The Woman in White • 7

Trixie and Jim pulled down a second large canoe. All four of them put on life jackets and chose paddles, along with a couple of extras. They launched them and were soon gliding across the dark lake.

As they neared, Dan brought his canoe alongside the other. “I think we should head for that end and come around to the opposite side.”

Trixie looked at the place he was pointing and nodded. “Sounds like a good plan.”

They continued on in silence. Even when quite close to the island, they could see no sign of anyone on it. They rounded the point and the beach began to come into view. When half of it could be seen, Trixie let out a gasp.

“The woman in white! I wonder if we can get closer to her.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the excitement was clear to hear.

“Shh!” ordered Brian from the other boat.

At Dan’s signal, both canoes slowed to a halt.

“What are we doing?” Trixie wanted to know. “Why aren’t we going any closer? I want to see what she’s like.”

“I don’t think that’s a ghost,” Brian answered, staring in that direction. “In fact, I’d lay money that it isn’t.”

“Just because you don’t believe in ghosts–” Trixie began, in a soft but disparaging voice. Then she took a better look. “Oh. I see what you mean. It’s Honey.”

“She wasn’t wearing a white dress – or any other kind of dress – the last time I saw her.” Jim’s voice, in the darkness, was grim.

“No, she wasn’t.” Dan matched him for tone. “And I’m wondering why she’s just standing there.”

Trixie shifted in her seat. “Do you think she’s okay? What will happen if we try to go to her?”

“I’m not sure we should try to find out,” Dan answered. “And I’m sure that the guy who took her knows we’re here.”

They had drifted nearer to the island as they talked and were in the shadows it cast. No one should be able to see them clearly, but conversely they could see no one else either. The light had not shown for quite some time, giving them no clue as to the whereabouts of its source.

“What are we going to do?” Trixie wondered. “We really need to get closer, but… well, I’m not sure how we can do that.”

The canoe holding Dan and Mart jolted as it bumped against a submerged rock. Dan reached over and drew the two canoes together, leaning in to whisper his idea.

“One of us – I’m thinking me – should go to shore and check things out.”

“How will you get there?” Trixie glanced at the nearest part of the shore, which was steep and rocky. “We can’t exactly paddle up to any of the good landing-places.”

In answer, he stripped off his shirt and began undoing his jeans.

“It’s too cold,” Trixie argued. “Let me tell you from experience.”

Dan nodded, only just visible in the gloom. “I know. But this is important.”

He eased himself out of his jeans, making the canoe rock a little and bump once more into the rock. Once stripped to his underwear, he put a hand into the water for a few moments. Then he slowly climbed out onto the submerged rock. The canoe wobbled violently as he did so, but did not overturn. Moments later, he was fully in the water, swimming silently.

The other three waited with varying degrees of patience, but without movement or talking. Every so often, they paddled a little, in an attempt to stay in the same place. With every sound coming from the island, the three stared into the shadows, but Dan did not return. After a long wait, they saw Honey disappear from view. For ten long minutes nothing more happened.

“I can’t stand this much longer,” Trixie declared, at last. “I wish I’d gone too.”

A shot rang out, unbearably loud against the stillness of the night. Trixie pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from making any noise. Checking that they were still in the shadows, she was dismayed to find that part of the canoe was not. She debated internally for a few moments, then made one slow stroke with her paddle. They slid back into the darkness without a sound. She could just hear the sigh of relief that Jim let out.

“I know you’re there,” a strange voice called. “Come out where I can see you.”

Trixie rolled her eyes, though no one could see her. She stayed as still as she knew how, while keeping an eye on both the position of the canoe and any indication of movement on the island. She had to move her head in order to see each in turn, but she kept her movements slow and small.

“I’ve got your little friend here. If you don’t come out, she gets it, you hear?”

Either Jim or Mart made a muffled sound, though Trixie could not tell which of them. From further down the shore, she heard, Bob, bob-white! and then another whistle overlapping it.

