Secret Sisters - an LDS cozy mystery

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen 

Ren parked his car in the accustomed clearing, and Ida Mae pulled her black coat more closely around her. She had finally given in to the suggestion that they wear dark clothing. She did, however, draw the line at putting grease paint under her eyes. She didn't think the possible benefits were great enough to justify the mess. 

Eden held Ren's tool bag, and he carried the camera equipment. Ida Mae was on hot chocolate duty, bringing up the rear with a large thermos. They moved slowly through the trees, able to pick out their path by the light of the halfmoon reflected on the snow. Ida Mae had always loved the way it never really got dark in winter-the snow took on a luminescent quality that kept the darkness at bay. 

The Dunns' shed loomed before them, and Ren held up his hand. They stopped walking as Ren crouched, pulling some wires out of his pocket. He glanced around, then motioned for Ida Mae to come closer. 

"Duct tape," he whispered, and she reached into her fanny pack to retrieve it. She winced as she did so-who on earth had thought up the name "fanny pack?" What was wrong with something a little more appropriate, like, "waist purse" or "handfree pouch" or "clipon bag?" She handed over the tape, and he slid the roll onto his wrist like a bracelet.  

Eden handed him a screwdriver, and he crept closer to the edge of the Dunns' property. Selecting a tree, he placed the camera on a branch, securing it with the tape. Then he screwed in some wires. Ida Mae wished she was a little more technologically savvy so she could understand what he was doing. 

After he got the camera in place, he took some strips of brown cloth and used them to camouflage the slight shine of the tape. 

"Good thinking," Eden whispered, and Ren smiled. 

One of the long wires was brought down the length of the branch and stretched across to the outreaching limb of the next tree. Ren extended the wire three trees down from the camera and fastened it at every junction with the duct tape, fiddling with tools and gadgets and weirdlooking gizmos all along the way. Ida Mae made herself useful by dispensing the hot chocolate after the first fifteen minutes had gone by-she couldn't feel her nose at all, it was so numb. Eden sipped gratefully as well, but Ren was in a groove and shouldn't be disturbed until the task was finished. 

Which it finally was, after about a half hour. He took a cup and downed it. 

"Test it out," he whispered to Eden. 

"What should I do?" 

"Go down there and walk slowly up the drive." 

She disappeared, a little too completely for Ida Mae's taste. A few minutes later, she heard soft footsteps, and Eden reappeared like a shadow. 

Ren looked at the camera. "Two pictures were taken," he verified. "Tomorrow we can double check the timestamp feature." 

Ida Mae was so cold, she couldn't feel her thighs. As she climbed into the car, she rubbed her hands on her legs, trying to restore any sort of feeling. 

"Sorry that took me so long," Ren said. "I wanted to be sure to get it just right." 

"I thought it was exciting," Eden said. "Waiting to see if we'd get caught, concocting wild alibis, imagining how we'd flee through the trees to safety-I haven't had this much fun in a long time." 

"You've got a strange idea of fun," Ida Mae said, even while she secretly agreed. She hadn't felt so alive since her twenties. 

They drove home slowly, not taking the risk of speeding and getting pulled over by the sheriff or one of his men. They liked to patrol at odd hours of the night to keep the crime element down-or so the sheriff said. Ida Mae had to bite back a laugh at the thought. They had crime going on right here, and the sheriff didn't care.