Part one
The pasted smile that Nancy had checked in the mirror just prior to opening the bathroom door was replaced by a rather sincere, if curious one as she stood in the bathroom doorway in her bathrobe, regarding her two friends as they looked back at her.
"What are you two whispering about?" she asked.
Bess laughed aloud and explained, "George wanted me to change before you came out of the bathroom."
Nancy's eyes looked her blonde friend over, noting the hard nipples that somehow made themselves clear even through the bra she was wearing. Its darker lace pattern was barely visible behind her pink top, but it was the skirt that caught her eye. The school uniform number was so short that any actual school girl would be expelled for wearing it. Even sitting there on the bed, Nancy could see a portion of her white panties between her legs.
"My heavens... Bess, where did you get that? You didn't leave here with that on this morning!"
"I bought it at the boutique and wore it out."
"You're lucky you weren't arrested for indecent exposure! Bess!"
While Nancy meant to admonish her, she couldn't help the faintest smile that found its way to her mouth, nor could she help but admire Bess's nerve, helplessly wondering what it would be like to wear such a thing in public.
"I don't think Cinder Bay is that kind of Town," Bess refuted with an easy smile.
"George, how did you let her leave the store like that, and what kind of place
is
this boutique?"
"Well..." George replied, looking into her lap, "it's a clothing store. Kind of. Anyway, you know how Bess is. Once she gets something into her head..."
"Yes, but to walk around like... that! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking it'd be fun," Bess replied with a careless shrug. "And it was. George got one too."
George's face went from her lap to Bess's face in an instant, eyes wide, mouth partly open in shock.
"But she was too chicken to wear it out. I had to convince her to buy it in the first place."
Relaxing a little, George looked sheepishly at Nancy, then out the window at nothing in particular. Nancy peered at her, then Bess, remembering her plan to prod the two cousins for any recent odd sexual incidents or behaviours on their part. Standing there just then, it seemed like a very bad idea, though Bess walking around in public like that certainly counted as odd sexual behaviour.
As for George, the normally unflappable girl seemed nervous. Nancy supposed it was from walking around in public with Bess dressed as she was and couldn't really blame her. Though, why would George have bought such an outfit? Was this another odd sexual behaviour? Wouldn't she have to actually wear it as Bess had in order to qualify for that? Did she just buy it to shut Bess up? She went back to studying Bess, the carefree blonde looking at George with a smirk as though she were teasing her cousin.
"Okay," Nancy said, skipping it for the moment as thinking about walking around in such a little skirt made her unsatisfied hormones sing. "What did you find out at the Sherriff's office, and did you find any other clues at the lighthouse?"
"Well, we didn't actually get to the Sherriff's office," Bess admitted. "But, after we left
Annabelle's Boutique
, we did go to the lighthouse."
Naturally leaving out the part about the two cousins licking each other's wet snatches to orgasm on the stairs, Bess reported everything else, including the finding of
King Schlong's
box, which they'd brought back with them. Nancy held it in her hand, staring at it with wide, imaginative eyes as Bess explained what
King Schlong
was and its purpose.
"So," she finished while George continued to look uncomfortably about, "We decided to postpone the visit to the Sherriff's office, partly because we thought you might want to know about the clues we found and partly because neither of us would have felt comfortable about walking into the Sherriff's office with
King Schlong's
box."
With a vexed smile, Nancy asked, "But you would've had no problem going there in that skirt?"
"I don't think Anna would have let me leave the boutique like this if she thought the local law would be a problem, so why wouldn't I? Besides, it might be a good way to be sure of getting some information from him. Everyone in this town either doesn't want to open their mouths, or they want something in return. So, how'd your day go? Did you get to the basement? Did you get a chance to see the hotel's guest register?"
"Uh... I didn't get to see the register. The Colonel wasn't in the Parlour, but I did get to the basement."
Nancy went on to recount what she found in the basement, leaving out her incredibly lewd behaviour there, but dancing around the effect of the columns. This report had their undivided attention, even George's and, when she'd finished, they both had questions.
"So, let me get this straight," Bess went first. "You say that these columns have a draw of some sort?"
"Yes. It happened when I looked at them. They... well, they drew me to the center of the clearing and, from there, their draw became much stronger."
"And... and they got you sexually aroused?"
"Yes," Nancy admitted, flushing a bit.
"Well, what did you do?" George wanted to know.
"I didn't
do
anything. Not really. I mean, I touched them..."
The two cousins looked at each other, blinking their lack of understanding, then back at Nancy as they waited for explanation that the attractive sleuth was unprepared to give.
"I- look, it's hard to explain, but when you're standing in the center, between the four columns, they call to you. You feel them and, when you touch them, you know them. They know you. They sing to you... call to you. I know how it sounds, but this is what happened. I felt them in my head. I had to get out of there, but I have to go back. I have to see what's behind those doors and to get to the sub-basement where I'm sure these columns are rooted."
"Okay," George agreed, "but how can these columns... make you sexually aroused?"
"I don't know," Nancy admitted, starting to feel foolish and embarrassed, "but they put out heat. Also, they throb."