California Schemin': Book One in the Malibu Mayhem Trilogy (11 page)

The room became dead silent. All eyes, including mine, were on Bess.

“Keep your thoughts to yourself,” Brad snapped at Bess. “Unless Roland asks you to share them.”

“Brad,” Roland scolded. “Remember, no judgment. Especially among our new converts—I mean, guests.”

Roland smiled at Bess and said, “Let’s hear from our new friends. Would you like to go next?”

Bess smiled back, but from the corner of her mouth whispered, “Nancy, what do I do?”

“Make something up,” I whispered back.

Bess stood up and cleared her throat.

“What I’d really like to change in my life is”—she paused—“my wardrobe! I know you’re all thinking my clothes are pretty fashion-forward. Okay, thanks for that, but I’ve had some of these outfits for two years. Two years—can you imagine? That’s practically vintage!”

Everyone stared at Bess in disbelief. I held back a
giggle as she turned to Roland and said, “So, what do you think?”

“Well.” Roland was staring at Bess too. “If that’s what you envision…the universe will provide.”

I flashed Bess a thumbs-up as she sat down on her pillow. We both listened quietly as more guests stood up to share their hopes, fears, and insecurities. All the while I was wishing and hoping that Roland would not ask me. Fortunately, I was spared.

“Now that we all understand the renewal process—come! Come fire walk with me!” Roland said, jumping to his feet.

A few guests leaped to their feet and cheered. I turned to Bess and said, “Did he just say
fire walk
?”

“What is that?” Bess asked.

There was only one way to find out. We followed the others down the stairs, out to the beach. The first thing I saw was attendants lighting up a path of hot coals.

“Uh-oh,” I murmured to Bess. “Is this what I think it is?”

While guests began lining up behind the glowing path, Inge made another announcement.

“For those who have never done this, listen carefully,” she practically shouted. “As you take off your shoes and socks, you must prepare yourself mentally to walk over the coals.”

“What?” Bess cried. “We have to walk
barefoot
?”

Roland stood at the end of the path. “If you commit to the challenges here at the retreat, you commit to the renewal process too,” he said.

I could see Daisy quickly slipping out of her sandals. But Terrence pulled off his sneakers and socks reluctantly.

“Fire walking is an ancient ritual,” Bess said. “I think the Native Americans practiced it.”

“I’m sure the Native Americans knew what they were doing,” I hissed. “I’m sure Roland does not!”

“Start taking off your shoes, girls,” Inge told us. “You must be ready when your turn comes.”

I could smell the smoke, hear the sizzle, and see red-hot embers shoot into the air. This was insane!

“Don’t even think of doing this, Nancy,” Bess whispered. “We can get seriously hurt.”

“Bess,” I said slowly, “if we refuse to do these challenges, we’ll get kicked out of the retreat before we can find out what’s really going on.”

“Haven’t we found out enough?” Bess whispered. “This place is nuts. Period. Let’s pack.”

“Girls!” Inge called to us. “I don’t see you preparing.”

“Nancy,” Bess said as she dug her nails into my arm. “What are we going to do?”

“
W
e’re not walking forward,” I told Bess. “Stall as much as you can while I think of a way out.”

The first person to fire walk was Mia. She waved her arms in the air as she scurried across the glowing coals. Roland and the others were cheering so loudly I couldn’t tell if Mia was screaming or not.

At the end of the path, Roland greeted Mia with a big hug. I wanted to barf.

“Ralph, you’re next!” Roland said with an excited little hop.

Ralph stood barefoot. “Bring it on!” he shouted.

“Go, Ralphie! Go, Ralphie!” Linda chanted as her husband sprinted from one end to the other.

“Ralph’s feet don’t seem to be burned. Neither were Mia’s. Do you think there’s some scientific reason no one is getting hurt?” Bess asked me.

“If there is,” I said, “this is one experiment I’m not willing to conduct.”

