“What did you tell him?”
“That he needs to take it up with the boss.” Landon’s eyes met mine. “I think we need to head back out to the camp. If there’s more than one body, that means we’re dealing with a different sort of killer.”
“Definitely.” Chief Terry nodded. “Let’s head out there. I’m dying to hear about this.”
That made one of us. I was more resigned ... and nervous.
LEROY JESSUP WAS A BLUSTERY guy and I couldn’t help liking him on sight. He was six feet tall, had a huge belly big enough for him to balance a tray on, and had tufted eyebrows that boasted a mixture of black and gray hair. He also talked in a booming voice like Santa Claus when ordering around his underlings and laughed … a lot.
He was fantastic.
“What have you got?” Landon asked as he swaggered in Leroy’s direction. “Anything else to report?”
Leroy ignored him and focused on me. “Are you Landon’s girlfriend?”
I couldn’t stop myself from returning his wide smile. “Why are you so interested?”
“He talks about you all the time. He says Fay can do no wrong.”
My smile fell. “My name is Bay.”
“Nice,” Landon intoned, shaking his head. “You won’t win her over if you can’t remember her name.”
“Fay, Bay; almost exactly the same,” Leroy argued. “They’re only off by one letter.”
“Or one-third of the letters,” Landon pointed out. “She has only three letters in her name.”
“Oh, stop being a spoilsport.” His smile was firmly in place as he glanced at me. “Have I mentioned that I love his stories about you? He can’t stop talking about how pretty you are ... or what great cooks you have in the family.”
And that right there was probably the crux of Landon’s conversations regarding me, I realized. As a food-oriented individual who couldn’t talk about the magical shenanigans at The Overlook, he had no choice but to talk about the food ... something I’m sure he went on and on about for hours.
“The food is definitely great,” I agreed, turning my attention to the pool. I almost fell over when I realized one of the FBI agents was using a large piece of equipment featuring a scooper of some sort to retrieve the body, which was hanging over the lip ... and the head appeared to be holding on by a thread. “Is that safe?” The question was barely out of my mouth before the head — which appeared to have long dark hair attached but very little skin — snapped off and fell back into the pool. I heard the water sloshing around and felt sick to my stomach. “Oh, geez.”
“Well, that was professional,” Landon snapped. “What are you doing?”
“Hey, it’s not as easy as it looks.” Leroy was focused on the job now. “The pool is full of murky water. We’ve also pulled out a few dead animals, smaller ones that obviously slipped through the holes in the cover. We didn’t even realize what we had here until we saw the head. We weren’t exactly looking for another body.”
“We had no idea it was a possibility,” Chief Terry said. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been down there?”
Leroy shrugged. “How long has the pool been closed?”
Chief Terry shifted his eyes to me. “About twelve years, right?”
“How should I know?” I felt put on the spot. “I only know it wasn’t open very long before it was closed because people stopped coming to the camp. It had one good summer — I was in college that summer, but Thistle and Clove both swam in the pool — and then it was closed.”
“Wait ... it was only open one summer?” Landon’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t understand. Why would it be open for only one summer?”
“I already told you.” I forced myself to be patient. “The pool was donated by Mrs. Little as a last-ditch effort to save the camp. She wanted to keep kids from hanging around the downtown area because she was convinced that when more than one teenager hung out on the same street corner that gang activity occurred.”
Leroy snorted. “She sounds like a fascinating woman.”
“Then you’re not listening to the story the correct way,” Landon fired back.
“There was actually a pool here before,” Chief Terry said. “It was empty. It was made of concrete and had structural issues. When Margaret decided to build a regular pool, it didn’t cost nearly as much as it would’ve if she’d started from scratch.”
“The pool was built the summer I was seventeen.” I searched my memory. “It was closed when I came home after my freshman year. I remember because Clove and Thistle were complaining about having to swim in Hollow Creek.”
“Yes, I remember that summer.” Chief Terry made a face. “Thistle refused to wear a bathing suit top because she was going through a rebellious phase and Clove wouldn’t stop calling 911 to report her because she was afraid Thistle was going to be exploited on the internet with naked photos.”
Landon snorted. “Ah, to be young and a Winchester.” He offered me a wink. “So the pool closed when you were eighteen.” He focused on me. “That was about twelve years ago.”
“Eleven and a quarter,” I corrected quickly. “I’m not thirty yet.”
“You’re close.” He tweaked the end of my nose. “Between eleven and twelve years.” He squinted his eyes and stared at the bones laid at the side of the pool. “Water can destroy a body quickly. It might not be as old as we think.”
“The medical examiner will obviously have to decide that,” Chief Terry said. “We need more information on who has been hanging around this pool ... and who closed it. I think that means we need to head back to Gertie’s place.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.” Landon inclined his chin toward the parking lot, causing Chief Terry and me to turn in that direction. Even though I knew it was her property, the sight of Gertie out and about surprised me. She didn’t look healthy. In fact, she looked beat down.
“She must have heard we found another body,” Chief Terry mused.
