by Nicole Ellis
I whipped around and pointed to the ground in front of me. She came around to my side of the fire pit, clutching Lina to her chest. She wore a tank top and shorts and shivered in the shade of a pine tree.
Her eyes widened. “Who is that?”
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Oddly enough, she didn’t seem surprised by the appearance of a dead body on our first morning at the resort.
“We have to tell someone.” She stared at him too. “I can’t leave the area.” She pointed at their cabin. “Anthony’s asleep, and I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“I’ll go see if anyone is in the office.” I turned to leave then spun back around. Something she’d said seemed strange. “Where’s Tomàs? Can’t he watch Anthony?”
She shrugged. “He’s coming up in a few days. There’s been a bug going around the police station and they’re short-staffed, so he volunteered to take a few more shifts.”
“I kind of wish he was here. That doesn’t look like a natural death.” As much as I’d wanted to have this be a peaceful family vacation, things weren’t looking good for that to happen.
She glanced over to the body again too. “No.”
“I’m not sure how long this will take. If Adam comes out looking for me, can you tell him I went to the office?”
She nodded. “Go.”
I scurried off to the office with Goldie in tow, but no one was there yet. I knew the café opened at six, so I headed over there next. There weren’t any other customers, but Leah was busy behind the counter, making a pot of drip coffee.
She smiled at me. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you up this early. It’s a beautiful day though, isn’t it?” Her voice was as chirpy as the birds in the trees outside.
I took a deep breath. “I have some upsetting news.”
Leah cocked her head to the side. “What is it? Did something happen with your cabin? Sometimes the toilet in that one can be a little tricky.”
“No, the toilet is fine.” I glanced out the window. “There’s been an accident.” I was pretty sure it wasn’t an accident, but I wasn’t sure if she knew the victim and I wanted to soften the news.
“What? Is everyone all right?” She came out from behind the counter to stand next to me. Behind her, the coffee percolated loudly into the pot.
I pressed my lips together. “No. There’s a man’s body by the fire pit. He’s dead.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, my goodness, that’s horrible. Are you sure he’s dead? Was it a heart attack? Maybe we can do CPR.” She started to rush out the door, but I stopped her.
“I’m sorry, Leah, but he’s gone. There’s nothing you can do.”
“But how do you know?” Her eyes darted wildly toward the direction of the fire pit. “Wait, is it Del?” Terror streaked through her voice.
“No, it’s not Del. I don’t recognize the man. I think you should call the authorities though. I don’t think this was a natural death.”
“What do you mean?” Fear crossed her face.
She was going to see it soon enough. “C’mon, I’ll show you. You probably should bring a sheet or something. You’re not going to want to let the other guests see this.”
Leah called the police and they promised her they’d be there within ten minutes. Her face was as white as the sheet she’d grabbed out of the back room before we walked at a brisk pace toward the campfire. Desi stood near the campfire pit, away from the body and keeping an eye on her cabin.
“I wanted to make sure no one else disturbed the scene.” She glanced at the sheet. “Do you think you should put that over him? I mean, what if it changes the evidence or something?”
I looked at her. Ever the wife of a policeman, Desi had a point.
While we were discussing the sheet, Leah had moved closer to the body. If possible, her face had paled in comparison to what it had looked like a few minutes earlier. She seemed to recognize the deceased.
“Do you know him?” I asked her.
She nodded, tears slipping from her eyes. “That’s Del’s cousin, Jed.”
“Oh no.” Poor Del. I didn’t know what to say. Now that she mentioned it though, I could see the resemblance between Del and Jed.
“Why would someone do that to him?” Her eyes kept darting to the marshmallow roasting stick embedded in Jed’s body. “I don’t understand.”
The gentle breeze I’d felt this morning had become stronger, bringing with it the acrid odor of last night’s fire. I put my arm around her shoulders and turned her away from the campfire pit. I whispered over my shoulder to Desi, “Keep an eye on the scene, ok?”
