Secret at Mystic Lake Read online

  With that, George flopped onto her side.

  Bess didn’t say anything else, and for several minutes there was silence in the tent. The rain pat-pat-patting on the roof was the only sound.

  I stretched my legs again, struggling to get comfortable, wishing I could recapture the cozy warmth I’d felt before the rain began. But that didn’t seem terribly likely. The tension in the tent was thick enough to cut with a knife, and I wondered if I’d ever get to sleep now.

  But in the end my exhaustion won out. Maybe twenty minutes after George said her last words, I finally drifted off to sleep.

  I awoke hours later, still in the dark, to a scream.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Gone

  I SHOT UPRIGHT. IT WAS dark still, but there was an edge of pale light creeping in, like dawn wasn’t far off. The rain had stopped, and there was total silence outside our tent. It was just light enough to make out Bess, George, and Zoe next to me, all still sleeping peacefully.

  Had I dreamed it? I bit my lip, wondering if I’d really heard what I’d thought. Maybe it was just the tail end of a nightmare? Maybe . . .

  But then I heard something scuffling past our tent. Someone was awake out there.

  I scooted from beneath Bess’s sleeping-bag blanket and crept out of the tent. I stood up in the little meadow, looking around. It seemed darker outside than it had inside the tent, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust. I looked to the right, down over the lake, then straight ahead, then to my left. . . .

  “Auugh!”

  Panic seized at my lungs. Dagger was standing there, no more than five feet in front of me, silently watching.

  “Sorry if I startled you,” he said after a moment in his calm, unruffled voice. “What are you doing up?”

  I swallowed. Should I tell him? Let’s face it: Either Dagger would be nice and help me figure out where the scream came from, or he had caused the scream, and letting him know I’d heard it would end badly for me.

  “I . . . what are you doing up?” I said finally.

  Dagger smiled. “I was just about to start my predawn meditation,” he said, gesturing behind him, where I could now make out a bright-blue blanket and a little dish of incense. “Sunrise isn’t far off, and it promises to be breathtaking. Would you like to join me?”

  “Ah . . . no, thanks,” I said, scanning the clearing as I remembered my real purpose in coming out here. Had someone really screamed? Was a member of our group in trouble? “Um, the truth is, Dagger, I woke up because I could have sworn I heard somebody scream.”

  Dagger frowned. “Ah. Yes, I heard something too, a minute or so before you came out. I thought it was just a large bird. Nature can be a bit noisy before dawn.”

  I kept looking around the clearing. There was no sign of Caitlin or Henry, but hadn’t they relocated after the rain began? Maybe they were in the woods, safe under their tarp, fast asleep. A prickle of guilt entered my thoughts at the memory that we’d slept safe and dry in a tent, while they’d had to struggle in the harsh weather.

  “I think I’m going to check on Caitlin and Henry,” I said finally, turning to Dagger with a little shrug. “Just to be sure they’re okay. Do you know where they moved when the rain started?”

  Dagger pushed his lips to the side. Was he thinking, or was he uncomfortable with what I’d said? “I wouldn’t check on them,” he said after a few seconds. “The truth is, I wanted to preserve their privacy, but I heard them having a fairly serious argument not long before the birdcall. That’s what woke me up—though it was nicely timed to prepare me for my sunrise meditation.” He smiled briefly, then turned serious. “It sounded . . . unpleasant. You know how fraught sibling relationships can be.”

  Huh. I didn’t know, actually, because I didn’t have brothers or sisters. Even so, Dagger’s information made me want to check on Caitlin and Henry more, not less.

  “What were they arguing about?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t make everything out, but it seemed to center on a text message, of all things,” Dagger said. “Henry got a text message that seemed to cause Caitlin some concern. I heard something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe you’re involved in this,’ followed by ‘It’s none of your business.’ It was very heated for a few minutes. Then there was silence.”

  I can’t believe you’re involved in this. Those words made me nervous. But even so, something seemed weird about Dagger’s story, and it took me a minute to figure out what it was.

