Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text"Thank God's Dad," Ella sighed as she heaved an overnight bag out of the trunk and handed it to Chloe. "I think my butt fused with my support hose halfway down I-5."
"Why didn't you take your car, Mom?" asked Rory. "Auntie Ella's is pretty old, isn't it?"
Chloe opened her mouth to answer just as Ella said, "Someone messed it up while we were inside City Hall."
Rory grew quiet. "Was it the C-word again?" she asked.
"No, Rory, it wasn't," said Chloe. Half of being a good parent was not saying whatever popped into your head, and right now, her head was full of, "I walked out of a planning meeting with four of the fifteen people who could decide whether the institution I devoted my professional life to takes even the most minuscule baby step toward being what I thought it was to a storm of text messages saying my daughter found a dead body at summer camp and when I ran to my car—in heels—I found that someone spraypainted 'TRAITOR' on the windshield. In blue paint."
It wasn't the first time she'd been vandalized or harassed. The day after Rory had gone to camp, Chloe had gotten an alert about identity theft. Someone trying to break into WobblePay. She couldn't prove it was related, but it felt like it was.
Fortunately, no one had pegged the ten-year-old sedan with the tree frog bumper sticker two spaces over as Ella's, so she'd been able to grab her stuff and hit the highway. She wasn't looking forward to paying the parking bill, but with a camp counselor collecting flies anywhere but a nature hike, that was the least of her problems.
Rory shouldn't have to deal with this, Chloe told herself as she slipped into the stall next to Ella's. Not the death at summer camp, not her mom being a target. But, as usual, right after that she thought that Rory shouldn't have to grow up in a city with a corrupt police force that wasn't doing anything to get better.
Chloe slipped into the stall next to Ella's and unzipped her overnight bag. There were last year's sensible brown shoes and dress socks stuffed into an old Safeway bag, a blouse still folded from the cleaners, and a pair of slacks that probably didn't still fit. She never did choose her backup clothes for fashion. Still, her skin cells danced in the street like it was VE day when she pulled off her support hose inch by inch. It was all she could do to keep her mouth from joining in.
Ella had no such limits. "Geeeeeyaaaaaaahhh!" followed by a string of half-audible Spanish curses.
"Auntie Ella, gross!" said Rory from by the sinks.
"Idioma," said Chloe.
"What? There's a reason I don't usually wear business formal for a long ride! It's not like I'm pooping in here. Although that gas station tuna wrap was a bit funky..." There was a deep (and heavily fake) plunk sound and then a flush.
"Ew!" Rory said, but her laugh echoed across the tiles.
Chloe buttoned up her blouse, shoved her sweat-soaked dress and heels into the bag and stepped out to wash her hands in the sink.
Her reflection hit her like a slap.
She'd grown up expecting to make her career in acting, and she'd been the daughter of a screen performer entering middle age, so the fact that she'd eventually lose her looks had been on her mind even more than for most teenaged girls. Usually, though, with a little time and more makeup than people realized, she could make herself at least resemble the face she pictured in her head. In the right light. In clothes that fit.
She'd done the works that morning. A foundation that cost twice the one she wore to work and just enough liner on her mouth and eyes. She'd put her hair in a ponytail that looked simple but actually had three elastics and more spray than the Laker Girls on a windy game night. A hair out of place made people think a woman's ideas were flyaway. It might be sexist, but that wasn't the societal problem she was trying to change right now.
None of it had held up to the California heat, especially not on a very long car ride with the windows open after the AC broke down, not to mention worrying if her child had been traumatized. The makeup had melted (and not evenly on both sides). There were dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was sticking up in weird places, especially the thicker grays and whites.
"Ella, do you have a—"
Ella slapped a plastic comb into her palm.
"Thank you," said Chloe, unsticking her hair tie and starting from the ends.
"Don't ask me for concealer. This stuff cost me cash, and I'm not sharing," said Ella, adjusting a thick tube of half-congealed Sephora base. "I know though, right?" she muttered, nodding at her reflection. "Any more and they'd think I was the lake monster."
Chloe kept her mouth shut. The articles all said girls who heard their moms criticize their appearances grew up with poor body image, not that Penelope Decker's daughter had needed to hear it.