Desi nodded. I moved Leah over to a tree nearby and we waited there, huddled together until the authorities arrived. Soon, the campground was awash in flashing red, blue, and white lights as an ambulance and police cars circled the area. A crowd gathered as the commotion attracted them. By this time, Desi had retrieved Anthony from their cabin, and Adam had taken both boys and Goldie down to the lake. We hoped to distract them from what had happened only a few hundred feet from where they’d been sleeping, but there was nothing we could do to erase that knowledge from our own brains.
The police surrounded Leah, asking her questions about Jed. Her face was devoid of any emotion by this point.
A beat-up red truck spewing dark clouds of smelly exhaust pulled up to the office and a man jumped out—Del. Leah saw him coming and broke away from the police.
She ran to him and hugged him, then said something to him, presumably breaking the bad news about his cousin.
Desi nudged me and whispered, “He looks just like the dead guy. Leah must have been scared that it was Del before she was close enough to tell it wasn’t.”
I nodded. “I know. I didn’t notice how much he looked like Del when I discovered the body, but in my defense, it was early and I wasn’t caffeinated yet.”
We watched as Del’s face turned ashen. He walked toward the police but didn’t stop until he’d reached the campfire pit. The police had finished assessing the scene and had laid a sheet over the body while they spoke to possible witnesses. Leah trailed after him.
“Is that Jed?” Del shakily pointed a finger at the body. The sheet over Jed flapped in the wind, leaving only the roasting stick visible where it protruded from under the white cloth.
One of the policemen stepped forward to address him. “Did you know the deceased, sir?”
Del nodded. “Leah,” he nodded at her, “said it’s Jed, my cousin.” He shook his head. “But what could have happened to him? I don’t understand.”
The policeman wrote some notes on his pad. “We’re going to need to talk to you about your cousin. Maybe you’d be more comfortable over there at the picnic table.” He gestured to a nearby table.
Del trembled as he considered the offer, his eyes still glued to the sheet-covered body. “Ok.”
They walked over to the table, out of earshot. The police seemed to be done with Leah, so Desi and I stood with her off to the side.
“I’m so sorry, Leah,” Desi said. “This is awful.”
Leah wiped away a tear. “I can’t believe it. I just saw him yesterday.”
“Were you close to Jed?” I asked, handing her a Kleenex from the box I’d stolen from our cabin.
“Close enough, I guess. We didn’t always get along, but he and Del were like brothers. We didn’t see him much until we bought the resort. Then, he moved out here from the Midwest to help us out.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure he had much going on out there.”
“Is there anyone else you should notify?”
She shook her head. “No. Neither of them had any other living relatives. That’s part of the reason they’re so close.”
We were all quiet as the police finished their investigation and the body was loaded onto an ambulance, which then slowly drove away without its customary flashing lights. With all of the emergency personnel gone, the crowd surrounding the fire pit dis
persed. Leah left to go man the store and Adam came back with the boys. We walked with the kids over to the nearby playground.
Desi, Adam, and I sat in awkward silence as we watched the boys swing. This trip was becoming much more than we’d bargained for. Finally, I voiced what we’d all been thinking.
“Should we go home?”
6
A gray cloud had moved over the lake, dropping the temperature by twenty degrees. I shivered and hugged my arms to my chest. I was still wearing the yoga pants and tank top I’d worn to bed the night before.
I glanced at the boys, now racing around the playground. Wood chips shot out behind their feet as they ran. They were so happy and we’d all been looking forward to this trip for so long. I turned my gaze to the fire pit. Someone had been skulking around behind our cabins last night, murdering Del’s cousin. I shivered again, and not from the cold.
“What do you think?” I asked Adam.
His eyes were troubled. “I don’t know. It worries me to have a murderer on the loose. Even though it probably was an isolated incident, I’m not sure I can get over that.”