  A text message, of all things. That was it! As the website had warned us, the Mystic Lake area seemed to offer no cell service whatsoever. George’s, Bess’s, and my phones hadn’t worked at all since that morning. It gave me kind of a creepy feeling, honestly—just realizing how cut off we were, and how much I normally depended on my smartphone.

  So was Dagger lying about the fight?

  Was he trying to distract me from figuring out who had screamed?

  “I’m going to check on them,” I blurted quickly, and ran off toward the edge of the woods before Dagger could stop me.

  “CAITLIN! HENRY?” I ran into the trees, poking around the edge of the forest where I figured Henry and Caitlin would have set up their tarp if they were in a hurry. Plenty of trees grew close enough together to string a tarp between; there was no need to delve deeper into the woods.

  I could hear Dagger running after me. Though I wasn’t sure whether he was a threat, this made me run faster. “CAITLIN! HENRY!” I ran around the edge of the meadow, peering into the still-dark woods. Dagger’s footsteps were just a few yards behind me now. He was closing the distance between us, not saying a word.

  “Hey, what’s going on?”

  Bess’s voice cut through the predawn silence, and both Dagger and I turned to see her standing outside the tent, squinting in our direction.

  “I thought I heard a scream,” I called. Dagger seemed to go limp, his arms falling flatly by his side.

  “Yes, we’re looking for Caitlin and Henry, to check on them,” he said. “Nancy, I believe their new campsite is over there.”

  He pointed farther down to our left. Was he only helping because Bess saw him? I pushed the thought out of my mind; I wasn’t going to try figure that out now, and I was still worried about Caitlin and Henry.

  Sure enough, when I ran in the direction Dagger had pointed, I could just see a bright-blue tarp strung between two trees, with what looked like sleeping bags set underneath.

  “Caitlin! Henry! Is everything all right?” I called, running closer.

  But when I was still a few yards away, I could see that both sleeping bags were empty—balled up and tossed aside, as if their inhabitants had taken off quickly.

  A chill ran up my spine. Maybe one of them had gotten up to use the bathroom, but both of them? Why would they both be missing from their beds before dawn?

  “CAITLIN! HENRY!”

  Dagger’s footsteps came to a sudden halt behind me. “Oh no. Where could they be?” he asked in his perpetually calm voice.

  Bess ran into the woods behind us, followed closely by George. “What’s going on?” George demanded.

  It was Dagger who filled her in this time: “Caitlin and Henry aren’t in their sleeping bags. Nancy thinks she heard a scream.”

  George widened her eyes in alarm. Bess pressed her hand to her mouth.

  “We need to find them,” I said unnecessarily.

  George nodded. “I’ll check out the bathroom spot. Let’s all split up and look around. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I agreed quickly, glad not to be alone anymore—or alone with Dagger, really.

  We split up and ran around the edge of the woods, calling for them. Bess ran back toward the road to see if they might have gone out there. George quickly ran back from the makeshift bathroom to report that no one was there—no one was anywhere nearby.

  “I don’t see any sign of them,” she whispered to me, while Dagger searched the rocky area leading to the lake. “They’re gone! It’s just like
the tents.”

  I felt my stomach flip. What was going on here? It didn’t make sense for several tents to disappear into the wilderness with no sign; it definitely didn’t make sense for two teenagers to do so, when they were supposed to be leading a tour.

  Where are you, Caitlin and Henry?

  We all kept looking; searching farther and farther from the campsite, going deeper into the woods. The sun was beginning to rise now and, as Dagger had promised, was creating quite a gorgeous display over the lake. But we were all too tense to appreciate it. Nobody was meditating.

  I sighed and stopped for a moment in the clearing. My heart was pounding, both from the exertion of running around nonstop and from the creeping feeling that something terrible had happened. I looked at Bess, who was searching the grass for clues—dropped items, footprints, anything.

  “I’m going to go back to the tent and wake up Zoe,” I said.

  Bess nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s time.”

