Whispering Pines (Celia's Gifts Book 1)

by Kimberly Diede

  “I appreciate that, Ethan. You really are the best. But I couldn’t let you do it for free. You have your own business to run. You can’t afford to spend all your time doing charity work for me out here.”

  “We can work out the details later,” Ethan assured her. “Aunt Celia was generous with all of us. I have some financial cushion now with the income Celia’s rental properties are throwing off each month. I know she would appreciate me helping out here. Celia always had a soft spot in her heart for helping other women. I think she would have loved this idea.”

  By the end of the evening, everyone seemed excited about exploring the retreat business further. Renee planned to call Susan after the Fourth and learn more.

  Renee had to agree with Ethan. Celia would love this idea.

  Chapter 49

  Gift of a Grandfather’s Wisdom

  The rest of the holiday week passed quickly. George, Renee, and Ethan spent hours sketching out possible layouts for the inside of the lodge. They considered dorm-style rooms of different sizes. Some women would likely want private rooms while others may travel in with girlfriends and be fine with sharing rooms. Renee needed to visit with Susan about the average number of attendees and logistics that worked for them in the past.

  The three worked on plans for everything except the kitchen. Val and Luke put their focus there. If they wanted to serve larger groups on a regular basis, there would need to be some appliance upgrades. They would need an industrial-style dishwasher, upgraded refrigeration, and, of course, a newer cook top, ovens, and microwaves. The water would have to be tested. Not all meals would have to be cooked on site but it would be easier if some prep could be done here.

  Julie studied Susan’s family’s retreat business on their website. She was as excited about possibly holding retreats here at Whispering Pines as Renee was, but Robbie said little about it. Renee was too busy to notice, but George sensed Robbie’s lack of enthusiasm.

  He saw his grandson down at the shore by himself, skipping rocks into the lake.

  “Hey, kiddo, what’s up? I know it’s been a crazy week with all of us here, but you’ve been awfully quiet. Something bugging you?”

  Robbie skipped another rock, looking out at the water. “Yeah, Grandpa, something is bugging me. At first, I didn’t want to spend my whole summer out here, away from home. But it hasn’t been so bad. We’ve met some cool people and I don’t mind working outside. If we stayed home, I probably would’ve been stuck working fast food or filling shelves in a grocery store somewhere inside all summer. So that part is cool. But I heard you guys talking about Mom maybe starting some type of retreat business here. What would that mean for me? Would we have to move here permanently? What about my school and my teams? Julie goes back to college in the fall, but . . . what about me?”

  George didn’t answer right away. He kicked around on the beach until he found a flat stone and skipped it into the water.

  “I don’t know, Robbie. It would be hard for your mom to run a business located here from home. It would be a tough commute, especially in the winter. Your grandma and I, and your aunts and uncle too, all live closer than you guys do. You know how much your mom loves you, right? She has worked hard to provide for you and Julie. If her work required you both to move here, do you think you could do that for her? I know it’s a lot to ask, but sometimes family has to make sacrifices for each other.”

  Now it was Robbie’s turn to take his time replying. He plopped down on his butt and rested his arms on bent knees, staring out over the water.

  “It would suck, having to go to a new school and starting over. I never thought I would have to do that. Thought I’d get to play basketball with my team and graduate from my high school. But I guess Mom never thought she’d get fired, right? She wouldn’t be here now either if Aunt Celia hadn’t left this place to her. Part of me wishes she would go back to a regular job . . . but this place isn’t so bad.” Robbie looked up at George. “I don’t know, Grandpa. I have to think about it, I guess.”

  George stepped over to him and patted his shoulder. “Fair enough. Change is always tough. But sometimes, good things happen when you take a chance.”

  George stood next to Robbie, his hand on his grandson’s shoulder. He didn’t want Robbie to feel like he had to be the “man of the house” for Renee. He was still a kid. But he was growing up, and Renee was going to need his buy-in. If Robbie fought her on this, she might give in and take the easier route, heading home and taking another office job. George didn’t want that for either of them.

