Chuck's mouth slid into a firm line and his face turned the color of a tomato. He looked at Jaw, who was getting twitchy and nervous.

“Run!” Chuck yelled.

He took a step, slipped, righted himself and jumped down over the steps on the other side of the deck. Jaw glanced at us, then sprinted after his friend, copying his jump down off the steps. He stumbled when he landed, planted his hand on the ground, got upright again and disappeared around the corner of the cabin.

I couldn't help but giggle.

“Well, that was interesting,” Jake said.

“What do you think they were doing?” I asked. If they were thieves, they were the most incompetent ones I'd ever seen.

“No idea,” he said, yawning. “I'm pretty sure they didn't even know what they were doing.”

“So we shouldn't be worried?”

Jake looked at me. “Worried? Uh, no.”

I nodded. It was weird that they'd been rooting around on the deck but their combined intelligence seemed to be that of a four year-old. It was hard to take them seriously, even if they had been trespassing. And they'd clearly been surprised to find us there and not Delilah.

“You sure?” I asked him.

“We just found a dead body in the woods,” he replied. “Finding two idiots on our deck is the least of our concerns.”

THIRTEEN

Jake crawled back into bed after Chuck and Jaw ran off, begging for another hour of sleep. After surveying the deck and finding nothing amiss, I mocked him, but let him go. We were on vacation and his opportunities to sleep in at home were slim to none.

But it was more than me just being amiable. Sure, I wanted him to enjoy the vacation we were on, especially since we'd gotten off to such a rocky start. I wasn't going to kid myself, though. I wanted him to go back to sleep so I could do my own poking around.

I changed my clothes, brushed my hair, found my sandals and headed for the entrance to the resort.  I wanted to talk to Delilah. I kept my eyes open as I walked, but I didn't see Chuck or Jaw or any other shady characters lurking behind the trees. All I saw were people out for their morning walks, some of them leading dogs or herding kids, and others sitting on their decks or around their campfire rings, sipping coffee. Most offered waves and “good morning” comments but a few people eyed me strangely and I wondered if it had to do with being associated with finding dead Harvey or if it was because of Jake's altercation with Hackerman the night before.

It was probably both.

As I crested the hill, I could just make out the shape of a figure through the main office window. I got closer and was certain it was Delilah, seated at a desk of some kind. I wondered if she'd sobered up from the night before or if she was nursing a nasty hangover. Either way, I was hoping she might be able to help explain a few things to me in order to satisfy my curiosity.

I knocked on the screen door. She looked up and waved me in. I stepped in and the first thing I noticed was that the air temperature inside was the same as the outside. A wall unit AC was crammed into a side window but the cord hung loose and unplugged. The walls were lined with dark paneling and a few framed photos served as decoration. The frames were metal with gold finish, the kind you could pick up at a dollar store, and the glass was spotted and dusty, like they'd been on the wall for years. There were photos of the pool and the club house and photos of lots under construction.

“Good morning,” Delilah said. Her eyes were a little red and she looked tired, but other than that, she wasn't showing any ill-effects from the night before. I was impressed.

“Morning,” I said. “How are you today?”

Her smiled flickered. “I assume you mean how am I doing after tying one on for the ages last night?”

“I was trying to be discreet.”

She clipped a slip of paper to her clipboard. “No need. I know what a fool I must've looked like. But I'm fine today. A few aspirin and a lot of water.” She sighed. “Physically, I'm alright. In other ways?” She shrugged. “Who knows?”

I nodded sympathetically. I might not have known the extent of her relationship with Harvey, but, either way, she'd still lost someone close to her.

She waved a hand in the air. “Anyway. How is your husband?”

“Oh, he's fine. Decided to sleep in.”

“I don't recall much of what went on last night, but I got an earful about it from several folks,” she said. “Sounds like he and Wayne really went at it.”

“No blood was shed, so there's that.”

She frowned. “Wayne can be a little prickly. Keep telling him if he wants to act like he owns the place, he should give me some more money so he can have the title for real.”

She'd unwittingly given me the opening I was looking for. “I wanted to ask you about that. And I hope I'm not prying. I mean, I'm sure I am. But you've been very kind to us and it worried me when I heard it.”

She picked up a pencil and tapped it on the clipboard. “What did you hear?”

“That Windy Vista is...struggling. For money.”

She pursed her lips and her eyes zeroed in on the pencil. “That would be true, unfortunately.”

“Badly?”

She hesitated, then nodded.

“I'm sorry,” I said. I hated hearing that she had financial woes to deal with on top of losing her business partner. Or lover. Because I still wasn't sure exactly what Harvey was to her.

She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. “We probably have six months left at best. I'm tapped out and our revenues are down. And now, when word gets out about Harvey's death, I don't think this will be a real popular place for people looking to park their campers.” She forced a smile on her face. “So yes. We are struggling.”

I suddenly felt out of place. I knew I had no help to offer, no words of financial wisdom to give her, and I certainly didn't have a fat bank account I could write her a check from. Not that I would have if we did. But my heart went out to her because, even as her resort was struggling, she'd given us a free stay. And yes, it had been done as a marketing tool and she'd deceived us with what she was offering, but she'd still gone the extra mile to ensure our stay would be pleasant. That took a kind heart and I thought that no matter what Delilah's troubles were, she didn't deserve to be teetering on the edge of financial ruin.

“Harvey was trying to come up with things,” she explained. “Things to get us on the right side of the ledger. But I don't think he was really having any luck.”

“You mean the website and the resort on the lake?”

She shook her head. “No, no. If we're being honest, those were pipe dreams. They would've taken money I don't have. I appreciated Harvey's grand visions for this place, but unless one of us won the lottery, those things weren't going to happen.” She tapped the pencil again. “He was just trying to secure some financing. I'd invested all my savings into improvements: paving the roads, hooking us up to city sewer instead of asking people to maintain their own septic systems. I just had the pool resurfaced and had to replace the whole filtration system. Harvey wouldn't actually tell me what he was doing because he didn't want to get my hopes up. He was vague about it. I'm not sure if he was working on a loan or what he was doing.” She paused. “But I know he was trying. He was always trying.”

A fly buzzed in the air between us and I waved it away. “Could he have gotten a loan? I mean, was he part owner here or something like that?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”

“So he was just doing it to help you out?”

She set down the pencil and folded her arms across her chest. “You mean was he doing it because he was my boyfriend?”

Blood rushed to my face. “No, no. I just—”

She held up a hand. “It's fine. I understand. The way people talk around here, I understand. Who knows what you've been told in the short time you've been here. But let me assure you.” She leveled her eyes with mine. “Harvey and I were not a couple. Not ever.”