  I started walking toward the tent, the tall grass sliding against my bare legs. I paused, just briefly, to turn to my left and take in the bright pink-and-purple sunrise glimmering over the lake. George was right: This area was beautiful. Shame it seems so dangerous, I thought.

  Then a figure suddenly came at me from the woods, and my heart stopped.

  “Zoe!” I cried.

  She blinked at me curiously, then pushed her curly dark hair behind one ear. Her face was still creased from the lacy sleep mask she wore. “Hey, Nancy. What’s up?”

  “Where were you?” I demanded, looking somewhat accusatorily behind her to the path she’d taken from the woods.

  Zoe pouted. “Um, I woke up and had to pee, so I went in the woods?” she said. “It’s traumatic enough without you acting like it’s a major felony, you know.”

  “You didn’t hear us all running around yelling for Caitlin and Henry for half an hour?” I pressed on. You didn’t even care that the three of us were missing from the tent before dawn? my inner voice continued. I knew Zoe seemed a little selfish sometimes, but really?

  Zoe rubbed her eyes and sighed. “Since you mention it, yes, I woke up just a few minutes ago and did notice that you and Bess and George seemed to be playing some kind of hide-and-seek thing out here,” she said, sounding annoyed. “But I really had to go. So I figured I’d take care of business first.”

  I shook my head. I still wasn’t sure whether Zoe’s behavior was shady or we just had completely opposite personalities. And either way, this wasn’t getting us any closer to finding Caitlin or Henry.

  “Our leaders are missing,” I said curtly. “Both of them. I heard a scream about half an hour ago. Can you help us look, please?”

  Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Caitlin and Henry are missing?” she asked. “Are you serious?”

  “Can you look?” I asked, nodding.

  Zoe let out an amazed sigh. “Uh, yeah,” she said, turning back toward the woods. “CAITLIN!  HENR—oh my gosh!”

  I was headed to the tent, but I turned to see what had Zoe so rattled. Some kind of wildlife? Broken nail?

  But when I saw what she was yelling about, I let out a little yelp too. “Oh no!”

  Because Henry was staggering out of the woods, covered in blood.

  CHAPTER SIX

  More Bad News

  HENRY WAS MOANING. HE STUMBLED out of the trees into the tall grass and collapsed into a heap.

  “Henry, are you okay?” Zoe was asking, running over to his side as I was running from the tent.

  “You’re bleeding!” I cried.

  Henry moaned again and rubbed his eyes. “No, I’m fine. Physically, I’m fine.”

  “What happened to Caitlin?” I asked urgently.

  Henry moaned again, then closed his eyes. “She’s gone,” he said simply.

  “Gone?” Zoe asked, as I repeated, “Gone?”

  “Where is she?” Zoe continued.

  Bess came running up from the meadow. “Henry, thank goodness!”

  I could see George coming out from the woods on the other side of the meadow, and Dagger’s head peeping over the edge of the rocky slope that led to the lake. They must have heard the commotion too.

  Henry sat up, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know where she is,” he said, quietly enough that I had to lean in to hear. “I woke up, and her sleeping bag was empty. Then I heard a scream.”

  So I did hear a scream. “So you went after her?” I asked.

  Henry nodded, his face drawn. “I went in what I thought was the direction of the scream, but I couldn’t find her. Then I thought maybe I’d heard wrong, maybe she’d just gotten up to use the bathroom, but she wasn’t there, either. I’ve spent the last half hour or so running all through the woods, looking for her.”

  Zoe gestured to the blood on his arms, legs, and face. “You’re bleeding, Henry. Why?”

  Henry looked down at himself, surprised. “Wow,” he said breathlessly. “Honestly, I’ve been so freaked, I was just crashing around through bushes and stuff. I guess I scratched myself up pretty bad. And I must have touched my arms or legs, then touched my face.”

  George walked toward him and took off her sweatshirt, dabbing at his face with the sleeve. Sure enough, all the blood wiped off.

  “You’re right,” she said. “You have some scratches, and you must have moved the blood around with your hands.”