But the air felt good in the looser clothing, and the arch support was practically a foot massage. She snapped her hair into a bun that would probably turn messy inside twenty seconds and slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Nnna mnnnt," slurred Ella, blending in her cover. "Okay, I'm good." She picked up her own bag and beamed full-width. "Hey, we're two off-the-books investigators helping the police solve a mystery. We're gonna be just like Rosemary and Thyme!"
Chloe frowned. "Who?"
"Hetty and Janet?"
"You lost me."
Aurora looked up, "I think it's old people TV."
"Callate," muttered Ella.
"Idioma," said Aurora.
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.
Chloe's first impression of Director Millner had been that he was a man who needed to breathe into a paper bag himself once in the while. He'd certainly had one ready at hand for Noah to gulp into. The music teacher, "Blanchard," was hovering near the far side of the medical tent. He met her eyes. "No adult is ever alone with any of the kids. Camp policy," he said, voice twanging with Appalachia and discomfort as Noah wheezed.
"What did you say to him?" Ella whispered to Stevens.
"To be honest, I'm not sure," she answered.
"Do I have to stay for this part?" Rory asked in a deflated voice.
"He ...probably isn't going to be much use for a while, I'm afraid," Millner said with his shoulders by his ears. "Maybe you could..." his eyes ducked to the side in the expression of someone desperate to help despite all incompetence. "Rory, could you show Deputy Stevens where Patricia was?"
Blanchard gave a heavy smoker's cough, "Dennis, I'm not sure asking young Rory to go back there is a good idea." He looked at Chloe. "I'll gladly show the three of you where—"
"No thanks," said Stevens. She turned to Rory, "Would you please show us, Sweetheart?"
Rory gave her a glare ten times as dark as the one she'd given Noah.
"What did I say?"
"Ix-nay on the eetheart-sway. I'll explain later," said Ella.
Chloe looked at Blanchard and then at Rory, "You don't have to, sweetie," she said in a low voice.
"But she gets to eetheart-sway?" asked Stevens.
"Later," said Ella.
"Does it get this over with?" asked Rory. She grabbed Chloe's hand. "Let's go."
Chloe let herself be tugged toward the screen door, feeling Blanchard's eyes on the back of her head like heat lamps. Ella muttered quickly to Stevens as they followed. "See, there's being friendly, and then there's doing stuff that only friends are allowed to do. It's kind of like going into someone's house and taking stuff outta the fridge..."
Rory stomped heavily as the gravel path turned to dusty dirt and back again.
"Doesn't it go that way?" said Stevens.
"This way's quicker," said Rory, kicking the low branch of a bush out of the way.
"City planners call these 'desire paths,'" said Ella. The gravel walkway curved around to their right around a kiosk with a bulletin board behind a sheet of thick plastic, but there was also a clear rectangle of dead grass cutting the corner.
Rory's toe caught on a root, but she didn't stop until the official way caught up and they were veering left into the woods.
"It's over there," said Rory, pointing down the path.
"Why are you buddies with a kid half your age?" asked Ella as she pulled out her phone to take photos of the approach. Chloe let go of Rory's hand and crouched down to examine the gravel, but she couldn't help but overhear.
"Noah's ...short for his height," clipped Rory.
"That's not a lie but you didn't answer my question," said Ella.
"We're in enough of the same activities," said Rory. "It's not that bad."
"Other girls your age were more into basket weaving and nature walks?" She rubbed her chin. "I had the same problem. Would you believe no one wanted to guess the dates of death on local roadkill?"
Rory looked at her over her sunglasses. "Now I know why Auntie Ray-Ray was your only friend."
"Not my only friend. Wait, is this the bridge?" asked Ella squinting down the path. She reached into her pocket and pulled out something blue.
"You carry crime scene gloves around with you?" asked Stevens.
"Of course. I'm not an animal," she answered, snapping on a pair.
"Wait on this side of the tape," Chloe said. Rory opened her mouth and Chloe held up a finger. "I can still take you home."
Chloe slipped the latex on over her hands, watching Stevens from the corner of her eye. "We should let her go first," she murmured to Ella. "It is her case."
"What was that about not wanting help from the music teacher?" asked Ella.
"He's a suspect, isn't he?" said Stevens.
"He is?" asked Rory.
"At this stage, almost everyone is," said Ella.
"Uh..." said Stevens. "Should we talk in front of the C-H-I-L-D?"
"The C-H-I-L-D can S-P-E-L-L," said Rory. "She's not F-O-U-R."
