Then I stopped.

My eyes moved back toward the truck.

A truck I'd seen before.

“Daisy?” Jake asked.

A red truck. That I'd seen at Delilah's office.

And a cold chill ran down my spine.

I looked back to Jaw and said “Is anyone else here?”

He looked at Chuck and his friend stared back at him. Then both of their eyes drifted back toward the trailer.

And the door of the trailer opened.

Davis Ellington walked out with a gun in one hand and a gas can in the other.

He smiled. “I'm here.”

THIRTY FOUR

“Drop that phone and both of you get your hands up,” Davis Ellington said, waving the gun back and forth between us, then setting the gas can down. “And you two knuckleheads can do the same.”

I looked at Jake, but he was staring at Ellington. He did have his hands in the air, though, so after I laid my phone on the ground, I did the same.

Ellington walked over and kicked Chuck in the butt. “Get up.”

Chuck scrambled to his feet and put his hands up. Jaw walked in my direction, his hands already aimed skyward, like he'd done it before.

Ellington frowned at us from behind his glasses. “Well, this is not something I counted on.” He glanced at me. “Lady, you have done nothing but give me a headache since you showed up.”

All of his small town, aw shucks attitude was gone. He was no longer the desperate salesman hoping to get our names on a contract. I'd been fooled and underestimated him.

“Me?” I asked, my mind racing. “What have I done?”

“You haven't left things alone is what you've done,” he said, frowning. “First you find Harvey in the bushes. Then you show up every time these two are on a job. Then you start asking questions.” He looked at Jake. “Your life must be hell, pal.”

Jake didn't say anything.

“You killed him, didn't you?” I blurted out. “You killed Harvey.”

Ellington rolled his eyes. “I wasn't going to have these two bozos do that. I can't even get them to vandalize things correctly.”

“Why did you kill him?” I asked.

Ellington adjusted his glasses with his free hand and sighed. “That wasn't part of the plan. Not originally, anyway.” Then he glared at me. “But no one was supposed to find him right away. That was your fault.”

Jake seemed to be edging over to his left with tiny steps, trying to move out of Ellington's vision. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but I was hoping it was part of some plan to save us.

“So why did you do it then?” I asked, trying to keep his attention focused on me.

“Good God, you ask a lot of questions, lady,” Ellington said, sighing again. “Because he found out about the money, alright?”

“The investment money?”

“Yep.”

“So you killed him because you lost his money?” I asked. “That doesn't make any sense. He asked you to invest it. He should have known the risks.”

“No!” he snapped, totally irritated with me now. “I didn't invest his money. Jesus. If I'd invested his money, he'd have made money. I'm not an idiot.” He waved the gun at Jaw. “I used his money to pay off these two clowns and when Harvey realized it was gone and I'd never dropped it into anything, he came to me looking for it. And that's when he saw the plans for Land of the Loons.”

“What is Land of the Loons?”

Ellington smiled. “The development I'm going to build in place of this crappy old campground.”

“Land of the Loons?” Jaw said. “That's super lame, dude.”

Ellington turned on hi, the gun leveled on his chest. “Yeah, well, the next time I need your opinion will be never,” he barked.

Jake edged further to his left.

“Why did you have to kill Harvey because of Land of the...Loons?” I asked, tripping over the last word.

“Because he realized I wanted to build on Windy Vista,” Ellington explained. “He saw I was angling to buy the land. He'd told me himself how much financial difficulty they were in and he very quickly put things together. He knew I hadn't invested the money and he knew I wanted the land. He was going to run and tell Delilah and probably anyone else who would listen.” He shrugged. “Couldn't let that happen. We argued in my office. And then he came after me.”

“He came after you?” I asked.

He nodded. “Pretty sure he was gonna take me out right there, he was so mad. I had to defend myself. I tried to hold him off, but he kept throwing punches at me. I didn't have a weapon. So I grabbed a hand-carved wooden loon off the table and swung it.” He swallowed and for the first time, he sounded uncertain. “I didn't mean to kill him. I just wanted to get him off me, to see if we could figure it out. But I caught him just right. And then I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all. He wasn't going to listen to me and a dead body on the campground would bring a lot of bad publicity.” He smiled apologetically. “So I guess it all worked out.”

I thought for just a moment. “So it was you. Harvey's body. The vandalism. It was all you.”

“Well, the vandalism was supposed to be a bit better,” Ellington said, glaring at Jaw. “But when you hire a couple of morons to do a job, you end up having to bail them out of jail.” Ellington coughed, then cleared his throat. “But it worked. Word got out. Windy Vista is a mess. People weren't interested in the empty lots and even some of the regulars were making noises about not renewing their lease for next year..” He grinned. “And it's gonna work out even better than I planned because I'll be able to get this place way cheaper in foreclosure than if I'd had to buy it outright.” He paused. “Win-win.”

So he'd been pretending to work for Harvey and Delilah when he'd really been undermining her all along.

Two-faced pig.

“And today was supposed to be the grand finale,” he said, the grin fading. “Set a little fire and chase a few others away and be done with it. I'd be able to start building next spring. But I figured I'd better come supervise these two clowns to make sure it got done right. And then you showed up.” He rolled his eyes. “Again.”

He was like the villain in a bad TV show. Lying to everyone, hiring incompetents to do his work and managing to get away with it.

“And now I'm gonna have to explain away a few more bodies,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Hadn't planned on that, but I'll come up with something. At least I'll be done with you.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” I asked, trying hard not to look at Jake as he continued circling to his left.

Ellington had gotten so caught up in recounting his genius, that he hadn't once glanced in that direction. Even Chuck was shifting a little to his left. Ellington stayed focused on me and Jaw.

Ellington tapped a finger to his chin like he was thinking. “Good question. But I think the easiest will be to herd you all into the trailer here before I set it on fire.”

My heart hammered inside my chest. I did not want to die and I certainly didn't want to die in some crappy old trailer with a guy named Jaw.

“So let's stop wasting time,” Ellington said, waving his gun at me. “Let's get everyone in and get it over with.”

“Not so fast,” Jake said.

THIRTY FIVE

Jake took two quick steps and, by the time Ellington whipped around in his direction, Jake was on him, chopping down the arm that held the gun. The gun fell to the ground and Ellington and Jake collapsed in a pile next to it.

Jaw and Chuck glanced at each other, then took off running down the road.

I stood by the golf cart, paralyzed.

Jake and Ellington rolled away from the gun, locked in a bear hug, dust kicking up around them. They were grunting and it didn't look like either of them was winning.

“Daisy!” Jake yelled. “Gun!”

My eyes shifted to the small handgun on the ground.

Never in my life had I held a gun. I abhorred them. I feared shooting myself or worse, shooting someone around me who I didn't want to shoot. I didn't know how they worked or what I was supposed to do with one once it got in my hand.