Mystery on Majestic Mountain (Kristi Cameron Book 9)

  MYSTERY ON MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN

  CYNTHIA S. GRIFFITH

  COVER ART BY SARAH LOWE

  Copyright © 2000 by Cynthia S. Griffith

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without prior written permission of the author.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One: April Fools

  Chapter Two: Whack-Whack the Lumberjack

  Chapter Three: Whiteout!

  Chapter Four: Come, Blow Your Horn!

  Chapter Five: Company’s Coming!

  Chapter Six: Knock-Knock

  Chapter Seven: Avalanche!

  Chapter Eight: Digging Out

  Chapter Nine: SuperHero

  Chapter Ten: The Old Coot

  Chapter Eleven: The Gun

  Chapter Twelve: Jake and John

  Chapter Thirteen: Escape from Majestic Mountain

  _________

  CHAPTER ONE

  _________

  April Fools

  “Are we there yet?” Kristi asked from the seat just behind her mother’s.

  “Aaaah!” Rachel shrieked, covering her ears with her hands. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that in my life?”

  “Told you so!” Kristi sat back in her seat and snickered to Robyn and Anna. “It gets her every time!”

  The other girls laughed. “It’s so nice of your parents to take us with you on this weekend,” Anna said.

  “Well, it just wouldn’t be a Cameron family vacation if you two and Pete weren’t with us,” Kristi smiled. “I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad think they’ve adopted you!”

  Robyn giggled. “That makes you our sister, Kristi! Somehow, I think Mom always liked you best!”

  Skeeter popped his head over the seat. “Did I hear you say something about me having three sisters? Aaaah!” he yelled, clapping his hands over his ears and mimicking his mother. “Have mercy!”

  The girls laughed. “Uh, does having you for a sister mean I have to have him for a brother?” Robyn asked Kristi, jerking her thumb back at Skeeter. “Have mercy!”

  “Hey, I heard that!” Skeeter popped again. The bantering between Skeeter and the girls went on, rising to new volumes by the minute.

  “The natives are restless,” Rachel grinned and said to her husband Steve. “Are we almost there yet?” She clapped her hands over her mouth and looked at him with big eyes. “Oops! That slipped out!”

  Steve laughed. “As a matter of fact, we are almost there. It sure feels strange to be driving to our vacation instead of flying. I’m a lot more familiar with the throttle of a plane than I am with the steering wheel of our own SUV!”

  “Believe me, I am all too familiar with driving the SUV!” his wife said. “It sure is nice to have you driving us for a change.”

  “Well, it hardly seemed worth it to fly when it’s only a three hour drive from Lakeview to Dave’s cabin on Majestic Mountain.” Steve turned the air-conditioning down a bit. “It’s getting cooler the higher we go,” he said. “We’ve had a warm spring so far. Just heard on the weather last night that April has been a lot warmer than normal this year. The cool air up here will feel good.”

  “Um-hmm,” Rachel said absentmindedly. “It was so nice of Dave to offer us the cabin for the long weekend,” she added. “Remind me to have him and Suzanne over for dinner sometime soon. Wow, the scenery is stunning, Steve! It’s so remote up here—a real wilderness. It’s hard to believe it’s only three hours from home.”

  “Yeah, I know. Hey, I think that’s our turnoff up ahead there! Kids! We’re almost there! Just a few more minutes!”

  A cheer rose from the back seats. “Hey, Mom! Can we eat as soon as we get there?” Skeeter yelled from the back. “I’m starved!”

  “So what else is new?” his mom and dad said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed.

  “Well, when you leave at six o’clock in the morning and then drive for three hours, a guy expects a good filling breakfast at the end of his journey!” Skeeter insisted.

  “I’ll tell you what—you help us get unloaded and set up real fast, Skeeter, and we’ll be able to eat a lot quicker!” Steve called back to him. He made the right-hand turn and headed up the bumpy dirt road.

