Hey, sorry for disappearing, guys! This thread's NOT dead, only dormant for a while! I'm really busy these days, but just know that I'll be getting back to the story very soon. Sorry again for leaving you all hanging. :(

All right, here's the next part! We left off just after Kate-the-Great's death-by-cupcake, when the communications devices had been confiscated and the CBers were searching for clues.

----------------------

A few moments after the murderer returned to the living room, the interrogations ended and the CBers, satisfied with that session and harboring a few vague theories as to who the murderer could be, sat back and read, played games, and/or watched television.

Suddenly all the communications devices began to buzz at once. Wordsy went over and picked a walkie talkie up.

"What is it?" she said into it.

"Hey, it's Lily here," said Lily. "Ummmmmm...Something weird happened in one of the hallways. I think Kate the Great is dead? Anyway, you might want to come have a look, like, really fast."

The Chatterboxers blanched as they realized that, once again, the murderer had gone to work right under their noses--and they hadn't even noticed Kate was gone. In the chaos, the murderer retrieved its earpiece from the coffee table, then followed everyone out the door.

"How could we let this happen?!" Joan moaned as they all raced through the mansion, following the directions Lily gave them through the walkie talkie Wordsy had borrowed.

"It was an honest mistake," Cinderpelt said. "We should just be more careful from now on."

"That's what we always say!" protested Puck. "It doesn't seem to be working!"

They reached the hallway in question. Lily and Pierre were both waiting for them by Kate's body.

"I see what you mean," Pierre was saying as the CBers entered the scene. He was staring at the cupcake frosting on Kate's lips but stood up as the CBers filed in.

Lily looked up when she heard the CBers arrive. "Hi, guys. What do you think happened here?"

The CBers gasped when they saw that another part of their group was dead.

Why is the murderer doing this? they asked themselves as they gathered around Kate to see what had killed her. Why is one of our own KILLING us???

They had to shake off the sinking feelings inside them to focus on the task at hand. The CBers finally deduced that it was a poisonous piece of cake that did the job.

"Where would the murderer even get a piece of poisoned cake?" Pierre wondered.

"The same place it would get ricin and black spray paint," Elvina answered.

"Ah, yes, like a super grocery store? Like the kind that sells everything? Hmm..."

Elvina placed a palm on her forehead.

"Let's have the funeral now," suggested Poetic Panda.

"But what about traps?" Dragonrider said.

"It's no more dangerous out there than it is in here," Panda said. "I mean, we're living with the murderer, for goodness' sake. Cassy's like a minor threat at this point."

"Speaking of Cassy," Lily said. "Have you guys come up with a plan yet?"

"We're working on one," Booksy said. "Right now we've been trying to contact her through the communications devices."

Lily nodded. "So have I. She hasn't been responding."

"We also might send out search parties. But we'll have to do that tomorrow," Hotairballoon said. "Since it's already like five o'clock."

"Okay," Lily said. "Thanks."

Three CBers ran back to their living room to grab the communications devices, which they turned in to Lily (without counting them...). They decided to keep one walkie talkie with them, which they would pass from CBer to CBer twice a day.

After that had been settled, the CBers had Kate's funeral. Lily even attended this one--but the CBers knew she was only there to look for Cassy.

Once Kate had been buried, the CBers turned in for dinner. Cinderpelt took some food up for Jayfeather and then came back downstairs to eat. Over the meal the CBers thought about the day's events--it had been a busy one for sure.

The CAPTCHAs were dead.

Cassy had been replaced by her younger brother Pierre.

And Kate was also dead.

In an attempt to lift the desolate mood, Lily invited the CBers to a movie night, in which they would ignore bedtimes and just watch movies until they felt like falling asleep.

Like sheep, the CBers huddled together in the reception hall while Pierre and Lily made the popcorn. The CBers obsessively counted heads while they waited.

Finally, their chaperones rejoined them on the couches and set out the candy and popcorn, as well as a whole basket of movies to choose from. The CBers decided to watch some home movies Lily and Cassy had made a long time ago. These were hilarious, and after a few minutes of watching, the CBers felt their worry slide away as they allowed themselves to relax.

