Chapter 15: Teen Targets?

“Are you going to sit there all day?”

Sitting under the umbrella at the patio table, the lead investigator observed as Deputy Allen searched the grass field for the bullet. Phineas didn’t have high hopes for success with the inexperienced deputy’s technique. About twenty-five feet away from the table, Sheriff Wheeler questioned the witnesses and the other guests who had been nearby when the gunshot occurred.

“I’m watching and listening,” Phinn replied to their client. “Besides, I haven’t been sitting here the whole time.”

“You haven’t? Pais says you’re in shock, which proves you’re a shitty detective.”

“I heard. I also heard that Flamand will be fine.”

“Minus the tip of his earlobe. The ambulance is taking JP to get checked out, just to be sure,” Leighton relayed. “Aunt Vonnie is insisting she go with, which I don’t like.”

“Neither do I. You should go with,” Phinn suggested.

“I thought I’d make Paisley go,” the redhead revealed, flashing a grin.

“While I wouldn’t mind that punishment for your cousin, I’d prefer you go with to observe Flamand and potentially Selene when she arrives. We’ll be sure to send her that way whenever she returns.”

“Wonderful,” Leighton responded, hurrying after her aunt.

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to find the bullet that way,” Jake commented, returning to sit next to his friend. “It would be nice, though. It might give an indication as to what direction the shot came from.”

“I’d say from the south or west, as it nicked his left ear. Too bad we weren’t watching Flamand to see which way he looked.”

“Did you want to check the woods in those directions? We might find the shell casing,” Jake speculated.

"No, we'd better leave that up to the sheriff and his deputies," Phinn said as Deputy Allen stood up to throw his hands out in defeat.

“Dammit. We'd better call Roy. He’ll need to bring out the metal detector,” Sheriff Wheeler grumbled.

"We also don't know the shooter's precise location. I checked near the pond and greenhouse but didn't find a stashed rifle," Phinn reported.

“Wait, what? When did you do that?” Jake questioned, looking at his partner in shock.

“When you all raced to check on Flamand. Apparently, nobody noticed,” Phinn revealed with an amused tone.

“Hold on. Hazel, Benji, and Yvonne were over in those spots. Do you think one of them is the shooter?” Jake asked, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“What’s the motive?” Phinn countered, causing Jake to shrug. “Right. We don’t know. I doubt it’s one of them, but we can’t rule anyone out yet.”

“Portia and Karter can probably be ruled out. They were sleeping upstairs,” Jake noted.

Portia had appeared shortly after the gunshot on the balcony. Karter's alibi wasn't as concrete as he'd allegedly been woken by the sound before appearing, partly through the balcony door, a few minutes after the socialite.

"Selene is supposedly on an errand to town. Adora and Troy are out on a hike in the woods, as is Catherine on a horse. Any of those four could have doubled back to make an attempt on Flamand's life if it was an attempt," Phinn remarked, listing potential suspects.

Jake opened and closed his mouth in shock, which his partner noticed.

"I'm not implying it was a fake attempt. That's a risky shot unless you're an expert marksman. However, even that slim possibility can't be discarded," Phinn pointed out.

“Ah, man. I hate when these cases get all twisty and turny,” the blond athlete groaned.

The junior investigators watched as Sheriff Wheeler ordered his deputy to keep searching while he radioed for backup. Afterward, he interviewed Rafael, who’d been in the stables when he heard the gunshot. The hired hand admitted that the house seemed to be experiencing its share of excitement lately.

“I’ll say. The whole damn county has lost its mind. A mutilated body, an abandoned car, and a break-in at the morgue. Now, a warning shot or attempted killing. What’s next? I didn’t take this job for the excitement,” Wheeler complained.

Jake jumped to his feet to follow Phinn, who’d already started moving halfway through the sheriff’s bitching. He’d also caught the new development buried in the list of incidents.

“Did you say that the morgue was broken into?” Phinn inquired.

“Last night,” the sheriff acknowledged. “Probably a bunch of bored kids daring one another.”

“Nothing was stolen?” Jake questioned, causing the sheriff to shrug.

“Grover Atwood’s personal items were stolen, weren’t they, Sheriff?” Phinn challenged.