Terrence had slipped behind us at the back of the line. “I know Daisy is really into this,” he said. “But I think it’s nuts.”

I was about to agree when an earsplitting shriek filled the air. Danielle collapsed on the sand. She was on her back, clutching her left foot.

“Owww! I burned my foot!” she wailed.

I glared at Roland as Bess and I hurried over to her. “Sizzling hot coals have a way of doing that,” I said angrily.

“Danielle will be fine. All she needs is a little cold water,” Roland said.

“What she needs is an emergency room,” Bess insisted. “Nancy and I can drive her to the hospital—”

“Absolutely not!” Inge interrupted. “We have perfectly good natural remedies right here at the retreat.”

It was déjà vu. Inge had repeated almost exactly what she’d said in the emergency room—when she’d kept Brad from getting medical help the day before.
Now she was doing the same with poor Danielle.

Too stunned to speak, Bess and I watched as two attendants helped Danielle to her feet, or at least the one that wasn’t injured.

Roland remained eerily calm. “Girls? Would you like to rejoin the line so we can complete the challenge?” he asked Bess and me.

I no longer needed an excuse.

“After what happened to Danielle,” I told Roland, “I’d rather not go through with the challenge.”

“Me neither,” Bess agreed.

Roland glared at us.

That’s it
, I thought.
Any second Roland and Inge are going to demand that we leave the retreat. And we’ll never know the truth.

Amazingly, he smiled.

“This is only your first day,” Roland told us. “Resistance is perfectly normal.”

“It is?” I asked, not knowing what else to say.

“Of course,” Roland said. “By admitting your reluctance with total honesty, you both have passed the challenge.”

“Everybody return to your rooms,” Inge shouted. “There will be a quiz on chapter seven in Roland’s book tomorrow.”

“A nonjudgmental quiz!” Roland added.

“At least we got out of fire walking, Bess,” I said as
we trudged back to the mansion. “Not that we’d ever do it in the first place.”

“I hope Danielle gets the attention she needs,” Bess said with a sigh.

The others were filing through the door into the mansion. Bess and I were about to follow when I noticed something on the side of the entrance—a pile of white plastic bags. When I took a whiff, I knew what was inside.

“Garbage bags,” I said. “What are they doing on the beach side of the house?”

Bess looked from the bags to the ocean. “So they can load it onto the yacht and dump it into the ocean?” she asked. “Do you still believe that, Nancy?”

“As detectives, we have to consider all options,” I said. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of the bags. “As soon as we get to our room, I’ll send this evidence to George.”

“What?” Bess teased. “You’re not going to read chapter seven in Roland’s book?”

“Maybe I will,” I teased back. “After what happened on the beach, I’ll need something to help me sleep.”

It was way after midnight by the time Bess and I got to bed. We were so exhausted that we practically passed out on the bare mattresses.

We slept for a total of three and a half hours before we walked into the dining room the next morning.
The other guests looked equally exhausted. I read what was on the breakfast menu: sugar-coated cereal, glazed doughnuts, and hot chocolate.

As Bess and I sat at a table, I noticed something else: Band-Aids on the upper parts of everyone’s arms.

“Excuse me,” I asked Daisy. “What are the Band-Aids for?”

“Vitamin shots,” she answered.

In the seat beside her was Terrence, his eyes glassy and his voice flat as he said, “Why don’t you sit with us?”

“No, thanks, Terrence. Bess and I want to…um…quiz each other on chapter seven of Roland’s book,” I told him.

Bess and I found an empty table.

“Vitamin shots, as if,” I whispered.

“They’re probably getting pumped with that sodium pentothal George told us about,” Bess said. “Did you see how loopy Terrence was?”

“Yeah, but Daisy was okay,” I said.

The sudden crackle of the PA system made us jump.

“Good morning,” Inge’s voice greeted everyone. “After breakfast we will gather on the beach for mediation and visualization.”