At one point, Booksy Owly had to get up to grab her water bottle from her bedroom; Lily had oversalted a bowl of popcorn. Autumn Leaves and Ice Wolf went with her and waited for her outside the living room doors.

Booksy had intended for it to be a quick trip. But as she passed through the living room, she stopped. A journal was lying open on a side table to her left, and the words inside had been highlighted many times over. It seemed to be the most bookmarked page of all, suggesting that it was the most interesting. Booksy hesitated--should she read it? No, of course not! But--what if the journal belonged to the murderer?

Booksy bit her lip and caved in. She snatched up the notebook and scanned the heading:

MOONFROST'S EYES ONLY!!!!!!!!!!! STOP READING RIGHT NOW IF YOU'RE NOT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Booksy felt a twinge of guilt as she read on.

  'Pepper's death just seems so suspicious. After what Cassy told us yesterday--'

Booksy looked for the date and found it, partially obscured by a wrinkle in the well-worn paper. Moonfrost had written this the day after she had gone with Pepper Star to find Cassy.

But...Booksy thought, they said they couldn't find Cassy! She read on.

  'After what Cassy told us yesterday, about being 'FORCED to say something'...I can't help but think she's behind Pepper's death!'

Booksy shut her eyes and clapped the book closed, completely shocked by the secrets Moonfrost had been keeping. If this was just one CBer's journal..who knew what the others were witholding? NO, Booksy, you absolutely CANNOT snoop in everyone's notebooks...don't even think about it...

"Booksy?" came Autumn Leaves's voice.

"I'm fine!" Booksy called. "Just--um--having trouble finding your water bottle--I mean--finding MY water bottle! Oh, here it is!" She laughed, trying not to sound like she'd been caught snooping. She wasn't sure if she'd succeeded, but if Autumn and Ice Wolf thought she was hiding something, they certainly didn't show it as the trio made their way back to the living room.

Booksy's mind was in a whirl all the way downstairs. Moonfrost knew something...CASSY knew something...Oh, goodness, I really need to talk to someone...

But who could she talk to? Who was there that she could trust?

Well, there was Lily. But Lily didn't act like she knew anything more than what she'd told the CBers. Then again, neither had Cassy. But Booksy wasn't sure she wanted to weigh Lily down with another interrogation.

The person she really wanted to talk to was Cassy, which is why, as she entered a lively lobby lit by the bright screen of an HD TV, she found herself immediately drawn to the window.

At first she saw nothing, which was no surprise. Cassy would probably be staying as far away from the mansion as possible. But still...Booksy had this strange feeling inside that kept her gaze on the moonlit cobblestone outside...

"What are you looking at, Booksy?" asked Wordsy.

"Oh, noth--" Booksy's reply was cut off as her voice caught in her throat. She--she had just seen Cassy, she was sure of it! "Nothing!" she exclaimed nervously, her heart beating faster.

"Well okay, but it sure sounds really exciting," Wordsy said. "You'd better be careful; I mights start thinking you're weird."

Booksy was leaning in so close to the window that her breath was fogging up the glass. She was one hundred percent sure she had just spotted Cassy emerge from a bush and walk underneath the balcony. Lily's sister was just on the other side of this wall! But what in the world was she doing so close to the house?!

"I'm going outside really quick," declared Booksy.

"I'll go with you," Hotairballoon offered almost instantly.

"No, I just wanted to get some fresh air. Um, and alone time."

"How long will you be out?" he asked. No one else seemed to be noticing the exchange; they had just turned on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and were laughing about how old the camera that filmed it was.

Why does he need to know? Booksy thought irritably. "I don't know yet. I'll scream if I'm in any danger, though, okay?"

HAB seemed satisfied with this response and settled back down to watch the movie. Booksy, on the other hand, approached the front doors with growing apprehension. Just do it, she told herself. Cassy won't be able to run away if I go out fast enough.

So Booksy unlocked the front door and threw it open. She rushed out and instantly turned to the left. Yes, there Cassy was standing underneath the window sill. Though Booksy had anticipated this, she still felt a jolt of surprise as her eyes met with her former chaperone's.

"Cassy!" Booksy whispered.

Cassy spread her arms out as if in surrender, her eyes wide in alarm.

