Killer Beach Reads Read online

  * * *

  After a restless night of Kelly waking me up every half hour to see if I was dead, the girls brought me breakfast from the dining hall. An hour later, after promising Kelly I'd stay in bed, I watched as she led the girls out of the campsite and down to the pool for a three-hour splash fest.

  Once I was sure she was gone, I got dressed and headed off to Ghost Badger Bridge to see if I could figure out what the hell was going on. It was hot. July in Iowa tends to be like that. The humidity was something north of tropical rainforest, and the sun was brutal.

  My head pounded a little less than yesterday, but it was still slow going with the dizziness. There was little point in going off the trail because it was littered with poison ivy—something one of the Kaitlins had discovered a day ago—and I wasn't wearing jeans to protect my legs. For the first time, I could really tell the four of them apart because one was covered with bright red welts, covered in dried, pink calamine lotion.

  So I had to remain in the sun. I was covered with dust by the time I got to the bridge. The place still looked spooky—even in daylight. I walked a little up the trail past the bridge, but the path ended about one hundred feet away.

  Instead, I made my way down the hill to the creek where I'd been bludgeoned the night before. An imprint of my body remained in the mud at the edge of the water. That was weird. You usually saw that on cartoons, not in real life.

  The good news was that I could see from which direction the blows had come. There were footprints too—one pair walking up to me and one walking away. I knelt down and checked them out.

  Smallish feet. Not a child's, but not a man's either. Okay, so it was a woman? Well, camp was full of them. Almost two hundred. That didn't help. I followed the prints to the hill on the other side of the bridge, but when mud turned to dirt, I lost them.

  I stood in my imprint and thought about the night before, trying to remember if I'd heard or seen anything. No, it had been too dark. And any noise had been covered by my troop squealing in the distance.

  So why would anyone knock me out? My most recent experiences with assailants had been that they wanted to either kill me outright or frame me for something. This had neither of those elements. What else could it be?

  Maybe I had stumbled onto something no one was supposed to see? An illicit rendezvous? Bribing a government official? A drug deal? A murder? Gunrunning? Satanic rituals? A secret meeting of area clowns? Okay, that was too terrifying. Better take that one off the list.

  One of those, or a variation of it, must be the answer. Personally, I was rooting for the entertainment value of an illicit rendezvous, but the others couldn't be ruled out. Why would whoever clocked me decide to do something like that at Girl Scout Camp? The idea seemed a little out there, to be honest.

  On the other hand, this was an extremely remote area in the middle of nowhere. You only had to be able to dodge the girls when they came out to get scared silly, but my experience had told me you'd hear them coming a mile away.

  Well, whoever it was, they were gone now. I looked at my watch and winced. I'd been here longer than I should've. It was time to get back so that I could be in bed when Kelly brought the girls back to change for lunch.

  I climbed back up to the bridge. As I reached the road, I spotted something stuck in between the boards of the support beams. It was a folded up piece of paper. I opened it and started walking back. Trying to read it as I walked wasn't working out. I was tripping over every rock and root on the trail, and my head was throbbing once again.

  Stuffing the paper into my back pocket, I picked up my pace, lightly jogging back to Raccoon Fork.

  Have you ever tried jogging with a head injury? I don't recommend it. Not only was my body bouncing, but my brain was slamming around inside my skull in a way that one's brain is not supposed to. I staggered into my cabin, drenched in sweat, unable to see due to the shooting pain behind my eyes.

  My timing was good, as I heard my troop singing in the distance. I quickly untied my hiking boots and tried to brush most of the dirt off before climbing into my sleeping bag. I barely made it before the girls raced into camp.

  "That was fun," Kelly said sarcastically as she let the cabin door slam behind her.

  I winced, and she immediately apologized. "Sorry! How are you feeling?"

  "My head hurts," I said. "How was the swimming?"

  "A nightmare." Kelly frowned. She touched my forehead. "You're sweating, but you don't have a fever." She handed me two aspirin and looked at me appraisingly.