Desi shifted her weight on her feet and traced circles in the dusty ground with the tip of her sneaker. “I don’t think Tomàs would like this very much.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry, Jill, but I think we’re out. I’ll call him and let him know not to come up here.”
A drop of rain hit Desi’s forehead and her gaze shot up to the sky. “Ugh, this doesn’t look good. I think it’s going to dump on us at any minute.”
Adam and I looked upward. The sky over the lake and resort had darkened into a field of ominous rain clouds. Every bit of our sunny day had disappeared, just as the weatherman had predicted.
Suddenly, the sky opened up and fat drops of rain pelted us. Desi covered Lina’s head in her front carrier and Adam moved the stroller’s shade over Ella.
I cupped my hands like a megaphone. “Boys, we’ve got to go inside.”
They continued playing, seemingly oblivious to the rain and wind.
“Go get the babies inside,” I shouted to Adam and Desi as a strong gust whipped through the campground, blowing strands of my long hair into my face. “I’ll get the kids.”
They nodded and hurried toward the cabins. I ran over to the playset and called up into it from a slide entrance.
“Mikey, Anthony! We’ve got to get inside before we get soaked.”
They came over to me, but still clung to the wooden play structure.
“Why, Auntie Jill?” Anthony asked.
“Yeah, we want to play longer,” Mikey whined.
I gave them an incredulous look and pointed up at the sky, getting my face wet in the process. “Do you really not see the rain?”
Mikey shrugged. “It’s always raining back home.”
I sighed and grabbed their hands. He was right—another reason I’d hoped for a nice sunny vacation before the dreary Pacific Northwest winter set in. “Let’s go.”
They reluctantly followed me back to the covered deck of our cabin. Desi and Adam stood there, peering at the lake. While it had been a beautiful sheet of glass this morning, it was now a frenzy of whitecaps. I hoped no fishermen or boaters had been caught out there when the storm hit.
“What now?” I asked. “Desi, are you going to go to the pay phone to call Tomàs?”
“Not right now. Are you crazy? I’d be drenched after only one foot away from the cabin. I’ll call him as soon as the rain lets up.”
Adam looked at me. “Did you decide whether or not to stay?”
I wiped a lock of dripping hair away from my forehead and leaned against the wall. “I don’t know. I almost feel like I should stay. Leah doesn’t have much family out here, so she could use my support. I didn’t know Jed, but I doubt this was a random attack. The person who killed him is probably long gone.”
Adam pressed his lips together, then sighed. “I don’t know.”
“How about we give it a few hours to think about it? By then, the storm should have died down and we can talk about it some more.” I gestured to the board games we’d brought with us. “We could play Sorry or Uno? Maybe even Candy Land?”
Desi glanced at Lina, who was now sleeping soundly on a pile of pillows in the corner. Ella had also fallen asleep in her Pack ‘n Play. She shrugged. “Works for me.”
I clapped my hands. “Boys, we’re going to play a game.” I pointed at the colorful rag rug that covered the floor of our cabin’s living area. “Sit.”
They dutifully sat and we adults eased ourselves onto the floor as well.
“I’m getting too old to sit on the floor,” Adam grumbled.
Next to him, Desi laughed. “Yep. You’re pretty ancient, big brother.”
He gave her a gentle shove and glared at her, causing her to giggle and pretend to fall to the floor.
A warmth came over me. With how strained the first full day of our vacation had already been, it was nice to see a touch of normalcy.
After two games of Uno, one of Sorry, and a simple lunch of deli meat sandwiches with baby carrots, the rain had finally let up, although the skies were still gray.
Desi stood and stretched. “I’d better call Tomàs now and let him know not to come.”
She sounded disappointed. We’d been cocooned in the cabin for hours, and it felt like ages ago that I’d discovered a body at the fire pit. The three of us adults moved toward the cabin’s door, leaving the boys to squirm around like worms on the thick carpet.
“Are you sure you want to leave?” I asked, watching her closely.