  The teens looked out the windows, eagerly searching the steep hills and ridges above them for the cabin they would be occupying for the next three and a half days. In the distance they could see snow-capped peaks, and even here on Majestic Mountain there was still plenty of snow on the slopes above them. Spring was a little slower coming to the mountains than it was down at the lower altitudes, but evidence that it was on its way was all around them. The snow was melting in patches and wildflowers were beginning to peep through the new grass. Buds were popping out on the trees, as well. They still might be able to get in a little cross-country skiing, but more likely, there would be plenty of hiking and rock climbing to do.

  “I see it!” Pete exclaimed. “You see? There it is!” The other young people looked where he was pointing. A rustic-looking house was nestled just above them on a ridge. The mountaintop seemed to loom over it, casting its shadow over the cabin with the early morning sun.

  Steve pulled up in front of the log house a few minutes later. They all tumbled out of the SUV. “Wow! I thought you said it was a cabin, Dad!” Dan said. “This looks more like a lodge!”

  “It’s big!” Kristi exclaimed. “It looked a lot smaller from down below!”

  “I knew it was big enough to sleep all eight of us,” Steve admitted, “but this even exceeds my expectations.”

  “This will be fun!” Skeeter enthused. “Come on, everybody! Let’s get unloaded! Mom, why don’t you go check out the kitchen? We’ll bring in the groceries.” He was already pulling boxes and bags out of the vehicle and tossing them on the ground.

  “Hmmph!” Rachel snorted. “Here I am on vacation and he already has me banished to the kitchen! What kind of vacation is that, I ask you?” She picked up a bag of groceries and followed Steve up the steps to the roomy porch. “Oh, yeah!” she said as he set down the suitcases he was carrying and fit the key in the lock. “I can see us sitting out here in these rocking chairs, Steve, taking in these gorgeous views! Wow! This is stunning!”

  They seemed to be surrounded by mountains. The sun sparkled on the snow-covered slopes. A couple hundred feet away a rushing torrent of water spilled down the mountainside, fed by the melting snow above. Tall pine trees were clustered around the front of the log house, spreading their low branches as shelter for the little critters that lived beneath them. They could see rabbit tracks in the patches of snow all around them.

  “Look! You can see the highway from here!” Dan pointed out as he joined them. The driveway up had been long and winding but a small portion of the road was still visible. The road cut through the mountains. but apparently there was not much traffic up through these parts for it seemed almost deserted.

  “Yeah, uh-huh, it’s great. There’s more stuff in the car, Dan,” Skeeter said as he staggered up the steps with two more bags of groceries. “Wow, Mom—you sure brought a lot of food! There’s more still out in the car! Not that I’m complaining, of course!”

  “No, of course not!” his mother replied. “Well, you see, Skeeter—it’s like this: There are no restaurants around here. No drive-thru fast food, no ice cream stands, no carryout pizza places. You can’t just call for Chinese food and have it delivered in twenty minutes. Tha
t means I am going to be spending a lot of my time this weekend in the kitchen, and I have a lot of people to feed. Not to mention you! That takes a lot of groceries, my son.”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right. Well, don’t worry, Mom, we’ll all help you out with the cooking and cleaning.”

  “You bet your sweet bippy you will!” Rachel laughed. “Now, come on! Let’s get this stuff inside! I’m planning on taking a quick look around before I start cooking. Just letting you know, you slave driver!”

  Steve already had the door open, and the girls had entered before them, loaded down with duffle bags and sleeping bags. “Whoo-hoo!” they heard Kristi and the other girls exclaiming. “This is so nice! Ooo, how pretty! Let’s go find our room!”

  Rachel and the others followed them inside. They looked around the great room as they entered. The living room, dining area and kitchen were all open to one another, and yet it had a cozy feel. The walls were log inside, as well as out. Large overstuffed leather couches and rustic log furniture made a comfortable sitting area in front of the huge stone fireplace at one end of the room, while a ping-pong table and air hockey beckoned to them from the other end. Dan and Pete dropped the bags they were carrying and rushed over to check out the games, while Skeeter stood fascinated with the deer head hanging over the fireplace and poking at its glass eyes.