  "What happened?" I asked innocently as I swallowed the pills.

  "Emily hit her head on the diving board. Inez scraped her leg on the pool deck cement. Ava fell through a badly put together deck chair, and one of the Kaitlins was bitten by a turtle." She eased herself down onto her cot and stretched out, sighing heavily.

  "Bitten by a turtle?" I asked.

  Kelly nodded. "A tiny one. But if you ask her, it was a dining-table-sized snapper." She closed her eyes. I felt bad. She was tired, and she was pregnant. And I'd ditched her to run off to that bridge. Why did I do that? It wasn't any of my business. Oh wait…yes, it was because someone hit me over the head. And my girls were here, and I worried for their safety. Yes, that's the first reason—not me.

  "I'll take them after lunch," I offered. "What do we have?"

  "Horseback riding." Kelly didn't open her eyes. "And I'd say by the dust on your hiking boots that you've already been out today."

  Dammit. She was good. Too good.

  "So yes," she continued, "you can take the girls horseback riding while I take a nap."

  I sat up. No point pretending anymore. Arguing about it would just seem rude at this point.

  "What about lunch?" I asked as I stuck my feet into my boots and laced them.

  Kelly pulled a candy bar out of her backpack. "I've got these. I need rest more than food."

  My head still hurt, but not as badly. I rounded up the girls, and we started for the horse corral.

  "Mrs. Wrath?" Betty ran up to join me. She was breaching the two-by-two buddy system, but I decided not to hold it against her.

  "It's 'Ms. Wrath,' Betty," I told her for the ten millionth time since I'd led the first meeting.

  "Okay. Mrs. Wrath?" Betty asked, "Is Miss Kelly all right?"

  For a moment I toyed with telling her that, actually, Mrs. Kelly would be correct. And why use my last name but her first name, but it seemed like an exercise in futility. Like telling a polar bear he should be a vegetarian—even though I thought I might actually have a better chance getting through to the bear.

  "She's fine. Pregnant women just need more rest, that's all."

  "She's pregnant?" Betty stopped the line, screaming this at the top of her lungs. The other girls, in turn, grew wide-eyed and looked at me as if I'd turned into a snake wearing a sweater.

  I wasn't sure what to make of this outburst, especially since we'd told the girls at least four or five times on this trip. Not to mention the baby shower we'd had for her at the last meeting.

  "Yes." I opted for simplicity. "She's pregnant."

  "Is she going to have kittens like Philby?" Inez asked, referring to my cat. I thought it was a fair question.

  "No, she's going to have a baby."

  One of the Kaitlins chimed in, "Okay, but a baby what?"

  "It would be awesome if she had a shark baby!" Betty regained her composure enough to come up with this thought.

  "Don't be stupid." Emily shook her head. "She's going to have puppies. Sharks need water. We live in Iowa."

  I thought about mentioning that there were freshwater sharks but was interrupted.

  "What if she has a baby spider?" Caitlyn squealed.

  "Eeeeeeew!" ten girls screamed in unison.

  "Enough!" my leader voice shrieked. "She's having a human baby!" I yelled this loudly, and another troop passed us just at that moment, giving us the strangest looks.

  "Look!" I pointed at the stables. "We're here!"
Thank God. I wasn't sure I could keep this up anymore. Although I had to admit it would be cool if Kelly had a shark baby. But I decided I'd keep that opinion to myself.

  "Hey girls!" A fifty-something woman with short, dark hair and glasses walked up to us. "Does anyone want to ride a horse today?"

  The scream that erupted is probably circling the globe and at this moment somewhere near Portugal.

  The woman walked over to me and held out her hand. I shook it.

  "I'm Dot, the director of the horse program," she said with an easy smile.

  "Oh good. You have a real name," I said. "All these camp names are so hard to remember, and when you think about it, kind of stupid…"

  She shook her head. "That is my camp name. The first horse I worked with here was named Dot."

  "Oh, now you see, that makes perfect sense…" I stammered.

  Dot waved me off. "No problem. Let's get started!"

