Cabin 9

Chapter 9

A few days passed, and the camp remained in its temporary high-security high-anxiety state. I listened and talked to other campers, but nothing really sounded out of the ordinary to me. They all sounded scared. But who wasn't?

All except for one. Her name was Nadya, and she seemed a little quiet. She reminded me of, well, myself. How I had been during my first year of camp. I decided to say hi to her, as I hadn't really spoken to her before.

"Hey, I'm Avery" I said.
She looked up at me through black-rimmed glasses. They magnified her eyes a bit, which were a very pretty brown.
"Hello," she replied, looking down again.
"What are you reading?" I dragged on, though she had made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk.
But it seemed I'd sparked a conversation. She shut her book.
"Agatha Christie. She's the Queen of Mystery" Nadya told me. I nodded a little.
"You like crime books?" I asked.
"Not only books. All crime intrigues me. Did you know there was once a murder on these grounds? Before it was a camp," she told me. Wheels began to spin in my head. How did she know about the murder? Should I confront her about it? I decided to play dumb for the moment, hoping she could tell me something I didn't already know.
"Really?" I said, acting interested. She sounds equally fascinated as she spoke.
"Yes, it was a double murder. A local hunter was suspected, but he never got arrested due to lack of evidence."
"The poor son," she added as an afterthought.
"They had a son?" I gasped. Nadya seemed confused.
"Yes. After his parents died, he lived with his uncle" she told me.
"Nadya, can you come with me?" I asked.
"Yes. Why?" she asked. I grabbed her hand and lead her towards Ben in the camp office.

On the way, I shot more questions at Nadya, hoping to find out more.
"How dis you find all this out?"
"I just Googled the camp before I came here"
"Do you know where the son is today?"
"I'm not sure."

"Ben, this is Nadya. She knows about the shooting," I said as soon as we entered the office.
"You do?" Ben asked.
"I know that two people were killed, and that there son lived with his uncle," Nadya confirmed.
"That's good. Do you know where the son is today?" Ben asked, just as I had.
She shook her head.
"Here, let me take a look," Ben said, rummaging through some files.
Nadya and I took seats in chairs while he continued his search. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang.
"Ouch!" Ben shouted.
"What the...?"
We got to our feet to see that a shelf had fallen from the bookcase against the wall. There were piles of paper on the floor all around, but the fallen shelf had revealed a small square outline, and a small knob. Ben pulled on it.

It opened to reveal a large rectangular book, sitting in a small hidden compartment. Ben pulled it out. He opened it.
"Wait a minute. Avery, isn't this the newspaper article you found?" he said, handing the book to me. It was a scrapbook of sorts, and it did indeed contain the same article I had found. I flipped the page. Ben quickly grabbed the book from me.

In one fluid motion, he put the book back, closed the compartment and placed the shelf where it had fallen from. He hastily placed a pile of papers in front of the compartment.

Before we could ask what was going on, somebody came into the office. It was Cole. We all looked at each other. Nadya stood up.
"I need to go," she said.
"Me too," I added, following her out of the room.

"What was that about?" I asked Nadya, as soon as we were far away from the office.
"I'm not sure" she replied, frowning slightly.
"I think I should get back to my cabin" she told me.
"Oh okay, can we talk later?" I asked.
"Sure" she replied. Before we parted, she pressed her book into my hands.
"Here. You should try reading it"
I nodded. She turned away, and I looked at the book in my hands.

Images flashed through my mind, and with a gasp I realized something. This was the same book we'd first seen the newspaper clipping in.