  A staircase went up to the bedrooms on the second floor and a loft that overlooked the great room. The girls were already headed up the stairs. “Hey, hold on!” Skeeter yelled. “Come on, guys! You know if those girls beat us to the bedrooms they’ll choose the biggest one for themselves!” The guys made a dash for the stairs but they were too late. Kristi, Anna and Robyn heard them coming and ran the rest of the way up.

  There was a scramble for the bedrooms. The first one at the top of the stairs was obviously the master bedroom. The girls backed out quickly, but the boys had already raced past them, glancing into each bedroom they passed until they got to the end of the hall and turned around. They ran back to the biggest and best bedroom—but once again they were too late! The girls were already there staking out their beds as they laughed in the faces of Kristi’s brothers and Pete.

  “Hey, how’d they do that?” Skeeter scowled.

  “I told you we should take that one,” Dan pointed out to his kid brother, “but no, you wanted to see them all before we chose! It doesn’t matter. This one across the hall is almost as good.” Both rooms had a double set of log bunk beds, a desk and a dresser. The girls’ room, however, was bigger and had its own bathroom. The boys’ room shared a bath with a fourth bedroom.

  “Whoa! Almost as good? Hey, guys! Look at this!” Skeeter exclaimed. He had already spotted what they had missed when they had first glanced into the room. A ladder went up the wall. Skeeter scrambled up it and poked his head out of the open space at the top of the wall. “It’s a little loft! I’ll take this any day over our own bathroom! Who needs a bathroom, anyway?”

  “You might in the middle of the night!” Dan pointed out as he followed him up the ladder and looked into the small area. “Aw, it’s just an empty storage space, Skeeter. You can’t even stand up in it.”

  “Yeah—it’s cool! It’s a great hideaway!” He looked around the small spot. It was dark and shadowy. He could sit up straight in the center but the roof sloped down on either side. Three people could lie down up there, but that was about all.

  “Hideaway? Who are you hiding from?” Dan asked. Sometimes Skeeter could be such a—such a kid.

  “The girls? Mom when she calls me to wash the dishes? The bad guys?”

  “What bad guys?” Dan snorted and rolled his eyes at Pete. Dan and Pete had been best friends since they were little guys. They were seventeen now, but often let Skeeter, who was only thirteen, hang around with them. He was a good kid—most of the time—and a lot of laughs.

  “Well, ya never know. Bad guys could come around.”

  “Oh, brother! Come on, Pete. Let’s go see what the girls are planning to do first. We’ll leave Skeeter to his hideaway.”

  “No, wait! I’ll go with you!” Skeeter scrambled down the ladder and followed the other guys to the girls’ room across the hall. The door was standing open so they went on in.

  “Hey! How do you like your room?” Kristi asked as they came in. She and Anna were pushing the desk closer to the dresser.

  “Cool!” Skeeter answered. “It has its own little hideaway loft!”

  “It does? That’s neat!” Robyn said from where she sat swinging her legs on a top bunk. “What do you need a hideaway for?” she giggled.

  “Never mind,” he sighed. “What are you girls doing?”

  “Unpacking and putting everything away,” Kristi answered. “Fixing our room up the way we want it.”

  “Why? You’re only going to be here a few days.” Skeeter asked, puzzled.

  “Because that’s what girls do!” Kristi explained.

  “Yuck! I’m going downstairs to watch TV,” Skeeter said.

  “Uh, Skeeter—there isn’t any television up here in the mountains,” Pete said.

  “What?! What are we supposed to do then?” Skeeter exclaimed.

  “Ski. Go rock climbing,” Dan answered. “Whoo-Hoo!”

  “Hike. Play games,” Robyn added.

  “Help your mother cook, clean and wash dishes!” a voice came from the doorway. “You promised—remember?”

  “Oh hi, Mom! Uh, yeah! I remember. I’ll be right there!” Skeeter looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “By the way—what’s for breakfast?”