“He’s bluffing,” Jim breathed, almost too low to hear.

Relief flooded through Trixie and she released the breath she had not realised she was holding.

“I mean it!” The man sounded angry. “Come out or I’ll shoot her.”

Leaves rustled and the man scrambled out onto a protruding rock. His silhouette was visible against the night sky, a thin, slender-framed man with a shock of unruly hair that hung around his shoulders. He held the gun in front of himself and was scanning the water for clues to their whereabouts.

Another shot was fired. Trixie looked across to see the other canoe partly out of the shadows. She could just make out Mart’s form as he tried to move it back. A third shot rang out and Mart swore under his breath.

“Mart?” Jim asked, in a low whisper.

“Fine.”

Trixie could not help but wonder how a whisper could sound so terse and she was visited by an absurd urge to laugh.

A moment later, she was surprised to find that they were moving. She turned to Jim, to find that he was slowly paddling. He had somehow gotten a message to Mart, who was doing the same. She began to help, glancing anxiously at her brother every so often as his task was the more difficult by himself. They slid along the edge of the island, getting closer as they went, for the shadows did not extend out so far.

The man shot a couple more times and Trixie felt immeasurable relief that he seemed to be aiming for where they had been, rather than where they were now. In a few minutes, he disappeared from view, still aiming at their former location. They reached the limit to how far they could go without leaving the shadows and both canoes came to a stop. A whisper from the shore caused all three of them to jolt in fright.

“Stay where you are and keep quiet.”

It took them only a moment to realise that the speaker was Dan.

“Honey?” Trixie could not resist asking.

The answering voice was barely audible. “I’m fine.”

“I know you’re there and I’m going to shoot every one of you!” the man on the point yelled. “You know what they did! You solved all the riddles! And you haven’t done anything about it!”

He shot three more times. From the sounds they were hearing, it seemed that he was still in the same place.

Mart made a small noise.

“Shh!” Dan urged.

“But I’m sinking!”

A moment later, Jim pressed something into Trixie’s hands. It took her a moment to determine that they were Dan’s clothes, slightly damp in spots. She found a place to put them, then turned to see what was going on. A soft splash caught her attention and she deduced that Dan was back in the water. She could hear whispering, but could not make out the words. After a moment, more clothes were handed to her and then she heard a sharp intake of breath.

A volley of shots was fired, then the man began shouting again. He was making less sense now, screaming his complaints to the sky. Sometimes he punctuated his words with shooting. After one last primal scream, a single shot disturbed the air. A moment later came a loud splash.

“Stay here,” Dan urged, from somewhere close by.

He slipped away into the darkness. Silence reigned in his absence. The minutes passed.

Just as Trixie was about to explode with impatience, a bright light shone across the water. Dan arrived back only a short time later.

“It’s the police. They’ve fished him out of the water and they’re having a go at reviving him.”

“He shot himself?” Trixie asked.

“Yeah, it looks like it.” Dan sighed. “I’m not looking forward to the part that comes next. I think we’re going to be spending the night being questioned.”

“I wonder if they’ll call up the Sleepyside P.D. and ask about us,” Trixie mused. “Do you think Sergeant Molinson will give us a good character?”

Dan groaned. “We’re sunk. Just like Mart’s canoe.”

In the early hours of the morning, the five were finally able to return to their hotel. By common consent, they went to the girls’ suite, since the other one was still in disarray. They found Brian and Di asleep together on the sofa.

“Oh, you’re back,” Di murmured sleepily, then dropped back into slumber almost at once.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Trixie suggested.

The others nodded and followed her. They all piled onto the spare bed to talk things over.

“I’d almost believe Molinson put in a good word for us after all,” Dan mused, leaning back against the headboard. “They seemed to believe what I was saying, all the way through.”

Trixie nodded. “Me, too.” She sighed. “I wish we could have helped him, somehow. We just didn’t have time.”