Trees closed over this part of the path, and the air near the water was refreshingly cool. Now that the body had been removed, the stream was flowing clear and cold at what was probably its usual level. Deputy Stevens or someone else from the department had strung the crime scene tape from saplings on either side of the bridge in both directions. Chloe ducked underneath it and felt the gravelly soil crunch under her feet as she tried to get a better look at the rocks. What she wouldn't have given right now for a whole team of investigators in waders to check every fleck of algae.
Rory pointed to the exact spot in the water, and Chloe leaned over to get a look.
"The music teacher guy was right," said Ella. "There are just too many sets of feet going through this place. And at the end of the day, it's just a scuff on the railing." She turned her head and looked at the rail sideways, clicking on the flashlight of her phone. "It's painted red, and that doesn't help, but if anyone did push Patricia over, and they got a cut or a splinter..." Ella moved down the rail, slowly.
"Her feet were over there," said Rory, pointing. "And her head was that way," she said again.
"Thank you, Swee—" Stevens stopped. "Just thanks."
Rory raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
Chloe looked at the rocks from the side, then up at Ella taking pictures from behind the guardrail. This was what sitting behind a desk couldn't do for you. The empty air between the bridge and the rocks below. The time it would have taken to fall. The angles. When Rory had first started talking, Chloe had pictured a little footbridge like in a painting or on the low-level hiking trails she'd done with Dan and Trixie. This whopper sat high above the stream. An accidental fall from that height could kill. But the guard rails came nearly to Chloe's chest. It would take a lot for an accident like that to happen in the first place. It didn't feel right.
She ought to want it to be an accident. She ought to want to have to tell Rory that sometimes death came early and it was just bad luck, like the time Trixie's gradeschool bus driver had had a heart attack at home. But here she was in the field with Ella for the first time in years, and something about the whole setup felt wrong, but it was the kind of wrong that felt good.
"Well?" asked Stevens. "What do you see?"
Oh, thought Chloe, remembering a different crime scene, long ago. Am I the eggs?
She reeled those thoughts back in. Life didn't go backwards.
"You tell me, Deputy," she said. "It's your case."
.
.
"So we don't have to shut down?" asked Millner as they stood outside the medical tent. "Some of the parents have already picked up their children, but many of the campers are from out of state. We even have a young boy from Singapore and two girls from Germany."
"No," said Chloe. "I mean..." and she nodded deferentially to Deputy Stevens.
"No ...the kids will be uh..." she said. Then she cleared her throat. "I've roped off the bridge area. I'm going to need you to make sure none of the staff or campers go anywhere near the crime scene."
"Actually not go near it," said Chloe meaningfully. Millner gulped. Deputy Stevens looked her way and then back at Millner. "Just telling the children it's off limits won't work," she said, half for Stevens' benefit. "They'll be curious and want a closer look. You'll have to remind them of the gravity of the situation and keep them supervised."
"And we'll need to interview the entire staff, starting with Counselor Moira," said Stevens.
"We also need to go through her bunk," piped Ella. "I'm gonna guess she shares a cabin, so we're going to tape that off, and you tell them to stay out until we've cleared the place."
"Oh, I already got that, actually," murmured Stevens. "Bad with kids. Good with crime scene tape."
"Excellent," Ella held out a fist for a sidebump but Stevens just stared at it until Ella awkwardly put her arm down.
"You can use my office to talk to the employees," said Millner.
"Better that than the music cabin," twanged Blanchard as he marched Noah out of the medical tent. "That spark-spewing air conditioner in there broke days ago. And I'll remind you that humidity and stringed instruments go together like tabasco sauce on Rocky Road ice cream. We can't blame all of that screeching on the campers' lack of talent."
Noah looked up at him, "But on my first day here, you said I sounded good!"
"Old Johnny Blanchard is a liar, young Noah."
Noah folded his arms. "I liked you more before you got electrocuted."
"I didn't," Rory chuckled.
Blanchard poked Noah in the back. "What do you say to Aurora?"
Noah took a sigh. "I am ready to be less of a buffoon," he recited. "Can I be your buddy system buddy again?"
Rory turned her face up to Millner. "Please assign him to someone else."
Millner coughed, "I'm afraid Noah is still persona non grata with the other boys his age because of the There's No Lighter Fluid in Smores Incident. And you know the rest of Deer Group is still a little upset over the Biblical Flood."
