Bats and Bones (The Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries) by Karen Musser Nortman Page A

nearby before or
been confined to the park.” He looked at the others for confirmation as if
something so trivial might just have slipped his mind.
    “There have
been some close calls when Jane Ann finds your stash of smokes,” Larry said,
straight-faced.
    It was
Stub’s turn to laugh. “Whatever. I don’t think it’s the life for us. And that
secret agent guy seems to think Randy is somehow involved. I mean, Randy’s a
grouch, and got a lot on his mind right now, but he’s no murderer.”
    “Well,
you’ll have good stories to tell for years to come,” Rob said.
    “You guys
have one of those weather radios?” Stub turned serious.
    “I do,”
Larry said, “and Mickey has an app on his phone to get weather warnings.”
    “I can see
where you’d need that if you did this a lot. Makes me pretty nervous. We had a
tornado in the town I grew up in and you never forget that feeling—the
pressure and all,” Stub ran the heel of his hand across his forehead. “That was
in the daytime when you could see it coming. I really don’t like this middle of
the night business.”
    “This kind
of weather is nothing to fool with,” Larry said. “But the rangers and sheriff
are monitoring it closely and we should be safe enough in the shower house.”
    Cuba ambled
over and rubbed against Larry’s leg.
    “Looks like
someone’s ready for another walk,” Frannie said. At the magic word, Cuba’s ears
sprang up, almost erect.
    Larry
agreed. “Better get it done before it starts thundering. We won’t be able to
peel her out of the camper.”
    “I guess
I’d better go see what new complaints my buddies have,” Stub said.
    Donna and
Larry hooked up walking leashes to the eager pets and Rob and Frannie joined
them for a stroll around the campground. Mickey and Jane Ann volunteered to
guard the campsite.
    “Right!”
Rob laughed. “There’s nothing left that isn’t tied down.”
    Mickey
shrugged and leaned back in his lounger. “Sure, make fun. But we will be on
alert protecting your butt and all you own.”
    “What a
relief,” Frannie said.
    Stephanie
sat at her bare picnic table with her book. River spotted them and pleaded,
“Can I come with you?”
    “Sure, it’s
just a lap to the end of the road and back,” Larry said to his mother. This
time, Stephanie approved. River offered to take Bugger’s leash from Donna and
she readily surrendered it.
    Progress
was slow as Bugger pulled River back and forth across the road investigating
the wonderful smells that he found. The two couples stopped and visited a few
minutes with Richard and Elaine, who introduced their fellow travelers. As they
moved on, they waved or nodded at couples and families in each campsite. The
scent of grilled meat still hung in the air through the campground, there being
no breeze to remove it. Most of the campers had done their packing up and
battening down, so people appeared at loose ends with little to do but wait for
whatever the night would bring.
    The asphalt
road made a loop at the end of the campground bordered by tent sites. A dirt
track forked off one side of the loop into the woods.
    “Where does
that go?” River pointed.
    “To a group
site back there. The Boy Scouts and other groups use it sometimes. No one’s
back there this weekend,” Larry said.
    “Can we go
see?” River begged.
    “Too dark,”
Larry said. “We didn’t bring flashlights.”
    “Maybe
tomorrow?”
    “Maybe.”
    They
continued on around the loop and back along the road to their campsite, leaving
River with his mother as they passed.
    Mickey sat
forward in a camp chair, picking out an old folk tune on his guitar. Jane Ann
perched on the camper steps, arms around her knees, humming along with the
guitar. They both stopped when the walkers returned.
    “Looks like
you kept things safe, Mickey,” Larry said. “Was it your face or your playing
that did it?”
    “We’ve had
to fight off the Barbarians…to the death.”
    “Good man.
We knew we could