“That’s the craziest thing about this,” Mart added. “I mean, why did he do this tonight? We’d only just solved the riddles and we were going to check it out in the morning.”

Dan laughed, without humour. “Drugs make people do crazy things. And they can mess with your perception of time – either make it speed up or slow down.”

“You think he did drugs?” Honey asked.

“I know he did.”

Trixie let that one go without asking how. “So, the thing I don’t understand is how he took you, Honey.”

Her friend shivered. “It all happened so fast. One minute, I’m following you, the next someone put a hand over my mouth and pressed what felt like a gun to my back. He waited until you’d walked away a little, then told me to do what he said or he’d shoot. He had a key to one of the doors and he took me into a room and made me put on the white dress. Then he blindfolded me and carried me off somewhere and put me in a boat of some sort and we went across the lake, though I wasn’t sure where. He pulled me out of the boat and told me to stand on the shore and that he’d be watching and shoot me if I moved. I kind of thought I’d better do as he said.”

Dan glanced at Honey, apology in his expression. “I was pretty sure you were close by while we were searching the courtyard; I just couldn’t get to you.”

“It’s okay,” she answered, with a smile. “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.”

“Lucky for him,” Dan muttered.

Trixie stared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? He’s already dead; you couldn’t do anything to him now.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t dead when I was standing behind him with a big chunk of wood in my hands.” He looked away. “He might have found himself disarmed and with a rather severe headache.”

“Or, you might have accidentally killed him,” Jim added. “It’s just as well you didn’t try anything.”

Dan shrugged. “I wasn’t going to attack him. I thought I might need to defend myself. And since he almost ran right into me in the dark at one point, I was pretty glad I’d gone to the trouble of finding something I could use.”

“I’m kind of disappointed I didn’t see the ghost.” Trixie settled herself more comfortably against Jim’s chest, on which she was leaning. “Do you think we could go back tomorrow night and try again? Or do you think they might close the hotel? We might have to go home early.”

“We’re not going back to the island,” Jim stated, kissing the top of her head to soften the blow. “And I don’t think it would be a bad thing to finish our break somewhere else.”

“I saw one of the owners at the police station,” Honey put in. “The same man we met when we checked in. I spoke to him for a minute and he didn’t say anything about closing.”

“They probably haven’t had time to think things through,” Mart suggested, tightening his grip on her. He hadn’t let go for more than a moment since they arrived back. “If we’re right, that guy was their nephew and that’s got to be hard.”

“We’ll deal with that in the morning, if it comes to it.” Jim paused to yawn. “And we’ll have to deal with letting all our families know, too. We don’t really want them hearing this first on the news.”

“I sent an email to everyone, letting them know we’re all okay,” Honey assured him. “I’m sure Miss Trask will make sure everyone knows first thing in the morning.”

“It’s nearly morning now.” Jim yawned again. “I think it’s time for me to turn in.”

The others agreed and they had soon sorted out sleeping arrangements. Trixie took pity on her brother and allowed him to have the big bed. She pretended not to notice that Honey stayed with him. Neither one seemed to want to let go of the other.

The five adventurers slept late that day. Without disturbing them, Di had located all of their phones and had fielded calls until late morning. She and Brian had also monitored media coverage of the event, which was minimal. From the news, they learned that the gunman’s name was Michael Peter Windsor and that he had been twenty-eight years old.

One by one, the others greeted the day and partook of the breakfast that Di had waiting for them. Trixie was among the first up, yawning widely but wide awake. She had chosen her clothes by randomly grabbing the first things that came to hand. The result was not what she might have chosen at home, but she thought it would do.

“What are you doing up?” Di asked, looking surprised. “I wasn’t expecting anyone up yet.”

“Couldn’t sleep. And I still have work to do.” Trixie grimaced. “You didn’t want to write a paper for me, did you?”

