Free Cabin FURvor (A Klepto Cat Mystery Book 16) by Patricia Fry Page A

think so.” Margaret smiled. “That really was fun. Sure is pretty back in there along the river. Reminds me of camping trips we took as kids.” She swooned a little. “Great memories.”
    “You sure didn’t remember how to skim a rock, though,” Iris said. “I thought you were a champion rock skimmer, Maggie.”
    “I was.” She pouted. “Just couldn’t find the right rock out there, that’s all.”
    “Where did you learn to skip a rock so expertly, Iris?” Savannah asked.
    “You gotta know stuff like that when you’re both mother and father to boys.”
    “Where’s our boat?” Margaret asked, glancing around the area. “Someone took our boat.”
    “It’s okay, girlfriend,” Iris said. “We’ll just wait for the next one.”
    “We can do that?” Colbi asked. “We aren’t responsible for the one we had?”
    Iris nodded. “Yeah, you just jump into any boat and leave it on the other side for the next person.”
    “There’s a boat coming this way.” Margaret noticed. She shuddered. “I hope they hurry; it’s going to be dark soon.”
    “Afraid of the dark, are you, Maggie?” Colbi teased.
    “Hey, Colbi, there could be a killer running loose, remember?”
    “But you heard the ranger. He said that guy might have been dead for a while.”
    “But they never caught the killer, so he could still be lurking around,” Iris reminded her. “Yes, I’m eager to get back to the cabin, too…where it’s…” She chuckled. “I started to say, ‘where it’s safe.’”
    “You don’t think it’s safe?” Savannah asked.
    “You heard that old guy. The cabin has a…stigma.”
    “Oh, is that what you call it?” Margaret said. She laughed a little hysterically. “Rags is in a cabin with a stigma? Lordy, I’m almost afraid to go back there.”
    “Okay, here’s the boat.” Iris noticed.
    As the women waited for the couple to step out of the skiff, they overheard their conversation. “It looked more animal than human,” the young woman said, while her companion tied the boat to the dock.
    “That doesn’t make sense, Imogene. What animal, other than a bear, walks upright? And it wasn’t no bear.”
    “No, but it wasn’t a normal-looking person, either,” she said, her voice shrill.
    “Excuse me,” Savannah said as the couple approached them on the dock, “I couldn’t help but overhear. You said you saw some sort of creature…was that last night on the road leading up the mountain?”
    Imogene’s eyes widened. “No. I saw it out the window of our cabin.” Her tone accelerated. “I was terrified.” She glanced at her companion. “It scared him, too, didn’t it, Brian?”
    He sighed deeply. “Well, we saw it through the trees. It could have actually been an elk or a deer.”
    “Brian, I saw it close up and it was human, I tell you, or…part human.”
    “Oh Imogene, don’t be so dramatic.”
    She leaned toward the women as if in confidence. “I’m pretty sure it came from the Sledge cabin. You ladies have heard about what goes on there, haven’t you? Brian’s been coming up here for years and he told me about the sightings.”
    “I also told you that I never seen anything, Imogene.”
    “Yeah, but you know people who have,” she reminded him. She turned to the women. “I don’t know where you’re staying, but beware; there’s something strange—maybe even evil—going on in the Sledge cabin.”
    “Thanks for the tip,” Iris said, watching the couple rush off in the direction of the store.
    “Holy cow,” Margaret said. “What are we in for? Iris, you didn’t tell us…”
    “I swear I’ve never heard any of this stuff before.”
    “Craig didn’t say anything to you?” Savannah asked.
    “No. Nothing. Wait ‘til I get my hands on him.”
    “Maybe he doesn’t know about it,” Colbi offered.
    “Fat chance,” Iris said. “Everyone else seems to.” After pausing, she added, “Although, when he comes up here, he rarely motors across the lake. He likes