"I'm not going to do, uh, anything," Booksy said quickly. "But I thought I saw you through the window and I had to come out and see if it was you."

"Does anybody else know I'm out here?" Cassy asked warily, glancing nervously the stone wall of the mansion.

"No," Booksy said.

"Phew," Cassy sighed. "Um...so if you're not going to do anything then why are you here?"

"I want to know what you're doing here," Booksy said. Cassy opened her mouth to reply but Booksy held a hand up. "I read a page in Moonfrost's journal. She said you were behind Pepper's death. But what really stood out was that she and Pepper actually talked to you that day. Moonfrost told us she couldn't find you but she obviously did. Does this mean--"

"Moonfrost is not the murderer," Cassy said carefully.

"Then who is it? C'mon Cassy, just tell me! Surely you know by now!"

Cassy looked pained. "I can't. I literally can't tell you."

"What do you mean?" Booksy demanded. "Are you being blackmailed?"

Cassy crouched down. "Whisper," she said in a hushed voice.

"Sorry," Booksy apologized quietly. "But you didn't answer my question."

Cassy looked down. "Booksy, I--okay, I don't want to lie to you any more. You're right, Moonfrost did talk to me that day. And she talked to me the next day, too. She caught--the murderer contacting me. So I had to tell her everything before she--erm, said something she shouldn't have."

"What do you mean?" asked Booksy blankly.

Cassy shook her head. "You'll understand in a minute."

Booksy's eyes widened. "What are you going to tell me?" she asked.

Cassy stood up and beckoned Booksy to the bush she had been hiding in earlier. "I'm going to tell you everything you want to know."

So while the other Chatterboxers chose to drown their worries in movies, Booksy learned one of the most well-kept secrets in all of Lake Lelillo--she learned the secret of Lake Lelillo. She was gone for quite a while, and no one even noticed she had been outside until she opened the front doors at around midnight and came back in, wearing an odd 'I'm totally not hiding something' expression.

--At least, Booksy assumed no one had noticed her. What she didn't know was that the murderer had had a glimpse of the whole thing, and was, as the CBers drifted off to sleep one by one in the lobby, seething helplessly in anger through an immobilizing headache...

~ ~ ~

End of Day Eight

~ ~ ~ 

"Hey, Lily, this CAPTCHA thing is saying something."

"Oh yeah...'Doed'...Wonder what that could mean..."

"Oh my gosh! It's saying 'dead'!"

AHHHHHHHH 

*slams laptop shut*

Toppity top top!

Day Nine -- Part One
---------------------------------

Hotairballoon roused the CBers with the clanging of a loud bell.

"RISE AND SHINE!" he shouted over the din. "TIME TO GET UP AND LOOK FOR CASSY!"

The CBers moaned and opened their eyes. They experienced a brief moment of confusion as they saw the lobby around them instead of their bedrooms, but this quickly subsided and was replaced by annoyance.

"Who made the mistake of giving Hotairballoon a bell?" yelled Wordsy with her hands clamped over her ears.

"Pierre," answered HAB.

"Ugh!" Elvina groaned.

"YOU CAN STOP NOW," Ariel shouted. "I'M PRETTY SURE WE'RE AWAKE!"

The clanging stopped. "Sorry, it's just fun to annoy you guys."

The Chatterboxers yawned. "Do we have to look for Cassy right now?"

"She needs her sleep too, and there's a really slim chance she's already awake," Hotairballoon replied. The Chatterboxers followed his gaze out the window. The sun was just rising.

"But we only got like four hours of sleep!" murmured Ice Wolf sleepily.

"Oh, well, that's what you get for staying up past midnight. I guess I can look for her all by myself then," Hotairballoon retorted.

"Touchy,!" muttered Nighthawk. "We're coming."

The Chatterboxers hauled themselves up off the couch and went upstairs to get ready for the day.

Lily and Pierre had already been up and were making fried eggs for breakfast. By the time the CBers had appeared in the dining room, 'the sun was up and the sun was up!', as Lily and Cassy might say, meaning the sun had risen and the eggs were done, sunny side up.

HAB rushed the CBers all through breakfast. "Eat yours standing up like I did!"