Di rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you’d want one of your papers to be written by me; we’re taking totally different courses.”

Her friend shrugged and chose a pastry from the pile waiting.

“You look great, by the way.”

Trixie turned to her, surprised. “I look strange, like usual.”

Di shook her head. “Just wait until Jim wakes up. He’ll agree with me.”

“Jim, for reasons I can’t understand, thinks I look nice quite often.”

Di opened her mouth to respond to that, but then changed her mind. “If you’re going to think that way, there’s nothing I can do to help you, is there?”

Trixie poked at the apricot filling of her danish, then took a bite. “I just don’t care that much about clothes and fashion.”

“That doesn’t have to mean that you look strange!”

Brian, who had been talking on the phone, joined them at that point and the subject was dropped.

“Moms, Dad and Bobby send their love,” he told his sister. “And I think you’re going to have some explaining to do the next time you’re back at the farm. Moms seems to think you got us into this on purpose, somehow.”

Trixie groaned. “You’ll put in a good word for me, won’t you Brian?”

“I don’t think that will help.” He sat next to Di and she took his hand. “But maybe you can convince Honey to talk to her; she, at least, knows that this place was chosen without knowing about the strange goings on.”

“I guess that’s my best hope,” Trixie answered, with a rueful shake of the head. “It’s just lucky I’m grown up, or I might not be allowed out again!”

Local Legends • 8

Most of the group spent a lazy morning in the girls’ suite, talking and playing cards in between calls home. Trixie, after moaning about it a little, settled down to some work out on the balcony, away from the sound of the others’ chatter. By the time they were all up, the early risers were ready for lunch.

“I’m tired of just sitting here,” Trixie announced, stashing her books on a side table. “Let’s walk down to the town and get something to eat.”

Mart shook his head. “It’s uphill all the way back.”

“Well, you’ll have eaten by then, so you’ll have the energy to make it back.” She grabbed him by the arm and pulled her brother to his feet. “Come on. It’s just what we need right now.”

Her enthusiasm carried the rest of the group with her and they made their way down the stairs and outside. Walking through the archway into the upper courtyard, they came to a surprised halt.

“Oh! The patch of blood!” Trixie turned wide eyes on the others. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

The far side of the area was cordoned off and a couple of investigators were working in the area. At the urging of Jim and Brian, the group moved past and into the next passageway. In the daytime, it seemed vastly different from the sinister and shadowy trap it had been the night before. They emerged into the lower courtyard, which also had an area marked off with police tape. Passing through the lowest building of the group, they encountered a woman with tear-reddened eyes.

“Oh!” She seemed shocked to see them. “I’m sorry. You startled me.”

Honey made an apology and began to leave, but the woman spoke again.

“You’re the one he took, aren’t you?” She brushed short, dark hair back from her face in a nervous gesture, revealing a glimpse of a recent gash near her hairline. “I wanted to tell you… to say how sorry we are that we didn’t take him seriously enough. We never knew he would go to such lengths to get his way.”

“It’s okay, and I’m fine, really.” Honey’s voice was soft and reassuring. “I’m very sorry for your loss. We all are. And if you need us to leave, so you can close–”

“No. Not at all.” The woman’s eyes brimmed with tears, but her voice was firm. “It’s very good of you to offer, but we’re not going to be broken by this. We’re staying open.”

“I’m glad.” Honey smiled. “We’ve really enjoyed our stay here.”

“It’s kind of you to say so, but I really can’t believe that.”

Trixie stepped forward at once. “It’s true. We’d solved the riddles and everything. We just didn’t have time to find out if we’d gotten them right.”

“Windsor Court,” the woman murmured. “And he wouldn’t listen when we explained that there was a Windsor Cove Motel in Lakeside, less than a hundred miles away, and that their bad reviews were reflecting on us.”

“That’s tough.” Trixie frowned, thinking about the things that might have been done to placate the man. “It’s a pity there couldn’t be a sign or something to explain the history. We kind of thought that might have been what upset him.”

