Last Resort (16 page)

TWENTY SEVEN

Both Chuck and Jaw were still laying on the ground when the police arrived. Hackerman had clobbered them pretty good and they didn't seem too eager to get up. He'd already called the police by the time I got to the bottom of the hill and they were there just a few minutes later. They stood them up, cuffed both of them and walked them toward the police car. I gave the arresting officer a quick rundown of what I'd witnessed and Hackerman explained that he'd seen me yelling after them and how he'd stopped them.

The officer handed me a small black box. “Is this what they took?”

I looked at it. “I guess. I don't even know what it is.”

“It's a router,” Hackerman said. “For your Internet.”

“Why would they steal my router?”

Hackerman shrugged.

“Probably to resell,” the police officer said, taking it back from me. “I'll need to take this in for the report, but we'll get it back to you soon.”

“It's not really mine,” I said, completely confused. “It's...Delilah's, I guess. It was in the camper we are staying in.”

The officer shrugged. “Whoever it belongs to, we'll get it back to you as soon as possible.”

“Is there a report or something I need to fill out?” I asked.

The officer raised his eyebrows. “A what?”

“I don't know. I just thought, since you were taking that,” I said, motioning to the router. “I just thought I might have to fill something out.”

“I know where to return it,” he said briskly.

He walked toward his car, checked the doors, got in the driver's side, made a quick U-turn and drove off.

I turned to Hackerman. “Thank you. For stopping them.”

He nodded. “Sure. I saw you yelling up there and I know those two are never up to any good.”

“They're around a lot?”

“Enough to be a nuisance,” he said. He reached for his sunglasses and took them off. He inspected them, then lifted the corner of his shirt and polished the lenses. “Couple of summers now. I know Delilah hasn't wanted them around and Harvey used to chase them off.”

That was exactly what Delilah told me after our first encounter with them.

“I'm not sure they'd really done anything wrong before,” Hackerman continued. “So maybe now she can really keep them out of here.”

“It's going to be someone else's problem,” Delilah said.

We both turned. She was coming down the hill, her cell phone clutched in her hand. Her face looked freshly washed, devoid of the tears and streaked makeup I'd seen not too long ago. Her stern expression told me she knew what had gone on with Chuck and Jaw.

Hackerman repositioned his sunglasses, shielding his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

She held up her phone. “I got the call about those two clowns getting arrested. And then I got two calls from campers worried about safety here.” She looked at the phone, then back to Hackerman. “I am done.”

“Done with what?” I asked.

She cleared her throat. “Windy Vista. I'm going to sell it.”

“What?” Hackerman's voice squeaked with surprise.. “You can't sell this place.”

“Watch me,” Delilah said. “We're circling the drain, Wayne. Sky high debt with no money coming in. All we've had are problems this summer and they've just driven down the interest in coming here. No one wants to take a chance on parking their campers here. The only thing we're known as now is that campground with the dead guy.” She shook her head. “Now we've got two idiots scaring the crap out of everyone. I'm just done. I don't have the money or the energy to keep going.”

“So you're just going to sell it then?” I asked. “Just like that?” She'd been so adamant earlier that she wasn't interested in selling, She'd yelled at Davis Ellington and she'd told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted to keep it.

She sighed. “It's not just like that, Daisy. It's been building. I think when Harvey was alive, he was just holding it at bay. But now that he's gone? There's nothing to hold it off.” She shook her head again and I couldn't tell if she was frustrated or sad or angry. “So that's it.” She gestured at the office. “If you'll excuse me, I've got to make some phone calls about seeing if we can get a security patrol or something so everyone will feel a little safer. Hopefully they won't mind working for free.”

She stepped past us and disappeared into the office, the wooden door slamming behind her.

Hackerman let out a low whistle. “Well. Damn.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I feel terrible for her.” I paused, thinking of Ellington and his offer to buy the place. “Do you think a buyer might keep it the way it is? As a campground?”

“I doubt it,” he said. “This is a pretty big piece of land.”

“What do you mean?”

He rubbed at his chin for a moment. “Lot of development up here. Most of the prime pieces of land have been grabbed up.” He took a long look around. “This would make a pretty nice spread for somebody to throw some overpriced houses up on. I don't think too many people would be interested in taking on an old, high maintenance campground.”