“How the hell do you know that, son?” Wheeler asked, his expression shifting from surprise to suspicion.

“From our experience, there are only four reasons to break into a morgue. Either to look at the coroner’s report, alter the body’s injuries, steal the body, or steal the deceased’s belongings. The latter seems the most likely under these circumstances,” Phinn concluded.

“You talk mighty oddly for a vacationing kid, you know that?”

“I’m aware,” Phinn responded. “If you don’t mind our asking, what items were stolen?”

"Can't see what it will hurt at this point. It wasn't much. Just a pocket watch and a notebook filled with gibberish,” Sheriff Wheeler revealed.

“Gibberish?”

“Looked like that to me, or a foreign language. Doc Simpson thought it might be a code,” the lawman recounted.

“A code. How peculiar,” Phinn said, more to himself than the sheriff.

“I’ll say! Damned thing hasn’t happened in nearly a dozen years since Billy Bob Barent wrapped his car around a tree. He’d been feuding with his cousin for years over their grandpappy’s watch, and Big Briggs just had to have it at first chance.”

Shortly after the high school gumshoes thanked the sheriff, his radio crackled to life with a message. Wheeler yelled for Allen to head to the front of the house. The deputy named Roy said that a local veteran would be arriving soon with his personal metal detector, which should give them two within ten minutes.

With the coast clear, Phinn walked onto the grass, heading for the precise location where Jean-Paul Flamand had been shot at. Quickly tagging along, Jake pointed out that Phinn had already said he didn't want to search for the bullet, so he wanted to know what had changed. Rather than answer immediately, Phinn held up a finger as if to wait.

Instead, the often secretive sleuth slowly turned his body while surveying the various known locations for the people at the house and potential hiding spots. Once a satisfactory layout existed in his head, Phinn addressed his partner’s questions.

“We’re still not searching for the bullet. I wanted to estimate the likelihood that the shooter might be Hazel or Benji. I fully doubt that Yvonne has it in her to shoot anyone,” Phinn commented. “No, the lack of a gun and motives likely points to the shooter hiding in the woods. Besides the people we discussed before, we should add Frank Noonan and the mysterious watcher to the suspect pool.”

“Maybe Mr. Noonan thinks Flamand is the werewolf.”

“He’s not, and I doubt Frank thinks that. I suspect he’s gotten enough close looks to rule him out,” Phinn stated.

Jake whistled when Phinn informed him about the tree stand that he and Leighton had discovered at the trail intersection the previous night. The athletic investigator insisted they’d have noticed the hunting blind if it'd been there a couple of days earlier, which Phinn agreed with. Then, he revealed what had been found in the shed last night.

“Frank’s trying to bait the werewolf into a trap? Wow! That’s an awesome idea. We should–”

“We’re not leaving bait out,” Phinn cut off his best friend to dismiss the idea.

“Yeah, it probably won’t work tonight if Flamand is at the hospital or something,” Jake responded, sounding depressed.

“I just said that Flamand’s not your wolfman.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Jake, I saw that man’s face straight up last night,” Phinn declared, taking a step back. “We were this close.”

“W-What?! Why didn’t…How could you–”

“I didn’t tell you because I never had the time until now. We had to listen to your story about banging a poltergeist before Flamand took a bullet.”

"I guess that makes sense…Although I said I screwed a ghost, not a poltergeist."

"Priorities. Stick to the priorities here," Phinn scolded. "Now, I will praise you for buying those new flashlights. The one I used blinded your beast-man long enough for me to throw a couple of rocks into his face."

As Leighton had speculated prior to the shooting, Jake launched into a tirade about pissing off a werewolf. Well aware of his oldest friend’s initial panic over supernatural events, Phinn waited until Jake settled down by the end of his rant.

“Can I respond now? Okay. No, I’m not bound to have my arms, legs, or spine broken like a twig. Nor are my intestines getting ripped out by his teeth.”

“You don’t know that! You’ve been marked. That beast knows your smell now. He’ll be able to easily track you tonight. Shit! We need to tool up,” Jake proclaimed, his mind already blazing with ideas.

“No, we’re not tooling up with weapons,” Phinn sighed, taking off his glasses. “I hit him with those rocks to explicitly test your smell theory. Your creature of the night lost our trail within minutes in the forest. Leighton and I even used our flashlights.”

