The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,14

since given way to the darker, duller greens of summer. Even fresh cut grass didn't seem to have the same bright smell this late in the season.

Lucy directed Mae to the last turn onto a long gravel drive down a tunnel of trees.

The lodge came into view, walls of glass gleaming in the afternoon sun, timber framework glowing and mellow.

"Wow," Jane said from the back seat. "This is some place."

"Belle designed every inch. She spends a lot of time traveling but this is where she comes to rest and recharge," Lucy said.

"I can't imagine getting a lot of rest here. It must take hours just to clean the windows," Mae said.

Lucy laughed. "Belle has a housekeeper. Plus she doesn't often have young visitors with sticky fingers to leave prints on them."

They parked in front of the cabin and immediately knew something wasn't right.

The front door was standing wide open.

Have Your Cake

"I don't see a car," Jane said.

"The carport is around back," Lucy said. "Belle has a BMW sedan and a Jeep Cherokee. One of them has to be here."

"Does she leave the house unlocked when she's away?" Mae wanted to know.

"Belle's not exactly the paranoid type. She usually only locks up when she's out of town. But I'm sure she didn't leave the door wide open."

"The housekeeper?" Jane said.

Lucy shook her head. "Not on Sunday."

This was not a good thing.

Lucy told the others to wait while she made a quick check of the carport.

The Cherokee was gone.

"Burglar?" Mae said when she learned Belle was likely gone in her car.

"Maybe," Lucy said.

"We should call for help," Mae said.

They all checked their cell phones. They had service.

"Are you sure we should bother the police?" Jane said. "What if it was just the wind?"

"What if it's a criminal?" Mae said.

"I think we should check it out before we call the police," Lucy said. "Even if someone broke in they probably took off when they heard us drive up."

"I'm going to find a big stick and go inside," Jane said. "I'm too grouchy and tired to take any crap off anyone."

So saying, she stomped off to comb the perimeter of the clearing for a suitable weapon.

Lucy followed suit and found a stout three foot length of pine. God help the burglar if he was still here.

The three of them trooped up onto the porch.

"If anyone's in there you better run out the back door if you don't want your ass kicked!" Jane shouted.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to antagonize the criminal?" Mae said.

"I think it's a good idea not to sneak up on the criminal," Jane said. "He probably doesn't want to get caught any more than we want to catch him."

They all peeked in the door.

The great room was empty of living things.

They went in and Jane repeated the yelling thing.

Still no response.

"Split up or stick together?" Jane asked.

"Stick together," Mae and Lucy chorused.

"Let's check upstairs first. That way, if he's still here and downstairs, he'll have another chance to leave," Lucy said.

Jane and Mae thought this was a fine idea and they headed up the stairs making lot's of noise like they were trying to scare off a small animal.

They went through the upstairs room by room, stick weapons at the ready and found no one.

There were a few open drawers, pillows tossed off beds and lights on that probably should have been off. But nothing seemed to be missing--at least nothing large or valuable.

Once they cleared the upstairs they went back down feeling confident that they'd scared off the criminal.

The sound of a plate hitting the floor in the kitchen dashed Lucy's hopes they'd get out of this without a confrontation. Maybe the criminal hadn't found them so scary after all.

Or maybe he'd knocked a plate on the floor in his headlong flight to escape three suburban badasses.

Yeah, right.

The girls spent several seconds pointing to each other in a silent argument about who was going first.

Lucy had no idea why they were suddenly being quiet after all the noise they'd made to this point. She started to suggest they go back outside, lock themselves in the van and call the police, when Jane rolled her eyes, raised her stick and stepped into the kitchen doorway.

Mae and Lucy stepped up close behind and bumped into her back when she stopped dead on the threshold.

Mae peeked around her shoulder, squealed and jumped back.

Dark eyes peered out from behind a black mask and a hiss came from between bared teeth.

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