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“Oh, not you.” My fingers fly to my lips. “I meant this leg of the course. It looks steeper and longer.”
“It is. It’s going to be my favorite.” She winks.
“So Julia had a relationship with Travis?” I gulp as I ask the question because I can’t seem to take my eyes off the expanse that I’m expected to cross with my sanity hanging on a string.
She nods. “She loved him. But Travis loved everybody. He was a notorious cheat. Rumor has it, she’s the one who called the station and reported he was having an affair with an intern. You couldn’t trust Julia with a secret to save your life.”
“I bet that’s what cost the woman her own life,” Bess points out.
“I bet you’re right,” Nadine says as they hook her up to the harness once again and soon she’s sailing off into the great beyond—or the great above as it were.
Sparky lands in front of me again. “You know what this means, Dodo?”
“Who are you calling Dodo?” I ask, affronted as I shake my head at Nettie.
“Don’t look at me,” she says. “He’s the one who said it.”
I make a face. “What does it mean, Sparky?” I ask the wooden stump in an effort to play along.
“It means we’ve got another suspect,” Sparky barks in my face. “And everyone knows when a man’s ego is split like a piñata that spells Troublefield.”
“I see what you did there.” I give a curt nod to Nettie.
Soon, Bess is off to the races again, then Nettie, then Phineas, and me.
“We must stop meeting like this,” Phineas teases as he wraps himself around me like a vine.
“Phineas, what do you know about the case? What do you know about Julia?”
“I know she was killed. And I know she had lousy friends. Same was true when she was in school.” He leans in and brushes his lips to mine. “And I know I want more of that right there from you.”
“Good luck, buddy,” I say, screaming my way across to the other side. “And don’t you dare touch your lips to mine again,” I say, inadvertently looking at the guide who just plucked me from thin air.
“Sorry, lady.” He gives a nervous laugh. “Just doing my job.”
Perfect. And I look like a nutjob.
On second thought, that just might be my job.
The guides become more efficient and Nadine sails off before I can get to her for the next five legs of our tour of terror. And you can bet I screamed every inch of the way.
And oddly enough, Phineas is growing on me. Not only did he try his best to calm me, but he acted as a tour guide as he pointed out exotic plants and animals alike as we flew by them at breakneck speeds.
By the time we reach the last landing, and hike back down a lengthy steel staircase, we’re all zonked and on the downside of a major adrenaline rush.
“That was so fun,” I say to Nadine, and surprisingly I mean it this time. “Thank you for that.”
“What are you thanking me for?” She laughs.
Phineas pops up, and with that dark frown on his face he looks far more like Ransom than I’m comfortable with.
“Try not to out yourself to the woman,” he says. “ I’ll see you back on the ship, Mrs. Troublefield.” He offers a polite nod. “I’m sure you’ll be begging for a kiss before you know it.” He gives a cocky wink before dissipating into a vat of miniature stars.
Nadine scoots in a notch. “Hey, are you feeling okay? You look as if you just saw a ghost.”
“I did,” I tell her. “Mine. I’m not a fan of heights, and my life just blinked through my mind seven times.”
She laughs as Nettie and Bess come this way.
