Stuck with S'More Death

by Nicole Ellis

  “Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

  Tears filled Leah’s eyes. “Are you busy? I was hoping you might have time to talk. I could use a friend right now.”

  “Nope, Desi and I were just hanging out on the deck. All of our menfolk are out showing their racing prowess on the lake.” I laughed and motioned for her to come inside. “You’re welcome to join us.”

  She jutted her chin toward the deck. “You’re sure Desi won’t mind?”

  “Nope,” Desi said, ducking her head inside the cabin. “C’mon. I’m thinking about switching to wine soon.”

  “Isn’t it too early?” Leah glanced at the brass clock on the wall.

  Desi shrugged. “It’s almost eleven and we’re on vacation. Besides, I think we’ve only got about an hour before the babies wake up and the boys come back. Might as well enjoy ourselves while we can.”

  Leah laughed. “Ok, count me in. I’ll take a glass of something.”

  “Coming right up.” Desi moved across the cabin, toward the kitchen.

  I touched Leah’s arm. “We’re outside. Come sit.”

  She followed me out there and Desi returned with three glasses of wine.

  “Thanks.” Leah took the glass and sat back in her chair.

  “So what’s up? You look a little down.” I sipped my wine but kept my eyes on her.

  “It’s a little of everything. More cancellations, the vandalism, everything.” She ran her finger over the rim of the glass, making it sing. “And I don’t have Del to lean on anymore.” Her eyes filled with fresh tears.

  “I’m so sorry, Leah.” I went over to her and hugged her. “I’m sure this isn’t what you signed up for.”

  “No.” She sobbed. “The resort was a dream of both Del and I, but now it’s just me.”

  “Do you think it might be time to sell?” Desi asked. “I know it’s tough to let go, but sometimes when something is making you miserable it’s better to move on.”

  Leah hung her head. “I know. And it is making miserable—right now.” She looked up at us. “But what if it gets better? We’ve had so many good times here.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “You have to make that decision on your own. But with everything going on this week, I don’t think this is the best time to do so.”

  She nodded. “You’re probably right. I just wish I had a clearer idea of what I should do. I do know that I don’t want to go back to working in the city.” She gestured widely. “After being out here in such beautiful nature, I can’t return to a concrete jungle.”

  “Well, I think that gives you part of your answer—what you don’t want,” Desi said. “Maybe that will help you make your decision.”

  “Maybe.”

  We were quiet for a few minutes, gazing out at the peaceful lake.

  “Hey, isn’t that Tomàs and Adam?” Desi pointed to two canoes darting across the lake.

  I squinted. “I think so.”

  Ten minutes later, we had our answer, in the form of the loud approach of two excited four-year-olds.

  “Daddy and I won the first race,” Anthony bragged.

  Mikey glared at his cousin. “But my daddy and I beat you home.”

  “Did not,” Anthony said.

  “Did too.” Mikey stuck out his tongue.

  Desi and I exchanged glances.

  “Where are your daddies?” Desi asked.

  Mikey pointed behind him. “They’re coming. We ran up from the docks.”

  “I have to go potty, so they let us go ahead.” Anthony danced from foot to foot.

  Desi sighed and pointed at the bathroom. “Go now!”

  “Do I have to go right now?” He stared longingly at the Hungry Hungry Hippos box on an end table.

  “Yes!” Desi shooed him off.

  Leah grinned at the kids’ antics. “I’m going to get back to work now. Thanks for the talk, girls. I really appreciated it and I feel a little better now.”

  “Good,” I said, giving her a quick hug out on the small porch. “That’s what we’re here for.”

  “If I don’t see you again today, I hope you have a wonderful afternoon.” She glanced up. “This weather is just perfect.” She waved and trotted off in the direction of the office.

  Tomàs and Adam arrived a few minutes later.

  “The boys beat you back,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, they weren’t expending much energy paddling.” Adam’s face was flushed.

  “Did you have a good time?” Desi asked sweetly.