  Ethan quietly approached them on the beach. “Hey, Dad, can you come here? I want to show you something.”

  George heard something strange in his son’s tone. “Sure, Ethan, be right there.” He turned back to his grandson on the sand. “So you gonna be OK, Robbie?”

  “Yeah, Gramps, it’ll all work out, right? Go help Ethan. I’m gonna stay here for a while, maybe think about what you said.” Robbie turned his attention back to the water.

  George followed Ethan back up the beach and across the grass, toward the back side of the resort. Ethan was striding toward the cabin tucked into the edge of the woods. This was the last cabin still needing repairs before it could be rented. George had heard Renee refer to it as the “Gray Cabin.” He supposed the name aptly fit the little structure. For some reason, it looked forlorn, sitting off by itself. George had been in it the weekend of Mother’s Day, and remembered some damage, but hadn’t been in it since.

  Ethan spoke softly as they approached it. “I wanted you to see this. Renee asked me to see what it would take to fix that water damage in the back bedroom, and I finally got around to it. Let me know how you think we should handle this.”

  The two crossed the small front porch and entered the cabin. Ethan flipped on a light. It was dim inside. Heavy curtains blocked out much of the noonday sun. Nothing had been done in here yet and a heavy film of dust coated everything. Ethan walked through the kitchen and living area, back to the room with the damaged wall. He pushed the door open and flipped on another overhead light. He stood back so his dad could enter the bedroom.

  “What the hell is this?” George hissed, surveying the room.

  There were stubby little candles on the dresser and nightstand. White wax had dripped down onto wood tops. It was obvious the candles had been used, but George knew for damn sure they hadn’t been there in May. The bed was made, but poorly; the old quilt was slightly off kilter and a bit lumpy, as if bedding underneath the coverlet was mussed from use. The coating of dust had been disturbed.

  It looked to George like someone had been in here, maybe sleeping here . . . but for how long? When the bedroom door was shut, it would be impossible to see light from this room out in front of the cabin. The only window faced back toward the woods, and it was covered with a heavy curtain regardless.

  “I think someone’s been staying in here,” Ethan said, voicing George’s thoughts. “Could have been the same person that trashed the other cabin. I wanted you to see this before I said anything to Renee.”

  “Shit . . . this could do her in. But we have to tell her. It wouldn’t be right to keep this from her. When we show the others, it’s going to get crazy. I think we should take a few minutes and look around a bit first.”

  Ethan nodded, still looking around. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Maybe someone started staying in here after we left on Mother’s Day but cleared out when Renee and the kids moved in. Or . . . maybe whoever vandalized the cabin was holed up in here.”

  “Maybe . . . hard to say. Is that window locked?”

  Ethan checked the window. It slid open easily. There was no screen, which was unusual. No one would leave a window open in a cabin in Minnesota without a screen. The place would fill with mosquitoes. Ethan poked his head out the open portal and surveyed the nearby area.

  “The screen’s lying in the grass, propped up against this back wall. The grass is pretty high back here, but it’s trampled under the window. My
bet is whoever’s been in this cabin is coming and going through this window so they won’t be seen.”

  George was taking a closer look around the bedroom. The tiny closet was empty. He didn’t see any personal items someone might have left behind. The top drawer on the old scarred dresser wasn’t closed all the way. George slid it open, thinking it was empty at first, but there was something lying in the bottom of the drawer, a piece of paper maybe. He pulled it out and flipped it over.

  “Oh, God . . . Ethan, you have to look at this.”

  Ethan took the item from his now-pale father.

  “Holy shit . . . a picture of Julie?”

  Now he was confused. Why was there a picture of his niece in the dresser drawer?

  George nodded grimly. “Looks recent, too.”

  George quickly went through all the other drawers, but there was nothing else.

  “I think we better call the sheriff. Maybe we don’t tell Renee about the picture right away. The possibility that someone has been staying in here, without her knowing, is going to scare her enough. We’ll show the picture to the sheriff first and see what he thinks.”