The woman’s eyes flashed. “We offered to display the history of the place, but Mike turned the idea down flat. From the research we did, the Windsors only bought and renamed the place in 1953. Before that, it had half a dozen different owners and quite a few names – including the one we chose. Mike didn’t want the signs to have any other names on them, and how could we show the recent history, but nothing about when the place was built and who built it?” She sighed. “I guess I can put up whatever kind of sign I’d like, now.”

“We really are very sorry,” Honey repeated, earning a sad smile from the woman.

The group exited the front of the building and began walking down the hill to the town.

“That clears up just about everything,” Trixie reflected, as she walked next to Honey. “Did you see that cut on her head? I’ll bet that’s where the blood came from. He must have tried to get her first and injured her in the process. That must have been the fight we heard.”

Honey made a non-committal noise. “I don’t think I understand why he wanted me to pretend to be the ghost. I’m wondering if there’s more to that story than we’ve already heard.”

“I’m sure, if we ask, we can get the local angle on the whole thing,” Mart answered. “Or you could do your usual thing, Trix, and just make something up.”

She rolled her eyes and did not dignify his words with a reply. Instead, she turned to Jim. “Can I use your car after lunch? There’s something I want to check out.”

“No way!” Mart exclaimed. “We’re not letting you go off by yourself.”

“I wasn’t asking you,” Trixie replied, turning up her nose.

“Maybe it would be better if we stuck together.” Honey glanced at her best friend, whose face showed dissatisfaction. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, Trixie. It’s more that we want to spend time together. Splitting up hasn’t worked out so well, this trip.”

Trixie nodded reluctant agreement. “Okay. In that case, how about if we go for a drive? I want to see if there’s a place on the other side of the lake where you can see across to those islands.”

“That sounds like fun.” Honey looked around at the other members of the group who were in earshot. “What does anyone else think?”

“Fine with me,” Mart answered, while Dan nodded.

“We’ll ask the other two when we get there, I guess,” Jim added.

They reached the same sandwich shop that they had used the day before and went inside to buy their food.

“Oh, you’re back,” greeted the lady behind the counter. “And you’ve brought your friends.”

They began giving orders for their lunch and the woman made them up, chattering all the time.

“Isn’t it terrible what happened out on the lake last night? I suppose you have heard about it?”

Trixie nodded. “Well, heard about it isn’t quite right. Most of us were there.”

“Really? You look so calm about it. I think I’d be leaving town and never coming back.” She finished making one sandwich and went on to the next one.

“We’ve been in worse scrapes,” Honey explained, with a smile. “What I was wondering, though, is about the ghost story. We’ve heard one version of it, but I wondered if there were others.”

The woman smiled. “Oh, there are dozens of versions. Some say seeing her means you’re about to sink, or that she lures people onto the rocks, or that she only appears under certain conditions. There really was a tragedy, like you’ll find in most people’s tellings. If you wanted to know more about that, you’d best take a drive around the lake to the next town. There’s a picture of the couple on display over there. I can give you some directions, if you’d like.”

Trixie eagerly agreed. “We were thinking of going that way anyway.”

Jim jotted down the directions and when their food was paid for they left. They wandered down to the shore of the lake, where some picnic tables stood. Di chose a table based on the way a young evergreen blocked out the part of the view containing the boxy, white house across the lake, which she considered to spoil the entire outlook. They passed a peaceful half-hour of eating and talking.

“Let’s get back.” Trixie jumped to her feet and began gathering sandwich wrappings. “The sooner we finish here, the sooner we can get on the road.”

At her continued urgings, they all headed back up the hill. Instead of returning to their rooms, most of the group went straight to the parking area to wait for those who wanted something upstairs. While they were waiting, Trixie wandered back and forth, then tipped her head back to look up at the balcony.

“Oh, no!” she gasped. “Just look at that!”