  “Brunch,” his mother corrected. “Too late for breakfast, too early for lunch. But we’re having pancakes, anyway. You want to pour out the batter for me, Skeeter? You can make lots of cute little shapes like bunnies and smiley faces!” she teased.

  “Mom! Cut it out!” he protested. He used to love doing that when he was smaller but it had been a long, long time since he’d made bunnies!

  “Okay. Dan and Pete, give us ten minutes and then you can set the table. Girls, you get to wash the dishes when we’re done.”

  “Okay, Mom. We’ll be down in a minute,” Dan said as Rachel and Skeeter left. As soon as Skeeter was out of earshot he said, “Hey guys, why don’t we hide something in Skeeter’s little hideaway and make him think he’s found a treasure!”

  The girls laughed. They loved playing jokes on Skeeter. “Like what?” Robyn asked eagerly.

  “I saw a big chunk of pyrite on one of the tables downstairs,” Dan said. “You know—fool’s gold. I’ll bet we could fool Skeeter, alright! He was too busy poking around at that deer head to notice it, I think.”

  “Ooo, that’s good, Dan! Hey, I have another idea!” Kristi said. “I have a little velvet drawstring bag that I brought my jewelry in. Why don’t we put it in that? Then when he finds it he’ll really think he has something valuable!”

  “Sounds great, Kristi,” her brother approved. “But why’d you bring a bag of jewelry with you on a trip like this?”

  “Because that’s what girls do, silly!” Kristi turned to Anna. “Why don’t you sneak downstairs and get the pyrite, Anna? You’d be the last one anyone would suspect of being up to no good!”

  Anna laughed and agreed. She left the room and Kristi dug the velvet bag out of her suitcase and emptied its contents onto her bed. Dan and Pete just shook their heads at the little pile of earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

  Anna was back in just a minute or two. Robyn took a look at the piece of rock in her hand and said, “Do you really think it will fool him, though? It’s really glittery and pretty, but Skeeter’s pretty sharp.”

  “Yeah, I think it’ll fool him alright,” Pete answered. “It’s fooled a lot of people in the past. Remember Captain John Smith, the guy who fell in love with Pocahontas? He mistakenly sent an entire shipload of pyrite to London back in the early 1600s, while exploring the Chickahominy River for a route to the Pacific!”

  “The Chicka-what? Never mind
! But how did you know that, Pete?” Kristi asked in amazement.

  He shrugged. “I just like to read a lot.”

  Kristi took the lump of fool’s gold from Anna and slipped it into the velvet bag. “Come on! “Let’s go hide it!”

  They went across the hall to the boys’ room and Dan went up the ladder to the little loft. “Oh, yeah!” he called down to the others. “This will be good! There are lots of little crevices between the logs where I can hide it. I’ll put it all the way in the back where somebody might hide something really valuable, but I don’t want to hide it so well that he won’t find it.” There was a pause. “There! I made it look like it was slipping out of its hiding place!” Dan reappeared at the edge of the loft. “This will be good!” he snickered.

  “Dan! Pete!’ they heard Rachel call up the stairs just then. “Time to set the table!”

  “Coming, Mom!” Dan yelled. He came down the ladder. “Okay, now we just wait for him to find the fool’s gold! And he’ll find it, alright! You know how Skeeter likes to poke his nose into everything!”

  “That, and play jokes on everyone else!” Pete pointed out. “Well, we’ll fool him this time!”

  Kristi laughed. “And that’ll teach him to fool around with us!”

  __________

  CHAPTER TWO

  __________

  Whack-Whack the Lumberjack

  “Great pancakes, Mom—and Skeeter!’ Kristi said as they finished their brunch. “Loved the smiley faces!”

  Skeeter looked a little sheepish. “Aw—I just couldn’t resist! It’s kinda boring just pouring out big globs of batter. Besides, I’m just happy to be here! I wanted to spread the joy!” he beamed.

  “You spread the joy, alright,” his dad said dryly. “Look at that syrup you spilled all over, Skeeter!”

  “Oops, sorry!” He mopped at the mess with a napkin. “What are we going to do this afternoon?”