Delilah was behind a wooden counter tucked in the corner of the clubhouse. A small freezer sat behind her and there was a metal cash box in front of her. She smiled at me when I walked in. “Tired of the sun or the people?”

I thought that was a curious question. “Right now, the sun.”

She slid the door back on the small freezer, pulled out a drumstick and handed it to me. “This might help.”

I took it from her. “Jake has some cash. I'll go get—”

She waved a hand in the air. “Nonsense. Your trip is all expenses paid.” She smiled. “Ice cream included.”

I felt horrible taking anything from her, especially knowing her financial circumstances. “I couldn't--”

“I insist,” she said firmly. Before I could object again, she said, “I saw you talking to the twins. Mary and Carrie.”

“Yeah,” I said. I pulled the paper from the ice cream, balled it up and dropped it in the small wastebasket. “That was...interesting.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I'm sure it was. They're both lunatics. Their family has been coming here since they were little girls and I'm pretty sure they've caused some kind of problem every single summer during that time.”

“Like?” I couldn't help but ask. I was curious.

“You name it, they've done it,” she said. “Stolen golf carts. Jumped the fence to the pool after hours.” She gestured at the freezer. “They've broken into this thing twice to take ice cream.” She shook her head. “And they are never apart.”

I took a bite of the ice cream. “They said they dated Harvey.”

She sighed. “Yes. They did, unfortunately. He should've known better, but, you know. They're both very attractive girls and Harvey was still a young man. Couldn't think with the right part of his body, I'm afraid.”

“Did he date them for a long time?”

“Not really,” Delilah explained, leaning her hip against the freezer. “I think he dated Mary first, then Carrie. Both were over the course of last summer. They'd been after him for a couple of years and he'd managed to stay away from them. But they finally broke him down last summer.”

“And it didn't go well?”

She snorted. “That's putting it mildly. No, it did not go well. Mary got so angry at him one night that she tried to set his pants on fire at the campfire ring.” She shook her head. “He had to hide from her and ended up staying at my place for the night so they couldn't find him.”

I'd half-thought they were kidding about setting his pants on fire, but clearly I'd been wrong.

“So then he moved on to Carrie,” Delilah continued. “They managed to make it about a month of sneaking around behind Mary's back, but then the crazy came out of Carrie and he decided he'd had enough of both of them. He told Carrie they were done and she picked up a hammer and threw it at his head. Fortunately, she's a bad aim The handle nicked his ear. But once again he found himself hiding at my place.”

I polished off the ice cream. “Wow. That's...crazy. At least he managed to be done with them.”

“Well, he was done with them, but they weren't finished with him,” she explained. “They kept harassing him, taking turns asking him out, following him around. He made it clear to them that he wasn't interested. Then they cornered him one afternoon down at the bottom of the trail.” She shook her  head. “They wouldn't let him leave and wrestled him to the ground, telling him he had to pick one of them. Some campers came by and called the local police. They were both charged with assault and I let them know that if anything else happened, they would be banned from Windy Vista.” She rolled her eyes. “Harvey refused to press charges but he told them he'd go to the sheriff if they bothered him again. That seemed to finally get through to him. They'd left him alone this summer.”

I licked the ice cream off my fingers. “For sure? They'd left him alone.”

“He hadn't mentioned them,” she said. “So I assumed all was fine and they were keeping their distance.”

Given the way they'd approached me in the pool and their interest in Harvey, I wasn't sure she was right. They didn't seem like they'd forgotten Harvey and they were clearly interested in my interaction with him. I wouldn't say they were obsessed with him, but I thought they still had Harvey on the brain and I wondered if they'd had much interaction with him before he died. Worse, I wondered if they were the reason he'd ended up dead on the trail.

Delilah pulled the cash box up onto the counter and popped open the lid. She laid the cash out on the counter as she counted it, frowning when she was done. Then she let out a massive sigh.

“What's wrong?” I asked, alarmed. “Are you missing some?”

She shook her head. “No, it's all here, unfortunately. But it's far less than what we are used to. And at this point every single penny counts. The problem is that I don't have any more pennies to count.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don't know what I'm going to do.”

I licked the cone and said nothing. Because I didn't know what to say.

“I'm out of money,” she said, fighting back the tears. “Literally out of money. I'm not even sure we can make it until the end of the summer now. I was hoping for six months and now I feel like I'm hoping for six weeks.” She paused and wiped at her eyes. “I'm going to have to sell this place.”

My stomach knotted and I felt badly for her. “Really?”

She wiped again at her eyes and nodded. “Yes, really. I'm cash poor and there's no equity left in the property because I've borrowed against it. I can get us to the middle of summer, but at that point, I'm screwed. There's nothing in reserve. I'm going to have to sell just to get myself out of debt.” She looked around the clubhouse. “I can't believe I'm going to lose this place.”

I couldn't believe it, either. I often felt like Jake and I were living on the edge financially with the constant repairs needed to our house, but hearing Delilah lay out her situation made me realize our concerns weren't anything compared to hers. I couldn't imagine losing something that you'd poured your entire life into.

She cleared her throat. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak out on you there.”

“It's okay. I'm just sorry I can't help.” I smiled at her. “This really is a lovely place.”

She nodded. “It really is. It always has been.” She shook her head. “I shudder at the thought of what might happen if I sell it. I doubt anyone interested in buying it would keep it the same.”

I had to agree. It was a prime piece of land and the resort was behind the times. I doubted anyone would just want to continue doing what Delilah had been doing, leasing out lots for campers.

She gathered up the cash and set it back in the box. She closed the lid and snapped it close.  “I'll try to figure something out.”

The screen door to the clubhouse squeaked open. Sheriff Larrabee stood in the doorway, his thumbs hitched in the pants pockets of his perfectly pressed uniform. He nodded at both of us, then took a step forward.

“Afternoon, ladies,” he said.

“Morris,” Delilah said, her tone brisk.

“Thought I'd stop by and give you an update.” He took off his hat, then repositioned it on his head. “Ask a few more questions.”

Delilah rested her hands on the box but not before I noticed they were trembling. “Of course.”

“Initial report is in,” the sheriff said. “Blunt force trauma.”

I processed his words, instantly thinking of Olaf. It was like deja vu.

“Did he...did he hit his head on a tree? Or a rock or something?” I asked hopefully. Maybe it had been just an accident.

“Doubtful,” the sheriff said, his eyes on Delilah. “Looks like someone put him there in the woods.”

“How do you know?”

He turned to look at me. “Because there was a medallion around his neck,” he said. “And it had been hidden in that spot, according to Delilah. Is that correct?” He shifted his attention back to Delilah, waiting for confirmation.