Page 32 of Hide And Seek

The counselors all stood in a loose line at the edge of the drop-off area and watched it go. A hundred kids had dwindled over the course of the morning to a trickle, and then to this, the final vehicle rounding the bend in the pine-lined drive before disappearing from view.

The departure had been organized with impressive efficiency given the circumstances, which I suspected said less about the administrative capabilities of the staff and more about how urgently the wealthy parents wanted their children removed from a site that had just been declared geologically unstable. Several had declined the shuttle services and arrived within hours of Director Mabry's calls, driving up from the city in vehicles that cost more than most people's annual salaries.

None of them had been happy about the sudden closure, and a few had been straight-up vicious. Mabry had absorbed it all with the same careful composure she brought to everything,shaking hands and fielding comments that would’ve made most people walk off the job on the spot.

I'd caught fragments of it in passing.

‘Do you have any idea what we paid for this summer?’ and ‘My daughter is absolutely devastated!’and one extremely unpleasant exchange with a man in a golf shirt who seemed to hold Mabry personally responsible for the geological composition of the Adirondacks.

By the time the last shuttle cleared the drive, the poor woman looked like she’d been wrung out and left to dry. She stood for a moment with her back to us, watching the empty road. Then she turned around.

Whatever composure she'd been holding onto through the morning had thinned considerably. Her eyes were bright in a way that suggested she was on the verge of tears, and the lines around her mouth were deeper than they'd been two days ago.

“Well,” she said, voice coming out slightly rougher than usual. She cleared her throat and attempted to adopt a more neutral expression. “Thank you all for your patience over the last twenty-four hours. I know it hasn't been easy.”

Around me, the other counselors stood in the afternoon light looking exhausted, deflated, and uncertain. Nobody said anything.

“We need to start on the shutdown procedures now,” Mabry continued. “Most of it can be completed over the next four to five hours, and then you're all free to go. Though of course you’re all welcome to stay the night and leave in the morning if that’s more convenient.”

She looked down at the clipboard in her hand for a second, and her expression shifted to outright weariness.

“I'll be honest with you,” she said. “This has been one of the most difficult experiences of my professional life. The calls alone…” She stopped and pressed her lips together briefly.“Suffice to say I'll be giving serious thought to my future here over the coming weeks.”

A few people exchanged glances.

Then Rhys stepped forward. “Why don’t you just leave it to us?” he said, vaguely gesturing to the gathered counselors. “Most of us have done it several times before, so we don’t actually need you. You should go home, pour yourself a stiff drink, and try to relax.”

A faint smile curved up her lips. “That’s a very tempting offer, but I can’t ask you to do that for me.”

“You aren’t asking. I’m offering.” Rhys turned to face the rest of us. “You guys are too, right?”

The rest of us nodded and murmured our agreement, and Sutton stepped forward with a simpering smile. “We’ve got you, Linda,” she said, clearly not wanting to miss the opportunity to remind the rest of us that they were on a first-name basis. “We’ll send you a text or email to let you know when it’s all done, just so you know that everything went okay.”

Jasmine took a step forward. “You really do deserve it,” she said. “We’ve seen and heard everything you’ve had to put up with over the last day, and honestly, I don’t know how you managed it.”

Director Mabry rubbed her temples and took a deep breath. Then she finally looked up, nodding slowly. “Thanks, everyone. Really. Thank you so much.” She paused for another deep breath before continuing. “I suppose I’ll go and pack my things.”

She handed a clipboard with the shutdown paperwork to Sutton before heading off with a tired smile and a wave.

With a sigh, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I’d been putting this off for the last twenty-four hours, hoping for some miracle to come along, but I knew it was time to face the music and text Peter to let him know our secret investigation was going to be a bust.

“Nuh-uh!” Sutton snapped her fingers. “Phonesaway, everyone! Let’s get this shutdown done and dusted, and then you can all text to your heart’s content! Got it?”

Grace spoke up. “I just want to—”

“Later, Grace,” Sutton snapped.

Jasmine slipped her phone back in her pocket, looking over at me with an eyeroll. I did the same, actually welcoming the reprieve from having to text Peter.

A few hours later, the shutdown was done. While we’d worked through our assigned tasks, the rest of the staff had filtered out one by one—the admin assistants, cooks, nurse, activity specialists, groundskeeper—until only the counselors remained.

The camp looked wrong now. Not abandoned exactly, but suspended. The usual background noise of voices and movement had been replaced by a heavy, echoing quiet that made every small sound feel intrusive. A door closing somewhere carried farther than it should have, and footsteps crunched too loudly against gravel paths that had seen a hundred pairs of sneakers just that morning.

After Sutton gave us all the thumbs-up of approval, Jasmine and I walked back to our cabin side by side.

“Well,” she said. “This sucks balls.”

I let out a quiet huff of amusement. “Yeah. It really does.”