“Ah, we’re dealing with a cunning predator. He wants to savor his kill,” Jake declared.

“Seriously, you need to lay off this shit. If not, I’ll start bringing Corky along as my partner,” Phinn threatened, putting his glasses back on.

“Not happening. Corky believes in the paranormal as well,” Jake chuckled about their neighbor and fan club president.

Phinn started to mumble a response before raised voices inside the house drew their attention. With a quick look at each other, they hurried toward the patio. By the time they reached the cement, the rear screen door had whipped open to reveal Karter, with Sheriff Wheeler following him.

With Phinn nodding in confirmation, Jake gasped.

“Well, I reckon your bruise does matter, Mr. Terstad. Perhaps you and Mr. Flamand had a disagreement, one that escalated this morning,” Sheriff Wheeler suggested.

“I did not shoot Jean-Paul. He’s helping me!”

“With what? I’m having a tough time understanding what this Frenchman is doing here with all you folks.”

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Phinn muttered.

“Shhh, it can probably hear you,” Jake hissed.

“The Corseer is Belgian, not French,” Karter corrected. “Not that it matters or is any of your business.”

“Somebody taking a poke at a visitor in my county does matter to me,” the sheriff stated, finally showing some backbone in the younger sleuths’ eyes. “What’s this crosser thing you mentioned?”

“Look, I went for a hike yesterday and tripped on a root. That’s how I hit my face. I’m sure that type of accident is common around here,” Karter explained, ignoring the sheriff’s other question. “Now, if you don’t mind, I wish to eat my breakfast in peace. If not, I’ll contact my attorney.”

"I'd keep your lawyer's number handy. I might have additional questions soon," Sheriff Wheeler warned as his pair of deputies and another man appeared with metal detectors.

“Ah, excellent timing,” Phinn said, noticing Adora and Troy returning from the northern entrance to the trail. “Let’s head inside while Wheeler questions them. We need to grab an item.”

“I’ll say,” Jake hissed. The stocky linebacker followed his partner toward the rear door while taking a slight arc away from the direction of the app inventor.

Once inside, Jake rushed past his partner while muttering “Fuck” over and over. Barely reacting to his friend’s panicked behavior, Phinn entered the old servants’ quarters and into his tiny bedroom. He proceeded to pull out a seemingly broken travel clock, then unlatch its back to remove an item. Finished, Phinn returned to the short hallway to check on Jake.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Where is it?” the blond detective asked himself while rifling through his belongings.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m getting ready to strike!” Jake responded. “I just need to find that wolfsbane I bought.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because Karter Terstad is the werewolf! You saw his face. He’s got a huge black eye from where you hit him last night,” Jake pointed out.

“And what are you planning to do with the wolfsbane?”

“You heard him. He’s about to have breakfast. I’ll slip it into his food before Marie brings it–”

“You’re not poisoning him. Forget about it,” Phinn said.

“Forget about it? Are you nuts? We need to kill him while it’s still daylight,” Jake announced.

I'm nuts? He's the one becoming unhinged. Fuck, I hope this is just a side effect of his drugging. He hasn't been this paranoid in years. Have I been too hard on Jake lately? I don't think so. Maybe he just needs to get laid again. He does get antsy if he goes too long. Dammit, I guess I'll have to try another tack to get him to calm down.

“Look, it’s not even noon. There’s plenty of time to deal with Karter later today. For now, we need to deal with a few other matters. Okay?”

“I don’t know. We should do this now. What if we get distracted?”

“We won’t. I promise.”

“Are you serious?” Jake questioned.

“I am. No bullshit. Let’s go deal with Adora.”

“But I need to find my wolfsbane. It’s not where I left it,” Jake said before his eyes widened. “What if he found it?”

“Terstad didn’t take your wolfsbane. I did,” Phinn revealed. He immediately cut off his best friend. “Don’t argue with me. I took it because it’s poisonous. I don’t need to explain to your family how you accidentally killed yourself.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Mama Yawa warned me to be careful.”

“Yet, you didn’t notice when I took your jar,” Phinn countered. “Alright, go take a shower. Wheeler should be done questioning Adora and Troy by the time you’re out.”