“Sounds harmless,” Bess said. “As long as we don’t have to sit on burning coals.”

After finishing breakfast, we picked up yoga mats
and headed to the beach. The white trash bags were still stacked near the door and smelled even worse.

“Find a spot to place your mats, girls,” Roland called to us. “Then close your eyes and let your thoughts drift.”

The other guests were already meditating. Instead of a rubber mat, Roland sat on a Persian-style rug trimmed with golden tassels.

I led Bess to the bushes separating the retreat’s beach from ours.

“Why do you want to sit here?” Bess asked.

We began unrolling our mats. “I texted George on the way out and told her to meet us here,” I said. “Let’s see if she found out anything.”

“I hope no one saw you use your phone,” Bess said.

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. A little meditation and relaxation couldn’t hurt, especially after the last few days. But just as my thoughts began drifting…

“Psst.”

My left eye snapped open. I turned my head to see George behind the bushes.

“How long have you been there?” I whispered.

“Just got here,” George said, kneeling on the sand. “There was no garbage on our beach this morning. But wait until you hear the trash I dug up on Roland.”

I made sure Roland’s and Inge’s eyes were shut. “Go ahead,” I whispered to George.

“Roland has a criminal record,” she replied. “His real name is Marty Malone, and he was arrested for embezzlement a few years ago.”

I remembered my father once explaining embezzlement to me. It was the crime of stealing money or property from an employer, a company, or the government. Pretty serious stuff.

“Roland owned a real estate agency in San Francisco,” George went on. “He stole money from his clients and his employees.”

Bess had wiggled closer to the shrub to listen. “No way! I wonder how he resurfaced as ‘Roland,’” she said.

“I don’t know, but this guy sounds nuts,” George said. “Why don’t you come back to the house before things go too far? Mia is an adult. She can look after herself.”

I shook my head. “We’re already onto something,” I said. “Roland is endangering his followers and injecting them with ‘vitamin’ shots.”

“Which is probably that drug you told us about,” Bess added.

“Ladies?” a voice called. Roland looked disapprovingly at us.

“Talking does not help the renewal process,” he said. “Please continue to meditate silently.”

George ducked, and Bess and I quickly shut our eyes. All I could see was the face of Roland—or Marty Malone.

So Roland is a criminal
, I thought.
Why am I not surprised?

“We survived meditation,” Bess said as we climbed up the spiral staircase a few hours later. “What’s next?”

“Something called Confrontation Celebration,” I replied. “I heard Brad and Danielle mention it on the way in.”

But when we followed the other guests to a small room off the sanctuary, my stomach did a triple flip. It was the same room those horrific insults had come from.

“I think I just figured out what Confrontation Celebration is,” I told Bess as we entered the room.

Inge directed us to a semicircle of chairs facing Roland. Once we were seated, he spoke. “If you are going to abandon your old self, you must know what you are about to give up.”

I looked at Bess from the corner of my eye. Hadn’t we just done this?

“Daisy, stand up, please,” Roland said. “Tell the group what you would like to change about yourself.”

Daisy stood up and grinned. “Oh, wow!” she said.
“I eat way too many red velvet cupcakes, but the ones at the bakery down the block from me are so incredibly good that I can’t resist.”

“What word do we use for people like Daisy?” Roland asked.

Bess raised her hand. “Foodie?”

Brad sneered. “More like a gluttonous, disgusting pig!
Oink, oink, oink!
”

Omigod! Soon everyone—except us—was shouting, “Fat, disgusting pig! Pig! Pig! Oink, oink!”

Horrified, I looked at Daisy. Her face turned bright red. She started to shake and looked on the verge of tears.

Suddenly Bess called out, “Next!” She jumped to her feet and placed her hand on my shoulder to gently push me back into my seat. “Okay, let’s see. What don’t I like about myself?”

Everyone waited until Bess snapped her fingers and said, “I know. I can be too girly sometimes. You know, a lot of pink and ruffles and glitter.”