  “We did.” Tomàs eyed Adam. “We raced each other a few times, and were going for the tiebreaker, but then Anthony had to use the bathroom, so we decided to head in.”

  “Now we’re going to have to find something else to break the tie.” Adam looked around, but evidently didn’t find anything appropriate for competition.

  I groaned inwardly. Great. I’d wanted them to bond, but I hadn’t anticipated them to both have a competitive streak. In hindsight, I should have known from their performances at family game nights.

  “I’m sure you’ll find something tomorrow,” I said. “For now, we should figure out what we’re having for lunch.”

  “Ok, ok,” said Adam.

  We spent the afternoon outside on the green grass, eating turkey and cheese sandwiches with pickles and potato chips. We’d borrowed a game of lawn darts from the office and somehow Desi and I were able to keep our husbands from making it into an intense competition. Later, we all took naps, then went to the café for dinner. It was exactly the lazy kind of day I’d envisioned for our trip.

  I’d promised the boys that I’d take them to get ice cream treats at the office/general store, so after dinner we trekked along the dusty road to get there. When we arrived, there was no one there. Someone had stuck a card on the front counter. Be back in ten minutes.

  I let Mikey and Anthony rifle through the chest freezer in search of the perfect novelty ice cream.

  “Rainbow sherbet?” Anthony asked, holding up a push-pop.

  “Or chocolate? Or an ice cream sandwich?” Mikey said with his head deep in the freezer. He was leaning so far in that his feet didn’t quite touch the ground. I grabbed the waistband of his jeans and eased him out of there.

  “Did you decide yet?”

  “No,” Anthony said sheepishly. “There’s too many choices.”

  I smiled. I’d been there myself as a child. Who was I kidding? I still had trouble choosing ice cream at the store. One day at the grocery store when I was pregnant with Ella, I found myself debating between two flavors of ice cream for thirty minutes before deciding to buy both of them.

  “How about you choose three, then pick a number and I’ll tell you which one that is? We can get more ice cream tomorrow, I promise.”

  The boys looked at each other. “Ok,” they said in unison.

  “I choose one hundred and eighty,” Mikey shouted, jumping up and down.

  “Uh …” I may have needed to be more specific. “How about you choose one of these numbers—one, two, or three.”

  “Three!” Anthony said, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

  “I want number three too. Which one is that?” Mikey scanned the selection.

  “You’ve won orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream popsicles!” I waved two of them at the kids with a flourish, and the ice cream treats were immediately torn from my grip.

  I selected an ice cream cookie sandwich for myself. I was on vacation and walking over to Tyler’s cabin with Goldie counted as exercise, right? After all, there had been running involved.

  There still wasn’t anyone at the counter, so I grabbed a sticky note from behind the counter and left a note with five dollars under it on top of the cash register. I wouldn’t normally do that, but Leah was a friend and I knew she wouldn’t mind. Besides, if I didn’t get the kids out of the store soon, their ice cream would melt all over the linoleum floors.

  We went outside and sat on the bench next to the hanging flower baske
ts to eat our treats. The boys licked their popsicles, happily swinging their legs under the bench. A small box truck bearing the name of the general store in town rumbled up the dirt road, bouncing over the potholes, then pulled up to the office in front of us.

  The driver kept the engine running for a few minutes while he did something with a clipboard in the front seat, filling the area with diesel fumes. Anthony and Mikey coughed.

  I motioned for them to get up. “Let’s go over to the playground, boys.” They slowly complied, but we had to wait for Mikey when his ice cream wrapper flew away and he chased after it.

  The driver finally turned off the engine and walked into the office. The air cleared and I could breathe more normally, but Mikey was taking a long time.

  “C’mon,” I said.

  He stuck his head under another bench. “It went under here.” He bent down then wriggled under it.

  The truck driver came out. “Ma’am, do you know if there is someone here at the store? There doesn’t seem to be anyone and I’ve got merchandise to unload.”