  Dot introduced herself to the girls and laid down the rules. First off, no screaming. Only soft voices were allowed around the horses. Apparently, it spooked them when girls screamed. I thought about asking if she had any duct tape to make something like that possible. I wondered if Dot knew she was at a camp for young girls. Secondly, you had to do things exactly as Dot said. This was for our safety. And safety came first.

  The girls weren't old enough to ride on their own, so a counselor was assigned to each rider, walking the horse as they sat astride. We put on helmets and waited our turns to climb onto horses with names like Pickles, Star, and Oprah. I went last.

  I've ridden before. Like a lot of girls growing up in Iowa, I'd had lessons in Western-style riding. This had come in handy in my CIA days when I had to ride for three days across the steppes of Mongolia on a horse named Killer to meet another spy. I liked the horse, but the spy was a jerk. Since I was the leader, I got the last horse, whose name was Princess. She was a pretty little quarter horse with sweet eyes. I climbed on, and we followed the girls onto the trail.

  Dot was in the lead, and I brought up the rear, without a counselor walking beside me, of course. The horse trails were different from the hiking trails at camp, and I was seeing parts of Camp Mika I'd never known were there. It was a hot day, but pleasant. Princess was extremely tame. But then I figured they had to be with a different girl on their backs each hour.

  We crossed a wide meadow and watched butterflies dancing on air. The girls oohed and aahed appropriately, and for the first time, I relaxed and really enjoyed watching them try something new for the first time. We clip-clopped along at a lazy pace, turning a corner into the woods by the Ghost Badger Bridge.

  The hair on the back of my neck tingled. Did I hear voices? I tried to sort out what the girls ahead of me were saying to the counselors walking with them. I'd been right—someone else was talking. Male voices were coming from the direction of the bridge. I strained to hear what they were saying but couldn't make it out.

  Maybe it was the camp's site manager. He was a man, I thought a little idiotically. If only I could hear what they were talking about!

  Looking ahead, I realized that no one was paying attention to me. If I just slipped away for a moment, I could find out what was going on. One of the Kaitlins was in front of me, mindlessly blathering on to a counselor who seemed to be off in her own little world.

  The trail up ahead was twisting to the left. One by one, the girls and their minders were disappearing from view. If I held back a moment, I could make a slight detour, catching up before they had any idea I was gone.

  Princess, the horse, sensed that I was up to something. She whickered irritably but kept going. I kept a firm hand on the reins to let her know I was still in charge. The minute the horse in front of me vanished, I seized my chance and turned my horse in the other direction.

  I kept Princess to a light trot on the trail before plunging into the foliage. The voices were getting louder. I pulled gently on the reins to get my horse to slow down. I was almost there. Almost at the point where I could hear them. I brought Princess to a stop and waited.

  "…just like you said," a man snarled.

  "Not a lot of time…what if…we get caught?" another responded.

  This was good. I was right! I'd wandered into something. That's why I'd been knocked out. I liked being right.

  "Stupid location…girls everywhere…what were you thinking?" a third man barked.

  Okay, time to get back before I'm noticed. I pulled up on the reins, but Princess wasn't moving. I'd stopped in a patch of clover. And Princess was having a snack.

  "Come on," I whispered. "We have to go!"

  But the horse wouldn't budge. She just kept munching.

  "Princess!" I hissed.

  The animal's ears swiveled back, but she made no effort to move. If we didn't get out of here, Dot might bring the others back to find me. And that might bring them face to face with these three bad guys I was eavesdropping on.

  I dug my heels into the horse's sides. She stopped eating, and her head came up fast. Without any warning, she took off like she was on fire. This little mare, sweet as pie, went from zero to sixty in three seconds.

  We roared back onto the trail faster than I'd ever ridden before and soon raced past the whole line of girls and their horses. I think I heard an expletive or two from Lauren or Betty, but I couldn't tell.

  "Stop!" Dot's voice rang out as I passed her. "Stop that horse now!" she called.