Trickles of what appeared to be blue paint dripped over the edges of the balcony and onto the railing of the one below. A few had made their way all the way to the ground, where they pooled on the paving stones.

“Who has a phone?” Trixie asked, looking around at her friends. “Call Honey and tell her what’s happened.”

Di took out hers and did as directed. A moment later, the curtains opened a short distance and Honey’s dismayed face came into view. They ended their conversation and Honey disappeared from view.

“She’s calling the front desk,” Di explained. “Almost the whole floor is covered in it.”

“This doesn’t make sense!” Trixie cried, waving her hand at the balcony. “I was so sure it was the same guy who died last night – and he all but admitted it – but now this!”

She began pacing back and forth, muttering to herself. In a few moments, her thoughts were in better order and she stopped pacing to articulate them.

“Okay, so let’s say that it was the same guy who died last night who did all the other stuff. This is different. It’s much more permanent damage. It’s vandalism, rather than – I don’t know what you’d call it; littering, maybe.” She turned to Brian and Di, who were watching her in silence. “So, what does this tell us?”

“A copycat?” Brian hazarded.

“What if it wasn’t Michael Windsor’s own idea to annoy his aunt? What if someone else was encouraging him?” She glanced at the new damage. “What if they expected the hotel to close when he died and it didn’t and it made the person really behind it all mad?”

Honey emerged from the building at that point and came over to them. “We don’t need to stay. I’ve given the owners permission to enter our rooms and to bring the police in, if they want to. Not that they needed my permission, but I thought it would be polite to say they could, if that’s what they want.”

Trixie seemed torn between staying to see what happened next and going to continue the other part of the investigation. In a moment, she made up her mind. “Well, let’s go then. I still want to see that display.”

They divided into the two cars and Jim led the way. Following the directions they had been given, they back-tracked a short distance to go around the arm of the lake, then took a meandering country road that sometimes skirted the lake and sometimes wandered away. At length, they came across another town and had soon found the general area where the sign was said to be located. They parked the cars nearby and all piled out.

“Where is it?” Trixie wondered, looking around. “Is that it over there?”

One building stood by itself in a wide expanse of grass, which gently sloped down to the lake. A sign announced it to be the local boating club. Nearby were two boat-ramps and a set of extra-long parking spaces with ample turning space at either end. A few spaces were occupied by cars with boat-trailers attached.

“That’s it,” Jim agreed, and they set off in that direction.

They walked around the building until they found the wall with the signs, as described. The title ‘Local Legends’ had been painted in royal blue across the top of the white wall. Beneath were a series of poster-size signs, each one explaining a different legend related to the lake.

“This is the one,” Trixie exclaimed, stopping in front of the third and second-last from the left. “Take a look at that photo!”

“She was beautiful. And he was very handsome, too.” Di considered what she was seeing. “I guess, from her hairstyle, it must have been about the 1930s?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Honey pointed to some of the text. “This photo was taken in 1933 and they died in 1934.”

“You don’t look like her at all.” Di tugged on a strand of Honey’s hair. “If he’d seen this, he should have been aiming for me, instead. At least my hair is close to the same colour, if not the right length.”

“Maybe that’s why he wanted the lady from the hotel, first of all,” Honey mused. “She has short, dark hair.”

“Or maybe he was only worried about convenience and you were the easiest.” Trixie frowned up at the sign. “It says their name was Windsor. Do you think there’s any connection, or is it a coincidence?”

Honey turned to Trixie, eyes wide. “I don’t know. Wait. Didn’t the lady from the hotel say that the Windsors only bought the place in nineteen-fifty-something? That’s a whole twenty years after this happened.”

“True. But they had to live somewhere before there, and why not have been local already?” Trixie shook her head. “This couple died. But they must have had some family of some sort, mustn’t they?”

“I see you have some interest in legends,” a man’s voice noted from behind them, making all three girls jump. “Or, is it this legend in particular?”