Her eyes flitted to the lake. “I really wanted—no,” she corrected herself, “needed this vacation, but I don’t know what Tomàs will think. I’m going to call him and ask him what he wants to do. He has more experience in this type of thing than I do.”
I nodded. Tomàs had been on the Ericksville police force for over ten years and he was level-headed in most matters. I trusted his opinion.
Adam and I exchanged glances.
“I’m inclined to go with what Tomàs thinks,” Adam said to Desi. His eyes flickered to me. “Jill, is that ok with you?”
“Yes.” I checked on the boys. Mikey was teaching Anthony how to do a somersault. “If Tomàs thinks we should leave, we’ll leave too.”
In a relieved voice, Desi said, “Great. Then it’s settled. I’ll go over to the office and call him to see what he thinks. Can you watch Lina and Anthony for me?” She peered out the window. “I think the rain has mainly stopped, but I don’t want them to get cold out there.”
“Of course.” I smiled at her. “Lina’s asleep anyway and I don’t think we’ll be able to pry Anthony away from Mikey any time soon.”
Over on the rug, Anthony and Mikey giggled as they pretended to be dogs, barking at each other.
Desi grabbed her sweatshirt from where it hung in front of the fireplace. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
As soon as she left, I turned to Adam. “I really don’t want to leave. We made the reservations for this vacation a year ago. It’s our first since Mikey was a baby.”
He pulled me close against him and I laid my head on his chest.
“I know. But we don’t want to be here if it’s not safe.” He rested his chin on the top of my head.
“I know.” My heart felt heavy. I didn’t want to go back home when we should be having fun out on the lake. It wasn’t fair.
He stepped back and looked into my eyes. “We’ll see what Tomàs says, ok?”
“Ok.” Being cooped up in the cabin was making me squirrely. “Do you mind watching all the kids for a few minutes? I’d love to take a short walk.”
“Sure. No problem.” He hugged me again. “Don’t worry, honey, it will all work out. If we can’t stay here, maybe we can find a camping spot instead.” He eyed me hopefully.
“Maybe.” I was happy to agree because I knew there was absolutely zero chance of any camping spots being available for Labor Day weekend.
I pl
ucked a sweatshirt out of my suitcase and stepped outside the cabin. The air smelled like fresh rain, and the clouds swirling above us hinted that the first squall passing through wouldn’t be the last. I intended to walk down toward the lake, but instead, my feet took me up the hill to the fire pit.
The circle of logs was empty and only the disturbed dirt and gravel where the body had been lying hinted at what had happened earlier in the day.
An image of the body flashed into my brain. He’d been sprawled on his side, speared in the back by the marshmallow stick. I shuddered. I knew those things were dangerous.
Had Jed even known there was somebody else out there? Why had he been at the fire pit in the first place?
I shook my head. Unlike the murder investigations I’d been dragged into in the past, this one didn’t directly affect me. The soft tapping of footsteps behind me made me whirl around.
“Whoa.” Desi held up her hands. “It’s just me.” She glanced at the fire pit. “Why are you up here?”
I laughed self-consciously. “I don’t know.” What was I doing here?
“Something about murder scenes just draws you to them?” she asked dryly.
“Yeah, something like that.” I peered at her. “What did Tomàs say?” I crossed my fingers that he would say it was perfectly fine for us to stay at the resort.
She sighed. “The phone lines are down. I couldn’t call him.”
“Really? I’m surprised the power isn’t out too. Back home the electricity and phones usually go out together.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Leah says it’s pretty common around here. Something about the phone lines being overhead, but the rest of the utilities being underground. She said I could use the internet in the office to e-mail him, but he never checks his personal e-mail account.” She sighed deeply. “Anyway, if I want to call Tomàs, I’ll need to drive back to Pemberton.”
“But that’s over an hour away.” I checked the sky, not surprised to find that it was still gray and scary. At least it wasn’t raining at the moment.