“Or she simply wanted to see the site where the first one was discovered for herself,” I said, forcing a smile for the woman’s benefit when her gaze landed on us. “This can’t be how she wanted things to turn out for this place.”
“Definitely not.” Chief Terry stepped forward and extended a hand. “It’s good to see you, Gertie. We were just debating whether we should visit you again. You saved us a trip.”
“How great for you,” she drawled dully. “What are you guys still doing here? I thought you were done.”
Well, that answered the question about whether or not she realized a second body had been found.
“We’ve been trying to figure out a way to collect all the evidence from the pool,” Landon replied, clearly choosing his words carefully. “Some of the water is still frozen and we need to make sure we don’t overlook even the smallest clue. The pool system runs on a generator, so we had to bring in some of our own equipment.”
“Well ... you’re making a mess,” Gertie didn’t look happy. “You’re disturbing everything. This used to be a quiet and happy place. Now look at it.”
Landon and Chief Terry exchanged quick glances. They were obviously at a loss on how to deal with the woman, who seemed to be trapped in her own world.
“They found another body,” I blurted out, instantly hating myself for not thinking before speaking. “I mean ... Hannah Bishop wasn’t the only one in the pool.”
“I’m confused.” Gertie screwed up her face in concentration. “Who is Hannah Bishop?”
“She was the first young woman we found in the pool,” Landon replied. “She was from Grand Rapids and came to Hemlock Cove because she was going to write a book. That was two months ago. We’re not sure what happened to her, or how she ended up in the pool. We’re still working on that.”
“We’re here now because the excavation team found another body,” Chief Terry volunteered. “This one has been in the water much longer. I don’t suppose you can remember exactly when the pool was closed?”
Gertie stared at the heavy machinery next to the pool. I didn’t think she was going to answer. Finally, she merely shook her head. “A little less than twelve years ago,” she replied. “It was open throughout that entire summer and I thought for sure it would open the next summer. That never happened. It was only open for a summer and a half. It was a waste.”
“That’s right.” Things clicked into place in my head. “The summer I was sixteen the pool opened toward the end of the season. We got to swim in it a few times. I knew I got to swim out here, but it didn’t make sense with the other things I remembered about it closing.”
Gertie nodded. “The construction took a lot longer than it should have. There were issues because it ran on electricity and gas — for obvious reasons — and there was no electricity out there. Finally we had to run the lines and then I splurged on a generator. Boy, was that a huge waste of five-thousand bucks.”
“Where is the generator now?” Chief Terry asked. “We looked for it when we found the first body but couldn’t find it.”
“I sold it years ago. I needed the money.”
“Ah.”
“You could’ve used a smaller generator,” she added. “You didn’t necessarily need the big one.”
“Yes, well, we managed to figure things out ... mostly.” Chief Terry cleared his throat and I knew he was making an effort to turn the conversation back to the body in the pool. “You had the one really good summer and closed the pool at the end of the season. Did you open the pool at all the next season?”
“No.” Gertie rubbed her forehead as she looked back. “I wanted to. I was going to pay the money for it. But none of the summer camps were even close to selling out, and I couldn’t really focus. That was right after I lost Earl. It was just Joey and me at that point.
“He wanted to sell the property,” she continued. “He thought I was dreaming when I said I was going to figure out a way to turn things around. I refused to entertain the idea of selling, and he was mad about that.”
“Is that why he moved into the shed?” Landon asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. I kind of wish I’d sold the land now. He’d probably still be alive if I’d made the right choice then. It hardly matters. All of this is in the past.”
I licked my lips. “The bank is going to take it, isn’t it?”
Gertie slid her eyes to me, suspicion flooding them. “Who told you? That’s supposed to be a secret.”
“Margaret Little told us,” Landon volunteered. “She has her eye on the property. She wants to buy it for condos and a secondary festival location. She has big plans to make piles of money.” He sounded bitter, which caught me by surprise.
“She won’t be so happy to hear the news that a second body has been found,” I pointed out. “Maybe the deal will fall through.”
Landon brightened. “That’s something to look forward to.”
“Back to the pool,” Chief Terry prodded. “Who knew how to open and close it?”
Gertie shrugged. “I had a lot of seasonal grounds help. They all knew about it. The cover bit wasn’t difficult. You just needed to move the bolt things and then put the springs on the cover around them before lowering them into the ground. It was easy. There was a special tool.”
“Do you know what happened to the tool?”
“That tool was the least of my worries.” Gertie exhaled heavily. “I can’t believe this is all that’s left, that this is what it’s come down to.”
“I’m sorry about it, Gertie,” Chief Terry offered. “I really am. We need to figure out how these bodies got in the pool. That means we won’t be leaving anytime soon.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter.” She mustered a wan smile. “Everything is in the past and there’s no point in looking toward the future. Do what you have to do. I can’t stop you, and there’s no point in trying.”
With those words, she shuffled away from us and toward the lake. She seemed lost in thought, as if visiting happier times. No one followed, and she didn’t as much as glance back at us. She was someplace else and it was best to let her visit on her own.