“This one,” Trixie answered. “We went out to the island yesterday. A couple of times, actually. We were just wondering if the guy who died out there last night was connected to these people, or if they just have the same last name.”

“Funny you ask that,” the man answered. He was perhaps sixty years old, with a thick, greying beard and wide girth. “That same young fellow asked me almost the same thing about a year ago. I looked into it for him and found no connection.”

“You’d met him?” Trixie breathed. “What was he like?”

The older man measured his next words. “A bit wild. Unsettled. He didn’t seem to know his own place in the world.” He sighed. “He didn’t deserve the end that he came to.”

Trixie nodded. “And what about these people? Do you believe in the ghost?”

He chuckled. “It depends when you ask me. Standing here now, in broad daylight, with the sun shining and everything, I’d have to say no. Now, if you asked me out on the lake on a stormy evening, when the motor won’t start and the darkness is on its way, I might say something different. Once or twice, I’ve thought I’ve seen her myself, but she’s never there if I look again.”

In spite of the sunshine, Trixie felt a pleasurable shiver run up her spine.

“And what about the story of her luring sailors onto the rocks?” Di asked. “Has anything like that really happened?”

The man made a dismissive gesture. “Unless you’re in about a foot of water, there aren’t rocks on that side of those islands. It’s why most craft go that way if they’re headed in this direction. Especially if the weather isn’t what it could be. You’re safe enough, provided you don’t run into the island itself.”

Trixie considered his answer, then asked, “Can you see the piece of shore where the ghost is supposed to be from anywhere around here?”

He shook his head. “No. There’s another island, long and thin, that cuts off the view from this shore. I think that might have been some of the attraction. It was a private spot, out of the public view. These poor folks wouldn’t have been missed for a long time, if that other boat hadn’t been in trouble.”

“So, there’s no connection between these people and the Lakeview Castle Hotel?” Honey asked, tapping the picture with one index finger.

“Now, I didn’t say that. It so happens that they owned both, though they didn’t run the hotel for themselves, and both places were sold after they died.” He looked out over the lake. “There’s been a lot of bad luck associated with that island. A fair bit with the hotel, too, though not quite so often.”

“The hotel is very picturesque. I thought it looked a bit like something out of a fairy tale.” Honey smiled. “Though, maybe, a bit more dirty.”

“There are some who’d like to wipe it off the landscape,” the man confided. “Local opinion is divided, you might say, on whether it’s an asset or a liability.”

“Why is that?” Trixie asked. “It’s exactly what caught our attention about the area, and why we chose this lake – or even this state.”

“Oh, I’d agree with you – it does bring in sightseers. But that’s only a good thing if you want sightseers.” He glanced from one of them to another. “Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind visitors coming here. I’d find it dull without new folks to talk to. But there are some who don’t feel that way.”

“Well, I’m glad you came and talked to us,” Trixie told him. “You seem to know a lot about the local area and its history.”

“A man’s got to have a hobby,” he answered, smiling.

At that, he wandered away, leaving the Bob-Whites to their own devices.

“It’s a motive,” Trixie mused, gazing out across the lake. “But is it the right motive?”

“We seem to be collecting motives, but not actual suspects,” Honey pointed out. “And this one could be subdivided into lots of more specific motives: like the people who don’t want it there because they like peace and quiet, or the ones who are doing something illegal and don’t want to get caught, and the ones who are business rivals from another town that want to steal away the customers.”

“And that’s not to mention the other motives you’ve already collected,” Mart added from behind her. “The family feud, for example. Just because one person is out of the way doesn’t mean they all are.”

Trixie groaned and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “And only a couple more days until we have to leave!”

“Nothing we can do about that.” Jim took her hand and turned her away from the signs. “Let’s walk this way – away from the town – and see where we end up.”

She nodded agreement and they began to explore the area.

Continue to next chapter.

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