Free Secret at Mystic Lake by Carolyn Keene Page A

to,” I said quietly. “Do you think he has a reason to lie about you and Caitlin fighting?”
    Henry shook his head, running his hands over his face. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I just so want this all to be over.”
    I nodded. “Me too.”
    â€œAuuuuuughhh! No!”
    A scream suddenly cut through the afternoon stillness, exploding from the direction of the road. It was female—Zoe? Henry and I looked at each other briefly and then splashed out of the stream and up onto the bank. We didn’t bother to put our shoes back on as we thundered through the trees, trailing Bess, with George close behind.
    â€œWhat happened?” Bess cried as she left the trees.
    Zoe didn’t answer in words; she just gestured to the side of the road, where our bikes lay, awaiting our return.
    Every single tire on every bike had been slashed.

CHAPTER TEN

Another Long Night
    AS WE ALL STOOD STARING at the bikes, openmouthed, Dagger stepped out of the trees.
    â€œYou!” Henry screamed, rushing toward him. “You did this! You have a knife!”
    Dagger looked confused. “I did what? I—” Then he spotted the bikes. “Oh dear.”
    â€œOh dear?” Henry mocked, getting up in Dagger’s face. “Oh dear? What kind of reaction is that? Either you did this, or you’re some kind of sociopath!”
    Dagger shook his head. “I’m not a sociopath,” he said. “I’m just in a constantly balanced state becauseof my meditation. I am as upset about this as you are, I assure you. But I don’t see the benefit of yelling and screaming about it.”
    Henry stuck a finger in Dagger’s face. “Give me one good reason to believe you didn’t do this,” he said.
    Dagger smirked. “Because I don’t have the knife anymore?”
    Oh, right. I had actually forgotten that too. All eyes turned to Zoe, who was crouching over her bike like it was her injured child.
    She glanced up and seemed after a moment to follow what we were all thinking. “You think I did this?” she asked. “Are you kidding? Of the six of us, who do you think is most eager to get back to electricity and running water?”
    She had a point there. But George didn’t seem totally convinced. “Where is the knife, Zoe?”
    Zoe frowned. “It’s still in my pack. Look.” She went over and grabbed her backpack, then unzipped the main compartment. She had to pull out a lot of clothes and toiletries to show it to us. “It’s right whereI put it when I got it. If I’d used it to slash those tires, it would be on top, no?”
    â€œUnless you knew we were going to ask,” I pointed out, “and buried it back under all your clothes to look less guilty.”
    Zoe narrowed her eyes at me. “I did not do this,” she said. “Fingerprint me if you want. But listen . . . we can’t deny it anymore: Someone in this group is working against us.”
    â€œThat’s right,” I said shakily. It was hard to say out loud—because the thought terrified me—but there was no way a stranger had done this to our bikes. “I didn’t want to believe this, but it has to be true: Someone here is the culprit behind the tires and the tents and the missing food—and probably knows what happened to Caitlin.”
    Everyone looked at one another uncomfortably, but no one refuted what Zoe or I had said.
    After a second Dagger spoke, his voice a low rumble. “Only one person in this group had any motivation to hurt Caitlin,” he pointed out. “And that would be Henry. We all witnessed them arguing briefly atdinner, and they had a much more serious argument right before she disappeared.”
    Henry groaned. “Yeah, look, Caitlin and I argued sometimes. But I’m not the one with the knife and the fake name. How about we start with that?”
    â€œFine. My real