"That wasn't me!" said Rory just as Blanchard held up a finger. "Director—"
"I misspoke," said Millner. "They are still mad at you because of what they believe about what happened." Rory looked back at him sullenly. "Wouldn't you rather spend time with Noah here than with someone who thinks you did something you didn't do?"
Rory looked at Chloe and then back at Millner. Chloe's busy work schedule meant Rory had probably spent more time around Mazikeen than was truly good for a young human-angel, and Mazikeen had grown a soul, not a filter. Rory exhaled. "I need to think for a second about how I can say this without getting grounded."
"This one's missing a leg!" Noah piped up. He held up a hand, in which a beetle fought valiantly to escape. "Do you want to match, little guy?" he said, taking hold of the opposite appendage.
"Oh," said Rory, pointing. "I think he just made my point for me. Noah, thank you so much."
"Give the other girls time to cool down," said Millner. "That is..." he looked at Chloe, "if you're not going home." He looked back at Rory. "It's you and Noah as buddies for now."
"Yay!" piped Noah, clapping his hands. His face fell and he looked at his palms. "Oh..."
Rory pinched the bridge of her nose. "Mister Blanchard, if I don't make him cry, can I use Excalibur?"
Blanchard folded his arms as if he had to think about it. "Make it two days and we'll talk, little lady," he said.
"Now that that's settled," Millner beamed at the two kids. "Mister Blanchard and I will both walk you over to the rest of Deer Group." He checked his watch. "They should be at archery."
Noah piped up, "Do I still have to—"
"Yes, Noah, you're still on arrow collection only, at least until Kaytelynne's arm stops oozing." Millner looked at Chloe. "I can come back to assist you after that."
"Or I can," Blanchard offered. "I know the camp layout well, so—"
Millner dismissed him with a wave. "You will have my full cooperation. But it's camp policy that no adult is ever alone with any camper. The campers are divided by age and area of interest during the day for coed activities, but they sleep and shower two age groups to a cabin so that counselors of the same sex—"
Noah snort-giggled. Rory sighed.
"—can share supervision duties."
Chloe frowned, "Do the campers ever go off by themselves?" she asked.
"They're not supposed to," said Millner, "but they're kids
They began to walk down the path. Noah reached up to take Rory's hand.
"Don't even think about it, bug boy," she snapped.
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"Okay, I made contact with the county medical examiner," said Ella, tucking away her phone. "They got Patricia's remains packed off this morning before we got here, but it'll be a while before the bus physically makes it to the coroner's office. After that, they can send me images of what they find. Good thing I upgraded my phone instead of the air conditioner in my car."
"Wait, you mean you got them to change the schedule?" said Deputy Stevens. Her voice lowered. "Did you... uh..."
"Meet Theo the ME at last year's forensic scientists' convention and remind him who got him those backstage passes to the Autopilots?" asked Ella.
"Okay, so you didn't—uh—great," said Stevens.
Ella shot Chloe a confused look.
"Who else did you question before we got here?" she asked Stevens.
"Millner talked my ear off," she said. "He's terrified of getting sued. Turns out he used to be a CPA of all things. Obsessed with little details."
"I dated a CPA for a hot minute," she said. "Attention to detail's not always a bad thing."
"Oh, he remembered your birthday?"
"I meant more like he remembered I've got a—"
"All right," said Chloe. "Officially, this has to be your case. Ella and I can help, but we can't legally operate without you."
"Unless you get your sheriff to deputize us," Ella said perkily.
"Which you should not do," said Chloe. "At least not to Ella."
Stevens held up a hand. "Even out here we've heard of what happened at the 2026 California Criminalist Convention."
"Oh that was fun," sighed Ella.
"You were a deputy for an hour, and I had to pick you up from the hospital," said Chloe.
"Just outpatient..." she muttered.
"No deputizing. Got it," said Stevens.
"We look at the time we have, make a preliminary list of witnesses and suspects, and then decide whom to interview at work and whom to call into Millner's office," she said as Stevens scrawled it all down on her notepad. "Do you have department-issued recording equipment?" Stevens nodded without looking up.
"If we were doing this in the city," said Chloe, "we'd have criminalists searching the cabins, uniforms taking witness statements, and at least two detectives interviewing suspects."
"Instead, we've got me, you, and some truly terrible wi-fi," said Stevens.
"And me!" perked a voice from Chloe's elbow.