---

“Try not to embarrass yourself.”

“When have I ever embarrassed us? Oh…” Jake responded before realizing what Phinn meant. “Whoa, you’re the one who lacks people skills.”

"And you're the one who turns into a fanboy at a convention around famous people," Phinn remarked, waiting to open the front door.

"I do not!"

“Sorry. I should say, when you’re around famous, beautiful women,” Phinn clarified, leading them onto the front porch. The actress and her boyfriend sat on a bench that was part of the porch wrapping around the side of the house.

“She was Dream Lass,” Jake reminded unnecessarily.

“I haven’t forgotten,” Phinn replied, pausing as Troy walked past them and into the house.

“She also won the Sensualist award for Best Tits," Jake whispered into his best friend's ear as they approached the breathtaking beauty.

“Excuse me, Miss Rose, might we have a word?”

“Miss Rose? After what we’ve been through, you can call me Adora, Phineas,” the dirty blonde teased. Phinn noticed his polite approach worked as her worried expression turned into a smile. Although he didn’t like the way she glanced down at his groin as a reminder of what she’d seen.

“Well, Adora, this isn’t exactly a friendly chat. We have a few questions for you,” Phinn revealed, gesturing for her to leave the porch for the pond. “It might be better if we have this discussion away from the open windows.”

“I don’t have any questions for you. Phinn’s the one who has questions,” Jake denied, immediately morphing into a fawning fan.

“Uh, okay, sure,” the confused actress said, standing up to walk off the porch. About halfway to the pond, she glanced over at the two teens. “I’m a bit confused. Why would you two have questions for me?”

“Not we, just Phinn.”

“It’s a bit of a hobby for us,” Phinn replied, downplaying their investigations while shooting a glare at his partner. “But on this trip, we seem to keep finding things. Such as a body, an abandoned car, and this…”

“What…Oh, my gawd! Where did you find my necklace?” Adora asked, recognizing the transparent yellow gemstone.

She reached for the chain hanging from Phinn’s hand until he snatched it back.

“Jake found it the other day. It was in the trunk of the abandoned car.”

“I didn’t find it. We found out,” Jake denied. “It was more like a teamwork find. I went out into the water while Phinn held the flashlight. Technically, he probably saw it first in the beam.”

“You found it where? Ohmigawd! How did it end up in that car?” Adora asked after gasping in shock.

“You tell us. How do you know Grover Atwood?” the bespectacled detective asked, waiting for her reaction with watching eyes.

"I…I don't. Or at least I never knew anyone with that name," the actress insisted. Although she lied for a living, Phinn could tell she struggled to recall whether she had ever met the man or if she was working hastily to concoct a tall tale.

“Be honest, Miss Rose, when answering this next question. I did pass on giving your necklace to the sheriff yesterday, but he’s back again,” Phinn pointed out while also tossing a threat out.

“Whoa! We decided not to give to Wheeler, not just Phinn. That’s because we don’t for one second believe you had anything to do with killing that man or hiding his car. And you don’t deserve to be treated like a suspect or hassled by the local cops,” Jake rambled, fudging the description and the person who decided not to hand the necklace over.

“Yes, we do have suspicions about you and your boyfriend,” Phinn corrected, causing Jake to turn red. “Now, when did you precisely lose this necklace?”

“You think me or Troy had…We didn’t!”

“When did you lose the necklace?” Phinn repeated.

“I don’t know! I swear, I’m not lying,” the beautiful blonde insisted, her eyes glistening. “I’d never hurt anyone. Troy wouldn’t either, despite what you’ve seen.”

“I don’t know about that. We’ve both experienced one of his jealous rages over you,” Phinn reminded.

“I wouldn’t call it a rage. It was more of a late-night misunderstanding,” Jake mumbled.

“You called Troy a psycho,” Phinn reminded his partner, dashing his hopes of downplaying the midnight scuffle on the balcony.

“Look, I know what people think of Troy, but his bark is worse than his bite. He just comes across as a little intense and protective of me. I do get some creepy fan interactions,” Adora explained.

Phinn held back a comment about Jake’s fan behavior. Instead, he asked his question for a third time.

