Death of a Batty Genius (Stormy Day Mystery #3) by Angela Pepper Page B

lot to say and was fighting to keep it down.
    Marie leaned across the table and placed the bag in Benji’s hand. “Answer the third question,” she said softly. “What’s the white powder?”
    Benji tucked the bag into his pocket, licked his lips, and said, “Toadanhydrotetrodotoxin.”
    Jessica stared across the table at him with her blue eyes wide open. “Toad-and-hydro-tet-tet-what now?”
    “Toadanhydrotetrodotoxin,” Benji said. “I’ve been calling it TDX for short.”
    Dion said, “I know that drug. It’s used for a variety of treatments, from psychotropic therapy to painless euthanasia. It’s extracted from the venom of animals… who live on the planet Toadonx.”
    Everyone looked around the table and began talking at once.
    Planet Toadonx?
    “You geek,” Dion said, laughing. He picked up the button that had popped off his purple shirt and tucked it into a pocket.
    Jessica said, “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
    Dion explained, “We all loved reading this one sci-fi series, Tales from Planet Toadonx . I remember reading the paperbacks in the treehouse.” He laughed some more. “Good one, Benji. You totally got me. If that had been actual TDX, and you’d let me eat it, I’d be in big trouble right now.”
    Franco said, “You would try to steal someone’s spaceship and get yourself shot with a phase pistol.”
    Marie said, “Was that the one with the big worms, in the sand?”
    Dion said, “You’re thinking of Dune, which was more focused on politics and betrayal, and not nearly enough space battles and explosions.”
    I returned to my seat and turned to Benji. “Why are you messing with us? This isn’t funny.”
    “Actually, this is quite funny,” Benji said as he patted his pocket. “It’s just icing sugar. I was hoping to trick Dion into snorting a line of it later, but this was so much better.”
    “You’re a bigger jerk than Franco,” I said.
    He pretended to be hurt.

    Once everyone had settled down from Benji’s prank with the bag of icing sugar, Marie invited us to the lodge’s recreation room. We were slow to rise from our chairs, full from our meal, but she promised us hand-made chocolates, so that got us moving.
    Compared to the dining room, with its high ceiling and huge windows, the recreation room was a cave, with its low ceiling and dark, windowless walls. Even the smell was different—musty and ancient.
    “We’re in the original hunting lodge,” Marie said. “This room’s next on the renovation list.”
    Butch said, “But we’re not changing much. This is a man’s room, and it’s staying that way. There’s a gym on the other side of that wall, so we might put in a door, but that’s it.”
    Christopher walked over to one of the room’s two pool tables and lifted up the dust cover. “These tables look vintage,” he said. Dion, Franco, and Della started uncovering the second table.
    Butch said, “Those pool tables are original to the old rustic lodge, and as solid as the mountain we’re currently tucked inside.”
    Jessica asked, “We’re inside the mountain?”
    A sly smile stretched across Butch’s face as he craned his neck to look up.
    We followed his gaze. Instead of a normal-looking ceiling, above us was solid rock, smooth enough that it hadn’t caught my eye at first. We were inside a cave. Below us was a regular flat floor, covered in a dark carpet, and the gray-brown walls on four sides were flat and man-made, but we were definitely inside the mountain.
    “Wild,” Jessica said. “We’re in a cave. Like bats.”
    Marie said to her husband, “See? We need better lighting in here, at the very least, so people can appreciate where they are.”
    Butch snorted. “You don’t have to control everything. You’ve got your million-dollar kitchen, and your fancy glass chandeliers. If you ask me, the guests want to see something rustic at a lodge, like wood or antlers, but I’m too nice and I always let you have your