Free The Body in the Basement by Katherine Hall Page Page B

at the camp forever.
    Jim tried a jocular approach. “The police! Over a few dead rodents!” He laughed. It didn’t work. A sea of tightly shut lips faced him. Mabel and Dot stood directly in front of him, feet
planted solidly on the worn pine floorboards, arms folded tightly across their ample bosoms.
    â€œAll right, all right, I’ll tell Earl. Now, can we clean the mess up and feed the hoard of hungry kids who will be streaming through that door in less than thirty minutes?”
    Everyone returned to the kitchen. Mabel scrubbed the counter, muttering angrily to herself. “I don’t like it. Not one little bit. Have half a mind to …” No one learned what Mabel was going to do with half of her mind, although all hoped it wouldn’t be the lobe with the recipe file. She was far and away the best cook on the island. She suddenly stopped and addressed them in a louder and determinedly cheerful voice. “Let’s forget about this now. It doesn’t do any good to think about such foolishness. Probably a prank somebody thought would be funny.”
    Samantha wasn’t sure. She also didn’t think it should have been cleared away until Earl had had a chance to look at it, but no one was asking her, and she didn’t feel she knew anyone except Arlene well enough to offer an unsolicited opinion. Besides, she was a kid and they were mostly grown-ups.
    She had been unable to keep herself from looking at the gruesome sight. The tiny creatures were neatly laid side by side in a row, with their gory heads tidily set above each carcass. Samantha had seen dead mice before, even a mouse who had met its demise in a trap, but this precise carnage was worse than all the rest put together.
    She watched as Mabel scoured the carving knife. Mitchell Pierce had been killed with a hunting knife. Carving knifes. Hunting knives. It suddenly seemed that there were an awful lot of knives in the news on Sanpere. She felt a bit dizzy and shook her head.
    â€œSam, are you okay?” Arlene was loading bread into baskets. The diet at Maine Sail leaned toward a carbohydrate overload. Today’s entrée was macaroni and cheese. Dessert was bread pudding. There was a salad, though, lemon Jell-O
with shredded carrots and mayonnaise dressing on an iceberg lettuce leaf.
    Samantha nodded. “I’m fine. It’s just creepy, especially after Sunday.”
    Arlene nodded knowingly and put an arm around Sam’s shoulder. Since she’d started going steady, she’d begun to adopt a kind of big-sister attitude that Sam wasn’t sure she totally liked.
    â€œIt is creepy, but I know who did it, and he’s a harmless creep, believe me.”
    â€œYou know who did it!”
    â€œWell, I’m almost positive. It’s got to be Duncan, of course. He’s like stuck in the third grade or something, and I bet he thought this would be a really great joke on us and Jim. He hates it here. Maybe he thinks if he does enough weird stuff, they’ll send him away. They should send him away all right—to the loony bin. It would serve him right.”
    Samantha hadn’t given much thought to Duncan Cowley, whom she had yet to meet. Given everything she’d heard, though, Arlene’s theory made sense. Samantha was willing to bet this had occurred to her employer, too. It certainly would explain why he wanted to make light of the incident.
    She was about to ask Arlene to tell her some more about Duncan when one of the doors to the kitchen opened and a woman walked in. It wasn’t the way her mother walked, Sam immediately observed—those purposeful strides meant to get you someplace. This walk was more like a glide. A dancer’s walk. A beautiful walk.
    The woman had very short, very fair hair that hugged her head in a silken helmet. Her eyes, or her contact lenses, were turquoise blue.
    â€œIt’s Valerie,” Arlene said in a low voice, “She’s so