“Honestly, I don’t know. When I finally learned that I had the audition, everything turned into a whirlwind. I had to memorize the lines while booking a flight back to LA. This all happened over a couple of days,” Adora recounted. “I thought I lost it while out there, but it must have gone missing while we scrambled to pack. I swear, I don’t know how that man ended up with it.”

“We believe you,” Jake chimed in hurriedly.

“You never encountered a person you didn’t know before flying out? Okay, what about a person besides the guests here? Were you driven to the airport by a car service?” Phinn asked after receiving a "no" to the first question.

"No one, and we took my car, which we left in the airport parking lot. I don't know how or why my necklace ended up in that man's vehicle."

“When you returned from your trip, did your room appear disturbed?” Phinn queried.

“Like someone searched it? Wow, I don’t think so,” Adora replied, her mind going over the possibilities. “Do you think this Atwood might be a member of the paparazzi?”

“Anything is possible, but I doubt it. We should learn more about him soon,” Phinn said. Then, he had to elbow Jake to keep him from mentioning their call to the Sassers. “Did Troy ever disappear while you prepared for your trip?”

“No. He helped me read my lines and pack. I mean it, guys. Troy wouldn’t stab anyone,” Adora insisted.

"Very well. We'll have to see what develops. In the meantime, if you can think of anything that seems significant, please let us know," Phinn said, pretty confident that while the actress didn't kill Atwood, she knew more than she was telling.

“Uh, what are you going to do with my necklace?”

“Hold on to it for now. The decision about handing it over to the sheriff depends on what happens next,” Phinn stated ominously. He hoped to spark action either by tonight or tomorrow with his plans.

"Don't worry, Adora. I believe in you!" Jake proclaimed while Phinn led them away.

“I’m definitely bringing Corky next time. At least his hormones haven’t reached your level of cringe yet,” Phinn hissed.

“Dream Lass would never turn villain,” Jake declared.

“She auditioned for a role precisely like that before we arrived,” Phinn pointed out.

---

“I still think we should turn around and deal with Karter,” Jake yelled while pedaling his bicycle.

“It’s the early afternoon. We have plenty of time until sundown,” Phinn yelled back. “These errands are more important. Hopefully, the girls found something.”

Jake scoffed at the notion that protecting their lives from a murderous beast wasn’t the most important action. Yet, he dropped any argument. He was just as curious about what the Sasser sisters might have learned about Flamand or Atwood. Still, he wasn’t as sure about the other errand.

“Do we really need to go down here?” Jake questioned. He wasn’t thrilled about Phinn’s decision to leave the road for the hiking trail.

“I thought you’d be interested in checking the potential trap for your wolfman.”

“Not when we already know its identity.”

Jake didn’t like the way his best friend shrugged in reaction to his comment. Instead, he kept quiet until they reached the one intersection near where they found the body. Phinn halted for a break and to point out the tree stand.

“Yep. There is no way we would’ve missed that the other day,” Jake confirmed, staring up at the likely recent construction.

“Leighton said it was empty yesterday. Want to see if that’s changed?”

“Uh, I don’t know. That’s awfully high,” Jake remarked. “What? I don’t need to fall and break an ankle. Football practice will be here before we know it.”

“You have time to heal,” Phinn replied before giving in. “Fine. Boost me up.”

Jake did so, but Phinn found the hunting blind to be empty again.

“Nothing. Not even a water bottle or food wrapper,” Phinn reported after climbing down. “Odd.”

“Maybe Mr. Noonan hasn’t had time to use it yet. That’s if he’s the one who built it,” Jake suggested. “Can we get moving, please? We need to be back while it’s still light outside.”

Even biking, it took the teens a decent amount of time to reach the point where the trail morphed into a mix of trail and dirt road. Phinn realized the difference much more with the sunlight shining down. A few seconds later, they turned onto the dead-end section.

“Whoa! You can’t even tell that there is a shed here until you’re almost right in front of it,” Jake commented while they got off their bicycles.

“Imagine how it looks at night,” Phinn added, pulling out his smaller flashlight before entering the slightly darkened interior of the shed.

"This is totally a redneck party spot," Jake proclaimed, taking in the folding chairs, wooden benches, tree stumps, and assortment of broken bottles and crushed cans.