He was right, of course. The land would be far more valuable to someone looking to buy it and then either develop it or resell it. That would be the best way to get their money out of it. I was sure that even though Ellington was local, he was looking at it from a monetary perspective and what he could make off the land. But it made me sad to think that someone might start throwing up McMansions at Windy Vista. It just seemed like...a campground.

“Listen,” Hackerman said.

I looked at him.

“You need to know something,” he told me.

“What's that?”

His cheeks flushed. “I didn't do anything to Harvey. No matter what you think. I considered him a...a friend. Just because we didn't always get along didn't mean we weren't friends.”

I still had my doubts, but I wasn't looking for an argument. “Okay.”

He squinted hard at me. “You don't believe me, do you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Does to me.” He folded his arms across his chest. “I'm not a liar.”

“If you say that's the truth, then I believe you,” I said, unsure of what he wanted from me.

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “You said you heard about that argument I had with Harvey?”

I nodded.

“Okay, well, you're right,” he said slowly. “We did have an argument.”

I wasn't surprised by that. Given the way he'd reacted after the ping pong game, I was pretty sure there had been some sort of argument and that Copper hadn't been making it up.

“But it wasn't what you think,” he said.

“I don't think anything.”

“Of course you do,” he said, shaking his head. “You think we had some sort of fight and then I got mad and did something dumb to Harvey. Look, we don't have to like one another, but I'm no liar and I didn't do a damn thing to Harvey.”

“You keep saying that.”

“I offered him money,” he said. “For the stupid medallion.”

I had to think for a moment, but it still didn't make sense. “The medallion?”

He sighed. “I offered him five hundred bucks if he'd tell me where he hid the medallion. I offered him two hundred bucks first, then five hundred. He wouldn't tell me. I got mad.”

“Why did you want him to tell you?” I asked.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Because I didn't want to lose. There are more people up here this year and he was making noise about Delilah making it super hard to find. I got nervous. I wanted to keep my streak alive. So...so I tried to pay him off. I told him I wouldn't tell a soul and no one would think anything of it because I've won so many times before. But he refused.” He chewed on his lip, then took a deep breath. “I got mad. He got mad. We yelled at one another. He walked away. Far as I know, he didn't tell anyone.”

I nodded, listening.

“Then I felt stupid about it,” he said “I tried to apologize but he avoided me. Then he was...well, you found him. But I didn't do a damn thing to him. I wouldn't ever do that. That ain't me.”

I couldn't believe that anyone would be willing to make a bribe to win a scavenger hunt. That was just absurd. But there was something about the way Hackerman said it that made me believe him. He may have been a cheat, but he wasn't a killer.

“Okay,” I said. “I believe you.”

“Well, you should,” he huffed. He slid back into his golf cart. “It's what I told the sheriff and it's the truth.”

He stepped on the gas and his wheels spun, then caught and he sped away, up the hill.

I watched him go. I did believe him. I thought it was crazy that he cared so much about winning the medallion that he was willing to bribe Harvey, but I'd seen a lot of crazy over the previous few days.

Wayne Hackerman just fit in with everyone else at Windy Vista.

TWENTY EIGHT

As I drove the golf cart back to the cabin, I couldn't shake Delilah's words. All of this stuff had happened at Windy Vista and I was having a hard time believing it was a complete coincidence. For a place that supposedly hadn't had much trouble in the past, it was now overflowing with it.

Jake was passed out on the bed in the camper, still in his running clothes. He must have come back while I'd been chasing Chuck and Jaw through the campground and I wondered briefly if he'd seen me, tearing down the road at breakneck speed. I sat down on the bed, my hand outstretched, intending to wake him up and tell him everything he'd missed.

But then I paused, my hand arrested an inch above his shoulder. Maybe I didn't want to tell him everything right away. Maybe I could use the time he was sleeping to do a little more of something he didn't particular like me doing: investigate. I stood up slowly, wincing when the bedsprings squeaked. I tiptoed away from him and closed the door to the room. I fished a pen out of my purse and scrawled a note on a paper napkin.

Running to town. Be back soon.

I purposely didn't tell him what I was going to be doing in town because I was pretty sure he would've told me I was nuts. Which was fine, because I probably was a little nuts. And I was okay with that.