We couldn’t help her, and apparently she couldn’t help us.
Nine
I tried talking to Gertie away from Landon and Chief Terry. I figured maybe she would be more open to chatting with me because I wasn’t a member of law enforcement. I was right ... and wrong.
“I remember when you were a kid,” Gertie announced. We were inside the cabin Landon and I had first entered when we’d visited, before we wound our way to the pool and the body ruined our nostalgic trip. “You were always running around with those cousins of yours.”
“Clove and Thistle,” I supplied. “I still spend half my time running around with them.”
“The short one was all right, but she did that fake-crying thing that I found ridiculous. It was the other one that convinced me your family might be off.”
“That would be Thistle.” I offered up a genuine smile. “She’s still basically the same ... and our family is definitely off.”
“Yes, well ... .” Gertie gripped her hands together and then turned away to face the ancient bunk beds. “You had fun when you were here, didn’t you? You know what I was trying to build.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I debated how to answer. “I did have fun here,” I said finally. That was true. I had fun when I wasn’t being tortured by Lila ... or Rosemary ... or whatever other girl had decided to make me a target for the day. “I definitely get what you were trying to do here. Camp is one of those memories that you never fully put behind you.”
“Kids today don’t want memories of camp.”
“And that’s sad.”
Gertie’s eyes were thoughtful as they slid to me. “You’re with the FBI agent. I’ve seen you around together before.”
“You have?” I couldn’t remember seeing Gertie at all since I’d returned to town after my stint in Detroit. “Where did you see us?”
“Some festival or other. He was winning you a stuffed animal. You were laughing. Oh, and he was trying to drag you to the kissing booth.”
“That could be any festival. He’s a big fan of the kissing booth ... and winning stuffed animals, for that matter.”
“Earl won a stuffed animal for me at a festival once.” She ran her fingers over some of the names that were carved into the wooden wall. “We had fun back in those days.”
“I don’t really remember him,” I admitted. “I remember you being around, but not him.”
“He was around more when the boys were here. When we had dual camps, the girls would always stay on this side of the lake and the boys on the other side. That is much more difficult to get to, and Earl was adamant that boys were made of sterner stuff so they had to make the difficult trip. We were careful to split our time with the appropriate sexes because we didn’t want anyone saying things that weren’t true.”
I rubbed my forehead. That seemed like a weird thing to say, but Gertie was definitely eccentric. There was no getting around that. There was every possibility it wasn’t all that weird in her head. “Well ... that was probably smart,” I said finally. “Do you have employee lists? I mean ... lists of people who worked as counselors, even if it was only for a short time.”
“Why would you ask that?” Gertie shifted so a set of suspicious eyes locked with mine. “Are you saying you think that a former employee did this?”
I shrugged. “It’s possible. I mean ... I guess some random person could’ve stumbled over the camp and decided to use it as a killing ground, but that second body we just found has been here for a long time. Like ... a long time. That means whoever is dumping bodies here is most likely familiar with the property.”
“That doesn’t mean it was a former worker.”
“Definitely not, but it’s a place to start.”
“My husband kept all those records. I don’t even remember most of the workers.” Gertie turned her back to me and focused on the bunk. “I don’t know
what to tell you, but I can’t help.”
I considered pressing her, but it seemed a waste of time. I’d been dismissed and Gertie clearly was no longer interested in the conversation. I decided to respect her wishes and leave.
I WAS EXHAUSTED AFTER A LONG afternoon at the camp. The idea of putting up with my family over a boisterous dinner at The Overlook sounded like a bad idea, so when Landon suggested a quick meal at the diner I was happy to accept.
He found me at The Whistler — where he’d dropped me once we got back to town — and threw himself on the new couch across from my desk as I finished up a few tasks.
“You sound tired,” I noted as I worked on an email. “I’m almost done.”
“There’s no hurry.” He turned his eyes to the walls, to where the art I’d picked out recently stared back at him. It was abstract, bright, and helped me focus on work. “I had to do the same thing when I got back to the police station. Paperwork is stupid.”
I smirked. “What kind of paperwork did you have to do?”
“The type where I justify the heavy equipment used out at the camp. It wasn’t difficult once they found the second body. I would’ve had to jump through more hoops if that wasn’t the case.”
He’d brought up the subject, so I decided to jump in headfirst. “What are you thinking about that? Do you think it could be someone who used to work at the camp?”
He steepled his fingers on his stomach as he reclined on the couch while tracking his eyes to me. “That’s an interesting question. How did you know I’d been considering it?”
“Maybe I’m a mind reader,” I teased.
“I wouldn’t discount it. You’re magical at every turn.”
“Ha, ha, ha.”
He didn’t laugh. “That wasn’t a joke. You’re getting more powerful all the time, Bay. I know you realize that. If you started suddenly reading minds it wouldn’t exactly surprise me.”
I was thrown for a loop. “Well, it would surprise me,” I said after a beat. “I’ve never been able to read minds. That’s not what I was doing. I was thinking it myself.”
Wicked Witches of the Midwest Mystery Box Set Page 38