  I craned my head around to see if Del or Leah were anywhere nearby. “I’m sorry, I really don’t know. What’s in the truck?”

  “A few dozen life jackets. The customers put a rush order on them, so I really need to deliver them today. But I can’t just leave them here.”

  I nodded. “Maybe I can help. I’m a friend of the owners.”

  “Could you possibly sign for them?” He held out the clipboard I’d seen him writing on in the truck cab.

  I checked for Del and Leah again. Still no sign of them. I knew they needed the life jackets as soon as possible though and I didn’t think they’d mind if I accepted the delivery.

  “Sure. I think that would be fine.” I reached out for the clipboard.

  “Seems like a lot of life jackets to order this late in the season,” the driver observed. “We usually get orders in April or May for new ones.”

  “Yeah, well, I think they wanted to have everything nice and new for the Labor Day celebration out here tomorrow.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it wasn’t a lie either. They did want things to be nice for the event.

  The bright sun made it difficult to see the words on the clipboard, so I shielded my eyes with my hand and squinted at the information on the document. “Where do I sign?”

  He stabbed a stubby finger at a line near the bottom of the piece of paper. “Right here.”

  I caught sight of the total and gasped. Over a thousand dollars for life jackets. Leah hadn’t been kidding about the financial toll of the escalating vandalism.

  I set the pen down on the clipboard without signing. “I don’t think I should sign for this much money.”

  The delivery driver didn’t look happy, but he simply said “ok.” He looked around. “Do you think we might be able to find the owners so I can get these out of my truck?”

  I nodded and turned to the boys. “Mikey, Anthony, we have to go.”

  Mikey emerged from under the bench and tossed the plastic wrapper in the trash, along with the wooden stick for his ice cream. Anthony finished chewing on his almost bare stick and threw his in there as well. They followed dutifully behind the delivery driver and me as we walked further into the resort, heading toward Leah’s house. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Desi strolling across the grassy lawn.

  “Hey,” I greeted her. “Can you watch the boys while I help this man find Leah or Del? He’s got a delivery that needs a signature.”

  “Yeah, no problem.” She called out to the kids, “Come over to me, please.” They came closer and she leaned down to talk to them. “You can play on the playground for a while, but then I need to get you ready for bed.”

  The boys shouted with joy and immediately raced over to the playground.

  The delivery driver and I walked away, passing the campfire pit above our cabin. He lingered near it, ogling the area surrounding the fire pit.

  “Is that where they found the dead guy? I heard he had a marshmallow roasting stick lodged in his back. Is that true?”

  I sighed. I understood his curiosity, but I didn’t want to think about Jed’s body lying next to the fire pit. “Yes. He was found right over there.” I pointed at the dirt next to the small cabinet where the s’mores equipment was kept.

  His eyes widened. “Wow. I can’t believe that happened here. We’ve had more crime in the area this week than I’ve heard of in all my life.”

  “Yeah, we got here the day of the jewelry store robbery. It seemed like that was a pretty big talk of the town.”

  He shook his head up and down rapidly. “Nothing like that has ever happened before. I mean, I work for the general store, and sometimes we get, you know, kids stealing a candy bar or something once in a while, but stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of diamonds? That’s unheard of.”

  “Who do you think could have stolen the diamonds?” I asked, as we hiked up the hill toward Leah’s house.

  “I don’t know, but rumor is that Mr. Junell had been shooting off his mouth in the bar about his design job and the delivery of the diamonds, so it could’ve been anybody who was in there with him.”

  “Hmm. That’s so crazy.”

  He looked down, over the lake. “I haven’t been out here much, but I also make deliveries for the hardware store and one time I delivered a load of wood to the guy that lives over there.” He motioned to Tyler’s cabin.

  “Oh, really?” I scanned the area, hoping Del would magically show up.

