours. We’re not sure how much or how little to tell him.”
“We also need to get Gerry out of jail,” fretted Bianca, “but we can’t do that without confessing to being in the Wish List gang. It’s a calamity.”
“How did it start?” asked Kat. “You just don’t seem the type to steal fifty million dollars’ worth of diamonds.”
“That’s a whole other story,” said Georgia.
Cath put up her hand. “One that might best be enjoyed with cake and company. Shall we go downstairs and join the others?”