I found the keys to the rental and, after a cursory look at the new tire, climbed in and pointed it toward town. I pulled out of the campground and, after a few minutes, passed the golf course and the lake. I glanced at my phone every few seconds, waiting to see when reception would kick back in. Within a minute of hitting the lake, two bars appeared on my screen and I typed in my destination. The talking voice on my phone directed me past The Landing and beyond the small area that housed Davis Ellington's realty agency, down a two-lane highway that eventually led to a county government building. It was housed in an old fire station, complete with oversized garage doors. Two white pillars had been erected out front, probably in an effort to give it a more stately appearance, but they looked off-center and slightly out of place.

I pulled the rental into the mostly empty lot and parked beside a dusty old station wagon. I made my way toward the front of the building, surveying my surroundings. There was an empty lot to the right that housed the remnants of a building and a parking lot pitted with weeds. To the left was a small deli. It looked well-kept but a Closed sign hung in the window.

I opened the door to the building and stepped inside. A woman with grayish-blond hair and wearing a brown sheriff's uniform looked up from her desk. She offered me a frosty smile.

“Afternoon,” she said, adjusting the thin, gold rimmed glasses perched on her nose. “Help you?”

“I'm not really sure,” I said, looking around the small, wood-paneled office. “Is this the town jail?”

She pushed the glasses up her nose. “Among other things, yes.”

“So if someone was arrested, this is where they'd be brought?”

“Hence, the word jail...”

I tried not to frown at her tone. “Right. Of course. If I wanted to speak to someone who is...in jail...would I be able to do that?”

The woman studied me for a long moment. “Are you an attorney?”

“No.”

“A law enforcement officer?”

“No.”

“Related to anyone we might have incarcerated here?”

“Uh...no.”

She picked up a pen from her desktop and tapped it against the desk calendar beneath her elbows. “Ma'am, why don't you tell me why you're here and I'll see if I can help?”

I took a deep breath. “My name is Daisy Savage and I'm a guest over at Windy Vista and...”

“Oh, you're the one who found Harvey,” she said, both eyebrows lifting up in unison.

“Um, yes,” I said, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. It wasn't something I wanted to be known for. “Actually, my husband was there, too.”

“But you were the one who found his body, correct?” she asked. “I read the report.”

“Yes,” I answered. “Unfortunately, I was.”

“I liked Harvey,” she said. Her eyes studied me, as if she somehow thought it as my fault that he'd died. “Known him and Kat for a long time.”

“I've only heard good things.”

“I'm sure,” she said. She tapped the pen again. “I'm sorry. I interrupted. You're staying at Windy Vista.”

“Yes,” I said, relieved to move on to a different subject than Harvey. “And there's been some other trouble up there.”

“I've heard.”

“I'm sure. And this afternoon, two men were caught breaking into the camper my husband and I are staying in.”

“Yes.”

Her short answers were disconcerting to me. I didn't know if there was a reason for them or if that was just the way she talked.

“They were apparently stealing a router,” I said. “That you use for the Internet.”

“I'm familiar with routers and what they do.”

“Right.” More heat flooded my cheeks. “Anyway, I'm assuming they were brought here after they were picked up.”

“Correct.”

“And I was hoping I might be able to...speak to them.”

She studied me again, the pen bouncing on the desktop. “May I ask why, ma'am?”

It was a fair question. I just wasn't sure I had a good enough answer for her.

“Because...I just want to know why they did it,” I said, truthfully. “A lot of strange stuff has happened up there and this was the second time they'd been at our camper and I just want to know what exactly they were doing.”

“They were stealing your router, from what I understand,” she said.

“Yes, I'm aware, but...”

“And they are well known to us around here, ma'am,” she said with a sigh. “This isn't unusual for them to be here.”

“I understand, but if I could just speak with them...”

She shook her head. “I couldn't allow that even if they were still here,” she explained.

I started to argue, then stopped. “If they were still here?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“They're gone?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“How is that possible? They were just brought in not too long ago.”

“They bonded out immediately,” she said.

“Really?”

She nodded. “I was surprised, too. Usually they're here for a night before someone comes and picks them up. I think they get fed better here than they do at home.”

“Who came to pick them up?” I asked.

“No one,” she said. She must have noticed the look of confusion on my face because she added, “They actually had the money to bond themselves out.”

That was odd. It wasn't like they'd stolen the router and then turned around and sold it. Neither of them seemed like the type to keep cash on hand.

“First time for everything, I guess,” she said. “Probably not their own money, but nothing we could do to prove it.” She shrugged. “Who knows?”

I thanked her for her time and walked back outside.

I was sure that someone had to know.