"Rory, go back to whatever you're supposed to be doing," said Chloe.
Rory glared up at her. "Noah found a termite nest."
"Termites don't sting," said Chloe.
"There. Are. Larvae," she shuddered.
Chloe put one hand on her hip. "You asked to go to a camp that wasn't in the city. Did you think there wouldn't be bugs?"
"I did think there would be bugs. I didn't think there would be bugs and Noah."
"Termites are acceptable cuisine in some cultures," volunteered Ella.
"You're not helping," said Rory, putting a hand on her stomach. "Please let me help, Deputy. Dead bodies are not a problem if no one wants to keep them as a pet. I've already seen like six!"
"No she hasn't," Chloe said, too quickly. "She means at funerals."
"Well yeah and that time we took a class trip to Ella's work."
"I, uh, kiddo..." Stevens took a breath and leaned forward until she was at Rory's eye level—an inch from her face.
"Why did you have Cheetos for breakfast?" asked Rory, going cross-eyed to stare at Stevens' mouth.
Stevens straightened up and rubbed at her upper lip.
Ella leaned down, but only a little, moving only just inside arm's length. "Rory, if we collect evidence that says Patricia died in some kind of foul play and then the court finds out we let a kid help us get it, they'll assume it's contaminated. At least one person will think you made a mistake or mixed up the labels—or barfed on something important—even if you didn't, even if you were with us the whole time. It's not fair, but it's how things are."
"How things are sucks."
"Language," said Chloe. "But yes."
A voice called Rory's name from down the trail. She winced. "Do I—"
"Yes, you have to," said Chloe.
Rory exhaled through her mouth, showing her bottom row of teeth. "If you need to know who might've wanted Patricia gone, start with the girls in Puma group," she said. "She went full Madeline fantasy."
"The cookie?" asked Stevens.
"Twelve little girls in two straight lines," Rory and Ella singsonged at the same time. They looked at each other. "You were sharp," said Rory.
"You're flat," said Ella.
"My group's in the same sleeper cabin with them," she said. "She treated them like they were four. Wanted them to walk in a line and do inspections. When they told her that wasn't in the rules, she had them count when they brushed their teeth."
Someone called Rory's name again. She covered her face with one hand. "COMIIIIIIING," she bellowed back and ran off.
"That's one place to start," offered Chloe.
"Patricia's campers."
.
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PATRICIA'S CAMPERS:
"Amazing," murmured Ella. "It's like someone shrunk Mean Girls..."
The Puma Group girls ranged from two and three school years older than Rory. They were all wearing the same tie-dyed camp shirt that seemed to work as a uniform, mostly modified in some way, a twist, rolled sleeves, scrunchied on the side, patterns in Sharpie on one sleeve, and the only limit on hairstyles seemed to be the humidity. According to Millner, they'd been cooped up in the mess hall since early that morning. Judging by the array of lopsided braids springing up from the heads of any girl with more than a pixie cut, they'd run out of things to do pretty early.
"The deputy's back," said a girl with brown puffballs at the ends of her braids.
"Can we come out of here now?" asked a blonde with Radar glasses. "They made the Chipmunk boys bring us lunch, and I think they farted in the bug juice."
"Yeah, we didn't even see anything. Demon Girl and Psycho Boy did."
Chloe managed to keep her face still. "In general, how was Patricia as a counselor?" she asked.
"Good." "Fine." "Okay." "...too uptight..." "Fine."
Chloe didn't look directly at the one mutterer in the choral response.
"Was anyone mad at Patricia?"
Four sets of eyes turned to an orange-haired girl in a purple-tinted shirt, then pointedly looked away. The girl in the purple shirt folded her arms, "You scrody b-words!"
"No one said anything, Hayleigh!" said Puffball.
"Bite me, Tanisha!"
"They were gonna find out anyway when Millner or Mrs. Abby or someone told them how Patricia dragged you back here in front of everyone," snapped Alicia.
"She didn't drag me," said Hayleigh.
"This," Chloe murmured to Stevens, "is where we start talking to them separately."
.
.
It wasn't Interrogation One back at the precinct, but it would do. There was just enough room behind Millner's desk for Stevens and Chloe to sit while Ella checked the recording equipment.
"We had a little problem with Patricia when she first got here," said Tanisha, eying the camera. "She tried to make up aaaaaall these fake rules."
.
"Complete power trip," said Hong-jae.
.