  “OK, Dad, but we have to tell Renee at some point. You do realize that, right?”

  George sighed. “Right now I’m more concerned with catching whoever took that picture of my granddaughter.”

  Chapter 50

  Gift of the Storm

  George was right. As soon as they showed the others what they discovered, things got crazy again. Renee called Sheriff Thompson directly, using the number on the card he gave her last Saturday morning. She handled it better than her dad and brother expected—at least the intruder part. They kept the picture from her for the time being.

  Adults checked out the back room, but they kept all of the kids outside. If there was any evidence as to who might have been in there, no one wanted it disturbed before the police arrived. Lavonne and Renee lectured everyone to be discreet. They didn’t want their new guests to find out what was going on. There was a good chance the squatter in the forlorn little cabin was also the person that vandalized the other cabin, although they couldn’t yet be sure.

  Sheriff Thompson and another deputy arrived. It didn’t take them as long to get out to the resort this time. Renee and George stayed in the cabin while Ethan offered to meet the officers in the parking area and bring them back. This gave him a chance to discreetly show the picture to the sheriff. Ethan explained it was a picture of Julie, Renee’s daughter, but the sheriff recognized her from his previous visit.

  The sheriff agreed to let Ethan tell Renee about the photograph.

  After the officers surveyed Whispering Pines for the second time in a week, they talked with everyone on site—including Grant and Grace—to determine if anyone might have noticed anything.

  So much for keeping it from the guests.

  Thompson was relatively sure it had been someone passing through the area, back when it had been uninhabited. He promised to “look into it,” similar to what he had said about the vandalism, but Renee started to get the impression it wasn’t going to be a priority item for their department. After about an hour, they drove off, saying again that they would be in touch.

  Renee’s family was scheduled to leave on Sunday morning. The remainder of Saturday was subdued after the discovery in the Gray Cabin. Val cooked up a traditional camp meal of hamburgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob, and baked beans. After the mess was cleared away, Luke took the kids down to fish with old poles and a Styrofoam bucket full of worms.

  Ethan grabbed three beers out of the cooler. “Renee . . . Dad . . . you guys got a minute?” He handed a can to Renee and walked back to her patio, gesturing for them to follow. Once behind the house, George settled into a lawn chair and Ethan handed him a beer before taking a seat himself.

  “Sit down, Renee,” Ethan directed as he cracked open his beer.

  Renee caught something in Ethan’s tone. “Let me guess . . . this isn’t going to be a friendly Saturday night visit over beers?” she joked, hoping to fend off any more bad news.

  It didn’t work.

  Ethan got straight to the point. He handed his sister the snapshot. “We found something else in the Gray Cabin earlier, and you aren’t going to like it. Dad found a picture of Julie in one of the dresser drawers.”

  Renee looked blankly at her brother then glanced down at the photo in her hand, struggling to understand why there would be a picture of her daughter in one of those old dressers.

  “We wanted to get the sheriff’s take on it before we told you,” George explained, seeing Renee’s confusion morphing into anger.

  “All right—for the record, I am not OK with that decision.” Renee paused, working to keep her temper in check. “Tell me what Sheriff Thompson thought about the picture.”

  “I get it, Renee,” Ethan acknowledged. “I’d be pissed if I were in your shoes, too. Thompson thought some kids might have used the room for a little privacy . . . might have been when those college boys were here the same week Julie had friends out. Maybe Julie paired off with one of the boys and they went there to be alone. Maybe she gave him a picture, but it was forgotten when everything got crazy with the vandalism.”

  “That is absurd!” Renee scoffed, furious an assumption like that would even be made.

  “Now calm down, honey,” George said, trying to soothe his daughter’s temper. “Remember, we had every intention of telling you about the picture. We just didn’t want to hit you with everything at once. You’ve had a few shocks lately. And for the record, we don’t think the sheriff’s theory about how the picture ended up in that drawer is accurate. Kids snap pictures constantly with their phones these days. They wouldn’t need a printed photograph. Besides, if Julie knew who had been back in that room, she would have fessed up before the sheriff was called again. The sheriff agreed to let us tell you about the picture in private and to let you decide how you want to tell Julie.” He took a drink from his beer, swallowed, and sighed. “This is probably going to scare the hell out of her.”