  I tried pulling on the reins. Nothing. The brakes on this pony were out of service. Instead we rode at breakneck speed until we got to the corral, where Princess stopped just as quickly as she'd started, throwing me over her head and into the water trough. Yup. Just like in a bad cowboy movie.

  "Ms. Wrath!" Dot was trotting up to the trough just as I emerged from the water. "Are you alright? I've never seen Princess do that before! Did you break anything?"

  I spit out a mouthful of water and nodded to indicate that I was, in fact, fine.

  "Dot!" One of the counselors ran up and dropped something into the woman's hand.

  I started wringing out the parts of me that could be wrung out. I had to admit it felt pretty good to be wet in this heat.

  Dot whistled and showed me what she had. "You must've wandered too close to a thorn tree. This was on her rump."

  A long, sharp thorn the length of my hand lay across her palm.

  "Poor baby!" she continued to the horse, not me. After patting Princess on the neck, she ordered the counselors to get the girls off their horses for the tour of the stables.

  I didn't remember any thorn trees. If I'd seen a tree full of what looked like foot-long hypodermic needles, I would've remembered it. Did someone stab my horse? Was it one of those men I'd overheard?

  The girls were quiet as Dot led us through the stable, demonstrating how they brushed the horses down every day. I think they were a little freaked out by what had happened to me. But I wasn't going to say anything to change their behavior. I'm not stupid.

  "Want to help us feed the horses?" Dot asked, looking at her watch.

  The girls erupted into the strangest whispered "Yes!" I'd ever heard and clustered around her for instructions.

  Each horse had a bucket with its name on it. This was because the horses all required different diets. Some were on medication, and some couldn't eat feed at all. I helped hand out the pre-mixed buckets and followed the girls to make sure they had no problem pouring the feed into each horse's own trough. When we were done, I noticed one horse in the field by himself. Hopefully the girls wouldn't notice and ask questions. We needed to get back so that I could change for dinner.

  "Mrs. Dot?" Emily asked. "Why aren't we feeding that horse over there?"

  Dot looked in the direction of the child's chubby finger and nodded. "Oh. That's Cookie. I'll take care of him."

  The woman turned to me. "He doesn't do well here. We're going to have to get rid of him."

  You would've thought she'd said glue factory. The girls burst into tears and ran to t
he lonely horse, sobbing and calling his name over and over. Apparently, children who couldn't grasp the fact that I wasn't married had no problem jumping to conclusions in what Dot hadn't said, which to their little, squirmy minds meant this horse was going to die.

  Dot looked at me strangely as I sloshed over to the girls and somehow wrangled them away from the singled out horse. I waved a weak thanks to her as I herded the weeping children back to the trail and toward Raccoon Fork.

  "Why?" was all that the four Kaitlins could say, over and over.

  "Cookie!!!" the rest of them cried repeatedly until we came upon our campsite.

  Kelly seemed rested and completely unready for the ten girls who flew into her arms.

  "What did you do to them?" she asked me. I barely heard her over the moaning.

  "They really, really liked the horses." I shrugged. It would be impossible to tell her the whole story with all the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes.

  "Did they get cookies?" Kelly asked. "And why are you soaking wet?"

  I shook my head. "Tell you later," I mouthed, before going into my cabin and changing into dry clothes.

  * * *

  The girls had stopped crying by the time we got to the dining hall for dinner. They ate like they'd been starved all day. I guess mass hysteria makes kids hungry. Surf and Reef had joined our table again and looked questioningly at our quiet, tear-stained girls.

  "We rode horses today," I said. "They kind of grew attached."

  The Australian counselors nodded like this happened every day, and after dinner they said good-bye to the girls before we left to go back to camp. Ten little girls quietly got ready for bed and were out before my first shoe hit the wood floor of the cabin Kelly and I shared.

  Then I told her what had happened.

  She laughed. Like really laughed. For about ten minutes. It was humiliating.

  "Okay, sorry about that…" She wiped her eyes and giggled. "I just wish I'd seen you fly by on a horse like that. You used to be a really good rider."