"You have to do this. You have to do that," Alicia ticked off on her fingers.
.
"No wearing hairspray. No working on a craft project in the cabin," said Hayleigh. "No trying to get the lake monster on video..."
.
"You have to wait for everyone to finish eating before you bus your own cafeteria tray," said Rachel. "You have to walk in a line like you're in kindergarten. You have to fold your socks and clothes the right way and not the wrong way."
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"Except 'Nisha and I have both been coming here since Chipmunks and we knew that no we didn't have to do that," said Alicia. "We told her she could go check the official rule book or we would. She knocked it off by the second week of camp. Mostly."
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"We let her think she won with the toothbrushing thing," said Hong-jae.
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"Both my parents are dentists anyway," said Rachel.
"So what was going on with Patricia?" asked Chloe.
Rachel gave a long, creaky groan and clunked her head against the desk.
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"What a nightmare," said Hong-jae.
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"If you're going to be a drill sergeant about rules, why not do it for the actual rules, like when your cabinmate is driving you nuts?" said Alicia. She sighed. "You know the story about how the devil put a monster in the lake?"
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"Hayleigh thinks the lake monster's real," said Rachel.
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"Hayleigh thinks the lake monster's real," said Hong-jae.
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"The lake monster's real!" said Hayleigh, an unearthly gleam in her eye.
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"She won't shut up about it," said Alicia.
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"That child cannot take a hint," said Tanisha.
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"I came here to practice music, maybe learn acting, not get kept awake all night while some idiot replaces the battery cover on her camera and then squeaks the door open twenty times an hour," said Hong-jae. "But Patricia was in love with rules, so when we said she can stop Hayleigh or else we tell Mr. Millner she sneaks out at night..."
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"I hope Patricia took Hayleigh's camera, dissolved it in acid, fired it out of a cannon into the sun, then fed it to the cafeteria racoons," said Rachel.
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Hayleigh drummed her fingers on Millner's desk, thinking hard. "Patricia probably erased my footage. Or she gave it to Millner and he erased it," she said. "See, if people know there's a lake monster right here at camp, then they'll have to shut down." She gave a slow nod, pursing her lips. "That might even be why someone killed Patricia. Afraid of losing their jobs when I unveiled the truth..."
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"What I want to know is how Hayleigh snuck that camera in here in the first place," said Tanisha. "We're not even allowed to have our phones this year."
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"Maybe when he was a kid, not having your phone all the time was a good thing," said Alicia, "but I had an app that I was using to identify wild plants."
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"I was using my phone to track my music lessons. My tutor back home is going to think I'm slacking," said Hong-jae. "How did she get a whole digital camera and tripod in here?"
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"My tripod? I just put that in my duffel bag," said Hayleigh. "They asked me for my phone but Counselor Trence never actually looked in my stuff. I don't even think anyone knew I had it. I was super discreet."
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"The charger for that thing lights up like one of those airport beams," said Alicia. She squinted at Ella. "Can I have some of your concealer?"
"No," said Ella.
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"She was always recharging the camera because she never turned it off," said Rachel.
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"They probably let her keep it because it was a piece of junk," said Alicia. "It didn't even turn off right."
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"She was too stupid to turn her own camera off," said Hong-jae.
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"The camera had this function where it would just stay on and do motion detection!" said Hayleigh. She licked her lips, "But I, uh, couldn't turn it off. But that didn't matter because I had a brilliant plan."
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Alicia rolled her eyes, "Hayleigh thought she could get one of the girls in Deer Group to help her."
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"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh! So there's this girl in Deer Group that Hayleigh thinks is actually a demon girl. That's why we call her Demon Girl," said Tanisha.
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"There's this girl in Deer Group who's actually related to the Devil! I bet she controls the lake monster," said Hayleigh with a delighted eye twitch. "I looked her up and her dad's real name is Lucifer Morningstar, and he went missing like ten years ago..."
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"That Rory girl is ...not normal," said Hong-Jae.
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"Maybe a little weird?" said Alicia.
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"Something is not right with that kid," said Tanisha.
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"Her entry into the art contest was..." Rachel trailed off.
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"It was ...weird," said Hong-jae.
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"She acted like she didn't care," said Alicia. "But..." she shrugged.
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"But then there's what happened..." said Hong-jae. "After that, no one would buddy with her except Psycho Noah."