The Chatterboxers wondered what had caused HAB to want to find Cassy so badly.

"Maybe he wants to know if Cassy had any part in Spyro's death," Dragonrider pondered.

"Or maybe he wants Cassy to apologize to Jayfeather," Cinderpelt said. "I mean, it was Cassy's betrayal that sent him over the edge. Hotairballoon was always looking out for him..."

"How is Jayfeather, by the way?" Autumn Leaves asked.

Cinderpelt sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. Um...crazy."

"I'm sorry," Joan said. "Do you think the break is helping?"

"He's only been up there for a day. There's no telling what it'll do for him yet. The only thing is..." Cinderpelt lowered her voice. "I'm worried the murderer's going to single him out up there one day."

Autumn and Joan looked at each other. "Uh oh. Should we post guards?"

"I don't know...the thing is, Jayfeather doesn't seem too concerned about it. It's almost--"

"Of course he isn't concerned," Ariel said, butting his head into their conversation. "He wants that."

"Ariel, it's rude to eavesdrop," Joan said, trying to sound reprimanding, but Ariel could tell Joan was interested in what he had to say about Jayfeather. She'd been hoping her AE would open up about his friend sooner or later.

"I thought you...wanted that too," said Autumn Leaves cautiously.

Ariel winced. "I did. But then you guys knocked some sense into me." He attempted a smile. "Jayfeather's just a little more stubborn than me."

"Tell me about it," Cinderpelt sighed.

After everyone had inhaled their food--at HAB's urging--they met up at the front doors.

"So you're like our general now?" Briar asked Hotairballoon with her arms crossed.

HAB rolled his eyes. "Yeah, pretty much," he replied. "Uh, so here's the plan. Puck, you can fly, and you're the only person here who can do that. So, you'll fly around as a crow so Cassy doesn't recognize you to see if you can find her. Meanwhile, we'll have Chatterboxers looking out of ALL the windows in the house. Once Puck sights Cassy, we'll trail her and then catch her. It's like flushing a quail out of the grass and into the airspace. Any questions?"

Puck raised her hand politely.

"Yes?"

"So when did you go quail hunting?" she asked.

"Any other questions?" Hotairballoon said.

"Yeah," Puck said. "Like why didn't you okay this plan with me first?"

HAB clapped his hands together and took a breath. "Puck, is this plan okay with you?"

Puck thought about it. "Hmm...sure." She transformed into a crow and cawed obnoxiously.

"Let me get the door for you," Hotairballoon offered. He cracked the front doors open a bit and Puck flew out. After she had gone, he closed the door and turned to the remaining Chatterboxers. "Okay, go find yourselves a window and get watching! Try to make sure all four sides are covered by at least two of you."

After everyone had dispersed throughout the house, Hotairballoon took the walkie talkie--it was his turn to hold it--and told Lily and Pierre what they were doing. Then he climbed up to the attic and watched the grounds from there.

------------------------------

An hour passed. Puck returned to inform the group that she had found no sign of Cassy.

Another hour came and went. Puck alerted the Chatterboxers that she had found what seemed to be a freshly abandoned campsite.

Two more hours passed and the Chatterboxers played about a hundred rounds of I Spy with each other. A few of them opened windows and started shouting to one another--out of sheer boredom, of course--until Hotairballoon yelled at them to "stop it; you're blowing our cover!"

He seemed to be the only one not affected by the monotonous ticking of the clock. He walked through the house offering encouragement and the occasional glass of water or granola bar. Pierre eventually went to hang out with Elvina's group--"Just to annoy me," Elvina insisted, but she secretly enjoyed his company.

Another hour was almost up when Puck came crashing through the attic window for the fourth time. "I FOUND HER!" she shouted. "I FOUND HER, I FOUND HER, I FOUND HER! YES! Now I can lay down and...rest..."

Puck, now no longer a crow, collapsed onto a dusty old chair and closed her eyes.

"Where is she?" asked Hotairballoon.

"She's in that old shipwreck past the boathouse," Puck said without opening an eye.

"Okay, fine, you can stay here," Hotairballoon decided. "For a minute," he added as he left to rally the other CBers.