  Renee sunk back into her folding chair, at a loss.

  George continued, “It’s up to you if and when you think Julie should be told. But we don’t want to leave you here alone with the kids—there’s been too much going on—so your mother and I discussed it, and we’re gonna stay an extra week in the other duplex unit. That will give all of us a little more time to see if all goes back to normal.”

  Renee looked up at George, Ethan standing just behind him. “Look, I appreciate it, but I’m a big girl, Dad. You don’t have to stay.”

  “We know that, but we want to. We can even help if you decide it’s time to clean up the Gray Cabin.”

  “Seriously, Dad, you guys don’t need to stay. Whoever was camping out in the Gray Cabin is probably long gone. Even if they weren’t gone before today, they will be now.”

  “I tell you what,” Ethan said. “Why don’t we all sleep on it? We can talk about it again in the morning.”

  George smiled. “Capital idea, kiddo.”

  ***

  Renee couldn’t fall asleep. She didn’t want to dream about the Gray Cabin again. She tossed and turned. A thunderstorm rolled through. The low rumble and flashes of light matched her mood. It began to rain but there was no wind. Finally the rain soothed her to sleep and, mercifully, there were no dreams.

  Lavonne was already downstairs, the coffee brewed and sweet rolls baking, when Renee came down in the morning. She joined her mom at the kitchen table.

  “Mom, it isn’t necessary for you and Dad to stay. We will be fine, I promise. Besides, Grant and Grace are here, too. Seriously, you’ve already helped so much with this place.”

  Before Lavonne could respond, Jess came in the back screen door, letting it slam behind her. She looked terrible.

  “Jesus, Jess, what’s up with you? You look like shit this morning,” Renee teased.

  “Renee!” Lavonne scolded one daughter while she rose from her chair and crossed th
e room to take another in her arms. “Are you OK, honey?”

  Lavonne pushed Jess’s hair back from her eyes, lifting her head up with a light touch on her chin. Jess’s eyes were red-rimmed and swollen. A single tear traced a path down her cheek, but she managed a weak smile for her mother.

  “Got a cup of that for me?” she asked, gesturing to the steaming mugs on the table. She extricated herself from her mother’s arms and took a seat, laying her head on her forearms.

  Lavonne, looking at a loss for words, poured her a cup.

  Jess took it gratefully, using it to warm her hands as she sat in silence. She took a sip, then eventually said, “Will left.”

  Renee’s mouth dropped open.

  Lavonne stepped up to her. “What do you mean, he left? Did he have to go in for a patient? Do you need to borrow my car to get home?

  “Will left because I told him to leave. He’s been having an affair, and I got sick of pretending I didn’t know about it. When I first confronted him about it, he told me he would end it, but I didn’t believe him. Not this time.” She looked up from her mug soberly. “This isn’t the first time he’s cheated on me . . . but it will be the last. I am not going to give him a chance to do it again. At least to me.”

  “Oh, Jess,” Renee said, coming to her sister’s other side. “When did you find out? Why didn’t you say anything? That son of a bitch!”

  “I had my suspicions at Christmas, but I wasn’t sure. And you were going through your own crap, Renee. I didn’t want to give you any more to worry about, like I’m doing now. God, I’m sorry. And besides, I wasn’t sure then. Believe me, when something like this happens, you don’t want to acknowledge it yourself, let alone have anyone else find out. I feel like such an idiot.”

  Jess took another sip of coffee to calm herself, then continued.

  “Things have been rough for a while. Will was spending so much time at the hospital, we hardly ever saw him. And when he did come home, he was withdrawn. Never wanted to do anything with us. Now I know he wasn’t at the hospital as much as he claimed. He’s been seeing a nurse from the hospital.” She laughed bitterly. “It all sounds like a goddamn cliché.”