  I tapped my lip, thinking. It was a relief that Henry hadn’t been attacked, or anything that serious. But I was still really worried about what had happened to Caitlin. Where could she have gone?

  “Henry, can you think of anything Caitlin might be doing?” I asked. “Does she often stalk off after arguments? Dagger said he overheard you fighting.”

  Henry frowned. “Fighting? We weren’t fighting.” He shot Dagger a look, and I couldn’t figure out whether it was confused or challenging.

  Dagger shrugged, his Zen calm still evident on his face. “I overheard a heated discussion, maybe. About a text message?”

  Henry’s face reddened. “Text message? What are you talking about, man? No one gets service out here.”

  Dagger shrugged again. “I am only relaying what I heard.”

  Henry scowled. “You heard wrong, dude.” He rubbed his nose and sighed. “Caitlin and I pick on each other all the time—just like all brothers and sisters do. But like I said, I woke up to find her missing. There was no fight.”

  Huh. “So you have no idea why she might have run off, or what she might be doing?” I asked.

  Henry looked up at me, surprised. “No,” he said emphatically. “Listen, this is really unlike her. She’s the one who lectures me about the dangers of going on hikes alone. And she gets tense, sure, but she’s not the kind to have some kind of tantrum and stalk off.”

  In the silence that followed Henry’s words, the six of us looked at one another. I could read from everyone’s expressions that we were all at a loss. Finally I asked the question I sensed we were all asking ourselves:

  “What do we do now?”

  We decided to move to the fire pit to have a serious conversation.

  “I hate to say it,” Dagger said, speaking first, “but it seems that Caitlin may be well and truly missing. Gone, as Henry said. We’ve all been looking for her for at least an hour now, with no response.”

  George nodded. “I think it’s time to call someone,” she said, looking earnestly at Henry.

  But Henry looked confused. “Call someone?” he asked. “Um, my cell doesn’t work out here. I don’t know about you guys.”

  “Caitlin told us she had a satellite phone to use in emergencies,” I spoke up. “In case anybody got hurt, or needed medical attention. Or went missing.” Why didn’t he know this?

  Henry still looked mystified. “She said that?”

  Bess frowned at him. “Yeah. You were right there, actually.”

  Henry’s face reddened. “Oh, well . . . I mean . . . Caitlin took care of all the logistical stuff on this trip,
” he said. “But okay, if we have a phone, totally, we should call someone now.”

  He stood up from the log he was sitting on, and I took the opportunity to scan the circle. If Caitlin’s disappearance involved foul play—if anyone from our tour was involved in whatever had happened to her—then presumably, calling the authorities would make them uncomfortable. Under the circumstances, it seemed unlikely that anyone would jump up and scream for Henry to stop, but people wear their discomfort in telling ways—they fidget, break eye contact, remove themselves from the conversation. When I looked around, though, nobody was doing anything I would immediately associate with being uncomfortable. Dagger was scratching his cheek, watching the scene intently. Zoe had her arms crossed and looked slightly bored and annoyed—the same expression she’d worn for most of the trip. Bess and George, of course, looked as bewildered by this morning’s events as I felt.

  We all got up slowly and followed Henry over to where he and Caitlin had slept under the tarp, and where they’d placed their packs. Looking a little uneasy, Henry walked over to Caitlin’s backpack and gingerly unzipped it. As we watched, he began searching the main compartment, then the front pocket, the side pocket, a rear pocket. . . .

  “You have no idea where she might have kept it?” George asked.

  Henry looked up, wearing a frustrated expression. “I told you, Caitlin knew all the logistical stuff for these tours,” he said.

  “And what do you know?” Bess asked pointedly. “What are you usually in charge of?”

  Henry looked uneasy again. He didn’t answer, just looked back into the pack and rooted around some more. “It’s not here. Maybe she put it in the cooler bag with the food.”

  We all waited while Henry trooped us back to the fire pit, where the cooler had been kept. He walked over to where it had been set the night before . . . and frowned. Then he looked around the fire pit, then back at the same spot, then at us.

  “You don’t know where the food is?” Zoe asked incredulously.