“Hmm, those chairs weren’t there last night,” Phinn noted, gesturing toward a pair that appeared to have been knocked out of the way. One lay next to the wall, while the other had been flung across the room.”

“Oh, fuck!” Jake exclaimed, covering his nose. “It smells worse than a locker room after a game. Did we just miss somebody pissing in here?”

“That stench of urine was here last night,” Phinn said, walking gingerly onto the straw. “Ah, the meat is gone.”

“So the trap failed?” Jake questioned, scanning the shed hurriedly. “Oh, man. What if we find Mr. Noonan’s body?”

“Relax. We still don’t know how Frank is involved–” Phinn abruptly stopped talking.

Jake understood why as they both halted their movements to listen. The larger of the two quickly motioned to the north side of the shed. Phinn acknowledged with a plan by using a couple of hand signals. Once Jake acknowledged, they leaped into action.

Rushing out the door first, Jake turned to his right in the direction of the sound they’d heard. Deeper inside the shed, Phinn took a left after exiting. Both teens quickly turned again around the shed’s corners. After being duped a few times in the woods, Phinn wanted to ensure they were prepared in case their target doubled back.

However, Jake immediately spotted a swinging branch past the tall grass and weeds.

“I see him!”

Phinn cursed as he found the brush even thicker behind the shed. Almost like wading in water, he slogged through the foliage in an attempt to catch up with his friend. After what seemed like forever and with considerable exertion, Phinn emerged from the brush to follow his partner.

He was able to follow Jake’s sound for the next six or seven minutes until he lost track. Sighing, he walked at a slower pace while listening for any more signs. After a few additional minutes, Phinn found his partner standing in the small clearing under a giant oak tree. Clearly, Jake had lost the man as he listened intently for any signs of him.

“Anything?”

“No, I lost the guy,” Jake admitted, banging the tree with his arm in frustration.

“So it was a guy. You saw him?”

“Well…no. I mean, I assume it’s a man. Why? Did you see a woman?” Jake questioned.

“No. I just wanted to know what you might have seen,” Phinn clarified.

“I think the person went that way, but I can’t be sure,” Jake said, pointing in that direction. “Do you want to take a flyer and see what we find?”

“Fuck it,” Phinn declared after pondering the decision briefly. “I’m sick and tired of chasing people in these woods only to lose them. Let’s head back to our bikes and call the Sassers.”

Jake agreed while muttering about daylight and full moons.

Unfortunately, a new complication awaited them back outside the shed.

“You can’t be…Are yours…”

“They are,” Phinn replied before kicking his bike lightly. “You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“When did this happen?” Jake questioned, staring at the four slashed bicycle tires.

“Considering that you can see them from inside the shed’s doorway, I guess we know why that person made such a ruckus,” Phinn deduced.

“Damn, he or she led us away from the shed and doubled back to slash our tires? That’s kinda impressive,” Jake remarked.

“Or led us away while their accomplice took care of our tires,” Phinn said, offering another theory.

“But why? What’s the point? Are we close to discovering something?” Jake asked, searching the area while not knowing what he was looking for.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Phinn admitted. “Still, I wanted to look around to see if there were any cameras up. It’s possible if the meat was bait for a trap.”

The junior investigators spent the next forty-five minutes searching the area. Jake poked and prodded the brush and foliage. Using his mini-binoculars, Phinn zoomed in on the higher branches of the trees. Occasionally, he directed Jake to climb up to check a suspicious branch.

Eventually, the boys gave up their fruitless efforts.

“What now?” Jake asked, standing up his currently useless bicycle.

“I guess we need to walk these back to the house. Maybe we can borrow a car to go call the girls,” Phinn suggested.

“Damn, this is going to take forever,” Jake complained, pushing his bike down the dirt road to the intersection.

“Welcome to last night for me.”

With a few breaks for water and snacks, it took the teen detectives well over two hours to reach the main road. Another twenty minutes passed before they reached the Ellison driveway. Rather than heading down the driveway, Phinn directed Jake to place their bicycles to the side of the driveway.

“What are we doing?” Jake inquired.

“Since we have a few minutes, why don’t we check on Frank?”

“I guess we could. Maybe we can snag a gun and some silver bullets while we’re there,” Jake suggested.