  “Yeah. He’s a carpenter or something and someone had ordered custom cabinets from him, but there was a flaw in the wood he picked up at the lumber yard, so they had me bring him a replacement.” He shuddered. “That dog of his kept barking at me the whole time I was there. I never took my eye off it until I was safely back in the cab.”

  I nodded. “I know what you mean. I’ve seen that dog and I wouldn’t want to be alone with it, that’s for sure.” We reached Leah’s house and I knocked on the door.

  “Coming!”

  She came to the door with her hair up in a towel turban.

  “Hi.” She looked behind me to the delivery man. “Is there a problem?”

  “Nope, he’s just here to deliver the new life jackets. I didn’t feel comfortable signing for them.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Where was Del?”

  “I’m not sure. There was a note on the counter saying someone would be back soon, but no one was there.”

  “I left a message for him that it was his turn in the office, but maybe he didn’t get it.” She held up one finger. “Give me a minute and I’ll come check out the delivery and sign for it.”

  We waited on her front steps while she ran inside to finish dressing. When she came out, she’d wound her wet hair up in a bun and changed into jeans and a tank top.

  “Do you mind if I head back to our cabin?” I asked.

  “No, thanks so much for helping. I can’t believe Del didn’t show up for work. I’ll see you later.” She and the delivery driver left and I walked back to the cabin.

  On the way back, I saw Del out on the docks, and I briefly considered mentioning to him that Leah thought he would be at the office, but I decided to stay out of it. My meddling didn’t always turn out well and things were messy enough between them as is.

  17

  Labor Day arrived and I woke up excited for the day’s festivities, but sad that we’d be heading home the next day. Our vacation at Thunder Lake Resort hadn’t been exactly what I expected, but I’d enjoyed our time there nonetheless. Next to me in bed, Adam was still asleep. I tiptoed over to the window in our room, lifted the curtains and peeked out the window. The sky was blue and the sun was already shining brightly.

  A smile stretched across my lips and I sighed in happiness. Today was going to be a good day. Although we were technically on vacation, I’d loved getting to help Leah with her event. I actually missed going in to work every day at the Boathouse. Well, except for deali
ng with clients like Angela Laveaux. This event was even more important than most as it meant so much to Leah. I hated seeing her so stressed-out. I knew she enjoyed owning the resort, but I had to wonder if Del was right to worry about her being so wrapped up in it.

  “Honey,” Adam said groggily. “What time is it?”

  “I think it’s around seven a.m.” I glanced at my watch. “Yep. Seven fifteen.”

  “Do I need to get up yet? It seems really early on the last day of our vacation.”

  “Nope, I just couldn’t sleep.” I pointed at the main living area in the cabin. “I’m going to go check on the kids and start a pot of coffee, ok?”

  “Works for me. Let me know if you need me to get up and help with anything.” His head crashed back down to the pillow.

  Goldie followed me out and I quietly shut the bedroom door behind us then went over to the bedroom where the kids were sleeping. They were both still out. I closed their door, started a pot of coffee, and plopped down on the couch. Perfect. We’d left some windows cracked last night and the air inside the cabin was fresh. Sun shone in, creating glowing yellow patches on the floor.

  The coffee finished percolating and I grabbed a cup then went outside with Goldie to sit on the porch. It was even more peaceful out here. A few people were already out fishing on the still lake, but there was no sound from the rest of the resort. The only thing breaking the quiet was Goldie softly thumping the floor with his tail as he watched the birds in the trees adjacent to our covered deck.

  I got about thirty minutes of alone time in before Ella started stirring. I picked her up out of the Pack ‘n Play and dressed her for the day. Her crying had woken Mikey up, and the three of us went out to the living room for an easy meal of Cheerios with milk.

  Adam rose from bed and hopped into the shower, then came out to relieve me so I could do the same. When I emerged from the bathroom they were all out on the lawn playing catch with Goldie.

  “What’s on the agenda for today? What time does the Labor Day celebration start?” Adam removed the small ball from Goldie’s mouth and tossed it to Mikey, who then threw it in the general direction of the dog.