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"I'm not taking art and I don't give a darn about the contest," said Tanisha, "but when one of the boys in Coyote Group was trying to stab someone with a plastic knife in the mess hall, she just took it out of his hand with some weird wrist thing," said Tanisha. "Then she said 'there's no excuse for sloppy form' and showed him a different way to hold it. Then he tried it on a cantaloupe and it went right through the rind."
Chloe covered her eyes with one hand.
"She said something about a maze," said Tanisha, scratching one braid.
"That tracks," said Ella.
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"The first night we're here, the counselors tell us a ghost story about how the devil put the lake monster in the lake," Alicia counted out. "And Hayleigh thinks the Deer Group kid is a for-real devil girl. So Hayleigh asked her for help getting it on film, but she, uh... said no?" Alicia scratched the back of her neck.
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"Rory called Hayleigh a b—," a loud squeak from Millner's office chair crushed the last part of Tanisha's statement.
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"Rory called Hayleigh a b—," said Hong-Jae.
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"I asked that Rory girl for help controlling the monster, like if I had to sell my soul or something," Hayleigh sighed, sitting her head on her hand, "but she just called me a b—."
Ella cleared her throat. "I'm sure she didn't really say b—"
"No, it was definitely b—," said Hayleigh. "Oh! And p—."
"Wow," said Stevens.
Chloe took a slow breath in and out. "When did Patricia take away your camera?" she asked.
Hayleigh flicked her eyes up, "When she caught me coming back into our cabin," she said. "Last night."
.
"It was last night," said Tanisha.
.
"Last night," said Hong-Jae.
.
"Last night, Patricia finally did something about Hayleigh keeping us awake with her stupidness. She waited for Hayleigh to come back and then turned the lights on on her all dramatic."
.
"Hayleigh didn't have the camera with her," said Tanisha.
.
"Hayleigh would sneak out after lights-out to put the camera by the lake and then come get it again before breakfast," said Alicia.
.
"So Patricia told all of us to make sure Hayleigh stayed put and then went to go get Hayleigh's camera."
"How did she know where it was?" asked Stevens.
.
"Hayleigh always put it in the same place," said Hong-Jae. "We all knew where."
.
"That crud-covered rock out by the pier," said Tanisha.
.
"There was this one spot not far from the canoe pier where no one would ever have spotted it," said Hayleigh. "But Patricia must have found it because it wasn't there when I got un-grounded." She nodded to herself. "You find my camera, you find out why she died, but make sure I get my footage back." She stared off into middle distance. "I'm going to win a Pulitzer..."
.
Chloe slid another piece of paper over to Stevens.
"Aren't there supposed to be two adults with the kids at all times?" Stevens asked.
Rachel snorted. "That's the rule."
.
"Patricia never learned that she cannot control everyone," said Hong-jae. "She tried to tell the other counselor what to do, and she said no!"
.
"Moira's the girl counselor for Deer Group," said Alicia. "So what if she had her own business after they're all asleep? If Hayleigh hadn't been keeping us up at night, we wouldn't even know about it."
.
"Don't know, don't want to know," said Tanisha. "It wasn't any of my business."
.
Hayleigh blinked. "Moira was sneaking out?"
.
"Once we told Patricia we weren't going to play pretend boot camp with her, she started sniffing around after Moira," said Rachel.
.
"Patricia asked me to spy on Counselor Moira, find out what she was doing out of bed," said Alicia. "I shut her down on that one pretty quick."
.
"My parents told me to have fun and not get into trouble," said Hong-jae. "What did Patricia's parents tell her? Find all the bears and poke them in the eye with a stick?"
.
"Moira was sneaking out?" asked Hayleigh.
.
"I don't know if anyone hated Patricia enough to kill her," said Tanisha, but if you want to know who was annoyed with her other than us, start with Moira."
.
,
"That felt pointless but I'm pretty sure it wasn't," said Stevens.
"I think I'm having mean girl flashbacks," said Ella.
Stevens flipped through her notebook. "They don't like Hayleigh," she recited. "They don't like Rory. They don't like Patricia. They don't like Moira..." She looked up. "Patricia went out by herself the night she died, and now Hayleigh's video camera is missing..."
"...and it doesn't turn off," said Chloe.
Notes: *Idioma is Spanish for "language." Officially have no idea if it's the equivalent to the English "language" in the sense of "don't curse." Callate means "be quiet" as in "stop talking."