“You are not using guns…for anything. I’m not explaining how you blew off a couple of fingers to your family.”

“Wait, so you get to shoot Kuhn in the graveyard, and I can’t even put down a werewolf. That sounds completely unfair,” Jake argued.

“It sounds batshit crazy when you put it that way,” Phinn shot back before immediately regretting his word choice.

“Bats? What if the werewolf is guarding a vampire? They do team-ups all the time!”

“In what? Not in real life,” Phinn pointed out.

For the second straight day, Frank wasn’t home, nor was his truck parked outside his house. After a brief search of the yard and outside of the barn, they returned to the side of the farmhouse. While Jake admired the camera setup, Phinn mused over the retired man’s absence.

“Yeah, if he had these types of cameras around the shed or on the trail, we would’ve noticed them,” Jake announced.

“I doubt he’d use this type. They don’t have long-range signals.”

“Oh, right,” Jake replied, although spy cameras weren’t his specialty. “I bet Dusty would get a kick out of these and how he arranged them.”

“I’m sure our old partner would find the blind spot in minutes,” Phinn agreed. “C’mon, let’s head back to the house. This trip didn’t reveal much.”

Returning to where they left their borrowed bikes, Jake and Phinn made swift time on the descending driveway. At the end, they found Paisley waiting near the garage with her arms folded and an expression of annoyance on her face.

“What did you do to our bikes?” the pale blonde challenged, her eyes widening at the extensive damage.

“Not us,” Jake denied, launching into a recounting of what happened while they dragged the bicycles inside the garage.

“I swear, you two have a knack for ruining everything.”

“Uh, do you think we can borrow your car?” Jake asked hesitantly.

“After this, I think not!” the ice queen exclaimed, gesturing at the slashed tires.

“Is everyone still here?” Phinn inquired.

“Yeah, have you seen Karter lately?” Jake added quickly.

“Isn’t your job to know this stuff?” Paisley shot back before turning to march off. She only briefly paused to hiss over her shoulder that Karter went for a hike.

“Uh, I don’t think we’re getting paid to be here,” Jake called after the departing girl. Then, he turned to face his partner. “Are we getting paid anything?”

"Mostly the honor of being in her company," Phinn replied, rechecking the tires.

“Still, for such an uptight ass, it is a fine one to stare at,” Jake praised.

“I know you’re not thinking of going there.”

“I’m not suicidal!” Jake declared.

Entering the house, the sleuths were immediately hustled into the kitchen by Marie. After pointing out that they missed lunch and dinner, the boys sat down at the table while she heated up leftovers. While the sun was still shining, Jake grew increasingly worried about the diminishing time until it started to set. Despite his partner’s concerns, Phinn spent more time and effort learning what happened after they left and everybody's whereabouts from Marie.

“Leighton called shortly before you returned. She said they should be back soon.”

“Did Selene ever return?” Phinn inquired.

“Yes. She showed up about an hour ago. Yvonne had called earlier with the first update, so Selene decided not to go to the hospital,” Marie recounted.

“Ah, thanks for the food, Marie,” Phinn said, standing up.

Not quite finished with his larger portions, Jake worked to swiftly gobble up his meal while Phinn went to their bedrooms. While pondering ways to distract his best friend from attacking Karter Terstad, Phinn pulled a few items from his backpack to transfer to the dresser. That’s when he noticed the folded piece of paper standing up on the dresser top.

“Phineas, we need to talk. Please meet me at the gazebo at ten-thirty tonight. Hazel.”

Phinn reread the note twice while Jake entered the servants’ quarters. Wondering what the note meant, he slowly walked over to the other bedroom. Inside, he found an excited Jake.

“Hey, Adora wants to meet me in the barn loft at eleven! Maybe she’s going to tell us what Troy did.”

“The gazebo at ten-thirty with Hazel for me,” Phinn revealed, holding up his similar piece of paper. “Interesting that the notes were addressed to one of us specifically.”

“Whoa! Two clandestine meetings only a half-hour apart. That’s–”

“Quite the coincidence, isn’t it?” Phinn finished.

“No way. I know what you’re thinking, but Adora wouldn’t set me up in a trap,” Jake insisted.

“We shall soon see,” Phinn stated, already mulling over how to spring and counteract potential traps.