After rapidly explaining his overcomplicated plan, Hotairballoon and the CBers emerged from the house to carry it out. Essentially, all they had to do was chase Cassy out of her hiding spot so Puck could swoop down and grab her.

It almost felt like the ghosts of the deceased CBers, AEs, and CAPTCHAs were out there running with them as they marched down the cobblestone pathway. If they were honest, they didn't really feel like they were on a mission. As they passed by the bright flower gardens and vivid lawns, the most they could really imagine was that they were going for an intense stroll.

"Pick up the pace," HAB said loudly, so his voice would carry over to Cassy. Puck had just shot by on her two giant crow wings, so she'd be getting into position any second.

The shipwreck loomed ahead as the CBers walked along a bend in the path.

"Remember our first day here?" Briar asked Wordsy as the two strolled side by side.

Wordsy nodded, quietly remembering all the AEs that had been there then that weren't here now.

"Guys, maybe we should talk louder," Hotairballoon suggested quietly. The shipwreck lay still, with no signs of life inside. Maybe Cassy hadn't noticed them yet.

"OKAY," Wordsy shouted. "NICE WEATHER TODAY, AM I RIGHT?"

But even though the Chatterboxers grew closer and closer, Cassy didn't emerge. When they finally reached the hulking mass of faux-rotted wood, ropes, and twisted metal supports, they stopped, wondering whether or not they should go inside.

"Do you think she ran away after Puck came back?" Nighthawk asked.

"Maybe," Hotairballoon said, facing the CBers with his back to the ship. "But I--"

"There she goes!" exclaimed Briar, pointing suddenly towards one of the portholes and hitting Autumn Leaves in the nose as she did so. A flash of dark blonde hair momentarily flashed by one of the windows, but it was gone just as quickly.

The Chatterboxers fumbled around for a few seconds before they charged the ship, heedless of any danger. Cassy could've set a hundred traps and it wouldn't have made a difference to them; they had gotten so excited at the prospect of finding and interrogating their former chaperone that they'd forgotten to be careful.

The dank, muggy interior of the fake ship consisted of two broken-down sections. One was halfway submerged in water, forming a wooden cave of sorts, and the other rested on unnaturally clean, white sand of the kind that would be found in a sandbox.

The AEs, unlike the CBers, had been inside this wreck before. Wordsy rushed into the partially submerged room and dove into the lake without hesitation while Ariel and Briar sped across the sand-filled room to the jagged opening on the other side.

They returned empty-handed.

"What--where is she, then?!" the CBers exclaimed.

They swarmed the deck--but it was no use. Cassy was gone. She wasn't in the hidden compartment under the sail, she wasn't in the crow's nest, she wasn't in the treasure chest...

Eventually Puck sailed down to see what was going on. "Guys, where's Cassy?" she asked.

Autumn turned to Puck. "We were going to ask you the same thing. She just disappeared!"

Puck cocked her head, considering the hulking grey ship carefully. "I guess she could've run away while I was flying back to the house," she said eventually.

Cinderpelt joined the conversation. "No. We saw her when we got here! But when we ran inside, there was no sign of her."

"No footprints?" Puck asked.

Cinderpelt blinked. "Well...we didn't actually look."

"There was no way she could've run out without you seeing her," Autumn said. "So...maybe we thought we saw her but we didn't?"

Puck shrugged. "Or there's a secret passage somewhere in there."

Autumn Leaves and Cinderpelt looked at each other in astonishment. "Puck, you're right!" Autumn exclaimed. "Guys!" she called. "Puck just said there might be a secret passage!"

Everyone quieted.

"Yeah," Puck said, barely phased by the desperate stares focused upon her. "There's so many secret passages here, I wouldn't be surprised." She pulled her trusty old map out of her pocket. "See?" she queried, holding the page up. "These little dark red lines are secret passages. Let me see if there's one right here...Yep, there is. Wow, they even have one leading from the backyard to the bathroom! And there's another--how did I not see that? I should really...Ahem. Um. Yep, there's a secret passage here. Let's go, er, look for it."

So the Chatterboxers returned to the interior of the ship and began scouring it for any sign of a hidden doorway. 

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEW PART!!!!! I'm so happy! I'm so happy! I could start dancing right now! Yay!!