Whodunnit? Murder On Mystery Mountain

2 Camp Redwood

An image came to Giles mind. It was of an older man, a taller super model. This man had short salt and pepper hair. He had been a very rambunctious but polite man. Giles remembered the way he had fought till the bitter end. Tripp Narrow was not the killer but Giles had always l wondered if he had survived the day he had been killed.

The man standing before Giles resembled Tripp in the most uncanny way. Calvin Moore had the same salt and pepper color to his hair. He had a gentle but polite look about him. If Giles had seen him in the night, he may have mistaken him for the former guest at Dawson Manor himself. However Giles knew the truth, Tripp was dead, and so were all the rest.

Calvin was smiling wide just as his wife did earlier that day. He held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Giles, Calvin." His voice was very masculine and clean, just like Tripp. Giles swallowed but shook the man's hand. "Good to meet you sir." After greetings were in order, Calvin asked him to meet for a tour later that day. Giles agreed and as his boss left, he let out a breath. "Dear God, please let this be a coincidence."

* * * * * * * * *

The tour consisted of Calvin Moore speaking about the history of Camp Redwood. "This right here is the dining hall otherwise called, Big House. Don't ask me why it's called that." He chuckled. His hands never left the golf cart steering wheel as they whizzed down the paths. Giles pointed to a series of oak buildings scattered throughout. "Those must be the cabins then?" He asked. Calvin nodded. "And each one has been here for over fifty years."

Giles watched as the hills of the camp turned into trees again. "We're about to crest the top of Father Ridge Falls." Calvin stopped the cart. Giles walked over and peered down at the waterfall. Something about the whole thing made him uneasy. He'd never been fond of heights but it wasn't that prospect that made him uneasy. It was the woman dressed in nothing but a bra, laying on one of the rocks below.

Summer waved from the rocks. Giles cleared his throat, trying to get Calvin's attention. The man had been of course staring at his nearly naked wife. He seemed to snap out of it. "Oh sorry, she does this a lot. We're both very comfortable with our bodies." He blushed a bit which made Giles lighten up a bit. After all, it wasn't the weirdest thing. That part would come later and he did not even know it yet.

The tour ended with a visit to the lodge. The lodge was a a larger building with wooden tables and coffee stations taking up most of the space. "This here is where we will have meetings and maybe play same games. He rounded the corner of a hallway and stepped into a small room. "Here is my so called office. Feel free to come here anytime to see me." He picked up a flyer and gestured Giles to follow him outside.

Calvin suddenly stopped. "Giles, there is one last thing you should know." His eyes met the other man's eyes. The wind seemed to stop in that moment. Giles knew what he was going to say so he saved him the embarrassment. "You're related to Tripp Narrow, aren't you?"

Calvin blinked realizing his secret was finally out in the open. "You...how did you know? I guess I look similar to him but I never thought we-" he cut himself off- "He was my cousin." Giles felt relief to finally know, but immediate suspicion. "Do forgive me for this sir, but I must ask. What is the true reason you hired me?"

The question seemed to stop Calvin in his thoughts. He could only stare at the ground. There was a long pause in which anything could have happened, but what Calvin said next, shook the very earth Giles was standing on. Calvin looked up again. "Giles, I miss him every day. He was my friend but he was also my lover." Giles gasped. He'd never thought Tripp to be the flaming homosexual type, but he wasn't there to judge.

Calvin continued. "I asked you to come work here, because I need to know what happened to him. I need to know why. You know more than anyone what it's like to lose everyone around you. Well I lost my cousin and my love. Don't get me wrong, I love Summer but he was my first."

At last, Giles past had come back to haunt him, in the flesh. "Thank you for your honesty. I might return to my suite now." Giles offers Calvin a weak smile. The man thought it was funny that Giles had called his camp cabin a suite but shook it away. He was one step closer to knowing what truly happened to his cousin.

Shortly after the tour, Giles returned to his cabin and shut the door. How could he be so stupid? Of course his jobs were never going to be simple. Jaqueline's curse from the first murder mystery had followed him. Suddenly, a smell reached his nose. It was ghastly and had the odor of a dead animal. He didn't even have to open the door of his bedroom to know what lay behind it. "Damn it to hell." He walked over to his door and with great reluctance thrust it open. Giles Nathaniel Preston screamed for the first time in his life.